Advice on keeping a large collection on NAS

[cutcopypaste]

I have recently acquired a Synology Ds214play based on high praises from all corners of the globe.

 

It's to replace my PC desktop which had a whole bunch of media stored on it but as a person who prefers Mac, didn't serve much other purpose. On the PC I tended to use Foobar2000 to quickly find/enqueue tracks. I also had iTunes w/ iTunes Match to sync my favourite stuff (my collection being larger than the 25k song limit)

 

I now have all the music (about 600GB) on my NAS and I want to be able to listen to it in a way that is somewhat enjoyable.

 

I'd like my library to update based on music added to the NAS without me having to manually refresh (like a Watch folder)

 

• The native Synology Audio Station App takes takes about 20 seconds to complete a search and has a pretty limited web interface on the Mac.
  
• Synology iTunes Media Server.. shows up in my itunes but immediately disconnects when I select my NAS library. May be reasonable, but looks like some patching is necessary for it to work on iTunes 12.1. When it was working (before last update I presume) it was taking about 1 minute to load the library and disconnecting with some regularity.
  
• I tried setting the mapped NAS folder as my iTunes library source, but it did nothing.
  
• I am currently manually copying all the networked music folders into a new iTunes library that will cause large problems when I'm not at home (i can relaunch iTunes to switch them which is not ideal but at least possible), BUT at the current rate will be done by mid month... which seems excessive
  
• I have tried adding the files to VOX to see if that will work at least on my laptop. Love the interface of the app.. quite slick! But so far the library has been loading for 30 hours and I'm not sure if it will be useful or performant when it's finished. I understand it will not auto update
  
• I tried Sonora.. there was no way to add a directory to it. I was not interested in adding 60,000 songs one by one.
  
• Plex media library is so far working best of the bunch. But it's search is a bit weird in how it shows results and its playlists/upcoming are very easily removed. Plus as a webapp I can't use my media keys to control it... and I would rather have a dedicated app.
  
• Currently loading it all up on the Mac version of Winamp, which has an option to watch a network drive. It seems to not really be built to handle this much activity though
  

 

Anyway. I'm curious to know if anyone else has had good luck with very large music libraries on Networked drives. So far I have just been frustrated.

[tranz]

MinimServer might be the way to go.

[astrotoy]

I'm going to be looking at the new Aurender server, dual wire to connect my big NAS drive (over 30TB) to my Pac Micro Model Two.

 

Larry

[dr.sah]

Maybe you can try Jriver as library, and Jremote app. It is working very fast.

Imdont like jriver interface, but Jremote is excelent. I have 3TB big library, and have no complains against speed.

[fritzg]

Maybe you can try Jriver as library, and Jremote app. It is working very fast.

Imdont like jriver interface, but Jremote is excelent. I have 3TB big library, and have no complains against speed.

 

I echo using JRiver with the NAS as mapped volumes. You do have to do a manual update with JRiver though.

 

I would NOT use iTunes with a NAS. I did that for about 10 months and had way too many problems with iTunes' library getting corrupted. Just not worth it.

[DavidL]

I echo using JRiver with the NAS as mapped volumes. You do have to do a manual update with JRiver though.

 

I would NOT use iTunes with a NAS. I did that for about 10 months and had way too many problems with iTunes' library getting corrupted. Just not worth it.

 

No problems at all here using NAS to store my complete iTunes library (including the .itl file etc). I do not however use iTunes as a player but only for curating the library (78000 tracks and growing) - I use MinimServer with BubbleUPnP controller to access the library. As tranz suggested earlier this may be a solution for you cutcopypaste. It is currently necessary to rescan the library in MinimServer whenever you update the library but I understand Simon is working on the implementation of an automatic update when the library is changed.

[cutcopypaste]

Hmm thanks for the recommendations! I will look into jRiver and minim server.. it looks like these are things I would install on the NAS?

 

Right now I'm trying to get everything added to iTunes..

I guess storing the .itl on the NAS would kinda make more sense though.. that way I could use it with multiple computers.. It just takes a painfully long time since I have to take my laptop to work during the days haha

[tranz]

JRiver does not run on the NAS but on your computer. It can be used in 3 main ways in conjunction with the NAS.

 

1. As the UPnP Controller using MinimServer on the NAS as the UPnP server

2. Standalone with NAS viewed as a library location

3. As the UPnP server and controller with the NAS as a library location

 

But if you are looking at going the Mac route you might want to check out Amarra or Audivarana as well.

[cutcopypaste]

Adding the stuff to my itunes library is continuing to be a huge disaster.. heh.

 

If ever there's an issue adding files, I have to re-add the whole directly but it doesn't check if the files are already there so I have tons of duplicates which aren't easily removed.

 

Got minim installed on the NAS.. going to see how that works.

[cutcopypaste]

Tried jriver a bit but i can't really handle the interface and it wasn't working so great.

 

So i have minimwatch on my Mac and minimserver on the Synology... it seems to be running but now i need a UPnP control point of some kind.

 

I'm trying Kazoo but it just sits there 'looking for rooms'.. although it can find the Minim Server and I can set it as active in the preferences.. doesn't seem to do much.

 

I'm not so much interested in getting another piece of hardware like a standalone media renderer... just need to be able to play my dang music from across the network.

[tranz]

Tried jriver a bit but i can't really handle the interface and it wasn't working so great.

 

So i have minimwatch on my Mac and minimserver on the Synology... it seems to be running but now i need a UPnP control point of some kind.

