Topic: Problem using JRemote with an Auralic Aries (Read 77793 times)

sg60 · « **on:** December 31, 2015, 08:42:22 pm »

I tried posting this in the Remotes forum and it was suggested I might get more traction here.

I was wondering if anybody has successfully used JRemote with an Auralic Aries.

I'll explain my setup first. I have J River installed on a PC which is connected to my network by ethernet cable. All of my music is stored on a NAS box. My Auralic Aries connects to my network by ethernet cable and the Aries connects to my DAC (Ayre QB9DSD) by USB cable.

The Aries is controlled by the Lightning DS app and apparently the only way to get the DLNA for the Aries to show up under zones in JRemote is if you set the DSLightning operation mode to uPnP Renderer. I've done that and now the zone for the Aries shows up in JRemote but when I try to select that zone it immediately reverts back to the Player zone with the end result being that I can't get the music to play through my stereo. If I link the zone for the Lightning device to the Player zone on JRemote it works but I think I should be able to make this work without linking the zones (I would prefer not linking the zones).

Can anyone help?

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** January 01, 2016, 12:02:04 am »

I don't know what your Lightning DS can do, but if you want MC to play to the Auralic Aries device, MC must see it as a DLNA Renderer (see the DLNA topic for more information about DLNA).

Is the Aries DLNA (or UPnP) compatible?

Groundhog · « **Reply #2 on:** January 01, 2016, 12:20:46 pm »

sg60,

I'm using MC21 and JRemote with an Auralic Aries as a UPnP renderer. It works pretty well.

In Lightning DS set up, you have to set the Operation Mode to uPnP Renderer. Then the Aries will show up as a zone in MC (and you'll be able to select the Aries as your zone in JRemote).

In MC, you'll want to configure a DLNA server with your desired settings and assign it to the Aries zone. You can set up views and DSP as needed.

One other piece of advice... It can take MC a while to detect the Aries. I've seen it take several minutes, so be patient.

-Brent

sg60 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 01, 2016, 01:41:48 pm »

Thanks @Groundhog. I'll try that. At least I know that someone has got it to work.

sg60 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 01, 2016, 01:50:19 pm »

@Groundhog, you mention in your reply that I should assign my DLNA to the Aries zone. Can you explain how I would do that? I have a DLNA but I don't know how to assign it to a zone.

Groundhog · « **Reply #5 on:** January 01, 2016, 03:29:02 pm »

sg60,

In MC, you should see the Aries show up as a zone under Now Playing. Right-click on the Aries zone to bring up the context menu. Toward the bottom of the context menu, you should see Associate with DLNA Server. Click the desired DLNA server on the fly-out menu. A check mark should appear next to the selected DLNA server.

I think you need to restart MC for that change to take effect. And, of course, that can mean waiting a while for MC and the Aries to find one another. Again.

Good luck!

-Brent

sg60 · « **Reply #6 on:** January 01, 2016, 03:44:45 pm »

Thanks.

sg60 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 01, 2016, 05:57:33 pm »

So I did as you suggested and it works but I'm finding the performance to be pretty poor whether I use JRemote or the native Lightning app. I'm getting regular dropouts. Do you mind telling me how you have your system set up. Do you connect your Aries by ethernet or USB? I'm connecting by ethernet because my music is stored on a NAS box. When I was using the SOtM device I mentioned in my original post I wasn't having any problems like this. It worked like a charm. I only moved to the Aries because of the integrated Tidal access. I'm beginning to wonder if that was a good choice.

Groundhog · « **Reply #8 on:** January 02, 2016, 10:12:36 am »

My system configuration is as follows...

I have a home gigabit network using both wired (ethernet) and wireless connections. Router is an ASUS RT-AC68P. The main network switch is a TP-LINK TL-SG1016D. Ethernet wiring is Cat 5.

The core of the music system is a CAPS v4 Cortes: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/610-computer-audiophile-pocket-server-c-p-s-v4-cortes/.
The OS is Win 7 Pro x64. MC21 runs on this machine, which functions as a library server, a DLNA server, and which also stores the music files.

The Auralic Aries is currently connected to the network wirelessly using the 5GHz band, but has been at times connected via ethernet. Either type of connection works fine.

The Aries USB output is connected to a Vinnie Rossi LIO DAC USB input.

