On 06/02/2016 14:09, Bob Latham wrote:
In article ,
Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Bob Latham
wrote:

However, if you have several manufacturers machines that work fine from
a given NAS and UPnP server and another company who's machine does not
work with either the NAS or the UPnP server then I think it far more
likely the problem lies with the player and/or the control software
running on a tablet/phone.

A problem is that one or more large organisations may "define darkness
to be the new standard meaning of light". Its the kind of thing that MS,
Apple, etc, etc, do to try and get everyone to use *their* software (or
hardware) "because it works correctly" - when in fact it breaks with an
otherwise-agreed standard. [1]

Then something like a player may not work because it *does* follow
agreed standards, but the user doesn't know this.

The history of HTML and web-browsers is littered with examples where
people start thinking their browser isn't working properly for such
reasons.

Absolutely, I agree with all you say but that doesn't help someone who's
kit won't play ball.

Now minimserver is written by an individual and not a company and as far
as I know he has no particular association with the likes of Linn and Naim
who are two companies for whom I know gapless works. Actually, I bet Simon
Nash (minimserver) could tell us chapter and verse about this.

This seems from what I've read to be an issue between the control software
running on the phone/ipad and the player. In Linn's case, they write the
software for both themselves. There are at least two 3rd party control
apps that I'm told also work with the Linn but I've not tried them.


Just to pick up from our exchange upthread - that's my understanding
too, but for Cambridge.

Also Linn published the spec for their control comms sufficient for
someone to write a 'linn player' that runs on a raspberrypi and having
built one myself, I know it plays gapless.

There have been companies who have brought players to the market and then
had to modify their code to make gapless work, I think Pioneer was one and
that uses UPnP/DLNA. I seem to recall HiFi News being amazed that the
player couldn't do gapless and were quite critical. 12 months later it
could according to HFN.


I have a QED audio media player - that won't do gapless either. It's
just eye-rollingly bad.

Certainly, under a some do some don't situation, the "don't"
manufacturer could join the "do" group even if that means implementing
a spec 'addition'. I might argue that it is remiss of them if they
don't.

The above may mean they have to deal with an ambiguous situation, so
they can't always win. Or may mean paying to join a club.

I have no idea if any of the above *is* relevant in this particular
case. But it is a reason for being careful about assigning 'blame' when
different items or software fail to work together nicely, when others
seem fine.

I have no proof but I know where I think the blame lies and it's not
anything to do with a NAS or a UPnP server.


Agreed.

I'd still like to better understand gapless. The Wiki explanation is
unclear. I'm coming to the view that the (poor) control software inserts
a silence, or takes the change in tracks as an opportunity to buffer. So
it's *adding* a flag, rather than not picking one up? Dunno!


--
Cheers, Rob