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Hanu · 29-03-2017, 22:29

(14-03-2017 12:35)adrian Wrote: It appears that SONOS doesn't really work with MinimServer. I'm wondering if anybody can recommend an alternative system that *does* work with MinimServer.

Does anybody know how Denon HEOS or Bluesound work?

Hi adrian
I can recommend the Raumfeld system, if you do not play HiRes flac, for wireless 16/44.1 flac is fine.
The Raumfeld System is visible in Bubble DS next (Linn Kazoo and others) by using Bubble UPNP server on NAS.
I would like to test
http://www.yamaha.com/US/MusicCast/
HaNu
Linn Majik DSM, Dali Piano, Synology DS214SE, minimserver, Bubble DS next, BubbleUPNP server, Raumfeld connector2, cube, 2x OneM (all LAN) , OneS (WLAN)

adrian · 30-03-2017, 12:14

(29-03-2017 22:29)Hanu Wrote: Hi adrian
I can recommend the Raumfeld system, if you do not play HiRes flac, for wireless 16/44.1 flac is fine.
The Raumfeld System is visible in Bubble DS next (Linn Kazoo and others) by using Bubble UPNP server on NAS.
I would like to test
http://www.yamaha.com/US/MusicCast/
HaNu
Linn Majik DSM, Dali Piano, Synology DS214SE, minimserver, Bubble DS next, BubbleUPNP server, Raumfeld connector2, cube, 2x OneM (all LAN) , OneS (WLAN)

I was looking at Raumfeld because it is supposed to be compatible with Chromecast. The Raumfeld Connector might be a better choice than the Chromecast Audio if sound quality is important, for example. Are you using any of the Raumfeld software? A significant appeal of Chromecast is not being tied to any one hardware vendor and being able to mix and match audio devices from multiple sources.

I can report that I bought a Chromecast Audio to play with. As an initial test, using an android device, I installed Google Home and I installed BubbleUPNP, Linn Kazoo and Lumin. I have successfully played from Minimserver through the Chromecast using BubbleUPNP. Kazoo just says "waiting for rooms" and won't do anything. And Lumin seems to talk to Minimserver, but I have yet to figure out how to make it actually play music (at all). One thing I noticed is that when playing through Chromecast, BubbleUPNP has no volume control. It seems to be necessary to go to the Google Home App and then down a few levels to reach volume control. That's kind of annoying. I'm not sure if this is a BubbleUPNP choice or a Google Home restriction. Ultimately I would prefer to use software that is available on Android and iOS because then we have a uniform interface to the system.

I read that the Yamaha Musiccast software is terrible. I don't know if you can work around that.

Cebolla · (This post was last modified: 30-03-2017 17:31 by Cebolla.)

(30-03-2017 12:14)adrian Wrote: I can report that I bought a Chromecast Audio to play with. As an initial test, using an android device, I installed Google Home and I installed BubbleUPNP, Linn Kazoo and Lumin. I have successfully played from Minimserver through the Chromecast using BubbleUPNP. Kazoo just says "waiting for rooms" and won't do anything. And Lumin seems to talk to Minimserver, but I have yet to figure out how to make it actually play music (at all).

Have you actually already forgotten what I said in my first post mentioning the Chromecast Audio? Google Cast does not support standard UPnP/DLNA nor OpenHome. In order to get OpenHome controller apps like Linn Kazoo & Lumin (as well as standard UPnP/DLNA controller apps) to work with Chromecast, you need to install & configure the BubbleUPnP Server helper software, as also mentioned earlier!

The BubbleUPnP Android controller app is 'special' in that it already supports controlling Chromecast devices, without the need for the BubbleUPnP Server, as well as being able to control standard UPnP/DLNA & OpenHome streamers.

(30-03-2017 12:14)adrian Wrote: One thing I noticed is that when playing through Chromecast, BubbleUPNP has no volume control. It seems to be necessary to go to the Google Home App and then down a few levels to reach volume control. That's kind of annoying. I'm not sure if this is a BubbleUPNP choice or a Google Home restriction.

