issues with n-stream 3.0?

Thanks Phil. Looking forward to the updated firmware now then.

Hi

Just two minor observations I'd like to make on nstream 3.0 which are:

1. The adding of the display of the track number to the metadata leads to an inconsistency with that displayed on the NDX itself. I actually already had my Asset uPnP set up to display the track no along with the title. And of course I got this on both the NDX display and via nstream. On upgrading to version 3.0 I got the track number displayed twice on nstream. I have now adjusted the setting in Asset to stop this, but of course now no track number is displayed on the NDX display. Not serious, but would be nice to have it consistent.

2. Whilst all Album Art is displayed correctly at Album level, the app has a problem in certain situations obtaining any Album Art to display at either Artist or Album Artist level. Examples of this are if you have an Artist or Album Artist tagged as "Beatles, The" and you use the Smart option for handling 'The' Artists in Asset whereby Asset present the server with the name "The Beatles" but correctly sorts it under "B" rather than "T". Presumably because this name varies from the metadata name, nserve cannot find the associated Album Art and leaves it blank are rather annoyingly out of line with the other Artist names. It also seems to occur if the Artist and Album Artist names are different and consequently affects all my compilations where the Album Artist has been tagged as "Various Artists". Personally, it seems an irrelevance to display Album Art at Artist level in any case - it is Album Art and seems therefore logical that it should be displayed at Album or Track level only. Any chance we could just go back to a simple lists of Artists and Album Artists without art displayed at this level?

As I say, only minor observations, but niggling to me nevertheless! I preferred the way these were both handled in the older version of the app. 

Top marks on the speed improvement though and I look forward to the playlist option with 3.15

Steeve

I recently lost the volume control buttons in the n-Stream app.  Very odd.  Any help would be much appreciated!  Thanks in advance.  I emailed support too, but I thought I might get an even quicker reply here....

Steeve, I think you"ll fi d the job of providing album art for a title is purely down to the upnp server and not Nstream. I don't know if you have seen but asset version 4 apparently sometimes doesn't display art correctly and is addressed in 4.1 beta, although I haven't noticed this.

Also when you upgraded to version 3 Nstream did you clear the album art cache? I am using version 4 Asset and Nstream 3 and have no problems at all, but I did have to clear the art cache.

Simon

Hi Simon

Yes, I've cleared the cache to redisplay some changes I did make to the metadata to correct some issues. I would stress that all album art is displayed correctly for me at Album and Track level. It is only when viewing the list of Artists or Album Artists that this issue occurs.

I think you are right in that I could probably get most of the art to display correctly by changing my metadata, but still think there is a minor issue here in that I shouldn't really have to! Nitpicking maybe but...

For example, I had an album by Rachel Unthank & The Winterset. The artist was set to "Rachel Unthank & The Winterset" and the Album Artist to "Rachel Unthank". This caused the album art not to be displayed when viewing the list of Album Artists. I changed the tag for Album Artist to be the same as Artist viz. "Rachel Unthank & The Winterset" and it then displayed ok at Album Artist level.

I could probably change all the tagging on my artists beginning with "The..."  as well - the Smart option works very well in Asset though so you don't have to worry if a CD has been ripped as "The Smiths" or "Smiths, The".

Not sure though how I would get around the Various Artists issue. I may be slightly unusual in that I like to normally browse by Album Artist and then Album rather than Artist and then Album. I usually set the Album Artist tag for compilations to "Various Artists" and the Artist tag to the actual artist of the track. That way I have the choice of viewing a compilation album as a proper album if I want rather than the individual tracks being under the individual artists. (I guess I could also do this by viewing by Album it's true - it's partly me trying to replicate the way I've always stored my physical media on shelves!)

Steeve

I has similar problems and TJ from Naim advised me earlier in the thread re clearing the cache.  I then struggled with the names ending in ,the which did not always display. I tried everything and eventually submitted to the system and amended the metadata accordingly - resistance is futile.  This left one that would not show album art in certain circumstances - Ry Cooder's Bop till you drop.  Even though his name appears everywhere in the metadata as Ry Cooder the system insists on calling him The Ry Cooder.  I therefore again submitted and changed the name in the metadata to The .... and everything was fine.  Strangely even though referred to in the metadata as The ... he is plain Ry Cooder when albums art etc is displayed and the album is selected.

