Playback uPnP Issues

I have also been having problems with Playback and the n-Stream app on my ND5 XS. I can't get it to show the "Play track from here" option when navigating folders with albums of digital audio. Now I'm trying Twonky, but it is really flakey and unstable. It hangs, the Exit menu never works, and I have to kill it from Activity Monitor when it misbehaves and needs to be restarted.

Naim and Soundorg apparently gave up on me and my frustrations with it. They stopped responding to any emails about it. Soundorg suggested the solution to my problem is spending another $4K on a UnitiServe. 

I've come to the conclusion I have an unfinished product, and am thinking about selling my ND5 XS, and going with something that will work better. I can select and play a analog record much faster than I can get something digital to play and not stop after one track.

I have a Squeezebox Touch and Arcam rLink on another system, and that works much better and more reliably. I might get something like that instead, sell my ND5 XS, use the money from selling it to upgrade my 202 to a secondhand 282. Maybe upgrade my phono preamp too. I think digital streaming has some way to go. 

Sorry I can't help with your problem.

Asset UPnP is only available for Windows. The only way you can run it on a Mac is to do so inside a VM running Windows. Although I have Windows running in VMWare Fusion, it is completely sandboxed and only used for remote desktop to my work computer via secure VPN, and for running Naim's primitive firmware updaters for the ND5.  I don't want to run it to host a UPnP server, or for any other personal use for that matter.

Until there are good UPnP solutions for OS X I consider Naim's streaming products unfinished.

There's a beta version of Asset UPnP for Mac OS, available from the dbPoweramp forum. Anyone here using it?

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/sh...-Asset-UPnP-For-OSX-(MAC)

I just downloaded it. I will give it a shot.

But surely it is both "Universal" and "Plug 'n' Play"? What could possibly go wrong? 

Apple went wrong, by as usual doing their own way and not supporting UPNP. As a result its down to other developers.

UPNP being the turd that it is as well, means a pretty toxic mix of potential issues!

Wazza -  I use a Mac with Playback -

Here are my settings in this thread 

https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...0621/reply/lastReply

1 - Not searched by Genre - I'll take a look.

2 - You can de select this option -under content In the Music preferences tab - see screenshot 2

3 - The streamers don't sent WOL packets so you won't be able to wake the mac from sleep. You could use a WOL app to wake the Mac before playing music. Mine has sleep disabled and it is set to power up when I'm at home and powers down overnight and when i'm at work so it's always ready to play music.

I've been using Playback for over a year now. It works flawlessly,serving my iTunes library to my NDX. Artwork perfect too. One issue I did have with a couple of albums not displaying correctly was fixed quickly by the Yazsoft guys by emailing them some diagnostic information.  

Hope this helps

James

Upnp in itself is a library of techniques and options for discovery and communication on a consumer network. There are often many different ways of achieving a specific outcome which is the 'universal' bit, it doesn't mean it necessarily assures interoperability. So over and above upnp the DLNA group have defined a subset of UPNP features and options for it 'members' and followers to use for Audio streaming. This is the key bit as adherence to this by a developer will help but not unfortunately neccessarily guarantee interoperability. Asset is a DLNA UPNP server.. and I suspect that is one of the reasons it works rather well.

Thanks James. I'll let him know. Let me know about Genre but Playback is pretty simplistic on the options side.

Hopefully fixing 2+3 will keep the old boy happy until Asset comes out as a full release for Mac!

Thanks

Mistake on my part. - the content bit doesn't allow you to select music tracks only. IIRC that was an option on Majestic (another great Mac UPnP server but no longer supported). Audiobooks aren't shown on mine as the ones I have are the old DRM protected which Playback ignores. Gendre for me is the same as you describe above. I never use that option so hadn't come across this.

James

Works like a charm. Pretty much identical to PC version. 

I have been trying Asset for Mac, but I can't navigate folder structure without a license. However, I don't want to buy a license unless I know it's going to work with folder navigation and without the issues I experience with other UPnP servers.

You could - of course - just for the sake of investigation borrow a PC (laptop?) and try the PC version of Asset which does run for a time limited trial as the full version and see whether that enables you to do what you want to do?

Phil

...then keep it as your server.  Use the right tool for the job.  For serving up media you really should use a PC.  Sorry but it is the truth.  UPNP works perfectly in my world, even when streaming to my iOS device from anywhere in the country.

