Bubble on a NAS is extremely easy to do. Bubble with transcoding to WAV is the tricky part…
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But I thought that was one of the main advantages of using Bubble on a NAS?
The advantage of Bubble is that it creates an OpenHome renderer for your device, which allows you to control it via Kazoo, BubbleUPnP (on android) etc. These control apps can connect to Qobuz, Tidal etc, thus enabling you to stream their content to your new “OpenHome” renderer.
The transcoding is an optional cherry on the top.
Out the box Bubble will push to a renderer so if you use Qobuz FLAC will land at your 272 to transcode FLAC to WAV on a NAS requires tweaks to FFMPEG if this version is too old you will need to update this.
The only time I got Bubble/Kazoo to work on my laptop (i.e. earlier this week), it did push all WAV files to my 272.
I have bubble set to transcode FLAC to WAV.
But maybe it’s harder to get that to work on a NAS?
BTW, I still haven’t had time to look into the ports settings on my firewall…
On a Windows PC / Laptop FFMPEG is installed with the correct version during the Bubble setup.
Ah - yes, I set it up on my laptop ages ago.
And that process was indeed much more complicated than I hoped it would be.
It makes a difference to Kazoo my setup is rock solid.
I ordered a Raspberry Pi 4 to play with, over this weekend I will be installing Ubuntu and BubbleUPNP on this to try.
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Do keep us updated, especially with the techy details of getting it running.
Mine arrives for my birthday in couple of weeks.
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Been using the mconnect lite Android app to control Qobuz but it doesn’t seem to see the NAS. Didn’t bother with setting transcoding on the Bubble server as doesn’t seem worth it for streaming to my RPi.
On a side note I’ve ordered a Topping E30 DAC to try via USB.
@jmtennapel - A confession:
I did an experiment a couple of weeks ago running WAV against FLAC. Historically with my Naim NS01 there was a decided preference for WAV. With the Linn Klimax it was agnostic. Now with my Meridian 210 there is probably a slight preference for WAV. Sooooooo, I set up my main store and then looked at Qobuz via Bubbleupnp.
Tinkering on my Synology I realised I had played with a few settings, AND loaded Bubbleupnp manually - sorry for the bum steer.
I was unable to turn on the on the fly flac > wav.
In my case I loaded the full version of ffmpeg from the Synocommunity which got things running:
https://synocommunity.com/
I DID use your load order, AND I had to do a bit of under the hood tinkering with the $PATH to get things running - I suspect this was due to other things I had done historically on the box.
So, the purpose of the post is twofold, the apology AND to let people know of an alternative source for a full version of ffmpeg.
Transcoding on NAS is so much easier to setup if you use a container version of Bubble and not the app as it’s all bundled together with ffmeg and runs in its own little world on your Nas. Using Container Station you just search Docker HuB and choose one prebuilt version, install it and your away.
Not quite that straightforward in my case …but, I suspect that was due to other changes i have done over the years.
Very happy with the subtle uptick in performance from both Qobuz & Minumserver, both transcoding to WAV.
For a number of years I used LMS and looked into transcoding Qobuz, the maintainer told me he was unable to get it running as the headers in teh flac stream didn’t have the meta-data he needed. Bubbleupnp obviously have some clever chaps doing the coding.
DSM upgrade annnnnd?
Bubbleupnp still THINKS it can transcode. Kazoo says FLAC, bugger!
Before saying how I solved this I will repeat that I have done some historic tinkering on this box so I cannot say, hand on heart, that it is STANDARD. It may be that the issues I am seeing won’t effect another.
This is written to give others pointers if they run into this issue following a DSM upgrade. Your issue may be different, but there are troubleshooting tips.
When I first loaded Bubbleupnp it saw ffmpeg, which it uses for transcoding, and said it could; but it couldn’t and the controls were greyed out. My installed version of ffmeg, 2.7.1, is loaded with certain Synology official packages. I suspect it is lobotomised, or Bubbleupnp would complain - if well written.
So, as stated above, to solve this I loaded the Synocommunity ffmpeg, tinkered and voila.
To check whether my tinkering was still working I ssh’d onto the box and typed ffmpeg, it reported it was version 2.7.1. Damn.
However, the Synocommunity version of ffmpeg was still installed.
echo $PATH
The pointer I had put in place to the better version of ffmpeg was no longer present, despite my having written it into the root .profile; Synology obviously overwrites much of their OS when doing a DSM upgrade.
I edited the root .profile AND the /etc/profile, saving copies to my filestore - in case I need to repeat this. The edit extends the PATH to add the location of the full version of ffmpeg.
Renamed the 2.7.1 ffmpeg file = ffmpegOLD.
I deinstalled JAVA and Bubbleupnp.
Thought I would leave the Synocommunity ffmpeg installed.
Went to reinstall Java8, Package Manager wouldn’t access the repos!!!
I followed the Synology advice to solve this …it didn’t.
I raised a ticket with Synology and looked for the Java8 spk file online, and did a manual install.
Installed Bubbleupnp manually, NO DEAL.
Deinstalled the lot, including ffmpeg. I couldn’t find the current Synocommunity ffmpeg spk file but got an older version.
Did the install. No transcoding.
In disgust went and listened to my system using flac. Wasn’t terribly happy so a bit latter I rechecked Package manager, which was now working and told me an newer version of the Synocommunity ffmpeg package was available, installed and all sprang into life. Eureka!
WAV transcoding into the Meridian 210/Audio Note DAC really IS a step up. Which it wasn’t with the Linn Klimax.
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