n-Stream behaviour with compilations

Posted by: wilro15 on 28 July 2014

I have an ND5 XS streaming from Asset UPnP on Mac OSX.  All is working pretty well apart from one small niggle.

 

When listening to compilations, n-Stream only displays the Album Artist rather than the Track Artist value.  Compilations nearly always have "Various Artists" for the Album Artist flag.  It even shows "Various Artists" on the upcoming playlist screen next to each track, surely even that ought to have Track Artist.

 

The display screen on the ND5 XS also shows the same value, so it is not just limited to n-Stream.

 

I've searched around for the solution and some people are re-tagging all their files to show "Artist - Title" in the Title field.  I'd rather not do that as it will take forever and it seems like a hack.

 

Has anybody else seen this problem?

Posted on: 28 July 2014 by Phil Harris

n-Stream shows the Artist value that is passed to it from the UPnP server ... it doesn't actually "read" the files itself so if it's showing an Artist value of "Various Artists" then that's what it is being passed by the UPnP server...

 

Cheers

 

Phil

Posted on: 28 July 2014 by wilro15

Ok thanks.  If it is definitely Asset UPnP doing this then it gives me something to go on.

Posted on: 28 July 2014 by wilro15

So I am getting feedback from Asset support, and they say: "artist is passed out as "Performer" ...
album artist as "AlbumArtist""

 

I am doing my tagging within iTunes as that is how my library is managed (I use iPhones & iTunes Match too).  I don't believe iTunes has a "Performer" tag.

 

Now I am getting confused.  Am I better off using a different UPnP server?

 

Posted on: 28 July 2014 by Massimo Bertola

Try Logitech mediaserver.. It's completely free, of charge and of issues..

It puzzles me why anybody should use any other UPnP enabler.

M

Posted on: 28 July 2014 by wilro15

Ok I will give it a try thanks.

Posted on: 28 July 2014 by charlesphoto

Umm, because Logitech Media server doesn't transcode? Reason I use Minimserver. 

 

Anyway, always a peeve of mine with nStream. Hopefully they will find a way to sort this in future release. 

Posted on: 28 July 2014 by wilro15

I don't need transcoding though, my files are mostly ALAC and the ND5 XS can read those.

Posted on: 28 July 2014 by charlesphoto

Yes, but WAV into  a Naim streamer sounds better (at least better than the flac files I rip to). 

Posted on: 29 July 2014 by wilro15

I have switched from Asset UPnP to Linn Kazoo Media Server and everything appears to work great. I now get the Artist Name instead of Album Artist Name on compilation tracks.

 

So Kazoo seems to be much better - and is free.

Posted on: 29 July 2014 by charlesphoto

Couldn't load Kazoo as my iPad tops out at iOS 5. A real concern regarding the next gen of nStream. Hopefully they'll support 1st gen iPad users as it's a perfectly affordable control point. Otherwise it'll be good ol' Naim: always needing to buy more stuff. 

 

Tried the Lumin app and it shows the title and artist on compilations from minimserver. Of course, it won't control a Naim. But it does show it's easy to implement. 

Posted on: 29 July 2014 by charlesphoto

Oh, can't load Kazoo server either as no linux version yet (for Vortexbox). 

Posted on: 30 July 2014 by Phil Harris
Originally Posted by charlesphoto:

 

Couldn't load Kazoo as my iPad tops out at iOS 5. A real concern regarding the next gen of nStream. Hopefully they'll support 1st gen iPad users as it's a perfectly affordable control point. Otherwise it'll be good ol' Naim: always needing to buy more stuff. 

 

 

Hi Guys,

 

Remember that it's not *OUR* decision what versions of iOS to support - when an update of an app is submitted to Apple for putting up on the AppStore then it *HAS* to be built with Apples currently supported SDK and it's Apple that determine which iOS versions are supported by that SDK.

 

Cheers

 

Phil

Posted on: 30 July 2014 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Actually there is some ambiguity on how best to use tags when mapping of tags for compilations. I have previously suggested to Naim that this mapping be user configurable in NStream if the current default settings are not appropriate. Perhaps it might appear in the new Nstream but I am not holding my breath.

Simon

Posted on: 30 July 2014 by hafler3o
Originally Posted by AllenB:

It also stops every single artist on a compilation album (quite often never heard of) populating the 'Artist' list in the library tree whereby you end up with hundreds of artists who have just one track to their name in your library.

Totally agree with this sentiment and approach. It would create a far more cluttered artist view in my setup and I'm glad it is avoidable almost by default.

Posted on: 30 July 2014 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Allen, indeed I can tell Asset to write the streamer meta data to do this, in fact I really should switch that back on again 

Posted on: 31 July 2014 by wilro15

Just as a follow up, I have been running Linn Kazoo for a few days now and have had no problems.  Very happy with the setup!

 

I just wish I could create a Playlist on my iPad and have it stored on Kazoo so that my wife's iPad would see the same Playlist.  Not a big deal though.

Posted on: 01 August 2014 by wilro15

Actually I just discovered something annoying with Kazoo Server.  If I go into Artists view in n-Stream, Kazoo Server is only returning artists for whom I have an album.  So if there is an artist that I only have 1 track (perhaps from a compilation) then they don't appear.

 

This makes it pretty hard to find that track as there is no Song list either!

 

So I am now running both Asset and Kazoo side by side.  Asset for finding specific tracks and Kazoo for listening to whole albums/compilations.

 

I really wish Naim would provide their own solution for this to stop all the farting around.