Just found out about the new ReadyNAS product line. First question that came to mind is: is Logitech Media Server (LMS) still supported on this platform? I currently am very happy with my NVX but I was just curious about the above should I ever want to upgrade.
I would start looking for another jukebox solution as time goes by. (Sonos?)
Logitech has EOL'd the Squeezebox line of gear and laid off some LMS developers so it's just a matter of time before LMS goes. Surprised that you are even considering Netgear NAS products - your NVX is also EOL - new NAS software on the new NAS product line is NOT backwards compatible.
Here's a link to a comment from a long time (still employed I think) LMS developer answering your question about LMS & the new NAS products.
I would start looking for another jukebox solution as time goes by. (Sonos?)
Logitech has EOL'd the Squeezebox line of gear and laid off some LMS developers so it's just a matter of time before LMS goes. Surprised that you are even considering Netgear NAS products - your NVX is also EOL - new NAS software on the new NAS product line is NOT backwards compatible.
Here's a link to a comment from a long time (still employed I think) LMS developer answering your question about LMS & the new NAS products.
Thank you Jim for your answer. I'm aware of the fact that Logitech ditched the Squeezebox lineup. But that really doesn’t matter. I have 5 Squeezeboxes alive and kicking around the house and there are still plenty of SB’s around the Internet. Moreover, we’ll soon have a Squeezebox follow up due to the efforts of a few Slimdevices forum members who are developing a next gen Squeezebox. LMS will still be around like forever since it is mostly open source and downloadable from the Slimdevices wiki anyway. My NVX maybe EOL but it is still running fine. Netgear is still providing support and bug fixes for it so I don’t have a reason to panic. This is simply natural product evolution. I asked the question should I ever want to upgrade to a newer Netgear device. I don’t think it should be too difficult for Netgear to have LMS running on their newer models since the OS is still Linux. But I guess only Netgear people could tell us of LMS will ever be supported or not.
Just found out about the new ReadyNAS product line. First question that came to mind is: is Logitech Media Server (LMS) still supported on this platform? I currently am very happy with my NVX but I was just curious about the above should I ever want to upgrade.
You've got that right, there's no reason to dump Squeezebox! However, there is a thread over on the Squeezebox forums addressing this very issue. It seems the new NetGear ReadyNAS line will not work with LMS. From what I understand you need to buy the older NetGear models, or consider a move away to another NAS brand.
I'm in the same boat, I want to upgrade my NAS, I'm currently on a Duo and was ready to upgrade to the Ultra 2, but now I am having second thoughts. I'm assuming it would be easier to migrate to another NetGear, but I may have to move onto another brand.
Here's the link: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?98394-NEW-Netgear-ReadyNAS-and-Squeezebox
I'm in the same boat, I want to upgrade my NAS, I'm currently on a Duo and was ready to upgrade to the Ultra 2, but now I am having second thoughts. I'm assuming it would be easier to migrate to another NetGear, but I may have to move onto another brand.
I would stick with ReadyNAS. The ULTRA series are very nice. I helped a friend installing his Ultra 2 last week. It has the high quality built that you can expect from ReadyNAS. A good NAS will run for many years to come, even if it is a model that has been EOL’d. I have no plans to replace my NVX for as long as it does what I need. Just for reference, I also have a QNAP. I bought that because I needed a small singe bay NAS that I could take with me during travels. I also use it do backup my NVX. ReadyNAS did not have a single bay NAS and that’s the only reason why I bought the QNAP. The difference between QNAP and ReadyNAS is huge; it’s obvious that QNAP is target at home segment although there is not a huge price difference. ReadyNAS provides a lot better value for money!
Here's another request for Logitech Media Server ported to the new ReadyNAS platforms (including 516). Please make Logitech Media Server available on the new ReadyNAS platforms! Thanks, gregb
Like many I am pretty annoyed at this. On thè other hand as someone has already suggested it may be time to move on and look at other devices. Pretty difficult to match the squeezebox. I found the Olive One which has not yet been released, but seems to fit the bill pretty well. I was very impressed with it, not enough to buy one yet, but pretty close. I would be a very early adopter and things like apps may not materialise as promised, but it has the potential and is about the same price as the squeezebox was ( at least in real terms) It does not seem to be dependent on server side software either.
On thè other hand as someone has already suggested it may be time to move on and look at other devices. Pretty difficult to match the squeezebox.
I would not discard the Squeezebox just jet. I have tried Sonos in the past and it just is no match for Squeezebox. The user experience comes nowhere near it ! There are a few projects going on to build a next gen Squeezebox. One of those is based on the Wandboard. The Wandboard is more than capable of running LMS and it work great. I currently have two Wandboards running with the Community Squeeze OS on it. Works perfect! http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthrea ... eeze-OS-R3 http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthrea ... interested
With the Wandboard you can have the greatest of both worlds: Squeezebox and ReadyNAS.
I'm not giving up on my Squeezeboxes, I'm just looking to the future when I might want to upgrade my Readynas. The current system is neat - I'm not keen to have another device sitting next to each of my Squeezeboxes. I'm sure it works well.
Ok I don't understand. I've read a bit more, now I seem to understand that the wandboard would replace my squeezebox? Is this correct?
The Wandboard (with the CSOS loaded) is a possible replacement for your Squeezebox. I say possible because the Wandboard with the CSOS (Community Squeeze Operating System) loaded is actually a Squeezebox like the Touch is. It can be a Squeezebox player and it can run LMS (the full version, not the tiny version that the Touch has). So the Wandboard is completely compatible with your current Squeezeboxes that you already have. If your Touch dies you can replace it with a Wandboard. Or if you need an additional Squeezebox you can use the Wandboard too. And since the Wandboard is able to run LMS, you could use it when you upgrade your NAS to the new ReadyNAS generation.
