Home Music Share and Serviio or LMS

[mikehd]

Hi,

I've just installed my WiiM Pro yesterday and have been less than pleased with the Home Music Share. It feels a lot like the HEOS app's view. However, I don't know how much is due to my choice of DLNA media server or DLNA or the WiiM. My rips are stored on a Windows 10 PC using Serviio as the media server. I also have Logitech Media Server installed on that same machine, as I still have and use a slimdevice.

This has likely been documented before, and I see that improvements for HMS is on the roadmap, but here's what I'm struggling to understand.

What are the benefits of using LMS over Serviio for the Wiim Pro?
Currently the tree view of the audio files is slow to respond and no album cover art is shown until you select the album from the list.
Multiple presses are required to select a list item as well. Is this behavior due to the use of Serviio?

I have searched for relevant threads but haven't found one that directly speaks to the above. The roadmap has

• Improved NAS and DLNA DMS features

which hopefully will address much of this.

I'm looking for whatever tips/tricks/solutions that may have been developed to improve the Home Music Share experience.

thanks

 

[simbun]

There are 3 components to UPnP, the media server (Serviio/LMS/MinimServer) a control point (BubbleUPnP, the WiiM/HEOS app) and then the renderer (the physical WiiM device, /Sonos/Denon Home 150 speaker). The media server is probably the most important aspect of the three as it dictates what's possible further up the chain e.g. the artwork that's displayed at each screen; the tags supported e.t.c.

At this point in time the WiiM app is just a VERY basic UPnP control point so you're better off using something like BubbleUPnP to orchestrate the playback between the media server and the renderer.

If you're looking for something purely UPnP using just your tags (not trawling discogs for bio's etc), and you're prepared to do a little work then MinimServer can't be beaten, but to get the most out of it (there is a free version but it's limited) it's £28 for a perpetual license with 12 months of updates then £10 a year for updates. NOTE: If you have any transcoding requirements, depending on what they are the £10 a year license may be required.

The configuration can be a little daunting, but the community there is excellent. If you have any problems I can almost guarantee a response within hours.

The following images show what's possible, although AlbumArtist and Compilation views require a little coding (just very basic if then else steps) and the BoxSet image requires a MusicBrainz style tagging approach (ALBUM, RELEASE, MBID e.t.c as well as a custom tag indicating the boxset name).

The RayCharles image is from an album with %discsubtitle% tags and associated artwork.
The AlbumArtist image shows that I have non-compilations sorted by release date.
The Compilations image shows that I have compilations sorted by album name, as they don't make sense if I sort by release date e.g. The Now That's What I Call Music series would be mixed in with all the others as it covers from 1984 to present day.
BoxSet.ReleaseView shows an index - I've created - that I use to group albums together if they belong to a box set, or by their release name e.g. It groups my 4 releases (original, boxset versions and Super Deluxe Edition) of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band' under a single heading, as it does the boxsets 'The Beatles In Mono' and 'The Beatles'.

 

[d6jg]

If you have LMS installed then to get the full features you need to install the UPnP/DLNA Bridge plugin onto LMS and use your WiiM as a fully fledged LMS endpoint and control is via the Material skin plugin.

The UPnP/DLNA Media Interface (a different plugin) on LMS is just as bad (good) as any other UPnP/DLNA Servers' interface when used with WiiM Home App but LMS in pure LMS mode is a different beast all together. It is as good as Roon but doesn't carry the excessive (any) price tag.

 

[mikehd]

Thanks for the dive into the world of UPnP. I do like how your media is displayed. It looks like your screen caps are from BubbleUPnP?

 

[mikehd]

If you have LMS installed then to get the full features you need to install the UPnP/DLNA Bridge plugin onto LMS and use your WiiM as a fully fledged LMS endpoint and control is via the Material skin plugin.

The UPnP/DLNA Media Interface (a different plugin) on LMS is just as bad (good) as any other UPnP/DLNA Servers' interface when used with WiiM Home App but LMS in pure LMS mode is a different beast all together. It is as good as Roon but doesn't carry the excessive (any) price tag.

So I need to install the Bridge and Material Skin plugins into LMS, then point Wiim Home App to this new server? Sounds like something to try right now.

 

[d6jg]

So I need to install the Bridge and Material Skin plugins into LMS, then point Wiim Home App to this new server? Sounds like something to try right now.

Install Bridge and Material plugins.
Go into Bridge settings. Choose binary, start Bridge and wait for config file to generate.
Stop the Bridge.
In dropdown choose Wiim and edit the Max Sample Rate to match whatever you have WiiM plugged into.
Restart Bridge
Open http://IP:9000/Material on PC or Phone - you should see WiiM at top left as available player - navigate to some music and hit play

On phone if iOS, open Material in Safari, do "Add to Home Screen", Close Safari. You should see new LMS icon on home screen. Open it from there in app mode.

