Naim app and Asset: issue with hypen sign

Posted by: nicopra on 31 August 2015

I recently bought a new Qnap NAS since my old one couldn’t run Asset.

I have a strange issue with the Naim app and Asset.

I use the hyphen sign a lot when editing the metadata of my music files (example: “Wiener Philharmoniker - Nikolaus Harnoncourt” as artist or “Jazz - Vocal” as genre).

When I browse Asset with the Naim app, it only diisplays the first part of those tags.

For example “The London Symphony Orchestra - Sir Colin Davis” displays as “The London Symphony Orchestra”

or

“Classical - Baroque” and “Classical - Medieval” are displayed as two different folders when browsing by genre but both with the name “Classical”.

That makes it impossible for me to browse my collection properly.

It only happens when browsing Asset with the Naim app.

It doesn’t happen if I browse Asset with other clients (I checkked with MediaConnect on my tablet and PlugPlayer on my Mac)

It doesn’t happen when I browse MinimServer with the Naim app.

Anyone having the same problem? Is it a known issue? Is it a Naim or Asset issue? Am I condemned to retag most of my files if I want to use Asset with the Naim app?

Sorry for my bad english, I hope I was clear enough.
Cheers
Nicolas

Posted on: 31 August 2015 by Bart

I use the hyphen on my UnitiServe, and with Asset and Minimserver, with the Naim App, and do not have issues.  I have a few albums with a hyphen in their name (Beatles anthologies, and a lot of live Grateful Dead concerts).  Are you using a standard EU or North American keyboard?  The traditional ascii hyphen or minus sign (ASCII 45) should not cause issues I am pretty sure.

Posted on: 31 August 2015 by nicopra

Thanks for your answer Bart,

 

My keyboard is European (QWERTZ - Swiss French). I don’t think it could be at fault.

May I ask if you use spaces before and after the hyphen in your metadata tags?

I’m gonna post that in the Asset forum as well and see if something comes from there.

I have to say I don’t understand what’s happening and why I would be the only one to have that issue.

Any suggestion is very welcome

Posted on: 01 September 2015 by Harty601

Hi Nicolas, 

 

I'm new to this world (almost about to finish ripping my CD collection).

 

I'm using DBpoweramp to rip my CDs and I notice that it tends to use commas rather than hyphens and the text after the comma does then show up within the naim app.

 

I had a play last night with using hyphens and the text after the hypen (I entered in dbpoweramp) did not come across into the naim app.

 

Harty

Posted on: 01 September 2015 by Eloise

I've not used Asset in anger, but is there a setting which is meaning that hyphens are treated as a separator?

 

So

ARTIST = Wiener Philharmoniker - Nikolaus Harnoncourt

is being interpreted as

ARTIST (1) = Wiener Philharmoniker

ARTIST (2) = Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Posted on: 01 September 2015 by feeling_zen
Are you sure it is a hyphen and not an em dash?

Asset has problems with WAV files if the meta data is not ASCII or UTF8. An em dash is slightly longer than a hyphen  and would be encoding specific to the locale of the OS. Flac doesn't have the same restriction since it uses UTF8 consistently.
Posted on: 01 September 2015 by nicopra

Feeling_zen, I'm sure it's hyphen signs and not em dashes. I only have FLAC files transcoded in WAV by asset

 

Eloise, I can't find a setting in Asset to change it's behaviour with hyphens. And no, in your example I only have ARTIST = Wiener Philarmoniker

 

So it seems some people liike Harty601 or myself have that issue and others like Bart don't: that's a bit weird.

Posted on: 01 September 2015 by nicopra

But the most bizzare point still is that the problem only occurs when browsing the Asset server with the Naim app and not with another client.

Posted on: 01 September 2015 by feeling_zen

Have you posted on the Asset help forum? They actually respond very quickly and you may search and find a similar issue.

 

Rather than chase our tail here, I found their free support extremely good.

Posted on: 02 September 2015 by Bart

I checked again, and album titles with a dash appear fine.  I've not tried to put a dash in an ARTIST field, but will happily do so later today when home just to see what Asset does with it in my Naim App.

Posted on: 06 September 2015 by nicopra

I did search the Asset forum and found only one issue that was close to mine (similar but only when navigating by folders)

 

I did post there and was asked to send them one of my file. I did that and I'm now waiting for their answer.

 

Bart, may I ask if Asset is running on a Qnap NAS at your place? If it is the case I'd be very interested to have a look at your Asset configuration page. Do you think you could do a screen capture for me?

Posted on: 06 September 2015 by Bart

Nico, yes Asset is running on QNAP. Let me see if I can find and screenshot the config page for you.

