Qobuz Feature Requests

[nbpf]

On 10/29/2019 at 10:19 PM, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

Great idea and sounds fun.

We appreciate any suggestions, as always, and am sure there will be some real winners. However, please know that we have a very long list of changes and improvements on our roadmap that are scheduled out for months. Some of you may have noticed many Qobuz improvements already and more are on the way. The engineering team is always running full-out and they are about as regimented of a team as you'll likely ever see. 
Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing suggestions that aren't already on the roadmap.

 

Thanks for the post.

Perhaps you could tell us something about your roadmap thus that we do not waste our time and that we get a clear picture of who will be the real winners and who will be the real losers?

[monteverdi]

On 11/2/2019 at 10:36 AM, Polyglot said:

 

Amazon doesn't offer exclusive mode so you're not getting high resolution audio from them. Not even standard resolution. Everything gets processed by the operating system mixer downgrading its quality.

That is not completely correct. Amazon's "ultra HD" can give me high res as I can check the sampling rate on my DAC. But it is not quite consistent. I found that a single song of an album is 96khz the rest is 44.1. 

If it would be only upsampling through the app it would be plain fraud!

[PAR]

This seems to be OT in this forum.

[jacobacci]

In my view the only way to enjoy (I'm explicitly not saying "use") Qobuz in high end quality  is by running the destop app on OSX or Windows and then connecting directly to the DAC. This gives me

• access to all the information Qobuz provides about the music
• easy browsing (no 500 favorite albums limit, full track grouping information for classical), as Qobuz intended it
• lossless reproduction via USB or SPDIF

I am not always close to my DAC with my laptop, so I need to resort to Volumio or some other streaming endpoint and use their Qobuz interface. Sound quality is excellent, but the browsing experience is not.

 

I am looking for a way to use the Qobuz app on an Android or iOS tablet as a remote control for a streaming device or DAC. I know I can connect an iOS tablet via OTG / USB to a DAC, but having to use a wired connection kind of defeats the purpose of remote. With android no dice at all.

 

Streaming to Chromecast Audio is provided for and almost solves the problem, but 

• CCA is EOL
• CCA does not do gapless
• CCA does not do 24/192kHz
• CCA is optical out only

So here's my Christmas wish:

Please build a lightweight streamer running on Raspberry Pi 4 that can be remote controlled from the Qobuz app (Win, OSX, Android, iOS).

 

You probably already have 90% of what it would take. In the Qobuz app for OSX you have both the browsing and the streaming part which communicate with each other through some protocol. Simply take them apart and put the streaming bit on an RP4 and send the commands to it over WLAN / LAN. OSX is basically Linux, so the port should be easy.

 

To me the lack of a server / streaming client architecture in Qobuz is the main reason I play Qobuz through Roon exclusively (and have to miss out on the browsing experience). 

 

[Talisman]

33 minutes ago, jacobacci said:

So here's my Christmas wish:

Please build a lightweight streamer running on Raspberry Pi 4 that can be remote controlled from the Qobuz app (Win, OSX, Android, iOS).

 

You probably already have 90% of what it would take. In the Qobuz app for OSX you have both the browsing and the streaming part which communicate with each other through some protocol. Simply take them apart and put the streaming bit on an RP4 and send the commands to it over WLAN / LAN. OSX is basically Linux, so the port should be easy.

 

To me the lack of a server / streaming client architecture in Qobuz is the main reason I play Qobuz through Roon exclusively (and have to miss out on the browsing experience). 

 

 

I'm with you. The laptop/DAC combination in Exclusive Mode sounds sublime. It would be great to control that directly from the Qobuz iPad app. As it stands, I have to use the Audirvana iPad app controlling their companion PC app, and while Audirvana has made great UI/UX strides, it still isn't nearly as feature/rich (and gorgeous) as the Qobuz app.

 

If Audirvana's iOS app can control Audirvana's PC app wirelessly, I'm hoping that someday Qobuz can do the same with their apps.

[left channel]

39 minutes ago, jacobacci said:

enjoy (I'm explicitly not saying "use")

 

+1 on that!

 

39 minutes ago, jacobacci said:

So here's my Christmas wish:

Please build a lightweight streamer running on Raspberry Pi 4 that can be remote controlled from the Qobuz app (Win, OSX, Android, iOS).

 

It sure would be nice for us if Qobuz were to get into the hardware biz, or at least the server package biz, but it would be a nightmare for Qobuz. 🙂 On the other hand, they have been working on adding a UPnP solution in the desktop apps. Have you played with the beta? Account icon → Music playing → Listening preferences. Any UPnP endpoints it finds will then be listed in Audio Output at the lower right.

