Help with my U.Core

Posted by: Bouba on 05 December 2018

'Noon folks, 

I just took delivery of my Uniti Core a few days ago, after a long wait. It's feeding my Atom and I'm so far very pleased with the sound. 

So far I've been able to import music from My Synology NAS to the internal storage of my Core (took 5 long days to do so, but hey it could have been even longer to import 2 TB of music through Wifi), set up a back up schedule and processed a first back up of the music files on that same NAS within a dedicated folder (Nas drive\Shared files\Naim back up\back up\downloads) 

I'm still experimenting a little bit as for the possibilities the Core offers, hence my 2 questions: 

1. Is there a reason why I could not alter the metadata of some albums and for instance : create an artwork for albums with missing artwork ? I read everywhere on the forum the way to do that from within the naim app. However, when I select a specific album, tapping the "..." I cannot see any "edit metadata submenu". So should I toggle on some specific option within the app to be able to do so? Or is that option available only for ripped CDs? Because 99% of my library in the Core was  not ripped but directly imported from my NAS as my music was aldready stored there.

And I have about 500 albums with no artwork (that's the Core's count when selecting "albums with no artwork" from the app). So why could be the reason for not being able to even see the "edit metadata" sub-menu within the app then ? 

2. I've made a back up from my Core to the NAS and then set up a monthly back up of the Core to the NAS. However, when I then went to specified folder I figured that some album were missing there. I then went back to the internal storage of the Core to find out that those same albums were not imported to the internal storage. and yet, when I initally imported my music files to the Core, I made sure that I did pick the Whole Library , without selecting specific albums. 

I know the Core is compatible and able to "read" virtually any available music format and my library is mostly WAV, Apple Losseless, FLAC and MP3. So nothing the Core could not handle if trusting the specs sheet. 

I then realised that some of my music files are stored the following way: Artist/Album/files, but within that same artist folder I also may have Artist/Studio albums/Albums 1/Songs AND Artist/Live albums/Live album "X"/song A etc. 

Could that be the reason for the Core to be confused while importing the files, or could it have indexed such files otherwise? 

 

Any help appreciated, I'd like to make sure what's on my Core is the exact replica of the music on the NAS Drive. 

3. I've got a last question that might sound silly to some but I'd like to make sure I understood how the unit work to use it properly. For the time being, I'm using the internal storage of the Core to stream to Atom. So the Music Store is set on the Internal HDD.

However, I read that the Core is able to stream from a NAS drive, without the need to store the music internally. How could I do that? Is it possible to have several music stores ? i.e. having both the internal storage + the music folder on my NAS drive ? 

Posted on: 05 December 2018 by Klout10

Hello Bouba,

It is only possible to edit metadata for the albums ripped by the Uniti Core itself. If you import the music from e.g. a NAS, you'll have to use a program like MP3Tag ...

Sorry that I cannot be of any assistance regarding your other questions, but I'm sure that someone will pop in :-)

Posted on: 05 December 2018 by Filipe

I thought this was a temporary expedient of last year. Seems odd that when the music is on the Core the import process can’t treat it like a first time CD rip given the option. When the Core first came out it made a real mess by ignoring all the perfect metadata even that from a trusted UnitiServe and then was bad identifying music the UnitiServe had got right.

Quite a few people prefer to buy Melco gear instead.

Phil

Posted on: 05 December 2018 by Bouba
Klout10 posted:

Hello Bouba,

It is only possible to edit metadata for the albums ripped by the Uniti Core itself. If you import the music from e.g. a NAS, you'll have to use a program like MP3Tag ...

Sorry that I cannot be of any assistance regarding your other questions, but I'm sure that someone will pop in :-)

I just realised it while reading again the on-line Core manual  seems that imported music metadata cannot be altered which really is a pity. 

I'm still confused though whether I could set multiple music stores (just figured out that music store is the place where music ripped through the Core will be stored- which I chose to be the internal HDD storage) and shares and where within the app I would choose between streaming from the internal storage of the Core or from my NAS through the Core? 

Posted on: 05 December 2018 by hungryhalibut

As you have a Nas and clearly are happy ripping your CDs, what value does the Core add? With the money you spent on a Core, you could have a Nova. That really would be an improvement. 

Posted on: 05 December 2018 by David Hendon

You can have only one music store where the Core stores it’s own rips, and that is normally, but doesn’t have to be, the internal HDD. But you can have many music shares and in terms of playing back through the app, they (store and shares) all work the same way.

