Gapless playback

[madship]

I know the answer must be somewhere in this forum, but the search results on the two terms were daunting. In any response, please feel free to comment on my reticence scan through all of the forum topics with those two terms.

I'm an Apple guy. All of my digital music is in what used to be iTunes, I use Apple's home sharing to stream my library to my surround system. So I can listen to it in the matrix surround programs my old Pioneer Amp provides. This year after watching Mr. @eddisonbaggins video, I bought a Sony UBP X800M2, so that I could play MLP in my surround area. Also this year after rediscovering QQ, I started ripping my DVDs and Blu-Rays. and have all of them available to play through the Sony. From what I can find the X800M2 does not support gapless playback. I didn't think this was going to be a problem, but the X800M2's gap is much bigger than iTunes was before Apple corrected the problem.

Obviously my question is how best to solve this issue.

The FLACs I created are on a Synology that the Sony can access. Unfortunately Apple refuses to recognize FLAC and the Sony doesn't recognize ALAC. Plex does not seem to have an audio only 5.1 solution for AppleTV, or maybe anything. Even if there was a non AppleTV Plex solution, I am out of HDMI inputs on the Pioneer amp. I tried creating a separate Music library with an ALAC (mov/m4v) library with a 5.1 rip, but the AppleTV was unable to find it.

Does anyone know a way to get the AppleTV device to look for different libraries? On the Mac this is as simple as creating a new library. This would be the simplest solution, transcoding the FLAC to ALAC would only take time.

or

Does anyone know of a way to get tracks on a Synology (DS418) to play gaplessly through a X800M2 or an AppleTV? Synology has an audio app for the iPhone, but not the AppleTV.

Obviously, I'd like to do this as cheaply as possible. I have an old MacBook Air, but I don't think it has enough storage. Also, using a new device would mean replacing the Pioneer. I would love to upgrade to Atmos and get a new receiver, but that means the expense of at least four more speakers.

Directing me to a specific tread or directly answering would be great.

 

[kap'n krunch]

Since VLC don´t do the trick, I use foobar yes, it´s a bare bones version in Mac BUT it plays stereo AND MCH track without gaps-

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Since VLC don´t do the trick, I use foobar yes, it´s a bare bones version in Mac BUT it plays stereo AND MCH track without gaps-

Kodi will do the same, and not just with a bare bones interface. But in either case the OP would need a PC device to run the software on. Then just use HDMI from PC to AVR. But that dosent sound like what the OP is asking about. He is looking to get gapless from his Sony player via a network connection.

Obviously, I'd like to do this as cheaply as possible. I have an old MacBook Air, but I don't think it has enough storage. Also, using a new device would mean replacing the Pioneer. I would love to upgrade to Atmos and get a new receiver, but that means the expense of at least four more speakers.

I hope I understand the situation correctly.

You don't need a lot of storage to do this on a PC. Does the MacBook Air have HDMI out? If so, just load a copy of Kodi or Foobar on it, connect it to your network, connect it to your AVR via HDMI and direct the Kodi/Foobar to where your files are. If you are an HDMI port short on the AVR, there are HDMI splitter-selector devices you can get.

 

[Sixtyten]

I think you'll need to get some software that will transcode the files on the fly. By that I mean, take the existing files but send them to your players in a format they can both decode, without the need to retain two separate libraries. I've been through this. My Cambridge NP30 doesn't support DSD or files with a resolution higher than 96 / 24. After some research I settled on Mezzmo. It took my files and transcoded those which needed to be transcoded. Except the implementation was beyond clunky, and it was soooo sllloooow. I stuck using it for a couple of months before I conceded defeat.

After another search I settled on Jriver. Now? I transcode the files (when needed) to my NP30, and leave them as they are when I pass then to my USB DAC, and similarly with DSD / FLAC / WAV to my Sony UHP-H1. I have different configuration to my Playstation 4, and another one for my TV. So different formats which aren't supported natively by the devices, but are played by the devices because they get transcoded into a compatible format, without having to physically convert the actual file.

Works grand for me, might be worth exploring as an option.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Kodi will do that transcode as well. It will take your ALAC files and transcode to PCM. I played with JRiver for a while early on. I just liked the Kodi interface much better, mostly due to the lyrics presentation, which, at the time, JRiver did not do.

 

[madship]

Kodi will do the same, and not just with a bare bones interface. But in either case the OP would need a PC device to run the software on. Then just use HDMI from PC to AVR. But that dosent sound like what the OP is asking about. He is looking to get gapless from his Sony player via a network connection.

That is part of it. Since it doesn't seem that the Sony doesn't seem to support gapless play, I'd like to do it through AppleTV.

I hope I understand the situation correctly.

