n-Stream Updated

Unfortunately PlugPlayer doesn't provide gapless playback and is a bit on the slow side.

All I wanted from the n-Stream app was an indication of track length or time remaining. The sort of thing that was available on cheap CD players decades ago. On the plus side navigation on the n-Stream is very quick.

Allen, "(or RS232 to USB adaptor)" will do.

Sadly I fail the first criteria of being "UK based".

My N-Stream wish list (in order of importance) is:

1) A return to "All Artists" or "All Albums" button -- a quick way back to start the process of picking a new album (versus having to walk up the tree)

2) Time remaining indicator (both time in seconds as well as a bar please)

3) More device control options - would be nice to be able to control DISP and other functions from N-Stream.   In fact, it would be really nice if N-Stream simply had a virtual Narcom built-in (kind of like Slingbox does for my cable box remote).  Press a button, remote virtual remote appears.  Dismiss when done to conserve real estate.  Would be nice to be able to put my physical remotes away, and only ever use an iPad.

4) Album information - the library page should be configurable, and I should be able to show any/all information about an album that my UPnP server can deliver.  After all, I tagged all of my CD's when I ripped them, and I should be able to see any/all of that info (just as I can with MediaMonkey or any of the other PC player softwares)

5) More album and artist information - a link to, say, oh, I don't know, how about LastFM...?   Would be really nice to be able to see, say, all other albums by a given artist, etc.

6) Fast forward/reverse buttons

Am sure there are more features that would also be nice, but these are the main ones that come to my mind right now.   What did I miss?

Hook

Hi Guys,

Let me clarify a few points regarding n-Stream

- Playlist a.k.a. Play queue.

n-Stream is a remote control for our Uniti family and network streamer products and supports all the features that are currently implemented on our products. A play queue feature for all products is in the process of being implemented here at Naim but until the feature is available on the actual product n-Stream will not have it. We will start beta testing this after Christmas and it should be available publicly in spring 2012. 

- Track progress bar

As you may have noticed the new screenshots on the app store show a progress bar on the UPnP now playing screen. This is shown if the product that n-Stream is connected to returns this information. At the moment the only products in the field that return this information are ND5XS and SuperUniti. We will be releasing a software update for all other Uniti products before Christmas that will enable the track progress bar on n-Stream.

If you have any stability issues then please contact us directly and we will try to work through them. Our testing has been thorough and have used a variety of devices from iOS 3.1.3 to iOS5 and we think that stability is pretty good.

Tom

Hi TJ -

Disappointing to hear that playlists are still 6 months away.  Oh well...

Any comments on the other features that have been requested?

How about a simple "back to top" button?   That alone would ease a lot of my frustration!

Thanks.

Hook

Thanks for taking the time TJ  perhaps if you visited a little more frequently it would help.

However what you say makes complete sense, the n-stream is a remote control app so it cannot do any more than the actual unit can do.

Fair enough and it explains a lot.

SJB

Terminology (So you know what I am talking about):

Play queue: This is the feature that we are implementing and mentioned above. It will be a queue of all the tracks that are about to be played. You will be able to add a track from your UPnP library to play next or at the end of the current queue. You will also be able to delete tracks from the queue and reorder etc.

Playlists: These are typically m3u files in the context of a UPnP type system. Our streamers can play these if the UPnP server can detect them and dish them up over UPnP. For example on a Naim server any  playlists created on the server or any M3U playlists found on the network will be available under the "Playlists" item in the list when browsing on a streamer via UPnP.

@Hook

- A return to "All Artists" or "All Albums" button and more Album info from UPnP - Not currently possible as our streamers do not have this feature. With the play queue software release I mentioned above this kind of feature will now be possible

- Time indicator. Is now available on SuperUniti and ND5XS and will be available before Christmas on all other streamers

- Third part metadata services. I'd love to see this in, There are some licensing issues to be resolved before it is included though.