You must edit metadata in rips made by the Core with the Naim app, but for other music which isn’t ripped with a Naim server you can’t edit the metadata with the app.  But you can edit it with a separate program running on a PC.

You don’t have to choose within the app where you stream from. You look at the screens of all albums wherever they are, choose the one you want to play and the Core knows where to get it from, inside the Core or in a NAS or wherever.

I suspect sorting out your concerns about importing and backup will take a few postings. But basically in the music store there are two folders, downloads and music. Within the music folder there are LQ, MQ and HQ sub-folders. The Core puts its own rips into the music/MQ folder and everything else, for example imports, is put into the downloads folder. The backup will just copy all of that, so you need to look into both backup folders to find everything that has been backed up.

I’m happy to try to answer other questions!

best

David

Posted on: 05 December 2018 by ChrisSU
hungryhalibut posted:

As you have a Nas and clearly are happy ripping your CDs, what value does the Core add? With the money you spent on a Core, you could have a Nova. That really would be an improvement. 

To anyone with an Atom, and £2k burning a hole in their pocket, this would be my suggestion too. 

Posted on: 06 December 2018 by Rich 1

I have to agree within the context of your existing system prior to the purchase of the Core that Hungry is again correct unless you're considering some very expensive upgrades in the near future. 

Although I'm a Core lover above a domestic NAS, I to have both and consider the Core music better than the Qnap TS251 NAS on my 272 / 250DR setup. Ideally you need to have a home demo pitching your NAS against a Core because although I can reliably hear a difference to the good of the music others cannot, no difference, don't buy! 

Why does this damn phone change font halfway through a note? Rich 

Posted on: 06 December 2018 by Bouba

Well, the Core was purchased as a display unit from my dealer and price was a real bargain so I could not resist. 

As for the stores and shares I did understand now that there can only be one music store, and numerous shares to choose from. However, I did select only my NAS as music share for the time being, but I do get the impress that the Core did not finish indexing the whole library yet. Yesterday after put it into standby the unit wake up again without any apparent reason (back up is set to process once a month) but I could not tell whether it was still indexing some files or not. 

 

Posted on: 06 December 2018 by hungryhalibut

Just because it seemed a bargain, it’s not really because it adds no value. Music won’t sound better and file management is harder and less flexible than using your NAS. Still, it looks nice. 

Posted on: 06 December 2018 by David Hendon
Bouba posted:

Well, the Core was purchased as a display unit from my dealer and price was a real bargain so I could not resist. 

As for the stores and shares I did understand now that there can only be one music store, and numerous shares to choose from. However, I did select only my NAS as music share for the time being, but I do get the impress that the Core did not finish indexing the whole library yet. Yesterday after put it into standby the unit wake up again without any apparent reason (back up is set to process once a month) but I could not tell whether it was still indexing some files or not. 

 

You can tell whether it’s still indexing by looking in the albums view in the app, scroll down to the bottom and you will see the total number of albums indexed. If that doesn’t change in say 5 minutes, you can assume it’s dobe.

best

David

Posted on: 14 December 2018 by Bouba

Well, after a few days, it now seems that the Core has imported the whole library. 

However, I still have some issues with having the artwork displayed for some of my albums. 

Posted on: 14 December 2018 by David Hendon

Assuming that these were not rips made by a Naim server, the Core will have put them into the Downloads folder in its Music Store. You can edit the metadata and artwork in the Downloads folder using a PC or Mac.

If it’s just artwork, then for the ones that are missing artwork look at the folder for that album using a PC and make sure that the cover artwork is a jpg file called cover.jpg or folder.jpg and that it is located in the same folder as the individual music tracks for that album. You can edit this directly in the Core without moving the files out first and back in again after editing. The rescan to take account of the changed should be s fre tens of seconds at most.

best

David

Posted on: 16 December 2018 by Echolane
David Hendon posted:

Assuming that these were not rips made by a Naim server, the Core will have put them into the Downloads folder in its Music Store. You can edit the metadata and artwork in the Downloads folder using a PC or Mac.

If it’s just artwork, then for the ones that are missing artwork look at the folder for that album using a PC and make sure that the cover artwork is a jpg file called cover.jpg or folder.jpg and that it is located in the same folder as the individual music tracks for that album. You can edit this directly in the Core without moving the files out first and back in again after editing. The rescan to take account of the changed should be s fre tens of seconds at most.

best

David

I’d like to step in to ask a relevant question.  I’ve just managed to add my first file to the Downloads folder for my Uniti Core.  It is a .wav file recorded off an FM broadcast so no album art.  Can I just find an appropriate photo on the web, affix a .jpg suffix and move it to the folder containing the .wav file?

