Indexing

[beckphotonik]

This post may be very trivial but please humour me.

Having just installed MinimServer on my Synology NAS, I now wish to configure it but find your user guide a little overwhelming and just a bit confusing. I had my Synology media server index my music collection in the following manner:

Genre/Composer/Album - for classical
Genre/AlbumArtist/Album - for non classical
Genre/Album - for compilations etc.
Folder - for "specials"

Is there any way I can change the home container in MinimServer to show similar "top level" indexes as I find the current default not particularly useful.

[DavidHB]

The point about MinimServer (and its killer feature, in my view) is that the browse tree is dynamic, so you don't need (or, actually, want) fixed multi-field indexes.

Provided that the tags on which want to browse are listed in the IndexTags property, you can use them for browsing at any stage in the browsing process So for your first 'preset', you go to Genre, select Classical, select composer, then (say) 'Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus', and then select the Albums list. This is much quicker and easier to do than to describe!

David

[beckphotonik]

(26-06-2014 17:31)DavidHB Wrote:  The point about MinimServer (and its killer feature, in my view) is that the browse tree is dynamic, so you don't need (or, actually, want) fixed multi-field indexes.

Provided that the tags on which want to browse are listed in the IndexTags property, you can use them for browsing at any stage in the browsing process So for your first 'preset', you go to Genre, select Classical, select composer, then (say) 'Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus', and then select the Albums list. This is much quicker and easier to do than to describe!

David

Thanks David, I can appreciate the dynamics and I can get to the final (sub) index that I want but for old stick in the muds like me, I hoped there was a quicker way. I suppose it's getting used to something new vs. what you are used to.

[DavidHB]

(26-06-2014 18:15)beckphotonik Wrote:  Thanks David, I can appreciate the dynamics and I can get to the final (sub) index that I want but for old stick in the muds like me, I hoped there was a quicker way. I suppose it's getting used to something new vs. what you are used to.

Well, you have my fellow-feeling on both counts. But I can assure you that with a decent control point (my personal favourite is Bubble DS, which is, unfortunately, Android-only), it all becomes second nature pretty quickly.

One thought that occurs is that it might be nice if particular 'views' of the browse tree could be saved for future use. But, subject to Simon's advice, I suspect that that may be something to do at the control point rather than in the server. Saving playlists (which is supported by both MinimServer and Bubble; I do it at the server end) can also provide a set of useful shortcuts. Bubble has facilities for setting bookmarks at the Album and folder level, which is also potentially quite useful.

Coming back to your difficulties with the MinimServer User Guide, I find it to be complete, well-structured and clearly-written. But some of the concepts are not completely intuitive, and may need to be read up a few times before they 'take'. The thing that fooled me at first was the whole idea of having three logically separate devices (server, control point and renderer/player), with the possibility that more than one of these functions may be combined in a single piece of software.

One the concepts become familiar, they open up possibilities we could not have dreamt of even a few years ago. I now have players in two separate rooms. A few seconds of tapping on a tablet that has access to my whole music library sends the music I want to the player I want to listen to. That's pretty remarkable when you think about it ...

David

[beckphotonik]

Many thanks for your thoughts. The user guide is becoming more understandable the more I read it. It is all about learning and understanding a new set of terms/nomenclature and then visualising what they could do for you. Steep learning curve and some!
I have no experience with Bubble, I am somewhat restricted in the control point or iPad app in my parlance. My streamer has an associated app, it is the only way I have, up to now, found to support gapless tracks which is important to me. I am trying MinimServer because I want to find out what DSD64 sounds like and, to my understanding, the Synology media server does not support DSD, not that I have got DSD to work yet on MinimServer even though my streamer is supposed to play DSD64 files over internet. I may well stay with MinimServer as it's support for my first love of classical music is better than the default Synology software. I shall try out more things tomorrow and I appreciate your replies.

[Meffy]

(26-06-2014 22:45)beckphotonik Wrote:  I am trying MinimServer because I want to find out what DSD64 sounds like and, to my understanding, the Synology media server does not support DSD, not that I have got DSD to work yet on MinimServer even though my streamer is supposed to play DSD64 files over internet. I may well stay with MinimServer as it's support for my first love of classical music is better than the default Synology software. I shall try out more things tomorrow and I appreciate your replies.

It does support DSD64 with the new DSM 5.0 now.I own DS412+,I use bubbleUpNp as a control point and push those files to my oppo BDP-105,from both Synology Media Server AND minimserver.Works like charm.

Meffy

[beckphotonik]

(26-06-2014 23:30)Meffy Wrote:  It does support DSD64 with the new DSM 5.0 now.I own DS412+,I use bubbleUpNp as a control point and push those files to my oppo BDP-105,from both Synology Media Server AND minimserver.Works like charm.

Meffy

Very grateful for that reply Meffy. It seems that I have a problem then, either with the downloaded DSD file which is unlikely, or with my new streamer. Back to the dealer for assistance on that issue. Now for a day of reassessing my tag structure to get the best out of MinimServer, and maybe a look at Bubble too.