I built a test version of the Wandboard approach and it works well so far. It's a viable solution and frees you from LMS on ReadyNAS. IMO, it's still in it's infancy, but looks like growing support and users. Community-Squeeze-OS (CSOS) for Wandboard can be used as LMS or a squeeze player. Read more here (it's a long thread): http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthrea ... eeze-OS-R3
Here's the approach: 1. Purchase Wandboard dual, 8 GB Sandisk micro SDHC card, case, WiFi antenna, and 5 VDC 10W power supply. I spent about $137 from Digi-Key and $9 for SDHC card from Amazon. 2. Download CSOS image for Wandboard (it's currently R5). Load image onto SDcard, assemble, boot, and configure CSOS via web page. The Wandboard mounts your music file system exported from your ReadyNAS via CIFS. Minimal configuration via ssh on Wandboard is necessary for early versions of CSOS. I disable squeeze player, and enable LMS. I use hard line Ethernet, so I disable WiFi and bluetooth. It's pretty easy (also search starter guide on forum (http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisp ... Linux-Unix). 3. Configure LMS via web page access to Wandboard (just like LMS on ReadyNAS products). Perform library scan.
Performance is reasonable for a 5W computer; it handles a 25K track library and multiple SB classic and SB touch players. I'm looking for a 5-year solution that doesn't require LMS on a user desktop/laptop/workstation, and this is a contender.
[...] Moreover, we’ll soon have a Squeezebox follow up due to the efforts of a few Slimdevices forum members who are developing a next gen Squeezebox. [...]
I built a test version of the Wandboard approach and it works well so far. It's a viable solution and frees you from LMS on ReadyNAS. [...] Performance is reasonable for a 5W computer; it handles a 25K track library and multiple SB classic and SB touch players. I'm looking for a 5-year solution that doesn't require LMS on a user desktop/laptop/workstation, and this is a contender.
Hi. I currently have a ReadyNAS NV+ and a Squeezebox Touch, with Logitech Media Server running on the NAS. It's much too slow. What kind of performance might I expect with the Wandboard approach? I have about 30k files, largely FLAC. To give you an idea, it takes up to 20 seconds or more for the Touch to read my Albums folder and start displaying the thumbnails.
Did you have any trouble getting the Squeezebox to recognize LMS on the Wandboard?
Another question: Do you think the Wandboard's audio performance will be better than the Squeezebox's? In other words, might it be better to eliminate the Squeezebox and fit the Wandboard with a small touchscreen?
The wandboard approach is worthy of investigation as a player replacement. That way I am not too worried if one of my players dies. They are designed to be headless and controlled with the web interface or an ios or android app. I replaced my NV+ with a 516 and am very happy with the performance. I need the capacity for things other than the LMS repository and it is a bonus to have the capability.
Thanks. What I'm thinking of doing is keeping the Squeezebox Touch but installing LMS on the Wandboard instead of the NAS. I'm hoping that will improve the very slow performance of LMS on the NV+. Do you think it's worth a try?
When they have the DAC module ready for the wandboard maybe as a controller. The quad wandboard might do well as an LMS server. The only issue might be the storage. I am not a fan of hanging terabytes of disk and external power off of little servers. I prefer having a bit of fault tolerance.
No, in fact what I mean is use the Wandboard - or a CuBox or some other tiny computer - solely to host LMS and read files from the NAS, and use the Touch's audio output via my existing DAC.
Thanks. What I'm thinking of doing is keeping the Squeezebox Touch but installing LMS on the Wandboard instead of the NAS. I'm hoping that will improve the very slow performance of LMS on the NV+. Do you think it's worth a try?
No.
If you have an NV+ v1 (Sparc-based), the Wandboard will be faster... But I can't imagine LMS running even as slowly as you describe on a v1, so you probably have a v2. And I don't think even the top-of-the-line Wandboard Quad will be faster than the NV+ v2. The Wandboard Quad has 2GB of RAM and a more advanced ARM processor than the NV+ v2, but it also clocks that processor more slowly: 1GHz vs 1.6GHz. And the SATA interface on the Wandboard is undoubtedly slower than the RAID interface on the NV+.
But even if the Wandboard were twice as fast as the NV+, LMS with your large music library would still be annoyingly slow on it. For decent performance, you'll need an x86-based server. In my experience, LMS runs very well on a Pro 6 with an upgraded Core2 Duo Pentium CPU and 8GB of RAM, and it runs ok on an Ultra 2 Plus with the stock Atom D525 CPU and 2GB of RAM. It will undoubtedly run well on any of the new x86-based ReadyNAS devices (like the 516), too.
And if you don't want to replace your NAS, almost any PC built in the last decade will run LMS perfectly well, too. For less than the cost of the Wandboard, you can get on Craigslist and buy an old desktop that'll run circles around it.
Thanks for the reply. I'm beginning to think that the problem lies with LMS itself rather than with the processing power of the NAS or of a low-power board. What if sell the Squeezebox Touch (they're fetching high prices right now) and get a Wandboard or a CuBox or a Beaglebone and a touchscreen to go with it, and use it as a dedicated audio player running Ubuntu or Jelly Bean. Surely it'll be able to pop up a menu and let me select a song in less than 15 seconds?