[David Craff]

On 11/1/2019 at 6:46 AM, Musicophile said:

@David Craff any chance this feature will be added to the Qobuz mobile app and the Audirvana API (or maybe I simply can't find it in there)? And also that the Desktop app list of "routes les nouveautés" actually is exhaustive including all new releases?

 

Hi,

 

New releases are available on Qobuz mobile app. Click twice time on the "see more" link to get all the New releases.

 

The new releases, are only a handmade selection of new release. With more than 3000 new release by day, it’s not interresting to highlight all of them. In the new release you can find lot’s of « karaoke », « tribute to » that are not interesting. You have to know that we must take all the releases that the supplier give us (this is the deal).

To make our choice of new release, we use different sources, like : highlighting the labels, our musical culture, magazines

 

We choose on average about a hundred new products to promote

 

Regards

[David Craff]

29 minutes ago, Talisman said:

If Audirvana's iOS app can control Audirvana's PC app wirelessly, I'm hoping that someday Qobuz can do the same with their apps.

This feature is in the backlog

[rickca]

5 minutes ago, David Craff said:

Click twice time on the "see more" link to get all the New releases.

Why make us click twice?  A single click to see all new releases would make more sense.  On Windows, the first click just gives you one more row of new releases.

[jacobacci]

50 minutes ago, left channel said:

On the other hand, they have been working on adding a UPnP solution in the desktop apps. Have you played with the beta? Account icon → Music playing → Listening preferences. Any UPnP endpoints it finds will then be listed in Audio Output at the lower right.

 

Thanks for pointing to the UPnP functionality of the desktop app, Left Channel. Yes, I have tried it and thrown it to the bin. It is simply awful (at least with my hardware). Forget gapless, forget metadata. The UPnP function of BubbleUPnP is heaven in comparison. And the tablet apps do not have the UPnP functionality at all, which leaves me back where I started.

 

I am not advocating Qobuz to get into the hardware or software business. That would be an insane move for them. What I am suggesting is either a plugin for dietpi (probably the simplest solution) or a Qobuz image for Raspberry Pi that acts as a simple Qobuz renderer, controlled by the Qobuz app. The functionality for that is there in the (linux based) OSX app. The quality of such a plugin would be much easier to ensure than the quality of the partner implementations (such as Volumio, LMS Qobuz plugin, mconnect etc.). Most of the partner implementations have bugs that impact the user experience significantly.  The most blatant ones being

• the 500 favorites albums limit (that Volumio to date still has not remedied)
• the display of track groupings for classical (which most of them still struggle with)

With their own "official" renderer plugin,  Qobuz would have end to end control and a way to stream the service to DACs in high quality.

[David Craff]

8 minutes ago, rickca said:

Why make us click twice?  A single click to see all new releases would make more sense.  On Windows, the first click just gives you one more row of new releases.

 

Actually, when you click on "see more", you don't only have new releases, you can find the top streaming, the press selection and more. That's why we have another click.

 

But your are right, and we have to change this.

[jacobacci]

19 minutes ago, David Craff said:

This feature is in the backlog

 

Now that would go a long way towards my christmas wish!

[Talisman]

26 minutes ago, David Craff said:

This feature is in the backlog

 

You just made my day, David!

[David Craff]

16 minutes ago, Talisman said:

 

You just made my day, David!

 

Only in the backlog, we have lot's of think to do...

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Qobuz team, thanks for the unmatched communication! Even if once in a while the answers aren’t what we want, at least you guys give us answers and actually care about us as your customers. 

I know I speak for many of us, thanks and keep up the great work. 

[left channel]

1 hour ago, jacobacci said:

 

Thanks for pointing to the UPnP functionality of the desktop app, Left Channel. Yes, I have tried it and thrown it to the bin. It is simply awful (at least with my hardware). Forget gapless, forget metadata. The UPnP function of BubbleUPnP is heaven in comparison. And the tablet apps do not have the UPnP functionality at all, which leaves me back where I started.

 

I am not advocating Qobuz to get into the hardware or software business. That would be an insane move for them. What I am suggesting is either a plugin for dietpi (probably the simplest solution) or a Qobuz image for Raspberry Pi that acts as a simple Qobuz renderer, controlled by the Qobuz app. The functionality for that is there in the (linux based) OSX app. The quality of such a plugin would be much easier to ensure than the quality of the partner implementations (such as Volumio, LMS Qobuz plugin, mconnect etc.). Most of the partner implementations have bugs that impact the user experience significantly.  The most blatant ones being

• the 500 favorites albums limit (that Volumio to date still has not remedied)
• the display of track groupings for classical (which most of them still struggle with)

With their own "official" renderer plugin,  Qobuz would have end to end control and a way to stream the service to DACs in high quality.

