Unitiqute Issues

Posted by: Benji on 05 June 2011

I've lived with my Unitiqute for a couple of months now. Some things it does brilliantly, but it does seem to have a fundamental flaw. And that is in the UPnP functionality.

 

I'm running a Macbook Pro with EyeConnect, accessing my iTunes folder. The Uniti is connected to my Wifi Network, with an Apple Time Capsule router providing the wifi signal.

 

Basically, all will work well for a while, albeit a little slowly. Listing of tracks seems to take a long time to load up (why no cacheing?) especially using the n-Stream app. But once loaded, the files play beautifully. 

 

If I then stop playback, and leave the UQ overnight, for example, coming back to the box in the morning and trying to connect again invokes the "Please Wait Input Initialising" status on screen, and there it stays. The only solution is a hard reboot, which solves the immediate issue, but it's not really a long-term solution.

 

Even when the input will work, I often get a <No Server> error on the UQ display, even though I know full well that EyeConnect is running. Solution here is to reboot the Mac, but seriously, how much rebooting should be expected from a wireless system?

 

I've gotten so frustrated with this that last weekend, I thought okay, let's just load all the 50GB of files onto an external drive and use the front USB socket for fast and immediate access, all the time. Alas, that doesn't seem to be much of a solution either - again, the UQ can access the USB drive and play back files, but again, upon leaving the unit powered up, a return after a few hours brings up the "Please Wait, Input Initialising" error. 

 

There seems to be a basic lack of stability here. I am sure that perhaps switching to a fully wired solution between Mac and UQ might help, but I am loathe to run Cat 5 across the floor, or go out and purchase Powerline routers, as the UQ is billed to be completely happy with a WiFi connection. 

 

I'd love to hear from Naim or other users about how I might be able to resolve the issues here. All I want to do is to be able to get the UQ to connect to my UPnP library, and playback files with no issues, be able to leave the UQ powered up and come back in the morning and have it work flawlessly! Right now, I'm even considering getting a UnitiServe just to avoid the issues listed, but that would still mean I have to get MP3 files from the Mac to the Unitiserve - and it still means that the UQ doesn't perform it's function as it's listed on the tin! 

 

So come on Naim, surely you can do better than this. I've dropped over £1400 on this, including Naim speaker cable as recommended by the dealer. I previously had a Logitech Squeezebox, which cost a tenth of the Unitiqute, but also gave me a tenth of the issues! I expect better, honestly.

Posted on: 06 June 2011 by garyi

There is in this world two fundemental truths.

 

BT homehubs are shit (Are you using one)

 

Wireless is not all it cracked up to be.

 

 

In addition, there is no a decent UPNP server on the market for Mac, it really is as simple as that. You do have some choices though and it mmight be worth going through them. Certainly if yo have bootcamp installed your options open even wider, if not only to check where the issue lies.

 

I am not saying the qute is not to blame. I am saying that wireless is difficult and comparing to SB unfair as they do not us UPNP.

Posted on: 06 June 2011 by Hook
Originally Posted by Benji:
...I am loathe to run Cat 5 across the floor, or go out and purchase Powerline routers, as the UQ is billed to be completely happy with a WiFi connection....

 

Hi Benji -

 

Naim have always positioned wireless as a good possibility, but only when it works optimally.  For example, from the UnitiQute manual, page 11:

 

"...Note:  As with any wireless network hardware, UnitiQute connection reliability will be affected by both network router performance and Wi-Fi signal quality. To minimise the possibility of poor connection reliability, UnitiQute should be connected to network audio sources by no more than one wireless “leg”..."

 

And from page 12:

 

"...Note: Wireless connection difficulties can sometimes be resolved by changing the wireless connection channel in the router settings..."

 

You may not want to hard-wire as a permanent solution, but it might be a good idea to do so temporarily as part of a troubleshooting process.   If the UPnP "overnight" issues go away when hard-wired, then at least you will know it has something to do with your wireless connection, and you can focus on your access point's settings.

 

Also, as far as your USB hard drive goes, it sounds like it might be going into some kind of sleep state overnight from lack of access, and the Qute does not know how to wake it up.   Am just guessing here though.   Just FYI, Naim really didn't design the USB port for large spinning discs full of music files (though, as you have found, it can sometimes work...sort of).   Their intent was that the USB port would be used for iPod connectivity and/or occasional USB flash drive playback.  

 

Good luck.

 

Hook

Posted on: 06 June 2011 by realhifi

You may want to give your dealer a call and see if they can sort this out. 

Posted on: 06 June 2011 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Hi, if the files play well, I doubt it's anything to do with the wireless network. Are you using DHCP to assign addresses? You might want to disable that and assign static addresses. It might be something to do with the DHCP and the UQ requesting anew address when coming out of sleep. DHCP can cause many issues with timing, and I have had issues with Naims implementation of DHCP clients before. If no difference, what wireless authentication ate you using? Tree and turn it off and see if things improve? But remember to put authentication back until a better workaround is found.

Simon
Posted on: 07 June 2011 by Bosh

I would pin the problem with the uPnP software, I initially ran the D-link NAS's uPnP and got the same frustrating problems you describe 

 

I identified this by switching the NAS off and installed Asset on my PC and this resolved all the clunkiness, So I got a QNAP NAS with built in Twonky which also works very wel,l but if I had a Windows server Asset is slightly quicker

 

Cant advise you on Mac uPnP software though

Posted on: 07 June 2011 by murkku

EyeConnect is pretty and simple but it's also horribly slow and cumbersome.

Try PS3 Media Server or some other UPnP server. I've changed from EyeConnect to PS3MS (mac) and VortexBox (pc) and they both work way better than EyeConnect (wireless or not).

Posted on: 09 June 2011 by jbua5150
I had many of the same issues as you on my Qute. I had tried wireless and powerline to no avail.
ALL OF THEM WERE SOLVED BY HARD WIRING TO THE QUTE.
Hard to believe this would fix this issue of "please wait input initializing", as this message would appear even if i connected my iPhone to the front USB. 
After hard wiring, i have only seen that message once, and it connected without having to be power cycled.
Posted on: 13 June 2011 by hfian

I have exactly the same set up as you and found the same annoying problems.  As mentioned already above, I found Eyeconnect to be quite poor and currently use Playback by Yazsoft instead without any issues. It might be worth trying this before doing anything more drastic.

Posted on: 14 June 2011 by lhau
I hardwire my uniti, and that message appears about every other month. Sometimes it happens when I open a rather big amart playlist with n-stream, sometimes after it fails to connect to iradio stations. Most happen with iradio for me. I think there is some bug or something with the network code when handling connection recovery or something like that when the connection is congested or bad.