Changing the Qnap to something else

Hello, 

if you have a computer of some sort running (even a small netbook), just download ASSET UPNP and point it at the QNAP music share. It will automatically index and serve the music. It is as good as your tags are. 

If you want to have a true standalone server then ASSET can be installed on a whs and I seem to recall they also just launched a unix version....though that might require some extra help. 

cheers, david

Thanks DQ 

I am a Mac user and didn't really want to run the server from it, I think some of the other NAS drives have Asset UpnP server, but I didn't want to spend another £350 on a NAS, if it does a 'Wonky Twonky' on me. 

Hi David,  There has been a bit of discussion here on using UPnP servers other than Twonky on a Qnap nas.  Search those out.  Hook endorses Qnap and I'd take that to heart.  Synology nas works fine too, but because you own a Qnap I'd look to getting it sorted.  There definitely is a choice of server other than Twonky for it.

Cheers Bart.

That would be a great idea, but I don't see a way to remove Twonky, bearing in mind I'm not a software/computer wizard 

My guess is that you don't remove it, you just turn it off and turn on a different piece of software.

Hi - even better, Asset UPnP is being developed for the QNAP. Currently in downloadable beta - there are a few library dependencies seemingly being ironed out on the QNAP build right now. Should be fully licensable in 8 weeks or so. (This will be at the same time as the Mac OSX and Rasp Pi versions are formally released)  You will then have one of the best UPnP servers on the market for your QNAP.

Simon

I'm running minimserver on my QNAP TS-119PII and it is much better than Twonky. You have a lot of control over how the browsing information is displayed and you can also set the NAS to automatically transcode FLAC to WAV. The install requires you to do a few things to get it going but it is easy to follow.

+1 for Minimserver on Qnap. Just install the latest JRE qpkg and then minimserver qpkg and it will work fine, and you can transcode to wav without any issues.

I have had an hfx AssetNAS which I recently transformed into a Vortexbox running Minimserver and Asset for linux.

Minimserver (now version 0.8.1) can be easily configured to suit your needs, using Minimwatch. Transcoding is no longer integrated by default, but can be added as a package (Minimstream) which also allows to record streams. AFAICS, transcoding is not control point specific.

AssetUPnP for linux cannot be configured as easily (i.e. using a GUI) as its windows brother. This is, in particular, valid for the "Settings Override" per control point, which I consider a great advantage of Asset, or for modifications to the browse tree. As I stiil had "my" configuration files of the windows, I could, however, copy them to the linux version, which worked. 

Both servers run reliably (and their developers both are very helpful). I prefer the more individualized Minimserver for the main hifi; whereas some of my other audio devices (control points) cannot replay certain formats or resolutions, which then becomes a case for Asset.

adca1

As always, the forum members are incredibly helpful. Thank you so much everyone.

The bit that I can't quite get though, is how can you install Minim or Asset on the Qnap? As I said in my post, I'm not a software/computer wizard  I have the basic Qnap, TS-112, which is backed up to a USB portable hard drive, and my Mac as 3rd back up.

David

Meerkat, have you tried looking at the metadata of the files using a metadata program on your mac? This would bypass Twonky and confirm that the metadata on the FLACs are correct. Why not try Tag:

http://sbooth.org/Tag/

Meerkat.

There are detailed, almost step-by step, instructions for Minimserver on minimserver-dot-com.

adca

Hi adca

I have just looked at that, it does indeed give step by step instructions, but I don't feel competent enough to carry that work out myself. However, it may be a cheaper option to get someone in to do it, who knows exactly what they are doing, rather than buy a different NAS.

I saw a demo of a Synology NAS yesterday, and it did everything correctly, that Twonky does wrongly. I had yet another go last night, as I hate to be defeated, and no matter how I configured Twonky, it still listed some album tracks alphabetically, and also had loads of artwork missing.

Have you tried selecting a few albums, say five and going through the tags from start to finish? I don't use Twonky and from what I've heard I never want to. So apologies if I'm offering a bum steer but I have found that when stuff doesn't show up properly it's the tags.May not apply in your case.

I've also tried to install Minimserver on my QNAP in the past but have failed.  But will give it one more go...

Twonky does irritate me ...

I'l let you know how it goes as I'm a not very good at sorting these things out ...

Cheers Stephen...I wouldn't know where to start. I'm not an idiot, but that's way over my head!

I've just created a new share on the Qnap, calling it 'New Music' I pasted a FLAC file into that folder, then refreshed everything The 'New Music' folder shows up in Twonky. However, the album displays the correct track listings in 'Album view', but shows the tracks alphabetically, in 'Folder', 'Artist' and 'Genre' view. What a nightmare!  I mean, there isn't that much to configure in Twonky, it's quite basic actually. So why doesn't it list everything correctly?

Failed ...

There is a new version of the QNAP software that confuses things ... but I still could not get it work.

Even though I managed to install Minimserver on my Macbook pro it does not show up on my access points ... Back to Twonky for the mo ... although I have Asset on my iMac running windows 7, which works sometimes ...

You need to add track number prefix to file names, then Twonky will display tracks in the correct order. I discovered this before I started ripping my entire CD library so I just set dBpoweramp to add the prefixes automatically as the CDs were being ripped. If you have to add prefixes manually to many thousands of files...... Forget it.

 Hi Peter...Yes thousands! I am a Mac user, and dbpoweramp is coming to Mac very soon!  Other than that, anyone fancy a pint!!!

You don't need to add the track number to the track name. The track number is part of the metadata encoded in the file, or will be if you have ripped the CD correctly. This is the %n placeholder in XLD. Note that the track number is not displayed in nStream.

Graham...the rips are from the Unitiserve, which has now gone to heaven! Oh, does N-Serve display tracks differently to N-stream?

Artist view shows all tracks from that artist and ignores the album name. Use Artist/ Album for track number sorting. A folder view is meaningless really because the folder name of the file isn't held as metadata. 

As I said in an earlier post you need to look at what metadata you have using a tag editor.

I will Graham, but I think it's the way the data is stored, if ripped using the UnitiServe.