NDX vs HDX

David, reading your comments, I don't see any more any plus of a Naim stream player to a Naim server, if a server would play a guest laptops contents as efficiently... Why is a stream player needed at all? And as to your comment about Naim servers representing the best way to archive media for use with UPnP players, why a player at all? Naim server can be connected to DAC/Pre and play the media itself without need for a "player".

It might as well be in Chinese for me! Thank goodness for iTunes!

The HDX at least had a simple remit as far as the music enthusiast was concerned, if at a price ...

quote:

Originally posted by likesmusic:
To play a track back from a pals laptop wouldn't need a full scan by foobar just a few clicks. File > Add files ( or > Add folder) and then Play - a few seconds. It would do the job that aysil wanted fine. He wasn't asking for an industrial strength scalable solution for building a UPnP server product around, just a way of playing a mate's music quickly. Which it will do. And it might even be the case that there would be no need for his pal to bring the laptop round, since foobar seems to be able to stream across the net.

likesmusic,
you are talking as if foobar would control NDX from the laptop; as made clear on other threads, NDX can not be controlled from a pc, the user interface is on the front panel. So, to my question about NDX/Uniti playing files from a guest laptop, how is this going to be possible, assuming this laptop does not have foobar, but the basic software which come with all pc/mac?

quote:

Originally posted by aysil:

quote:

Originally posted by likesmusic:
To play a track back from a pals laptop wouldn't need a full scan by foobar just a few clicks. File > Add files ( or > Add folder) and then Play - a few seconds. It would do the job that aysil wanted fine. He wasn't asking for an industrial strength scalable solution for building a UPnP server product around, just a way of playing a mate's music quickly. Which it will do. And it might even be the case that there would be no need for his pal to bring the laptop round, since foobar seems to be able to stream across the net.

likesmusic,
you are talking as if foobar would control NDX from the laptop; as made clear on other threads, NDX can not be controlled from a pc, the user interface is on the front panel. So, to my question about NDX/Uniti playing files from a guest laptop, how is this going to be possible, assuming this laptop does not have foobar, but the basic software which come with all pc/mac?

Asyl, "the basic software" is not the same on all PC/Mac. The latest version of Windows Media Player on Windows 7 includes some UpnP client and server features. This is all documented and explained on Microsoft web site. Mac has its own flavor of the same thing.

Based on the above explanation of David Dever, I would think it will be possible to stream music to the NDX from a Windows 7 laptop running Windows Media Player, simply selecting the track on the laptop and using "Play To" feature in Windows Media Player.
Obviously, this is assuming that the laptop and the NDX are on the same network.

Conclusion, it should be possible in some extent to control from the laptop what is played on the NDX.

asyl, as I understand it the NDX is a UPnP renderer. So all you should have to do is network it with a UPnP server and it'll play stuff from that server. Foobar (like Windows Media Player) includes a UPnP server so both should be able to serve up music to an NDX, controlled from the n-Stream app say. My suggestion to use the Playback Stream Capture feature of foobar to play your pals music means you should be able to control what is playing directly from foobar, and avoid any lengthy scanning process. It was the latter I thought you wanted to avoid when your pals come round. And foobar when set up this way should indeed control the NDX from a laptop; you would use foobar to play a track on your laptop, and that playback stream is captured by foobar and streamed to the NDX. The NDX should see something like "Playback Stream" as a track to play. Asset UPnP has a similar feature, and from what Alamanka is saying above, it seems that WMP does too.

David makes a key point in favour of the UnitiServe software in that it can, unlike other UPnP servers, aggregate stored music from multiple sources which is pretty cool. Although it wouldn't be a feature many of us would use that often - it is certainly impressive.

Tog

quote:

Originally posted by Tog:
David makes a key point in favour of the UnitiServe software in that it can, unlike other UPnP servers, aggregate stored music from multiple sources which is pretty cool. Although it wouldn't be a feature many of us would use that often - it is certainly impressive.

Tog

I wasn't criticising the Unitiserve software; I'm sure it's a great way of serving up music, and if it were me, and I had the money, I'd prefer it in a Naim system to any third party offering. I'm just pointing out that if you want to play a track from a mate's pc quickly through a UPnP renderer like the NDX then there are other reasonable options.

But is aggregation a unique feature of the UnitiServe - surely I could use foobar or the like to aggregate music all over my network?

@likesmusic

Actually I'm not really defending the Serve - it does have one or two good features but overall IMHO its a relatively small capacity drive in an expensive box with some interesting if rather restrictive software.

There are certainly software solutions that can match the Serve - I just thought that Naim/DigiFi's UPnP approach was interesting.

Tog

One thing I would point out (although I very much doubt it would be a tipping point in 99%+ of cases) is that the HDX actually does have internet radio. Presently you need a third party application to access it but it's fully functional.

quote:

Originally posted by Harry K:
One thing I would point out (although I very much doubt it would be a tipping point in 99%+ of cases) is that the HDX actually does have internet radio. Presently you need a third party application to access it but it's fully functional.

Shhhhh!

This has been discussed at length a number of times previously and I won't say anything more than Harry, you are right that a certain third party app provides this functionality on the HDX / NS0x and UnitiServe however at this stage "fully functional" is not quite the level that we see it at - however if you wish to use said third party app to access that currently unsupported functionality then it is your choice however we cannot support the use of undocumented facilities.

Phil

I understand Phil. The TP app is a load of rubbish in most respects. I was looking at a SB just for Internet radio, so that's a save. I do hope that in the not too distant future I'll be "back in the fold" with all my HDX related apps. That would be nice - not to mention considerably less irritating to use.

I'm sure you will be Harry...

Phil

It's quite interesting to compare with Linn's streamer architecture; A NAS with a MediaServer (example Twonky) where you store the music, a Linn DS player and finally a control point.

Different control points can be running simultanious on iPad, iPhone, numerious PDA's/mobile phones - all managing one or many DS players on the same network.
And when you visit a fiends house your control point can manage the music, as long he also use a UPnP system, and you have mamy more vendors than just Linn... Very flexible and quite handy!

Adding a second NAS (with MediaServer) to the network, the control point detects it and within seconds you can play music from it.
Same with adding a PC with music to the network.
=simple and fast!

All you need is UPnP compatible products!
And as that is an open standard, plenty of options of MediaServers and control points.

And to make it even easier, using Linn's control point "Kinsky desktop" - you can drag&drop a URL to Kinsky and play whatever file you like, without the need of FIRST "scan the network finding new files". Example music stored on USB or even internet radio.

Back to Naim, HDX was first released with proprietary software that didn't support UPnP making the options regarding storing and control limited.
With NDX Naim finally offer UPnP compatible systems, that is quite a bit moreflexible as described above. A good decision imho!