Variable volume for bluetooth and Playing subfolders.

[cricket]

When I play music on WiiM Pro at a reasonable volume over bluetooth headphones, turn off phones, and turn them back on later, volume is at max. This doesn't happen with an Amazon Echo device, so I'm sure it's related to the WiiM Pro. I've turned off fixed volume and don't have the problem, but I prefer fixed volume for coax or S/PDIF. Would it be possible to add a fixed/variable selection for bluetooth and a separate selection for coax and S/PDIF?

It would also be nice to have the ability to play a folder containing several subfolders, each song in a subfolder in sequence before advancing to the next subfolder. Currently, any method that plays multiple subfolders interleaves the folders, making multi-disc concept albums difficult to follow.

 

[simbun]

It would also be nice to have the ability to play a folder containing several subfolders, each song in a subfolder in sequence before advancing to the next subfolder. Currently, any method that plays multiple subfolders interleaves the folders, making multi-disc concept albums difficult to follow.

What methods have you tried as I don't believe the WiiM Home app supports this?

When you talk of folders and subfolders, are you actually referring to physical folders that reside on your fileshare, if so, why are you browsing like that as it's not the recommended approach? A decent media server (with correct file tagging) will present the album as a single entity to be played in the correct order, whilst also offering a much richer visual and functional experience.

 

[cricket]

CDs are ripped to FLAC and stored on a NAS share in Artist > Album(s) > Disc folder structure. A multi-disc album has a folder for each disc. The NAS has Plex installed and WiiM Home accesses it without problem. I use EAC to rip CDs and Mp3tag to edit metadata. I do the same thing for digitized vinyl, including addition of cover art. I prefer the sound of physical media when possible, but network access is ideal for a dusty shop.

I was planning a longer response with some images, but my NAS had failed. Bigger fish to fry right now.

 

[d6jg]

CDs are ripped to FLAC and stored on a NAS share in Artist > Album(s) > Disc folder structure. A multi-disc album has a folder for each disc. The NAS has Plex installed and WiiM Home accesses it without problem. I use EAC to rip CDs and Mp3tag to edit metadata. I do the same thing for digitized vinyl, including addition of cover art. I prefer the sound of physical media when possible, but network access is ideal for a dusty shop.

I was planning a longer response with some images, but my NAS had failed. Bigger fish to fry right now.

I believe I am correct in saying that that methodology makes each individual CD into an album in Plex terms whereas if you dispense with the folder per disc idea but extend your tagging to include discnumber and format the file names as "discno-trackno-trackname.flac" and lump them into one folder Plex (and other media servers) will see the album as individual CDs e.g.

 

[simbun]

I believe I am correct in saying that that methodology makes each individual CD into an album in Plex terms whereas if you dispense with the folder per disc idea but extend your tagging to include discnumber and format the file names as "discno-trackno-trackname.flac" and lump them into one folder Plex (and other media servers) will see the album as individual CDs

I've just spent the last 20 minutes looking into Plex to see why the OP would browse by Folder (or if by Folder he meant album), and noticed the same thing, Plex doesn't appear to merge files that have been stored using the standard convention of AlbumArtist/Album/CD01 e.t.c., and what's even worse it doesn't look like there's a way to change it!
I'm not aware of other servers that do this, although I'm not sure I've looked out for it.

 

[d6jg]

I've just spent the last 20 minutes looking into Plex to see why the OP would browse by Folder (or if by Folder he meant album), and noticed the same thing, Plex doesn't appear to merge files that have been stored using the standard convention of AlbumArtist/Album/CD01 e.t.c., and what's even worse it doesn't look like there's a way to change it!
I'm not aware of other servers that do this, although I'm not sure I've looked out for it.

I don't think that IS the standard convention but I am aware that some servers will amalgamate and lots of people do it that way. I don't.
Proper tagging and a server that is intelligent enough to ask you which disc you want to play is the ideal.

 

[simbun]

CDs are ripped to FLAC and stored on a NAS share in Artist > Album(s) > Disc folder structure. A multi-disc album has a folder for each disc. The NAS has Plex installed and WiiM Home accesses it without problem. I use EAC to rip CDs and Mp3tag to edit metadata. I do the same thing for digitized vinyl, including addition of cover art. I prefer the sound of physical media when possible, but network access is ideal for a dusty shop.

