How to stream audio from XP laptop to WDTV Live?

Well, I have spent hours and hours researching this.

I can play my Andriod phone’s stored music files wirelessly to my WDTV Live using a very simple plug n play “app” called BubbleUPnP. This was really easy to find and use.

I wish to do the same with my laptop (running XP) but I cannot find “how to”.

I have looked at some “DNLA” software and even installed 2, but they do not offer the facility to click on a music file on my computer and have it played on my Hi-Fi via the WDTV Live.

By the way, all my networking is working and I can “copy” or “move” files to and from a USB drive attached the the WDTV Live (but that is not what I want)

Can anyone help please ?

If you were using WIn 7 you could use the “Play To” feature, but XP does not have this feature.

So, you use the WD’s Network shares to “pull” the music from the XP laptop.  If you have not set up Network shares, you ought to.

Thanks for the input :slight_smile:

Yes, I can use the WDTV Live remote control and access files on a shared folder on the laptop, but I wish to do like I can on my phone, that is click on a music file on the laptop and have it play out of the WDTV Live box.

I am sure there must be some software that will do it, I just don’t know what it is !

OK, so look into installing/using Twonky Beam,  I use it like you suggest quite often.  It comes in Apple, Android and Kindle flavors, and is free.  Lots has been written about the app in these forums.

You could install a media server on your PC and then run something like skifta on your android. That would allow you to connect to your PC and play on your live.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skifta.android.app&hl=en_GB

Or as mike has said twonkybeam, which would also require a server.

If you have Win 7 or higher on a PC, you have a built-in server called Windows Media Server.  I have no idea which server should be installed in an XP machine.

Thanks for the suggestion of Twonky Beam, however I looked at it and it seems it is a media streamer for iOS and Android but not for an XP powered PC / Laptop (unless I read it incorrectly).

I have a server running on my Laptop called Serviio. It works as a server (though it is not really needed in my current environment) but it does not allow me to do as I wish, that is use the Laptop and be able to click on a file using the Laptop keyboard and have it play out of the WDTV LIve box.

I can access all my files and play them via my Andriod phone (using BubbleUPnP) and do the same from the WDTV Live remote control (via shares on the Laptop and NAS) but my goal is to click and play via the Laptop directly.

Thanks for the suggestions so far folks :wink: - It will be great “when we get there” :slight_smile:

Twonkybeam and skifta should allow you to see the media server on your PC via your network. You select the PC media server within the app and then use that to play to your WD player. Install both apps and try them out. Any problems then just post them. 

    but my goal is to click and play via the Laptop directly.

If the Servio server is like any other server, this ought to be easy.  Like I said, music from my PC can be played to the WDTV via WIn 7 Media Server using the “Play to” feature.  Surely Servio (being a server) can do same.  That 's what a server is for!

Actually, I hardly ever play music from PC to WDTV (or Roku) this way since installing Twonky Beam on an iPad and a Kindle.  I can access the PC’s music via TB much more easily.  I think in your case, you would need to have Servio running on the XP computer, and access your computer via that server.,  Both Twonky Beam and Skifta look for servers and not “network shares”.

At the moment, I am playing a playlist (that’s residing on my PC) to play music on the PC to the WDTV through the Twonky Beam app on the iPad.  Whoa!

But there is an “easier way” – all my music is accessable via the WDTV, I can access the music on the PC and the same music that is duplicated on a drive directly connected to the WD player.  I normally just play the music on the WD’s drive from the WDTV.

Anyway, both Twonky Beam and Skifta are handy apps anyone with mobile devices ought to have installed.  Both have Android and Apple versions of the app, but the Skifta app for Apple is still a beta, and does not work on all devices yet (e.g. it does not work on my iPad, but RichUK says it works on his iTouch.)

As a test I installed serviio on my XP laptop and it can be seen by both skifta and twonkybeam. This means that you can select the music on your laptop using both of the apps and play it to your WD player. You just need to select serviio as the source within the apps and the WD live as the player. 

We are there!

What Rich described is no different than using the Win 7 media server (instead of Servio). A server is a server.

Yes, but…

Serviio works fine as a server, it is “seen” by both the WDTV Live (and on the phone), but it is not visible anywhere on the PC as a means to select it as an output device. I can therefore play files from the laptop via my phone or WDTV Live box’s remote control, no problem. I was using a (horrid) Linksys “music bridge” and I could select that, via sound properties on the laptop, as an alternative out put device (instead of the soundcard) and that works (but that is by the by here).

I can find no way (in Serviio or elesewhere) where I can click on a file using the Laptop Keyboard and have it play out of the WDTV Live box.

Am I right in thinking that Twonky is not a bit of softeare that runs on a PC to do this (or is it ?) I had a look at it and from what I saw it does the same job as BubbleUPnP on my phone.

Thanks for persevering with this folks :slight_smile:

Like Windows media player’s Play To feature, Servio must have a way to do this as well;  example, I turn on Play To, I hover cursor over a media file and I see both my WD Live’s as locations to serve the file to?  Dig into the Servio manual.

  Am I right in thinking that Twonky is not a bit of softeare that runs on a PC to do this (or is it ?) I had a look at it and from what I saw it does the same job as BubbleUPnP on my phone.

Well, there is more than one “Twonky”.  There is Twonky Beam that we have mentioned that is an app for a mobile device.  The company also makes a server called Twonky Server that can be installed on a PC, (in fact, it is built-in to the WD Live Hub) .  One reason I like Twonky Beam best – the company that makes it has a well regarded server program, and they really know what they are doing with this sort of thing.