Qute / nStream RFEs and issues

Posted by: okli on 27 September 2010

Hi,

I'm not aware of some other way to post RFEs / issues, so I write them here:

1. The texts of the track being played does not scroll on the Qute's display. This leads to names such as "Concerto for Piano and O" - not very useful, if you have a CD only with Piano works...

2. Above limitation applies to the list view of an album in the nStream application - if I navigate to the album I can see only part of the titles leading to the same issue as above - if I'd like to play Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A, KV 23 von W.A. Mozart and have a CD will all tracks starting with Concerto for Piano and Orchestra I don't have any chance to find the one I need to play. May be this could be solved adding support for horizontal layout in the nStream application, as usual for iPhone apps.

3. Under some (unknown to me) circumstances Qute will not respond to UPnP broadcast messages on the network and remains "hidden" for control point software. The only way to make it visible again is to switch it off and then on through the rear panel switch.

4. Volume control is not possible with control point software, such as foobar2000 UPnP plugin and others.

Someone else here having these issues and found solutions?

Thanks
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by Alamanka
Okli,

I do not own the Qute, but here is what I observe on my NaimUniti (not yet updated with the latest and greatest firmware)

1. During navigation using Uniti display, the title of the track is scrolling.

2. nStream application: not tested yet

3. The Uniti also becomes often invisible to the other UPnP controllers. You are perfectly describing the issue. I am hoping this is fixed with the 3.0 firmware.

4. Volume control though control software does not work with the Uniti either. However it is possible to mute and unmute using Asset.

Thanks
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by Tonkis Q
3. I also have this problem, and it disapears for nStream app. I don't have to switch of the Qute, it normally works within a few minutes again..

I have an freedapp on my Ipod whicg searches for Upnp units, this app finds the Qute when nStream app doesn't. This app is free and the nStream cost 30 euro, I think the nStream app should be better on finding the Qute.
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by Tonkis Q
quote:
Originally posted by Tonkis nr2:
3. I also have this problem, and it disapears for nStream app. I don't have to switch of the Qute, it normally works within a few minutes again..

I have an free app on my Ipod whicg searches for Upnp units, this app finds the Qute when nStream app doesn't. This app is free and the nStream cost 30 euro, I think the nStream app should be better on finding the Qute.
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by Tonkis Q
quote:
Originally posted by Tonkis nr2:
quote:
Originally posted by Tonkis nr2:
3. I also have this problem, and it disapears for nStream app. I don't have to switch of the Qute, it normally works within a few minutes again..

I have an free app on my Ipod which searches for Upnp units, this app finds the Qute when nStream app doesn't. This app is free and the nStream cost 30 euro, I think the nStream app should be better on finding the Qute.
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by okli
quote:
Originally posted by Alamanka:
Okli,

I do not own the Qute, but here is what I observe on my NaimUniti (not yet updated with the latest and greatest firmware)

1. During navigation using Uniti display, the title of the track is scrolling.

2. nStream application: not tested yet

3. The Uniti also becomes often invisible to the other UPnP controllers. You are perfectly describing the issue. I am hoping this is fixed with the 3.0 firmware.

4. Volume control though control software does not work with the Uniti either. However it is possible to mute and unmute using Asset.

Thanks


1. same here - only on the playback screen it is static

3. I'm afraid it isn't because Qute has FW 3.0.00

4. Mute and Volume Control are two different actions according to UPnP - perhaps the one works and the other doesn't. I have to check the mute control with foobar2000 if it is available
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by okli
quote:
Originally posted by Tonkis nr2:
quote:
Originally posted by Tonkis nr2:
quote:
Originally posted by Tonkis nr2:
3. I also have this problem, and it disapears for nStream app. I don't have to switch of the Qute, it normally works within a few minutes again..

I have an free app on my Ipod which searches for Upnp units, this app finds the Qute when nStream app doesn't. This app is free and the nStream cost 30 euro, I think the nStream app should be better on finding the Qute.


yes - this happend 2 or 3 times to me, too and in this case no restart of the Qute was required. But 3rd party applications can't find the unit at all - only "reboot" of the unit helps.
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by okli
5. I don't know who is responsible for this, but if I navigate to some album, using the Folder list I get the tracks alphabetically sorted according to their track names and not to filenames / track numbers (I use the track number as first part of my filenames to avoid exactly this behaviour). If I navigate to the same album through the categories (Genre/Album, Album/Artist, etc.) the tracks are in the correct order as they appear on the CD. My files are in FLAC format and all the TAGs are correctly set - I'm using dbpoweramp to rip the CDs if this matters. This is a major issue to me, because I'm using the Folder navigation extensively, due to the limitations of the TAGGING for classical music!
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by Alamanka
quote:
Originally posted by okli:
5. I don't know who is responsible for this, but if I navigate to some album, using the Folder list I get the tracks alphabetically sorted according to their track names and not to filenames / track numbers (I use the track number as first part of my filenames to avoid exactly this behaviour). If I navigate to the same album through the categories (Genre/Album, Album/Artist, etc.) the tracks are in the correct order as they appear on the CD. My files are in FLAC format and all the TAGs are correctly set - I'm using dbpoweramp to rip the CDs if this matters. This is a major issue to me, because I'm using the Folder navigation extensively, due to the limitations of the TAGGING for classical music!
.