Playback on this system works well the vast majority of the time for music of every resolution I have - from mp3 up to DSD64. The only glitch I've noticed is that convolution breaks gapless playback.

******

Here are a few suggestions for troubleshooting the audio dropouts.

Make sure you have the latest firmware on the Aries.

Try playing music to the Aries from MC without JRemote or Lightning DS. I doubt this will make a difference, but it may eliminate JRemote or Lightning DS as the source of the problem.

Set your Windows Power Management to High Performance. If that makes a difference, it could be you're getting some extra latency due to the CPU being throttled.

Try putting some music on your PC hard drive and import it into MC. Play those local tracks to the Aries. If playback works smoothly, the problem may be latency reading music files on the NAS.

Try setting your DNLA server Audio Mode to specified output format and Audio Format to low bandwidth mp3. Restart MC (and wait for MC to find the Aries).
This will decrease the network bandwidth required to stream music to the Aries. If playback works smoothly in this configuration, the problem may be your network bandwidth (speed).

If none of these steps yield any insight into the problem, I'll have to punt to the more knowledgeable forum members.

*****

I can't address the TIDAL issue, as I don't use that service.

Again, good luck!
-Brent

sg60 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 02, 2016, 03:41:57 pm »

Thanks Brent. I'll try your suggestions. My setup is actually very similar to yours although your PC is better suited to audio playback than mine and my music files are stored on a NAS. You mentioned the only glitch you've experienced is related to convolution. What do you mean by convolution?

I don't think there's any issue with network bandwidth. The SOtM sMS100 bridge device I was using previously was very similar to the Aries. It connected by ethernet to my network and it worked perfectly. I don't recall ever experiencing a dropout. Nevertheless it sounds like I'll have to just try a few things to narrow down the problem. The funny thing is the Tidal app seems to be working really well and it streams lossless music from the Internet. Go figure.

Thanks for your suggestions.

JimH · « **Reply #10 on:** January 03, 2016, 01:31:33 am »

You can often find an answer to a question by searching the forum or the wiki. Here's the wiki topic on Convolution.

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Convolution

Groundhog · « **Reply #11 on:** January 04, 2016, 09:45:15 am »

sg60,

I had one other thought. Or rather, a memory.

Before building a dedicated CAPS v4 Cortes to store and serve music, I kept my music files on a Synology NAS. I was using MC on Windows PCs for management, curation, and playback. I recall running into numerous problems, including stuttering playback that were caused by having the Synology Media Server app running. The problems resolved when I disabled and uninstalled the Synology Media Server package.

If you're storing your music on a NAS, you want the NAS to be functioning as a file server only - not a uPnP server or an OpenHome server, etc. If you're using a Synology NAS, be sure the following are not running: Audio Station, iTunes Server, Logitech Media Server, (Synology) Media Server, Minim Server, Plex Media Server, (Synology) Video Station.

And, again, good luck!
-Brent

sg60 · « **Reply #12 on:** January 04, 2016, 10:28:03 am »

That's a good point. I do have a Synology server and I think at least some of those apps are running. I'll close them and see if that helps. Thanks.

paul45 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 20, 2016, 07:25:43 am »

Hi, thanks to the contributors here I pretty quickly figured out how to get MC to cooperate with my Auralic Aries and can control via JRemote, all very cool. Just one question on the audio being streamed. I notice on my Benchmark DAC everything is coming in 16bit/44khz. This includes HD tracks, like DSD. So I assume audio is being transcoded (although transcoding is turned off in the remote and on the server, as far as I know). I would LOVE to have JRemote to take over from the Aries app (Lightning DS), however transcoding these tracks just defeats the purpose of Aries, in my view. Question is if there is any way around this transcoding thing?

paul45 · « **Reply #14 on:** January 20, 2016, 07:44:11 am »

I posted too soon... figured this out. Under DLNA server settings I set audio mode to Original. Under advanced settings I enabled Bitstream DSD.

RolandG · « **Reply #15 on:** January 21, 2016, 04:28:45 am »

Quote from: Groundhog on January 04, 2016, 09:45:15 am

sg60,

I had one other thought. Or rather, a memory.