The system is dbpoweramp, AssetNas, n-stream, i-pad and me: I suspect I know where the problem lies!

Hi Steeve, can you try an alternate upnp/DLNA controlpint and see if the titles appear correctly. I do think it's asset that is causing this, as the control point (Nstream) displays what it is sent, a bit like a web browser  displaying a web page. Asset can do a fair amount of manipulation with smart titles.

I also select tracks by artist, and so far I have no issues with the relevant album art displaying associated with the track identified this way.

BTW I really like the Unthanks as well, great contemporary english folk.

Simon

I will do when I get the chance. I turned on my old NAS (now just used for backup) last night which has Twonky on it, but then nStream seemed to freeze completely, and couldn't be bothered to sort it as it was late!

Yes, the Unthanks are great. Saw them live as well in Northampton recently playing with the Brighouse & Rastrick Band which was interesting as all the string sections had been rearranged for brass. Great gig and lovely people too. 

Steeve

Just to update this: Interestingly, (ok not that interesting really), Twonky doesn't show any art at all when looking at the lists of either Artists or Album Artists, just at Album and Track level - which, as stated above,  would be my preferred option!  

And here's another oddity: 

The following tags exist for all tracks for this album:

Album: Brain Salad Surgery

Artist: Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Album Artist: Emerson, Lake & Palmer

nstream picks up the correct art for this album when viewing the list by Album,

but picks up art for the following album when viewing a list by either Artist or Album Artist:

Album: As Heard On Radio Soulwax

Album Artist: 2 Many DJ's

where one of the tracks has the Artist field tagged as Emerson, Lake & Palmer!

(the reason the "Artist" and "Album Artist" tags are different is because this is a DJ mix CD). 

Can anyone at Naim throw any light on this?

Thanks

Steeve

Exactly what art should be shown when looking at a list of Artists or Album Artists?

Tracks are tagged with the graphic of the album cover on the whole, not a complete library of pictures of the members of the crew at the recording, production and mixing sessions so there's no appropriate art to display in those views...

Phil

Phil, I agree completely. This was certainly one of the points I was trying to make and why I was surprised that when using Asset (ver 4.0), the latest version of nStream displays album art at Artist and Album Artist level (but doesn't always get it right), wheras the previous version didn't. 

It may well be that this is an Asset issue rather than an nStream one, but was interested if Naim had any views on it. 

Thanks

Steeve

Hi Steeve,

n-Stream doesn't display anything that isn't given to it by the UPnP server (via the Uniti or ND series product that it is controlling) ... if the UPnP server squirts out a graphic then we'll display it but we have no say in what that graphic is - we can only assume that the UPnP server sends something appropriate.

Cheers

Phil

Hi Steeve -

The Asset option "Upstream Artwork" causes artwork from the "first discovered track" to appear next to an Artist or Genre. 

In the configuration panel next to "Advanced Settings", hit the "Edit" button.  The option is listed under "General Settings" -- just remove the check mark and hit "Ok".

ATB.

Hook

Ok thanks Phil. I take your point,. It was just a little confusing as the previous nStream version did not display the album art at those levels.

Hook, that sounds like the solution! I will try it tonight.

Many thanks 

Steeve

Hook, thanks once again. This has given me what I wanted. I shall stop whingeing now!  

Hi Allen, yes might be.. But it's a bit random..

I am sure I have seen someone else mention that volume/input selection bug on here. It feels counter intuitive that it is a Nstream issue rather than a fiirmware automation issue.. But we will see

Simon

I've flagged this one to Tom for him to take a look at...

Cheers

Phil 

with nstream 3.0 running and open on ipad3, battery time goes down significantly and device gets quite warm. Did not experience that w 2.3

any ideas?

Lars

Hi Lars,

Haven't had this but especially the iPad getting warm intrigues. I would double-tap de home button so you can see all open - in memory apps. Maybe you have a lot apps open. Delete them one by one. Hopefully the iPad cools down and also nStream starts working properly.

Iver

AllenB - can you contact us direct regarding this issue? We're just about to go on summer shutdown so it may be a week or so before we get back to you...

Cheers

Phil