How does Nova stream Tidal?

Posted by: CaptainJack on 23 May 2018

How does the Uniti Nova stream Tidal? With the Nova hard-wired to internet it still seems to require the Tidal app on my iOS device to be on and Chromecast’ing over WiFi. For example, turning off my phone or putting it in airplane mode causes playback on the Nova to eventually stop even though its connection to the internet is unaffected and the Naim app is configured with Tidal credentials.

The reason I ask is because it seems like a sad waste of the direct connection the Nova has to the internet. Nova should be able to stream directly from Tidal and not be subject to WiFi flakiness, bandwidth and format limitations inherent to protocols like Chromecast or Airplay.

Why is the Nova incapable of continuing playback? Tidal indicates it is connecting to the Nova via Chromecast rather than streaming directly itself...

Posted on: 23 May 2018 by hungryhalibut

The Nova can stream Tidal directly, rather than using Chromecast. To get Tidal to work on my 272 it is necessary to enable the Tidal input and log in through the app. The Naim app will then do everything. I’d expect the Nova to work in the same way.

Posted on: 23 May 2018 by Duncan Mann

Hungryhalibut posted:
The Nova can stream Tidal directly, rather than using Chromecast. To get Tidal to work on my 272 it is necessary to enable the Tidal input and log in through the app. The Naim app will then do everything. I’d expect the Nova to work in the same way.

Indeed it can - in my sister's case though she actually preferred to use the Tidal app and Chromecast to her Nova, to avoid the GUI of the Naim app. I was quite surprised about how good it sounded, though I didn't have time to do a back-to-back comparison.

Obviously though using the Tidal app has the limitations that Captainjack outlines.

Posted on: 23 May 2018 by ChrisSU

Both the Naim app, and the Tidal app via Chromecast, send the stream directly to the Nova over your network rather than via your phone. My experience is that the stream will continue to play, using either Chromecast or the Naim app, without the phone remaining connected to the network, so I'm not sure why you are having this problem. How long does play continue after the phone is disconnected, or is it random? Do you get Tidal dropouts when the phone is still connected?