Gapless issues over DLNA with Pro and JRiver MC

[Driftdive]

Hi,

My first post here after taking delivery of a WiiM Pro today. Initial thoughts were very impressed indeed, but after some listening I came across a problem I thought wasn't an issue, gapless playback? Hopefully there is a solution I've missed, as I really like the player and don't want to return it, but this is a deal breaker for me.

System:

JRiver27 on a dedicated music server running on Linux Debian11 and set to act as a Music Server. Nothing else runs on this server, just JRiver sharing FLAC files over the network via DLNA.
WiiM Pro in a second room connected to a Rega DAC (tested over both Coax and S/PDIF) and hard wired to the network, with WiFi turned off in the settings and fixed volume output selected. EQ is also off.

I get quite a gap between songs, in particular I just played Dark Side of the Moon and there was over a 4 second gap between Time and The Great Gig in the Sky. I also experience a crackle sound at the start of some songs, it's not loud but it's very noticeable, especially on headphones, again on both Coax and S/PDIF. I have tried running the Pro on the supplied power adapter and with a large USB 5V power bank, same thing whatever combination I try.

Playing Dark Side of the Moon via Qobuz however, I don't experience this issue, it plays gaplessly, it's just 16/44.1 FLAC files over DLNA from JRiver it seems.

Prior to this I have been running Volumio 3 on an Intel i5NUC acting as a DLNA renderer in the exact same setup as above with no issues at all.

Is there something I have missed or is this a bug/issue?

 

[Brantome]

I'm not involved in Symfonium dev

Ok Just sounded like the sort of statement its developer would make…
I think I tried it once but as it couldn’t immediately see my Minimserver server, I gave up on it

 

[hyperion]

Ok Just sounded like the sort of statement its developer would make…
I think I tried it once but as it couldn’t immediately see my Minimserver server, I gave up on it

The only flaw of Symfonium is that it doesn't handle DLNA ""Servers"" sources, but it's not really important anymore in 2023. As a music player app Symfonium is focused on the modern music streaming servers (Jellyfin, Subsonic, plex, etc... it supports most of them).

It has support for UPNP renderers and Chromecast, and on the audio side it has at least as many features as Blackplayer or Poweramp.

Personally I use a Subsonic server to publish my 2000 albums FLAC music collection (I publish it on my home Box Internet : so I have my personnal Spotify-like server) : Navidrome.

Symfonium automatically read my music in FLAC when I'm at home, et automatically transcode in OPUS 160 (which is CD quality) when I'm away.

For video I have a video only DLNA server that my TVs can natively read.

If you need a modern media server that supports ecverything, audio and vidéo : you also can try Jellyfin. It's the best media server by very very far !!!

 

[simbun]

No ! you misread : I reported the opposite.

I reported that Symfonium has a very clean UPNP Gapless support, deducing that if it didn't work with Wiim : then something had to be fixed on Wiim side.

I didn't misread, I was just saying that both Jriver and Symfonium were in the same boat until the WiiM fix has gone in.

Which has been done in the latest Wiim update, and now Symfonium plays perfectly UPNP gapless playback on Wiim.

Has the fix been deployed to the PRO? I'm on beta 4.8.516730 and was asked to test it on the 7th May which was after the latest firmware release of the PRO that was on the 27th April apparently.

EDIT: Maybe you're on the Mini, that was updated to 4.6.517037 on the 15th May.

 

[d6jg]

My Mini is on 4.6.517037 and is doing gapless OK with LMS and UPnP/DLNA Bridge. I can't speak for JRiver specifically

 

[onlyoneme]

I didn't misread, I was just saying that both Jriver and Symfonium were in the same boat until the WiiM fix has gone in.


Has the fix been deployed to the PRO? I'm on beta 4.8.516730 and was asked to test it on the 7th May which was after the latest firmware release of the PRO that was on the 27th April apparently.

EDIT: Maybe you're on the Mini, that was updated to 4.6.517037 on the 15th May.

No official release for Pro yet.

 

[rwpritchett]

How does one acquire and install beta firmware?

 

[Brantome]

How does one acquire and install beta firmware?

Submit a request thru the feedback section in the Wiim Home app, but be warned - you’ll need to ask to be removed from the beta firmware whitelist as you will not necessarily get newer public releases. You’re probably better being patient and awaiting the public releases.

 

[rwpritchett]

I can wait. Like I said, it's working with BubblUPnP and gapless is only needed for certain albums like live stuff or DSotM.

