Gapless DLNA/UPnP players?

[Cebolla]

The Rendu is quite nice. I have one and it does gapless nicely with FLAC and DSD (the only two formats I use). I use JRiver to drive it.

 

JM

I was experimenting with Rune Audio, a Linux distribution for audio for my Raspberry Pi, and judging from the Configuration menu, it can do gapless for MP3 (not sure about other formats), and it can also do DLNA/UPnP.

 

Haven't been able to go much further with it as I couldn't get it to access my Mac OS X samba share of the audio file.

People, don't know why this ancient thread has been resurrected. Certainly the current generation of UPnP/DLNA supporting network audio players do gapless playback, so is a non-issue.

[Cebolla]

People, don't know why this ancient thread has been resurrected. Certainly the current generation of UPnP/DLNA supporting network audio players do gapless playback, so is a non-issue.

Not all, or even most of them I am afraid. Especially the ones new potential audiophiles are likely to encounter, such as the DLNA servers in their AVRs, Soundbars, and Televisions.

I was talking specifically about network audio players, ie, the dedicated purpose built stereo 'hi-fi' separate player, the modern equivalent of the cd player separate, so more in keeping with the scope of this thread, rather than your suggestion of multipurpose AVRs, soundbars, TVs, etc.

 

So "audiophile quality" devices like the Auralic Aries, Sonore Rendu and yes even hardware players from more mainstream manufacturers such as Pioneer N50A & N70A, Marantz NA8005, etc. Note, these are later generation/ up to date devices and certainly support gapless, unlike those dreadful earlier first attempts - which some are still shamelessly promoting & selling, as has been mentioned in the some of the above posts.

 

 

Heck, even "audiophile quality" players like Amarra can't just play an album gaplessly, you must take extra steps that are as annoying as having to flip an album in the middle of a performance. Gapless playback is something that iTunes, JRMC, and Audirvana+ do without any extra effort, and they do it perfectly too.

Well, no point really comparing software players with hardware ones - turnround time & ability to correct faults so so much better with software. It's the risk that some think is worth taking when buying a purpose built box, as they'd rather that than the incovenience of 'having' to use a computer and 'mess around' with software. Incidentally, none of those software players apart from JRMC supports UPnP/DLNA, so you're mostly out of scope again as far as this (old) thread is concerned, I'm afraid.

 

John

[Cebolla]

Well that's the fundamental problem with DLNA. A certificate that anyone can obtain (and sell their product with), once the readies are handed over, for complying with a very small set of quality features derived from the full UPnP spec. What's even more unbelievable is that most of those DLNA tick boxes are optional anyway and gapless support, which has always been specified by UPnP, is still out of its scope.

 

It's why I tend to use the term 'UPnP/DLNA' in conversation, or just 'UPnP' on its own, rather than the embarrassment that is 'DLNA'.

[Cebolla]

7 hours ago, Rexp said:

Any updates as to cheap streamers that do gapless? Thanks! 

 

It probably would have been best to create your own thread, rather than revive an ancient one that was about a gapless support issue specifically regarding standard UPnP/DLNA streamers, rather streamers in general (cheap or otherwise).

 

 

Case in point - the two responses you have so far received mention streamers that are either not normally used in standard UPnP/DLNA streaming mode, or are not UPnP/DLNA streamers in the first place:

 

- Volumio, can be used as a standard UPnP/DLNA streamer (which does happen to support gapless playback), but is by default set up as an OpenHome (aka UPnP with Linn extensions) streamer. OpenHome streamers have always supported gapless playback;

 

- PicorePlayer, is a Squeezelite player which uses the Squeezebox/LMS streaming technology and has nothing to do with standard UPnP/DLNA. Squeezebox type streamers have always supported gapless playback.

 

 

BTW, just in case you are interested in the actual topic of this thread, things have certainly improved to the point that there are now very few devices operating as standard UPnP/DLNA renderers that don't support the UPnP specified mechanism for implementing gapless playback.

Off the top of my head, most if not all of the standard UPnP/DLNA supporting streamers produced by both Pioneer and dCS are a notable exception.

 

Hence the likely reason why this thread hasn't seen the light of day for over 4 years, until your post came along!

[Cebolla]

 

3 hours ago, PAR said:

Just for the record dCS network streaming devices also provide gapless replay when used with their dedicated  Mosaic controller .

I suppose it's only fair to also mention that Pioneer streamers do play gaplessly with the dedicated Pioneer controller app / IR remote control / buttons on the device.

 

3 hours ago, PAR said:

However MinimServer is the only server that they officially support .

UPnP media servers, like MinimServer, don't get actively involved in the standard UPnP gapless playback process, which is strictly an interaction between the UPnP controller (aka control point) and the UPnP renderer. So the choice of UPnP media server is actually irrelevant as far as UPnP gapless playback support is concerned.

 

3 hours ago, PAR said:

Their UPnP implementation is not strictly standard so outside of Mosaic gapless cannot be guaranteed.

Not supporting gapless playback under standard UPnP is actually permitted, since it is not mentioned as being compulsory in the UPnP spec.

[Cebolla]

14 hours ago, Rexp said:

Please provide some useful info by naming those that do and do not do gapless. 

???

 

Did you actually read this bit of my post?

On 10/8/2019 at 1:48 PM, Cebolla said:

BTW, just in case you are interested in the actual topic of this thread, things have certainly improved to the point that there are now very few devices operating as standard UPnP/DLNA renderers that don't support the UPnP specified mechanism for implementing gapless playback.

Off the top of my head, most if not all of the standard UPnP/DLNA supporting streamers produced by both Pioneer and dCS are a notable exception.

 

Hence the likely reason why this thread hasn't seen the light of day for over 4 years, until your post came along!

 

[Cebolla]

On 10/11/2019 at 12:51 AM, rmel66 said:

Foobar2000 with upnp component shows up as gapless when openhome renderer created in BubbleUPnP server; so does gmediarender (linux). On the other hand chromecast devices do not show up as gapless and the other portable renderers (Audiocast M5, ggmm portable speakers) also do not show up as gapless, if at all.

 

The BubbleUPnP Server's Gapless support option being disabled/greyed out when the OpenHome renderer is created can definitely be used as an indicator that the relevant UPnP/DLNA renderer doesn't support gapless playback under standard UPnP streaming.

 

However, the opposite is not true: if BubbleUPnP Server's Gapless support option is enabled, it isn't guaranteed that gapless playback will work since the UPnP/DLNA renderer might be either not properly implementing standard UPnP streaming's gapless playback or even falsely indicating that it supports standard UPnP streaming's gapless playback.

https://www.bubblesoftapps.com/bubbleupnpserver2/docs/config_media_renderers.html#openhome_gapless

 

 

Of course, Chromecast devices are not UPnP/DLNA renderers anyway and the BubbleUPnP Server's functions for them exist to provide a bridge between the incompatible Google Cast and UPnP streaming technologies. Google Cast streaming is well known for not supporting gapless playback - BubbleUPnP Server doesn't even bother showing the Gapless playback option for Chromecast devices, never mind grey it out!