Article: JPLAY for iOS Is Now Available

[The Computer Audiophile]

10 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

AM I just not seeing it or is there no way to download minimserver to Linux via command line?

Just get the url and use wget

[The Computer Audiophile]

27 minutes ago, agladstone said:

Any reason someone using Aurender and the conductor app would have a need / use for this app? 

No. 

[AudioDoctor]

2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Just get the url and use wget

 

I could not find a way to do that. How do I do that from here?

https://minimserver.com/downloads/index.html

[AudioDoctor]

ok, I over came that hurdle now I am stuck at "error sending action to renderer"

 

Or, it isnt actually playing when I press play. May be something going on with hqplayer embedded though.

[AudioDoctor]

Its not HQPlayer, Audirvana plays to it fine.

[AudioDoctor]

Could the problem be that I am using jPlay on an M1 Mac and not an iPad?

 

[AudioDoctor]

Well, I guess it decided to start working now...

[AudioDoctor]

So I think it is only fair that I come back here and explain that I had a network switch completely die on me a bit ago and I am willing to bet that was causing the problems I was having getting everything to work correctly, and not jplay.

[One and a half]

Impressions and notes so far:

 

Took about 15 shots at the refresh device screen to find the Lumin U1, found everything else in the meantime, even the Jriver endpoints on a local PC. Minim server was already found first shot, selected that.

Indexing 8TB of library took 10 minutes to index them, this is impressive, on par with Minimserver itself. Like @stefano_mbp, have zero artists. All albums are there, wow, this is a fast indexer. As @The Computer Audiophilediscovered, remove the startupscan true or make it false. Remove reveals the artists after a rescan, but JPLAY follows the same moronic circle feature for Audirvana, Roon has. Circles, ugh, squares please!! Selectively it finds artwork for artists, then leaves others blank. Look just follow Jriver's lead with multiple covers behind the artist label, no problem. Don't be a Roon and complicate things or copy dim ass behaviour.

 

FAIL - Circle Artists, Squares please and just a list or like Jriver anything but circles!

 

Orange arrow, Artist shown.

 

 

 

Control Point is all that it does, instructs to play a track or album from the server software to the renderer. There's no SQ involved at all, only usability to find what to play, list albums in an order to search or by browse, hit play and you're done. I have Jazz, rock, and classical (some). Classical is going to take some doing in the Genre, composer, era and so on, Minimserver needs to setup for that, Jplay can't see otherwise.

Let's try #1's DSD from Mariah Carey, uh oh, needs some handshaking for DSD, the DAC is going bananas trying to lock on. Eventually I let it go and finds itself and plays. It works. Oh, it just plays the track, doesn't continue on with the album. Is this an app where you have to queue like DJ select ahead, like the Lumin app. That has it plusses and minuses. Change to Thom Rotella band for SQ evaluation.

 

 

Oh pressing the Add to Queue in the album view adds ALL tracks to the queue. Oh wait, there are 28 tracks in the queue, double the album's tracks, oh ok maybe pressed to many times.. The song stopped, so tap on the next to play, now 7 tracks added to the queue, what happened to the 28? Now the next tracks are playing, wtf, make up your mind.
What about making a new playlist? Single tap, starts playing the track, so how to create a playlist or queue, study maybe later.

 

There's a neat icon in the bottom right-hand corner for the renderer selection. So tap the queue icon, and the renderer and server icons swap positions. Some housekeeping there needed. The info and settings for the renderer are shown, Jplay can work out the renderer's information which is accurate, but can't edit the Lumin's configuration page, which is fair enough, use the Lumin app it's designed for that.. 

 

SQ is very good, since it's just the server, network and renderer working. Neat. I'd say it's more open & detailed than Audirvana Studio or Origin, although that software can cater for local USB type DACs. Jplay can play to a PC with a DAC or renderer connected with the correct drivers, so not just uPnP applications as a workaround.

Let's try Hawkwind Doremi Fasol Latido (1972)(2015) 'Brainstorm' (96) midstream from Thom Rotella (44.1). Very nasty click, didn't mute for the sample rate change, bad news here for the DAC. Please add some time to buffer and allow the DAC to change, 0.5 sec is fine and more for other DACs.
'Brainstorm' is a real head banger 11 minutes of relentless bass, drums, pow in the gut power. JPLAY has this nailed, just out of the way and let the server and endpoint work it out.

 

Next up Van Der Graaff Generator, Godbluff (1975) 2021 remix redbook. Drum work, exemplary, homogenous mix of so many different instruments including voice, all as one. 

'How long the time seems, how dark the shadow,
how straight the eagle flies, how straight towards his arrow.
How long the night is - why is this passage so narrow?
How strange my body feels, impaled upon the arrow.' 

 

Playlist
If a track is playing, tap the three vertical dots, create a new playlist and the track adds. So how about another track. long tap nope. Will test some more.

 

Screen layout
Album view, lists are easy to read white on black, navigation is functional, play pause forward reverse etc. right at the bottom of the screen, works fine. Album art takes up much of the page on the now playing page, fine, just right. Wishlist- find all artwork in the album folder and display, even pdfs, if that opens another app ok. oh, found the queue, it's on a swipe right on the Now Playing page. There should be a book with this, pages are hidden.

