jRiver MC UPnP Server - accessing huge library via folder tree

[jacobacci]

HI all,

I am trying to help a friend get to grips with his huge audio library. The user interface of his current solution is very slow and I am looking for a better configuration which is faster

Currently the setup looks as follows:

 

1. Synology DS1812+ containing >20TB of audio files (FLAC, DSD, SACD ISOs)
2. PC with jRiver MC22 configured as UPnP Server, conecting to DAC via Firewire (DAC is PCM capable only, no DSD)
3. BubbleUPnP as UPnP Control Point, installed on an Android tablet

 

The files are organised in a folder structure, one folder per Album. The files themselves are not systematically tagged. Playback is controlled via BubbleUPnP, navigating the folder tree.

At times the BubbleUPnP interface reacts very slow and even stalls for some time.

 

Controlling jRiver MC directly in the PC(on a laptop via remote desktop)  works without problems, so I suspect the issue is somewhere with the UPnP side of jRiver.

 

Maybe someone has experience with this kind of setup and could point me in the right direction:

 

Specifically I am trying to look at the following questions:

1. Does jRiver have performance issues accessing music through the folder tree instead of through tags? Unfortunately tagging >20TB of music systematically is out of the question. We're stuck with browsing the folder tree itself
2. Would foobar with its upnp plugin be a better solution. It plays SACD ISOs through a plugin. The upnp plugin was apparently developed by bubleguuum, the author of BubbleUPnP, so the two might get along better.

 

My preferred solution would be to get jRiver MC ( UPnP)  to work, as my friend converts DSD / SACD ISOs to PCM on the fly and the quality of the jRiver conversion is very good. The fallback would be to control jRiver through remote desktop and not use its UPnP functionality.

 

I would be very grateful for some pointers.

Thanks a lot

Rudi

[Kal Rubinson]

I am running a similar setup but with no need for UPnP.  JRiver can access files via the folder tree directly.  Many other options, too.

[Cebolla]

The OP appears well aware of JRiver itself being able to access the folder tree without any such problems:

10 hours ago, jacobacci said:

Controlling jRiver MC directly in the PC(on a laptop via remote desktop)  works without problems, so I suspect the issue is somewhere with the UPnP side of jRiver.

 

Is the issue one of being restricted to using an Android device to control JRiver (the BubbleUPnP controller app is only available on Android)?

 

This would narrow down the options for 'pure'/non-UPnP JRiver remote controls, eg, the Android JRemote app (which unfortunately doesn't have the reputation of the iOS version) and of course the free Gizmo app.

[Kal Rubinson]

7 hours ago, Cebolla said:

The OP appears well aware of JRiver itself being able to access the folder tree without any such problems:

 

Is the issue one of being restricted to using an Android device to control JRiver (the BubbleUPnP controller app is only available on Android)?

 

This would narrow down the options for 'pure'/non-UPnP JRiver remote controls, eg, the Android JRemote app (which unfortunately doesn't have the reputation of the iOS version) and of course the free Gizmo app.

Yup.

[jacobacci]

On 8/9/2017 at 4:54 PM, Cebolla said:

Is the issue one of being restricted to using an Android device to control JRiver (the BubbleUPnP controller app is only available on Android)?

[jacobacci]

On 8/9/2017 at 4:54 PM, Cebolla said:

Is the issue one of being restricted to using an Android device to control JRiver (the BubbleUPnP controller app is only available on Android)?.

 

The choice of BubbleUPnP is due to the fact that my friend would like to stream both his music library and Qobuz.

jRiver does not support Qobuz.

For a while he used jRemote for jRiver and BubbleUPnP to stream Qobuz, but the two control apps got in each other's way quite badly if the stream in one app was not terminated properly and another stream was opened in the other app.

So the next thing to try was to use BubbleUPnP for both jRiver (DLNA Server, so that SACD ISOs could be streamed) and Qobuz. This solution now results in very slow response when browsing the folder tree (which is what he needs to do, as the folders reflect his organization structure).

If there were a way to cleanly termiate the jRemote or BubbleUPnP connection to the jRiver DLNA renderer before changing the app, this might get rid of the frictions between the two apps. What do you think?

 

 

[church_mouse]

Have you tried the Linn Kazoo Android app to see if it is any better? That app will also allow signing in and streaming of Qobuz through JRMC via an OpenHome server set up.

 

My own experience has been that Kazoo is less stable than Bubble, but it could be worth a go.

 

I frequently switch between Gizmo (never bothered with jremote) and Bubble for controlling my Mac based set up with no conflicts to date.