Unitiserve lives !

Posted by: PBenny1066 on 16 October 2014

Strange behaviour today from the US which I think worth documenting. Running an early 1tb US, over 4 years old and has been bullet proof. Turned it on this evening, and neither iPad (iOS7) or iPhone (iOS8) app are able to connect. " No servers found". Reboot the router several times. No change. Decide to shutdown the US, but it refuses to shutdown using the touch logo. Oh dear.....

 

At this point I was convinced that it would have to be hand carried to Heathrow on my next visit for onward shipping to Salisbury. But decided to shut it down using the rocker switch just in case, and switch on again. As it boots up the Naim logo is definitely blinking faster than normal. A sure sign that it is knackered.......

 

But amazingly it booted up after a while and is now working fine.

 

No doubt somebody out there will tell me that the hard disk is about to fail......

 

Any thoughts anyone ?

 

 

Cheers, Paul

 

 

 

Posted on: 16 October 2014 by Bart

Hard to say what's going on, but you might want to get it upgraded to the 2tb hardware and software anyway as part of a checkup.  It's not cheap, but definitely adds value by being able to put your downloaded music on there!

Posted on: 16 October 2014 by Jan-Erik Nordoen

I've lost track of the number of times my second UnitiServe's rapid blinking has unnerved me, only to find it has booted up properly... so I've stopped watching it. It's provided stellar service despite being regularly transported between houses and plugged into alternative power supplies. My first one (1TB) was not as reliable.

 

+1 to Bart's suggestion. The downloads folder is really useful... Bandcamp to Macbook to UnitiServe and you're done!

Posted on: 17 October 2014 by Huge

It's a computer - they do strange things occasionally.

 

Keep an eye on the weather forecasts, it may just not like a particular wind direction!

Posted on: 17 October 2014 by TN

This happened to me too.  It was also a 1TB Serve and it would go offline randomly and when it goes offline, it cannot be shut down using the touch logo.

 

Eventually I sent it in for service and was told that there was a problem with the HD.  I had it converted to a SSD.

Posted on: 17 October 2014 by PBenny1066

TN - thanks. I hadn't appreciated that if it goes off line then the shutdown can't be initiated.

 

Looks like I'll have to monitor it and be prepared for a trip to Salisbury.  The complication for me is that I live in the Middle East, there is no Naim dealer where I live. So... my options are either to box it up and put it checked in luggage, or hand carry it.  The latter involves interesting conversations at airport security, as I discovered when I hand carried my Hicap back :

 

Security scanner : panic when sees the X-ray screen.

 

Police : "what's this ?"

 

Me : "its a stereo music system officer "

 

Police : " but it hasn't got any buttons or knobs on it"

 

Me : " well, actually it's a power supply for a stereo".

 

Police : "what ?"

 

etc........

 

I eventually succeeded, but it was painful.

 

Paul

 

 

Posted on: 18 October 2014 by PBenny1066

Bart, Jan

 

just curious - if I go for the 2TB upgrade, will the US gather all the required metadata for my high res downloads ? At present they're stored on USB sticks in the back of the US, with very limited metadata.

 

If it won't do this, how much manual faffing around is required to get said metadata onto the US ?

 

thanks, 

paul

Posted on: 18 October 2014 by Bart
Originally Posted by PBenny1066:

Bart, Jan

 

just curious - if I go for the 2TB upgrade, will the US gather all the required metadata for my high res downloads ? At present they're stored on USB sticks in the back of the US, with very limited metadata.

 

If it won't do this, how much manual faffing around is required to get said metadata onto the US ?

 

thanks, 

paul

Hi Paul -- The simple answer is that you must supply your own metadata for the files the uServe does not rip itself.  Not too difficult IMHO.  Most downloads you purchase have metadata, and it's simply a matter of checking it before adding it to the uServe.  There are easy programs for both Windows and OS X to do this.  I've been doing it for ~2 years now and am totally comfortable with the process and the results. 

 

Being in control allows you to tailor the metadata to what suits you.  For example, I'll often combine double cd's into one big album. (I do this with almost all of my live Grateful Dead stuff.) 

 

Cheers,

Bart

Posted on: 19 October 2014 by Jan-Erik Nordoen

I have about 40 albums on the downloads partition of the US. I've not touched the metadata. The US has picked up :

 

Album name

Artist

Genre (about half are unassigned)

Number of tracks

Track names.

 

Album art is there too.

 

Maybe it's the low album count, but I haven't needed to edit the metadata. I can search down to track levels.

 

But I will go edit those missing genres.