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[simonb]

My setup is a Synology NAS running PLEX media server.
When a track is playing the Album Artist is shown, e.g. "Various Artists" rather than the Track Artist, e.g. "Ultravox". Is there a way of choosing what is displayed. Is this a function of the WiiM software or the PLEX media server. I suspect the former.
Any ideas.
Thanks.

 

[simbun]

I've looked at MinimServer and AssetUPnP and I believe the WiiM app is just picking the first <upnp:artist> tag it encounters, so in theory it really depends on how PLEX presents it.

This is what is sent from MinimServer and AssetUPnP.

<upnp:artist role="AlbumArtist">Artist1</upnp:artist>
<upnp:artist>Artist1; Artist2</upnp:artist>

I guess it should be using role to identify the AlbumArtist and then use any other artist tags as the track artists.
MinimServer can be configured to send only track artist (to work with problem control points) but that functionality isn't in the free version.

In terms of ideas, the general consensus is to pick another control point e.g. BubbleUPnP, Hi-Fi Cast, mconnect e.t.c.

 

[bever70]

My setup is a Synology NAS running PLEX media server.
When a track is playing the Album Artist is shown, e.g. "Various Artists" rather than the Track Artist, e.g. "Ultravox". Is there a way of choosing what is displayed. Is this a function of the WiiM software or the PLEX media server. I suspect the former.
Any ideas.
Thanks.

Use the free Plex app (or the Plexamp app) to control the music on your NAS. Much better experience!

 

[simbun]

Use the free Plex app (or the Plexamp app) to control the music on your NAS. Much better experience!

Does the free app cast to UPnP speakers? I only have an install for scraping metadata that I use for my UPnP library, so maybe it's a plugin I need.

 

[bever70]

Does the free app cast to UPnP speakers? I only have an install for scraping metadata that I use for my UPnP library, so maybe it's a plugin I need.

Sorry, no idea about that. I (chrome)cast from the plex(amp) app to my Wiim pro.

 

[simbun]

I only ask because the post was on the WiiM mini troubleshooting forum. I've seen a UPnP bridge, but that looks like too much trouble and someone reported it's not gapless either.

 

[bever70]

I only ask because the post was on the WiiM mini troubleshooting forum. I've seen a UPnP bridge, but that looks like too much trouble and someone reported it's not gapless either.

You're right. I missed that it was about the Wiim mini! Using chromecast from Plex(amp) is idd not gapless (because of chromecast). Doesn't bother me (yet). When I want an album to play gapless, I can just play the cd ;-).

 

[simonb]

Hi,
The WiiM App has been updated for DLNA metadata according to the release notes for the latest version 2.4.8.230515.c37da6. HOWEVER it still does not show the track artist, although it doesn't infer the track you are listening to is the artist shown (as it used to).
I've tried Plexamp - but it doesn't do playback to the WiiM device (as far as I can see), although it does show the correct track artist.
I've tried HiFi Cast - this will playback through the WiiM device, but doesn't do gapless, and doesn't show the correct track artist.
I've tried BubbleUPnP - this gives the same results as HiFi Cast.
Playing a CD for gapless defeats the object.
I might be lazy, but I really like the WiiM app, and surely this is the best option for their own devices (in my case the mini)? I appreciate that Plexamp is designed for Plex Media Servers - but surely the same track metadata is supplied - it's only streaming from the Plex Media Server after all?

 

[simbun]

I've tried HiFi Cast - this will playback through the WiiM device, but doesn't do gapless, and doesn't show the correct track artist.
I've tried BubbleUPnP - this gives the same results as HiFi Cast.

BubbleUPnP and Hi-Fi Cast both do gapless but it has to be enabled in the per-renderer settings.
It's interesting that Plex doesn't correctly send the track artist (otherwise BubbleUPnP and Hi-Fi Cast would display it) given KODI/LibreELEC do, I might take a look at that later to see if there's a debug log available to see how it sends it.

I might be lazy, but I really like the WiiM app, and surely this is the best option for their own devices (in my case the mini)? I appreciate that Plexamp is designed for Plex Media Servers - but surely the same track metadata is supplied - it's only streaming from the Plex Media Server after all?

The WiiM app appears to be taking the first artist xml tag it encounters which is invariably AlbumArtist, although I think there was a post from WiiM that stated more changes are due next month.

 

[simbun]

If you enable:

Settings > General > Enable Plex Media Server verbose logging

...then in the WiiM app (or any UPnP control point) browse to an album with multiple track artists and finally download the logs from Plex, inside the 'Plex DLNA Server.log' you should see the xml that's sent to the control point (within <DIDL-Lite tags).

This is the formatted xml for a single track:

<item id="9ee56372b76b9a3f679b" parentID="7781dfddb850a3b63634" restricted="1">
  <dc:title>Always Love You</dc:title>
  <dc:creator>Elton John</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2021-01-01</dc:date>
  <upnp:artist>Elton John</upnp:artist>
  <upnp:album>The Lockdown Sessions</upnp:album>
  <upnp:genre>Unknown</upnp:genre>
  <upnp:albumArtURI dlna:profileID="JPEG_MED">http://**.**.**.**:*****/proxy/20d8792a7ba057596c3e/albumart.jpg</upnp:albumArtURI>
  <dc:description>Always Love You</dc:description>
  <upnp:icon>http://**.**.**.**:*****/proxy/1c2b7fc56e377fe10a93/icon.jpg</upnp:icon>
  <upnp:originalTrackNumber>2</upnp:originalTrackNumber>
  <res duration="0:04:17.000" bitrate="111000" sampleFrequency="44100" nrAudioChannels="2" protocolInfo="http-get:*:audio/flac:DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_CI=0;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=01500000000000000000000000000000">http://**.**.**.**:*****/object/9ee56372b76b9a3f679b/file.flac</res>
  <upnp:class>object.item.audioItem.musicTrack</upnp:class>
</item>

As you can see it only includes a single <upnp:artist> tag and it's only populated with AlbumArtist, so there's no way for the WiiM app or any other to display track artist.

I tested this with a FLAC file containing both AlbumArtist and Artist populated, although I have no idea if it's sending my tags or the one's it's scraped as for some reason Genre is 'Unknown'.

I assume its DLNA functionality is very much an afterthought.