 

I'm trying Kazoo but it just sits there 'looking for rooms'.. although it can find the Minim Server and I can set it as active in the preferences.. doesn't seem to do much.

 

I'm not so much interested in getting another piece of hardware like a standalone media renderer... just need to be able to play my dang music from across the network.

 

Kazoo is OpenHome only. Try Linn Kinsky, Audionett IMM, or DS Lightning.

[cutcopypaste]

Thank you.

 

Linn Kinsky can see the library but 'play' etc are greyed out. and no option to search anywhere that I can find?

 

Audionet and DS Lightning are all just iOs as far as I can tell

 

I think I just can't have nice things.

[tranz]

What is your Renderer? Is it UPnP or DLNA or OHMedia certified?

 

What are you using as a controller device?

[baddog]

Hello cutcopypaste -

 

What are you using as a DAC? And what device are you connecting to the DAC to playback the music files?

 

As to controllers, are you looking for something to use from a Mac, an Android device, or ... ?

[cutcopypaste]

Hey guys.. thanks for staying w me here...

 

I don't have a renderer.. no interest in one other than it seems necessary for a lot of these UPnP solutions to work.

 

All I have

- a new Synology DS214play Nas w 700GB music on it.

- A wireless network

- A macbook pro

- some other ios devices I'd like to be able to access my music on

 

I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a crazy robust solution to audiphilic bliss.. I just want to be able to access/filter/search/listen to the music on my NAS quickly and intuitively from my macbook and hopefully other devices.

 

I've been trying to get iTunes to behave and import all the tracks, but it will not co-operate, and from talking to others I suspect it will be quite slow once it has a library that large.

 

I'm coming from having all my music on my now retired PC harddrive and that was working pretty alright.

[baddog]

Ok understood, you have all your music files on your Synology NAS and wish to play them back from your Mac and other Apple devices.

 

Question for you, in terms of the manner by which you have iTunes configured, iTunes->Preferences->Advanced

 

iTunes Media folder location - I assume you have this set to the location of the music folder on your NAS?

 

Do you have Keep iTunes Media folder organized checked or not checked? I suspect you have it checked, I recommend you uncheck it if you already have your music files organized properly on the NAS.

 

Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library, is this checked or not checked? I recommend you uncheck this as well.

 

As to performance, what kind of wireless network do you have? 802.11a/b/g/n/ac? Are you using an Apple router?

 

On your Mac, at the top of the screen there is an icon for selecting a Wireless network, when you click on that while holding the option key down, what number do you see for Tx rate?

 

Depending on the speed of your network, having iTunes access your music files on the NAS should not be a problem.

 

 

Please note this is just one of several ways to get this working for you, others may have better recommendations.

 

Lastly you will want to ensure you auto amount the NAS drive every time your Mac boots.

[baddog]

And p.s. Control points such a Lumin, Lightnng DS and Kinsky are not needed for your setup, nor will they work.

[tranz]

Hey guys.. thanks for staying w me here...

 

I don't have a renderer.. no interest in one other than it seems necessary for a lot of these UPnP solutions to work...

 

Okay, in that case please ignore my suggestions as those were all UPnP based and would need a renderer.

[cutcopypaste]

Hey bplexico..

 

I did uncheck both of those organize/copy to my computer options.. [the most frustrating things abt adding songs to the itunes library is that any playlist it comes across it autoplays, but it is basically unresponsive so i can't stop it.. and it shows no progress bar.. and if I cancel it mid-way through I have no idea how far it got and if I just dump my folder in there again, I wind up with a bunch of duplicates... I've been on and off trying to get everything from the NAS into iTunes for 3 or 4 weeks now and I have some songs in there with literally identical filepaths 5 times.. and I'll never really know when I've truly got everything loaded...]

 

I have an ac router.. (Asus RT-AC66u) which the NAS is plugged into.

My txrate is listed as 145 Mbps

And yup my NAS is automounted.. it seems pretty good at being there when it should be

 

Right now I'm trying out Swinsian and it is able to handle adding things to its library passively in the background and even has an overall progress bar, so I am cautiously optimistic (the total detected track number is way off but it's still working). If that works though I'll still be on the hunt for something that can work remotely and/or on my iOs devices.

 

And so minim server is absolutely no use here? I was impressed with its responsiveness to searching and filtering in Kinsky even though I couldn't play any songs...

[Cebolla]

Cutcopypaste,

 

You need a UPnP renderer aka player aka streamer for the UPnP control point to control in the first place, ie no renderer no music file streaming and decoding for playback!

 

However, you haven't entirely been led up the wrong path, just require further info. You can use a software UPnP renderer running on a 'normal' computer - it doesn't have to be a dedicated purpose built hardware box. For example, if you still have Foobar2000 on that Windows machine, you can turn it into a standard UPnP renderer by installing the foo_UPnP plugin component:

foobar2000: Components Repository - UPnP/DLNA Renderer, Server, Control Point

 

Also, you haven't been told the difference between standard UPnP and an extended version of it called OpenHome Media (ohMedia, aka UPnP with Linn extensions). Unfortunately, Kinsky and the Lumin apps mentioned are ohMedia control points and won't control standard UPnP renderers very well, if at all. Fortunately, you can run the BubbleUPnP Server helper software on a computer or your Synology NAS to 'fool' the ohMedia controller into seeing a standard UPnP renderer as an ohMedia one:

BubbleUPnP Server

 

John