Latest Sonos update breaks driver

[Dean Roddey]

The latest Sonos firmware update breaks our driver. There appears to be something in the device properties UPnP service description that the Windows UPnP engine doesn't handle. So presumably they don't even bother testing these things on Windows. There is nothing we can do about this if Sonos doesn't fix it.

If they can't be bothered to do so, the other services work correctly, so we could just remove support for the functionality supported by the device properties service. That's not a huge amount but it includes:

• Getting information such as the assigned name, if it's a bridge, the API and MAC, software version,┬áand the current icon indicator.
  
• Controlling the front LED off/on state
  

Honestly, it may be time for everyone to start looking beyond Sonos in terms of something to integrate with home automation systems. Their UPnP support will probably not go on indefinitely. And their new API is cloud based, so no control if the internet is down and of course they see everything you do. And it's more limited as well. That's considerably less than optimal.

We are open to suggestions for replacements.

[Dean Roddey]

We have worked around this issue in the betas (as of 5.3.910.) So it will be fixed for the next official release. You can always upgraded to the betas (if you are covered) to get this workaround.

There are also some nice improvements to the Zone Player driver up through 5.3.919.

• A big efficiency increase in terms of the driver being able to keep up with the state of the devices (for both the Zone Player and Media Renderer versions.)
  
• A new field that indicates when shuffle mode is active
  
• The driver wasn't handling the setting of cross fade, which works now so you can set cross fade mode.
  
• The driver no longer issues a 'stop' command when it starts, so if you restart the driver or CQC, it won't interrupt playback when it comes back up.