Posted on: 06 September 2015 by Bart

I don't see anything on the config. page that looks remotely connected.  Anything particular you want to see?

Posted on: 06 September 2015 by nicopra

Me neither Bart: I can't see what I could change in Asset to get rid of that issue.

 

I did a screen capture of my configuration if you'd prefer to check for differences with yours by yourself:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent....setConfiguration.png

 

I can also give you a link to one of my music file if you want to check it in your system.

 

I see you have a NDS, I have a NDX: could Asset and Naim app react differently because of that?

 

I'll wait for the answer from the guys at Asset before contacting Naim support.

 

Thanks again for your help

Posted on: 07 September 2015 by Bart

Nico - send me an email (mine is in my profile) with a link to a file  / files that give you problems and I'll try them on my server with Asset.

 

Posted on: 07 September 2015 by nicopra

Done Bart, you should have my email.

Posted on: 07 September 2015 by nicopra

I got an answer from Asset:

 

"We have reported to Naim, as everything looks correct from our side"

 

I'll write to Naim support about that. I'll just wait to see if the file I sent to Bart is showing right in his setting as it would mean that the issue is there with the NDX and not the NDS.

Posted on: 10 September 2015 by nicopra

So Bart did try one of my file in his setting (thanks so much again for your time and help Bart).

He doesn’t have the issue in his setting. The difference I could spot is He’s using a NDS as I’m using a NDX.

I also discovered that I could get rid of the problem by enabling the UPnP compatibility mode in the Naim app settings…

… but at the price of not having the use of play queue and playlists (which is not very satisfactory).

I did write to Naim support and will let you know of the answer.

Cheers

Posted on: 13 September 2015 by JSH

FWIW I had the same issue. 

 

As a workaround, I simply use the tilde ~ instead of a dash - and it works perfectly

Posted on: 14 September 2015 by nicopra

Thanks JSH,

 

I know I could go through all my files and change all the metadata tags that have dashes in a field but I still hope it could be corrected in a future app update.

 

I have to admit I'm not over enthusiastic about spending hours in retagging my music library

 

I had an answer from Phil telling me he was passing that to the software guys. Lets wait and see...

Posted on: 14 September 2015 by JSH
Is it not possible to bulk change them in Media Monkey, Jaikoz or dbPoweramp by seeking out all the dashes and doing a replace? 
 
 
Another way would be to download Bulk Rename Utility. Load your files up there, go through them and delete the dashes (using "remove" "from")  and at the same time insert a tilde where the dash was(using "insert" "at pos".  Bulk rename utility is free and very customizeable but it may take you an hour or so to get to grips with it.  It did me
Of course, Naim software might give you an answer.....and pigs might fly!!
 
 
Originally Posted by nicopra:

Thanks JSH,

 

I know I could go through all my files and change all the metadata tags that have dashes in a field but I still hope it could be corrected in a future app update.

 

I have to admit I'm not over enthusiastic about spending hours in retagging my music library

 

I had an answer from Phil telling me he was passing that to the software guys. Lets wait and see...

 

Posted on: 30 September 2015 by nicopra

You were right JSH: not a word from Naim since two weeks.

 

Let's hope the new 4.4 firmware version will have that issue fixed!

 

And you were right again: I checked the several softwares I use to edit metadata and discovered that Jaikoz is able to batch replace a character in the metadata fields (Metadatics and dBpoeramp can't).

 

Though I didn't find the courage to start that. I'm waiting for the updated firmware and app with my finger crossed

Posted on: 30 September 2015 by Bart

Did you determine the precise ASCII code your system is providing for the dash?  I know from experience that certain characters can be problematic on my UnitiServe; the standard ASCII dash is not one of them.  I believe that the standard dash is ascii code 045; it might be interesting to see if indeed that's the character your system is choking on.

Posted on: 30 September 2015 by nicopra

I run Mac OS X 10.10 and use a QWERTZ keyboard (Swiss French).

 

I verified: the ASCII dash code is indeed 45.

 

I don't think the problem is there as it is only occuring with the Asset and Naim app combination (not when using MinimServer instead of Asset and not when using other clients instead of Naim app).

Posted on: 30 September 2015 by gert

Did you change the entry, so that it was shorter before? Maybe you have to clear the upnp cache in the naim app?

Posted on: 01 October 2015 by Bart
Originally Posted by nicopra:

I run Mac OS X 10.10 and use a QWERTZ keyboard (Swiss French).

 

I verified: the ASCII dash code is indeed 45.

 

I don't think the problem is there as it is only occuring with the Asset and Naim app combination (not when using MinimServer instead of Asset and not when using other clients instead of Naim app).

Interesting . . . just "one of those things" I guess.