Auralic Lightning DS App (Software) - Impressions and Information

[kennyb123]

One way I used to use iTunes is to just shuffle through smart playlists or through entire genres. It just took two taps to accomplish this with Apple's iOS Remote app. I would select either the playlist or the genre then hit the shuffle button and it would just work.

 

I've not yet figured out how to accomplish something similar with LDS. I'd like to be able to just browse to a folder in Folder view and then with a single click just play all the songs in that folder.

 

It appears that I have to add each song in the folder to the queue in order to accomplish this. Is that right? Or am I missing something?

[kennyb123]

For answer the question about adding a whole genre to the ARIES, this is unfortunately impossible as ARIES is queue based, the maximum tracks you can add to ARIES is 999. We probably can fill the track list with a random selected songs under particular genre but add all of them is really impossible.

 

Please, please, please add this feature! Not just for genre, but for any folder in folder view, allow the random addition of up to 999 items to the queue. That would be a fantastic addition!

[kennyb123]

Please, please, please add this feature! Not just for genre, but for any folder in folder view, allow the random addition of up to 999 items to the queue. That would be a fantastic addition!

 

I discovered this weekend that the Linn Kinsky application can add the contents of a folder to the queue. Once songs are added with Kinsky, these appear in the queue displayed in LDS.

 

Kinky doesn't randomize these songs when it adds them to the queue though. Both options in LDS would be nice.

[kennyb123]

To fix the cover art merely force quit Lightning DS as noted previously in this thread and re launch Lightning DS and no more issue with cover art.

 

That was really helpful. Thanks!

[kennyb123]

If they had simply added a new category 'Auralic Radio Selection' and kept our manually added stations, everything would be okay. But this was not the smartest implementation.

 

A neat way to accomplish this might be to add the ability to save profiles to the web. If the app gets blown away, a user would simply have to reinstall LDS and then log in to retrieve settings.

[kennyb123]

Question about the QOBUZ or TIDAL integration: can we built a playlist that includes a mix of music files stored locally and music files streamed from Tidal or Qobuz ?

 

Unfortunately no, this is currently not possible.

[kennyb123]

I'm not sure that I'll want to hang in there to see how the ineviteable shakeout of this music service goes. I'm wondering how the CA community is feeling about TIDAL now that it is under new management.

 

I've been delighted with TIDAL through my Aries. Playback has been nearly flawless.

 

The one issue I encounter may be the result of getting logged out of TIDAL after a period of inactivity (like overnight). I can't just pick up the next day from where I left off and continue to play the current contents of a queue filled with songs from TIDAL. Playback restarts only after revisiting the Online Streaming section in Lightning DS, as this appears to log me back in.

[kennyb123]

Here is an interesting article on TIDAL:

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jay-z-streaming-service-flops---84m-lehman-trial-begins-and-cash-is-not-king-144459023.html

 

Apparently, they do not think that TIDAL is doing too well.

 

Jay Z certainly knew how much of an uphill battle he would have to pull customers away from Spotify. Certainly anyone with common sense would understand that it's going to take TIDAL some time to gain marketshare. Obviously this writer for Yahoo lacks such sense. But unfortunately he/she is not alone.

 

TIDAL's new owner has barely had time to put his own mark on TIDAL. It's too soon to judge his success just weeks after making he's made the purchase.

[kennyb123]

Prior to the Aries I was using iTunes to rip and manage my music. I used Doug's Scripts to save artwork to the album folder using the following convention "album artist - album name.jpg". All of the album artwork appears on Lightning except for a few albums.

 

Interestingly, the albums with missing artwork are ones ripped from iTunes after I started using MinimServer.

 

Very likely artwork wasn't saved properly to the files themselves. Confirm by viewing the files in a tagging tool, like Yate for Mac, for example.

 

iTunes doesn't embed artwork in the files. Better to use another ripper that will do this automatically. I feel dbPoweramp is worth the cost.

[kennyb123]

If you plan on re-ripping it's XLD for Mac and DBpoweramp for PC.

 

There is a Mac version of dbPoweramp, which I prefer to XLD.

[kennyb123]

I think normally it takes 7-14 days to get approval.

[kennyb123]

You wait until it's released by Apple again.

 

2.0.1 is now available in the App Store. I just got the update. Album art has been restored.

[kennyb123]

When I switch to another app on the iPad, or close the iPad cover, and then later come back to Lightning DS, it takes a long time (20-seconds plus) for the app to refresh and activate. I get the "spinning circle" icon in the center of the screen, and can't use any DS controls until the icon has disappeared.

 

The previous version of the app took a few seconds to re-activate. Why does the new app take so long?

 

I noticed the same thing.

 

Seems like the latest version of Lightning DS isn't able to run in the background. Note in this from Apple that:

 

"Some apps will run for a short period of time before they're set to a suspended state. This means they're not actively in use, open, or taking up system resources. When you return to these apps, they'll open instantly."

 

Well that certainly isn't happening now with Lightning DS 2.0.1. It's as if the app is being terminated instead of being set to a suspended state.

 

Apple suggests enabling Background App Refresh in Setting. I'll have to check my iPad when I get home to see if this can be enabled for Lightning DS.

[kennyb123]

The Lumin app provides an interesting contrast. This does seem to go into a suspended state - and it comes out of that state quickly. I don't think it even re-scans for the Aries when awoken (which is something Lightning DS seems to do every time it's run). I could be wrong, but Lumin seems to just pick up from where it left off after coming out of suspended state. I wish Lightning would do this. Why does it have to take a few seconds to search for my Aries every time? Can't it just assume it's there?

