n-stream "compatibility mode" what does it actually do
Posted by: Foxman50 on 30 December 2013
Ive previously been using Synology's "Media Server" as my UPnP server, but have been trying both "Minimserver" and "asset". I only use the album view in n-stream as this shows the artwork along with the artist and album names.
Within "Minimserver" you can adjust the sort order so that instead of the albums being in order of the album name tag, you can get it to sort via the album artist tag, which for me mean that all the albums are sorted in alphabetical order of the album arttist then the album name. ie it groups all of say "Pink Floyd" albums together.
Anyway what ive noticed is that if n-stream is in "compatibility mode" this all works fine and the sort order is correct. However if you take n-stream out if "compatibility mode" it flatly refuses to order them as i want. It will only order them by album name.
My question is why does it do this and what really is the difference between the two modes ???
I am not sure of the benefits but when in the mode you refer to you lose the playlist and que function.
Scott
Hi Scoot
Yes i also loose the # a - z scroll bar which is replaced by . . . . .
But there seems to be something more to it than this. I dont understand how it works full stop, as in does the UPnP send out the information or does n-stream request certain information?
Hi Foxman
You can do the same thing on the Synology, select media server from the window which pops up from the icon at the top left hand corner of the Synology desktop. Set 'DMA Menu Style' to Custom 1 then press the Customize button. You can set the data to be presented in all kinds of ways including selecting only items below a given directory, Album Artist/Album with Indexed files, etc.
Give it a go, I find it very flexible. Hope this helps.
Hi Sorren
Yes i have played with that in the past, but i think im getting to the bottom of it. with only a few albums in the UPnP directory you dont get the # A ....... Z bar down the right hand side of the album selection screen within n-stream. With it like this it orders the albums as i want them, a good example is Adele and album 19 and 21.
With only a few albums and without the # A ....... Z bar n-stream correctly orders them under A for Adele.
However once more albums are in the directory and the # A ....... Z shows n-stream then it orders them under # for the album name.
setting n-stream to compatibility mode does away with the # A ....... Z bar and hence orders albums as i want.
Anyway to rectify this??
Hi Sorren
Yes i have played with that in the past, but i think im getting to the bottom of it. with only a few albums in the UPnP directory you dont get the # A ....... Z bar down the right hand side of the album selection screen within n-stream. With it like this it orders the albums as i want them, a good example is Adele and album 19 and 21.
With only a few albums and without the # A ....... Z bar n-stream correctly orders them under A for Adele.
However once more albums are in the directory and the # A ....... Z shows n-stream then it orders them under # for the album name.
setting n-stream to compatibility mode does away with the # A ....... Z bar and hence orders albums as i want.
Anyway to rectify this??
Hi Foxman
My first entry in the list is by Album Artist/Album and the Menu Structure is:
>Menu Structure
>Album Artist (with Index)
Album
The 'with Index' bit is important for my setup as it displays a set of folders A, B, C, D, etc. grouping the artists.
For example I would select
Album Artist/Album>E>Eagles>Hotel California (24bit, 192kHz)
I don't use n-stream as I don't want an iThingy, even if I could afford one. I use UpnPlay on a Samsung Android tablet and it works just fine.
It may be something specific to n-stream but it's worth a try.
So when you browse you have sub top folders each with a letter of the alphabet, you then go into the appropriate letter for the artist you want then select there album.
Yes i think its a n-stream issue. Tried Linn Kinsky which displays correctly, but doesn't seem to work with my NDX very well. Not sure what other ipad control points work with Naim
Yes that's right.
Yes i think its a n-stream issue. Tried Linn Kinsky which displays correctly, but doesn't seem to work with my NDX very well. Not sure what other ipad control points work with Naim
All Upnp control points should work with the NDX as long as they aren't vendor specific.
Just tried a few but not very good. Lumin looked really promising until you try to play something. It doesn't work. very nice looking though.
Think ive solved my problem within Minimserver. I have to say this is a hugely flexible UPnP server. Out of Media Server, Asset and Minimserver i prefer Minimserver
Regards Graeme
Ive previously been using Synology's "Media Server" as my UPnP server, but have been trying both "Minimserver" and "asset". I only use the album view in n-stream as this shows the artwork along with the artist and album names.
Within "Minimserver" you can adjust the sort order so that instead of the albums being in order of the album name tag, you can get it to sort via the album artist tag, which for me mean that all the albums are sorted in alphabetical order of the album arttist then the album name. ie it groups all of say "Pink Floyd" albums together.
Anyway what ive noticed is that if n-stream is in "compatibility mode" this all works fine and the sort order is correct. However if you take n-stream out if "compatibility mode" it flatly refuses to order them as i want. It will only order them by album name.
My question is why does it do this and what really is the difference between the two modes ???
If I remember correctly n-stream has some functionality that is dedicated to Naim servers like the UnitiServe. Compatibility mode is a reduced set of uPnP standard functionality. Or something like that.
What would be good is if in n-stream you could select a sort order tag for whichever view you are in. For instance i use the album view, but instead of ordering them in album order you could set sort order by album artist.
this way you'd see all your albums but ordered by album artist, which to me is not only what i want but makes more sense.
Foxman, remember Nstream is like a very restricted web browser, it can only display and search on what is sent to it.
however a good UPnP server like Asset will allow you to create custom menus to allow you to search and index on whayever you want.. Like date, record label, primary instrument.
(BTW this is only possible in the full version of Asset)
Foxman, remember Nstream is like a very restricted web browser, it can only display and search on what is sent to it.
Hi Simon
This doesn't appear to be the case. Well not in my case anyway, maybe someone could confirm. Example:
i only use album view
if there are only say 6 albums in your upnp directory n-stream will display these as per my config settings in minimserver or asset i.e. sort by album artist. With only a few albums you do not get the # A.........Z bar down the right hand site of the list in n-stream.
Once you get a lot of albums in your upnp directory, not sure how many, the bar appears and and n-stream takes control of the sort order and orders them by album not album artist as required.
So therefore n-stream is not just taking what is sent to it but overriding what is sent to it.
Oh, I see, yes that is so, Nstream has certain layout profiles it uses for the content that us sent to it. Sorry I thought you were referring to the content itself.
What i dont understand is why its sort order changes when the alphabet bar appears. Was looking at the Lumin control app, which allows you to select a sort order tag for your view. Unfortunately it looks like it will only play to a Lumin machine.