DLNA troubles

interalian

Super Member
Hi gang, I'm having 'fun' with my new rig. I have a TerraMaster 3TB NAS running in RAID1 hooked into my home network. Player is a Yamaha NP-S2000. Control using iPhone with the Yammy app. I have about 2.3TB of lossless audio on the NAS

Troubles? I frequently lose connection with the app and it says 'no music'. The player may or may not still show audio/server as available. In order to get control again, I have to re-boot various equipment until it'll see the music again.

Thoughts?
 
Wifi sucks. Hardwire everything you can to network for reliability. Use IR control of tune plucker rather than mobile app pulling tunes via wifi and trying to maintain continuous feed to audio.
 
Thanks. The only thing that isn't hardwired is the iPhone though. Previous to the NAS I was using my MacBook and Serviio to serve my iTunes to the Yammy. Similar results though. Care to elaborate on better ways to control than the app?
 
Yes, I run Ethernet cables between everything on my audio, including the NAS and my raspberry pi3 and I simply never get any sort of dropout at all. I know we are supposed to be a cableless world by now but it still ain't quite so.
 
For example, I use IR remotes to tell my (hardwired) AppleTVs what to "pull and play" from the iTunes library on the PC music server (also hardwired). Solid as a rock. If I ever get a skip (and I do very occasionally), I know it's due to a ripping error, so I make a note and re-rip the song when I get around to it. I haven't yet served music directly from my NAS, though it does have that capability (the RAID 5 NAS currently serves as primary backup for my iTunes libraries as well as a Family Cloud hosting all our documents). If and when I do hit the NAS for music, I would look for a similar control/data transfer mode as with the ATVs and iTunes libraries.
 
Yes, I run Ethernet cables between everything on my audio, including the NAS and my raspberry pi3 and I simply never get any sort of dropout at all. I know we are supposed to be a cableless world by now but it still ain't quite so.

I’ve been running wireless for years with zero dropouts. SonosNet is rock solid.
 
the nas brand in question has at least one model reviewed scathingly as a data storage device. PC Mag called it "dismal" and wrote "in my testing I found issues with this NAS that I had never seen before."

https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2419596,00.asp

Do computers using it as storage also have issues with files disappearing and reappearing?

The other thing to look at is the Yamaha app - an alternative dlna control app may be able play better with your NAS.
 
The OP says he's using wired connections, so no wifi problems here.
Wifi is fine for almost any audio stream (including DSD128 streaming) if you have a decent access point, not the typical ISP router, and the receiver is within a good signal level.

Never encountered an issue with the musiccast app here on Android, appart some weird UI things.

You can try BubbleUpnp if you have an android phone or tablet, works like a charm even with huge collection of files. It can stream from the phone storage, from any network share or from another DLNA server.

DLNA is somehow a dated protocol, uses XML over HTTP making it verbose on the network, and expensive on cpu processing, thats the reason it does not perform so well on low powered NAS.

Bubble UPnp comes with its own dlna server that you could use to check if the issue comes from the nas. You'll need to have a correct wifi bandwidth from the phone but it works fine at my place and at least one of my relatives I converted to using it.

Cheers,
Ben
 
I've tried another control app on the iPhone from Ministry of Sound. It initially appeared to be working better but then the same problem. I've been playing mostly with the app and the ability to access the music comes and goes without re-starting either the NAS or the player, so I'm assuming the problem is with the app.

As for the NAS itself, I've not yet used it for other file storage, only music. It's the F2-220 model and seems to fare better in reviews than the F2.

As noted earlier, I also stream iTunes from my Mac using Serviio over wifi. This stream also comes and goes.
 
Sounds like you have flakey wifi. What kind of router is it? Do you have nine roommates all fighting for bandwidth?
 
I'm wondering if the DLNA server on your filer is crashing.

There is a free variant of the Synology OS (xpenology) which can be run on that NAS, as well as Open Media Vault.

The advantage to either for your use is that the built-in OS from Terramaster doesn't have a lot of installable software. There are tons of apps for the Synology boxes and Open Media Vault is built from the get-go to be a media server.

https://translate.google.com/transl...er-f2-220-nas-mit-openmediavault/&prev=search

Even easier than what was done there, apparently you can connect to a display connector on the TM motherboard to install a custom OS

https://forum.openmediavault.org/index.php/Thread/18989-OMV-on-terramaster-F2-220/

I don't know how geeky you are. This is something I could do pretty easily, but I'm pretty far out on the geek spectrum.
 
I'm wondering if the DLNA server on your filer is crashing.

There is a free variant of the Synology OS (xpenology) which can be run on that NAS, as well as Open Media Vault.

The advantage to either for your use is that the built-in OS from Terramaster doesn't have a lot of installable software. There are tons of apps for the Synology boxes and Open Media Vault is built from the get-go to be a media server.

https://translate.google.com/transl...er-f2-220-nas-mit-openmediavault/&prev=search

Even easier than what was done there, apparently you can connect to a display connector on the TM motherboard to install a custom OS

https://forum.openmediavault.org/index.php/Thread/18989-OMV-on-terramaster-F2-220/

I don't know how geeky you are. This is something I could do pretty easily, but I'm pretty far out on the geek spectrum.

I'm a serious hardware geek but less so on the programming side. I'm sure I'd have no problem hacking a connector onto the MB if doing so would expand my options or help solve this problem. The maddening part of it is it always happens when I want to demo some music - I'm like Bill Gates at a promo with BSD on the monitor.
 
I'm a serious hardware geek but less so on the programming side. I'm sure I'd have no problem hacking a connector onto the MB if doing so would expand my options or help solve this problem. The maddening part of it is it always happens when I want to demo some music - I'm like Bill Gates at a promo with BSD on the monitor.

My guess is this is in range for you, then - apparently the box you have boots from a USB stick. The German-language article talks about using vmware to set up an Open Media Server install in a VM, then powering off the VM, running the VM's data through a conversion process and writing the result to a USB stick. The forum post from OMV explains what cable you need connected to see the console on your box; I think with that with that display and a USB keyboard, you can configure directly on the system.

If it were me, I'd be very interested in what XPEnology could do - there are so many ways of getting DLNA going with the Synology boxes that you can keep trying different ones. The onboard DLNA server is OK, but I've finally landed on Minim and Bubble UPNP server on the NAS for music, and an XBMC box next to the television for movies and some music.

None of this is coding level stuff, it's basically at about the level of doing a linux installation.
 
Sounds like you have flakey wifi. What kind of router is it? Do you have nine roommates all fighting for bandwidth?

In post 3, interalian described the link from NAS to receiver as wired. The only piece of this that's wireless is the control point, and my DLNA epiphany came when I rebooted my tablet and the music just kept playing. Not just the track, the whole playlist.

I haven't looked back!

That said, is there a switch, separate from your wifi, which could be losing power? In my house, we have the telco router, behind that our own firewall, then out on the LAN a couple of conventional switches and a couple of APs that also have switchports in them. If the switchport feeding the NAS were to be disconnected and reconnected, I'm not sure if we'd get an automatic resumption or not.
 
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But he also says "I also stream iTunes from my Mac using Serviio over wifi. This stream also comes and goes." This has nothing to do with the NAS, right?
 
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