Funky DLNA quirks, and XBox Music refusing to function with "PlayTo"

[fc000]

I've been having a few unusual issues with the reliability of DLNA on the Surface with an XBox 360, here we go:

• In every app that supports the functionality, the connection between the two drops about 20-30 minutes into using it, then the XBox 360 no longer shows as an option under the Devices charm. The only way to get it back, is to cycle the Wifi on the Surface and start over.

• While streaming to the XBox 360, playback controls function, but any attempt to shuttle through the stream, say video, doesn't work at all. I'm not sure if this is a Surface problem, but most if not all third party apps have pretty sluggish, if not useless controls that don't work at all.

Then there's the issues with XBox Music:

• XBox Music wont allow me to stream a cloud playlist that's filled with cloud music from my XBox Music pass. I don't own the songs, but I have the annual pass. Now, it doesn't specifically state this when the entire playlist is pass based music, it just doesn't show the option the stream to the XBox in the devices charm. Instead you only have "Play On XBox 360", which is a horrible UI through SmartGlass that doesn't even give you access to the playlist to jump songs(that's a separate issue, but it's a bit mind boggling).

• XBox Music does state (depending which UI you happen to be on when trying to stream the music), that in order to play songs that you don't own, but have a music pass, you must download the songs to the Surface in order to use the "Play To" functions with that music. Fair enough, it must be a licencing issue, but this doesn't actually work. Instead, XBox Music then complains that the song files are the wrong format and cannot be streamed to "this device". I'm steaming a downloaded XBox Music pass song to an XBox 360, how can there possibly be a file format mismatch...

It's a bit ridiculous to have to deal with these kinds of issues, when it should really "just work". I should note, that the only songs the Surface seems to be able to stream to a device are those that you've loaded onto it yourself from a personal library, or XBox Music songs that you've actually purchased and downloaded defeating the purpose of the music pass.

 

[DougB541#CB]

Yeah its definitely a bit wonky.