Can you push to a Squeezebox as well as pull?

[dave2010]

I have been wondering about this question for a little while. Today something happened which triggered me a bit more. I was just playing around with my old PC system, trying to get it to work to recover some data files. Initially hit all the usual problems - forgot password so had to do some fairly longwinded "thinking" to get it, and then into the system. Then of course Windows and every **** application tries to do updates etc., since I haven't logged on for months. At that point the system discovered there was no Internet connection - which surprised me slightly, but I managed to find the cable which had been unplugged at the back, and seemingly got onto the network successfully.

At this point something quite interesting happened. The machine detected the Squeezebox on the network, and then asked me if I wanted to send music and video to it using Windows Media Player. It then started to go through the procedure for this, which for the time being I have abandoned.

So, my questions are:

1. Is it possible to push music to the SB3 from PCs using media players, such as WMP?

2. Is it possible to push music to the SB3 from iMacs using media players such as iTunes?

3. If 1 and 2 are possible, is it also possible to do this without losing the ability for the SB3 to "pull" audio from the LMS server(s) on the network?

Currently I only use one server (I have others, but only one is active) which runs on the iMac. I'm just curious to know if I could also drive the thing directly with iTunes or a player on a PC. Also, if I do that, do I have to configure it semi-permanently - i.e so that I'd have to reconfigure to go back to the LMS server operation I have now, or is it easy to switch back and forth between what I'm calling pull (streaming from server mode) and push (pushing from iTunes or WMP) mode?

Hope this makes sense to a few of you out there.

[Vincent Kars]

I don’t have a SB so just some guesswork.
SB uses a proprietary protocol to communicate with LMS.
LMS can be configured to use DLNA.
This is a protocol supported by a lot of devices (TV, smartphone, NAS, Win).

What I expect.
By design a SB pulls from the LMS
If the LMS uses DLNA, the SB can also pull from any other DLNA server in the network.

Any other DLNA capable device can either push to the SB or act as a controller telling the SB to pull something from somewhere.
In case of Win this is the Play To option in WMP

As DLNA is an open industry standard it is not supported by Apple

[Beechwoods]

... but there are many DLNA applications for the Mac.

[dave2010]

As DLNA is an open industry standard it is not supported by Apple
That doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be used by Apple, or in Apple software. Many standards are used by both Apple and Microsoft in their products. Some were standards already, and some acquired standards status after they had been adopted by one of these companies.

Unfortunately I'm probably not going to have time to explore this push/pull thing for some while, though if it is possible to push to an SB, then I'm guessing the code would not be too difficult. First it would have to check that the target device was available (on the network, and not currently associated with other tasks or streaming from a server) and then it would presumably use DLNA to stream to it.

[Vincent Kars]

As far as I know Apple doesn’t support DLNA, they have their own proprietary protocol Airplay.

What you describe is exactly what UPnP/DLNA is doing.
The device detect each other automatically over the network.
They exchange their capabilities (I’m a server, I’m a control point, I can play FLAC, etc)