MinimServer for Android?

[haggis999]

It's now over a year since I made a start on ripping my CD collection. This came to a halt while I diverted myself to the investigation of how to rip DVDs and Blu-rays and how to play computer-based media. However, I have spent the past month steadily ripping the rest of my (90% classical) CDs and the end is now in sight.

With appropriate levels of MP3 compression, I could probably fit my entire collection on to a 64GB micro SD card and I am now considering how best to keep up with the younger generation and make my music available at all times, via my Android smartphone and/or my car's media system. I have only just realised that this presents exactly the same user interface issues for classical music as are solved at home by the use of MinimServer on my NAS.

Is there ever going to be a possibility of a version of MinimServer for Android? If not, are there any other Android media servers that have some classical-friendly features?

David

[simoncn]

(08-07-2014 12:53)haggis999 Wrote:  It's now over a year since I made a start on ripping my CD collection. This came to a halt while I diverted myself to the investigation of how to rip DVDs and Blu-rays and how to play computer-based media. However, I have spent the past month steadily ripping the rest of my (90% classical) CDs and the end is now in sight.

With appropriate levels of MP3 compression, I could probably fit my entire collection on to a 64GB micro SD card and I am now considering how best to keep up with the younger generation and make my music available at all times, via my Android smartphone and/or my car's media system. I have only just realised that this presents exactly the same user interface issues for classical music as are solved at home by the use of MinimServer on my NAS.

Is there ever going to be a possibility of a version of MinimServer for Android? If not, are there any other Android media servers that have some classical-friendly features?

David

Producing a version of MinimServer for Android has been on my wish list for some time. The main problem is that Android is designed to be a client platform and (when I last looked at this) doesn't deal well with apps that run all the time in the background, such as media servers. Specifically, if foreground apps are consuming a lot of system resources, Android may terminate background apps as needed to free up resources. This requires background apps to maintain saved state that enables them to resume quickly from where they last left off. This would require some significant design changes to MinimServer.

[haggis999]

I'm happy to hear it's on your radar

In the meantime, are you (or anyone else reading this) aware of any existing Android media servers that are worth a try? I do realise that none of them will serve up classical music with the rich, fruity goodness of MinimServer...

It may be that the 'Local Media Server' built into BubbleUPnP is just as good (or bad) as any other currently available Android media server.

David

[alexinc]

with android becoming more and more powerful, getting better background service management and is part of different devices these days, any news or may focus on this topic some day again? ;-)

cheers alex

[simoncn]

I will "never say never" to this. However, it is currently a low priority and is unlikely to happen in the near to medium term.

[Pepsican]

(08-07-2014 12:53)haggis999 Wrote:  With appropriate levels of MP3 compression, I could probably fit my entire collection on to a 64GB micro SD card and I am now considering how best to keep up with the younger generation and make my music available at all times, via my Android smartphone and/or my car's media system. I have only just realised that this presents exactly the same user interface issues for classical music as are solved at home by the use of MinimServer on my NAS.

Is there ever going to be a possibility of a version of MinimServer for Android? If not, are there any other Android media servers that have some classical-friendly features?

David

Your car stereo is usually based around software from Blackberry, Microsoft, Google or Apple. And what these do is import the metadata of the files on the USB stick or SD card into their own database. They then play back from that. They will be completely oblivious to minimserver and as these are closed systems, you can't port MinimServer to it.

[Pepsican]

(09-12-2016 19:48)alexinc Wrote:  with android becoming more and more powerful, getting better background service management and is part of different devices these days, any news or may focus on this topic some day again? ;-)

cheers alex

Because Android needs to maintain a low energy footprint, it is highly unlikely that it will support server-type applications in a true sense.

[alexinc]

(12-12-2016 10:27)Pepsican Wrote:  Because Android needs to maintain a low energy footprint, it is highly unlikely that it will support server-type applications in a true sense.

with better options to setup doze mode for single tasks since android 6+ it should be possible to run server-type applications (http://www.tomsguide.com/faq/id-3026187/...low.html). also android tv, tv sticks and various other versions aren't just ment to be energy safers anymore... so who knows!? would love to have my tv stick also serving my collection e.g.! :-)

[jdg072]

Still not on the radar in 2023?

[simoncn]

I didn't want to "say never" in 2016 but at this stage I think there is no realistic possibility that there will be a version of MinimServer for Android.