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[JimH]

In an Id build that is being released this week, we've added support for external drives.  This allows you to use MC's auto import to watch drives and import new content.  There are several uses for this:

NAS Drives
Any network drive visible on the network can be added to the Id.  This is called "mounting" a drive.

USB Drives
Both USB hard drives and thumb drives can be used.  MC will auto import if asked to.

Network Shares
A folder that has been shared on another machine can now be used as an MC folder.

Setup Instructions
The Id text menu has a new option called "External Media". 

---- Begin Menu -----

This menu allows you to add or remove locations that will then be available to MC for import purposes.  In the first step, you use one of the sections below to tell the OS to "mount" (add) a drive.  In the second step, you then use MC's Import options to add the locations to auto-import.

USB Drives require no configuration, but you can choose whether to allow MC to write to the drive or not.

Enable Read Only
Enable Read Write
Disable USB Drives
Display Status

Network Drives (shares) require answering several questions about their location.

Add
Delete
Display Configuration
Status

---- End Menu ----

Questions for Network Shares
When you choose "Add", you will be asked the following:

Name of the share.  This is a machine name followed by a directory name.  It's in the form of //BOPEEP/music, where BOPEEP is the machine name and music is the name of the directory.  It is not case sensitive.  (See IP address below.)

Name of the directory on the Id.  This is a name like "bopeep".  It is case sensitive

Will the directory be writeable?  If you want to write information to the metadata in the actual files, for example, this must be set to rw.

Is it a Windows share?

Will you use it as "guest"?

If not, you will be asked for a username and password.  If this isn't right, the process will fail.  Try logging into the directory from another machine where you can see the results first.

Important: After receiving the message that the share was added successfully, you must reboot the Id before you will be able to access files on the share.

IP Address
If machine name doesn't work (sometimes Windows is stubborn), you can replace it with the IP address of the share.  You can get this by running a CMD window (Windows Key + R, then "cmd) and ipconfig.

The IP address must be static, meaning that if you use DHCP to assign addresses, you must tell your router to give the machine the same address.  This is done by linking it to the MAC address of the machine. This is often called a static or fixed lease.

[greatgreyowl]

Have loaded the new firmware successfully but having problems with attaching a USB drive or a NAS.
1. USB - have a Seagate 4tb portable drive plugged into one of the USB ports in the back but the ID just won't recognize it.
2. No luck connecting to the network attached drive either. Will try the IP address next.

[paul.raulerson]

Probably a dumb question, but when I enter the update command (12 I think) at the ID it goes out and comes back almost immediately. No extras in the text menu for USB drives or anything, though if I stick a USB drive on the machine, it finds the music files and starts indexing them.

This is a NTFS formatted drive.

Is there something I need to do to get the new menu to appear, like set MC to update to non-stable releases or something?

Also, what formats will it accept the drive in? Mac OS Journaled? Reiser?  

Thanks,
-Paul
[Edit] - Just upgraded the ID to the latest Beta firmware, and it is a great improvement. Ran into a puzzler, and that is the /media share shows folders or the ID and for the USB drive I attached, but shows no files at all in any folder. EFI included. Sounds like a Samba sharing issue, and I did have to log into the machine as "guest" access. Did I somewhere miss the right username/password to use when logging into the machine via the samba share?

The machine does see the USB drive, as it imported about 16K tracks and a little over 2000 albums. Plays nice, shows up in JRemote, just does not show up in the media share, either from Windows 7 or from MacOS.

-Paul

[paul.raulerson]

Bump?  Any one gotten USB drives to show up in the shares yet? I get an empty folder in the shares with the name of the USB drive volume here.

-Paul

[greatgreyowl]

What USB drive did you get to work attached to the ID?

[bob]

Just tested it here without issues.
It will accept fat, ntfs, ext2-4 filesystems.

[paul.raulerson]

What USB drive did you get to work attached to the ID?

