Raspberry PI and NDX

Brilliant! For your next spare evening ... get another one and make it work as a UPnP renderer with the output via USB for those V1 customers. And for the evening after that, Airplay. And for the evening after that ... 

Everything is Fine but MiniDLNA is as Farbe as I know Limited in therms of tagging and metafiles and as far I have testet it Not usefull If you are going to use for classical Music!

Thanks likesmusic... Now if the V1 had HDMI I would be laughing...  I think asynchronous USB might require additional hardware but still looking into it :-(

But.. I do want to get sorted.. 

BTW AirPlay audio only appears a well trodden path on the Pi.

Ragman, no problem with meta characters on this Unix release. But I am pointing it at my itunes shares, so mostly AAC, and MP3. For WAV and FLAC I will need to do further work. There are severeal DLNA packages to chose on Unix, miniDLNA is good for logging into /var/log and so good for prototyping and is mutimedia.

Simon

None, other than if you are that way inclined you have total control with the RPI. And of course you can make a Pi a NAS controller mounting USB discs directly if you want.

For my main uPNP server I do run separately from my NASes, as I have multiple NASes and I like to use Asset as my UPNP server  which isn't ported to many of the popular consumer NASes.

Simon

If you are looking to save the world I guess the raspberry does not use a lot of electric.

I also believe airplay is successfully implemented via XBMC on a raspberry.

No other Software as necessary on the NAS!

Fascinating idea - Pi needs a good enclosure Hood - what have you got yours in?

miniDLNA is the UPnP software used by Vortexbox and I've always found it works really well. In theory you could also install MinimServer and benefit from its transcoding options.

Tog

Hi Tog, yes it's proving to work rather well!! I am using it effectively as my Podcast server right now reserving my itunes server via upnp controllable by Nstream and it's smashing.

I can chose my appropriate upnp server from the top level on Nstream

I have discovered the authors of miniDLNA have included LIST INFO frame reading of WAV files as well( I think introduced late last year into the distro).

I use a little purpose bulit clear plastic 'crust' for my Pi.. A few quid from eBay.

I'll look into Minimserver.. Thanks.

Simon

Tog, Minimserver doesn't parse WAV RIFF metadata chunks (yet), and is not Opensource, so not sure how likely it will change unless the author wants it to..... But I have just asked him and have had a really encouraging reply of supporting WAV Lst info metags in a future build. Fingers crossed.

Simon

Hood - at the risk of sounding dimmer than usual - what exactly are Wav (got that bit) RIFF metadata chunks (lost me after wav) - are they good on cocktail sticks at a buffet?

Tog

Absolutely... Tasty.. 

Jargon, sorry, it's the term used in a RIFF file.. It's a data construct with an ID and length, followed by its data construct that's within the length that is defined by the ID... I guess the word 'chunk' is easier... All RIFF files like WAV, AIFF and BWF etc use this terminology. It allows the files to be parsed quickly and efficiently even if you don't understand the ID.

Wav uses nested IDs in ListInfo for metadata chunks and unofficially a custom ID3 chunk for ID3 metadata.

Munch..

Hmm - a couple of the guys in one of my teams have these to play about with. Must have a proper look at one of these tomorrow. 

Me too Simon. It's not difficult, didn't take much longer than an hour and worked first time. Perfect solution for a silent server. Very cheap, particularly if you have a few old bits and pieces hanging around; old phone chargers, keyboard, mouse etc. I have mine in a clear plastic case that was designed for it and cost about £7 here. Beta Asset for Raspberry Pi appears to work fine.

Chris

Fantastic Simon, will pick your brains on some hitherto unspecified but not too far in the future date. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Simon! I'd be really interested to know if you manage to get a Pi working as a UPNP renderer. There seems to be a lack of cheap, simple renderers. I really like the idea of a Beresford Bushmaster and a pair of Grados as a bedroom system for some good night time listens...

spoon, of dBpoweramp and AssetUPnP fame, has plans to release a renderer for the Pi - his AssetUPnP server is already available for the Pi in beta, and he says the Renaissance renderer will be available soon. That's a software 'soon' maybe, but still good for the future. See http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/sh...PnP-for-Raspberry-pi

Hi.. well my Asus micro server hit the great server home in the sky.. red error light.. and a burning smell.. Shame...

So I have pressed my Pi into full time upnp server duties using Asset.. all my NAS's are now mounted on it via the LAN, apart from a slight issue with folder.jpg not seemingly working.. It's streaming and transcoding FLACs to WAVs perfectly... and do you know it sounds different from my old micro server.. It actually does sound better.. (Noticeable particularly on clearer upper mid dynamics on old 78 recordings) The TCP parameters are clearly better suited for Naim playback. What a result...

BTW likesmusic, I think the bus bandwidth on the Pi struggles with real time audio rendering of Hidef say into async USB ...  there is quite a lot on the web about this.

cheers simon, last time I had a computer on a board it was a Rockwell AIM-65, so I guess I'm getting a little old to fiddle with the Pi myself, hence my ignorance - pity it doesn't have quite enough grunt to support USB based rendering. Makes you think how far ahead of the game slimdevices were all those years ago with squeezeboxes. 

True, but clearly there are limitations with a £20 computer. However driving TCP is fine because the timing is not as critical.

Warming up having returned from a miserable 1-2 defeat of Ipswich Town by Leicester City I can't get over how truly fantastic this Pi sounds streaming into the NDX->NDAC/555PS.

Simon

Ahh, perhaps spoke too soon. Getting occasional ticks as if playing vinyl.. This is a shame. Will need to look into tomorrow.

Simon

Simon

i have been using Pi Asset for two weeks and have experienced no playback glitches at all, even on the 192/24 stuff. Folder.jpg is fine for me too.

i have found a couple of things. The count of the number of albums doesn't reset even if you delete all  tracks. I've found it difficult on occasion to force a rescan but I sometimes have this problem on the windows version too.

Chris

Chris, interesting... How do you mount the NAS's, do you use CIFS and guest access? Also are you FLAC transcoding?

No ticks so far this morning,,,

Simon

Simon

I've mounted a USB hard-drive plugged in to a USB hub plugged in to the Pi, so a bit different to you.

i am transcoding FLAC to WAV In Asset.

Chris

Chris

Ah right - yes no problem with USB mounts, but the code does seem a little unreliable with network CIFS mounts. Currently waiting for MrSpoon to release a debug version of Asset to see what is happening.

Simon