I've just installed Plex to have a look, and it's a real mess, at least the DLNA presentation side of things.

As @d6jg pointed out above, Plex seems to define albums by folders, which is the first problem.
The next problem is that there isn't an AlbumArtist index, just an Artist index made up of AlbumArtist and Artist (if AlbumArtist is Various Artists). If you have a sizeable collection that includes compilations this list will be massive.
I couldn't get Track Artist to show on the album track listing (using BubbleUPnP).
Seems to be doing some weird things with genre as one album with a genre of Pop was included in the category Pop/Rock.
Really struggling to get it to refresh the library for tracks that I've changed (for testing purposes). I've had to delete the Library and recreate it.

I'm sure there's more but I didn't want to waste any more time really.

Are you using Plex for anything other than DLNA music, as if not I'd save yourself the hassle and use the free version of MinimServer. Failing that, consider using BubbleUPnP as the control point as it can enqueue multiple folders deep.

 

[simbun]

I don't think that IS the standard convention but I am aware that some servers will amalgamate and lots of people do it that way.

Plex is the first server I've seen/noticed that doesn't merge across folders, but now I'm curious!
I too used to store all tracks together, but I found external artwork more compatible (Sonos wouldn't use embedded artwork within MP3's if they were tagged with ID3v2.4 and MinimServer wouldn't for Ogg Vorbis) so I went with one disc per folder in order to have unique artwork for each disc.

Proper tagging and a server that is intelligent enough to ask you which disc you want to play is the ideal.

In the track listing MinimServer presents a disc header to be used for the same thing. If DISCSUBTITLE is populated then that is what's displayed. I'm not aware of another server that does that ;-)



EDIT:
It looks like LMS doesn't handle folders with certain unicode characters well.
I was trying to load the Ray Charles album into LMS to see if it used DISCSUBTITLE but it wouldn't scan the folder until I removed the unicode character '：'. Is this a known problem?

 

[d6jg]

The DLNA support in Plex is really an afterthought.
I use a Plex server but really only for films. It has a bit of music in its library purely for testing - the Derek & The Dominos is there for that reason.

As you know I'm firmly in the LMS camp. All my dabbling with DLNA has resulted in me deciding it is what I consider to be an unusable protocol.

MConnect can see the Plex server Ok but when I look at Layla its not ordered by disc then track instead it disc1/track 1 followed by disc2/track1. Useless. WHA can also see the Plex server via Home Music Share (as it has hardly any music on it) and is correct in its display of Layla tracks.

I also have an Emby server which has access to all my music. Over 4,000 local albums.
MConnect can't even open it. WHA can open it but as for browsing anything to play forget it.
UPnP/DLNA devices that have remotes (e.g. Onkyo AVR, LG TV etc) can access the Emby sever but navigation is appalling.

I suppose you will say that I need to get an Android device and use BubbleUPNP !

 

[d6jg]

Plex is the first server I've seen/noticed that doesn't merge across folders, but now I'm curious!
I too used to store all tracks together, but I found external artwork more compatible (Sonos wouldn't use embedded artwork within MP3's if they were tagged with ID3v2.4 and MinimServer wouldn't for Ogg Vorbis) so I went with one disc per folder in order to have unique artwork for each disc.

In the track listing MinimServer presents a disc header to be used for the same thing. If DISCSUBTITLE is populated then that is what's displayed. I'm not aware of another server that does that ;-)

View attachment 1268

That's interesting.
There has been a lot of work in LMS recently to try to appease Classical music enthusiasts with their concept of "works". It isn't easy.
The fundamentals of LMS were designed so long ago that some newer tags are ignored when the scanner populates the database. DISCSUBTITLE is one such tag I think. There is a move to try to add some of these newer tags but as its a community driven product there isn't much development time available.
LMS doesn't allow different cover art per CD either but you can have all covers available in the folder to be shown if you want to see them and also personal reviews etc.

 

[simbun]

The DLNA support in Plex is really an afterthought.
I use a Plex server but really only for films. It has a bit of music in its library purely for testing - the Derek & The Dominos is there for that reason.

I created a new folder to house 4 multi-disc albums so I could test a few servers, so I removed the old folder and pointed Plex at the new folder and all the albums are now grouped correctly! I give up! Tried to test KODI but I couldn't remove the previously indexed albums, no matter how many library cleans I performed.