Works with Toshiba, Seagate and LaCie here, save for posting the share.

-Paul

[paul.raulerson]

Just tested it here without issues.
It will accept fat, ntfs, ext2-4 filesystems.

Cool & thanks. In your test, the USB drive showed up in the /media share and you are able to copy files to it?  That is what I am not getting to happen, though I have only tried with NTFS drives so far.

-Paul

[bob]

Cool & thanks. In your test, the USB drive showed up in the /media share and you are able to copy files to it?  That is what I am not getting to happen, though I have only tried with NTFS drives so far.

-Paul

Copy files to it from where? It's not a network shared filesystem.

[paul.raulerson]

Well, why not?  The older version of the ID initially created a folder in the Media space and mounted the drive, but it does not do that with the newer release. It mounts the drives somewhere other than the media share. 

If I want to use the ID with a local library, I have to have some way to manage the library. I can't copy the files to the SSD and then to the USB drive without some kind of access to the machine. That's currently true even if I do haul the machine up to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

I get locking the system down tight, but this is maybe a little too tight? Wherever you guys are actually mounting the USB drive, MC can find it to import files. Why not add an  just mount it under /media (which is already shared) or add option to share it on the removable devices menu. Then there is a fully functional server available.

When I RIP or download new music, it can just be automatically copied to the USB drive over the share. Easy peasy. A $69 drive can pretty easily carry a very large music library,and even a film or three if one wanted to.

Yes, certainly, I could just load a smaller portion of the music library onto the SSD. Or I could take the USB drive off the ID, and then reload all  or part of the music, nothin startlingwipe the device and reload it with Debian and MC/Linux. But in the first case, it will be too small for a lot of people. In the second, then I could not then recommend it as an easy to use plug and play device to other people. 

[bob]

Well, why not?  The older version of the ID initially created a folder in the Media space and mounted the drive, but it does not do that with the newer release. It mounts the drives somewhere other than the media share. 

If I want to use the ID with a local library, I have to have some way to manage the library. I can't copy the files to the SSD and then to the USB drive without some kind of access to the machine. That's currently true even if I do haul the machine up to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

I get locking the system down tight, but this is maybe a little too tight? Wherever you guys are actually mounting the USB drive, MC can find it to import files. Why not add an  just mount it under /media (which is already shared) or add option to share it on the removable devices menu. Then there is a fully functional server available.

When I RIP or download new music, it can just be automatically copied to the USB drive over the share. Easy peasy. A $69 drive can pretty easily carry a very large music library,and even a film or three if one wanted to.

Yes, certainly, I could just load a smaller portion of the music library onto the SSD. Or I could take the USB drive off the ID, and then reload all  or part of the music, nothin startlingwipe the device and reload it with Debian and MC/Linux. But in the first case, it will be too small for a lot of people. In the second, then I could not then recommend it as an easy to use plug and play device to other people. 

The filesystem the Id has in it's spare drive space partition isn't mounted in the /media directory since it's not a removable drive. You are correct that for a while we shipped a revision that mounted removable media under the shared filesystem, we decided to move that into the standard mount dir /media in the last revision. We didn't envision the removable media as being managed as a share on the Id.
I can see that might be useful though.

[paul.raulerson]

Yep - I expect that would be very useful. I suspect that a lot of folks RIP music or videos on our Laptops directly to shared space on the server. The little ID seems like a perfectly good tool for a small -  but very reliable -  server.

This may be redundant with the new spinning disk IDs coming out, but it sure would be welcome.

-Paul
 

[bob]

Yep - I expect that would be very useful. I suspect that a lot of folks RIP music or videos on our Laptops directly to shared space on the server. The little ID seems like a perfectly good tool for a small -  but very reliable -  server.

This may be redundant with the new spinning disk IDs coming out, but it sure would be welcome.

-Paul
 

The beta7 firmware does this.
I'm still somewhat concerned about permissions if the external drive is moved from one system to another.

