Adventures in asset UPnP?

Posted by: Tog on 19 January 2011

Yeah I know - Asset runs on Windoze or its ugly cousin Windoze Home Server but I've been playing with Asset UPnP again for the last few days and I still like it.
Actually I like V3 a lot - It's quick , runs most codecs and handles Cover Art at reasonable resolutions - one of the few failings of miniDLNA on Vortexbox.

Running a new mini TogServe on a Sony Vaio netbook hardwired to router.

I'm struggling to find fault at the moment - flacs maybe sound a bit brittle on the Uniti and Asset lacks the Vortexbox simplicity. I'm loathe to go down the WHS route but I'm a bit tempted. Can it be set up to autorip? Does it have issues I haven't spotted ... ?

Tog

Posted on: 19 January 2011 by realhifi

It is faster than most I've found also. Now to put it on my Macbook. The interesting thing is making it find files that are on a seperate NAS. I have not found that it can play them even when I specifically point it to the drive. Am I just neediing to upgrade Asset and purchase the full functionality version? I am really beginning to see the sense in purchasing a Serve to tie everything together. It could ceratianly make things easier!

Posted on: 19 January 2011 by Geoff P

I run Asset primarily on my WHS NAS. I am not sure what you mean by "Can it be set up to autorip?". Asset UPnP is a server not a ripper. Its default mode of operation on the NAS is to autoadd anything new that appears in the Music folder(s) it is pointed at. and it does that very efficiently.

A nice feature I find is that it can be configured to find music by various different means including 'Folders and Filenames' which I find ideal since I file my music in subfolders under main 'genre' folders. Obviously it does by 'Album' and by 'Artist' easily aswell.

I paid for the registered version and now have it installed on a couple of netbook PCs aswell. I can plug in a USB drive, use Asset locally on the netbook(s) and stream music from them over the network as I choose. I use 'PlugPlayer' as the control point which immeadiately sees which 'Asset' locations are live and allows me to switch locations to call music from whichever i wish.

dBPoweramp is available in a version called 'RipNASEssentials' which i have running in WHS on the NAS. This allows me to rip CDs complete with metadata and album art direct into the NAS using a USB attached DVD-RW drive.

'Spoon' as he calls himself is also developing 'Asset Control' which currently runs on windows PC's but will eventually be made available for i-devices. I use it from time to time on a netbook. A very nice interface with very quick search and list facilities.

regards
Geoff

Posted on: 19 January 2011 by Tog

My question about "auto rip" was poorly phrased as I wanted to know what additional software beyond Dbpoweramp would work well with Asset. I'm used to Vortexbox software being well integrated with ripit and miniDLNA working closely together.

Tog

Posted on: 19 January 2011 by Peter_RN

Hi Geoff

Thanks for that information. I put Asset on my main PC streaming to a Qute to try, and I must say it worked like a dream, but I don’t want to have a PC on to listen to music.

Problem is my ReadyNAS occasionally fails to send an Album or Track to the Qute, which when it happens is very annoying. Also the NAS absolutely refuses to send ANY WAV file to the Qute; they just aren’t visible to it. This is using the built in DLNA server on the NAS.

No such problems were encountered using Asset, every file was visible and played during the short period I used it.

I have been trying to audition a Serve but have not yet succeeded, I have wondered about a WHS box with Asset as a possible alternative. Seems promising from your findings.

Regards
Peter

Posted on: 19 January 2011 by Geoff P

Well I know Windoze gets a bad rap around here quite a bit but I have to say WHS seems very relaible and does exactly what it says on the tin without any fuss. The WHS NAS I use is an Acer Easystore which has an Intel Atom processor, enough on board memory to have plenty of room to install Asset UPnP and for that matter 'RipNASEssentials' as described above and a gigabit wired network connection ( NO WiFi).

