PLANNED: Long album titles on Home Music Shares not shown completely

[MrSoul4470]

Unfortunately WiiM doesn't react on tickets from inside their app anymore, so I try it here:

As the thread title says, long album titles on Home Music Shares are not shown completely, which makes it really hard often to distinguish different album version. The album title is just cut off at the end of the line instead of continuing in another line.

You might say, this is a rare problem, but I have to say it is not. I have quite a large collection and often various releases of the same album. It is a problem I face basically every day.

The Foobar2000 app is a good example of how to make it better. I have added 2 screenshots of the view in the WiiM app compared to how it looks in Foobar2000.

I would really appreciate if WiiM concentrated on making the app how it is work flawlessly, instead of adding new features all the time.

 

[Burnside]

This morning I got the App update 3.2.0. I was happy to see the point "Improved Local Music Browsing: A redesigned layout makes it easier to navigate and enjoy your local library" and was hoping that they have finally really improved local music browsing. I cannot tell the difference though to how it was before. Are there really any changes?

It’s not something I use a great deal, so might have been like this for a while, but grid and list view, as well as sort options appear to be on the album, artist and playlist pages. I see the Android version also has album artist as a heading.

And I seriously doubt WiiM would intentionally claim a change in the release notes and not include it.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

This morning I got the App update 3.2.0. I was happy to see the point "Improved Local Music Browsing: A redesigned layout makes it easier to navigate and enjoy your local library" and was hoping that they have finally really improved local music browsing. I cannot tell the difference though to how it was before. Are there really any changes?

As far as this issue goes, no not for me.

 

[TimTim]

I mean, isn't my screenshot of foobar2000 showing how it should be properly done?

Wiim feels like a beta release with regard to the handling of tags.

I started this thread in March but sadly there is no improvement on this issue. Just take a look on the screenshots in the first post and tell me that this makes sense or is a good solution. I like the WiiM app but this is horrible. Cutting of album or track names is an absolut no go. I know some will say it is okay like this, but how can I really tell different releases apart if it doesn't show in the album name? Someone objected that I put the year in front of album name. Yes, so? It's just a couple of characters and it's actually not a part of the album name, but just what my server is set up to show. Anyways, I often have to guess what realease it is and that's really not great. There must be a better solution than this. WiiM tries to deliver whatever the community asks for, but they can't make their app show full names? That's a joke, but not a funny one.

Wiim still very much feels like a beta release in regard to handling local music and metadata tags. I’ve replaced the Ultra with a Raspberry Pi connected to my DAC for the main system and now use it with a headphone amp in the bedroom. While the Pi isn’t perfect either, it’s much better and probably the best compromise if one wants to stay away from a Roon subscription. I believe that the Ultra has great potential but in many aspects it feels like using a public beta which right now is far from a release candidate. I‘m thankful that the software is constantly improving but that would not even be a necessity if the beta testing had been done in-house.

 

[rccarguy]

Wiim feels like a beta release with regard to the handling of tags.

Wiim still very much feels like a beta release in regard to handling local music and metadata tags. I’ve replaced the Ultra with a Raspberry Pi connected to my DAC for the main system and now use it with a headphone amp in the bedroom. While the Pi isn’t perfect either, it’s much better and probably the best compromise if one wants to stay away from a Roon subscription. I believe that the Ultra has great potential but in many aspects it feels like using a public beta which right now is far from a release candidate. I‘m thankful that the software is constantly improving but that would not even be a necessity if the beta testing had been done in-house.

Wiim app isn't great tbh

since you have a pi, why not try picoreplayer?

LMS is fab

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

Wiim app isn't great tbh

The WiiM app is absolutely superb, and has been acknowledged as such in numerous reviews.

Wiim still very much feels like a beta release in regard to handling local music and metadata tags.

Yes, I largely agree with that. I think it's 95% of the way there; it's always that last little finesse that's needed, and which can make all the difference.

 

[TimTim]

Wiim app isn't great tbh

since you have a pi, why not try picoreplayer?

LMS is fab

That’s what I’ve been using for years. Might give Moode another try for easier camilladsp integration. But that would just be switching sd cards anyway. When I last used that, it was useless for large libraries but supposedly it’s improved over the years. I got the Ultra because I expected something that would just work. Should just have upgraded the old pi instead. I’ve done that now. More ram seems to make a big difference and LMS even displays the title of each disc for multiple disc releases if tagged properly.