Within a folder hierearchy, files are usually listed alphabetically based on file name. No surprise here. Why is this an issue?
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by likesmusic
okli - it is worth changing the dBpoweramp folder naming convention to pre-pend the disc number (for multi-disc sets) and track number to the track name, so that the folder view lists things in the order you want. Here's my Naming string:

[IFCOMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],Various Artists[]\[album]\[track] [artist][][IF!COMP][IF!EQUALS]Genre,Classical,[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][][][IFEQUALS]Genre,Classical,[Composer][]\[album]\[IFMULTI][disc] - [][track][] - [MAXLEngth]100,[title][]

This also, for classical music only, puts composer above album in the folder heirachy. So I might end up with

- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
-- ..
-- Mozart Piano Concertos (Barenboim)
--- ..
--- 2 - 05 Piano Concerto No. 17 .. Allegretto
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by okli
quote:
Originally posted by Alamanka:
quote:
Originally posted by okli:
5. I don't know who is responsible for this, but if I navigate to some album, using the Folder list I get the tracks alphabetically sorted according to their track names and not to filenames / track numbers (I use the track number as first part of my filenames to avoid exactly this behaviour). If I navigate to the same album through the categories (Genre/Album, Album/Artist, etc.) the tracks are in the correct order as they appear on the CD. My files are in FLAC format and all the TAGs are correctly set - I'm using dbpoweramp to rip the CDs if this matters. This is a major issue to me, because I'm using the Folder navigation extensively, due to the limitations of the TAGGING for classical music!
.

Within a folder hierearchy, files are usually listed alphabetically based on file name. No surprise here. Why is this an issue?


Hi Alamanka - exactly this is the issue - they are not listed according to the FILE-names, but the TRACK names, i.e.:

01_Zyxdf.flac, 02_Agffdd.flac, ... vs. Agffdd, Zyxdf - I'm getting the albums completely out of order :-(
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by okli
Hi likesmusic - thanks for sharing this info - I'll use it forsure, because it gives better results then mine. Nevertheless, this won't solve my problem and I'm not sure if this is related to Qute, rendering the info in this way or to the media server, providing the info in this way. My further investigations show, that this is not an issue with WAV files, because I don't get the TAGs info shown - in this case I have Unknown / Unknown and the tracks are sorted to my filename conventions. In opposite, the meta tags from FLAC files will be fetched correctly and this, I thing, causes this "sophisticated" alphabetical sorting, thus the tracks starting with A are at the top, etc. No one expiriencing this problem - AFAIK my NAS has integrated TwonkyMedia server - may be this is an issue related to the server and not to Qute?
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by Alfa4life
Okli

I have exactly the same problem with track ordering on my uniti... my nas uses twonky which I am sure is the culprit as I tested with a different upnp server on my mac and everything was then ok.
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by Alamanka
quote:
Originally posted by Alfa4life:
Okli

I have exactly the same problem with track ordering on my uniti... my nas uses twonky which I am sure is the culprit as I tested with a different upnp server on my mac and everything was then ok.


I do not want to create confusion, but I seem to remember a problem like this with version 5 of Twonky. My nas has version 4.x and I do not see this. I sugget to check Twonky forum.
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by likesmusic
okli - Alamanka and Alfa4life are right though, it is only an issue with some upnp servers like Twonky and possibly flac (I don't use anything else). I'm not commited to any particular server yet, so I just tried to choose the safest file naming strategy I could to avoid possible future irritations.
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by okli
thanks for all replies - I found this thread - seems to be really Twonky issue. I've contacted the Buffalo's support, because I'm using their Linkstation - let see what they can do... Anyway, we can remove 5. :-)
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by Alamanka
quote:
Originally posted by okli:
thanks for all replies - I found this thread - seems to be really Twonky issue. I've contacted the Buffalo's support, because I'm using their Linkstation - let see what they can do... Anyway, we can remove 5. :-)


I am using TwonkyMedia 4.4.17 that came pre-installed on the NAS. I am using it only for music right now. Through the UI, it is possible to configure how the different trees will be displayed (no coding necessary). Personally I have radically simplified the tree to show only Folder.

From the Uniti, when navigating in the folders containing Flac files:
- the tracks are sorted in the ascending order based on file name
- the tag title of the track is displayed (not the file name)
- moving the cursor on a track that has a long title triggers the scrolling
- the track number is indicated on top of the screen together with the folder (track number/total number of track in folder)

Conclusion: the implementation of the tree browsing on the Uniti is correct.

In your case, Twonky Vision is the culprit. On version 5 Twonky is sorting the folder tree based on tag title instead of using file name.


Moving to issue 1): currently played track is not scrolling.

I am now seeing your issue

When the track is playing, the long title is not scrolling anymore. This is not correct and should be logged as a bug.
Posted on: 27 September 2010 by okli
quote:
Originally posted by Alamanka:
I am using TwonkyMedia 4.4.17 that came pre-installed on the NAS. I am using it only for music right now. Through the UI, it is possible to configure how the different trees will be displayed (no coding necessary). Personally I have radically simplified the tree to show only Folder.


The problem is that they disabled the Twonky UI on Linkstation, so there is no chance for the end user to change anything, without some hacking, which will avoid the warranty :-(