As you know I'm firmly in the LMS camp. All my dabbling with DLNA has resulted in me deciding it is what I consider to be an unusable protocol.

I might have been lucky to discover MinimServer and BubbleUPnP early on as it's been a flawless combination.

MConnect can see the Plex server Ok but when I look at Layla its not ordered by disc then track instead it disc1/track 1 followed by disc2/track1. Useless. WHA can also see the Plex server via Home Music Share (as it has hardly any music on it) and is correct in its display of Layla tracks.

I've just seen the same thing, but interestingly there is a sort option at the top of mconnect and by default it's set to 'Track Number' and 'No Sort' appears to be a paid option, and one which I think should show the tracks in the correct order (the order as delivered by the media server I assume). I can't believe the correct track order is a premium feature!

I also have an Emby server which has access to all my music. Over 4,000 local albums.
MConnect can't even open it. WHA can open it but as for browsing anything to play forget it.

I only have about 1500 albums but MConnect and WHA are fine, even if I try to browse all the albums at once. Maybe it's an Emby thing as I know the WHA asks for a maximum of 2000 items at a time so it should never have a problem with responsiveness.

I suppose you will say that I need to get an Android device and use BubbleUPNP !

I think BubbleUPnP is the saving grace of UPnP, but I've had very good experience of Hi-Fi Cast too, it's just about finding the right combinations I think.

Would be interested to see how MinimServer worked for you; its configuration page will make LMS look positively futuristic

 

[d6jg]

Would be interested to see how MinimServer worked for you; its configuration page will make LMS look positively futuristic

I have a newly created punchy test VM which is running LMS, Plex (with DLNA turned off) and Emby at present. I was considereing sticking MinimServer onto it but realised the Java install was going to require some fiddling so I have parked it for another day.

 

[d6jg]

I only have about 1500 albums but MConnect and WHA are fine, even if I try to browse all the albums at once. Maybe it's an Emby thing as I know the WHA asks for a maximum of 2000 items at a time so it should never have a problem with responsiveness.

It's when I ask for a list of Artists - there are perhaps 3000 in my library. If I list by genre instead and choose a genre I know has only a few albums then all is good. I suspect the max of 2000 items may not have been applied to all areas. It is still absolute rubbish compared to what I am used to.

 

[d6jg]

I have just discovered that rather than use the ARTIST tag if there is no ALBUMARTIST tag Emby uses the folder name hence I have Berlin_Philharmonic_Orchestra_Herbert_von_Karajan in my Album Artists listing from Emby. Utter crap.

 

[simbun]

I have a newly created punchy test VM which is running LMS, Plex (with DLNA turned off) and Emby at present. I was considereing sticking MinimServer onto it but realised the Java install was going to require some fiddling so I have parked it for another day.

I run most of these servers in a software sandbox and have had problems with Oracles java before but the Microsoft build of OpenJDK has been problem free and from memory didn't require configuration of any kind. I also used Amazon's build for my Unifi controller (as it didn't like the Microsoft build for some reason) and it too was fine.

It's when I ask for a list of Artists - there are perhaps 3000 in my library. If I list by genre instead and choose a genre I know has only a few albums then all is good. I suspect the max of 2000 items may not have been applied to all areas.

I just tried to list all my tracks, and whilst it did request 2000, it was 2000 at a time until it received everything!

...
17:45:26.321 Thread-2263:  BrowseFlag=BrowseDirectChildren StartingIndex=26000 RequestedCount=2000 Filter=* SortCriteria=
...
17:45:27.349 Thread-2264:  BrowseFlag=BrowseDirectChildren StartingIndex=28000 RequestedCount=2000 Filter=* SortCriteria=
...
17:45:28.073 Thread-2262:  BrowseFlag=BrowseDirectChildren StartingIndex=30000 RequestedCount=2000 Filter=* SortCriteria=
17:49:23.061 Thread-2262:  NumberReturned=2000 TotalMatches=29389 UpdateID=1494
...

The WHA did display the lot though, on its second attempt.

I have just discovered that rather than use the ARTIST tag if there is no ALBUMARTIST tag Emby uses the folder name hence I have Berlin_Philharmonic_Orchestra_Herbert_von_Karajan in my Album Artists listing from Emby. Utter crap.

I've got to admit the more I look at KODI/Plex/Emby the more I'm disappointed by them, admittedly from the DLNA side of things.