WHS has its own version of RAID which is called 'Fileduplication' which works across the 4 disk bays in the Acer. which comes with an Acer customized version of WHS that has a couple of little routines in it that aren't std which are quite nice.It also includes an i-tunes server for those that want it.
Works well for me

regards
Geoff

Posted on: 20 January 2011 by okli

@Peter, be careful and check what Asset is sending to Qute - I had / have similar problem with my FLAC files and for additional test installed Asset and it was able to stream the files. Unfortunately, it transcoded them "behind the scenes" to LPCM even if I set no transcoding in the options. So, be sure that it sends the correct format - I noted this only by coincidence.

IMO Asset in combination with RipNas products is really good alternative to Serve, I'm waiting for the Asset control to get out of its beta to see how stable it will be. Moreover, they are Vienna based company so another advantage for me :-)

Posted on: 20 January 2011 by Tog

Does the RipNAS allow users to place pre ripped files into its music library?

Tog

Posted on: 20 January 2011 by okli

yes - it's simply network share

Posted on: 20 January 2011 by okli

Hey, I'm now "Very Senior Member" - growing in the hierarchy again!

Posted on: 20 January 2011 by Peter_RN

okli

Senior Member

Today at 08.50

Hi Okli……..Yes, I was warned to check for that by Phil I think it was when I said that I didn’t think the files via the PC and Asset sounded as good as when played from the NAS. Another problem with my NAS DLNA server is that it will not send any WAV file to the Qute. If I mix WAV & flac files in the same folder it only shows the flac files on the Qute screen. When I put WAV files in their own folder it doesn’t even show the folder on the screen; it really is very strange. Via Asset everything was visible and played.

So Illiustrate are a Vienna based company are they, I don’t know why I assumed they were German. I think most would agree they are very good at what they do.

Regards

Peter

P.S. We all age at an alarming rate on here now, 3 Days ago I was still only a Member, now I’m on my last legs, scary.

Posted on: 20 January 2011 by Tog

Home brew (cheapskate), AssetNAS (moderately expensive) or RipNAS (expensive) ?

Tog

Posted on: 20 January 2011 by Mr Underhill

I've been using Asset Upnp for a couple of weeks, been very impressed, and will probably buy it.

In combination with the Control and Renderer makes a very powerful trio.

Encouraged me to spend a couple of hours grabbing jpgs of the album covers!

It also streams all my flac files as MP3 to my Sony BluRay, its DLNA client won't hand anything else.

M

Posted on: 21 January 2011 by okli

Reference:

So Illiustrate are a Vienna based company are they, I don’t know why I assumed they were German.

At last I found how to quote - Hi Peter, the company behind RipNas is mCubed or more popular as HFX - I was referring to them. I don't know what are their connections with illustrate, but the combination is really good, as you said.

Posted on: 21 January 2011 by okli

Reference:

Home brew (cheapskate), AssetNAS (moderately expensive) or RipNAS (expensive) ?

or UnitiServe (very expensive)?

I think it depends on the requirements - the difference is do you need all-in-one ripper + streamer or only the streamer. And the storage extension boxes look quite nice as well.

Posted on: 21 January 2011 by Tog

The difference with the UnitiServe is that it is an agreggator as well but since I want all my files in one place - for ease of backup if nothing else - I haven't included it. When I looked at my requirements I realized if I bought a Serve I would also need a NAS - which at £1800 for the serve + £500 for a decent NAS is a lot.

Vortexbox is great but once you have allowed for a proper server to put it on - the difference between that and RipNAS is not a lot.

I haven't come across Control and Renderer ... what are they?

Tog

Posted on: 21 January 2011 by likesmusic

Asset Control is a prototype UPnP control point from the dBpoweramp people - and there's a low resource player called Renaissance.

Don't you think Naim should sell their ripper and server as standalone pc applications? Would bring an awful lot of people into the Naim fold.

Posted on: 21 January 2011 by okli

Tog, you can do aggregation with Asset, too - for example, I tested it with my files on my NAS, mapped as network share on my notebook. So, if you can (samba?) share your files anywhere on your network and map it to your Asset server (or RipNAS) you can add any directory to it and it will populate its database with the scanned files.

