Gap between tracks

[Leixuros]

I didn’t use Minim Server for some time an noticed today a strange feature: There is a gap every time a new file begins. This may be no problem if each track is a part of a symphony, but if I listen to an opera (or to Mahlers VIIIth symphony) it’s annoying. I don’t remember that I had this problem before. What can I do?

[simoncn]

(21-11-2014 10:26)Leixuros Wrote:  I didn’t use Minim Server for some time an noticed today a strange feature: There is a gap every time a new file begins. This may be no problem if each track is a part of a symphony, but if I listen to an opera (or to Mahlers VIIIth symphony) it’s annoying. I don’t remember that I had this problem before. What can I do?

This is probably because your control point or renderer doesn't support gapless playback. Which control point and renderer are you using?

[Leixuros]

It’s an ONKYO TX-8050

[simoncn]

(21-11-2014 12:25)Leixuros Wrote:  It’s an ONKYO TX-8050

According to this review, this model does not support gapless playback. It isn't possible for MinimServer to overcome this limitation of the renderer.

[Leixuros]

Thanks.
That’s it. So I have no possibility to play my digital music. For DLNA my device is not good enough, and for AirPlay there is no useable remote app. OK. I turn back to CD. :-(

[DavidHB]

(21-11-2014 17:48)Leixuros Wrote:  So I have no possibility to play my digital music. For DLNA my device is not good enough, and for AirPlay there is no usable remote app. OK. I turn back to CD. :-(

It all depends how much gapless matters to you; for the reasons you give in your first post, it matters a fair amount to me, but I'm not sure that I'd give up the advantages of network streaming just to have gapless. It is irritating nevertheless that a capability which was available a century and more ago on the original phonograph (and, in a perhaps fairer comparison, on CDs from Day 1) should be treated as something esoteric by the people who design and produce network players.

As I read the Onyko specifications, the TX-8050 can play from a connected USB drive. It isn't clear whether it can do this gapless, but it might be worth trying, because you can do this at low or no cost.

David

[Leixuros]

But this would mean to put all my files in a new directory structure and to have no program to manage the files. This makes no sense. The best solution would be that Apple makes a better iTunes and especially a better remote app. But there is no hope, they just made it worse and will not change this direction.
Anyway: the gapless playback matters very much. There a lot of pieces which are in many tracks. Or parts of longer works which follow attacca and so on. It’s really impossible to accept those gaps. This is one of the many point where the alleged technical progress is really a huge step backwards.

[Dieter Stockert]

(21-11-2014 21:16)Leixuros Wrote:  Anyway: the gapless playback matters very much.

Yes. I would say if gapless play is not supported the app is broken and has to be fixed. In Germany you can ask for repair. If the issue is not fixed after at least the third repair you can give the device back. (The only problem here is if a court would judge gapless play as essential.)

[Leixuros]

Ich glaube nicht, dass das geht. Es ist eben nicht vorgesehen. Und fertig. Da ist nichts kaputt. Das ist übrigens auch die Aussage des Support-Mitarbeiters, der mir auch erklärte, dass es keinen DLNA-Client gibt, der das kann.

[DavidHB]

(21-11-2014 23:46)Leixuros Wrote:  Ich glaube nicht, dass das geht. Es ist eben nicht vorgesehen. Und fertig. Da ist nichts kaputt. Das ist übrigens auch die Aussage des Support-Mitarbeiters, der mir auch erklärte, dass es keinen DLNA-Client gibt, der das kann.

This translates approximately as, "I don't think that's correct. It is certainly not provided for. Nothing is broken. That is moreover also the opinion of the the support staff person, who told me that there is no DLNA-Client that can do that [presumably: play gapless]"

I agree with the general thinking here. Gapless play would need to be offered explicitly in the product specification for the product to be regarded as faulty if it did not play gapless. I guess that would be true in almost any jurisdiction; it is certainly what I would expect here in the UK.

MinimServer is not a DLNA product. It is based on the separate, open UPnP AV standard. (DLNA is a standard of sorts, but it isn't published, and it also functions a a brand and as a kind of trade consortium.) As far as I know, DLNA uses UPnP protocols, so DLNA devices can access a UPnP server such as MinimServer (as Simon explains in the MinimServer documentation). There are certainly UPnP players (or renderers) from a number of manufacturers which can play gapless.

I have half a recollection that the published UPnP AV protocol does not provide for gapless play (Simon may be able to confirm this). Some extension of the standard therefore has to be implemented to provide the gapless capability; this is certainly the case with the Linn players I use.

I suspect (but, as DLNA is not an open standard, cannot know) that DLNA certification does not allow extensions to the protocols; if this is true, this would explain the advice given to Leixuros. The moral is that, when purchasing a network music player, a user should look for one that describes itself as UPnP-compliant and has gapless play explicitly included in its specification.

David