Playlist for Uniti2 (CD-) Cover not shown, track can not be started

I'm not entirely sure what Alzheimer's disease, which destroys so many lives, has to do with problems playing music. It's a most insensitive analogy. 

As to the problem, it may be incompatibility of iTunes and the Naim app. Have you tried using Asset or Minim server?

The choosen analogy has nothing to do with playing music but with the behaviour of the playlists. Nevertheless it hasn't been my intention to offense other people's feelings, which I apologize for.

With respect to proposed alternative servers I haven't tried them. The prefered Synology owned media server has done it job for quite a long time without any problems. That is, the playlist(s) were stable more than one year before they got slowly corrupted with no chance to repair. For that reason I'm not sure if installation of other server will change someting - well, except, the described behaviour hasn't been experienced for either Asset or Minim server?

Well, meanwhile I have installed Minimserver, but, as expected, this does not solve the problem. Basically, I think because the naim app stores playlists in proprietary *.nmpl format while Minimserver use *.m3u or *.m3u8 playlists. And importing a sample m3u-playlist via iTunes simply failed because naim app can not read *.m3u files (as I think have read here somewhere else in this forum)

Additionally, when the m3u-playlist is stored on root of the music folder (e.g. on Y:\music) Minimserver creates an additional folder on top called playlist (well, with some strange uppoint arrow in front of the folder name), which is not properly read as showing no results when opened. Thus, may attempt to letting MinimServer to read the playlist (instead of the app) was not successfully as well.

It looks as created playlists (*,nmpl format) are linked to the server they have created which. I.e., when I stopped Synology's media server on NAS, the created playlist could not be started at all (and runing playlist was stopped). Some more hint that it is not the server but the app.

Has anybody some idea how to fix it?

Just one thing to add. *.nmpl playlist seems actually to refer to the server used. Refer to the line below, which is copied from nmpl-file out of a new sample playlist:

http://192.xxx.yyy.zz:9790/min...icture-705-33176.jpg

which supports my hypothesis that it is the app and not server that got corrupted.

I agree with HH

Why don't you just retract this thread if possible and just start again asking the question in simple english

If the OP does not retract this thread then Richard Dane should moderate or delete it.  It is extremely incentive & completely unnecessary to use of such language to describe a basic defect.  

I've edited the thread title and content body.

Hi,

Your playlists make reference to the virtual files on your UPnP server - many UPnP servers do not maintain a consistent virtual file structure when they refresh their lists (or when they are rebooted / restarted) and so although a physical file may still be in the same place the virtual file link issued by the UPnP server may no longer exist under the same path and so therefore it is no longer available in the playlist.

I suspect this is the cause of your files not being available in the playlist after a period.

Best

Phil Harris

A couple of comments.

Firstly, naim streamers do support m3u format playlist. I know this because I have many of these files which I regularly play via my NDS. I suspect that the issue you have relates to the file addresses which are listed for the individual tracks.

I'm using Asset on a QNAP and the format for listing the tracks within the playlist file are typically:

/share/Root Directory name/Music/Artist Foldername/Album Foldername/trackname.flac

for example my own playlists (on QNAP) follow the following directory format

/share/Multimedia/Music/Artistname/Albumname/trackname.flac

assuming that you have your files in a Root Directory/Music/Artist Folder/Album Folder directory structure on your Synology NAS.

Note also that Linux uses forward slashes (/) in the directory structure rather than backslashes (\) used in Windows.

m3u playlists can be opened and edited using a text editing program e.g. notepad.

Secondly, I would not use your NAS drive's internal network i.p. address (192.68.xxx.yy.zzz) in the playlist since this can change when your router is restarted or its DHCP server renews its i.p. addresses as indicated in Phil H's comment above.

Phil,

Do you know whether the naim app would be able to handle network "nicknames" in naim app produced playlists.