Before building a dedicated CAPS v4 Cortes to store and serve music, I kept my music files on a Synology NAS. I was using MC on Windows PCs for management, curation, and playback. I recall running into numerous problems, including stuttering playback that were caused by having the Synology Media Server app running. The problems resolved when I disabled and uninstalled the Synology Media Server package.

If you're storing your music on a NAS, you want the NAS to be functioning as a file server only - not a uPnP server or an OpenHome server, etc. If you're using a Synology NAS, be sure the following are not running: Audio Station, iTunes Server, Logitech Media Server, (Synology) Media Server, Minim Server, Plex Media Server, (Synology) Video Station.

And, again, good luck!
-Brent

I can't thank you enough.

The bolded part of your post solved my problems with the Aries Mini and JRiver, which have plagued me for weeks, now. Yesterday evening, I shut down all the apps you mentioned on my NAS and the three (NAS, JRiver, Aries Mini) now play together nicely.

paul45 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 30, 2016, 02:39:40 am »

Is Aries capable of playing playlists from JRemote? I understand this might have something to do with UPnP, I read some posts on the forums about this but they seemed to die 2 or 3 years ago, so I wonder if software has moved past this limitation? Basically from JRemote, even if I load an entire album, Aries can only play one track at a time. Kind of defeats the purpose of using the Aries as a UPnP renderer. Looking for a faulty setting somewhere in the Network Media/DLNA but nothing jumps out at me. Can anyone help?

AndrewFG · « **Reply #17 on:** January 30, 2016, 03:41:26 am »

In MC right click on the renderer and try changing either of the two DLNA settings a) SetNext support and/or b) Transport Events..

paul45 · « **Reply #18 on:** January 30, 2016, 04:11:40 am »

Quote from: AndrewFG on January 30, 2016, 03:41:26 am

In MC right click on the renderer and try changing either of the two DLNA settings a) SetNext support and/or b) Transport Events..

Tried both and neither solved it.

AndrewFG · « **Reply #19 on:** January 30, 2016, 09:42:05 am »

I forget, did you already try my DMR analyzer?

If not please download it from my sig, and post the renderer report here.

paul45 · « **Reply #20 on:** January 30, 2016, 11:08:43 pm »

Thanks for that, downloaded and tried it. Didn't see the Aries in the list of renderers. I thought maybe something wrong with the Aries, so I hard reset it, reinstalled Lightning DS on iPad and ran the whole setup all over again. Switched to UPnP mode, tested a stream (MC can see it fine), but still can't see it in your DMR analyzer. Strange.

AndrewFG · « **Reply #21 on:** January 31, 2016, 01:16:31 am »

Ok. That's progress in a way. It tells us that there is some kind of routing problem hindering UPNP traffic.

I would check a) if there is any kind of firewall or anti virus filtering on your PC, or router, plus also b) check the Ip addresses of all devices (they may be on different subnets, or possibly there may be two devices on your Lan using the same address).

paul45 · « **Reply #22 on:** January 31, 2016, 05:57:59 am »

I checked everything you mentioned. Turned on and off the Windows firewall, didn't seem to make a difference. I did see an instance showing the serial number of the Aries on my router's table so I revoked that. I also reserved the IP address for Aries. Rebooted my router. Still no luck with your program. Any chance you are familiar with UPnP Inspector? I found it using a Google search. I can see the Aries on there (as well as my Sonos and Lightning Server which I guess is part of the Aries - see screenshot). It seems to have some information about it. From there I discovered a web address for Aries which references an XML file. Not sure if this info is useful or not but I've attached it here (in .txt format).

JimH · « **Reply #23 on:** January 31, 2016, 06:14:12 am »

Your device is using this IP address: 192.168.1.232
and this port: 51188

Did you set that port number somewhere? Normally MC uses ports within the range of 52199 and 52100.

What are the IP addresses of the other devices? They should begin with 192.168.1 .

Are you running any antivirus software?

Did you try powering everything down and back up?

Turn off unused devices.

paul45 · « **Reply #24 on:** January 31, 2016, 07:47:08 am »

Quote from: JimH on January 31, 2016, 06:14:12 am

Your device is using this IP address: 192.168.1.232
and this port: 51188

Did you set that port number somewhere? Normally MC uses ports within the range of 52199 and 52100.

