MinimServer 0.52 has been released

[simoncn]

The MinimServer 0.52 release is available for download from this page.

This release has fixes for various bugs reported by users on 0.51. It doesn't contain any new features. See the Release notes for a list of the bug fixes in 0.52. Because of the large number of fixes, it's a good idea to update your MinimServer installation to this release.

[Briain]

Hi

I've been running it on my ARM Qnap (with 37,000 FLAC files) and it's performing just excellently! It took only about 1 hour to convert the comma separated genres (bespoke Twonky scheme) into separate genre= comments (the correct scheme). I'll soon post instructions (with screenshots) on how to do that using MP3TAG (it's a very easy process; you just set it going and it rattles through them all).

I'll try the x86 version on my Intel Qnap tomorrow.

Bri

[Briain]

Hi Folks

I have just converted my entire collection from Twonky's bespoke comma separated multi-genres into the standard system. To do so, you need to add an 'Action' to MP3TAG and it rattles through them all and creates the multiple genre= values.

It's pretty swift if you have a fast NAS; it takes about 10 minutes per 10,000 FLAC files to read the contents, then it takes about 3 minutes and 40 seconds to write the new tags (again, that's per 10,000 FLAC files).

I've joined the MinimServer forum and posted instructions (with pictures) on exactly how to do it. You can read the information here, but you'd have to join that forum to see the pictures.

As to MinimServer 0.52, I am now running it on both my Intel and ARM Qnap's and it works very well indeed! I decided to change the name of the Artists container into AlbumArtist, but that was simply to move it up the menu (it's currently alphabetically sorted). I have also enabled alpha-grouping and set it to kick in at anything more than 200 items (this stops it showing in an artist/album container; as long as you have less than 200 of that artist's albums).

In case anyone's wanting to try it now, below shows how I've set mine (as described above) and below that shows how it looks on Kinskers.





This is already better than Twonky in several key areas and I'm really looking forwards to future enhancements (like menu display order and a way to limit the dates container to years).

Bri

[stunta]

Simon, just wanted to say I am really liking minimServer so far. It is somehow finding artists/albums that Twonky never found. And I love how it shows all albums an artist has performed in.

I am not able to jump using starting letter in the list views. Is this something you are planning on adding?

Also, is it possible to add recursive search? Or is this a CP limitation?

Thanks and keep up the good work.

P.S.: Here is my new setup running minimserver on a little netbook - http://forums.linn.co.uk/bb/showthread.php?tid=17720

[simoncn]

(2012-07-16 07:54)stunta Wrote:  Simon, just wanted to say I am really liking minimServer so far. It is somehow finding artists/albums that Twonky never found. And I love how it shows all albums an artist has performed in.

I am not able to jump using starting letter in the list views. Is this something you are planning on adding?

Please can you explain this a bit more. My guess is that you may be referring to the way some iOS control points display a vertical alphabet down the right edge of the list and allow you to touch a letter in this alphabet to jump to that place in the list. Is this what you mean? If so, which control point are you using, and what kind of list are you displaying? Does this work when you use a different server?

Alternatively, you might be referring to alpha-grouping, which replaces the full list of selection items by a selection just showing initial letters, so you can press one of those letters to see all the items starting with that letter. MinimServer supports this via the alphaGroup property (see the 0.50 section of the Release notes page for a brief description).

Quote:Also, is it possible to add recursive search? Or is this a CP limitation?

What do you mean by this? If you mean the ability to search for one genre (Violin Concerto) from inside the search results for another genre (Classical), this is supported by MinimServer. Please give a bit more detail about what kind of recursive searching you have in mind.

Quote:Thanks and keep up the good work.

P.S.: Here is my new setup running minimserver on a little netbook - http://forums.linn.co.uk/bb/showthread.php?tid=17720

Very cool! I've posted a question to that thread.

[stunta]

Hi Simon,

I was referring to the vertical list of alphabets. I see this with Kinsky and Twonky.

Recursive search - When I am at the top level, I should be able to search for anything. If I type "foo", I should get the artist Foo Fighters and any other metadata (be it track, album, genre, artist etc.) that matches that search term. Is this possible? Sorry I wasn't clear earlier. Hope I did better this time.

Cheers!

[simoncn]

(2012-07-16 18:53)stunta Wrote:  Hi Simon,

I was referring to the vertical list of alphabets. I see this with Kinsky and Twonky.

Recursive search - When I am at the top level, I should be able to search for anything. If I type "foo", I should get the artist Foo Fighters and any other metadata (be it track, album, genre, artist etc.) that matches that search term. Is this possible? Sorry I wasn't clear earlier. Hope I did better this time.

Cheers!

I'm not sure why Kinsky shows a vertical alphabet with Twonky but not with MinimServer. I found a post that suggests this might be a Kinsky issue (see this link).

I tried this on MinimServer with Kinsky iPod and I got the vertical alphabet for a list of all items, but I didn't get it for a list of all albums. Perhaps I don't have enough albums in my collection to trigger this. Which container are you browsing when Kinsky shows this vertical alphabet with Twonky but not with MinimServer?

MinimServer doesn't support UPnP Search currently, and neither does Kinsky. Also, some control points that support UPnP Search only allow it within a single container. So unfortunately the prospects for what you're describing don't look very good.

MinimServer is optimized for browsing rather than searching. If you have a lot of artists, enabling alpha-grouping can get you to the "F" section of the Artist list in a couple of touches, and it shouldn't be too inconvenient to scroll down to Foo Fighters from there. If we can work out what's causing the problem with the vertical alphabet and Kinsky, that might provide an even quicker navigation path.

[Briain]

Hi

I've just checked and Kinsky iPad shows the alphabetical shortcuts in both the AlbumArtist and Album containers.

Bri

[stunta]

I will provide you with more information on the vertical alphabet shortcuts when i get home tonight.

As for search, it is not the same as navigation. Navigation means I already know the tree in my mind or I am simply browsing. Searching means I don't know where to find something. For instance, if all I remember is part of a track title, recursive search is very useful. I understand one can navigate to the flat list of all tracks and search there, but i am not sure if a flat list of tracks is supported. Will check tonight. Even if it is, I have to see how well it scales for thousands of tracks. But it is not just about track titles or any specific meta datum. Searching (assuming the metadata is indexed) can be much faster than navigation on most occasions, especially if it is like Google Instant where you get the results as you type.

Here is a scenario. I want to play the track "M.I.A" by Foo Fighters. I picked this as an example because there is also a band by the name M.I.A.

How long does it take me to navigate to this? Home Screen - Artists - Go to 'F' - Scroll to Foo Fighters - Albums - TINLTL - M.I.A.

How I would like to get to it - Home screen search box - Type "Foo M.IA.". Interestingly enough, I just typed this in Google and it gave me the correct results. About 4,840,000 results (0.25 seconds) for the whole Internet. Now we should be able to do 0.25 seconds on my little music library right? No pressure

[bbrip]

You get the vertical alphabet with MinimServer if you use Songbook Lite