 

[hyperion]

I didn't misread, I was just saying that both Jriver and Symfonium were in the same boat until the WiiM fix has gone in.


Has the fix been deployed to the PRO? I'm on beta 4.8.516730 and was asked to test it on the 7th May which was after the latest firmware release of the PRO that was on the 27th April apparently.

EDIT: Maybe you're on the Mini, that was updated to 4.6.517037 on the 15th May.

Yep, Indeed : mini

 

[rwpritchett]

Woohoo... WiiM Pro firmware 4.8.517862 pushed out and gapless playback now works streaming from JRiver!

 

[Mike in NY]

Woohoo... WiiM Pro firmware 4.8.517862 pushed out and gapless playback now works streaming from JRiver!

Reproduced on my system, using the JRemote2 Android app as the Control Point and a JRiver Id Pi as the server.

 

[Driftdive]

Just thought I would come back here and update the post as I was the OP, but seems I've been beaten too it!

I gave up using the WiiM Pro streaming from JRiver as I just couldn't get it to play gapless, tried everything including Bubble UPnP and a few other tweaks, but nothing worked sending files downstream from JRiver as a file server via the JRemote app. I kept it though as I was and still am extremely happy with it's performance as a streamer.

Having noticed numerous updates hitting the WiiM since I last posted, I thought today . . ."Hmmm, I wonder . . . ?" So I just put Dark Side of the Moon on and yep, now plays gapless from JRiver MC31 to the WiiM Pro, so I'd call that a fix.

Thanks muchly to the development team, everything's running sweet as a nut here - all I need now is Qobuz Connect and it'll be 100% the dogs danglies

 

[Driftdive]

. . . and thanks also to all the kind folks who originally helped out trying to solve it, very much appreciated.

 

[madbrain]

I also use JRiver - MC31 in my case - and a'm looking to buy a Wiim Pro (or 14) to replace all my Chromecast audio, mainly for the gapless support. This thread concerns me greatly since the OP wasn't able to make gapless work with JRiver.
I am wondering if Airplay/Airplay2 was tried.
JRiver supports it, at least in the last few releases, even on Windows. It can play to my Marantz SR-7011 and SR-8015 receivers that way, and it's fully gapless.

 

[simbun]

I also use JRiver - MC31 in my case - and a'm looking to buy a Wiim Pro (or 14) to replace all my Chromecast audio, mainly for the gapless support. This thread concerns me greatly since the OP wasn't able to make gapless work with JRiver.
I am wondering if Airplay/Airplay2 was tried.
JRiver supports it, at least in the last few releases, even on Windows. It can play to my Marantz SR-7011 and SR-8015 receivers that way, and it's fully gapless.

Did you read the last few posts? I think it's now working perfectly.
I have Jriver installed to test with if you'd like, but Jremote I don't have.

 

[Mike in NY]

This thread concerns me greatly since the OP wasn't able to make gapless work with JRiver.

In April.

 

[madbrain]

Sorry, I had read only the first part of the last post, not the last paragraph . DOH.
Seems I'll be ordering at least one device to try out.

 

[madbrain]

Did you read the last few posts? I think it's now working perfectly.
I have Jriver installed to test with if you'd like, but Jremote I don't have.

I don't have JRemote either. There is a program called MO4 Media that is free to try on Android. But one of the limitations is that it can only play for 30 seconds at a time. It's a PITA, but you can seek near the end of an audio track (say, 15 seconds before the end) and let it play from there to see if there is a gap. One of my favorite album is Byron Schenkman's Harpsichord variations which is a great test for gapless - notes are held across tracks. Any hint of a gap is horrible. I don't suppose you have that album. I don't have DSOTM as my collection is mainly classical & baroque music.
I just tried MO 4media with that album, and 3 different devices :
- local phone playback : plays gapless
- SR-7011 through Airplay : plays gapless
- a Chromecast audio : plays with a gap, though not a huge one, maybe 1/4s . With the Qobuz app I get sometimes get as much as 2-3 second gaps. Obviously the gap is less because the music is being streamed from my LAN as opposed to the Internet.

 

[Mike in NY]

Did you read the last few posts? I think it's now working perfectly.
I have Jriver installed to test with if you'd like, but Jremote I don't have.

I don't have JRemote either.

JRemote2 is also working, mentioned earlier in the thread and confirmed with my particular instance here in May.

 

[madbrain]

JRemote2 is also working, mentioned earlier in the thread and confirmed with my particular instance here in May.

Thanks, that's great news. Do you think it is a better app than MO4 Media ?