NAC-N 272 is connected by Ethernet direct connected cable.
I first have tried the following, a USB drive connected to my router. result within the Naim app some music would play, but I would often have to keep trying different songs, before one would play. I figured maybe the slowness of the USB connection might be the cause.
I then thought that I could share my Ubuntu files including Music and this was connected by wifi but this was again patchy, so I whilst I only had a short ethernet cable as a test I connected the laptop direct to ethernet, I rebooted the Nac-N (even though I already knew that on wifi the uPnP connected was picked up). made no difference.
Direct ethernet would not work. couldnât see the share at all. switch back to wifi and thereâs the share again. but still only some files will play.
I have been looking at a NAS box with SSD drives for a Music store, but I want to ensure a direct Ethernet connection to work first. Any thoughts please?
You need to run a proper UPnP media server on your network, preferably one like Asset or Minimserver that is designed specifically for music. It can run on a NAS or a computer, which could be a laptop as long as it remains on and available over your LAN.
My network is a single router. at the moment the Ubuntu laptop only connects for UPnp via Wifi and the NAC-N 272 is direct cabled to the router. There are no additional hubs.
Why via the Naim app am I able to see a music store PC via Wifi. why can I see, but not play many titles. and yet play other music on the same store?
Does\did the Naim Unity Core come with a built in server?
Unless I am mistaken the Naim app reads the meta data to view but unable to play many but not all tracks. I already tried a USB drive connected to the router. but that too reacted in much the same as above. Thatâs because there is no server on the USB drive or laptop in play?
Iâm no networking expert, but thereâs a difference between the UPnP networking protocol and a UPnP media server which is a dedicated protocol for sharing music, video etc.
You mentioned that you were considering a NAS: I would suggest that you run a music server on that so that you donât have to fire up a laptop every time you want music. Use it for storage too, although the music server is designed to scan your network and can access music from other locations too.
What exactly do you mean by direct Ethernet connection? Just connect everything to your router by either Ethernet or WiFi and your devices should find each other.
There are bits of your response that confuse me. For example:
âI already tried a USB drive connected to the router. but that too reacted in much the same as above.â. If you just have a USB driver plugged into a router and donât have âanyâ server running anywhere which is pointing to that USB driver (e.g youâve no laptop running and just plug in a USB driver into the router), I wouldnât expect âanyâ files to be displayed via Upnp on the naim app. You need a (upnp media) server running. If a server on a laptop can see that usb stick/driver and is set up to include those files, then I would expect the naim app to see all files.
Can you clarify what you mean by âcan not play many titlesâ? If you can see the titles, then Iâm going to assume there is metadata there and that the server is running. Does it display an error (either on the naim app or the front screen of the 272?)? Maybe there is something wrong with those files. Maybe they are in an incompatible format etc. If it starts to play, but after a period of time, it gives up and stops, then Iâd suspect bandwidth and your wifi isnât fast enough or reliable enough (which is why wired is always best, especially with the 272 which is a bit poor at wifi).
âDirect ethernet would not work. couldnât see the share at all.â
That strong implies that your network isnât set up correctly. If the network is set up correctly and you are running a Upnp server on your laptop, then the 272 should see the Upnp server over a wired connection.
As a test, can you go back to having a wired only ethernet connection to your 272. Then you can try to ping the 272 from your laptop. You need to find out what the ip address of the 272 is, then on the laptop go to a command prompt and enter:
ping nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn
(substitute those nâs for the real ip numbers of your 272).
If that works, then the laptop can see the 272 over a wired connection. If that ping fails, then this is proof that your network isnât set up correctly and you can try to work out where/what the issue is.
Also note that whilst your naim app may be able to see the upnp files, it doesnât mean that the 272 can. The app will tell the 272 which file(s) to pull from the server, so both need a stable connection to the server.
Thatâs confusing. How would that work? That only exposes the USB drive as a network share.
Why donât you first try plugging the USB drive directly into the 272. The 272 has a front-panel USB input, right? You can than use the USB input in the app to see if all files will play. That way there is no network involved and you can make sure the USB drive and the files are OK.
After that, you can try the Server input and âLocal Musicâ to play files. It may take a while to index all files on the USB drive.
You canât do that with the USB input on a 1st gen streamer. It doesnât run the built in server, so you just get a basic folder view of the files. Fine for testing them to see if theâll play, but not a practical way to browse a music library.
Ah, so only the USB input in the app will work (with the basic folder view). Well, that can at least be used to verify that all files are playing correctly.
I would say latency is the problem in combination with a short buffer which doesnt give much time to recover from high latency. Especially with low network speed. And with USB you add another buffer into it. Try a good computer and store the music on M.2 PCIe SSD:s (or copy to a RAM-disk). They are faster and no USB, but more expensive.
Yep just seen this⌠indeed as others as said, using a regular DLNA compliant UPnP server like Asset, Minimserver and many more this will all be fine. This can be on a server, NAS, PC, RaspberryPi etc etc. sure you can use USB or other network attached storage with your UPnP server. That will and does work fine fine.
How your LAN is made up will largely and should be irrelevant⌠just ensure itâs a single network address, ie subnet (that is you have one and only ONE router).. which will be standard 99.9% of time. You can have as many or few switches as you want, and of course many broadband routers incorporate around four LAN switchports and WLAN bridge which will be fine⌠you donât need anything else from a network perspective. You can use Ethernet or WLAN or combinations thereof. UPnP doesnât care, as long as itâs a single network.
Once properly set up with a UPnP server, the only problem you might see from time to time is discovery related issues, ie UPnP not seeing servers or players on your network⌠if you see this itâs likely because of limitations in your network products.. there are a few things you can do.. but hopefully you wonât see this as these days home network products are better behaved here as they need to be for many many other applications.
I have used every UPNP server on both NAS and a windows pc. IMO a newbie is best to install and use Serviio as its GUI and interface is far easier to setup by someone non technical.
I personally use Minimserver but would never suggest it to the average user.
Thanks to everyone for their tips and confirmations so far.
I first must apologise for my apparently delayed response. However I was not at home for a few days and so unable to test further. I canât thus far get Asset to work, but it seems to be installed and I can open the settings page. automatically has selected Music folder. but doesnât seem to display the content. I am wondering if for some reason it is properties permission issue but I have checked and I have create and delete permissions.
In short thought asset didnât seem to install. it is however slightly to my surprise, running on my laptop and the configure page is only part working. maybe it is all down to the installation and despite apparently running it is not a complete installation.