Still messing with Logitech Media Server

uglymusicuglymusic
edited June 2020 in Digital
Since @phorize mentioned he'd moved from streaming from a server to playing from an SSD attached to his allo usbridge signature player, I've had an itch that needed scratching. You see, piCorePlayer enables you to run LMS on the same RPi so you can plug in a USB drive and operate the thing locally - at least, I hope they're not sending the stream all around the network. That would be mad, wouldn't it?
I'm using a previously discarded 2TB WD USB 2 drive, and just to get me going, copied my 'A' music directory to it.
The setup works and sounds good. I don't know if it's any better than streaming over the network, I'll do some comparisons.
For the moment, I still have the music library and LMS on my Syno - all the other players around the house are being driven by that. My idea is to maintain a centralised LMS library on the Syno and sync it with the library on piCorePlayer. I haven't yet got that up and running, but i have some software on my Mac that should do that with no problems. Did someone say 'Famous last words'?

Comments

  • uglymusicuglymusic
    edited July 2020
    Nah, there's no advantage in having my music on the USB drive, locally.
    The sound might be even slightly better over Ethernet - noise from the drive being sent down USB? I don't know.
    Second gotcha. The RPi3 is underpowered for my library size (can't remember where I found confirmation that I need an RPi4 for my 80,000+ files) and struggles indexing and even finding particular tracks and covers.
    LMS is altogether happier on the NAS drive with its Celeron processor and 10GB of RAM.
    Itch scratched!
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    Just a small aside, enable the Material skin and LMS gets a lovely modern interface, complete with links to artists' bios and album reviews. Dare I say a little toe in Roon's water?
  • DocfosterDocfoster
    uglymusic said:
    Nah, there's no advantage in having my music on the USB drive, locally.
    The sound might be even slightly better over Ethernet - noise from the drive being sent down USB? I don't know.
    Second gotcha. The RPi3 is underpowered for my library size (can't remember where I found confirmation that I need an RPi4 for my 80,000+ files) and struggles indexing and even finding particular tracks and covers.
    LMS is altogether happier on the NAS drive with its Celeron processor and 10GB of RAM.
    Itch scratched!
    Satisfying!

    What's next on the tinker list...?
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    Possibly getting LMS to talk to DLNA and trying MoOde again, but I'm really enjoying piCorePlayer so it may not happen for the moment.
    Instead, I'm tinkering with the plugins, getting to understand exactly what they do.
    Otherwise, I have a speaker tweak I want to try - not on the scale of yours, but it's another itch I've been meaning to scratch.
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    edited August 2020
    Well, I've got LMS to speak DLNA, so I can stream to any of five rooms (including to my old Roberts radio with RPi innards).
    It wasn't as simple as it should have been. It looks like the UPnPbridge plugin doesn't yet work with the latest version of LMS (this may be LMS on Syno, specifically), but reading through the documentation for the plugin, I noticed it didn't need to run on the same machine as LMS. Ah, I thought, suppose I run LMS on the RPi again and configure it with the UPnPbridge plugin. Yowzah! It works. With a couple of tweaks such as telling the individual DLNA devices to get their music from the Syno.
    Hopefully, the plugin will get upgraded to work with LMS 8 on the Syno, but that's only a small issue.
    Next step. Try MoOde on the main system. I'll have to move the LMS DLNA setup to the second system, I've just realised.
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    The next step wasn't to try MoOde on the main system. First I had to move the UPnP Bridge plugin, but thankfully I found I had a spare RPi 3, so it's now running the LMS part of piCorePlayer (no Squeezelite, if you will), stripped down to run only the essentials for simplicity's sake.
    So far, so good. Maybe MoOde next week if I can stand being in the room with two 30 watt SECA monoblocks :)
  • DocfosterDocfoster
    uglymusic said:
    The next step wasn't to try MoOde on the main system. First I had to move the UPnP Bridge plugin, but thankfully I found I had a spare RPi 3, so it's now running the LMS part of piCorePlayer (no Squeezelite, if you will), stripped down to run only the essentials for simplicity's sake.
    So far, so good. Maybe MoOde next week if I can stand being in the room with two 30 watt SECA monoblocks :)
    "Spare"...?
    I'm imagining your being ankle deep in the things at your place.

    Good work all round. :-)
    Get that AC turned on!
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    Wading around in the things, my friend :)
    Actually, I thought my unused one was a 2 and I wasn't sure if it even worked properly. But it was my brain that wasn't working properly :s
  • DocfosterDocfoster
    The good ol' Dave 1.0 now sadly outdated.
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    Dave trying not to be outdated...
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    That's it. The move to LMS is complete. I've uninstalled Minimserver from the Syno.
  • DocfosterDocfoster
     o:) 
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    Just to bring things up to date, the latest update to the UPnP Bridge plugin seems to have brought it in line with the version of LMS 8 I have on my Syno. Raspberry Pi switched off, ready to be unplugged from the router. I'll just have to find something else to do with it :)
  • uglymusicuglymusic
    edited September 2020
    This weekend's tweakery: install MoOde in the main system.

    To begin with, it sounded drier and less alive than piCorePlayer, but with a bit of fiddling, there it was. Just as I remembered MoOde, somewhere between the dry digitalness of Volumio and the warmth of the Squeezebox emulator, but with more texture and bass heft.

    If anyone is using Volumio on their RPi, I strongly suggest you try MoOde. Although it could just be my taste. 
  • DocfosterDocfoster
    Your taste is impeccable Dave. 
  • uglymusicuglymusic
     B) 
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