[loads]

Just received my ID and have successfully been able to mount a variety of USB drives using the USB 2.0 ports. However I have not been able to mount one using the front usb 3.0 ... Is this by design or am I missing something?

[bob]

No, it should work on any port.

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

As discussed above, my scenario requires ability to write new files to Id's USB-attached 2TB drive, so that I can keep on adding new music to it. It is not an option to keep shutting it down, detaching the disk, moving, copying, detaching, moving, rebooting each time. So I am looking for one of two options, please:

  - I write to somewhere else, and Id scans that location, over the network, and copies the files to the USB drive
  - I mount Id's USB drive over the network and copy files directly to it

May I ask if any of the beta versions support either of those scenarios? I am planning on setting it up later today, so your suggestions would be very helpful, thanks.

Rafal

[bob]

As discussed above, my scenario requires ability to write new files to Id's USB-attached 2TB drive, so that I can keep on adding new music to it. It is not an option to keep shutting it down, detaching the disk, moving, copying, detaching, moving, rebooting each time. So I am looking for one of two options, please:

  - I write to somewhere else, and Id scans that location, over the network, and copies the files to the USB drive
  - I mount Id's USB drive over the network and copy files directly to it

May I ask if any of the beta versions support either of those scenarios? I am planning on setting it up later today, so your suggestions would be very helpful, thanks.

Rafal

You mount Id's USB drive over the network and copy files directly to it

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

You mount Id's USB drive over the network and copy files directly to it

Super. For some reason I thought this function was not available on the Id anymore. Looking forward to doing it in an hour or so.

[bob]

Super. For some reason I thought this function was not available on the Id anymore. Looking forward to doing it in an hour or so.

You might want to wait. I'm uploading beta10 right now...

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

You might want to wait. I'm uploading beta10 right now...

Just-in-time, thanks Bob. I was starting a download of CentOS to install on a VM to be able to format the USB drive using ext4 as per earlier suggestion. I suppose I will put Beta 10 on at the same time, thanks. However, will this let me format the external drive using ext4 or do I still need a Linux box somehow?

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

You mount Id's USB drive over the network and copy files directly to it

Bob, I'm able to connect to the Id using SMB, but I cannot write to the disk without a suitable username and password. It seems that the guest access is read only. What credentials do I need to connect to my Id's external drive over the network, please?

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

^^^^ Bob: further info. I can write to the Id "InternalStorage" share, but I am prompted for authentication to write to the ExternalStorage one. By the way, I have just updated to Beta 10.

I think it may be a permission issue. I have tried making a backup of the library to the external drive and it was successful. I can see it using the various file browsing functions of the MC running on the Id. However, I cannot see any of those files when connecting over the network to the Id. When I look at the permission attributes on the network mounted volume (using my Mac terminal) I can see I have no permissions to the volume showing under ExternalStorage, even though I have full permissions to ExternalStorage itself. Many thanks if you can help...

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

^^^^ Bob, I can confirm also that I have that drive set to read-write in the Id settings.

I have tried synching from the remote library running on my Mac server, but it just goes quickly through all the files and nothing seems to get copied. So, at the moment, I am a bit stuck, with no way to copy the files from the remote server to the Id.

If this is an issue with permissions, could I use a different Linux box to set those to something that Id would recognise? Or, can I provide some credentials to log-in over the network that would grant me those? Thanks.

[bob]

The shares are public, you shouldn't need permissions or authentication to write it.
You did format it as ext4 I suppose.
I hadn't tested that yet and I'm wondering if that's the issue.
Will try it here.

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

The shares are public, you shouldn't need permissions or authentication to write it.
You did format it as ext4 I suppose.
I hadn't tested that yet and I'm wondering if that's the issue.
Will try it here.

Bob, it was the permissions. I have mounted this drive on a Linux box and chmod-ed it from 700 to 777. This makes it writeable over the network.

