I’m a big Asset fan but there’s a small bug (reported and on the schedule to get fixed one day) which makes it a no-no with my Bartok.
dCS are big fans of Minimserver and I’ve been using it several months but it has a glaring omission which is driving me nuts i.e. Recent Albums. That and it’s just too hard and cryptic to configure; Asset is really easy in comparison.
So, anyway, I was wondering if there were any other UPnP/DNLA server packages (for Windows) which can be recommended and that I can try.
Be patient. There’s a new version of Minim on the way. Supposedly easier to configure and including a “recent albums” feature. NAS-based platforms are not supported yet, but should be included in the rollout. It’ll be subscription-based.
OTOH if you’re locked down, with lots of free time, isn’t that a good opportunity to really get to grips with Minim? The learning curve is steep, but worth doing IMHO.
Actually I have and use both Minim and Asset on my QNAP. I find Minim best for composer-based albums and Asset for performer- based ones.
It looks like the ‘recent albums’ issue has been going on for years! Not sure why this is so hard but one of the problems is Minim also doesn’t have facility to auto-scan for changes. Sounds easy, to me, to scan and if the album/track is new then then set a field in the library.
MM4 is really good with great management features and also a perfectly good dnla server. The only problem is a lack of dsd support though, beta MM5 does have this.
It would not be efficient for the UPnP servers to continuously scan (or poll) for changes.
The way I believe this is implemented in Asset is via tight integration with the underlying filesystem which provides an event-driven trigger when the filesystem of the Music Library is modified (by adding new files, or changing metadata of existing files). This trigger is passed to Asset which subscribes to such changes, which then enables Asset to update the library metadata for just that part of the library.
I don’t think this type of update is so easy with Minim because it’s a Java application and I’m not sure the Java APIs exist to provide the necessary low-level filesystem hooks. It will be interesting to see how the author plans to implement this functionality in the new version.
Hi, jriver mediacenter should solve your issue. “Recent albums” is a default library view, and you can create more as needed. New ones need to be enabled as visible by clients, it’s all handled through the options.
The Bartok uses a rare command to get the album track list for playing. Asset sends the list back in alphabetical rather than track order. dCS say it’s not their fault and, tbh, they’re probably right. Asset agree it’s a ‘software-design-oversight’ and it will be fixed one day.
Does it support dsd files?
I was all set to use MM4, which I use all the time for media management and organizing and is brilliant (IMHO), but no DSD support. Then I heard MM5 does DSD only to find it’s on the list but not there yet I don’t have many DSD albums, probably less than half a dozen, but I’d still like the option to play them.
I assumed it was going to be fixed in the promised update due in December '19 but that seems to have been delayed… we’re still on ver. 6.2 for windows!
Steve, what settings have you enabled in jriver? Everything is in the “media network” section.
You need “use media network” ticked. Then add a dlna server with the output as pcm 24 bit.
Recent albums, artist view and album view are default library views so you shouldn’t need to alter those.
In advanced, you would need to tick dlna server.
I had to select generic DNLA for the artwork to come out… strangely when I selected 24bit DAC for DNLA type it got the atrwork out of sync with the albums.
Any all I want is a simple Albumartist and then Albums under chosen albumartist and then titles under chosen album. Going through the forum and its a nightmare of customer expressions and views and god knows what else which never worked. Asset does this standing on it’s head and VERY easy to configure.
I think jriver might be more a media management platform with dnla tacked on the side. It looks very powerful and I’m sure with lots of time devoted to learn it you could probably make it do everything including wake you up with a cup of tea and take the dog for a walk! Too much hard work though.
That’s odd it’s not quite there for you as what you describe is ready out of the box once dlna is activated. Via the Naim app I click servers then jriver logo then audio then artists then album then tracks if I want to drill down that far. I appreciate you are using dcs rather than Naim but it does make me think the dcs deployment of dlna isn’t quite the same.
