MinimServer transcode help

Assuming you have a Win computer on the network click on 'show hidden icons' (usually RH end of taskbar) and right-click on the green Minimwatch icon, select properties. Under the System tab at the bottom is the stream.transcode property - copy & paste the following into the field - flac:wav, dff:dopwav - (comma included) and click OK. Will now transcode flac to wav & dsd to dopwav.

Make sure Minimstreamer package is installed also under packages tab.

Mike - it's worth noting that the Minimserver website includes full details of how to do this, and many other functions too. The Minimserver forum is a mine of useful information, and if you can't find what you are looking for Simon, the man behind Minim, is incredibly helpful. For example, when I transcode FLAC to WAV it won't play on my Roberts radio, but I was advised to set the transcode to flac:wav,L16, which converts to WAV for the Naim and L16 for the Roberts. Amazing. 

Sorry Everyone, I should have been clearer in my original post, I run in a Mac environment.  I have installed the MinimServer for QNAP onto the NAS via the QNAP App site.  I installed the Java download first and then MinimServer.  

When I access UPnP on my Naim app, it shows the MinimServer and I can see all the albums on there.  Do I need to install something on the Mac as well?

Nigel - I will checkout MinimServer website, I didn't know if this was a Naim setting or MinimServer setting...Very new to this!

Mike - you need to install MinimWatch on your Mac to be able to control and configure Minimserver, which is installed on your nas. Enter Minimserver in your search bar and you will find the Minim website. There is then a link that tells you exactly what to do. Minim is very simple to use, but very flexible, so it can seem a little complicated to configure. Just make a cup of tea, take a deep breath and go for it!

Once configured, you can simply choose your music with the Naim app, as you are doing now. Note that when you add a new album to your nas, you will need to rescan the music database on the nas, which you do by right clicking on the Minimwatch icon on your Mac, which will appear once you've installed it. 

I hope that makes sense. 

Thanks Nigel, Makes perfect sense as always - MinimWatch now installed.  When I open it I get a Music Note icon at the top of the screen.  I can go into that and select properties, and then system, but I can't see an option to transcode.

However, progress being made - I will get onto the Minim website tonight and have a proper search!

Mike Woodcock posted:

Thanks Nigel, Makes perfect sense as always - MinimWatch now installed.  When I open it I get a Music Note icon at the top of the screen.  I can go into that and select properties, and then system, but I can't see an option to transcode.

This is because, as mentioned by Dan43, transcoding tasks are managed by MinimStreamer, not by MinimServer. After you have installed MinimStreamer, you should be able to transcode. Best, nbpf

nbpf is correct. Open the green music note icon>properties>system. There you should see a dialog box with "stream.transcode" at the bottom. This is where you should enter the values detailed by JohnG.

Good luck! 

DOH! Thanks guys, so, if I've got this right:

MinimServer on NAS

MinimStreamer and MinimWatch on iMac!

Too many Minims!

Mike Woodcock posted:

DOH! Thanks guys, so, if I've got this right:

MinimServer on NAS

MinimStreamer and MinimWatch on iMac!

Too many Minims!

MinimStreamer installed on NAS via MinimWatch/Properties/Packages, and then you're all set: you'll get a line down the bottom of the MinimWatch/Properties/System window labelled 'stream.transcode', and you can enter 'flac:wav' or whatever you want there. Click 'Apply' and you're done.

Yes, MinimStreamer needs to live on the nas with MinimServer. It is a bit fiddly to set up, but once you have got it all working, it should just pootle along happily. 

I was having issues getting this working correctly. 

Nigel, Andrew et al...

Thanks so much for your help. MinimServer, MinimStreamer installed on NAS, MinimWatch on iMac. 

Just purchased license for dbPowerAmp. If PerfectTunes was available for Mac, I would have got that too.  I love the thought of a GUI front end to help me manage/de dup/check tagging etc. Anyway, forecast for the weekend in my area is a heavy shower of 'bits', interspersed with the opening weekend of well know rugby tournament! 

Please, whatever you do, don't suggest that I pop down to my very local retailer and have a listen to a NAC-N272...Maybe next tax year though ;-)

Quick follow-up - Has anyone tried transcoding AIFF to WAV? Typing diff:wav in the transcoding box didn't work?

Did you mean to type diff:wav  or  aiff:wav  .......... ??

I meant aiff?Apples lossless format?

AIFF is an (usually) uncompressed format the equivalent of WAV.

Apple Lossless is a losslessly compress format the equivalent of FLAC.

MinimStreamer doesn't support AIFF as an input format (iirc). You have to send those files to the renderer direct.

johnG posted:

Assuming you have a Win computer on the network click on 'show hidden icons' (usually RH end of taskbar) and right-click on the green Minimwatch icon, select properties. Under the System tab at the bottom is the stream.transcode property - copy & paste the following into the field - flac:wav, dff:dopwav - (comma included) and click OK. Will now transcode flac to wav & dsd to dopwav.

