Recently Played

[Hollywood]

I have a bug to report. Since I am tuning a new audio system, I have been going back to the same albums so I can listen to the changes I make.

I only have my own CD collection ripped to a SSD on my router. I have not had any issues selecting my music via Browse, Media Server, Music, Artist, Album, but as I suggested in another thread I would like there to be a shortcut to cut down on the keystrokes to get to Media Server, Artist. So as I want to listen to the same music for comparison, I have been using the Recently Played button.

On several occasions I press on the album I previously played, but when it lists the tracks, it is often for a different artist and album completely. In one case I can see right now, I listened to Alice Cooper and if I press on that entry it says the correct album but lists the tracks for an Aldo Nova CD.

In other cases, I press on the previously played album but the key press does nothing. Most of the times it works properly, but both cases happened enough times to consider it a bug.

Thanks!

 

[Brantome]

This is largely a user discussion forum - if you wish to report an issue, please use the feedback section in the WiiM Home app to give WiiM the opportunity to inspect your device logs and diagnose the underlying issue. Thanks

 

[cassette]

New Wiim pro plus user here. Setup is home share on Synology Nas with Minimserver. Like the original poster I also noticed that items in the recently played list and in recent searches often point to the wrong album, usually an album that has a similar title. This makes it difficult to replay an album recently listened to because the link points to the wrong item. It also makes the recently played and recent searches lists useless. Strangely when I originally searched for the album it finds and plays the correct album. Also when searching albums the artwork is often displayed as 4 copies of the art tiled. I understand from the forum that these are known problems, does anybody have an idea what could be causing this? I did report the issue through the app on february 7 but haven't heard back.

 

[simbun]

New Wiim pro plus user here. Setup is home share on Synology Nas with Minimserver. Like the original poster I also noticed that items in the recently played list and in recent searches often point to the wrong album, usually an album that has a similar title.

I've never used this functionality (Recently Played is available in the licensed version of MinimServer) but given that when selecting the recently played item it takes you to the album, it must be storing IDs from the browsing hierarchy (as opposed to just the track URL), which could change after every rescan. Does that behaviour sound about right?
I'll have a quick test later.

 

[simbun]

Yes it's just recording the node in the index that the album was at. If you look at the MinimServer log (in Trace mode) when you recall a recently played track/album you can see the browse request:

19:27:55.484 Thread-23: ContentDirectory action: Browse 0$albums$*a0
...
19:28:16.903 Thread-22: ContentDirectory action: Browse 0$albums$*a1

My test was simply to have MinimServer index 3 albums (Album A, Album C and Album D), play one track from each, then add a new album (Album B) that sits alphabetically between the first and second and perform a rescan. You should find that the track from the first album is ok, whilst the second two are incorrect.

I can't see recent searches anywhere. When you do perform a search make sure you've selected something other than Songs as it fires off a UPnP search after each keystroke, and Songs is really inefficient!

 

[cassette]

Hello Simbun,
Thanks for you reply and the indexing test. I guess this means that every time I add an album to my library (which is daily) the "recently played" in the browse window and the "recent searches" in the search window of the Wiim Home App get corrupted. Would this be caused by the Minimserver or by the app? Could using another dlna server on my nas make a difference? I also tried the Synology Media Server and Plex but neither are searchable and I have a pretty big library so browsing is not practical.

 

[simbun]

I guess this means that every time I add an album to my library (which is daily) the "recently played" in the browse window and the "recent searches" in the search window of the Wiim Home App get corrupted.

Yes, the reality is that the current functionality is broken - not that it ever was recently played (just a pointer to an album containing a track that had been recently played).
I still don't see "recent searches" so I can't comment on that, unless you mean Bookmarks, which are broken too.

Would this be caused by the Minimserver or by the app? Could using another dlna server on my nas make a difference? I also tried the Synology Media Server and Plex but neither are searchable and I have a pretty big library so browsing is not practical.

The rescan is exposing the problem, but WiiM shouldn't have assumed that the internal index ids will persist across rescans, they should be storing the track URL like every other player. I tried AssetUPnP but it too changed every rescan.
Interestingly (I say that because it's the server WiiM are using in the WiiM Amp) MiniDLNA looks like it tries to persist the id's across rescans, unless you need to peform a full rebuild, so it's fine up to a point but has much bigger problems.

MinimServer is the only server I know of that has recently played functionality, but that's probably down to the fact that I use it. Whilst I have looked across many other servers for their indexing capabilities, I've never seen recently played, but that might be because I never actually played anything through them! I'll take a quick look at JellyFin as I have an install around here somewhere.

I'd imagine the vast majority of people are using different control points for browsing their local music, maybe it's worth trying BubbleUPnP if you're on Android as it has this functionality, and use WiiM as a UPnP endpoint.

EDIT: It looks like Jellyfin doesn't have this functionality, at least not over DLNA/UPnP.
EDIT: I just tried KODI and whilst it does have the functionality, it's not recorded through DLNA/UPnP.