Posted on: 21 January 2011 by okli

Reference:

Don't you think Naim should sell their ripper and server as standalone pc applications? Would bring an awful lot of people into the Naim fold.

Please don't start this discussion again ;-)

I'll be quite happy if Naim co-operates with Asset and their make a Naim-plugin for Naim devices... but, this could hurt UnitiServe market...

Posted on: 21 January 2011 by likesmusic

Nah .. Naim must be delighted to have got rid of Linn controlling the front end to their products - can't see them becoming similarly dependant on anyone else.

Posted on: 21 January 2011 by Tog

Have been really impressed with Asset - now experimenting with it using Crossover Mac as well.

The biggest problem I have found with all other UPnP Server software is the lack of feedback information, preferences and control features. eg. Eyeconnect just tells me it is running, miniDLNA tells me the folders it is connected to, Songbook $£! all since it usually crashes, XMBC - Widescreen bonanza of menus non of which make much logical sense!!, and Allegro - well I know its there but not much else.

Asset is the first one that actually feels like it's a program that someone cares about - and it works first time with great album art.

I do think it would partner well with Naim (and save them a packet) - my dealer doesn't think the Serve sells that well in any case.

Tog

Posted on: 21 January 2011 by Geoff P

For those like me are in Windoze lamd 'Renaissance' is quite a nifty little program that converts a PC into a UPnP renderer so if you have a portable PC or the odd netbook lying around you can use it as a network media player.

As Spoon says on the Illustrate web site: ( once there search 'Renaissance')

Built in UPnP Renderer: Renaissance enables your PC as a UPnP playback device, it can stream audio from a NAS / web for a distributed system where multiple playback devices can be scattered around the home and playback from a single audio store, controlled by hand-held remotes, such as the iPod touch. (Renaissance appears as a UPnP Renderer, with Linn DS extensions)
Gapless playback: sample perfect decoding of mp3, Ogg and without saying any lossless format.
Bit perfect playback using WASAPI to bypass Windows mixer.

It also works with crossover MAC I believe.I use it with a Win 7 netbook which has SPDIF & analog audio out when I fancy some music in the bedroom system

regards
Geoff

Posted on: 21 January 2011 by Peter_RN

Reference:

So Illiustrate are a Vienna based company are they, I don’t know why I assumed they were German.

Okli

Ah, I see. Thanks for clearing that up.

I do need to ask you. How are you doing it?

Getting younger I mean. Now I know you were a Very Senior Member yesterday; now you are a Senior Member again. Whatever you are doing I could do with some of it, I get worried ever time I press the post button what I may be next.

Regards
Peter

Posted on: 23 January 2011 by Tog

One of the reasons I have been working with Asset is the discovery of a small but irriitating problem with Vortexbox's UPnP server miniDLNA. Put simply the server will not distribute cover art at anything above 100 x 100 px - which is quite annoying if the original is 500 x 500 px. This would be an easy issue to fix if the DLNA standard didn't insist that the server rather than the control point is responsible for setting cover art sizes.

The Vortexbox project is run by one man not a corporation - which is why I marvel every time I press update on my iPad and Vortexbox installs a whole host of improvements. This is on top of the regular major point releases that seem to appear every three months or so.

Good news is that after requests made over on the Linn forums the issue has been fixed. Cover art resize can now be set to a maximum figure. That is what I call customer service and a strength of the Open Source model.

Sorry guys - I will shut up now.

Tog

Posted on: 23 January 2011 by Mr Underhill

Hi Tog,

Have you had a look at Linn Kinsky?

M

Posted on: 23 January 2011 by Tog

Seen it running on a PC as it needs Mono to run on a Mac - nothing special. Chorus DS looks good but insisted that my Naim Uniti wasn't a DS which I thought was totally unreasonable - I even tried calling my Uniti a Klumpski to make it sound like a Linn....

Nothing ....

Tog