I believe that is just a default port for the Aries, shouldn't have anything to do with MC if i'm not mistaken? I mean, MC can communicate with Aries, just can't seem to send it any more than one track.

Quote from: JimH on January 31, 2016, 06:14:12 am

What are the IP addresses of the other devices? They should begin with 192.168.1 .

MC is on my PC 192.168.1.100, port 52199. All devices are on the same subnet.

Quote from: JimH on January 31, 2016, 06:14:12 am

Are you running any antivirus software?

Not running any AV software.

Quote from: JimH on January 31, 2016, 06:14:12 am

Did you try powering everything down and back up?

I've rebooted the MC server PC several times, restarted the Aries, reset the Aries. I feel like i've eliminated this as a solution.

Quote from: JimH on January 31, 2016, 06:14:12 am

Turn off unused devices.

Could turn off the Sonos I guess. Will also see if Lightning Server can be shut down, I'm not sure where that comes from but I assume Aries.

JimH · « **Reply #25 on:** January 31, 2016, 08:07:11 am »

Power down should include the entire network. All devices.

paul45 · « **Reply #26 on:** February 03, 2016, 07:24:20 am »

Quote from: JimH on January 31, 2016, 08:07:11 am

Power down should include the entire network. All devices.

Ok I have done this. No luck, still will not advance tracks. As an experiment I downloaded some basic UPnP controller software, foobar2000. It can control the Aries in UPnP mode and advance tracks from a playlist no problem at all. Next experiment - find an old version of MC, installed v 20.0.132. Guess what... it can control the Aries in UPnP and advance tracks. The seemingly problematic version I am running is 21.0.42. Back to you...

paul45 · « **Reply #27 on:** February 20, 2016, 01:45:08 am »

Bump

Any idea why MC version 20 will advance tracks to Aries and v 21 will not? I am now running both versions on my PC with two different servers. I'd rather be on the current version. Thanks

AndrewFG · « **Reply #28 on:** February 20, 2016, 02:19:15 am »

In MC 20 and MC 21 please compare these settings..

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=102338.msg714513#msg714513

paul45 · « **Reply #29 on:** February 20, 2016, 02:35:32 am »

Same options avail in each version - Ignore Transport Events & Disable SetNext Transport. In each version I am running neither are checked. I had tried various combinations of these settings on v 21 with no success.

paul45 · « **Reply #30 on:** March 07, 2016, 02:14:59 am »

Bumping this again... wouldn't be so persistent but I can't figure out why - in this particular case - an older version of MC would work better than the latest version. Anyone from JRiver on here?

JimH · « **Reply #31 on:** March 07, 2016, 06:46:21 am »

Firewall or other "security" program blocking one but not the other?

paul45 · « **Reply #32 on:** March 11, 2016, 06:43:07 pm »

I only have Windows 10's firewall running. There was one entry for each JRiver MC20/21 application in there. Not sure what to do there but I also added all the two other applications that I could see in the MC21 directory - JRiver Web Application & JRWorker Application. Hasn't made a difference.

MC21 has this Media Server service running in my system tray. Is that in any way different from MC20? I have 2 servers running but only see the one service.

sg60 · « **Reply #33 on:** March 15, 2016, 10:50:40 am »

In the last couple of days I've begun to experience the same problem as paul45 reported a while ago. I can only play one file at a time when playing through my Aries using JRemote. A JRiver update just loaded on my PC a few days ago and that's the only change in my environment that I can point to. Prior to this I was able to play albums and playlists properly so I'm not quite sure what the issue is. I'll have to review the replies to paul45 and see if any of them help me with this issue.

RolandG · « **Reply #34 on:** March 15, 2016, 11:56:48 am »

Has your Aries been automatically updated to firmware version 3.2? That's what seems to have rendered my Aries Mini almost unusable. It doesn't even work properly with Auralic's own Lightning DS app anymore. This is independent from the JRiver version I use (.50 or .55 for Mac).

sg60 · « **Reply #35 on:** March 15, 2016, 12:16:30 pm »

I'll have to check it when I get home but I don't think that's the issue. There was a recent update to the Aries and it created some problems, some of which I'm still experiencing, but I was still able to play albums and playlists continuously. This one-track-at-a-time problem has only come up in the last couple of days.

sg60 · « **Reply #36 on:** March 15, 2016, 06:56:39 pm »

