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QNAP NAS Media Centre options (linked to SONOS)

  • 1 March 2024
  • 6 replies
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J
Userlevel 1
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I’ve got a large music library on my PC, that I copied over to my QNAP NAS a few years ago but have never exploited or linked through to SONOS - I’ve really only used Spotify with SONOS.  .  It’s easy to manage my library on my PC (I use Mediamonkey), but never quite figured out my best options to manage it on my NAS. 

I use Plex (paid lifetime pass) on my NAS / PC / TV / Phone for my video media, and it’s great.  However it doesn’t seem so good for managing audio and I’m not convinced Plexamp is any better (despite the rave reviews).  I can’t import my playlists and Plex doesn’t recognise the ratings I’ve already added to all of my audio and that I use all the time on Mediamonkey, so my options to manage, listen to and filter music I want to listen to is limited.  

The SONOS Music Library also doesn’t recognise ratings, so can’t filter there either, so suspect playlists might be the only way I’ve got of filtering my music, meaning I’ve got to be able to better manage it on the server.  

Anyone know what my best options might be for managing music on my NAS, and then connecting through to my SONOS?  (SONOS can see the NAS - connectivity doesn’t seem to be a problem at this point!).  Would be good if there was an app or something I can use to play through SONOS as well (as I can with Spotify), but suspect that’s unlikely and the lack of options on the SONOS app make server management / filtering / playlists more important.  

Roon seems to be an option on the server, but don’t know the first thing about it!  Dunno what other QNAP options I have, but the default media server doesn’t seem to have imported ratings either :/

 

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Best answer by Stanley_4 3 March 2024, 08:51

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Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
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I’m pretty simple with my NAS hosted music and the Sonos App and a few playlists (stored on the Sonos devices, not the server) meet my needs. Mostly “when the Internet is out” and a very few ripped CDs that aren’t available streamed. Only thing I did beyond the basic rip and clean-up was to add Genre tags.

Watching things I’d suspect the Music Library and related stuff isn’t going to see a lot of additional development as few users seem to be actively using it.

J
Userlevel 1
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I tend to listen to mixes rather than albums, and Spotify just serves up the same songs repeatedly. Also want higher bit rate music / flac at home which Spotify can't serve. And finally, getting wary of online services - I like to "own" stuff rather than rent it. Hence wanting to move back to my music library.

But my main filter is on rating - I don't delete stuff so I do genuinely have 1* music I'd never ever want to listen to alone but might perhaps be part of an album, and tend to filter at 3.5* and above - which is all in the metadata.

Only nothing new seems to use the metadata any more! 😂 I can at least create auto play lists and copy them across, but only if the software I'm using accepts standard play lists! As you say, we aren't going to get any more dev on library management I fear. 

My media server appears on sonos, but the ratings don't seem to have synced. And the sonos music library doesn't have ratings and I'm not sure where to put the play lists (and I guess the play lists need to be created on the NAS so the links work - couldn't create on my PC and copy across) hence the need for half decent music server software on the NAS rather than just Plex. 

I think! But my logic might be flawed. Hence the question. 

 

 

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
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I haven’t looked at external music servers for years since the Sonos library meets my needs.

I’d wonder if there is something that would run on a small computer like a Raspberry Pi that could serve your needs.

https://gibiru.com/results.html?q=%22raspberry+pi%22+streaming+music+server

It could serve as an SMB gateway to your NAS stored music as well.

 

J
Userlevel 1
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Blimey! I think that's one big thing that's telling me that I simply do not undersrand the digital audio space! 😂

I think I just wrongly assumed this would be simple and straight forward - install a decent quality but not horribly expensive mediamonkey equivalent on my nas that would real all of the existing file metadata, manage the nas library using a nice gui on my PC as I do with plex, and stream it to my Sonos.

But there now seems to be a massive jump between consumer on streaming services and enthusiast and I'm struggling to see the middle ground. Where's the "mildly enthusiastic about something better than Spotify but totally clueless" option? 😂

 

J
Userlevel 1
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I’ll bump this again just to see if anyone has any other ideas, but I’m suspecting not, and I’ve asked in a few different places.  I’m fairly sure I’m not the only person who’s had these questions, but seems surprising that there don’t appear to be any easy or obvious answers 😕

J
Userlevel 1
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So coming back to this to provide my answer to my own problem.... I've decided I'm going to keep managing my music library on my PC using MediaMonkey (with a backup / copy on my NAS), and I've created a music folder on my NAS with a (currently manually exported) copy of my >4* music from MM.

I'm going to use Plex as the music server as I no longer need to worry about filtering by rating as it's all music I'll listen to, I don't have to worry about library size limitations (as I would if I tried to use the Sonos library functions) and can filter on genre if I want to be specific. The downside is that any albums might be incomplete, but if an album has songs that are <3.5*, why would I want to listen to them anyway, even in context of the album?!

Plex at least has a shuffle function which deals with the way I mostly listen to my music, integrates directly with Sonos, and I can play it remotely, play it on my PC, etc. It'll also play my hi res files without a problem.

I'll maybe look to figure out how to dynamically automate the export of my rated music playlist as I update my music library / get new music (I say that.... maybe I won't - not like doing it manually is that difficult)

But not seeing any benefit of continuing my Roon trial after it expires (though maybe I'm missing something? Got a week to find out!), and no point in trying out Minimserver or any of the other Music Server software on the NAS - might as well uninstall.

Bit of anticlimax really! :D

However having now realised what speakers support high res music, I’m now regretting previously having sent back a pair of ERA 100s I’d purchased at a great price!  I could have replaced some of my Play:1s now that I can listen to music to justify it!  

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