Playback uPnP Issues

Posted by: Wazza69 on 08 December 2012

Hi,

 

My Dad bought a UnitiQute on my recommendation in New Zealand (I am in the UK) but has been having some issues with Playback upnp which I am having difficulties diagnosing from over here so wondering if anyone has had similar problems and found resolutions:

 

1) When you search by Genre it finds the songs but they are not in albums and you just end up with an alphabetical list of songs in the particular Genre you searched on


2) It also pulls up all of the Audio books in the iTunes library which can be confusing when you are searching through the library


3) The Naim won't wake the MiniMac up from sleep mode, if you are playing an album and the Naim has cached some songs the MiniMac would go into sleep mode and then it won't wake up again, or if you stop playing music, then come back later and go to choose another song it can't find the UPnP Server (wake on LAN is selected in system prefs)


Any help would be really appreciated by both of us! He is a big Mac user so Playback is a good option generally. He is using a wired network to a MacMini (Snow Lion) and linking to his iTunes library in AIFF


Thanks

Posted on: 04 April 2013 by RaceTripper

Attaching a Mac directly to my Naim streamer is not practical.

Posted on: 04 April 2013 by james n

What does Minimserver do that Playback doesn't Tog ?

Posted on: 04 April 2013 by RaceTripper
Originally Posted by james n:

What does Minimserver do that Playback doesn't Tog ?

For one, it works. 

Posted on: 04 April 2013 by Tog

It is very simple and appears very effective particularly at transcoding flac to wav24

 

Oh - and it works....

 

Tog

Posted on: 04 April 2013 by james n

The transcoding looks interesting. Might give it a go since i've already tried most of the Mac UPnP servers to see if this betters Playback (which for me works - for others it doesn't). 

Posted on: 04 April 2013 by glevethan
Originally Posted by Tog:

There is a lot to be said to plug in a Macbook Pro and away you go - 

 

 if you must stck with Macs - plug them in. 

 

Tog

 

 Sorry however I do not agree.

I do not want a computer connected to the system - tough enough just getting the wife to put up with seeing the system at all

 

As for plugging in Macs - no need to - with my Linn streamer.

Posted on: 04 April 2013 by glevethan

MinimServer - GREAT 

 

I and many Mac users on the Linn DS forum are forever indebted to Simon for writing such a brilliant piece of software.  

Posted on: 04 April 2013 by james n

And that's where Linn helped by letting the developers get on with it. I used to use Chorus DS for UPnP serving with my Akurate. Another great bit of software developed via the Linn forum. Unfortunately my NDX wouldn't work with it which was a great shame. 

Posted on: 04 April 2013 by RaceTripper
Originally Posted by fps1k:

Hi Racetripper. I started using Metadatics from the Ap Store for Mac which has eased my Twonky Server pain . Everything now has a Album Art and is correctly displayed and sorted in N-Stream. Very useful to see and edit the data on a granular level. It is a bit of a memory hog if you try to do your whole library all in one go though! My music is stored on a Qnap TS-269L in Raid 0. Cheers.

Hi fps1k...this seems a great suggestion so far. I have edited a couple albums directly on the QNAP and it seems better than anything I've used so far.

 

I have written the developers asking them to add regex support to the text manipulation functions.

 

I have a similar OS X utility (Better Rename) for dealing with the filenames. It is an essential tool for batch renaming files.

Posted on: 04 April 2013 by glevethan

Just downloaded it myself - WOW.  Finally a clear and easy to use native Mac program.  This is definitely going to give MP3Tag a run for its money in my book.

 

Gregg

Posted on: 05 April 2013 by Tog

I have to say I was very sceptical - but Minimserver 0.64 has proved to be rather good. Partner it with Bliss and it starts to give my Vortexbox server a run for its money. I think transcoding flac to wav24 does make a difference but I have yet to try aiff.

 

I do miss the Vortexbox web based admin though.

 

Linn's use of open source software does seem to have really encouaged third party programmers.

 

Tog

Posted on: 05 April 2013 by james n

You've convinced me Tog. I'll give it a go.

 

James

Posted on: 05 April 2013 by james n

Tried it -  No out of the box integration with iTunes so i didn't really go much further. Looks to be a good piece of kit but i'll stick with the simplicity (and out of the box operation) of Playback.

