Re-indexing artists on UPnP Server / N-Stream

Posted by: Richwleeds on 01 August 2011

The NDX arrived last week and very fine it is too....

Most of my music is in Aiff format and I have been using ITunes to manage the files. The files themselves are stored on a Synology NAS which has a built in UPnP server. I am using N-Stream on iPad to control the NDX (and the rest of my system too - really neat!)

Everything is working fine - the N-Stream is picking up all the files and even getting album art to show has been successful and relatively painless (using an applescript to create folder.jpgs)

The only niggle is the way in which UPnP / N-Stream indexes artists and album artists. In iTunes "The Jam" appears under J as is should do - but in the Synology file structure and on the N-Stream "The Jam" is indexed under T! - so inevitably I now have the majority of bands indexed under T!

I recall when I used Squeezebox a few years ago you could tell the media server to ignore "The" when indexing - but I cannot find such a feature in the media server or N-Stream

Any options other than having to manually re-index album artist the "Jam, The" etc for all files

Thanks in advance for any ideas

Posted on: 01 August 2011 by KRM

I'm afraid we're all stuck with massive "T" section until Naim give us the much anticipated update. However, the vastly superior and recently updated nServe is T-blind too so breath holding may be premature :-(

Keith

Posted on: 01 August 2011 by Klout10

An "Ignore prefixes when sorting by artist" option would be great indeed. Even my iPod can do it!

Regards,

Michel

Posted on: 01 August 2011 by pcstockton

I personally LIKE the "The". It is a part of the Band's name.

My deal, if the album cover says "The", so do my tags.

Pixies

The Who

Minutemen

The Kinks

Misfits

The Clash

Anything other is just weird to me...... Seeing "Cure" as a band name just doesn't work. When something presents artists in this fashion I am often confused... "what the hell band is that???"

"Who, The" is also just unpleasant.

My in/non-valuable $0.02

Patrick

Posted on: 01 August 2011 by SteveH

Patrick, I agree with you: The Who are The Who

Posted on: 01 August 2011 by Richwleeds

I also agree ---- The Jam are The Jam - but they are much easier to find under J than with a hundred other bands starting with The in the T section!

Posted on: 01 August 2011 by Klout10

I think we all agree, now it's up to Naim to do something about it!

Posted on: 01 August 2011 by Rich27

The simple way to get around this is to edit the "Album Artist" tag in iTunes. In iTunes, highlight all the tracks by the same artist, right click then click "get info". If you have ripped in iTunes then mostly the "Album Artist" tag will be blank, so simply (using your example) type "Jam" into the field and exit. Now when you browse in nStream and go in under the "By Album Artist" option all of The Jam stuff will show under J.

The only problem with this is that, as by default, iTunes does not fill this tag most of your albums will show up as "Unknown album artist" unless you have edited the tag as above. Just remember when ripping stuff to always complete the tag manually as you go using the name as you would like it to be indexed for the "By Album Artist" view.

I find this tag great for compilations where I always manually edit to "Various".

Posted on: 01 August 2011 by pcstockton

Originally Posted by Klout10:

I think we all agree, now it's up to Naim to do something about it!

what gave you that impression?

Posted on: 01 August 2011 by DQ

How would "the the" be indexed?

Posted on: 07 August 2011 by PureHifi

My collection of "The" is right up there with my "Various Artists" collection....it's life Jim, Oh and the "Various" collection as well. I think that the info provided by AMG and/or any other online lookup should be accurately represented by the UpNP server, which is after all where it is handled - not by the UpNP player.

Posted on: 07 August 2011 by Klout10

Originally Posted by pcstockton:

Originally Posted by Klout10:

I think we all agree, now it's up to Naim to do something about it!

what gave you that impression?

An "Ignore prefixes when sorting by artist" OPTION would make everybody happy, isn't it?

Regards,

Michel

Posted on: 07 August 2011 by Richard Dane

Isn't this something that is up to the upnp server to sort? Asset gets "the" prefixes right and all looks just fine and dandy through n-stream, regardless of whether the files are i-tunes files, dbpoweramp WAV rips or whatever.

Posted on: 07 August 2011 by Klout10

Thanks for your reply Richard, I'm talking about the HDX...

Posted on: 07 August 2011 by Hook

Hi Richwleeds -

Am pretty sure that sort order is up to your UPnP server. I do not know what, if any, options Synology gives you, but I recall back when I tried using foobar2000 as a UPnP server, I had to go into advanced settings to change the default sort order. In that case, "The Beatles" moved from the T's to the B's, and showed up as "Beatles, The".

I now use Asset, and prefer its default behavior. "The Beatles" show up under the B's as "The Beatles" (as seen from N-Stream controlling my NDX).

Hook

Posted on: 07 August 2011 by Richwleeds

Thanks Richard & Hook - I am sure your are right - I will post the question on the Synology forum - and I think there is a software update due soon to make it compatible with OS Lion. Not a huge issue - I am really enjoying the NDX and NStream

Posted on: 08 August 2011 by Klout10

Originally Posted by Hook:

Do you have any idea if it's possible to get the same sorting with only an HDX / n-Serve app?

Regards,

Michel

Posted on: 28 September 2013 by Jejoma

I know this is a very old post but is there any recent update on the "The" problem? I have more artist filed under T for The than anything else on my UnitiServe!