The BubbleUPnP Android app does have a volume control and should work with the Chromecast Audio. It's likely not being displayed because you need to set the BubbleUPnP Android app's 'Show volume control' option to either 'On' or 'Only in landscape', in Settings>Now Playing. You should then also be able to set the 'Volume control type' option to either '+/- buttons' or 'Slider'.

adrian · 30-03-2017, 17:40

(30-03-2017 17:26)Cebolla Wrote:
(30-03-2017 12:14)adrian Wrote: I can report that I bought a Chromecast Audio to play with. As an initial test, using an android device, I installed Google Home and I installed BubbleUPNP, Linn Kazoo and Lumin. I have successfully played from Minimserver through the Chromecast using BubbleUPNP. Kazoo just says "waiting for rooms" and won't do anything. And Lumin seems to talk to Minimserver, but I have yet to figure out how to make it actually play music (at all).
Have you actually already forgotten what I said in my first post mentioning the Chromecast Audio? Google Cast does not support standard UPnP/DLNA nor OpenHome. In order to get OpenHome controller apps like Linn Kazoo & Lumin (as well as standard UPnP/DLNA controller apps) to work with Chromecast, you need to install & configure the BubbleUPnP Server helper software, as also mentioned earlier!

No. I installed BubbleUPnP Server on my NAS and it said it was running. Is there something special needed for configuration? I looked around for settings and didn't find anything.

Quote:The BubbleUPnP Android controller app is 'special' in that it already supports controlling Chromecast devices, without the need for the BubbleUPnP Server, as well as being able to control standard UPnP/DLNA & OpenHome streamers.

Kazoo isn't working at all---I mean, it just shows the "searching for rooms" message. Could this be a sign that BubbleUPnP Server is not working properly? (I thought it was a problem with the app.)

Should Lumin be able to play to my local device? Because it runs, but I can't get it to play on the tablet speakers.

Quote:
(30-03-2017 12:14)adrian Wrote: One thing I noticed is that when playing through Chromecast, BubbleUPNP has no volume control. It seems to be necessary to go to the Google Home App and then down a few levels to reach volume control. That's kind of annoying. I'm not sure if this is a BubbleUPNP choice or a Google Home restriction.
The BubbleUPnP Android app does have a volume control and will work with the Chromecast Audio. It's likely not being displayed because you need to set the BubbleUPnP Android app's 'Show volume contro'l option to either 'On' or 'Only in lanscape', in Settings>Now Playing. You should then also be able to set the 'Volume control type' option to either '+/- buttons' or 'Slider'.

I'll look for this setting. Another observation is that the hardware volume control buttons don't work. But if I switch to the "local renderer" then I can control the volume using those buttons from within BubbleUPnP.

Cebolla · (This post was last modified: 30-03-2017 18:59 by Cebolla.)

(30-03-2017 17:40)adrian Wrote: No. I installed BubbleUPnP Server on my NAS and it said it was running. Is there something special needed for configuration? I looked around for settings and didn't find anything.

Ah - it's a bit hard to tell whether you just mentioning "BubbleUPNP" means the BubbleUPnP Android app, or the BubbleUPnP Server, or both. You should have said you didn't manage to configure it. Presumably, you didn't read on its web page I linked to, that nothing special other than a web browser is required to configure BubbleUPnP Server. Use the following address to access its web browser app:
http://aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd:58050
where aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd is the IP of the networked device you are running BubbleUPnP Server on, ie, your NAS. Select the Media Renderers tab & you should see something similar to picture I posted.

(30-03-2017 17:40)adrian Wrote: Kazoo isn't working at all---I mean, it just shows the "searching for rooms" message. Could this be a sign that BubbleUPnP Server is not working properly? (I thought it was a problem with the app.)

Should Lumin be able to play to my local device? Because it runs, but I can't get it to play on the tablet speakers.

"searching for rooms" is Linn Kazoo's way of saying it can't find any OpenHome renderers (a 'room' is Linn's speak for an OpenHome renderer), well, because you haven't got any (& specifically not created the OpenHome renderer in BubbleUPnP Server's settings for the Chromecast Audio). I think Linn's software designers reckon this is ok, because if Linn Kazoo is supposed to be an OpenHome renderer controller, what's the point of going any further if it can't find any OpenHome renderers to control? - not what I would have done, BTW.

No, just like the Linn Kazoo app, the Lumin app is purely an OpenHome controller app. Therefore it does not come bundled with a music file player for the local device - I think you may have been spoilt by the BubbleUPnP Android app's 'extra' local renderer function. However, unlike the Linn Kazoo app, it's been designed to allow you to access some of its functions, even if it can't find any OpenHome renderers on the network to control.

