And the promised options for reordering the Albums in the library?
Last Added
Artists
You promised this too
A lot of words thrown to the wind. In fact, nothing changes and the App continues to be unusable.
Disappointment!!!
is wiim gone?
- Thread starter Misterg
- Start date
Last Added
Artists
You promised this too
A lot of words thrown to the wind. In fact, nothing changes and the App continues to be unusable.
Disappointment!!!
Staresyj
Major Contributor
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2023
- Messages
- 75
I think calling it unusable is a poor hot take. Maybe, what you would like to see within the app is over demanding for a product at a price point of less than 50 cups of coffee?
Not picking a fight with you, but I think the majority of users would not define the App as unusable?
I think in terms of DLNA browsing if you have a decent sized library unusable is not an unfair description.
I don't really do DLNA because of its inconsistencies but I am told that the way round this if you have an Android device is to install BubbleUPNP and use that instead of the WiiM App when you want to play from your local media server. MConnect is an iOS substitute but not without some other issues.
Sorry @Maurizio, but in this case I also feel the word "unusable" a bit over the top.
Agreed that some aspects for some personal priorities are yet not given. But do you think that most of the competing manufacturers of streamers even read the wishes? At this point Linkplay and the WiiM department do a reasonable good job.
When I think back to the trouble f.e. the Nodes had/have with integration of Qobuz I love to look at the Pro. Every one who buys a new developed item must be aware that it can be kind of work in progress. Especially when different softwares interfere. For WiiM one can not expect the performance of a Naim or a Linn. But better than the Nodes f.e. is the Pro already yet for a fraction of the price. They build this thing to be used out of the box. That works. All the special wishes are the problem of the wishing ones. It is still a sensation for noobs like me with no interest in diving into software.
When f.e. buying a printer I read the specs and know what I will get. And if I buy an item where the developers promise to fulfill special wishes later I can believe it or not. Of course, all this comparing is nonsense, but from time to time it could be helpful.
Agreed that some aspects for some personal priorities are yet not given. But do you think that most of the competing manufacturers of streamers even read the wishes? At this point Linkplay and the WiiM department do a reasonable good job.
When I think back to the trouble f.e. the Nodes had/have with integration of Qobuz I love to look at the Pro. Every one who buys a new developed item must be aware that it can be kind of work in progress. Especially when different softwares interfere. For WiiM one can not expect the performance of a Naim or a Linn. But better than the Nodes f.e. is the Pro already yet for a fraction of the price. They build this thing to be used out of the box. That works. All the special wishes are the problem of the wishing ones. It is still a sensation for noobs like me with no interest in diving into software.
When f.e. buying a printer I read the specs and know what I will get. And if I buy an item where the developers promise to fulfill special wishes later I can believe it or not. Of course, all this comparing is nonsense, but from time to time it could be helpful.
I don't think its the device (Mini/Pro) that is being described as unusable its the app when it comes to DLNA use.
You are using Roon so you won't see it but I can assure you that if you wanted to play a particular album from a DLNA server its going to take you many minutes to browse to it before you can hit play.
May be I only found this "unusable" to strong.
Indeed my reason for purchasing the Pro the promise I was keen to see fulfilled was Roon Ready for such a price and for a non diy box. And they did it! For my personal "needs" I am absolutely satisfied and eventually not critical enough.
Indeed my reason for purchasing the Pro the promise I was keen to see fulfilled was Roon Ready for such a price and for a non diy box. And they did it! For my personal "needs" I am absolutely satisfied and eventually not critical enough.
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@Achim1811 and @Mike in NY To be not misanderstood. As @d6jg says, my Unusable was referred only to the App WHA, not to the device.
I have as the Mini as the Pro and i am a WiiM fan.
Nothing to complain about the devices, especially for the price. I will buy also a Pro + if they will do one. Not the next one, but a further evolution. USB etc.
Regarding the App i’m using Bubble and i’m very satisfied.
What I think is that it would take very little to fix WHA, with the elementary options that all Apps have.
I have as the Mini as the Pro and i am a WiiM fan.
Nothing to complain about the devices, especially for the price. I will buy also a Pro + if they will do one. Not the next one, but a further evolution. USB etc.
Regarding the App i’m using Bubble and i’m very satisfied.
What I think is that it would take very little to fix WHA, with the elementary options that all Apps have.
Just out of interest I fired up an Amazon Fire tablet this evening and put BubbleUPNP on it. It manages to control some of my renderers (players) that can’t be controlled by other software so in that respect it’s good but there is not much to it compared to Material on LMS! I suspect Roon users will say the same. The more I delve in to UPnP/DLNA the more I am amazed at the shortcomings in so many pieces of server software.
Edit
I don’t think the WiiM app will ever be able to do all the things that people would like so far as DLNA goes. There are so many different issues with the different server implementations and the App would need some kind of caching database to work properly
Just in case you don't know how UPnP works, I thought I'd give you a quick summary as it may help to understand its limitations (apologies if none of this is new to you).
There are three components, the media server, control point and renderer.
The media server indexes your music and decides how best to organise your music so you have fast, flexible access. This is implemented using indexes based on the tags contained within your music files. A very simple media server may present indexes such as:
Code:
Album
Tracks
AlbumArtist
Genre
Playlists
Code:
Release Date
Original Release Group Date
Release Type (Studio, Best Of, Live, Compilation e.t.c)
Series (The Complete Motown Singles, Now That's What I Call Music!, MTV Unplugged)
Date AddedThe control point provides the interface for the user to browse their collection and sends the selected tracks to the renderer to play.
