I am re ripping a lot of my CDs so I can switch those that Roon most struggles with from WAV to FLAC and I’m running into a couple of things that I thought I’d mention to see if they were just happening to me.
I have ripped 25 albums, most of them boxed operas with 2 or 3 CDs to each title, so closer to 50-60 individual CDs. Not one has come with cover art. Not a single one. Is it just coincidental that I’m not getting cover art? Is there a switch I need to set?
I’m having trouble keeping Artist data. I’ll enter artist data and Save. Yet when I look at the saved entry it will say “Unknown” or the name of the Conductor. I’ll have to reenter all the artists. I’ve taken to taking a copy of the string of artists, so if I lose them I can copy the string of names and paste them back instead of having to enter the many names again.
I am having a real problem getting Naim to log in one of my three CD Albums. Since I already ripped it long ago in WAV, I delete the WAV version and then rip in FLAC. I’ve had to rip CD1 three times now and CD3 two times because they disappear without a trace. They are not under Newest Artists, nor are they under Albums. Nor are they out of order under a similar but different title. I can’t explain it. I finally have Disc 2 and Disc 3 but I’ll have to rip CD1 again because it just isn’t where it is supposed to be in Newest Music or in Album.
One more thing. This is a new oddity of my Uniti Core. Usually it is ready to rip even after some considerable time has passed. Now I will have to hit the power button within thirty minutes, sometimes less, to do a new rip. I didn’t keep track of the typical interval that used to pass before I’d have to nudge it into action for a new rip, but I think a day or more might go by. And now not even thirty minutes.
You might find the missing titles under artist Unknown.
Before anything else, try powering off, disconnect from the mains, wait five minutes, plug back in and start up. This may resolve some of your issues. However, it’s worth noting that metadata services do not serve classical well, so you may still end up doing a lot of manual editing.
Given that the Core software is based on the Unitiserve, I wonder if the following might be causing your problems, as it is an issue I’ve found when ripping multiple CDs one after another on my Unitiserve:
When ripping to FLAC, the rip is saved as WAV, then converted to FLAC one track at a time. If you rip multiple CDs they are put into a queue, and it can take some time to convert them all.
This process does not usually cause problems, except when you try to edit the files in any way. I found it essential to wait until the conversion to FLAC was complete before adding artwork or making any other edits.
If you open the files on a computer you can see the tracks changing from WAV to FLAC one at a time, so if in doubt, you can easily check that the conversion is complete. Then make your edits.
(As I said, this is my experience with a Unitiserve. Given that the Core is very much based on the US software it may well be the same in this particular respect but I couldn’t be certain.)
Regarding the missing artwork, there is a problem with the Core at the moment because Rovi changed their API and Naim have to reflect that change in the firmware for the Core. It’s been working in beta for ages, but for whatever reason Naim haven’t released the Core update yet. I have read in another thread that Naim Support said it would be released shortly.
The issue of having to wake the Core is almost certainly that you have somehow set it to go into Network Sleep after 20 mins or whatever. You can change that in the Core settings in the app.
I have never asked my Core to rip in FLAC, so I can’t confirm Chris’s idea about the editing problem. I rather doubt that the Core’s firmware is at all similar to the Unitiserve, not least because Unitiserve ran on Windows XP and the Core uses a version of Linux. I think it’s more likely that this is another peculiarity of the Rovi lookup problem, so you might just want to wait until that firmware update is released. Or you could look on your network to see what is going on, as Chris suggests of course.
I find it shocking that anyone modifies an api endpoint. The golden rule is leave v1 alone and publish v2 with the changes/enhancements. Everyone can then continue unaffected using v1 until they change their software to use v2.
As someone who works with Apis for a job, I know how frustrating this must be.
Oh happy days! It very much helps to tame frustration when I have a plausible explanation as to why there might be no artwork, thanks for that. I hope the update is released soon because it is time consuming to have to search out the album cover every time.
I was finally able to create CD1. I watched the full rip to be sure there were no errors causing my problem. It was perfect so I edited it immediately hoping that would help me find it. Mysteriously it did not appear in Newest Music, as it should have, but this time I found it in Albums. Lest you assume it was already in Albums, I can say it was not as I checked that repeatedly and there were always just the two that had been ripped and edited. So its absence in Newest Music remains a mystery.
I did reset the Sleep time, thanks for that suggestion.
I’m in some doubt that this is part of my issue. I did immediately following the rip of the troublesome CD1 with an edit and it went perfectly. I’ve had trouble from the beginning losing edits I had just made. I think of it as “The Case of the Missing Edits” which for those old enough will revive memories of the way the Perry Mason books were often titled.
I installed the new update and ripped my first disc and hooray, I finally have art work again.
Where can I read what changes and improvements have been made?
Janet
I rather doubt that they will do this, at least not as a firmware update. It has been asked for before, but the answer from Naim has always been that this a server and if you want internet radio and streaming services, then you should buy a streamer, all of which do offer this.
But whether a replacement product might be specified differently is another question as the Core looks rather under-specified compared with some products from their competition.
Indeed it does! And those missing features eventually led me to Roon, though I still use my Uniti Core to rip all my new CD acquisitions and stream them to my DAC until I’ve accumulated enough to motivate me to transfer them to Roon. So it’s still in regular use and handy to own.
As always, David, I greatly appreciate your helpful support! My 85 year old brain especially needs a helping hand once in a while.