For example, if my QNAP server's network name were QNAP451 could this be substituted for the local i.p. address and obviate the problem of the playlist links being 'lost' by the app when the server's network i.p. address changes.

sjbabbey posted:

Phil,

Do you know whether the naim app would be able to handle network "nicknames" in naim app produced playlists.

For example, if my QNAP server's network name were QNAP451 could this be substituted for the local i.p. address and obviate the problem of the playlist links being 'lost' by the app when the server's network i.p. address changes.

Hi,

Unfortunately if you mean instead of say...

http://192.xxx.xxx.xx:50002/m/NDLNA/24866.flac

...you mean could we use...

http://MusicNAS:50002/m/BLNA/24866.flac

...then that's comparitively "easy" (and our servers already do that for music in network stores and shares to avoid his issue)  - however the problem generally isn't that the IP address changes. What is usually the problem is that when the UPnP server itself does a rescan then the track that was at...

http://192.xxx.xxx.xx:50002/m/NDLNA/24866.flac

...may now be at...

http://192.xxx.xxx.xx:50002/m/NDLNA/28242.flac

...and 24866.flac may no longer exist - and there's no way to do any kind of automatic rescan to relink a playlist back to the correct files in that case. Remember that these are http: links to virtual files on the UPnP server and not physical links to the files themselves as otherwise the playback device would need to have login access to the device hosting the UPnP server.

Cheers

Phil

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the clarification. I think then that I'll stick to using m3u playlist files and use the app for making temporary playlists which, if I decide to keep I'll duplicate using an m3u file.

sjbabbey posted:

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the clarification. I think then that I'll stick to using m3u playlist files and use the app for making temporary playlists which, if I decide to keep I'll duplicate using an m3u file.

It really depends on the UPnP server as to what's the best solution ... I believe that Asset maintains a consistent virtual folder structure and so unless you actually re-tag a track with a new name then it should always stay in the same virtual location ... most UPnP servers however don't do this.

Cheers

Phil

Thanks for the answers. However, will take some time to see what to do next.

Have a nice day

Kilian

I'll try to summarize what I have understood:

UPnP Server creates virtual database of physical (music-) files, through which UPnP clients access the files stored on the NAS. Any client accessing the NAS through UPnP does this via virtual database. I.e., the client has no knowledge about logical path to physical music-file. In case the virtual database gets corrupted, the client just reflects that corruption („bullshit in, bullshit out“). Rebuilding of virtual database imposes risk that playlist may not be used anymore because manufacturer of UPnP servers like Asset, MinimServer, Synology, … always document if a rebuilt virtual database maintains its previous structure where possible (for still existing files only, of course). Nevertheless, Asset is suspected to maintain structure of virtual database.

I assume in case CD-cover are not shown anymore its done for same reason: they got lost in virtual database.

M3U playlist would offer the strength of not using virtual database but logical path of physical files on the NAS. Unfortunately, I wasn't yet successful getting a small *.m3u-file visible in the Naim App even under consideration of sjabbay's hints. I do get always error messages like

„Error: playlist TestPlaylist.m3u: no content director for ../Anne Clark/ …/12 Anne Clark – Cane Hill.flac“

What is the appropriate way of getting the m3u-playlist being recognized? I have stored it in root directory of „shared/music“ and initiated re-scan through MinimServer's URL.

@sjbabbey: I haven't selected the IP address on my own as I have this playlist not personally edited. Entries were created through Naim App by adding a track to a playlist. What I have shown is just a backup of that nmpl-playlist stored on my PC.

@Phil: A little strange is that I was able to select every single track of a playlist individually by just skipping one track forward from the first to the very lastone. But running playlist on its whole led to skipping individual files again (and streaming was stopped after some tracks). Nevertheless, take this as single, i.e. not fully confirmed behaviour, as I did this manual selection just once.

@Richard Dane: Thanks for changing thread title and content body – I think there is no possibility for members of doing it. And, well, ignore this "Manage topic" messages that may have filled up your account; after some time it came into my mind that something differently may be meant from what I have understood initially ...