There has to be a better alternative to iTunes (on a Mac)

[Resurrection Man]

I am going to give JRiver another go. iPeg is just to damn flakey to be Fit for Purpose. Keeps crashing and even when it is working, playlists get very confused. For example, I can go to the iMac and play the first track of Mahler 8...perfect. Yet go to iPeg, the same playlist gives me Brahms 1. I've stopped and restarted the SqueezeCenter so we shall see if that makes any difference.

[Dave2002]

I am going to give JRiver another go. iPeg is just to damn flakey to be Fit for Purpose. Keeps crashing and even when it is working, playlists get very confused. For example, I can go to the iMac and play the first track of Mahler 8...perfect. Yet go to iPeg, the same playlist gives me Brahms 1. I've stopped and restarted the SqueezeCenter so we shall see if that makes any difference.

I am slightly surprised at this, particularly after your enthusiastic first encounters. I have had moderately acceptable results with iPeng and Squeezepad and related software, and although I have had the occasional wrong thing come up, I can't say that's the normal behaviour. Sounds as though you might have a version mismatch between the apps and the server.

I have been round the loop a few times - whether to pull to an iPad using an app, or alternatively simply play CDs, or just put the server on an iMac or similar and push from there. Mostly at present I can't be bothered with the technology much, so I tend to either play the CDs or use Spotify running on a MacBook Pro and feed the output through my DAC from there. I am finding that on the whole push using iTunes on Mac OX X is pretty good, because of the search feature which works well.

[Resurrection Man]

After some good support from iPeng it seems that iOS 5.1.1 is not the best version of iOS and that some heap management problems can occur. Given the initial problems with LMS (now happily resolved) .... because of the way iPeng works with it...iPeng was being asked to do a lot of extra repeat stuff while I was rescanning and generally fiddling about with LMS (it's to do with a change of name by Apple as far as some files are concerned) ...that all this extra repeat stuff may have hit up against the heap management issue. I power cycled the iPod last night and so far today..touch wood...all is fine.

[Resurrection Man]

I spoke too soon. Two crashes this morning due to Low Memory according to the iPod (although the memory app tells me I have 100Mb clear!)

[johnb]

I've been using iPeng on an iPad for getting on for a year, mainly to control my Touch/Logitech Media Server, and it has worked pretty well though, admittedly, not flawlessly.

Just one point though. I have been using Logitech Media Server 7.7.2 and have found it very stable indeed. Version 7.7.3 was only issued on 21/08/13 and I intend to stick with 7.7.2 for the time being. (New LMS releases have not been always without their problems in the past.)

Although I am not suggesting that 7.7.2 is more stable than 7.7.3 (I have absolutely no evidence for that) if you would like to try the previous version it can be downloaded from: http://downloads.slimdevices.com/Log...Server_v7.7.2/

The prompt to update to a new version can be extremely irritating but there is an option to turn the automatic update off:

Open Web Interface
Click on Settings (bottom right)
Click on "Advanced" tab
Select "Software Update" from drop down options (towards the top left)
Set: Software Update to "Don't check for software updates"
and: Automatic download to "Do not automatically download updates"

Though once the software for the new version has been downloaded the nag messages will continue. (At the moment I can't remember which folder contains the new software prior to its installation but I will try to find out.)

The iPeng developer ("pippin") is very helpful if problems occur and can be contacted by posting to his "iPeng support thread" on the SlimDevices forum: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...734#post756734

PS When scanning your music folders it is recommended that only the Pictures and Video options are unticked. Also, I seem to remember that it is recommended that the "UPnP Client" is disabled (Settings/Advanced/Network). These two changed might help with stability, etc.

If you are happy with iPeng/LMS then you might want to explore Triode's iPlayer plugin (which gives access to R3 Live and LA), his Spotify plugin (which needs a premium Spotify account) and the Qobuz plugin (which I haven't tested).

[johnb]

PPS I don't use Playlists very much but many people recommend that the Playlist folder is separate from the Music folder.

[Resurrection Man]

Thanks John. Pippin is being very helpful. I've now mailed the Low Memory Reports to him.

[Resurrection Man]

Currently beta testing iPeng to see if his fixes have worked. I stress that the stability problem seems to only be related to iOS 5.1.1 and I'm seriously considering ditching my 3rd Gen iPod Touch and getting a 4th Gen which supports iOS 6.

[Resurrection Man]

Pippin has asked me this question to which I have not a clue. We're talking LMS aka SqueezeCenter etc.

Does your server transcode the ALAC to FLAC? Probably not with 7.7.3.


I've tried plenty of FLACs and MP3s but not AAC and ALAC, will try those.

[johnb]

RM,

Open the LMS web interface and click on Settings.

Click on the Advanced tab and select "File Types" from the drop down menu towards the top left of the screen.

This shows how LMS is set up to deal with each file type.

The "File Format" column is the file type that LMS finds on the HDD
The "Stream Format" column shows the various options set up for that filetype
The "Decoder" boxes show how LMS converts the File Format to the Stream Format. Each can also be set to "disabled".

If there are multiple valid settings for the same File Format I think that the uppermost one is chosen by default (but I might be mistaken in that). However, one can force LMS to use a particular option by setting the other options for that Filetype to "disabled".

Before making any changes it would be a very good idea to note the original settings by, say, doing a screen print.