[kennyb123]

This app is really a joke. Opening app takes 8-10 sec, than i get again spinning wheel, and before I managed to write singer in search field, passed 30 seconds.

 

The videos you posted were helpful.

 

I think you said you had a second generation iPad Mini w/Retina. Is that correct?

 

If so there's something wrong in your particular situation. There's an A7 in both my iPad Air and the iPad mini 2 (Retina/2nd Gen). I don't see poor performance like this.

 

Try freeing some space on your iPad.

 

Also try deleting the app and starting over. After you connect to your media library, be sure to give Lightning sufficient time to pull down all the information it needs without switching away.

[kennyb123]

This happens regardless if the Aries is connected via wireless or ethernet, static or dynamic ip. I have tried all possibilities.

 

Can you share a bit more about your network? What's signal strength like for you iPad? Is it connecting to a 5 GHz network? What kind of wireless router? When the Aries connects via wired ethernet, how many switches between it and the wireless router?

 

Also, have you tried the Lumin app? This has been rock solid with my Aries. This would at least help you rule out the problem being with the Aries.

[kennyb123]

It also finds the NAS IP, but whatever I do I get the same error.

 

Are you sure "Volume1" should be in the path? That's usually for internal reference.

 

Confirm that Volume1 is listed as the shared folder on your NAS. Or just share your Musikk folder and omit Volume1 from your connection string.

 

In my case, for example, I have a folder called Media on Volume1. It's this Media folder that is shared. So I would connect to this at 192.168.1.10/Media.

[kennyb123]

What you said did the trick!

Now it works - Thanks

 

Awesome! Great move sharing the screen shot.

[kennyb123]

Why don't those people unhappy with the latest Lightning app just use Lumin app? It's perfectly stable, works perfectly with Aries and has most of the settings too.

 

Lumin can't do Tidal with the Aries. It will crash if there are any Tidal songs in the playlist.

 

Last night I used LDS when playing songs from Tidal and Lumin when playing songs from my library. This defeats one of the big benefits of LDS 2, which is the ability to mix songs from both.

 

LDS 2 is stable for sure. It's just that it's slow to respond when relaunched.

 

A remote control app really should open instantly - or come as close to that as possible. The IR remote that ships with the Aries just works right away. Remote controls on our iPad should come as close to matching this experience as well. The Lumin app gets really close. It would be great if Lightning did better at just picking up from where it was when it was last running in the foreground.

[kennyb123]

So you are telling me if I had 2 Mbps up and 500 Kbps down I would have the same responsiveness as i do now ?

 

It only matters in the case of streaming from the internet, as with Tidal.

 

It's the speed INSIDE your joke that matters most in terms of responsiveness.

[kennyb123]

Setup Library finds Music on the router. Error says "The shared network folder you have entered does not have samba service, please make sure samba server is enabled".

 

Samba service is enabled (Share - On)

 

Tried entering path (using IP address) into the settings page directly. Error says "The destination does not contain smb folder share service".

 

Are you sure you are correctly inputting the path? Can you share a screen shot?

[kennyb123]

Is there an extra space to the left of 192 in the folder listed in LDS? It should be:

 

smb://192.168.2.1/Music

 

Not sure if that's an extra space or just the way it looks in LDS.

 

It does appear that you are using the correct IP address. You can verify this from a Windows PC by typing the following at a command prompt:

 

net use Z: \\192.168.2.1\Music /user:Aries *

 

You will be prompted for the password for the Aries account you appear to have created on the Asus.

 

By the way, your use of the username Aries may be part of the problem, as this may already be in use by the Aries. Maybe change it to AriesUser on the Asus. Or maybe try the AndyBob account instead.

[kennyb123]

For accessing iTunes playlists, it's also possible and not too complicated. Unfortunately, it's a one way export and I don't know an easy way to synchronize your playlists between the two. In iTunes, under the File menu there is a command for "export playlist". Select this choice and then save the playlist in "M3U" format. This is a (fairly) universal format that almost any server software can read. Once you've exported the playlists, go to the server software you're using with the Aries and make sure it includes the location of the exported playlist files in its scan. If you make changes to your playlists in iTunes, you'll have to repeat this procedure and re-scan the folder in your server software.

 

I've done this and it can be made to work. I'm just not sure it's easy enough so that a five year old can do it. The challenge is making sure the file paths are equivalent as seen by both iTunes and the server hosting the library for the Aries. I think I ultimately came up with a way to save the playlists such that the songs used a relative path. I might have first imported the iTunes playlists into JRiver, which was configured to see exactly the same file paths as iTunes. And from there I exported them from JRiver using the relative path option, and placed them in a location where MinimServer could serve them up.

 

Obviously it was a bit of a hassle, so I gave up on it. But having said that, using JRiver to serve up the music to the Aries might not be a bad way to go if someone was really set on maintaining these playlists.

[kennyb123]

Yes, 81.5% of the market in 2014:

Android and iOS Squeeze the Competition, Swelling to 96.3% of the Smartphone Operating System Market for Both 4Q14 and CY14, According to IDC - prUS25450615

 

Auralic is shooting themselves in the keister. And making a lot of customers angry.

 

Profit share is the better indicator for companies like Auralic to follow:

 

Apple makes nearly eight times as much money as all Android vendors combined | BGR

 

Apple's customers spend more money. Summarized well in this:

 

iOS vs Android: Developers make more money on iOS | BGR

 

"Android may trump iOS in terms of market share, but when it comes to actually generating profits for developers, Apple’s mobile platform still stands supreme."

[kennyb123]

It would be nice but Auralic are not very good at delivering on time ��

 

It might be that it is outside of their control.

 

Auralic has to rely on Apple to release updates to LDS. It can take about 7 days for Apple to approve.