However, a new problem appears. For some reason, the Id's server reports the size of the drive incorrectly as only 16 GB, even though the partition and the volume are 2TB. This prevents me from copying using drag-drop in Mac OS X. I will, however, try copying manually to see if I can overcome this issue.

Finally, when Id boots, about 8 seconds into the process, it reports an error which reads something like "VFS: No file system ext4" or similar. I wonder if this is related.

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

^^^^ It looks like Id is always reporting free remaining space as 13.57 GB regardless of what is really free. Running df -h also shows this incorrect amount of free space.

I am copying files using cp -R and it seems to be working, and the reported amount of free space is not decreasing. It would be nice if this was displayed correctly, as it would allow drag-drop copying.

Thanks for your help.

[bob]

Bob, it was the permissions. I have mounted this drive on a Linux box and chmod-ed it from 700 to 777. This makes it writeable over the network.

However, a new problem appears. For some reason, the Id's server reports the size of the drive incorrectly as only 16 GB, even though the partition and the volume are 2TB. This prevents me from copying using drag-drop in Mac OS X. I will, however, try copying manually to see if I can overcome this issue.

Finally, when Id boots, about 8 seconds into the process, it reports an error which reads something like "VFS: No file system ext4" or similar. I wonder if this is related.

Rafal,
I just discovered the same issue with the permissions. It's because 777 isn't the default when formatting the drive as root on linux. Since the permissions of a ntfs filesystem aren't the same it gets mounted with public read/write permissions by default.

The  "VFS: No file system ext4" message isn't important.

If you use the status function in the Disk menu does it show the proper size?

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

Rafal,
I just discovered the same issue with the permissions. It's because 777 isn't the default when formatting the drive as root on linux. Since the permissions of a ntfs filesystem aren't the same it gets mounted with public read/write permissions by default.

The  "VFS: No file system ext4" message isn't important.

If you use the status function in the Disk menu does it show the proper size?

Thanks, Bob. The status functions in the disk menu of the Id application shows the correct amounts. It seems this is not being passed on through the networking subsystem correctly.

[paul.raulerson]

Rafal,
I just discovered the same issue with the permissions. It's because 777 isn't the default when formatting the drive as root on linux. Since the permissions of a ntfs filesystem aren't the same it gets mounted with public read/write permissions by default.

The  "VFS: No file system ext4" message isn't important.

If you use the status function in the Disk menu does it show the proper size?

I am pretty much ready to suggest formatting and mounting the drives as NTFS. NTFS doesn't have the annoying Windows PATH size limitation, and runs quite fast under Linux. It also, as you pointed out, eliminates drive permissions issues. But best of all, you can easily mount the drive on a Mac or Windows machine if you have need to do a lot of maintenance.

-Paul

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

I am pretty much ready to suggest formatting and mounting the drives as NTFS. NTFS doesn't have the annoying Windows PATH size limitation, and runs quite fast under Linux. It also, as you pointed out, eliminates drive permissions issues. But best of all, you can easily mount the drive on a Mac or Windows machine if you have need to do a lot of maintenance.

-Paul

Paul: do Linux NTFS drivers, like the ones that come with the Id, take care of journalling and so automatically recover from disk consistency errors due to, for example, power failures? I am well aware of NTFS reliability under Windows, but I do not know how it fares under Linux compared to ext4.

As for the permission issue, it is not a problem once it is known. It simply adds one more step to the formatting process: sudo chmod -R 777 /path-to-your-just-formatted-disk

Alternatively, I wonder if Id could mount the ext4 etc file systems without permission support, I expect there may be an option for that.

Nonetheless, I'd like to know if you think NTFS were a better file system than ext4 for Id's external drives. Many thanks.

[paul.raulerson]

Paul: do Linux NTFS drivers, like the ones that come with the Id, take care of journalling and so automatically recover from disk consistency errors due to, for example, power failures? I am well aware of NTFS reliability under Windows, but I do not know how it fares under Linux compared to ext4.

