Help with information on Tags -- what does the Naim UNITI read as tags on FLAC files?

Posted by: lennyw on 20 May 2010

Hello all, and thanks for reading this.

I plan to buy a Naim Uniti over the next couple of years (the arrival of a second child in a couple of months will dent my wallet a little too much this year).

As I'll be the stay-at-home parent, I plan to use the time to organise one of the HDDs on my QNAP 419P NAS as a dedicated music server which the UNITI will link to once I've got it. As it will predominantly be classical music, I'm wondering about the Tags that are associated to the FLAC file, and concerned that I organise them so that I actually know what I'm playing (where auto-tags can be a nightmare as there's no composer field).

So the question is: what does the UNITI display, or rather, offer in the menu selection? Or is this dependant upon which UPnP media server the NAS has incorporated? (The downloadable pdf menu is sadly a little lacking in offering information on this.) In the case of the QNAP NAS, it uses Twonkymedia, which I understand is compatible with the UNITI. The menu offers the following ways to search through the files, based upon the tags and also the actual filing system (ie if each album/symphony had a separate folder on the NAS, one could search through those too):


So, if anyone has any experience with creating tags and their relevance to how they're viewed on a UNITI machine, or indeed with using the TwonkyMedia server, I'd be most grateful to hear about it.

Thanks, Lenny
Posted on: 21 May 2010 by mico1964
Hi Lenny,

my Uniti is connected to a QNAP TS239 Pro (running Twonkymedia) and the display shows exactly the same items shown on my TwonkyMedia server local web page (including the translation errors in italian!). There are 14 items: all the items shown on you picture plus "Handpicked Radio" and "SHOUTcast Radio".

Anyway I never use the Composer tag: I put the composer name in the Artist field and the artist/performer name at the end of the Album title field.
e.g., Artist: "Beethoven, Ludwig van", Album: "Piano Concertos No. 3, 4, 5 - SCO/Pizarro/Mackerras"
Posted on: 21 May 2010 by lennyw
Thanks Mico, that's just the kind of reply I needed. I think your idea for album title is excellent, I'll use it -- though mine will be Piano Concertos 3,4,5 - BPO/Kempff/van Kempen Winker

My all time favourite translation error was in an advert for a hotel in Turkey: "We look forward to hospitalising you..."

Right, on with the ripping!

Ciao, Lenny