Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Spotify now available in the US!

Ronnie,

So if I get an Oppo 95, run a cat5 cable to my router which is hooked up to my RipNAS I will be file downolading, not streaming? Can I anticipate there will be a delay between music cuts?

Ken

Hi Ken
It largely depends on how you'll be using the Oppo

Your RipNAS is likely DLNA Compliant (as are more NAS's these days).......and thus this would be termed Streaming, as that is essentially what DLNA is about.........the Oppo is DLNA Compliant as well........in this scenario, your DLNA NAS will act as the Server and your Client will be the Oppo "app" which plays the file as it receives it

It might be better to ask others here who use the Oppo in such a scenario, about speeds and delays etc........but I wouldn't have thought that there would be any issue with the relatively small music files across a home network

Home Network speeds should be capable of between 11Mbps and 1,000Mbps (Gigabit) depending on Wired versus Wireless and what wireless protools are used etc.

Summary: You shouldn't see any problems on a home network

Now trying to do the same across the Internet, with Lossless Music Files across Port Forwarding Routers and Slow Upload Speeds is a completely different issue

A NAS does not have to be DLNA compliant for some devices to see 'streaming' like behaviour. Even with SMB, the most common file server protocol, some devices will play a media file without being fully downloaded.

Thanks Ian
Agreed on SMB, but I was factoring in the fact of the Oppo device being the client.......and the fact that this is DLNA Compliant......not sure if it can communicate using the SMB Protocol.....likely not would be my guess, but not really sure

Either way, Streaming music files across a home network should not cause any delays or pauses, given the relatively low bandwidth requirements

FWIW there must be a difference between UPNP and SMP with my Dune. UPNP linked to either NAS media server or My PC's TVersity would not play my 96/24 FLAC without stuttering.
Linking directly to the folders via SMB played back with no issues.

I suspect that it is related to this debate.

Thanks Nick
Like I said earlier in my response to Ken, I haven't really used these Oppo or Dune devices for Streaming Music etc., from a NAS

Obviously, the THEORY is that it should be possible using DLNA / uPNP servers.......but as always, the practice may be different

Seeing as you didn't comment on 16/44 replay above, I assume the problem lies with 24/96 files only.......with obviously the only difference being the higher bitrate or bandwidth required???

FLAC 16/44 tend to average about 1.1Mbps VBR while FLAC 24/96 tend to average about 2.8Mbps VBR (IIRC)

Obviously, given that SMB can handle the bandwidth and that you've likely used your SB Touch to play the same files, network bandwidth is not the problem.......but as I haven't played with these devices in such an application, I can't really comment

FWIW, DLNA is supposed to be able to "Serve" Bluray quality movie files across a home network.........which would mean about 35-40Mbps (IIRC) bandwidth being required.......which means it should easily deal with 24/96 material!!!

Hi Ronnie,
Correct - 44.1 FLAC was no issue.

I wondered if it was something that the server software was doing e.g. Choking the data flow.
Or
Was it the client receiving side when UPNP
Or just a buffer issue with the higher rate via UPNP

It is odd that it doesn't have any issue via SMB so it can't be a simple bandwidth issue.

Correct also that the SBTouch played them fine even via wi-fi.

DVD .iso also plays fine.

Yet to try Bluray .iso

Cheers

There is potentially alot more going on in a DLNA server than just transferring a file which is why some can get bogged down when SMB delivers the goods.

FWIW, I am listening to Spotify via a SB Touch connected to my F80 (Giallo Modena) over here in the US!

Aaand we're on topic again! Great to hear Kal! Feel free to post interesting playlists as Spotify URL:s.

There was an article in the Times business pages today about Spotify going live in the US after reaching a deal with Warner.

There was a lot of comment about competition from the likes of MOG, Rhapsody and the advent of the Apple and Google on-line library systems. I personally would not invest. Spotify loses money ($26M in 2009) on 10M customers.

Not likely. I am not given to making playlists as I will either play a single work/album or let the system choose for me within a genre. So far, the classical selections seem to be spotty and superficial.