As for the permission issue, it is not a problem once it is known. It simply adds one more step to the formatting process: sudo chmod -R 777 /path-to-your-just-formatted-disk

Alternatively, I wonder if Id could mount the ext4 etc file systems without permission support, I expect there may be an option for that.

Nonetheless, I'd like to know if you think NTFS were a better file system than ext4 for Id's external drives. Many thanks.

For Linux, I much prefer Reiser file systems, which is what I use in all my production file systems. EXT3 and EXT4 are both quite good too, but I have never lost data with Reiser, and I have with EXT3.

NTFS is fairly robust though, and well implemented under Linux. I can't imagine somthing like a power loss causing trouble to a volume, but it is always a good idea to have a UPS around.

Only problem is both Linux and MacOS will write files on NTFS filesystems that Windows will be unable to access due to path length limitations in Windows. Biggest limitation in using it is that you cannot IPL from a NTFS volume so far as I know. Might be wrong there, never really tried.

By the way, is it the volume itself that appears to have permission issues, or the mountpoint? This sounds like it may be related to operations with removable drives, since normally I would sudo to do operations like formatting or partioning a disk. Just curious.

[Cousteau]

Can a folder on the Apple Time Capsule to be used as MC folder?

[Cousteau]

Network Shares
A folder that has been shared on another machine can now be used as an MC folder.

Can a folder on the Apple Time Capsule to be used as MC folder?

[bob]

Can a folder on the Apple Time Capsule to be used as MC folder?

The Id doesn't support AFP (Appletalk File Protocol). There is support for this in linux (netatalk) and I've been using it at home for years however the most recent revisions need to be used to work properly with OSX 10.10 and they are not stable IMO.
If the time capsule can export the share as cifs then it may work.

[paul.raulerson]

The Id doesn't support AFP (Appletalk File Protocol). There is support for this in linux (netatalk) and I've been using it at home for years however the most recent revisions need to be used to work properly with OSX 10.10 and they are not stable IMO.
If the time capsule can export the share as cifs then it may work.

If NFS Server is running on the ID, Mac's can mount those exports natively, and so avoid running netatalk.

Also, Apple Time Capsule can serve shared files to both Windows and MacOS systems, no problem. It is probably not the best NAS platform though. It is really oriented towards backup.

Yours,
-Paul

[bob]

If NFS Server is running on the ID, Mac's can mount those exports natively, and so avoid running netatalk.

Also, Apple Time Capsule can serve shared files to both Windows and MacOS systems, no problem. It is probably not the best NAS platform though. It is really oriented towards backup.

Yours,
-Paul

The Id IS running an NFS server to serve it's internal and external connected drives but there are no NFS client mounting options.

[Cousteau]

Apple Tech support says that the TC uses the AFP as well as SMB

[Pegasus59]

In an Id build that is being released this week, we've added support for external drives.  This allows you to use MC's auto import to watch drives and import new content.  There are several uses for this:

NAS Drives
Any network drive visible on the network can be added to the Id.  This is called "mounting" a drive.

USB Drives
Both USB hard drives and thumb drives can be used.  MC will auto import if asked to.

Network Shares
A folder that has been shared on another machine can now be used as an MC folder.

Setup Instructions
The Id text menu has a new option called "External Media".  

---- Begin Menu -----

This menu allows you to add or remove locations that will then be available to MC for import purposes.  In the first step, you use one of the sections below to tell the OS to "mount" (add) a drive.  In the second step, you then use MC's Import options to add the locations to auto-import.

USB Drives require no configuration, but you can choose whether to allow MC to write to the drive or not.

Enable Read Only
Enable Read Write
Disable USB Drives
Display Status

Network Drives (shares) require answering several questions about their location.