(30-03-2017 17:40)adrian Wrote: Another observation is that the hardware volume control buttons don't work. But if I switch to the "local renderer" then I can control the volume using those buttons from within BubbleUPnP.

Well, since the BubbleUPnP Android app's local renderer is supposed to play music files on the local device, it's not surprising that the device's hardware volume control works on the device itself!

adrian · 31-03-2017, 00:05

(30-03-2017 18:42)Cebolla Wrote:
(30-03-2017 17:40)adrian Wrote: No. I installed BubbleUPnP Server on my NAS and it said it was running. Is there something special needed for configuration? I looked around for settings and didn't find anything.
Ah - it's a bit hard to tell whether you just mentioning "BubbleUPNP" means the BubbleUPnP Android app, or the BubbleUPnP Server, or both. You should have said you didn't manage to configure it. Presumably, you didn't read on its web page I linked to, that nothing special other than a web browser is required to configure BubbleUPnP Server. Use the following address to access its web browser app:
http://aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd:58050
where aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd is the IP of the networked device you are running BubbleUPnP Server on, ie, your NAS. Select the Media Renderers tab & you should see something similar to picture I posted.

Yeah, I was kind of careless in posting my description of what I had done. Sorry about that. I have to say the documentation for BubbleUPnP Server could have been a bit more clear. Anyway, I accessed the browser interface and made my chromecast device into an openhome device and I am now able to play to that device from Kazoo and BubbleUPnP on my android device and I can go back and forth and control things from either one, so it's working as desired. Lumin didn't seem to be working when I tried it at first but it looks like it's working now. I guess it had to refresh or something? Volume control in Lumin is kind of odd in that it seems to have a max of 49/100 and you can only move the slider up halfway. In BubbleUPnP I learned (from the settings menu) that you can control the volume by swiping on the album art display, which I guess is why they hide the volume slider. The volume control in Kazoo is kind of strange too, but I guess I just have to play with the different apps and see how they work. And try (the suitable ones) under iOS.

I did a test where I tried putting some radio stations (as URLs) into a playlist managed by minimserver, but they didn't play. I installed minimstreamer but this didn't help. For some nothing happens. For one, BubbleUPNP gave me an error message about an unsupported MIME type (which quickly cleared so I couldn't actually read it carefully). Is this another configuration issue?

simoncn · 31-03-2017, 09:05

Have you followed all the instructions on this page? It is not just a matter of installing MinimStreamer. Although these instructions are specific to BBC radio stations, the process for other radio stations is similar.

adrian · 31-03-2017, 17:18

(31-03-2017 09:05)simoncn Wrote: Have you followed all the instructions on this page? It is not just a matter of installing MinimStreamer. Although these instructions are specific to BBC radio stations, the process for other radio stations is similar.

I looked over the instructions and I think I did do everything on that list, up to a point---but on the other hand, really all I did was install MinimStreamer, which is what the instructions are about. So specifically, minimserver was already installed. I created a playlist m3u file. The entries in this file show up from minimserver. They just don't actually play when I select them. I installed MinimStreamer from minimwatch. Entries in my radio playlist still don't actually play. I compared my file to your example file and do notice that you have the extended comments in there, whereas my file is just a list of links. Does that matter? What do the things like [*R1] mean?

I didn't try using transcoding options nor have I looked at the log file.

adrian · 31-03-2017, 17:23

(31-03-2017 17:18)adrian Wrote: What do the things like [*R1] mean?

I found the manual section that describes the special format needed for MinimStreamer to take over the stream. So it looks like that's probably my issue.

adrian · 01-04-2017, 05:37

(31-03-2017 17:23)adrian Wrote:
(31-03-2017 17:18)adrian Wrote: What do the things like [*R1] mean?

I found the manual section that describes the special format needed for MinimStreamer to take over the stream. So it looks like that's probably my issue.

I added bracketed tags to my radio station playlist, and found that some of the radio stations worked and some didn't. It seems that the ones that worked linked directly to streams whereas the ones that failed linked to m3u files that contained a stream URL. I saw a message in the log that reads:

Code:

Sat Apr 01 00:23:58 HTTPSource: no stream URL found in http://static.wamu.org/streams/live/2/live.m3u

Seems to be working now.