Posted on: 17 December 2018 by David Hendon

You can except that the art file has to be located in the same folder as the music files (obvious really) and it also has to named cover.jpg or folder.jpg  If you call it Beethoven Symphony 5.jpg or whatever, the Core won’t pick it up.

After you have added the artwork file, it may take a minute or so to pick up the change but it’s very quick compared with earlier Naim servers.

best

David

Posted on: 17 December 2018 by Echolane
David Hendon posted:

You can except that the art file has to be located in the same folder as the music files (obvious really) and it also has to named cover.jpg or folder.jpg  If you call it Beethoven Symphony 5.jpg or whatever, the Core won’t pick it up.

After you have added the artwork file, it may take a minute or so to pick up the change but it’s very quick compared with earlier Naim servers.

best

David

Excellent, sounds easy enough, thanks!

Posted on: 17 December 2018 by Bouba

Very helpful David, I'll try this tonight once I get home. I did remember that some of the covers files are named after the relevant artist or album's name. 

Aside from this, I still don't understand though why my Core will sometimes unexpectedely wake up from stand-by mode, on its own without any interacting with it ? It's directly wired to a Time capsule on my network. I did not try to move it to another location as I wanted it to be on my hifi stands (my ISP box is located somewhere else in the room) So I don't know wheteher that explain that weird behavior, but it will wake up from stand-by maybe once or twice a day then goes back to stand-by again once the auto-standby time is reached? 

Do other Core owners here experience the same? 

Posted on: 17 December 2018 by David Hendon
Bouba posted:

Very helpful David, I'll try this tonight once I get home. I did remember that some of the covers files are named after the relevant artist or album's name. 

Aside from this, I still don't understand though why my Core will sometimes unexpectedely wake up from stand-by mode, on its own without any interacting with it ? It's directly wired to a Time capsule on my network. I did not try to move it to another location as I wanted it to be on my hifi stands (my ISP box is located somewhere else in the room) So I don't know wheteher that explain that weird behavior, but it will wake up from stand-by maybe once or twice a day then goes back to stand-by again once the auto-standby time is reached? 

Do other Core owners here experience the same? 

I don’t know why it does that either! Two thoughts though. You could try doing a full restart of the Core. By that I mean power off completely, wait a few seconds and then turn on the power again. I find my Core needs this from time to time, presumably because one or another software module has crashed. It manifests itself in unexpected odd behaviour.

Secondly the Time Capsule might be the problem. Again I found running a Time Capsule on my network caused issues with my WiFi which disappeared when I replaced it with a normal AirPort Extreme that I bought just as Apple was in the process of discontinuing them.

best

David

Posted on: 17 December 2018 by Bouba

If the TC is indeed the culprit here, that'd be a pity: I have 2 of these: 1 is the main router in bridge mode, connected through WAN to my ISP modem and creating a separate network. That TC also serves as a back-up of my Macs at home using Time machine. The 2nd TC extend that network and also hosts the iTunes libraries of the macs (in an effort to spare storage on the macs themselves).  The Core is wired to that 2nd TC and stream wirelessly to the Atom on the same network (so I only have 1 network, not 2). When setting up the Core, I chose only the NAS drives (also on the same network through Wifi) to be scanned. 

I don't want to part with the TC as I've been using them with no issues for 5 years now, until I saw this issue. I don't have any other router/wifi network extender on hands to perform a test and determine whether the TC is causing these randoms wakes or not. 

Not really what I'd qualify as a really bad thing (i.e. the Core otherwise is working perfectly and my Atom can spot it anytime I want it to stream from the core) but It'd just be better if I could avoid wasting power having the unit waking up when not desired. 

Posted on: 17 December 2018 by David Hendon

Actually the power saving between network sleep and awake is absolutely miniscule. When the Core was first released Jon Honeyball who was then a forum member measured the power consumption in all the possible states and from memory going to network sleep saved about 1% of the power. So I should just accept the Core wakes occasionally and forget about it!

best

David

Posted on: 17 December 2018 by Bouba

Sounds indeed the best thing to do for the time being. I'll replace the TCs once one or the other or both fail one day, probably with a Google WiFi or something alike.