Quick note - with the Naim ND network players you do not need  to insert dff:dopwav and for performance reasons I feel it is better to remove redundant instructions. The minimserver can deliver the DFF files in the way Naim can understand without adding this requirement.

For info I just have two commands in the stream.transcode property .... alac:wav, flac:wav

Simon

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

johnG posted:

Assuming you have a Win computer on the network click on 'show hidden icons' (usually RH end of taskbar) and right-click on the green Minimwatch icon, select properties. Under the System tab at the bottom is the stream.transcode property - copy & paste the following into the field - flac:wav, dff:dopwav - (comma included) and click OK. Will now transcode flac to wav & dsd to dopwav.

Quick note - with the Naim ND network players you do not need  to insert dff:dopwav and for performance reasons I feel it is better to remove redundant instructions. The minimserver can deliver the DFF files in the way Naim can understand without adding this requirement.

For info I just have two commands in the stream.transcode property .... alac:wav, flac:wav

 

Simon

True Simon. The transcode line dff:dopwav (or just dff:wav) is not necessary for ND streamers which can play dff files without the need for transcoding by the UPnP server.

Mike has a UnitiQute which cannot play native dff files so transcoding from dff will be necessary for him.

Ahh ok, can the Uniqute play DSD files then? If it can't then I can't see how  Dff:dopwav will work as the encoding is still DSD but Dff:wav will, as the DSD is transcoded to PCM.

Simon

Simon, unfortunately the UQ cannot play native DSD files. However, Mike has a QNAP TS-251 which has an Intel Celeron processor which will enable Minimserver to transcode his dsf or dff files to 24bit wav. It involves downloading an updated ffmpeg converter (version 2.3 or later) and saving this to the server's public folder and pointing to the updated converter file location in the stream.converter dialog box on the Minimserver System tag.

There are instructions on how to update the ffmpeg file on the Linn Forum together with the settings you need to amend in minimserver. If you google "Linn forum minimserver 0.8.3 now available" you should find the relevant instructions on page 3 of the discussion thread.

These instructions are for Intel based QNAP servers only.

Thanks SJBABBEY - When you are referring to DSD files - is that the same AIFF? My UQ will play AIFF but I would just like to transcode to WAV - I'm actually thinking an easier route is to batch convert the all to FLAC anyway!

Hi. DSD files such as DFF files contain a type of digital encoding called a delta sigma bit stream .. Very simplistically the analogue signal is sampled as a single bit sample stream that is modulated at a very high rate, such that when it is filtered it gives an appropriate analogue value.

AIF, FLAC and WAV files contain a type of digital encoding called Pulse Code Modulation. Simplistically it contains binary numbers representing the analogue wave form value at a point in time. The data rate for a given analogue bandwidth is less than DSD, but each sample typically contains 16 or 24 bits in the digital number. DSD just contains a single bit in the sample.

So DSD and PCM are quite different digital encoding with arguable pro and cons.

Thetefore if your renderer or media player can't understand the DSD digital encoding it has to be converted. Minimserver can do this conversion. Word of note is that DSD to PCM is an in exact process and is lossy. It's kind of like translating from French to English. However the better the conversion the more computing resources and better algorithms are required for this  conversion. If you were to repeatedly convert DSD to PCM and back to DSD, the sample data would continue to be lost. In the limit after thousands of such conversions I suspect you would be left with just noise!

If your  player can't understand DSD there is unlikely to be any benefit of using a converted DSD file if it also exists in a PCM format.

Converting PCM file types should be transparent.. the sample encodings are the same. There is no loss of information. Therefore converting AIF to WAV to FLAC could happen forever and the sample data is maintained. All one is doing here is changing the file format rather than the sample data.

Simon

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Quick note - with the Naim ND network players you do not need  to insert dff:dopwav and for performance reasons I feel it is better to remove redundant instructions. The minimserver can deliver the DFF files in the way Naim can understand without adding this requirement.

For info I just have two commands in the stream.transcode property .... alac:wav, flac:wav

Simon

Simon, somewhat confused here now - the only way I can play a DSD64 .dff file with my NDX is when the Minimserver stream.transcode property is set to dff:dopwav  - and NStream reports it as DSD format. The Minimstreamer user guide also states that for .dff  the output format must be dopwav.  Is there another way of playing .dff files with Minim ?

John, Minimserver should be able to send your dff files in their native form to your NDX without the need for any transcoding. Certainly Minimserver loaded on my QNAP can do this with my dsf files which are now playing on my NDS and showing in the app as DSD 2,822.4 kHz 5,644kbs.

Try deleting the dff transcoding line in Minimserver and see if this works for you as I wouldn't expect there to be a difference between serving up dsf and dff files although I prefer the former which can be tagged more easily.