Uniti Upgrade Report
Posted by: 0rangutan on 03 March 2010
I had my Uniti upgraded to firmware 2.0 by the guys at Oxford Audio Consultants this lunchtime.
It took them just 10 minutes or so and they said they have done this a number of times now.
One point to note - the upgrade is effectively a re-install and so it will wipe any settings or customisations that you have made to your Uniti (eg. labelling sources, radio presets, re-assigning remote buttons, etc.) This isn't a major inconvenience, but worth knowing in advance.
24/96 playback works well through the front USB socket, but less so through UPNP. The Naim software is working fine, however the higher bandwidth files are pushing the limits of the Uniti's 802.11g wireless network and causing buffering every 10 seconds or so on some files making them unlistenable on my network. This won't be a problem on wired networks or those where the wireless router is sufficiently near to the Uniti but it does make the case for the UnitiQute and future streamers to ship with 802.11n as standard. Perhaps Naim could offer an 802.11n upgrade for Uniti owners? I would certainly buy this.
As for the bugs and features wishlist, not good.
Still no ability to pause or FF/RW UPNP streams using popular UPNP sources (Playback, EyeConnect, Windows 7!).
Still no gapless playback.
I never experienced the problems with MP3 tag character sets so cannot confirm whether this is fixed.
No other obvious changes in the UI.
If you are't experiencing problems with MP3 tags and don't need 24/96 support through UPNP and USB, there is no obvious reason to upgrade.
John
Posted on: 03 March 2010 by Michael Chare
Thank you for the information. I am curious to know whether you were charged for the upgrade?
I am surprised that you have a capacity problem with your wireless network. 24/96 represents an effective data rate of 4.6mbps to which must be added the packet overhead and perhaps reduced as the music may be compressed.
Some new Sony LCD TVs support uPnP but only have Wifi and not wired connections. I would reasonably expect them to be able to stream HD TV.
Posted on: 03 March 2010 by garyi
I would say that depends on the amount of wireless devices in the chain. If for instance the UPNP server is another computer which is also wireless the whole thing is going to get hairy especially as the unit will be pulling N networks down to G speeds.
Posted on: 03 March 2010 by 0rangutan
Michael - I was not charged for the upgrade and I'm fairly sure that no one else should be either.
Re. wireless bandwidth, Gary is probably right in my case. While I use an Apple Time Caspsule (ie. Airport Extreme) for wireless, it is two floors up from the Uniti, which shares the same furniture as a PS3 and an Apple TV, also on the same wireless network. And there is usually a laptop on. And an iPhone.
The bandwidth available to the Uniti won't be great in this environment, but has been good enough until I tried the 24/96 Flacs.
I will have more of a play over the weekend and see if I can narrow this down to the wireless or the Uniti.
John
Posted on: 03 March 2010 by Stevesky
Hi John,
Pause on UPnP - this is a side effect of having EyeConnect UPnP server present on the network. You don't have to actually use it - if the streaming core discovers it then it affects all other UPnP servers that it also discovers. If you uninstall Eyeconnect and then power cycle, then pause will work on all the other UPnP servers again.
The actual upgrade does not loose any setting. We have ensured all storage values exactly align or upgrade for v2.00.00 code. Some dealers may force a factory reset though for good measures and I suspect that is why you ended up with a clean unit,
Regards
Steve (R&D)
Posted on: 03 March 2010 by Nathan Wilkes
John,
If you are using a Time Capsule as your wireless router (eg not a recent Airport Extreme Base Station), you may wish to consider a dual radio unit (your performance will markedly improve if you have both N and G devices on your network). And, of course, attach as many units via ethernet to your router, such as your PS3 and Apple TV.
Nathan
Posted on: 04 March 2010 by Steve Cox
quote:
Originally posted by John Bleasdale:
I never experienced the problems with MP3 tag character sets so cannot confirm whether this is fixed.
Had my Uniti upgraded (it was free) on Wed. I can confirm that the 'UTF16' tag problem reported in my thread 'Can't play most eMusic MP3s' is fixed.