You don't need a lot of storage to do this on a PC. Does the MacBook Air have HDMI out? If so, just load a copy of Kodi or Foobar on it, connect it to your network, connect it to your AVR via HDMI and direct the Kodi/Foobar to where your files are. If you are an HDMI port short on the AVR, there are HDMI splitter-selector devices you can get.

I actually found a few HDMI splitters looking for the MBA's power cord. It's a 128 MB version with only USB ports. I may look for an adaptor to try the MBA with Foobar or Kodi and see how that works

 

[madship]

I think you'll need to get some software that will transcode the files on the fly.

That’s the frustrating part. The Synolgy (NAS) has an app that does just that for video files but nothing for audio.

 

[JediJoker]

Does the Sony support playing from full-album files plus cue sheets? This works on the Oppo BDP-10(X). If I want to listen to a file-based lossless album on my home theater system, I convert the individual files to a single FLAC plus a CUE using XLD on my Mac. Opening the CUE on the Oppo brings up a tracklist from which I can select any track. Because the audio is contained in a single file, once I press play, there are no gaps in playback.

 

[jimfisheye]

Mac user here too. And one of the iTunes haters! (Not very Apple-like IMHO)
Apple was stubbornly keeping the flac codec out of iTunes in order to push ALAC. Which they never followed through with selling in their store but I digress.

I'm simple and I'm still using Songbird.
All channel formats always come out the correct channels even with mixing in playlists. Gapless as expected since 1997!

Some of the video aimed players like VLC go by chapter index which is restricted to frame boundaries. (Similar to the old CD format actually.) Thus gaps in playback. You wouldn't maybe expect this to still be a thing in the 21st century but there it is.

XLD is a useful conversion app FYI. (It might still be Mac only.)
You could batch convert your entire ALAC collection to FLAC.

I've got some ALAC files mixed in here and there and Songbird plays them just fine. Actually it's kind of funny. iTunes still wouldn't recognize multichannel surround even in its native ALAC format but other media players don't have a problem.

There's a newer lightweight media player called Vox that some people are recommending but I haven't demo'd it yet.

I don't do anything complex to connect to the audio interface or an HDMI AVR interface either. Just select it in the Sound system preference (or Audio MIDI Setup if you prefer more controls) for system output.

 

[madship]

Does the Sony support playing from full-album files plus cue sheets? This works on the Oppo BDP-10(X). If I want to listen to a file-based lossless album on my home theater system, I convert the individual files to a single FLAC plus a CUE using XLD on my Mac. Opening the CUE on the Oppo brings up a tracklist from which I can select any track. Because the audio is contained in a single file, once I press play, there are no gaps in playback.

By que sheet due you mean the m3u file? I think it does, when scrolling through my library, It's not organized by the folders I have everything in. It seems to be whatever metadata went into the m3u.

 

[madship]

Mac user here too. And one of the iTunes haters! (Not very Apple-like IMHO)
Apple was stubbornly keeping the flac codec out of iTunes in order to push ALAC. Which they never followed through with selling in their store but I digress.

I'm simple and I'm still using Songbird.
All channel formats always come out the correct channels even with mixing in playlists. Gapless as expected since 1997!

Some of the video aimed players like VLC go by chapter index which is restricted to frame boundaries. (Similar to the old CD format actually.) Thus gaps in playback. You wouldn't maybe expect this to still be a thing in the 21st century but there it is.

XLD is a useful conversion app FYI. (It might still be Mac only.)
You could batch convert your entire ALAC collection to FLAC.

I've got some ALAC files mixed in here and there and Songbird plays them just fine. Actually it's kind of funny. iTunes still wouldn't recognize multichannel surround even in its native ALAC format but other media players don't have a problem.

There's a newer lightweight media player called Vox that some people are recommending but I haven't demo'd it yet.

I don't do anything complex to connect to the audio interface or an HDMI AVR interface either. Just select it in the Sound system preference (or Audio MIDI Setup if you prefer more controls) for system output.

You're right about iTunes, definitely not Mac like, It was something Apple purchased, Soundjam, I think.

All of my files are FLAC, the SONY doesn't recognize ALAC. Unfortunately it doesn't look like Songbird is available for the Mac anymore. It looks like the company ceased operations in 2013.

iTunes, now Music, will recognize multichannel, but as you said not in ALAC. You need to change the file type to .mov or .m4v and it will play fine. I did that and set up a separate library for a test album. Unfortunately I couldn't get the AppleTV to see the new library.

 

[himey]

Cheap HDMI switch and a $30 Firestick 4K running Kodi. Setup your NAS to run a Plex Server. Put the PlexKodiConnect add-on, on Kodi. Bonus points for adding a Harmony Hub remote to control everything.

 

[madship]

Cheap HDMI switch and a $30 Firestick 4K running Kodi. Setup your NAS to run a Plex Server. Put the PlexKodiConnect add-on, on Kodi. Bonus points for adding a Harmony Hub remote to control everything.