 

James

Posted on: 05 April 2013 by RaceTripper
Originally Posted by fps1k:

Hi Racetripper. I started using Metadatics from the Ap Store for Mac which has eased my Twonky Server pain . Everything now has a Album Art and is correctly displayed and sorted in N-Stream. Very useful to see and edit the data on a granular level. It is a bit of a memory hog if you try to do your whole library all in one go though! My music is stored on a Qnap TS-269L in Raid 0. Cheers.

I wrote the developer yesterday and heard back from him today (twice). I am asking him to add regex (regular expression parsing, matching and replacement) to tag field editing. He already uses it behind the scenes and is interested in adding it as a user feature. Nice.

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by RaceTripper

I've hit another snag. The UPnP plugin running with LMS won't serve any of the AIFF or ALAC files I have. Odd, because my SBT plays them (transcoding them to FLAC). Any ideas on getting LMS to work? Since I also have a SBT I'd rather just use one service for everything if possible.

 

One step forward, several more back.

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by Ian P
Originally Posted by RaceTripper:

I've hit another snag. The UPnP plugin running with LMS won't serve any of the AIFF or ALAC files I have. Odd, because my SBT plays them (transcoding them to FLAC). Any ideas on getting LMS to work? Since I also have a SBT I'd rather just use one service for everything if possible.

 

One step forward, several more back.

Any chance you can convert them to FLAC? (dbpoweramp would make this easy - mac have a similar option?)

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by RaceTripper
Originally Posted by Ian P:
Originally Posted by RaceTripper:

I've hit another snag. The UPnP plugin running with LMS won't serve any of the AIFF or ALAC files I have. Odd, because my SBT plays them (transcoding them to FLAC). Any ideas on getting LMS to work? Since I also have a SBT I'd rather just use one service for everything if possible.

 

One step forward, several more back.

Any chance you can convert them to FLAC? (dbpoweramp would make this easy - mac have a similar option?)

Thanks but no, I don't want to convert files. I don't even see why I should need too. The ND5 XS  supports all the file formats I have (FLAC, AIFF, ALAC). That is why I bought it. 

 

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by PinkHamster

Check the Advanced Settings, tab 'Advanced'. Choose 'file types'. Make sure that 'native' is selected for the AIFF and ALAC streams. I think LMS does not support transcoding of these file types to WAV.

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by RaceTripper
Originally Posted by PinkHamster:

Check the Advanced Settings, tab 'Advanced'. Choose 'file types'. Make sure that 'native' is selected for the AIFF and ALAC streams. I think LMS does not support transcoding of these file types to WAV.

Thanks. I am not and never have been trying to use or transcode to WAV format. For files going to the SBT, AIFF are converted to flac. However, for the LMS UPnP plugin (flipflip's SSOTS) the AIFF files just plain won't play on the ND5 XS.

 

I don't think I understand how these settings work. Mine has...

 

Stream Format -> Decoder [Options]

 

AIFF

AIFF -> Native [Native, Disabled]

FLAC-> flac/sox [flac/sox, Disabled]

MP3-> lame [lame, Diabled]

 

ALAC

FLAC-> fad/sox

MP3->faad/lame [faad/lame, Disabled]

PCM -> faad [faad/disabled]

 

However, this is the same server I'm using for my SBT. Everything on it works just fine. 

 

All I want the UPnP server to do is stream the files as is to the ND5 XS. I want to keep current behavior for the SBT.

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by RaceTripper

I changed the setting to disable flac for AIFF, thus:

 

AIFF

AIFF -> Native [Native, Disabled]

FLAC-> Disabled [flac/sox, Disabled]

MP3-> lame [lame, Diabled]

 

Now the SBT plays AIFF natively, and the ND5 XS continues to sit dead silent, refusing to play. I think something is amiss with the UPnP/DNLA plugin for LMS.

 

I am beginning to think that LMS is not a working solution for streaming my digital library.

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by likesmusic
Originally Posted by RaceTripper:
Originally Posted by fps1k:

Hi Racetripper. I started using Metadatics from the Ap Store for Mac which has eased my Twonky Server pain . Everything now has a Album Art and is correctly displayed and sorted in N-Stream. Very useful to see and edit the data on a granular level. It is a bit of a memory hog if you try to do your whole library all in one go though! My music is stored on a Qnap TS-269L in Raid 0. Cheers.