For some reason the Ultra doesn’t accept DSD when used as an LMS endpoint and so I’m mostly using Plex on the Ultra but that’s not working particularly well either. If I show all albums by an artist, often albums are missing and can only be found by searching for the album title. To be fair, I have no idea if the handling of DSD is an Ultra or pi related issue.

So for the time being, PCP it is but I’ll keep checking for updates and maybe one day the Ultra will do everything it said on the box in a satisfactory way.

 

[slartibartfast]

That’s what I’ve been using for years. Might give Moode another try for easier camilladsp integration. But that would just be switching sd cards anyway. When I last used that, it was useless for large libraries but supposedly it’s improved over the years. I got the Ultra because I expected something that would just work. Should just have upgraded the old pi instead. I’ve done that now. More ram seems to make a big difference and LMS even displays the title of each disc for multiple disc releases if tagged properly.

For some reason the Ultra doesn’t accept DSD when used as an LMS endpoint and so I’m mostly using Plex on the Ultra but that’s not working particularly well either. If I show all albums by an artist, often albums are missing and can only be found by searching for the album title. To be fair, I have no idea if the handling of DSD is an Ultra or pi related issue.

So for the time being, PCP it is but I’ll keep checking for updates and maybe one day the Ultra will do everything it said on the box in a satisfactory way.

You might need the DSD Player plugin for LMS to play DSD on the Ultra.

 

[rccarguy]

That’s what I’ve been using for years. Might give Moode another try for easier camilladsp integration. But that would just be switching sd cards anyway. When I last used that, it was useless for large libraries but supposedly it’s improved over the years. I got the Ultra because I expected something that would just work. Should just have upgraded the old pi instead. I’ve done that now. More ram seems to make a big difference and LMS even displays the title of each disc for multiple disc releases if tagged properly.

For some reason the Ultra doesn’t accept DSD when used as an LMS endpoint and so I’m mostly using Plex on the Ultra but that’s not working particularly well either. If I show all albums by an artist, often albums are missing and can only be found by searching for the album title. To be fair, I have no idea if the handling of DSD is an Ultra or pi related issue.

So for the time being, PCP it is but I’ll keep checking for updates and maybe one day the Ultra will do everything it said on the box in a satisfactory way.

Can't really expect a new eco system to one that has been around for almost 20 years and is open source.

It's the only reason I bought a wiim


No squeezelite, no buy .

 

[TimTim]

You might need the DSD Player plugin for LMS to play DSD on the Ultra.

I‘ll look into that. Right now I’m sending DSD from the pi straight to the DAC via USB and that works perfectly.

 

[simbun]

Wiim still very much feels like a beta release in regard to handling local music and metadata tags.

Are you referring to locally indexed music?

How is it lacking when compared to other hardware vendors e.g. Sonos/BluOS/Cambridge Audio etc?

I'm not defending it (I only use it as an endpoint), just wondered how your expectations have been set.

 

[TimTim]

Are you referring to locally indexed music?

How is it lacking when compared to other hardware vendors e.g. Sonos/BluOS/Cambridge Audio etc?

I'm not defending it (I only use it as an endpoint), just wondered how your expectations have been set.

I am.

I can only talk about Sonos and that’s just terrible software. I have no experience with the other brands.

I expected it to at least be as good as free software that is available. While it might not be Roon, it should be able to distinguish between different versions of albums instead of grouping them together if the files are tagged properly. Plex can do it and PCP can do it too. Ideally it would also allow for searching for conductors and composers for anything tagged with classical as the genre. Right now the most feasible option is browsing through folders. That way I’ve at least got composers in alphabetical order.

I guess my main issue is that the Ultra offers too many things that almost work. Plex integration is far from perfect and I’ve given up on playing music from a harddrive plugged into the Ultra as the way some releases get grouped together is no fun. Everything is quite close to being good but after plenty of updates it’s still not quite there.

 

[rccarguy]

I am.

I can only talk about Sonos and that’s just terrible software. I have no experience with the other brands.

I expected it to at least be as good as free software that is available. While it might not be Roon, it should be able to distinguish between different versions of albums instead of grouping them together if the files are tagged properly. Plex can do it and PCP can do it too. Ideally it would also allow for searching for conductors and composers for anything tagged with classical as the genre. Right now the most feasible option is browsing through folders. That way I’ve at least got composers in alphabetical order.