When the control point discovers and connects to the media server, the media server sends the control point metadata about the objects in the initial display, which the control point displays to the user. When the user makes a selection, that selection will be sent to the media server and in response the next set of metadata objects are returned. This continues until the user selects a track, when the control point sends the URL (that was included in the previous metadata supply) to the renderer to play.
Attached is a sample of what's sent between media server and control point.
The control point knows nothing about the music files, it never even accesses them, and if the control point wished to scrape web pages to present artist bio it would have to do so after the supply of the metadata from the media server, in realtime, which isn't feasible. The control point can only really choose what to support, how to display it, and the functionality to offer.
That being said there's a massive difference between media servers, and the effort you put in directly affects the results as in UPnP the only source of data is provided by you e.g. tags, pictures, booklets e.t.c.
In my opinion a comprehensively configured MinimServer and BubbleUPnP combination with rich metadata beats LMS hands down for browsing and accessing your local music (and looks better doing it too, at least on a phone which is my interface of choice). What can't be achieved is the integration of external metadata, but one of the things I do is have MinimServer push allmusic artist and album URLs to BubbleUPnP so I can link off should I want to.
Ultimately it's probably quite simple, if you want external metadata integration then LMS wins, otherwise MinimServer and BubbleUPnP does.
Attached is an image I've used before to describe the various tabs in BubbleUPnP (consisting of 5 screenshots side by side), but it also shows some of the features previously discussed.
Attachments
With respect I know all of that.
You obviously have never used LMS with the Material skin plugin coupled with the Music & Artist Info plugin (or Roon for that matter).
BubbleUPNP simply does not cut it in comparison
I believe that a further explanation from me regarding WHA is timely and necessary.
I'm not talking about NAS, LMS and stuff like that. I use the WiiMs and the various Apps for basic use, that is to use the various streaming services. Qobuz, AMU. Nothing more.
Now what would I like from WHA?
1) Simply have at least 3 options for ordering Qobuz and AMU albums. Album Title(the only we have now)-Artist Name-Last Added.
Have you ever tried to search for an album in a library of > 900 albums by title alone? Do you remember the titles of all the albums by heart? If so, I envy you because I can't.
2) To have displayed beside the Album's cover, when I select an album, the total number of tracks, the total duration of the album, and the duration of each track.
Is it perhaps asking for the moon?
Personally I think not.
The options I've listed are part of any App. Even MConnect has them, which, I think, is the world's thinnest App in terms of options.
Last thing. Having contacted Wiim support, they never replied that it is impossible to get what I ask/i would like.
Indeed, they replied that it was an excellent idea and that they would implement it.
But this already happened last year. We are in mid-2023 and still nothing.
Can I be a little disappointed?
I'm not talking about NAS, LMS and stuff like that. I use the WiiMs and the various Apps for basic use, that is to use the various streaming services. Qobuz, AMU. Nothing more.
Now what would I like from WHA?
1) Simply have at least 3 options for ordering Qobuz and AMU albums. Album Title(the only we have now)-Artist Name-Last Added.
Have you ever tried to search for an album in a library of > 900 albums by title alone? Do you remember the titles of all the albums by heart? If so, I envy you because I can't.
2) To have displayed beside the Album's cover, when I select an album, the total number of tracks, the total duration of the album, and the duration of each track.
Is it perhaps asking for the moon?
Personally I think not.The options I've listed are part of any App. Even MConnect has them, which, I think, is the world's thinnest App in terms of options.
Last thing. Having contacted Wiim support, they never replied that it is impossible to get what I ask/i would like.
Indeed, they replied that it was an excellent idea and that they would implement it.
But this already happened last year. We are in mid-2023 and still nothing.
Can I be a little disappointed?
For sure you can
If it would be difficult or not for WiiM to follow your and others suggestions is far outside my technical knowledge. But I think it is a huge difference to implement and offer features in the streaming services' own apps and in an "make everyone happy" app like WHA.
And some, not your, wishes are so far away from general needs.
If it would be difficult or not for WiiM to follow your and others suggestions is far outside my technical knowledge. But I think it is a huge difference to implement and offer features in the streaming services' own apps and in an "make everyone happy" app like WHA.
And some, not your, wishes are so far away from general needs.
Agreed, but.. cum grano salis.For sure you can
If it would be difficult or not for WiiM to follow your and others suggestions is far outside my technical knowledge. But I think it is a huge difference to implement and offer features in the streaming services' own apps and in an "make everyone happy" app like WHA.
And some, not your, wishes are so far away from general needs.
Luckily there is Bubble. 
Of course I've used LMS that's how I know.
The crux of my argument was (admittedly I was using the term metadata incorrectly - unless you subscribe to Elon Musks simulation hypothesis - to mean artist bio, album reviews, lyrics or basically anything that isn't local data):
And clearly LMS doesn't offer the same level of customisation and tag support as the MinimServer/BubbleUPnP combination, so it can't give you as rich an interface from which to select your music, which is why I said if you don't care about external scraping of info (which I referred previously to as metadata) then it's no match.
I'm not trying to criticize LMS, I'd imagine 98%+ of people have only the core tags populated which LMS handles well, and they'll be only too happy to have extra info populated for free. Personally I'm in the 2%, so given I've taken the time to populate a rich set of tags I want to make use of them.
Just curious -- we are more than halfway through July and none of the items above are available, even though promised by the end of June. Any update?