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Apps for gapless play on WiiM from local audio file server?

Multicore

Multicore

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We've a server with audio files offering
  • SMB network file share (Samba)
  • Plex, which offers DLNA UPnP service in addition to its own stuff
  • Gerbera another UPnP server
The WiiM streamer works great with Spotify on all our devices but to play the local audio files we use these apps:
  • WiiM Home phone app accessing Plex UPnP seems to be seamlessly gapless
  • WiiM Home and SMB is nearly gapless, maybe 0.1 second gap, and navigation is horrible
  • PlexAmp and Chromecast is not gapless
Gapless for most pop music not required and in this case the PlexAmp app is rather good.

But gapless is nongegotiable with certain music, e.g. continuous music divided into tracks for navigation. In this case we use the WiiM Home app. The UI is not good for navigating thousands of CD rips but it's just about workable.

What apps do you suggest we try for gapless playback on the WiiM of audio files on the server?
 
Lyrion Music Server. It offers a "flow mode" for Google Cast and UPnP-DLNA with the appropriate plug-ins for those protocols. I suspect it'll do it for AirPlay as well, but I can't vouch for it personally as I can with the others.

1000008589.jpg
 
Roon is properly gapless, I'm not tolerant of gaps, and it's not let me down. It has lovely navigation, and a price to match.
 
Multicore said:
What apps do you suggest we try for gapless playback on the WiiM of audio files on the server?
Click to expand...

Perhaps Music-Assistant is worth a look? It can replace an LMS server (but potentially do a lot more) and is open-source under quite rapid development. If Wiim can act as a Squeezebox (LMS) client then it should work. MA also supports several other streaming protocols. While MA is designed for tight integration with a Home-Assistant 'smart home' setup, you can run MA standalone if so desired.
 
BillG said:
If you're referring to the SlimProto protocol, then perhaps it does with an embedded Squeezelite client in the WiiM.

Not ever owning any Squeeze branded products I often forget that SlimProto exist.
Click to expand...
I don't know the details, just that both sides seem to support it.
faq.wiimhome.com

How to Stream Music from LMS to Your WiiM Device with Squeezelite

This tutorial will guide you through the process of streaming music from Lyrion Media Server (LMS) to your WiiM device with Squeezelite. Overview of Squeezelite Squeezelite enhances your audio streaming experience by offering synchronized...
faq.wiimhome.com faq.wiimhome.com
 
We can do gapless with the existing UPnP service and the WiiM Home phone app. It's this WiiM Home app I want to improve on. Assuming I run LMS or Music-Assistant on the media server, what's the phone app to try it with?
 
Soniclife said:
I don't know the details, just that both sides seem to support it.
faq.wiimhome.com

How to Stream Music from LMS to Your WiiM Device with Squeezelite

This tutorial will guide you through the process of streaming music from Lyrion Media Server (LMS) to your WiiM device with Squeezelite. Overview of Squeezelite Squeezelite enhances your audio streaming experience by offering synchronized...
faq.wiimhome.com faq.wiimhome.com
Click to expand...

Looking at that, yes... it would be SlimProto via an embedded Squeezelite client in WiiM products that's been facilitated by a firmware update. That would save a step in not having to install a protocol bridging plug-in since a base LMS installation already supports SlimProto.

WiiM needs to update their feature matrix as it's not listed on the products pages. It should be to avoid confusion and for marketing purposes.

Apple AirPlay, Google Cast and UPnP-DLNA all require bridging plug-ins, which do work seamlessly once configured properly. An easy task.
 
Multicore said:
We can do gapless with the existing UPnP service and the WiiM Home phone app. It's this WiiM Home app I want to improve on. Assuming I run LMS or Music-Assistant on the media server, what's the phone app to try it with?
Click to expand...

LMS Material Android is one example; it's what I've used since my initial installation. I don't know about iOS since I don't own any Apple products. However, LMS' web interface will present the same display via any browser if the Material Skin plug-in is installed.

While this post is a bit dated, it'll provide a useful overview of the Material UI.

For more information on the entirety of the platform and its capabilities: https://lyrion.org/

1000008591.jpg
 
bluefuzz said:
Not sure I understand the question but both LMS and MA are accessed via a web browser …
Click to expand...
Ok. The LMS web UI appears usable up to a point but see below.

Native apps I found:
  • iPeng 9 for iOS
  • Squeezer for Android
both of which seem ok but I have little experience so far.

BillG said:
LMS Material Android is one example;
Click to expand...
Ok but ... fdroid ... side-loading apks. I can do that but I don't want to and I don't want to deal with making the others using the system deal with that either.

And the same argument apples to the LMS web server UI. Most people don't use the web browser on their phones let alone know how to type http://10.0.1.101:9000/ into it. And while I can do it, I am rather tired of the hobbyist home computer lifestyle.

I'll test the LMS with those two apps and the web UI and see what I think. I already noticed a couple of things I like in the LMS library navigation. There's stuff I don't understand with the status and logging and it looks like it will be a week or two before it finishes getting album art.
 
Nothing but success on my Wiim pro and LMS combo. Had no problem getting LMS setup on my media server to play local files. Also just use the material skin on Android. It's not side loaded it just links to a local IP address in the browser.
 
Multicore said:
We've a server with audio files offering
  • SMB network file share (Samba)
  • Plex, which offers DLNA UPnP service in addition to its own stuff
  • Gerbera another UPnP server
The WiiM streamer works great with Spotify on all our devices but to play the local audio files we use these apps:
  • WiiM Home phone app accessing Plex UPnP seems to be seamlessly gapless
  • WiiM Home and SMB is nearly gapless, maybe 0.1 second gap, and navigation is horrible
  • PlexAmp and Chromecast is not gapless
Gapless for most pop music not required and in this case the PlexAmp app is rather good.

But gapless is nongegotiable with certain music, e.g. continuous music divided into tracks for navigation. In this case we use the WiiM Home app. The UI is not good for navigating thousands of CD rips but it's just about workable.

What apps do you suggest we try for gapless playback on the WiiM of audio files on the server?
Click to expand...
I'm curious to see what solutions are offered and try them. My dislike of Wiim is that it doesn't work as well with your own server music as it does with streaming services. The Wiim Home app is pretty awful for navigating and playing music on a server.
 
aagstn said:
I'm curious to see what solutions are offered and try them. My dislike of Wiim is that it doesn't work as well with your own server music as it does with streaming services. The Wiim Home app is pretty awful for navigating and playing music on a server.
Click to expand...
Yes, WiiM Home (mobile app) is no fun for playing the collection on my server.

And Squeezer (Android app) is significantly inferior for navigating a large collection than the Lyrion web UI. On the plus side for Squeezer, it uses the phone volume up/down buttons.

The Lyrion web UI is actually the best I've tried so far for navigating the collection. The PlexAmp (Android app) is next best but doesn't do continuous play on the WiiM.

I haven't spent much time with iPeng 9 (iOS app) since it is on my wife's devices.
 
bluefuzz said:
Or just save a bookmark in your browser.

iOS has a feature whereby you can save bookmarks as a separate icon on the homescreen. Dunno if Android can do the same but I would imagine so ...
Click to expand...
It can, also you can use apps like Hermit to create an app from a website.
 
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