Hi Folks
I've just been converting my Various Artist albums from iTunes over to my NAS, and I seem to be seeing some odd behaviour.
For my ReadyNAS v1 in nStream I initially see four options: Browse Folders, Music, Pictures and Video. Both of the first two give me access to music files.
Browse Folders leads me to the file structure which is \Album Artist\Album. This is fine for the compilations - they all appear under Various Artists.
Music gives me four further options Artist, Folders, Genre and Playlists. Folders gives me the same result as above (not surprisingly). The odd behaviour comes under Artist.
As you might expect, all the artists are then listed, with the relevant albums under them. Some of the artists which only appear on compiliations appear in the list as (null) and some of them appear with the correct name. The (null)s appear in the right place alphabetically, and they have the right compilations/songs under them.
Why do some of these artists appear as (null) and others correctly?
I have UPnP compatability mode set as On.
Posted on: 09 July 2013 by RaceTripper
I've seen this kind of behavior (and other problems) in Twonky, which is a rubbish UPnP server, IMHO. If ReadyNAS runs that by default for UPnP, I would dump it for something else.
Posted on: 09 July 2013 by Gavin B
RT: It has its own server software - ReadyDLNA. There's not real option to install an alternative - neither Asset nor Minim will run on it. (Although I am tempted to try a different box / server.)
Is this just a function of the less than perfect server software or something wrong in my files / naming?
Posted on: 09 July 2013 by RaceTripper
I would have a look with a metadata editor and see if it does or doesn't look right. There are various ones to choose for Mac or Windows. I use Metadatics for MAc (from the App Store).
The ReadyNAS could be Twonky in disguise? I thought I saw a utility for ReadyNAS called Clean Twonky or something like that.
Posted on: 10 July 2013 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Gavin, yes you have found the difference between album artist and track artist. In compilation albums the album artist is Various Artists, but each track usually also has its track artist. Now if your ripper has set a directory structure based on album artist, that's why you see all those albums, usually compilations, under the Various Artist directory. However your upnp server will most likely created a database mapping the track / album to each track artist, hence the behaviour you see.
In Asset I see this, but the album shown against a track artist, will only show those album tracks on that album with that particular track artist.
I hope that makes sense.
Simon
Posted on: 11 July 2013 by Gavin B
Simon - I understand exactly what you're saying - I've deliberately set up my compilation artists for it to work like that. The problem is that it is dealing with different compilation (only) artists differently. Some it lists the correct artist name properly in the list, in the correct alphabetical place. For others it puts (null) - one per artist - yet when you click through one of those it displays the right tracks with the artist name you're expecting. The (null) ones do appear in the right place - there's one just after ABBA that lists the ABC songs. It's the inconsistency that's a problem.
Posted on: 23 July 2013 by MauriceD
Hi Gavin,
I too use a readyNAS and when I see nulls, it's usually fixed by reindexing the server through the admin panel. ( under the steaming services tab I think).
I then clear the cache in nstream and the image cache.
It upnp server seems to get out of sync sometimes when I am adding new music.
Maurice.
Posted on: 23 July 2013 by Dungassin
Originally Posted by MauriceD:
Hi Gavin,
I too use a readyNAS and when I see nulls, it's usually fixed by reindexing the server through the admin panel. ( under the steaming services tab I think).
I then clear the cache in nstream and the image cache.
It upnp server seems to get out of sync sometimes when I am adding new music.
Maurice.
That's fine if you have your artists in format 'Roger Daltrey'. I use 'Daltrey, Roger', and separate the artists using a semicolon thus : Daltrey, Roger; Townsend, Peter. Some of us like to search on SURNAME. (I use Asset, and occasionally Twonky - this works with both of these)
John
