65,000 track workarounds -- confused

[trtlrock]

Hi all,

Sorry to start a new thread, but am in need of basic answers:

I spent last night reading every thread I could find wrt workarounds on the 65K track limit.

Frankly, most of it was over my head, technically speaking.

But here's what I gleaned...

1) there is some kind of beta-type solution where something emulates a WMP server. But apparently it doesn't work with FLAC or ALAC, which is a dealbreaker for me.

2) Spoon/dbPA had some success with Asset, but I gather this now only works with the Desktop Controller? And it might 'break' when Sonos next updates the DC, which one would think is coming soon.

Am I right so far?

I own a Netgear ReadyNAS NVX NAS, but I gather this NAS is incompatible with the dbPA solution as it's not a Windows server/WHM product?

I also own a Buffalo NAS:

http://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-Techno...dp_ob_title_ce

Would the Buff be compatible with the dbPA solution?

Any other solutions I'm missing?

Thanks, John

[henkelis]

Hi,

I think you have some of the information, but not exactly correct.

If a media server is to show up on the newer Sonos controllers (CR200 etc), it needs to be Windows Media Player compliant (actually it needs to pretend to be WMP).

To show up on the older controllers, i.e. the CR100 and the desktop controller, it can be WMP compliant or Rhapsody compliant.

Asset is Rhapsody compliant, so provides a good solution on the older controllers. As Sonos is no longer supporting Rhapsody compliant servers on the newer controllers, it's possible (likely?) that eventually Asset won't work with Sonos - that said, Spoon could amend Asset to be WMP compliant if he wants to. Asset runs on Windows, so if you want to run it on a NAS it would have to be a Windows NAS.

For WMP compliance, obviously you have WMP on Windows. There is also sonospy, a proxy server that I wrote.

Sonospy can do several things. It can act as a wrapper around other media servers, making them WMP compliant to Sonos. Sonospy will wrap Asset, and it will wrap Twonky. Both of those servers are proven, but sonospy could wrap other media servers too (for instance Coherence). Twonky runs on Linux as well as Windows, but will also run on a NAS.

The latest version of sonospy, currently in testing, also provides an internal WMP compliant server - so that it doesn't need a separate media server to proxy. It can serve any audio file type, so that you're only restricted by the types that Sonos can play (it doesn't currently do any transcoding). When using its internal server sonospy can serve multiple WMP clones at the same time, so you can see multiple servers on the Sonos controllers served from the machine that sonospy is running on. Sonospy runs on Linux, Mac and Windows, and will run on a NAS.

There is at least one other WMP compliant server out there that works with Sonos - I can't remember exactly but I think it's SimplifyMedia.

Mark.

[Majik]

Originally Posted by henkelis

There is at least one other WMP compliant server out there that works with Sonos - I can't remember exactly but I think it's SimplifyMedia.

Yes, I heard there was a version of that which worked with Sonos.

Interestingly Google has recently acquired them!

Cheers,

Keith

[trtlrock]

Originally Posted by henkelis

I think you have some of the information, but not exactly correct.

Thanks for this recap Mark, I appreciate it. I'm too busy right now to follow up, but I'll probably ask you some further questions about Sonospy in the very near future. It sounds like an intriguing solution.

Thanks again, John

[bareland]

Hi-have recently bought Sonos to discover the 65,000 limit, which sucks.
Is there a solution for a sytem playing on a Mac?

[Ubertaffy]

The system isn't really playing on a mac so there would be no difference between workarounds mentioned elsewhere except that the one workaround (using windows media player, etc) would not be available. Other ideas such as separating music into master folders would still work (for example, not indexing your christmas music the other 11 months of the year, or keeping only your favorite 65,000 tracks indexed now and switching to your other index when you're bored with the same old 3800 straight hours of music). I'm nowhere near the limit yet I still un-index some music so I don't have to scroll through it the 99.9% of the time I don't want it.

[ianmacd]

Originally Posted by Ubertaffy

The system isn't really playing on a mac so there would be no difference between workarounds mentioned elsewhere except that the one workaround (using windows media player, etc) would not be available.

Henkelis's WMP proxy, however, would still work, as it requires only Python on the host machine.

[robbijpost]

Originally Posted by henkelis

Hi,

I think you have some of the information, but not exactly correct.

If a media server is to show up on the newer Sonos controllers (CR200 etc), it needs to be Windows Media Player compliant (actually it needs to pretend to be WMP).

To show up on the older controllers, i.e. the CR100 and the desktop controller, it can be WMP compliant or Rhapsody compliant.

Asset is Rhapsody compliant, so provides a good solution on the older controllers. As Sonos is no longer supporting Rhapsody compliant servers on the newer controllers, it's possible (likely?) that eventually Asset won't work with Sonos - that said, Spoon could amend Asset to be WMP compliant if he wants to. Asset runs on Windows, so if you want to run it on a NAS it would have to be a Windows NAS.

For WMP compliance, obviously you have WMP on Windows. There is also sonospy, a proxy server that I wrote.

Sonospy can do several things. It can act as a wrapper around other media servers, making them WMP compliant to Sonos. Sonospy will wrap Asset, and it will wrap Twonky. Both of those servers are proven, but sonospy could wrap other media servers too (for instance Coherence). Twonky runs on Linux as well as Windows, but will also run on a NAS.

The latest version of sonospy, currently in testing, also provides an internal WMP compliant server - so that it doesn't need a separate media server to proxy. It can serve any audio file type, so that you're only restricted by the types that Sonos can play (it doesn't currently do any transcoding). When using its internal server sonospy can serve multiple WMP clones at the same time, so you can see multiple servers on the Sonos controllers served from the machine that sonospy is running on. Sonospy runs on Linux, Mac and Windows, and will run on a NAS.

There is at least one other WMP compliant server out there that works with Sonos - I can't remember exactly but I think it's SimplifyMedia.

Mark.

Is there a link where sonospy is downloadable and is there a manual as how to implement it on a mac on OsX 10.7
I am not so good at programming etc. but still would love to try to use it with my sonos system around +65 K
4 x s5, 1 x s3, 1 x zp 90, 1 x zp 120
I have a new imac on lion connected with a hard disk on which all my music is collected

kind thanks for your very much appreciated work on the system

Drs. Rob Bijpost, psychotherapist
Driebergen
The Netherlands
info@hotel-bijpost.nl

[JamieMc]

As a relatively recent Sonos owner this issue is probably my only ongoing frustration with the system. Amazing how often an album I wish to hear turns out to be missing from my Sonos library. The one area of performance that does not match that of my old Squeezebox-based system.
I am simply not tech savvy enough to find a work-around for this but wait for a set of simple instructions that might allow my entire library to be available through Sonos.

[henkelis]

Originally Posted by robbijpost

Is there a link where sonospy is downloadable and is there a manual as how to implement it on a mac on OsX 10.7
I am not so good at programming etc. but still would love to try to use it with my sonos system around +65 K
4 x s5, 1 x s3, 1 x zp 90, 1 x zp 120
I have a new imac on lion connected with a hard disk on which all my music is collected

Sonospy is hosted on Github. I've been resisting posting the location, as the documentation is not yet foolproof (and not specific to platform). The latest version is at:

https://github.com/henkelis/sonospy/tree/unstable

Most of the testing is on Linux, but people are running in on Mac and Windows too. There's a readme and the beginnings of a WIKI.

Please email me if you need any help getting it up and running.