Random play over entire collection/500 track playlist limit

Posted by: Mrs Wogan's lemon drizzle cake on 17 April 2016

Hi all.

Firstly apologies if this topic has been done to death. The most recent thread i can find on the subject is from a year ago: https://forums.naimaudio.com/topic/all-tracks-randomly-how-hard-can-it-be

I'm trying to create a "random" playlist which cycles through my entire collection, which is not limited to 500 tracks (i.e max playlist size).

FYI I'm using a uniti streamer using the latest version of the naim app on IOS (iphone / ipad) backed by a synology nas running it's built in media server.

Here's a "workaround" from the topic above:

"reate a random playlist from an album collection, save it as a playlist (say Random album 1), then create another random playlist, save it as e.g., Random album 2, and so on. "

The problem with the above (at least from my experience) is that whenever you hit "play" from an "all tracks/all albums" collection is that only the first 500 tracks make it into the playlist, so no music after track 500 will ever apear in your random selection. I don't want to cycle through a subset of my music, i want to hear all of it.

Is this possible to do without resorting to 3rd party software? If not, will it ever be? Also why the limit on a 500 track playlist? I'm keen to understand why this limitation exists.

Cheers!

Posted on: 17 April 2016 by Mrs Wogan's lemon drizzle cake

OK. More playing/swearing this afternoon. I had actually forgotten that "shuffle" everything seems to be available when using the controls on the front of the unit itself. doh.

UPnP >"list">"All Music">Play. The selecting shuffle either from either the naim app or the remote seems to give me what i'm looking for.

Anyone from Naim care to comment if this is in fact playing randomly from the *entire* collection, rather then a subset?

I also note that whenever I select tracks using the naim app it creates a "current" play queue limited to 250 tracks. It seems kind of pointless allowing playlists of 500 tracks if the uniti is only able to queue 250 tracks at a time? I'm wondering if upgrading the uniti to a 24bit/192kHz card increases the play queue max to 500 tracks, i'm guessing it probably does? In which case i would consider upgrading.

Posted on: 17 April 2016 by David Hendon

Hello MWLDC

Naim staff don't routinely read postings in the forum so if you specifically want Naim to comment on your question, I'm afraid you may have to ring their technical support line, unless by chance one of them picks up on it and replies. Of course a forum member might also know the answer.....

best

David

Posted on: 17 April 2016 by Mrs Wogan's lemon drizzle cake

Thanks David.

Posted on: 17 April 2016 by Sloop John B

I find Naim are exceptionally quick to respond to support emails, no need to resort to the blower.

https://forums.naimaudio.com/topic/naim-support

SJB

Posted on: 17 April 2016 by ChrisSU

The problem is that both 'playlists' and the 'play queue' are limited to 500 tracks, so the short answer to your question is no, it can't be done with the Naim app.

However, it can be done using the remote, as long as your UPnP server allows you to view 'tracks'. Navigate to the track folder with the remote/front panel display. Press play. Hit the Random button.

If you then return to the Naim app, of course, it can't handle this, so no play queue is displayed.

Posted on: 17 April 2016 by Mrs Wogan's lemon drizzle cake

Cheers for the Email address SJB. I have also emailed Naim in the past and have received excellent support.

Chrissu - As I said in my previous post, the ' play queue' isn't limited to 500 tracks, it's actually 250. I suspect the size of this figure is dependent on system hardware rather then the UPnP server or Naim's application. I think the reason why this seems to work using the remote/front panel is because the streamer is playing one track at a time in a serial fashion, and not actually creating a play queue.

Posted on: 17 April 2016 by ChrisSU

Mrs Wogan's lemon drizzle cake posted:
Chrissu - As I said in my previous post, the ' play queue' isn't limited to 500 tracks, it's actually 250. I suspect the size of this figure is dependent on system hardware rather then the UPnP server or Naim's application. I think the reason why this seems to work using the remote/front panel is because the streamer is playing one track at a time in a serial fashion, and not actually creating a play queue.

For me, the play queue has always been limited to 500, not 250.

Posted on: 17 April 2016 by Mrs Wogan's lemon drizzle cake

What hardware are you using? Not a pre upgrade uniti 1 i'm guessing

Posted on: 17 April 2016 by ChrisSU

No, a Superuniti and an NDX. Is the 250 limit something that applies to pre-24/192 streamers?

Posted on: 17 April 2016 by alan33

500 on my SuperUniti (and 3D board units); 250 on my original v1 UnitiQute (and 2D board units).

These are playlist limits from internal memory constraints. My understanding (from experimentation) is that the IR remote can play all tracks in the UPnP list from the server, including on shuffle. As a minimum, it's known not to choose / jump only within the first 500 (250) tracks... It's a long time ago now, but I think this was confirmed in a previous thread...

Regards alan

Posted on: 18 April 2016 by ChrisH

That's correct Alan33 - the workaround for unlimited random play is to simply use the IR remote handset.

Im pretty sure it doesn't limit it to 250 or 500 songs, but to be honest I never get that far to be able to confirm it