Naim/Mac UPnP problems

I do not recommend that you use a UPnP server on your Mac. It does work, but you will suffer from exasperating dropouts and other problems, whether you use wired or wireless.

A bit of a blanket statement there David. UPnP on a Mac using a server like Playback or Majestic works fine and you have the added bonus of them integrating perfectly with iTunes - so you can keep your normal iDevices all synchronised, library managed as well as serve out to UPnP renderers. Most of the problems come from trying to connect these products up by wireless or unsuitable network infrastructure. Get those right and you're set. 

James

Thanks for the reply but again why does this have to be so complicated?  

This superuniti was supposed to make everything easy and I absolutely in part blame Naim.  

How can they not be partially to blame?  They knew of the problems. 

Naim should mention on their website and communicate to dealers that this system does not work well with iTunes or MacIntosh computers. It's just not compatable out of the box with iTunes and MacIntosh computers. They should make this clear.

Anyway, this isn't 1998 where only 5 percent of people use Macintosh? Everyone I know uses iTunes to store their music. maybe the audio pros don't but I bet even most people under 40 do.

 I just don't believe that Naim can't do something to make this problem go away.  And if they can't then they should make it very clear that Naim does not work well with iTunes unless you want to spend more money on other products. And even then it sounds like a huge hassle.  

I blame myself though for not researching the problems before I bought this. I am spending all my hours post work for almost a month now, semi neglecting family to get this thing to work. I bought an external drive yesterday on the advice of someone here and that doesn't work either with my flac files. Playback shows up on my SU but everything in it says "empty".  

It seems clear that in order to get this thing to work properly I will need to keep everything wirebrand spend more money on a network storage device. Naim should tell Mac users this. To me it's unethical.

Regards,

James

David, you didn't just replace your Mac / UPnP - you got your network issues sorted too so i can't see how you blame this just on the UPnP server. I use a similar network setup to yourself (albeit fully wired) - in my case the NAS just stores the music files - I have a Mac Mini that acts as my iTunes library and runs a UPnP server for my NDX. Apart from initially having to find a decent UPnP server its been trouble free. No glitches, drop outs etc. As i've said above, Naim really need to provide some decent info to guide customers and potential customers of what they require to do all of this. At the moment it seems more customers helping customers !

James

You cannot blame naim, The device works with UPNP that is clearly stated.

Itunes uses DAAP, its own proprietary communications method. This is not UPNP. 

However instead of doing a little research now you are just venting spleen. You have a folder full of music, that can be made available to your superuniti, it just does not involve the bloated proprietary itunes.

UPnP has not been working well for me.  It drops out, doesnt recognise my music files; sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.  So the device for me and I've used all mentioned (will try TVMobili next) does not work well.  

And I am not venting spleen.  I am simply stating that I think it would be ethical of Naim to mention these issues to customers upfront.  

Contrary to your post, I have done an enormous amount of research into solving these problems with my SuperUniti.  Gary, why do you not recognise these problems that the system has with iTunes/MacIntosh.  Are they not real?  

How can I make my folder full of music available to my SuperUniti without UPnP since its just not a good solution?  From the advice I am getting I need either to buy a PC or some sort of Network storage device.  

Are you saying that there is some other solution?

No there is no other solution for getting music to your uniti except with an optical lead from the mac.

Have you opened activity monitor and seen whats running? 

I have played with UPNP on mac, and in my experience the best solution sadly involves the most initial set up and its a programme called XBMC. Its actually a fully fledged media player, but will happily sit in the background taking up very little resources.

Download it and launch it, its designed to be used with the remote that may have come with your mac, but you can get around with the keyboard or mouse.

On first launch it will take over your screen, goto settings then system, then display and toggle to windowed.

Back at the main screen goto music and files then add source, add your itunes music folder. click through to ok. Then right click on the new source and scan to library.

This could take a while depending on how large you music library is.

Then back in settings goto network and share library via UPNP. Again it can take a while to get it to the network. You should then be set.

But I do acknowledge this is geeky but in my experience works well.

The long term solution is a NAS, they can be quite inexpensive and you could store your itunes library on it, freeing up space on your mac.