If I was editing a shiteload of video and someone told me it would be best done on a Mac I wouldn't hesitate.

Everyone needs to get over the PC vs Mac thing.  It is just silly.

-Patrick

I already thought of trying it in a Windows XP VM I already have running.

However, I talked to my dealer yesterday and let him know I am interested in selling my ND5XS. He agrees it's probably overkill for me since most of my listening (90%) is analog. The Logitech Media Server works great for my office system using a Squeezebox Touch/Arcam rLink -- I have none of the usability issue that plagues me using the ND5.

So, I may get another Squeezebox Touch and an Arcam rDAC. I might even have enough left over to upgrade my 202 to a secondhand 282.

I do agree here Patrick ... I have several Windows PC and OSX Macs at home and my main laptop is a 17" MacBook Pro ... it just happens to only ever run Windows!

UPnP support under OSX is - to be quite frank - *DIRE* ... I'm sure that Asset on OSX will do a lot to redress that but at the moment running most OSX UPnP servers and then complaining that UPnP sucks is rather like taking an Aston Martin greenlaning and complaining that it's rubbish because it bottoms out and gets stuck.

Phil

I really don't want a Windows based machine. I use one every day at work (software engineering), but I really do not want to reintegrate my digital music workflow (or anything else in my personal and leisure life) into a Windows environment. 

If Windows is necessary for a Naim streamer to work correctly, then I bought the wrong thing.

I think an SBT with a decent DAC is the way to go for me.

I came to exactly the same conclusion when I owned a DVD5/AV2.

I think Naim have some way to go before their software engineering skills match their audio engineering skills.

Peter

Not a very helpful post Peter. Naim aren't at fault here. 

I still don't understand why people have so many issues with UPnP on a Mac. Use iTunes to manage the library and playback to serve it. It's so simple that it really is difficult to get it wrong.

If you are starting from scratch with ripping and serving with no exisiting library then buy a Vortex box. 

Because iTunes is a complete disaster when it comes to managing classical music. iTunes is created and conceived for a pop music world, and really pays no heed to the needs of classical music lovers. Not to mention, iTunes has zero support for FLAC audio files without using  third party support.

iTunes...hoch ptui!!!

Ah I see. Classical music and Flac files don't figure highly on my agenda. Excuse my ignorance but what's the issue with classical - tagging and meta data ?

Yes, among others. 

iTunes also ignores other important aspects. Classical music mostly consists of multi-movement works, some with even a multi-hierarchical organization. Classical has just as much, if not more, emphasis on the composer of a work than the artist of a performance. iTunes has "grouping" tags but doesn't bother to implement and present it in any meaningful way at all. Genres are very useful for classical, but really need sub-genre support to be effective (Baroque->Opera, Romantic->Symphony, Romantic Opera, Baroque->Concerto, Renaissance->Madrigal->Italy, Renaissance->Madrigal->England).

I organize my classical music in directory structure that is most useful to me, by genre->by composer (last name first)->by album (often composition)

Once you start navigating iTunes by tags it likes to abandon the idea of an album and presents everything as songs, which is totally unusable. I really don't need nor want to see every Adagio grouped together in a list. No one listens to classical music like that.

iTunes is incompetent when it comes to classical. I doubt Apple even cares.

Various people have attempted various solutions, but I have given up on iTunes. And version 11 is even worse to deal with.

You said you wouldn't mention it RT and then you did .... personally I'm not convinced iTunes has  support for FLAC audio files with using  third party support. 

FLAC is just not its preferred formation ... now if it were Fantastic Lossless Apple Codec or ALAC for short it will play it .... 

I don't have many ripped classical CDs so like james I'm unsure what would be needed ... I think this was gone in to before, but would be interested to know so we could lobby the big A to do something about it. 

J-River for OS X will available in a few months so this may be just what you need ... it seems highly flexible if a bit complicated at first glance, but patrick will help us if we adopt it. 

Even for folk music it can be nice to search for music with Sandy Denny singing on it and have it return tracks from her solo, Fairport, Fotheringay and Strawbs days and then perhaps narrow it down to ones where Swarbs played the violin. 

I guess the important thing is find the piece you want to play