Minimserver not visible and transcoding/playback "on the fly" for Naim Unitiserve-SSD

[Stannas]

Hi Simon

On step 1, I get an error message if trying to link to a NAS folder via Minimserver as content-the software is on my laptop. What is the reason for this please-I will have to try using a content location on my laptop?

On step 3, are any common music players like Windows Media or Google's music player a UPnP renderer-if not, can you please suggest any commonly used free downloads and I will try these?

Kind regards

Stephen

[simoncn]

(30-08-2017 10:21)Stannas Wrote:  Hi Simon

On step 1, I get an error message if trying to link to a NAS folder via Minimserver as content-the software is on my laptop. What is the reason for this please-I will have to try using a content location on my laptop?

I explained this in my previous post, but the text was quoted incorrectly (apologies) so I will repeat it here.

If the NAS shared folder that you want to access is visible as a shared folder in the Network section of Windows Explorer, you can use the syntax \\shared-folder-name\subfolder-name in the MinimServer contentDir property. If not, you can mount the NAS shared folder as a Windows drive letter using the command 'net use x: \\ip-address\shared-folder-name'.

If neither of these options is working for you, I suggest you use a location on your laptop for the experiment.

Quote:On step 3, are any common music players like Windows Media or Google's music player a UPnP renderer-if not, can you please suggest any commonly used free downloads and I will try these?

Kind regards

Stephen

Windows Media Player won't work for you because it doesn't play FLAC files. I haven't used the Google music player but from a quick web search it doesn't appear to be able to act as a UPnP renderer.

I suggested two free options for a UPnP renderer (foobar2000 and ohPlayer) in my previous post. Of these, foobar2000 is the more widely used.

[Stannas]

Hi Simon

Can you think of a reason why, although I can connect to mapped shared networked drives containing my music (on my QNAP NAS) that I can see in Windows Explorer, the NAS itself does not always appear on the left side menu, under Network (only my PC does so consistently) please? Also, and it may have nothing to do with this, the NAS is the only unnamed device in my router, but it is called STEPHEN-NAS1 in Windows? This morning, I also have an error message for DNS within the NAS asking me to check TCP, but this is the first time I've seen this and I can connect to the shares. My Unitiserve is not finding all the shares automatically when scanning either and Naim unhelpfully just blames the network, which means the NAS really (I've already changed the Virgin router three times and there is no evidence of a problem with this). Minimserver does not seem to want to connect to the shares either if I have followed your instructions properly, so I would have to save music for my experiment onto my laptop.

I would really appreciate some pointers on what is probably going on-SMB is used to communicate between the NAS and the Unitiserve and has just been re-installed. This is above my level of knowledge, but I cannot see anything wrong with the NAS network configuration. I am spending far more time on network problems than listening to any music! Built-in storage seems a much better idea based on these experiences?

Kind regards

Stephen

[simoncn]

I am not expert in SMB or how Windows supports it and I cannot answer your questions about this. I keep things very simple by doing

net use z: \\x.x.x.x\sharename

when I need to access a network shared folder from my Windows machine. The shared folder is available as z: and this approach seems to work reliably for all shared folders on my network.