Accessing files ripped by HDX/Uniserve on ND555

I don't believe the ND555 will play a unique to Naim WAV rip from a NAS,  it needs the HDX in the system to reconstruct the unique to Naim WAV codec & metadata.   

As an experiment I would be tempted to convert a track or a whole album on the HDX to FLAC,  then move it to the QNAP, copy an extra FLAC & convert it back to WAV, so now you will have the same track/album as both WAV & FLAC on the QNAP.    Then see what the ND555 will play.     

My HDX recently went off to Salisbury to be re-Naimed, so I copied all the WAV rips onto my QNAP nas, and installed MinimServer on it.

Now that I have it back, I have the choice of UPnP servers to my streamer, via the Naim app > Home page > Servers, where both the HDX and Minimserver are listed.

So, to sum up, if I choose Minimserver, album art is missing, probably due to the Naim ripping software, as you have mentioned, whilst choosing the HDX makes it available.

Do you have Minimserver or some other UPnP server installed on your QNAP?

I assume that your ND 555, HDX and your NAS are all connected to the same network, as in my case, via a switch?

Since it works fine here, I'm sure there's a network issue at play, in which case why not try shutting everything down and rebooting 

Router > Switch > HDX > Streamer.  Also, I have the App "Net Analyser" on my phone, which shows all network connected devices.

Hope this helps.

Yes, and no. I'll explain . . . 

You ripped the files using the HDX, and used its default format which is where the HDX rips the files in .wav format, with the metadata (artist, album name, etc etc) in a separate .xml file that the HDX will see and use to send the metadata to the Naim App and your ND555 when the HDX is used as a server.  This is a format unique to Naim servers.

The QNAP media server does not recognize the .xml files or the data in them, and thus just sees the .wav files, and sends to your Naim App precisely what you're seeing -- a big list of files without the artist and album metadata.

(Note: the ND555 does not "access" anything or "read files directly" other than what the server sends it. What the ND55 sees is totally dependent upon the particular media server you're using.)

The fix for your situation is to get the metadata into your files. You have a few options. (1) You can let your HDX convert your library of .wav files to .flac. When it does so, it will embed the basic metadata (including album name, and artist) into the files.  If you then put those files onto your nas (instead of the .wav files) and use the QNAP media server, the Naim App will get them in the way you desire.  (2) You can use a third-party metadata editor and add the metadata to those .wav files.  dbPoweramp is one popular editor; so is Metadatics for OS X.  But some or most of this may need to be done manually, depending on the editor. 

When I added a QNAP as back up to my UnitiServe, faced with the same problem, I converted all my files to .flac on my UnitiServe and then copied them over to the QNAP and have them both convert to .wav on the fly.

This has worked well and I have no issues.

The answer, as others have said, is to get the HDX to convert the files to flac. Load a upnp server such as Asset onto the Qnap and this can serve to the 555 without any need for the HDX. You can set the HDX to convert the whole lot using the desktop client (DTC).

Just to go back to the OP's question, why would he want to convert everything to flac. since he already owns an HDX, which will serve them quite happily to his ND 555, in WAV, the format which they were originally ripped?

I can see the need to convert to .flac, in order to have access to metadata if one is determined to stream from the NAS, but that course of action seems to me to unnecessarily complicate things, when the HDX performs ripping / streaming so well.

 Thanks for the advice everyone (don’t forget to invoice Naim support for consultancy fee).

Converting the files to flac and transcoding to wav on play back seems the easiest option so I’ll give this a go as I don’t want to have to use the HDX as a server every time I listen to the ND555.

I assume that Bart’s second option of adding metadata to the existing wav files will be the most time consuming as each file has to be done individually?

Yes, definitely get the HDX to do it. Adding metadata album by album will take forever. You may find that a few albums get missed, whichbis what happened when I did this with my Uniti Serve. 

Dave,

Yes you’re  right the HDX works very and is not a problem. It’s just that I need an alternative should the HDX fail at any point.

Are you saying that Minimserver will show artist/album details for the HDX ripped wav files and just the album artwork is missing?

My thinking was that it is a question of when my UnitiServe goes pop, not if. It is at least 7 years old and has had to go to the Naim hospital for tired and emotional servers 3 times now. So I wanted not only to back up my music but also have another means of serving music files, and the QNAP seemed the sensible option. I added Asset UPnP software and have more recently added Bubble UPnP software which makes proxies of Asset, QNAP and Naim UPnPs, which sound better to these ears.

But as you know metadata on Niam .wav rips is a nightmare for other servers/UPnP software to make sense of. To solve this I converted my entire WAV collection on the UnitiServe to .flac (a very simple process that only took a couple of hours to complete) and then copied that onto the QNAP. Then finally set the QNAP and UnitiServe to convert the Flac files to WAV on the fly. I will admit I held my breath for most of the process but all went very well.

Now I can serve from either the QNAP or the UnitiServe, and I have to admit I believe serving from the QNQP using the Bubble Asset proxy sounds best. I still of course use my UnitiServe to rip (to flac) and the QNQP gets updated with new rips each night. I can also sleep at nights not worrying when my UnitiServe will expire and go to server heaven.

Jonn posted:

Dave,

Yes you’re  right the HDX works very and is not a problem. It’s just that I need an alternative should the HDX fail at any point.

Are you saying that Minimserver will show artist/album details for the HDX ripped wav files and just the album artwork is missing?

 

Hi, Jonn,

Yes, whilst I was using the QNAP to stream music, selecting Minimserver from the "Servers" option within the Naim app took me to "item" or "folder" view.

Choosing "folder" view shows all my music ordered by "Artist".

Select any artist, and cover art is displayed, though it disappears again, once the album is chosen for playing, to be replaced by Naim's generic "choon" icon....................no, don't ask, I don't know either why it should vanish, when it's clearly there in "Artist" view.

Otherwise, the metadata containing the info as to artist and song titles is present and correct, and I can play music quite happily from the QNAP using the installed Minimserver UPnP software.

I understand you wanting to have a backup, should your HDX fail, as that's exactly why I copied everything to the QNAP, and installed Minimserver.

Incidentally, my HDX went back to Salisbury to head off any such failure, and has returned home with a new CD mech., 2Tb drive, much re-capping and internal wiring, and more besides, for a most unexpectedly reasonable outlay, so you might want to contact your dealer to enquire about a service in advance of any terminal failure.

Hope this helps.

Dave.

It sounds like you just need a server. Asset or Mininserver will run just fine on your QNAP and the ND555 will then pick your albums up. 

The appearance may be spare because Naim rippers do not correctly tag WAVs. But you will be able to access albums and play them.

If you are not reinserting the HDX or another Naim ripper/server, you have a few options to get your collection configured just the way you want. But for now, just get a server running on the QNAP. This will get the music flowing again. The file format does not matter at this juncture.