My setup isn't typical but, the above screen on my LMS shows that Apple Lossless is transcoded to FLAC (faad/sox), mp3 (faad/lame) or PMC (faad). Your setup might be different.

I'm using 7.7.2 but it is very unlikely that 7.7.3 will differ as far as this is concerned.

Just in case you are curious, the options displayed reflect the settings contained in the "convert.conf" file in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Squeezebox\server folder (that is the folder for 64 bit W7).

Custom settings can be made but should be put into a "custom-convert.conf" file.

It is wise to leave the convert.conf file alone unless you have familiarised yourself with exactly how it works (and even then take a backup before changing anything).

[johnb]

PS You mentioned you have tried aac files.

"Raw" (so to speak) aac files will play using LMS but there is no navigation control within the file. They start at the beginning and continue to the end. It is better to wrap aac files in a mp4 or m4a container - that way you can navigate within the file. (It also enables you to use cue files, the details of which LMS uses to simulate tracks within an album.)

I have a simple setup to convert aac files to mp4 or m4a files (without decoding/re-encoding) using drag and drop with Mp4Box. Let me know if you are interested.

[Resurrection Man]

PS You mentioned you have tried aac files.

"Raw" (so to speak) aac files will play using LMS but there is no navigation control within the file. They start at the beginning and continue to the end. It is better to wrap aac files in a mp4 or m4a container - that way you can navigate within the file. (It also enables you to use cue files, the details of which LMS uses to simulate tracks within an album.)

I have a simple setup to convert aac files to mp4 or m4a files (without decoding/re-encoding) using drag and drop with Mp4Box. Let me know if you are interested.

Many thanks for the reply, johnb. Very very helpful and informative. I hadn't realised that you couldn't navigate through a file if it is AAC which explains a lot! Thanks for the offer of the converter but my sense is that you are PC based whereas I am Mac.

One question, if I may. On that LMS file conversion page, I can understand that file format refers to how my music is stored but Stream Format? What determines the Stream Format?

[johnb]

I'm not sure this will answer your question and I realise it is a long rambling response - but here goes:

This is my understanding but please don't take it as gospel.

The Stream Format is the format in which the data is sent from LMS to the player (a Touch in my case, the iPad/etc for you).

When LMS is first installed the stream format options are set to defaults which, in general, are must likely to be suitable.

When a particular player is selected in LMS the stream format defaults will change to reflect the file formats natively supported by the player.

The various streaming format options are to cater for

- the various Squeezebox players (which have different capabilities)
- user preferences (e.g. for streaming to a remote location over a mobile phone network mp3 might be preferable), also a few people have the (misguided?) idea that streaming PCM sounds 'better'
- 3rd party plugins (e.g. Inguz DRC adds additional transcoding options)
- etc, etc

Previously I said that I thought the uppermost valid streaming format option was selected default by LMS. I'm not at all sure that is the case. However, if desired, a particular stream format can be forced by setting other stream formats to 'disabled'

If your LMS does not convert Apple Lossess to FLAC, but has an option to stream Apple Lossless direct to your player, you should see an Apple Lossess (file format) to Apple Lossless or ALAC (stream format) option and the conversion method will probably say (native).

However, the convert.conf file that is automatically installed by LMS 7.7.2 has the Apple Lossless (file format) to Apple Lossless (stream format) rem'd out by default because Squeezebox players do not natively support Apple Lossless (the default streaming options for Apple Lossless file formats are conversion 'real time' to PCM by faad.exe, then to FLAC/mp3 by FLAC/Lame as desired). Whether it is different in LMS 7.7.3 I don't know.

However, if you do wish to stream Apple Lossless to your iPad/iPod, etc and if those devices support Apple Lossless and the Apple Lossless streaming format isn't shown - you can edit the convert.conf file to change:

# ALAC native codec not supported by default
# alc alc * *
# 	-

(this is towards the end of the convert.conf file)

to

# ALAC native codec not supported by default
# Edited by me to enable ALAC
alc alc * *
	-

If you do edit convert.conf - make sure you backup the original file.

(In general it is thought better to put user changes into a "custom-convert.conf" file as the "convert.conf" is overwritten when a new LMS update is installed. So when I edit my convert.conf I make sure I have a backup of both the original file and my amended file.)

[johnb]

Just one further point.

Many people run LMS on woefully underpowered NAS boxes even though the processors in their NAS boxes are only barely adequate to run LMS and often just cannot cope with transcoding. If that is the case the sensible thing is to avoid any transcoding and stream in native file formats where possible. (Or run LMS on a computer connected to the NAS.)

I use a HP Microserver which I bought a couple of years ago through one of HP's cash back deals. It cost me around £120 (including just 1 250G HDD but without an OS). I installed Unbuntu (free) and it is much better than any NAS box I could have got for anything like the price. Four HDD bays (plus a 5th if one uses the CD bay) and ample power to run LMS.

Incidentally, I see that another HP £100 offer is currently running on the latest version of the HP Microserver, giving a net price of £150 (without OS). Much better than any equivalent priced NAS IMO, but only for someone comfortable about installing their own choice of OS.

[Resurrection Man]

Many thanks, johnb. My iPod Touch still keeps crashing....thinking I may to bite the bullet and get a later version that supports iOS 6.