My first impressions and experience: system is with Rivo contacted via wired Ethernet, USB audio output to Schitt Yggdrasil DAC, Project Pre Box R/S, Event Opal monitors and two BK subwoofers. Music sources are Tidal and Flac files stored in my NAS. Using the stock power supply. Control via an IPad running the Volumio app but with UI also displayed on a (big) TV via HDMI.
Initial sound out of the box is impressive. Separation of the music elements is what stands out for me on first listen. Instant improvement over Sotm Neo and IfI Zen Stream. I won’t say too much here because I understand burn in is a thing so I ought to run the unit for a while.
User interface setup had a few hitches - had to add the vers=2.0 line in advanced options for connnection to my QNAP NAS to work. Only found that after searching here. Connect to Tidal was seamless.
Main irritation is that the initial scan of my music library has not picked up my M3U playlists properly. I understand a community written playlist importer plug-in is available but (a) I hoped I would not have to use that, and (b) the app UI does not give any hints on how to install plug-ins other than those listed in the menu.
The artwork for all of my flac files is embedded in the files themselves, and visible in MP3 tag and JRiver. But Volumio has not picked up a lot of the cover art or somehow does not like the format and does not display it.
Overall the sound quality is what is most important and that is very good, while 2,3 and 4 are the sort of glitches one hopes to avoid but comes to expect.
Should I pursue support for issues 3 and 4 in this thread or post about them elsewhere?
This is not with Volumio, This is your NAS not supporting or not enabling SMB Vers=3.0
Volumio is not a mediaserver, but a player. the images are not loaded form tags as this result in unstable behavior. You need to place cover.jpg in the album folder (you can do this via JRiver) and for Artist, place a file called Artists.jpg in the folder. IF it’s not there it will try to load images from Musicbrainz.
Can I ask where is the documentation that states Volumio needs your server to be running the SMB 3.0 protocol so it will detect it without issue? It is not stated in the user manual.
As for Volumio not being a mediaserver but a player, boh Jriver and Foobar are mediaplayers in the first instance. and both display embedded cover art without issue. Can I ask - where is the documentation that clearly lays out the folder structure that Volumio needs in order for the cover art function properly?
You did not address the issue of M3U playback. The files here have relative file paths only and work fine with other software I am using.
which suggests that Volumio wants your library organised with each album in its own folder and then a single artwork file in that folder.
I have typically not organised my files into album subfolders for each artist. That is partly because some control points allow the ability to browse by folder and then randomly play the contents of that folder (but will not play files in the subfolders). I have found that useful when you wanted to listen to tracks from a given artist at random.
I have to admit I am a bit surprised to find that Volmuio is so prescriptive about how your library must be organised in order to display cover art. This is the first time I have come across this having used multiple pieces of software for a similar purpose (Sonos, Jriver, Foobar, Zidoo media player, players provided on Qnap nas boxes, and so on). There are references from Volumio of “stability issues” if cover art is treated differently than one file per separated folder, but personally I don’t find that explanation very convincing given how many other pieces of software have not needed that.
Is there any chance of the way Volumio handles cover art being reconsidered in the future (so that it will simply use files embeded in the source media)?
I am loathe to start restructuring my library unless I have a solution to the m3U playlist issues as part of the package.
I have just come across a Volumio UI bug with a Tidal playlist (because i cannot use my M3U playlists with Volumio as yet!).
When I start a Tidal playlist the cover and details for the first song are shown correctly. When the second song in the playlist begins, the information on the transport bar at the bottom of the UI is correct (it shows the correct playback position and song length). But the cover art and name of the first song in the playlist is still shown. This behaviour often remains as the subsequent songs in the playlist are played but then, at random, a song will start and the name/cover art will update to come into line with what is playing. As this occurs the playlist queue information is correct.
These errrors are common across the UI as viewed via the Rivo HDMI output, via a browser, or via the Volumio app on an Ipad.
SMB V1 and 2 are outdated and open for security hazards. So the preferred is V3. Not part of documentation as all Version works, But Volumio needs to know what version, when not using V3, hence the option field.
I’ve been active supporting JRiver for many years, but keep in mind that JRiver has a long history in comparison to Volumio.
Volumio is still young and it’s focus on bit perfect playback from multiple source, where JRiver drops the ball. As the almighty Jim, still thinks Streaming is not the future.
For every software packages, there are pro’s and con’s, so is it with Volumio.
I have been doing some more searching on M3U import, a function I thought was so basic to any media player Volumio would have a way top handle it. To my alarm, Volumio on my Rivo has not imported my playlists correctly. It is far from self evident how to install an (old) community developed m3u importer plug in. And threads on this forum from years ago asking for help with M3U and suggesting this is a basic function Volumio should saupport have gone unanswered.
Can someone please help with M3U import. This is a basic function that should work.
Having spent several hours with the Rivo now, my first impressions are really being colored by these issues with how Volumio works. I made the assumption that a now several years old piece of software, being supplied with a custom piece of hardware, would have more solid functionality than I am encountering. The problems with cover art, UI falling out of sync with Tidal playlists, no M3u import - these are basic things I would expect a media player to get right.
The Rivo sounds great. I am hopeful that support via this site can help me iron out these software issues, but some of them look like they have been around for years which has me worried.
Hi Wheaten - how do I install the m3u_importer plugin on my Rivo? I dont see any option to install plugins other than those listed within the Volumio interface, which does not include that plugin?
Have a look here. I don’t know if it still works with the Rivo, As I don’t have one to test.
Basically it should work as it’s only rewrites it to a format that MPD understands.
You can offcoarse also use “Super search” to generate playlist, based on your “search question”.
I really did not expect to have to be using SSH access on this device to add a plugin. But I will go and do that and report back.
I have curated a lot of m3u playlists quite carefully over time and so really dont want to have to start trying to rebuild them via a search function, no matter how smart the search function may be.
I have enabled SSH and installed the M3U_importer plug in. When I use the plugin I get an error message that
"mnt\Nas\Shared\Music\Playlists does not exist
However, the path Shared\Music\Playlists is correct; my music library path mounted by Rivo is Shared\Music
Thanks for bringing the premium support option to my attention. Should I pursue my issues through that route rather than here?
I think potential purchasers of the Rivo should be aware of this.
Personally I regard the ability to import M3u playlists as a basic function for a media player. But here I am dependent on a community developed plugin, which I understand has not been updated for a long time, to undertake this task, I have had to SSH into the unit to install the plugin, and it appears not to work with a valid file path.
I will contact premium support about this as, independently of the third party plug in, there should be some basic guide as to how to make playlists compatible with Volumio so it can recognize them.
This issue with M3u import, combined with not supporting embeded cover art, are not what I expected for an £850 device based on an OS/software platform which has been available for several years.
It really is starting to sound very good as I listen to it though!!!
So two questions
(A) why don’t Volumio deal with both issues?
(B) why isn’t the issue more conspicuous on these forums? I did look through them before ordering.
This is silly. We have what seems really good hardware (as best as I can tell), plus a pretty good native audio player app which i would actually like to use. Why don’t Volumio deal with what seem like some pretty minor software issues?