 

Thanks for that review of the UPnP beta. Hope you've sent feedback to Qobuz, as it is a beta after all and clearly they do listen to their users.

 

Re the endpoints, OK I get it now. Plugins make more sense, and in fact I regularly rely on the Qobuz plugin for LMS, which has fixed the 500 favorites limitation by the way.

 

Plugins and images for more platforms and of higher integration quality would be nice to have. But I expect this situation will remain less than optimal, with streaming services being either too small or sadly too big to devote time and expertise to these free platforms. But Qobuz does offer their API and support to third-party devs, at no charge as far as I know (though the API is no longer public due to some abuse out there).

[rando]

As a predominantly classical listener I stray off the Universal/Sony distribution releases into smaller labels quite often.  Do you have any thoughts on the idea of, favorites can get quite crowded and appear to be a source of strong opinions/contention, unobtrusive means of leading listeners back to label landing pages?  (Edit: I'm perfectly willing to hang my head if this already exists, all too common an occurrence. Also I use the Windows desktop app.)  

 

I realize the recent question about searching popular artists contrasts with my own personal use.  Which is to say I ignore almost everything else to delve into a select number of catalog where I can spend a month or more never leaving [plucks largish number out of the air]10 label landing pages.  The closest use to favoriting is continuing an album loaded in the player.

 

My request is to consider if this use case would improve your service for enough customers to justify a subtle change.  Judging by the fact I could see every new release worth exploring posted within a three day period here. I have some large doubts this is how many people behave when confronted with access to everything and more pouring in by the second.  

[jacobacci]

On 11/4/2019 at 5:37 PM, left channel said:

But Qobuz does offer their API and support to third-party devs, at no charge as far as I know (though the API is no longer public due to some abuse out there).

Yes, Volumio, mconnect and co use the API in their apps for the Qobuz client. That means these companies need to build their own UI using the API. This also means (almost) all stumbled over some ascpects of the API such as the retrieval of more than 500 favorite albums.

A nice sideffect of an official Qobuz renderer plugin would be that it would allow other streamers to use the plugin within their own app.

And the biggest advantage would be that it requires minimal hardware (wouldn't mind it being limited to armv7 / Raspberry) and would allow full remote control via the Qobuz app.

 

[left channel]

4 minutes ago, jacobacci said:

Yes, Volumio, mconnect and co use the API in their apps for the Qobuz client. That means these companies need to build their own UI using the API. This also means (almost) all stumbled over some ascpects of the API such as the retrieval of more than 500 favorite albums.

A nice sideffect of an official Qobuz renderer plugin would be that it would allow other streamers to use the plugin within their own app.

And the biggest advantage would be that it requires minimal hardware (wouldn't mind it being limited to armv7 / Raspberry) and would allow full remote control via the Qobuz app.

 

 

The 500 favorite limit was fixed for LMS by one guy in about one hour, so I don't know what the holdup is on those other platforms. But Qobuz is a small company with a very long backlog of dev work ahead of them. If this fix were on their list too, that one hour might not happen until a decade from now... 🙂

[jacobacci]

2 minutes ago, left channel said:

 

The 500 favorite limit was fixed for LMS by one guy in about one hour, so I don't know what the holdup is on those other platforms. But Qobuz is a small company with a very long backlog of dev work ahead of them. If this fix were on their list too, that one hour might not happen until a decade from now... 🙂

Unfortunately not everyone has someone like Michael ….

😀

[Talisman]

I just installed this week's update to the desktop app — love the new search features...kudos!

Quick question: For those not lucky enough to have stumbled across this forum like I did a few weeks ago, how does one know when there is a new version of the desktop app available?

 

In the app itself, I don't see a "check for updates" option or the option to enable/disable automatic updates.

 

As far as I can tell, there's no way to know whether you're on the latest version unless you also stumble across this forum and scan for an announcement. Did I miss something?

[rickca]

2 minutes ago, Talisman said:

As far as I can tell, there's no way to know whether you're on the latest version unless you also stumble across this forum and scan for an announcement. Did I miss something?

There is a very thin banner at the top of the page that says a new update has downloaded, click to restart Qobuz.  It's very easy to miss.

[Talisman]

Just now, rickca said:

There is a very thin banner at the top of the page that says a new update has downloaded, click to restart Qobuz.

It's very easy to miss.

 

Ah, I guess I was too impatient and downloaded the new app once I heard it was live. Next time, I'll wait for the banner. Thank you!

[left channel]

[Oops, wrong thread.]

 

[brianlg]

The macos app allows you to view playlists in "grid" mode. Would love to see this view option in the ios app.