Christmas Day UniQute set-up successfully - just a few questions

Posted by: Sloop John B on 26 December 2010

Well the UniQute set-up was as seamless as one can be where you are fighting for cable access with Play Stations and Wii, UPC box, DVD and TV.

One minor heart stopping moment when I was told no wireless access please try again. On trying again it seemed to freeze at "stopping connection". The old fail safe, turn it off and on again along with a quick change of password from 21 characters to 8 allowed me to enter it correctly and join the world of internet radio and UPNP, streaming music from my Buffalo NAS. I hadn't done my preparation fully however and was caught out by the fact that there was no din connection on the back of the UniQute and the RCA cable from my Richer Sounds days only seems to be giving me one channel.

It is these 3 areas that my (most likely initial) queries relate to.

I moved my ITunes library to the Buffalo LinkStation. Through the Cute (and extremely useful n-stream) I can see all my music and can access by artist, album etc. However even though there is a "playlist" folder listed this does not contain my ITunes playlists, it merely has favourites and most played.
So does anyone know how I can get my Itunes playlists into use or if that is not possible how to create new playlists that can be accessed through the N-stream - cute.

My second query is to do with podcasts. Unfortunately most of the BBC ones with music are not accessible to me but one I would like to listen to is the NPR All Songs Considered podcast. I checked the naim.vtuner website and it can be found via a search here but there is no way to search through the UniQute and the browse options are not working for me to locate it. Anyone know how or where to find it?

I will have to get a rca interconnect for the dvd player / upc box to connect up TV to the UniQute. The UPC box has a digital out (looks like an RCA ) does anyone know if I can use this to connect to one of the digital ins on the UniQute?

I've just been kicked out of the front room again for playstaion so I think I'll have a listen to a bit of undistributed audio in the shape of another Christmas pressie Bowie Station to Station.

SJB

Posted on: 27 December 2010 by Peter_RN

Hi John

Not going to be a lot of help I’m afraid, don’t do wireless or anything to do with Apple.
However, you will need to create and store your playlists as either M3U, or PLS files. I use Media Monkey and store as M3U files to a ‘_Playlist’ folder on the NAS; but obviously any program that allows the creation of these files would do.

I have just connected our TV via optical to the Qute and the result has been extraordinary, we can actually hear what is being said at a reasonable volume level once more.

Sorry can’t be of more help, but someone will I’m sure be along soon.

Good luck and wish you well for the New Year.

Peter

Posted on: 27 December 2010 by garyi

Seriously does the qute force you to use a less secure password?

Posted on: 27 December 2010 by Sloop John B

quote:
Originally posted by garyi:
Seriously does the qute force you to use a less secure password?

No Gary I just changed the password to a smaller one to rule out mistyping being the reason the Qute did not see wireless connectivity.

I can reinstate the old one now I know it's working.

Did a lot of work on this last night and indeed m3u was part of the answer.

I'll give a fuller explanation of what I did when I'm at my pc and can figure kit which were the steps that were necessary and which were a wild goose chase.

Thanks

Posted on: 28 December 2010 by Sloop John B

Buffalo Linkstation NAS and playlists

This is what worked for me to get my Itunes playlists onto the Buffalo NAS in order to be able to access them from the UniQute.

First of all something that caught me out. When I made a change to the NAS ie added a playlist or changed genre of tracks in tunes there was a 60 minute lag time until these changes were visible on the NAS through the UniQute or n-stream app. This caught me out as I thought what I was doing was having no effect. This interval can be changed in web admin > extensions > media server menu.

The NAS is automatically set up with a "share" folder. I put a folder in this called music and transferred my itunes Media folder (which contains all my music) to it and then pointed Itunes to this folder in Itunes preferences.

In Itunes with a playlist selected select file > Library> export playlist - choose m3u from the file options and export to the "music" folder.

Now this playlist is visible to the Uniqute (after the refresh delay)

If they are smart playtlists they will be "frozen" at the time you exported them to m3u format, they are not updated in real time.

I hope this helps someone else

SJB

Posted on: 28 December 2010 by Sloop John B

My question about NPR All Songs Considered podcast still remains.

Has anyone listened to this on the UniQute and where is it found?

Thanks

SJB

Posted on: 29 December 2010 by Peter_RN

Hi John.......I don't tend to use iRadio, but if you can't find what you are looking for in the pre-loaded station list you may be able to add the link to YOUR Qute via the vTuner website @ http://naim.vtuner.com

I have not done this but the info you may need I believe is: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510019

If you have not already done so it may be worthwhile downloading the manual on the Qute from the Naim website. The info on what you are trying to do is on pages 16 & 17 Sections 6.3 & 6.4

Hope you manage it
Peter

Posted on: 29 December 2010 by Sloop John B

Thanks Peter I have already tried what you have suggested and although Incan find the podcast on the vtuner website I can find nomway to link this to my UniQute.

The way to search podcasts by state on the UniQute does not give me the opportunity to search a national station.

I just need to know where to look!

Posted on: 31 December 2010 by Peter_RN

Hi John

Well in a last ditch attempt,

are either of these 2 streams what you are looking for?

IRadio screen

North America
United States
Washington DC
All Stations
NPR – National Public Radio
All Songs Considered
All Songs Considered

Sorry if they are not what you are looking for.

All the best for the New Year.
Peter

Posted on: 01 January 2011 by Sloop John B

Well Peter, fair play to you, that's exactly what I am looking for.

Don't now how you found them but many thanks for doing so.

And a happy, healthy New Year to you.

John

SJB

Posted on: 08 June 2012 by Thaddeus

I wonder if this really did end your search for NPR's All Songs Considered? On iRadio in my Uniti, the path is:

North America

United States

Washington D.C.

All Stations

NPR - National Public Radio

NPR - National Public 1/72

All Songs Considered 1/50

So there are 50 All Songs Considered shows to choose from, but as far as I can tell, not one of them is the continuous stream that I can listen to through the tunein app on my iPad. On the NPR website, it appears to be called 'The All Songs 24/7 Music Channel'.

I'd love to find out how to load this channel into my Uniti iRadio favourites.

Thaddeus

Posted on: 13 June 2012 by Sloop John B

using the add station option in the Naim radio guide, add the following

http://sc7.lga.llnw.net:80/stream/npr_music2

and call it NPR all songs 247 or some-such

and hey presto when you check added station on the Qute, it will be there ready willing and able.......

hope this helps

SJB