- Fast forward/rewind - Not planned for the time being

@AllenB

I hope the above clarifies somewhat. The bottom line is that our streamers currently do not support an external controller queueing up tracks, so, n-Stream cannot do more than it is already doing. The next major streamer product software release we are working on does support play queue (and queue editing etc), n-Stream will be released at the same time fully supporting this feature.

@Sloop

You're welcome. I will endeavour to hang around here a bit more!

TJ - thanks for the info. I think this is what causes the frustration is the lack of information such as this at times. Your post has been very useful - dissapointing that Play Queue is a while away but useful to understand why certain features are not yet supported. 

James

Plug does do playlists but will not play gapless albums properly since it can only one track at a time to a naim player. I believe linn players can store playlists in the players so you get proper gapless playback. 

When using nstream the naim player can start downloading the next track before the end of the last track, so gapless works ok. 

Thats my understanding of how it all works anyway

Hi,

Great conversation as always, really interesting read.

Just wanted to thank TJ for contributing,

Just to say (which you all probably know) that using something like Media Monkey that (as TJ mentioned) you can create/save a playlist and export as a m3u file. You can create multiple playlists then save and rename them etc, I use Asset UPnP and within that setup, point it to look at playlist folder. These playlists will then appear under (guess what!!!) "playlist" within nstream. Not as ideal as creating "on the fly" playlists but it does offer a work around until Naim have released an update.

As i mentioned, you probably already know this.....but if I can help then my good deed for the day is done!!

audio electronics and computers will never get in bed together

@Keith

All the features I have mentioned so far will be made available for NaimUniti, Qute and NDX products out in the field.

@Allen RE play queue

PlugPlayer and eLyric etc create the play queue locally on the controller then tell the streamer to play the next track just as the previous track is finishing. This kind of works but has the following shortcomings:

- Need to have the control point always on (if the iPod goes to sleep then playback stops as it is not awake to feed the streamer the next track)

- no gapless playback

- The play queue is stored locally on the controller so if another control point connects to the streamer it has no idea what is in the play queue

We are implementing a play queue that is stored locally on the streamer which will overcome all the issues above. 

@Allen RE product update

Products in the field have DB9 RS232 interfaces for software update, a USB to RS232 converter cable can be used. New products that are hitting the market have mini USB. When the next software release goes public we will have an upgrade application that will run on your computer that automatically detects the product you have connected and updates to the latest firmware. This should make it possible for end users rather than dealers to do the update

@Simon

Which URLs are these, Naim choice in iRadio? When you see n-Stream lock up does the NDX front panel lock up too? Maybe mail us direct, we can work it through then report back to the guys here rather than clogging up this thread.

+1 to what AllenB said, cheers TJ, a little communication makes a world of difference!

Correction... PP does stay connected when locked.  Elyric doesn't yet but allegedly will.

I will need to test this again but if memory serves I am getting gapless playback when using PP as a control point.  But not of course when streaming to PP as renderer.

-Patrick

@ Simon

Thanks for the info regarding the hi def streams. I've tried it on the products I have at home, they are all running Beta software and they none show the problems you are experiencing. I will try it in the office with production software.

@Patrick

I tried it before writing my last post just to be doubly sure. I have and iPhone 4 on iOS5 and latest plug player and if i let my iPhone sleep then PP would only play a couple of tracks before the phone went into deep sleep and PP stopped pushing music down to my Qute. It wasn't gapless either. This behaviour may well vary with Apple device and iOS version but for me it didn't work. This is not a criticism of PP though, it is a general issue with all UPnP control points!

Bizzaro..... Even when locked, app minimized etc, PP finishes the playlist.  This is with iPad and iPhone 4 with iOS5.

Regarding the control point sending the entire playlist to the renderer, this requires both to use the same playlist style.  Allegedly J River is going to support the "linn style playlists" that PP, Linn, PSAudio and others use. 

There is always an issue somewhere in the chain of things.

Such is life.

plug plug player runs fine with nds5 streamer  with ipad 1 and samsung tab. 

naim need to get their app on samsung type platforms asap