Add
Delete
Display Configuration
Status

---- End Menu ----

Questions for Network Shares
When you choose "Add", you will be asked the following:

Name of the share.  This is a machine name followed by a directory name.  It's in the form of //BOPEEP/music, where BOPEEP is the machine name and music is the name of the directory.  It is not case sensitive.  (See IP address below.)

Name of the directory on the Id.  This is a name like "bopeep".  It is case sensitive

Will the directory be writeable?  If you want to write information to the metadata in the actual files, for example, this must be set to rw.

Is it a Windows share?

Will you use it as "guest"?

If not, you will be asked for a username and password.  If this isn't right, the process will fail.  Try logging into the directory from another machine where you can see the results first.

IP Address
If machine name doesn't work (sometimes Windows is stubborn), you can replace it with the IP address of the share.  You can get this by running a CMD window (Windows Key + R, then "cmd) and ipconfig.

The IP address must be static, meaning that if you use DHCP to assign addresses, you must tell your router to give the machine the same address.  This is done by linking it to the MAC address of the machine. This is often called a static or fixed lease.

I have not been unable to get my Id to mount my Netgear NAS. The NAS is shown in my computer as Music (\\192.168.0.150) (M:). Please outline exactly how i should enter the details on the Id (as every attempt so far has ended in failure). I go to 20 External Media and then Network Drives (Shares) and 10 to add. So far, so good, but I get in trouble with the next step, Path To The Share. Am I using the correct details, or should i be using the NAS name (NAS-D5-EO-24:ReadyNAS 312)?

[bob]

I have not been unable to get my Id to mount my Netgear NAS. The NAS is shown in my computer as Music (\\192.168.0.150) (M:). Please outline exactly how i should enter the details on the Id (as every attempt so far has ended in failure). I go to 20 External Media and then Network Drives (Shares) and 10 to add. So far, so good, but I get in trouble with the next step, Path To The Share. Am I using the correct details, or should i be using the NAS name (NAS-D5-EO-24:ReadyNAS 312)?

Sorry for the confusion.
The sharepath name on windows uses backslashes. The rest of the computing world uses normal slashes. The instructions you quoted uses the normal slashes.
So in your case it would be
//192.168.0.150/
and the directory that it will be access on the Id can be any name you wish (leave out special characters, spaces, etc) in the example we used bopeep.

[Pegasus59]

Sorry for the confusion.
The sharepath name on windows uses backslashes. The rest of the computing world uses normal slashes. The instructions you quoted uses the normal slashes.
So in your case it would be
//192.168.0.150/
and the directory that it will be access on the Id can be any name you wish (leave out special characters, spaces, etc) in the example we used bopeep.

I've now managed to mount the NAS (//192.168.0.150/music) and made the Id directory mynas (as per the Id instructions).
The NAS is shown in "Network drives, display configuration & status"
But where in the Id directory do I access the new share? in the Windows MC20 version, one clicks on "Drives & Devices".
When I click on the same on the Id it states "Web page viewing is not supported on this platform".
I came across a "ournas" directory in Music on the Id, but the directory was empty (trying out making a new library to see if that would work).

[bob]

I've now managed to mount the NAS (//192.168.0.150/music) and made the Id directory mynas (as per the Id instructions).
The NAS is shown in "Network drives, display configuration & status"
But where in the Id directory do I access the new share? in the Windows MC20 version, one clicks on "Drives & Devices".
When I click on the same on the Id it states "Web page viewing is not supported on this platform".
I came across a "ournas" directory in Music on the Id, but the directory was empty (trying out making a new library to see if that would work).

Go into the auto-import settings in MC on the Id and add the share to the auto-import paths.
You can hit the browse button, then navigate to filesystem->mnt highlight mynas and hit open then OK.

[Pegasus59]

Go into the auto-import settings in MC on the Id and add the share to the auto-import paths.
You can hit the browse button, then navigate to filesystem->mnt highlight mynas and hit open then OK.

Should I have done this as a (create) new library or under the NAS library (I did the latter)?

[bob]

Should I have done this as a (create) new library or under the NAS library (I did the latter)?