 

[cassette]

I still don't see "recent searches"

Recent searches are underneath the search field in the search tab of the iOS Wiim app. I guess the recently played and recently searched lists are a function of the app, not the server? I noticed they are different on my phone and my ipad. I'm on iOS and could use the DS Audio app as controller, but It would be nice if this would work in the Wiim app. I've been using a Bluesound Node for many years but had terrible problems with their recent BluOs update so I bought a Wiim Pro Plus to tide me over. I havent had a lot of experience with DLNA/UPnP. Have these problems come up on this forum outside this thread?

 

[simbun]

Recent searches are underneath the search field in the search tab of the iOS Wiim app.

I don't have that in the Android version.

I guess the recently played and recently searched lists are a function of the app, not the server? I noticed they are different on my phone and my ipad.

What you're seeing in the WiiM app is a function of the app, but it's possible for servers to store them too. In MinimServer they'd appear in the index alongside '[n] albums', [n] items, Artist e.t.c. It's actually better for the server to do it because it's then available across control points.

I've been using a Bluesound Node for many years but had terrible problems with their recent BluOs update so I bought a Wiim Pro Plus to tide me over. I havent had a lot of experience with DLNA/UPnP. Have these problems come up on this forum outside this thread?

I've heard good things about BluOS generally but its tagging support is pretty basic I believe (do they even support multi-value artist/genre tags?) which is why I've been using UPnP as they have the best servers for local music.

The vast majority of people are using the WiiM as a renderer (not using the WiiM app for control) for local content as the WiiM Home app isn't very functional, so are probably unaware of the problem. You can submit feedback via the app (Settings > Send us feedback).

 

[WiiM Team]

I have a bug to report. Since I am tuning a new audio system, I have been going back to the same albums so I can listen to the changes I make.

I only have my own CD collection ripped to a SSD on my router. I have not had any issues selecting my music via Browse, Media Server, Music, Artist, Album, but as I suggested in another thread I would like there to be a shortcut to cut down on the keystrokes to get to Media Server, Artist. So as I want to listen to the same music for comparison, I have been using the Recently Played button.

On several occasions I press on the album I previously played, but when it lists the tracks, it is often for a different artist and album completely. In one case I can see right now, I listened to Alice Cooper and if I press on that entry it says the correct album but lists the tracks for an Aldo Nova CD.

In other cases, I press on the previously played album but the key press does nothing. Most of the times it works properly, but both cases happened enough times to consider it a bug.

Thanks!

Sorry for the inconvenience caused! To assist us in investigating and resolving this issue more efficiently, please provide your feedback directly through the WiiM Home app>Settings tab>Feedback. Our Eng. team will prioritize looking into this matter as soon as we receive feedback.

 

[WiiM Team]

Yes, the reality is that the current functionality is broken - not that it ever was recently played (just a pointer to an album containing a track that had been recently played).
I still don't see "recent searches" so I can't comment on that, unless you mean Bookmarks, which are broken too.


The rescan is exposing the problem, but WiiM shouldn't have assumed that the internal index ids will persist across rescans, they should be storing the track URL like every other player. I tried AssetUPnP but it too changed every rescan.
Interestingly (I say that because it's the server WiiM are using in the WiiM Amp) MiniDLNA looks like it tries to persist the id's across rescans, unless you need to peform a full rebuild, so it's fine up to a point but has much bigger problems.

MinimServer is the only server I know of that has recently played functionality, but that's probably down to the fact that I use it. Whilst I have looked across many other servers for their indexing capabilities, I've never seen recently played, but that might be because I never actually played anything through them! I'll take a quick look at JellyFin as I have an install around here somewhere.

I'd imagine the vast majority of people are using different control points for browsing their local music, maybe it's worth trying BubbleUPnP if you're on Android as it has this functionality, and use WiiM as a UPnP endpoint.

EDIT: It looks like Jellyfin doesn't have this functionality, at least not over DLNA/UPnP.
EDIT: I just tried KODI and whilst it does have the functionality, it's not recorded through DLNA/UPnP.

Thank you very much for conducting the tests. It has become evident that our WiiM Home app should avoid storing the index IDs received from the server, as these may undergo changes whenever the media server rescans the music library. Instead, if the track URLs remain unchanged after a rescan, our app could scan all tracks from the media server and construct a sophisticated media library. This would allow us to organize all tracks by Artist, Album, Genre, etc., greatly enhancing the convenience of browsing music on this media server.

 

[simbun]

Instead, if the track URLs remain unchanged after a rescan, our app could scan all tracks from the media server and construct a sophisticated media library. This would allow us to organize all tracks by Artist, Album, Genre, etc., greatly enhancing the convenience of browsing music on this media server.

Regarding the Recently Played functionality, when an item has been played you need to store the URL and any associated metadata from the browse request that accompanied the URL e.g. AlbumArtist, Album, Artist, e.t.c.

There's nothing you can do with a stored URL other than to start its playback. You definitely shouldn't be trying to pull metadata from the URL as there are a lot of scenarios where it won't be correct or even exist e.g. where the track has been transcoded to apply replaygain.

I have no idea why you would want to:

scan all tracks from the media server and construct a sophisticated media library.

I know there are a couple of successful apps that do this, but nobody wants this.

 

[cassette]

Will submit feedback. Thanks again!