Thank you Gary.  I will try this, although I have recently downloaded TVMobili and will see how I get on with this first.  

If problems continue I really may just but a NAS and hope this isnt too complicated to set up.  What would you recommend is a good one?   My router is really quite far from my computer and SU.  Can I just plug in the NAS into my computer and SuperUniti and go from there?  

Thats ideal, nases can be a bit on the noisey side with a cooling fan and couple of drives wirring away, so site it next to our router.

I don't have lots of experiences with nases, I do however own a QNAP and I find the software and set up really simple.

You just plug it into the router and power then use 'qfinder' app to find it for initial set up. In your case you would then drag the music folder of itunes to 'qmulitmedia folder' and tell itunes this is where the music is stored. Then turn on twonky on the nas and it will find that music and make it available for your uniti.

The nas is an excellent device for other tasks too. I am not trying to make you spend money though, there are other options.

For instance you could get a second hand cheap PC and set that up near your router and run vortexbox on it, this is a ripper/upnp softwares which apparently work with naims well.

But for now don't give up on the mac. Have you checked your network is fully functional? What router are you using? And please check your resource monitor for whats running and also in system prefs do you have any new pref panes at the bottom for UPNP programes, or any upnp programmes in the user/login items?

Also do you have your mac fire wall on (Fwiw, I never have) or any antivirus running. Like PCs all these things will have an effect.

Yes the network is fully functional and have long been checking resource montito as this was an issue.  It was either eyeconnect or twonky that was really causing me headaches and annoyingly doesn't uninstall completely (I had to constantly look at RM to find and then manually delete filles).

I have a SwissCom router but upgraded to the best they had on offer.  No Mac firewall on.

Thanks for your assistance.  Its very kind of you.

Twonky can be persistent! 

http://support.pure.com/kb_art...p?ref=8822-WIZB-3669

I have also tried AMS but this was a couple of years ago, not sure what its like now but its supposed to dish up your itunes library as UPNP

not I don't blame Naim ... 

Naim makes a UnitiServe that will work with the SuperUniti, but most of us prefer to use our own computers. Naim does not say it will work with all computers and any UPnP server. If you contact Naim they may be able to advise on ones they have tried and found to work. 

A Mac Mini with a good optical cable will plug in to the SU and just work - you only need a network if you want to control iTunes from your iPad and for getting song titles and artwork when you rip your CDs. The Mac Mini's wireless capability is ample for this. 

For other Macs you'll need a hiFace or similar - the MB Air for example has no optical out. Other Macs jitter - the Mac Mini has a low jitter/noise optical out. 

Any modern Mac with Yazsoft Playback will work as UPnP server. The other UPnP servers mentioned above also work. So if you prefer this route then you can do it. My UQ works with Yazsoft Playback (and TVmoboli too).  

The optical cable is easier and the big advantage is it'll play anything from your Mac through the SuperUniti ... YouTube, Spotify ... something you've written using GarageBand. 

The Vortexbox is Naim compatible and works really well with the UQ. The only advantage I can see of the UnitiServe over the VB is the Naim build and service. The advantage of the VB is totally flexibility and low price. 

Hey... I use Servio.... it works well although doesn't stream Apple Lossless.

Other than this I can recommend it.

I found it online.. just google it. It's free :-)

Hi All,

Until last week I had no problems with my UQ bought just before Christmas, used with my iMac, Eyeconnect and n-Stream on a wired network. It all worked straight out of the box.

Now I am getting "no servers" or internet radio, I can not see anything that has altered on my system except Flash player got upgraded, though this should not have an effect.

Matthew

Just got mine working again by going through the network settings on the UQ, I did not change anything but just scrolled through the items. I do not understand but it worked.

Matthew

Vikas - playback works great for me - I'll post some screen grabs of my settings.

Interesting.  I had not bothered to deselect Videos and Photos though I should because I only use Music.  I wonder if it will affect anything in terms of performance beyond removing the choices from the n-Stream app.  I should also select "Update Play counts"!

J River on MacOS???  I think it will be here soon.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interac...ex.php?topic=72833.0