Media center

[Hollywood]

Hi,
I have four Wiims and 2 cheapo units for my 6 listening areas around the house. With the Wiim app on my phone I can access my music library to any or all, and play independent or play same music on different devices.

My "media server" is basically a dedicated Asus RT-AX68U router (plugged into my main router) with a 1tb USB-SSD to store the music files.

I keep reading about Roon, Plex, Logitech, JRiver, and other media server software.

Without getting too technical, with my setup is there any need or advantage to running any of those media server software? If so what would I gain?

Thanks.

 

[Brantome]

If you’re already accessing your media, it sounds as if you’ve enabled the UPNP service on your router. I’d imagine it’s rather rudimentary but if you’re happy with it then that’s fine. There are better UPNP server implementations like Minimserver which runs on a NAS or PC which offer more flexibility in how the media is accessed, displayed etc. You can always try out some of the others you mention and see if what they offer is worth the effort.

 

[Hollywood]

Ha, when I say without getting too technical, I am saying I know NOTHING about media servers except the music files on my network drive are found by my WiiMs.

One question is where would media server software be installed, on a PC and uploaded? Where would it be administered, on a PC? Would I use the same app to use my Wiim?

I can't visualize any of this, but I would like to learn and see if it would benefit me to have this.

Thanks.

 

[simbun]

It looks like you're currently running the minidlna server (Music Server) on your AX68U and using the WiiM Home App (Controller) to browse your media and choose which speakers to play to (Renderers).
If all you need is the ability to browse your local media and play to UPnP or Chromecast devices then MinimServer (music server) and the BubbleUPnP app (controller) is the combination that offers the most flexible, functional and complete browsing experience, but both of these products cost money, so whether it's worth it really depends on how extensive your tags are as most servers only handle a common set of tags and don't allow for the configuration of browsing indexes e.g. Genre, Year, Date Added e.t.c.

Looking beyond local data you have all the online music services and that's typically where services like Roon, LMS, Jriver e.t.c. come in, they try and bring all your services under one umbrella, but that comes with a trade-off, and that's that they can't really compete with the best of breed offerings (the native apps). I have local music and Qobuz, and I prefer using the MinimServer/BubbleUPnP combination with the Qobuz app, but again it comes down to personal preference.
In addition to just bringing the music sources together they all offer extra functionality like metadata scraping (showing Artist/Album/Lyrics information), signal processing e.t.c. I don't know the solutions well enough to include everything they do so you'd need to look into that detail yourself.

In terms of setup most of the music servers (Roon and maybe JRiver being the exception) can all be installed on anything upwards of a raspberry pi, and they take care of all the heavy lifting (indexing, file serving, metadata scraping e.t.c) with your controller (WiiM Home App/BubbleUPnP/Browser) used just for browsing your sources and picking what speaker to play to. I don't have any experience of Roon or Jriver, but most of the servers can be configured over a web interface, so as long as you have a phone/tablet or PC that should be sufficient.

At this point it's probably down to you to investigate the various packages, how what they offer could benefit you, and whether it's worth the trade-off, be that UI, cost or complexity.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: One thing I did forget to mention is that some of these systems (Roon and LMS I think) can add compatibility to your existing speakers by translating protocols e.g. play Qobuz to your UPnP only speaker.

 

[cc_rider]

Products like Roon offer a deep dive into albums and artists, with lots of reviews, bios and metadata, and provides recommendations based on your liked songs/albums/artists. It’s terribly expensive, though.

I’ve found that allmusic.com does this just as well for free, or $12/year to kill all ads. I even have Chrome extensions that marry allmusic.com with Tidal, Qobuz or Deezer.

 

[d6jg]

Products like Roon offer a deep dive into albums and artists, with lots of reviews, bios and metadata, and provides recommendations based on your liked songs/albums/artists. It’s terribly expensive, though.

I’ve found that allmusic.com does this just as well for free, or $12/year to kill all ads. I even have Chrome extensions that marry allmusic.com with Tidal, Qobuz or Deezer.

LMS has a plugin that accesses AllMusic for Bio & Reviews. The same plugin gets lyrics from elsewhere at the same time.
Unlike Roon LMS is fully open source and free of any cost.
LMS can play local music, Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer, Spotify etc as well as Radio Paradise, BBC Sounds, YouTube and virtually every Internet Radio station. It won’t play Amazon or Apple though.