You should just use this as your main library.
There's no need to load the NAS library under the DLNA "Playing From" area again.

[Pegasus59]

You should just use this as your main library.
There's no need to load the NAS library under the DLNA "Playing From" area again.

All good now (and enjoying the music).
Thanks 

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

I've been using Id with the externally attached 2TB USB 3 drive. I never have issues with stereo music, however 5.1 content causes occasional dropouts, about every 2-3 minutes it seems a couple of frames of data do not make it to the amp. I wonder if this is a bandwidth issue, or a drive issue, or something else. I have prebuffering set to 20s.

Can you suggest anything else to test or change to overcome this issue? My original plan was to put a bigger drive inside the Id itself, but it was recommended to me on this forum that I used the external one instead. Should I consider plugging this drive into the Id? Thanks and regards from Ireland.

[bob]

I've been using Id with the externally attached 2TB USB 3 drive. I never have issues with stereo music, however 5.1 content causes occasional dropouts, about every 2-3 minutes it seems a couple of frames of data do not make it to the amp. I wonder if this is a bandwidth issue, or a drive issue, or something else. I have prebuffering set to 20s.

Can you suggest anything else to test or change to overcome this issue? My original plan was to put a bigger drive inside the Id itself, but it was recommended to me on this forum that I used the external one instead. Should I consider plugging this drive into the Id? Thanks and regards from Ireland.

You do have the external drive connected to the front port (that's the only USB 3 one)?

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

You do have the external drive connected to the front port (that's the only USB 3 one)?

Yes, I do use the front SS USB 3 port.

I just thought of a test, I will copy the problematic music to the internal drive, reconfigure the library to import those, and try playing again. Bob, if you've a chance to have a look at my other query on the firmware thread I would be grateful, too, as I have some time this week to try things out. Otherwise I will postpone till later in the month. Thanks.

[bob]

Yes, I do use the front SS USB 3 port.

I just thought of a test, I will copy the problematic music to the internal drive, reconfigure the library to import those, and try playing again. Bob, if you've a chance to have a look at my other query on the firmware thread I would be grateful, too, as I have some time this week to try things out. Otherwise I will postpone till later in the month. Thanks.

Ok, let me know how it goes.

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

Ok, let me know how it goes.

After I moved the Id and rebooted into GUI, I had a look at all other settings. I noticed that I had "play from memory" turned on. I unchecked that checkbox. I also configured to import /export/media. After rebooting back into text with HDMI mode and bringing back to the hifi cabinet I played a few playlists from both USB and the internal drive. What is interesting, is that most of them play without any dropouts, even from USB, meaning that the "play from memory" option may have been causing the issue. Unfortunately, I still have a couple of tracks in 5.1 that produced a very brief drop-out, but it is now rarer and harder to replicate. With the "play from memory" option it was about once per minute or two, and lasted 0.1-0.25s or longer. I will keep playing until I find a pattern of the newer, shorter drop-out, and I'll report back.

[bob]

After I moved the Id and rebooted into GUI, I had a look at all other settings. I noticed that I had "play from memory" turned on. I unchecked that checkbox. I also configured to import /export/media. After rebooting back into text with HDMI mode and bringing back to the hifi cabinet I played a few playlists from both USB and the internal drive. What is interesting, is that most of them play without any dropouts, even from USB, meaning that the "play from memory" option may have been causing the issue. Unfortunately, I still have a couple of tracks in 5.1 that produced a very brief drop-out, but it is now rarer and harder to replicate. With the "play from memory" option it was about once per minute or two, and lasted 0.1-0.25s or longer. I will keep playing until I find a pattern of the newer, shorter drop-out, and I'll report back.

Thanks, I'm testing for dropouts here as well with as close a setup as I can get.
What filetypes are you playing?
It's mostly 2 channel with some 5.1? Those are being played back as  2 channel with DSP studio JRSS?