 

[simbun]

Thanks for the dive into the world of UPnP. I do like how your media is displayed. It looks like your screen caps are from BubbleUPnP?

That's right BubbleUPnP. All of the components (server, control point and renderer) of UPnP should be interchangeable, so you'd get a more visually rich and a MUCH more functional UI by just switching from the WiiM app to BubbleUPnP. The only thing I don't know at the moment is whether you can control a speaker group with a third party app.

 

[mikehd]

Open http://IP:9000/Material on PC or Phone - you should see WiiM at top left as available player - navigate to some music and hit play

Page can't be reached. Verified Material Skin plugin is active. Updated LMS 8.3.1 still page can't be reached.

 

[Brantome]

Page can't be reached. Verified Material Skin plugin is active. Updated LMS 8.3.1 still page can't be reached.

You have replaced IP by the address of your LMS server e.g. 192.168.1.153:9000 ?

 

[d6jg]

Is your LMS on same Windows machine as you are trying to access from? If so try http://localhost:9000/material

Localhost means “this machine”. Change 9000 to match the port LMS is running on.

 

[mikehd]

Is your LMS on same Windows machine as you are trying to access from? If so try http://localhost:9000/material

Localhost means “this machine”. Change 9000 to match the port LMS is running on.

thanks, forgot about that. It works as it should.

 

[d6jg]

From phone it will be http:// Ip address of LMS machine :9000/material

 

[d6jg]

PS version 2.1.18 of the bridge plugin has a few issues but 2.1.19 about to be released seems to restore perfect playback

 

[mikehd]

PS version 2.1.18 of the bridge plugin has a few issues but 2.1.19 about to be released seems to restore perfect playback

Looks like it's out: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lms-plugins-philippe44/

 

[d6jg]

Come back in a day or two and say how bridge/material compares to upnp/WiiM app

 

[mikehd]

Come back in a day or two and say how bridge/material compares to upnp/WiiM app

I will

 

[d6jg]

Make sure you try the following LMS plugins

Music & Artist Information - adds lyrics, bios and reviews and is best used in conjunction with Material where in Playing you will see an (i) button to access
Radio Paradise - makes WiiM implementation look rubbish
BBC Sounds
LastMix - used with Don’t Stop the Music to produce focused radio style mix
Radio Now Playings - adds cover art and metadata to literally dozens of stations that don’t have it
Spotify, Qobuz, Deezer, Tidal - whichever is your poison

 

[mikehd]

Next snag: pressing play don't play. Just stays on 00:00. I'll update UPnP/DLNA bridge next.

---

Update: found that Windows Firewall was blocking the squeezeupnp-win.exe. Added it to my firewall and now it runs. Some quirks to workout yet, like skip to next track doesn't.

 

[d6jg]

The settings for the UPnP/DLNA Bridge are quite complicated.

In simple terms there are 2 modes of operation that you can consider for use with WiiM

1. Full passthrough - this is the default mode. In the main this works OK with my Mini using the latest version of the Bridge (2.1.19) but I can't say for the Pro. With this mode if it works anything you set playing in LMS is sent to the WiiM without any alteration to the stream. So if you send a 24/192 track that is what the WiiM receives. If the next track is 16/44.1 then that is what is sent. On the Mini this works OK including gapless playback and short tracks (<10s) but there are issues with things like skipping.

2. Transcoding in Flow mode - this mode will take everything that you play in LMS at send it in one long continuous stream to the WiiM. This mode almost always works perfectly with just 2 caveats. 1. You won't see metadata inside the WiiM App instead you will see "Streaming from LMS" but you do see metadata in Material and 2. (the much bigger caveat) the continuous stream is by default 16/44.1. You can change this but whatever you choose is the only bitrate sent. LMS/the Bridge transcodes accordingly.

Mode 1 is the preferred option if it works but don't discount mode 2. Even if the stream is fixed at 16/44.1 the whole experience is still infinitely improved.

Below is a screenshot of settings necessary for mode 2.

1. Set "max sample rate" to match whatever your WiiM is plugged into - mine is optical to a DAC that supports 24/96 but not 24/192
2. These are the settings for Flow at 16/44.1



NB
You can set the Bridge to transcode without Flow mode but this won't do anything for the WiiM.

 

[mikehd]

@d6jg How did you get Bridge 2.1.19 installed? Every reference I could find said to not manually install it, it will auto install. I've restarted the server several times and it isn't updating.