 

Gapless- Heard a very bad gap transition (horror) Focus 3, Focus 3 (1972) 92001 (SHM-CD) and Answers?Questions! Questions? Answers! Tracks 5 & 6 continuous. The explanation in the renderer config pages is the other way around compared to what actually happens.
The sentence reads 'If you have problems with playback please uncheck this setting (there's a check mark) by default is cleared.
When you want to play gapless CHECK this mark, and gapless works fine.
Should read: 'If you have problems with playback please check this setting'

 

I like the back button, goes through every page previous, doesn't go forward :( 

 

Sort by Date added is only ascending, not descending, the button is where?

 

First round, JPLAY is sorta intuitive, take a file to the ragged edges and this app will be OK. 

[Le dom]

Hi,

note that if you want to use Minimserver with all its options you can go to "By Folder" and click on Mininserver. 😉

[PavelDosko]

No succes with JPLAY Femto Sever directories ( x scans ... no genre found, tracks are not playing...) with minimserver is situation better, but sometimes "Error sending action to renderer" and I have to restart audioPC ... There is no  chance to sort albums by Conductor, Publisher, Dynamic Range, All Artists, Codec, no visible user tagging - comments and so on

 

Sound Quality is excellent, but using is very, very frustrate

[stefano_mbp]

1 hour ago, Le dom said:

note that if you want to use Minimserver with all its options you can go to "By Folder" and click on Mininserver

… like any other (free) upnp app …

[One and a half]

Right then. JPLAY can't find the Lumin anymore, restarted the Lumin couple of times, not going to restart the network, when Audirvana, JRIVER, even Windows Explorer (File Mangler) sees the U1 right away, no issues. Not playing with JPLAY until this is working 100%.

 

Still totally confused about the queue and playing system, found the screen for the actions to queue, ten or so different methods......none of them like the Lumin app, where you can add forward, at the end or delete a section, JPLAY needs some work in making this simpler. It's also inconsistent, it plays from the middle of an album to the end, then Roon Radio plays something out of left field, wasn't on any playlist, or just plays one track from an album.

 

SQ is good, since it's only a control point, should not influence at all.

 

TLDR?

 

1. Fix the Queue system

2. Fix Lumin Renderer detection

3. Server and Renderer icons reversed on Playing now and album view

4. Square Artists graphics, don't copy Roon!!

5. A black on white background view or skins??

6. Descending album lists according to date, recently added

7. Back view and forward view navigation

8. Delay for DACs to catch up

9. Ability to view Artwork folder contents

10. Ability to find pdf in the album and display

11. If you can, manage box sets correctly

 

If I need to pay for the service, then it has to do better, because there are better (paid) alternatives right now.

 

 

[stefano_mbp]

3 minutes ago, PavelDosko said:

Sound Quality is excellent

Cannot be different from any other upnp apps … they are just remote commands and no music file go through the app, they just send a list of http addresses (of the tracks on the server) to the upnp renderer/streamer then the upnp renderer ask for tracks to the server

[stefano_mbp]

6 minutes ago, One and a half said:

because there are better (paid) alternatives right now.

… most of them are free

[One and a half]

2 minutes ago, stefano_mbp said:

… most of them are free

just comparing apples with apples, as opposed to air

[stefano_mbp]

Three more bugs:

• just added an album to Minimserver and tried to synchronize last added albums/tracks … it’s impossible to complete the task due to the app always crashing
• the album count in the app and in Minimserver is different (less albums in the app than in Minimserver)
• it seems the search function is always on the internal app db even if browsing “by folders”, in Lumïn app when browsing by folders the search is an upnp search on Minimserver therefore if I search for an artist I receive “No results “ in JPlay app while in Lumïn there are plenty of results

[PavelDosko]

How did you pair the Lumin app with JPLAY Femto please?

[stefano_mbp]

13 minutes ago, PavelDosko said:

How did you pair the Lumin app with JPLAY Femto please?

Not using JPlay Femto but I think you need to run Bubbleupnpserver the get OpenHome compatibility that is mandatory for Lumïn app.

Bubbleupnpserver can run on Mac, Windows, Linux, Nas, Raspberry Pi ecc.

You can find more here

[The Computer Audiophile]

Wow @stefano_mbp and @One and a half, I think you guys should stick to the absolute perfect app that you’re already using, and let others with a touch more tact, patience, and reasonable expectations work with @Marcin_gps to resolve any issues that pop up. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, stefano_mbp said:

if I search for an artist I receive “No results “ in JPlay app

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, One and a half said:

Still totally confused about the queue and playing system, found the screen for the actions to queue, ten or so different methods......none of them like the Lumin app

We don’t need another identical app. That wouldn’t make much sense. If you like the way the Lumin app works, just use that. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, One and a half said:

there are better (paid) alternatives right now.

Which paid alternatives are you using that are better?

[stefano_mbp]

5 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

These are my results 

 

[stefano_mbp]

11 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

work with @Marcin_gps to resolve any issues that pop up. 

in fact that's exactly what I'm doing by reporting bugs I’m finding