What no discussion on new n-serve for MAC?

Not a good start matey, there are spelling errors on the Introducing n-Serve for Mac

• Broswe internet radio adn save presets

Lets hope that the software is up to the task, I'm still pondering with these network players

I played with it rather briefly, and it was not what I expected.  I expected a replacement for the DTC, and this looks like, simply, nServe functionality ported from iOS to OS X.  iOS's nServe does not replace the DTC; does this????

I do not see nearly the full extent of the DTC functionality.  But maybe I did not spend nearly enough time with it (????)

Well I doubt many here could claim not to have got their fingers in a twist and not noticed at some time or another. To borrow and slightly corrupt a line from the late great Eric Morcombe “they’re all the right letters but not necessarily in the right order”  

Interested to hear from our MAC using friends how the beta fares.

ATB. Peter

On the basis of the accompanying text - you appear not to have spent enough time with it to make a useful comment.

I hope you will share your opinion when you have actually given it a proper test.

Hi Bart

I unashamedly lift this directly from the website announcement:

This new Mac app offers all the Naim server (HDX, UnitiServe, NS01, NS02, NS03) maintenance and control functionality of the already available Windows Naim Desk Top Client alongside new features available on n-Serve for iOS devices.

Now I know next to nothing about how the servers are operated, but I have become interested in finding out more. From that position it seemed to me that this new beta has the potential to offer more, rather than less. Of course I could be totally wrong; which is why I asked.

Would be interested to hear more if you persevere with it.

Regards

Peter

Thank you Adam and Peter; I will surely give it a BETTER go later today!

So far downloaded and installed , found HDX and functioning.

Looks good.

Cover views useful for browsing on larger screen size. 

Have not found a facility to transfer music from HDX to NAS and vice versa.

(I have issues still with album art on NAS . OK on 95% rips from HDX.  Where no art found by HDX look up, any jpegs I insert as folder.jpg still not seen by n serve.)

Cannot drag and drop artwork as I had hoped for. 

Still exploring. 

Thank you Naim for this. Will enjoy working it out

I was beta testing it, with the built in screen reader Voiceover in OSX. Unfortunately unlike the dtc for Windows and the apps the Mac dtc at least the beta versions cannot work with OSX Voiceover.

Well it was quite an Easter egg hunt to find the DTC-like functions.  One suggestion would be to let the menu pop up when the server name is mouse-overed, rather than requiring it to be clicked on. (I'll pass that on via email to the support team.)

Looks rather nice after a quick play. Well done team.

Is there a download link for DTC?

Thanks,

Ralf

Ah ...found it! Thanks

OK just downloaded. Looks similar in layout to ipad version which is good -BUT can't actually find how to edit anything. Have tried to edit tracks on a previously downloaded album but cant see how to do it. All I have succeeded in doing is to play the album I'm trying to edit which I don't want to do. Also with reference to previous post where is the edit metadata pane?

The help menu is not helpful - are there any instructions anywhere else?

Peter 

Edit metadata function is in a right-click menu when you click on the album name.  But like iOS nServe, it can only be edited for albums you've ripped on the server.  Items in the Downloads folder cannot be edited, it seems.

Thanks Bart

Didn't think to right click being left handed! You're correct about not being able to edit tracks. I shall be sticking with the iPad for the forseeable future I think. 

It would be nice to edit length of individual downloaded tracks though as can be done with ripped albums.

Peter

Nice touch just discovered

Listening to  internet radio paradise and browsing forum. 

N Serve flags up tracks and artist name discretely at top of screen. 

*only when channel selected afresh*

Does this for new tracks on albums being streamed 100% of the time

You can edit both album and track information by selecting either and then pressing command-I.  "Right click" is not standard Mac practice, and should not be required for functionality, IMHO.  For those of you who never use it, right click = two finger click (on trackpad).

Hi all,

Glad it has been mostly met with approval. 

A few nice features I like are:

- Google, Wikipedia and Youtube search from the bottom info panel

- Jump within library from info panel. e.g click the artist's name to see all albums by that artist.

- Save a Radio station as a preset. When you select this preset from the sidebar n-Serve does a websearch on the station name. you can choose any webpage you want here and next time you select that radio preset the webpage is restored. e.g. for a given preset select the webpage that corresponds to that station's homepage. Each time you listen to that preset the homepage will be shown in the browser window.

- Drag and drop images onto the edit metadata window to change album cover

@Bart

n-Serve for Mac has all the functionality of DTC and more. If you are looking for the maintenance section use the dropdown above sidebar. This allows selection between Library/Radio and Maintenance. Pretty much all the DTC maintenance functions are found in there.

@David Leedham

There are two ways of changing the location of a ripped album. Either right click the album>edit metadata then change the location from there or use Maintenance>Music stores. Note that you can only change the location of an album that has been ripped by a Naim server and that resides on a "Music store" (not a music share).

@AllenB

Using an expanding control like on DTC doesn't work that well for large music collections so we went with a fixed sidebar, this allows easier switching between views. RE browser tabs, you can open multiple tabs, or have I misunderstood your point? Do you have more than one Naim server you are controlling from n-Serve?

Moving albums can be done from either the Maintenance screen as pr DTC or from edit metadata. The new way of modifying genre is more efficient and faster when you are changing multiple albums

Thanks for posting, TJ.  Is there an email address or other ways you'd like to receive reports about the operation of this?  I note a few glitches occasionally, but have assumed that this forum is not the place most likely to have them seen by the developers.

Thanks for your work on this -- we've been waiting for it and are glad it's moving along!

If all comments go to support@naimaudio.com then our support team will either be able to deal with your query or they will pass your mail directly to me.

Hi All

Thanks for your comments, I was interested to know if the Mac version had anything worthwhile to offer over the PC version, as if it does and we do go for a server, would it be worth breaking the habit of a lifetime and consider the purchase of a Mac?

Could I also ask if I am understanding this correctly, the DTC runs on a full blown computer [Macbook Pro for example] and can control the local output of the server over the network – is that correct?

I don’t use wireless, so if that were required this would be of no further interest to me.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can enlighten me.

Regards,

Peter

Peter, think of this as a replacement for the DTC that runs on Windows, but not as a replacement for other ways to control audio playback.  You're right -- it runs on a computer that runs OS X, the Mac operating system.

I do think that its interface is a lot cleaner than the Windows version.  It also seems to give better options for editing album art.  TJ posted a list of features that it provides over the Windows version.

You can use this to control playback on an HDX or UnitiServe, but without wireless of course you'd need to computer to be connected to the home network via an ethernet cable.  Alternatively you could use the web interface of those devices to control playback using a web browser on any networked computer.

@ Peter - don't go Apple just for the minor tweaks on the new DTC - I'm sure the Windows one will be upgraded to match very soon. Most of the streaming related problems on this forum seem to be with Macs - my Windows PCs just work!