My Aries firmware is at 3.2. That update happened a couple of weeks ago. I'm running JRiver version 21.0.50. That update was applied a couple of days ago. May be a coincidence but the problems began after that update to JRiver.

sg60 · « **Reply #37 on:** March 15, 2016, 06:58:28 pm »

paul45

Can you tell me are you still experiencing the problem where you can only play one track at a time through your Auralic Aries?

paul45 · « **Reply #38 on:** March 15, 2016, 07:34:24 pm »

Still experiencing the same problem. This is using MC 21.0.50. Aries is on firmware v 3.2. As mentioned earlier in the thread, on MC v 20.0.132 tracks can advance on Aries with no problem. Ironically though on that version of MC I can't see my Sonos Connect (but I can see it on MC v 21). So I'm constantly bouncing between servers on JRemote as I go from room to room and I can't use the Link functionality. Very frustrating. If I had to start all over again I would buy a few cheap NUCs and load them with MC as I'm sure that method would work to serve music around my house.

sg60 · « **Reply #39 on:** March 15, 2016, 07:37:35 pm »

I hear you. Technology isn't so great if it doesn't work.

sg60 · « **Reply #40 on:** March 15, 2016, 08:51:43 pm »

paul45

So I tried something similar to what you did. Instead of going to an older version of J River I used my version of Pono Music World (v20.0.134) which is based on J River v20. I'm getting the same results you did. Everything is working properly with my Aries using this version of the app. Albums and playlists play exactly as they should. No more of the one track and then silence. The only problem I'm still experiencing is drop-outs with hi-res files. It seems pretty clear that something in the latest J River update (21.0.50) is causing this problem when playing through the Aries. I noticed that there's a new version posted on the support site (21.0.158). It might be worth trying that update to see if the problem has been fixed.

JimH · « **Reply #41 on:** March 15, 2016, 09:15:49 pm »

sg60,
It's a small thing, but would you mind writing the name of the company as JRiver? We changed a few years ago because it works better with search.

Thanks.

RolandG · « **Reply #42 on:** March 16, 2016, 03:15:04 am »

I still suspect Auralic's firmware 3.2 to be the culprit. Using JRiver and JRemote with my OPPO 105 as DLNA renderer works as usual, while since 3.2 not even Lightning DS works with my Aries Mini, let alone JRiver and JRemote.

I will check with some older versions of JRiver, but given the problems even when staying in Auralic's ecosystem, my money remains on firmware problems.

sg60 · « **Reply #43 on:** March 16, 2016, 04:39:04 am »

It's possible. With the older version of JRiver it's basically working properly but I'm still experiencing a lot of drop-outs on hi-res files. That shouldn't be happening.

blgentry · « **Reply #44 on:** March 16, 2016, 08:05:08 am »

Quote from: sg60 on March 16, 2016, 04:39:04 am

It's possible. With the older version of JRiver it's basically working properly but I'm still experiencing a lot of drop-outs on hi-res files. That shouldn't be happening.

What's the JMark score of the computer running MC? Help > Benchmark > Run Benchmark

Brian.

sg60 · « **Reply #45 on:** March 16, 2016, 10:36:39 am »

JimH · « **Reply #46 on:** March 16, 2016, 10:40:40 am »

That's OK, not powerful. It would play most audio and video at ordinary rates. It might have trouble with formats like DSD or with Red October HQ.

So it is a possible weak link.

If you have another machine, you might try it.

sg60 · « **Reply #47 on:** March 16, 2016, 10:58:53 am »

I'll try it but I don't think this has anything to do with my hardware. Previous to the Aries I used another UPNp / DLNA device, the SOtM sMS-100 Mini Server. It's similar to the Aries but without as many features. This thing worked flawlessly within my current setup. It played every kind of file and I don't recall ever experiencing a dropout or any other issue for that matter. I'd still be using it if it included access to Tidal.

blgentry · « **Reply #48 on:** March 16, 2016, 11:07:16 am »

I think that JMark score is probably totally fine for single rate DSD. Are you playing single, double, quad, or higher DSD?

Brian.

sg60 · « **Reply #49 on:** March 16, 2016, 11:16:20 am »

Single DSD at this point.

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Author Topic: Problem using JRemote with an Auralic Aries (Read 77793 times)