I guess my main issue is that the Ultra offers too many things that almost work. Plex integration is far from perfect and I’ve given up on playing music from a harddrive plugged into the Ultra as the way some releases get grouped together is no fun. Everything is quite close to being good but after plenty of updates it’s still not quite there.

The problem is it's relying on DNLA server, and how that scans and manages the music. The ones I've used are pretty basic, with bare minimum I'd class as music database...and only for smaller collections.

navigating through UPNP is sloooooww. At least with LMS with album artist branch it is fast.

I guess that depends on the system, with minimserver you'd want to use custom branches to replicate how LMS looks. So you need to look into that...and pay for the license fee. Then need a decent front end app, that's another purchase.

With LMS both sides are free.

 

[simbun]

I can only talk about Sonos and that’s just terrible software. I have no experience with the other brands.

They're all as "bad" as each other really, which means they're likely good enough for most users.

I expected it to at least be as good as free software that is available. While it might not be Roon, it should be able to distinguish between different versions of albums instead of grouping them together if the files are tagged properly.

If albums are still being split by track artist then it absolutely needs fixing, but if they're formed of album+albumartist then I think that's pretty standard - although it wouldn't work for me.
Why do you think it should be as good as all the available free software, some of which has been around over 20 years? The vast majority of servers are still very limited, and how many of those do you think will run on the Ultra/Amp/Amp Pro?

I guess my main issue is that the Ultra offers too many things that almost work.

I think that's fair.

WiiM aren't going to develop for a niche market; they'll aim to meet the needs of 80% of "normal users" and trust that the UPnP/Chromecast/Squeezelite interface will cover the rest, which I think is fair.

 

[TimTim]

They're all as "bad" as each other really, which means they're likely good enough for most users.


If albums are still being split by track artist then it absolutely needs fixing, but if they're formed of album+albumartist then I think that's pretty standard - although it wouldn't work for me.
Why do you think it should be as good as all the available free software, some of which has been around over 20 years? The vast majority of servers are still very limited, and how many of those do you think will run on the Ultra/Amp/Amp Pro?


I think that's fair.

WiiM aren't going to develop for a niche market; they'll aim to meet the needs of 80% of "normal users" and trust that the UPnP/Chromecast/Squeezelite interface will cover the rest, which I think is fair.

I’d somehow expect something that I pay for to be better than free software. Photoshop is better than Gimp. With open source, I’m aware of the limitations that a beta release might offer but with commercial software I kind of expect new features only to be added after they have been thoroughly tested. While I’ve seen improvements over the past months, nothing has really gotten past what I’d call a beta version.

So for the time being it’s back to picoreplayer and rew and hopefully in the not too distant future at least Plex support will have been fully implemented.

 

[harkpabst]

I’d somehow expect something that I pay for to be better than free software. Photoshop is better than Gimp.

Good luck, then. It's not that simple, I'm afraid.

 

[rccarguy]

I’d somehow expect something that I pay for to be better than free software. Photoshop is better than Gimp. With open source, I’m aware of the limitations that a beta release might offer but with commercial software I kind of expect new features only to be added after they have been thoroughly tested. While I’ve seen improvements over the past months, nothing has really gotten past what I’d call a beta version.

So for the time being it’s back to picoreplayer and rew and hopefully in the not too distant future at least Plex support will have been fully implemented.

Although it's like comparing Linux versus Mac. Linux is free, and yet a lot more customisation, and is open source. I never liked Sonos for the reason the app was closed source, for the PC and needing their own special LCD remote, then finally the official app on phone. When I was shown it (I just bought a Squeezebox) I knew that LMS could be installed on a PC or a NAS. You can control it via a PC/IP You didn't have smart phones back then (at least I didn't)

For example, there has just been firmware update for the Squeezebox Touch. How old is that, and yet thanks to open source, it's still supported.

If that was a closed system support would have ended years ago.

The function of the official wiim app didn't really concern me. Although ideally the Wiim streamers should allow setup and installation over IP- eventually when support is stopped, app no longer works .....what then? Be in the same situation with Squeezebox and the official non working Logitech app.

Only must have is Squeezelite feature of the Wiim.

 

[simbun]

So for the time being it’s back to picoreplayer and rew and hopefully in the not too distant future at least Plex support will have been fully implemented.

Have you tried Symfonium with Plex (or a better server)? It's very similar to PlexAmp except it supports UPnP renderers (WiiM).

For a power user (which you sound like) there are always going to be better solutions than the WHA - unless maybe you're on iOS (discounting PlexAmp as it only supports Chromecast/AirPlay).