WiiM devices can be used in conjunction with LMS using the UPnP/DLNA Bridge plugin.

 

[cc_rider]

LMS has a plugin that accesses AllMusic for Bio & Reviews. The same plugin gets lyrics from elsewhere at the same time.
Unlike Roon LMS is fully open source and free of any cost.
LMS can play local music, Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer, Spotify etc as well as Radio Paradise, BBC Sounds, YouTube and virtually every Internet Radio station. It won’t play Amazon or Apple though.

WiiM devices can be used in conjunction with LMS using the UPnP/DLNA Bridge plugin.

I'm fully aware of all of this, having been a user of LMS for many years, but I prefer building my own UIs, customized to my preferences.

 

[Mr Ee]

My tuppence:
I had a similar setup to you - an hdd plugged into a router with whatever music server it provided enabled, allowing the wiim app to see my files.
I use an Android tablet, and use the Bubbleupnp app instead of the wiim app. The bubble app can be quite daunting at first, but has much more functionality than the wiim app, especially around playlist management. Free to try, but only about 5 bucks to buy / unlock all the goodies, I think. The main goodie being no playlist length restriction.

I can't remember how well searching etc. worked from the basic media server my router provided, but mostly I just scrolled looking for something specific I wanted to listen to, or just scrolled looking for something that caught my eye!

I moved to a nas with minimserver installed (which Simbun mentioned), but there is a free version of minimserver which meets my needs.

Benefits?
For me, my router music server only showed the first 10,000 items, so I couldn't get past "S"!
Minimserver / bubble allows me to 'search' for random tracks / albums, so although it's all my own music, I sometimes do this just to find "new" stuff. Note, I'm not sure if it's a feature of bubble, or minim server, or both combined that provides this randomisation feature.
One thing I like about Bubble - it allows me to search by artist, and then random play that artist.

Cons?
Cost of nas, and hard drives to go in it.
A bit more of a pain to set it all up - simply plugging an hdd into a usb slot on a router is easy!

However, as Brantome the Wise has stated, "if you’re happy with it then that’s fine".

 

[Hollywood]

Thanks for all of the great information! Lots to digest. I did buy Bubbleupnp, MediaMonkey, and Hifi-Cast apps. None do everything I want, but each one does something cool. Still, my goto app is the WiiM app (although it at least needs an alphabet scroll-er on the edge of the screen for large libraries).

Mentions of plugins for for Bio & Reviews reminds me of returning from the record store and listening to the new album while sitting on the couch reading the cover and liner notes front to back.

I have over a 1100 CDs ripped to my library, but I often listen to the same ol' thing. I also have a nice soundbar on my desk where my PC is and spend a lot of times playing stuff from Youtube, then seeing a suggestion on the right side of the screen, playing that, and not wanting to stop. It's also about the experience.

I remember about a 6 hour road trip where I picked out about 30 CDs in a shoe box for the drive. That trip started with the first 5 CDs not hitting my mood. After that I was content and the drive went by fast. I can't believe we steered with our knee's while we changed those CDs!

The point is we have a lot available at out finger tips but maybe too much as it can also be overwhelming. Some of the information here is more then I can visualize, like where the software on a NAS is installed and administered. I'm trying though. Also some abbreviations as not something I recognize. Like I wrote, I am trying to get the best experience of both access to my music with relevant info content like bios, photos, and even lyrics or suggestions. I hope this thread keeps going for awhile.

Thanks again!

 

[Achim1811]

Not always in the mood of strolling through music. Normally I know what I want to listen to that dedicated moment. But sometimes, as @Hollywood wrote, research and looking over the horizon is very fun.
For this moments everything ended in Roon. Fantastic! Of course not cheap and I hesitated till the brought the Nucleus. No need to run the PC for music listening. An integrated 1TB SSD is fine for me. For the moment all my questions are answered.

 

[mgh24]

LMS has a plugin that accesses AllMusic for Bio & Reviews. The same plugin gets lyrics from elsewhere at the same time.

What is the name of this plugin? I do not see anything called AllMusic.

Thanks!

 

[d6jg]

What is the name of this plugin? I do not see anything called AllMusic.

Thanks!

Music & Artist Information (MAI)

 

[mgh24]

Music & Artist Information (MAI)

Thanks!