Solution for gapless playback with a mobile phone controler?

Hello,

i use a windows PC as music server (upnp) connected to my PWD via ethernet LAN.



I would like to control my music library through a mobile phone device, i don’t know yet which model to own.

I hesitate between an android and windows mobile.



My question is:

- What solution to play gapless from a windows mobile phone to the renderer PWD?

- Same question with android mobile phone?



Thanks for your help.



Fabien

Please no… :open_mouth: Not Windoze Mobile! :smiley:



I have no experience with windoze mobile, but Win 8 is ugly as sin! That and I dislike supporting the one thing in the universe that even The Borg fear. It’s bad enough that I run Windoze in my computers, I see no need to buy any more Micro$oft products than necessary. Just one (of millions) personal opinion here. That, and I have no idea what music controller software is available for Windoze Mobile. Whatever is there is unlikely to have the maturity of the Android and iOS apps.



Seriously, my preference for mobile devices is Android. I find it to be reliable and there are plenty of apps for any purpose, including music controllers. There is an excellent JRiver controller for Android - Gizmo. As soon as WaveStream is available JRiver is likely to be the preferred source for the PWD/Bridge and Gizmo appears to be one of the better controllers for it.



If you prefer Apple products there are a number of good music controllers available for the iOS platform. These include JRemote (excellent) and MonkeyMote.



You are not going to get gapless playback through the Bridge using UPnP - at least not any time in the foreseeable future. Still, if you want to use UPnP there are good UPnP controllers for both Android and iOS. For Android I like BubbleUPnP. For iOS I still like eLyric controller.



I would seriously consider getting an inexpensive 7" Android tablet to use as your music controller and am still considering doing so myself, even though I have a perfectly serviceable iPad.



J.P.

I just looked for Windows Phone controller apps, and the only ones I found seem to be mediocre at best. Do not try to use Windows Phone as your music controller and expect to be happy.



J.P.

Hi,

J.P. is right. Pick an Apple or Google phone. I really like iPhone, iPad with jRemote. State of the art. But no phone controller will do Gapless. But you should be able to soon when the Wavestream product makes its debut.

Steven B-)

Ok for android phone.

When wavestream will be released, what do i have to install on my android phone to play gapless?

You shouldn’t have to install anything new on the phone. As long as the player software (e.g., JRiver, eLyric (which is no longer being developed)) support gapless you should be good to go.

Regarding software that controls your music (upnp) Windows Phone is very limited, so I agree on iPhone or Android. I am quite happy with the usage of the iPhone/iPad, no experience with Android. One note, mainly regarding wingsounds13’s opinion on Win8 phones. I disagree, I think the buildup of Win7.8 / 8 on Windows Phone is more structured than iOS or Android. I am using it with the Nokia Lumia. But answering your question, go for iPhone or Android regarding music controller.

Thanks for your answers but i did not catch ont thing:

How is it possible to play via J River ou eLyric installed in my windows PC server from my android smartphone to play gapless?

wingsounds13 said: Please no... :O Not Windoze Mobile! :D

I wonder who buys them.... Win8 mobiles are the ugliest devices (OS-wise) I've ever seen. And I used to have a Win6 smartphone (inherited for free :D )

@fabien44

Salut Fabien

1/ you can use the Android phone [with an installed controller app] to control the player program that lives on your PC. Then you can play the music from your PC speakers, your Audio system. or any other renderer on your system. Even the Android phone.

@/ if the player program can play gapless, then it will play gapless to any renderer.

The only exception at the moment is the PWD Bridge. For the Bridge to play gapless, we will all need a new program, [coming soon from PSA] that will allow the player to send gapless via the Bridge.

Est-ce plus clair maintenant?

Merci Gordon pour la réponse, c’est un peu plus clair.

But i thought that wavestream was build for the bridge also, is it the case? (PWD is connected to the LAN via the bridge (ethernet)).

I believe foobar have an android client, anything else?

The new Virtual Sound Card is software that you will load on PC or Mac computer.

It’s purpose is to capture the output of ANY player on yhe computer [ like itunes, jriver, elyric etc] before it gets to the computer sound card and export the music by ethernet so you can stream to the bridge.

you can use any controller from apples phone or ipad or also android as long as it is able to communicate with the player by wifi.

If you have a NAS then it will have to play through a computer to use the VSC.

If the “player” program plays gapless then the VSC is hopefully going to allow the gapless stream through the Bridge. We are anxious to test it soon.

I am not sure what controllers are available for foobar since I have never used it.

G

FWIW I’m playing gapless with the Bridge using eLyric Music Manager and its iPhone app with pretty good success. It has some bugs like not displaying the correct cover art or when indexing multiple disc albums, but nothing I can’t live with. Of course when the VSC arrives, even those problems should go away.

even those problems should go away.

Why? Will you change your client iPhone app?

It is not the controller (iPhone app) that does gapless playback. Gapless is controlled by the player itself. In the case of the PWD/Bridge the player that is built into the Bridge cannot do gapless. It can ‘play gapless’ when used with eLyric Music Manager as a server because eMM actually concatenates the tracks in a gapless album and sends them to the Bridge as a single track.



Any fully compliant UPnP player is also capable of receiving a media stream from another device on the network, much like playing internet radio. WaveStream (the PS Audio Virtual Soundcard driver) will take the output of an audio player (or any sound source on your computer for that matter) and send it to the PWD/Bridge much like an internet radio playback stream. If the player on your computer is capable of gapless playback then you will receive the same gapless playback from your PWD/Bridge via WaveStream and an ethernet connection as if the PWD/Bridge were a soundcard plugged into your computer.



Almost every player available for the computer is capable of gapless playback. You can pick from iTunes, Foobar2000, J River Media Center, eLyric and many others. One requirement if the computer is not in your sound room is that the player program is remote controllable. I know that Foobar and JRiver are, but do not know about others even though I am certain that there are plenty more that are remote controllable. If you are able to use Remote Desktop to access your computer (possible with iPad or android tablet) then ANY software on your computer that is capable of generating sound could be a source for your PWD. This could include using a web browser to access various internet radio stations or music services such as MOG or Pandora. If it can be played on the computer, WaveStream will enable you to play it on your PWD!



J.P.

@wingsounds13

I catch it. I answered beranga because he must change player and controller to make bugs go away.



Actually, i use BubbleDS as controller with MinimServer as upnp server, with WaveStream coming, it would be useless to play gapless if i well understood :frowning:



Is it possible to list different working configs to play gapless from a controller installed on a android phone? I would like to use minimserver as upnp server or any other efficient upnp server.

That the player, not the controller, is responsible for gapless playing has been well explained.



The same goes for the cover art and multiple disk indexing woes. Using the elyric controler, I can see the correct cover art and indexing with Minimserver, but no gapless :frowning:



So when WaveStream comes out, we should be able to play gapless, get great indexing and perfect cover art, just by using iTunes or similar.



Yes. We will have to switch controllers, but the ones for the better players, like iTunes and JRiver, are great. IMO much better than any UPnP controller I have tried.

beranga said:
Yes. We will have to switch controllers, but the ones for the better players, like iTunes and JRiver, are great. IMO much better than any UPnP controller I have tried.


Having switched to JRemote over the weekend, I completely agree.