HOWEVER, Uniti now cuts out part way through every track that I try to play wirelessly via UPNP, even though my setup is unchanged and it never cut out once before. I will be starting another thread for this once I have finished checking previous threads.
Posted on: 05 March 2010 by 0rangutan
quote:
Pause on UPnP - this is a side effect of having EyeConnect UPnP server present on the network. You don't have to actually use it - if the streaming core discovers it then it affects all other UPnP servers that it also discovers. If you uninstall Eyeconnect and then power cycle, then pause will work on all the other UPnP servers again.
Steve - thanks for the suggestion. I tested again by turning my Mac off completely (so no EyeConnect on the network), power cycling the Uniti and then testing pausing a UPNP stream from my Windows 7 laptop. This
still does not pause.
I can successfully pause using alternative UPNP players (PlugPlayer, Monitor Audio Airtream 10) from the same EyeConnect or Windows 7 UPNP servers over the same WLAN.
Do you have any other ideas? I will be resorting to packet capture next...
John
Posted on: 05 March 2010 by gone
I don't know if this helps, as I have an HDX which probably works completely differently to a Uniti, but I have the same TimeCapsule/Airport configuration, and have no problems streaming 24/96 files. My router is one floor up, with an iPhone/laptop and internet radio (not active) attached, so almost certainly not running at N speed.
But I presume the HDX is not using uPnP in this mode, but simply picking the files up from a NAS, and buffering them
Please ignore if not relevant
Posted on: 05 March 2010 by andyh411
Steve,
I'm pleased to say your advice worked for me. Using a Readynas duo my pause didn't work. I then built a linux server, installed mediatomb, and pause still didn't work. After your post, I disabled readydlna, restarted mediatomb, rebooted the Uniti, and now pause works......marvellous
thank you.
Andy.
Posted on: 05 March 2010 by Michael Chare
quote:
I'm pleased to say your advice worked for me. Using a Readynas duo my pause didn't work. I then built a linux server, installed mediatomb, and pause still didn't work. After your post, I disabled readydlna, restarted mediatomb, rebooted the Uniti, and now pause works......marvellous
thank you.
Andy.
That is interesting, I wonder if there are any other culprits. At the moment I can also pause a stream from Mediatomb. It will be interesting to see if this ever stops working I normally leave my Uniti powered on.
Posted on: 06 March 2010 by noname
Stevesky said:
----------
The actual upgrade does not loose any setting. We have ensured all storage values exactly align or upgrade for v2.00.00 code. Some dealers may force a factory reset though for good measures and I suspect that is why you ended up with a clean unit,
----------
But the upgrade instructions provided to dealers end with the step to do a factory resest. This is not shown as optional.
Posted on: 06 March 2010 by David Dever
quote:
Originally posted by John Bleasdale:
I had my Uniti upgraded to firmware 2.0 by the guys at Oxford Audio Consultants this lunchtime.
It took them just 10 minutes or so and they said they have done this a number of times now.
One point to note - the upgrade is effectively a re-install and so it will wipe any settings or customisations that you have made to your Uniti (eg. labelling sources, radio presets, re-assigning remote buttons, etc.) This isn't a major inconvenience, but worth knowing in advance.
24/96 playback works well through the front USB socket, but less so through UPNP. The Naim software is working fine, however the higher bandwidth files are pushing the limits of the Uniti's 802.11g wireless network and causing buffering every 10 seconds or so on some files making them unlistenable on my network. This won't be a problem on wired networks or those where the wireless router is sufficiently near to the Uniti but it does make the case for the UnitiQute and future streamers to ship with 802.11n as standard. Perhaps Naim could offer an 802.11n upgrade for Uniti owners? I would certainly buy this.
As for the bugs and features wishlist, not good.
Still no ability to pause or FF/RW UPNP streams using popular UPNP sources (Playback, EyeConnect, Windows 7!).
Still no gapless playback.
I never experienced the problems with MP3 tag character sets so cannot confirm whether this is fixed.
No other obvious changes in the UI.
If you are't experiencing problems with MP3 tags and don't need 24/96 support through UPNP and USB, there is no obvious reason to upgrade.
John
Improved sound quality could be an obvious reason....
