Naim app 'Last Played' anomaly
Posted by: ChrisSU on 18 August 2015
A streamer only sees files and folders as they are stored on the server, right? Something like that, anyway, but it seems that things aren't quite that simple in Naimland. Here's a screenshot of the last played list on my Superuniti, and the same on my Unitiserve, as seen on the Naim and N-Serve apps respectively. They should, in theory, be identical, but they're not.
The three Velvet Underground albums on the Naim app list shouldn't be there, they are newly ripped CDs that I've never played at all. I find the last played list useful, and it would be handy if it wasn't cluttered up with items that shouldn't be there. (On a separate note, it would also be useful if these lists stored more than 20 items, it's not really enough.)
I don't know if others have the same issue - or even care - thought I'd throw it into the melting pot anyway.....
Chris
I think the reason for the difference is that n-serve controls what is played locally by the UnitiServe through its direct digital outputs. It does not show what has been served over uPnP. So the two lists are most unlikely to be the same.
That doesn't explain why you are seeing what you are seeing though.
Having just posted that reply I've now looked at Last Played in n-serve, and I'm wrong. It does seem to show what the 'Serve has streamed over uPnP.
So thanks for showing me something new!
Just to be clear, I've only ever used the US for UPnP playback, there's nothing connected to it locally.
A streamer only sees files and folders as they are stored on the server, right? Something like that, anyway, but it seems that things aren't quite that simple in Naimland. Here's a screenshot of the last played list on my Superuniti, and the same on my Unitiserve, as seen on the Naim and N-Serve apps respectively. They should, in theory, be identical, but they're not.
The three Velvet Underground albums on the Naim app list shouldn't be there, they are newly ripped CDs that I've never played at all. I find the last played list useful, and it would be handy if it wasn't cluttered up with items that shouldn't be there.
Just to correct your first sentence ... a streamer (and its control point) can only display what the UPnP server sends to it, this is not necessarily the same as used internally. The "Last Accessed" list is purely a function of the UnitiServe's UPnP server and not collated by the Naim App.
In this case it would appear to me that the UPnP server (within your UnitiServe) is reading the last accessed time to decide what should be in the "last played" list. This list is then presented to the Naim App.
On the other hand the nStream is apparently reading a different log file to ascertain what should be in the "Last Played".
Having just posted that reply I've now looked at Last Played in n-serve, and I'm wrong. It does seem to show what the 'Serve has streamed over uPnP.
So thanks for showing me something new!
I was about to post what you did -- then looked myself and was surprised to see that n-Serve does indeed report as "played" what is really "served" to a streamer/player.
A streamer only sees files and folders as they are stored on the server, right? Something like that, anyway, but it seems that things aren't quite that simple in Naimland. Here's a screenshot of the last played list on my Superuniti, and the same on my Unitiserve, as seen on the Naim and N-Serve apps respectively. They should, in theory, be identical, but they're not.
The three Velvet Underground albums on the Naim app list shouldn't be there, they are newly ripped CDs that I've never played at all. I find the last played list useful, and it would be handy if it wasn't cluttered up with items that shouldn't be there.
Just to correct your first sentence ... a streamer (and its control point) can only display what the UPnP server sends to it, this is not necessarily the same as used internally. The "Last Accessed" list is purely a function of the UnitiServe's UPnP server and not collated by the Naim App.
In this case it would appear to me that the UPnP server (within your UnitiServe) is reading the last accessed time to decide what should be in the "last played" list. This list is then presented to the Naim App.
On the other hand the nStream is apparently reading a different log file to ascertain what should be in the "Last Played".
Thanks Eloise, I think you've described what's going on more accurately (and eloquently) than I did.
The last 5 albums I've played have failed to appear in the last played list on the Naim app, even though they are there in the N-Serve list. Weird.
It might not be relevant or a case of semantics, but the Naim streamer fetches the media from the UPnP media server in normal operation, as opposed to the media being sent to the streamer from the UPnP server.. Therefore in normal operation the UPnP media server will only offer the media that is asked for by the streamer. The control point tells the streamer what media to fetch from the server using an index or URI. The indexes of that media are fetched by the control point from the UPnP server.
Simon
Thanks Simon, I like a bit of semantics! I guess this anomaly shows that it is indeed the streamer fetching what it wants from the server, rather than the server sending the data, otherwise the US would supply the same info to both N-Serve and the Naim app, which it doesn't.
Chris
Indeed, I can't see why the US should not keep tag of what was last requested and fetched.. The Naim app itself is stateless. It's only term of reference of what is playing or what is to play is from the streamer's play queue buffer. Anything that has been offered by the US should be in the US's recently played history. Other UPnP media servers such as Asset do this, and the Nstream / Naim app can navigate to this 'last played' play list history on the UPnP media server and select this media to be played.
So I agree with your original query... These history lists should be the same...