n-stream wish list
Posted by: Stephen Pritchard on 23 October 2012
On another point I would like to play my music randomly according to genre or by folder.
I use Twonky as my upnp server software (if thats the correct term) on my NAS.
I'm all for playing randomly by genre or folder/artist! That would be great and avert having to make playlists in some cases or creating a whole cue. NAIM what do you think?!
Still no fast forward or reverse or any other way of navigating within a track. 
Just noticed one adverse change in the new version of n-stream. I am slowly copying my LP collection into digital format (for multiroom use - I intend to keep the LPs to play in the room with the LP12).
As such, I am being fairly anal about adding useful metadata to the files generated, including publication date, conductor (where appropriate) and comments on some obvious faults with the original LP. (e.g. unplayable tracks). With the previous version of n-stream, I could see this metadata on the iPad. The new version just seems to want to access some online database and get the info from there. Great if the album is in that database, but f**king useless when it isnt, as is the case for some of my older and foreign artist recordings. Could we please have that option back, Naim?
Do any uPnP servers and streamers support seeking within a track? I agree this is a pain, and of course something Slim Devices nailed with their Squeezebox protocols years ago... and they've just been discontinued. That's progress...
On the wish list I'd add full screen album art on the iPad... Having bothered to scan and edit all my CD covers at 1000x1000 or greater I'd like to be able to see them in all their glory. The current nStream has too much screen real estate wasted. iPeng still rules with its very flexible interface, but only on the now defunct Squeezebox family.
Just been doing a little bit of research on the 'albums not in on-line database' metadata problem. I've discovered that when you hit 'INFO' on the track playing screen, then you get a picture of the wrong album, but can still enter this and get some very basic metadata info on the track actually playing. However, items added by yours truly, such as Conductor, are not displayed. Not at all pleased. Is it possible to revert to my old version of n-Stream, as I can't see any way of doing it?
As regards navigating within a track - if MP3 players can manage it, why can't my expensive streamer?
Think I'll see if I can find an iPad 'app' that wil let me look at and explore my NAS drive directories, so at least I could get at the info in that rather long-winded manner.
Downloaded FileBrowser from the App Store. Can now look at my NAS directories, photos etc. However, nearly all my music is in FLAC format, and - of course - Apple don't support FLAC. Not that I want to play them on the iPad, just look at them with a metadata editor to see the enclosed information. (sigh). Bloody Apple ...
Do any uPnP servers and streamers support seeking within a track?
You can do it in nServe. And it works! There are many nice to haves that I could think of for nStream but the FF/FR feature is the most necessary.
Android version.
Cheers.
If you switch to Asset UPNP as your software, you can do random track selection by pretty much any criteria for which you have tags.
Not as important as FF/RW but when i'm listening to iRadio and then want to browse my NAS, the iRadio stops playing. My 200 euro philips networkplayer doesn't even do that...
Android version.
+1
Do any uPnP servers and streamers support seeking within a track?
You can do it in nServe. And it works! There are many nice to haves that I could think of for nStream but the FF/FR feature is the most necessary.
Interesting, I wonder if this is completely open uPnP or whether they are using any Naim proprietary extensions...? Must read the spec sometime and see how seeking is supposed to work. I guess it also depends on the file format - with WAV the offset into the data chunk is directly proportional to the seek position, but with a compressed format like FLAC it's more complex as the compression is non-linear.
Do Linn streamers have ffwd and reverse through a track? They've been at it a bit longer and I would imagine their software is pretty mature. If Linn streamers don't do this then I bet its must be quite tricky to implement.
instead of the slider, + - volume button
Android version.
+1
+2
Android version.
+1
+2
+3
In addition I would like to have an iTunes like search function and the playlist handling needs to be improved (random play and repeat for playlists).
+ - volume instead of slider would be huge, if that's technically possible.
- Android version: +1
Editing a playlist should be better:
- deleting tracks from the playlist should work by marking all tracks you want to remove and then click on a remove button once. Currently you have to do 2 clicks on each track you want to remove. And you just can remove one track at a time. Maybe removing an entry by just swiping it to the right might be an idea (this is used by BubbleUPnP on Android e.g.)
- The playlist should always be editable. Or at least the edit button should not disappear when scrolling the playlist to the end. Otherwise you have to scroll up first, press the edit button and then return to the position of the playlist where you want to edit.
- After deleting a track the playlist should not jump to the currently played song. Otherwise you have to search the position again where you are editing.
- The volume slider should not look like it was the track position slider (on iPhone. On a tablet it is placed better AFAIK). It should be placed at the top or somewhere else. Also I like the idea of +/- volume buttons as it cannot happen anymore that you accidentally raise the volume to maximum with one touch.