Thinking outside of my box. Already have a Harmony Hub, I'll check this out. Thanks!

 

[himey]

Thinking outside of my box. Already have a Harmony Hub, I'll check this out. Thanks!

Just make sure the hdmi switch has ir remote. I think I paid $15 for mine. Works seamlessly with the Harmony hub activities.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Cheap HDMI switch and a $30 Firestick 4K running Kodi. Setup your NAS to run a Plex Server. Put the PlexKodiConnect add-on, on Kodi. Bonus points for adding a Harmony Hub remote to control everything.

Can you elaborate a bit on how to do this or post a link that discusses it? I'm not sure what "Setup your NAS to run a Plex Server" entails. If I have it right, the HDMI switch is to solve the OPs port shortage and could otherwise be omitted. The Firestick effectively plugs into the AVR. The Firestick runs Kodi.... the add-on allows Kodi to access the files... which come from a network connected NAS via Wi-Fi ? or wired ?? to the network connection on the AVR? or The Sony Player?. What does the transcoding? The Plex Server?

I guess I don't understand the Plex server part well enough. But if that solution works its an awsomely cost effective solution. Id like to know how to do it for the next guy who sees my setup and wants one like it for his (usually) stereo system.

 

[himey]

Can you elaborate a bit on how to do this or post a link that discusses it? I'm not sure what "Setup your NAS to run a Plex Server" entails. If I have it right, the HDMI switch is to solve the OPs port shortage and could otherwise be omitted. The Firestick effectively plugs into the AVR. The Firestick runs Kodi.... the add-on allows Kodi to access the files... which come from a network connected NAS via Wi-Fi ? or wired ?? to the network connection on the AVR? or The Sony Player?. What does the transcoding? The Plex Server?

I guess I don't understand the Plex server part well enough. But if that solution works its an awsomely cost effective solution. Id like to know how to do it for the next guy who sees my setup and wants one like it for his (usually) stereo system.

Firestick 4K eliminates the transcoding. Kodi handles nearly every format.

I run Plex on a standard mini PC but a quick search shows it can be installed on the OP's specific NAS.

Yes, the HDMI switch is because a lack of ports. My Oppo only has two and the OP mentioned he was out of them.

The Firestick doesn't handle NTFS formatted hard drives well so storage must be remotely. The Wifi on the stick works very well however, with a decent router. I go wired from server to router then wireless to Firestick.

The PlexKodiConnect add-on is the connection between Kodi and Plex server. Some people swear by smb shares but I have had better luck with the add-on, mainly because Plex is king at scraping sources for tagged information. Also, Plex feeds multiple devices because it is a server first and foremost, unlike Kodi which is a media frontend.

The stereo part is a bit funny because to get a true bit perfect solution you MUST set the speaker configuration in Kodi to 5.0 channels! Talk about counterintuitive! For multichannel, that same setting MUST be 5.1 and every file MUST be 5.1. Quad files must contain a silent center and sub channel for example.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I can run Plex on my NAS as well, a QNAP TS-451+. I might need to try this for my bedroom (stereo only). That would require the Firestick and a cheap AVR or Integrated amp or even active speakers with HDMI in. ... hmmmmmm

 

[JediJoker]

By que sheet due you mean the m3u file? I think it does, when scrolling through my library, It's not organized by the folders I have everything in. It seems to be whatever metadata went into the m3u.

No, I mean a .CUE file. Old school text format originally meant to be used for CD burning in combination with a raw binary .BIN file.

 

[madship]

No, I mean a .CUE file. Old school text format originally meant to be used for CD burning in combination with a raw binary .BIN file.

Interesting. I was completely unaware of CUE/BIn. I ripped everything into iTunes back in the day.

 

[himey]

Can you elaborate a bit on how to do this or post a link that discusses it? I'm not sure what "Setup your NAS to run a Plex Server" entails. If I have it right, the HDMI switch is to solve the OPs port shortage and could otherwise be omitted. The Firestick effectively plugs into the AVR. The Firestick runs Kodi.... the add-on allows Kodi to access the files... which come from a network connected NAS via Wi-Fi ? or wired ?? to the network connection on the AVR? or The Sony Player?. What does the transcoding? The Plex Server?

I guess I don't understand the Plex server part well enough. But if that solution works its an awsomely cost effective solution. Id like to know how to do it for the next guy who sees my setup and wants one like it for his (usually) stereo system.

The new Firestick 4K firmware broke some Kodi audio features so I can no longer recommend it sadly. I went back to using my mini PC on Windows 10 which is a much more expensive solution in comparison, but it works perfectly for Kodi. Before summer comes I may try another smart box of some sort that uses less power.