I wrote the developer yesterday and heard back from him today (twice). I am asking him to add regex (regular expression parsing, matching and replacement) to tag field editing. He already uses it behind the scenes and is interested in adding it as a user feature. Nice.

Dunno if it would suit you but J River Media Center  has full regex parsing etc. which can be use to derive tags and set up UPnP browse trees. Lots of other tag manipulation, programming and custom browse features. Very powerful. Still in alpha release for mac, but getting closer every week.

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by PinkHamster
Originally Posted by RaceTripper:

I changed the setting to disable flac for AIFF, thus:

 

AIFF

AIFF -> Native [Native, Disabled]

FLAC-> Disabled [flac/sox, Disabled]

MP3-> lame [lame, Diabled]

 

Now the SBT plays AIFF natively, and the ND5 XS continues to sit dead silent, refusing to play. I think something is amiss with the UPnP/DNLA plugin for LMS.

 

I am beginning to think that LMS is not a working solution for streaming my digital library.

Hmmm, now I am also clueless.Personally I don't have any UPnP clients, only Squeezeboxes.

 

What's so terrible about tanscoding to FLAC? You could at least do it as a temporary solution until the perfect server arrives. You woudn't loose anything along thw way and could realize a one-server-solution right now.

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by RaceTripper
Originally Posted by PinkHamster:
Originally Posted by RaceTripper:

I changed the setting to disable flac for AIFF, thus:

 

AIFF

AIFF -> Native [Native, Disabled]

FLAC-> Disabled [flac/sox, Disabled]

MP3-> lame [lame, Diabled]

 

Now the SBT plays AIFF natively, and the ND5 XS continues to sit dead silent, refusing to play. I think something is amiss with the UPnP/DNLA plugin for LMS.

 

I am beginning to think that LMS is not a working solution for streaming my digital library.

Hmmm, now I am also clueless.Personally I don't have any UPnP clients, only Squeezeboxes.

 

What's so terrible about tanscoding to FLAC? You could at least do it as a temporary solution until the perfect server arrives. You woudn't loose anything along thw way and could realize a one-server-solution right now.

Thanks, but it's not working either way. That's the issue. Neither setting works for streaming to the ND5 XS. The Squeezebox works perfectly with both settings.

 

With the first setting, the ND5 XS just doesn't play anything in n-Stream that is a AIFF source, with no reason given. With the second setting, it refuses to play with the error message "Unsupported format."

 

Right now I am sitting on a $250 device that just works, and a $3500 device that doesn't. 

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by RaceTripper
Originally Posted by likesmusic:
Originally Posted by RaceTripper:
Originally Posted by fps1k:

Hi Racetripper. I started using Metadatics from the Ap Store for Mac which has eased my Twonky Server pain . Everything now has a Album Art and is correctly displayed and sorted in N-Stream. Very useful to see and edit the data on a granular level. It is a bit of a memory hog if you try to do your whole library all in one go though! My music is stored on a Qnap TS-269L in Raid 0. Cheers.

I wrote the developer yesterday and heard back from him today (twice). I am asking him to add regex (regular expression parsing, matching and replacement) to tag field editing. He already uses it behind the scenes and is interested in adding it as a user feature. Nice.

Dunno if it would suit you but J River Media Center  has full regex parsing etc. which can be use to derive tags and set up UPnP browse trees. Lots of other tag manipulation, programming and custom browse features. Very powerful. Still in alpha release for mac, but getting closer every week.

JRiver only runs on Windows. I'm not using Windows, nor do I wish to.

 

I evaluated JRIver. I think the UI is too complex and confusing to use anyway.

Posted on: 06 April 2013 by likesmusic
Originally Posted by RaceTripper:
Originally Posted by likesmusic:
Originally Posted by RaceTripper:

 

JRiver only runs on Windows. I'm not using Windows, nor do I wish to.

 

I evaluated JRIver. I think the UI is too complex and confusing to use anyway.

J River for mac was released a few weeks ago, true enough it was an alpha version but it was half price for adventurous early adopters and seems to be getting more stable every week. And it delivers the regular expression functionality you want. What other UPnP server does on any platform? I have found MC superb for organising classical music; what do you want to do that it can't?