Who has Nuvo Music Port?

[zavodny]

Thanks MavRic
Goals - reliable, easy to access music from any of the zones by keypad, PC or remote. I understand the remote limitations which are kind of a drag, but I think the keypads will get the most use for selection and the remote would be more a matter of volume adjustment. I do have Windows Media Player playing FLAC and installed the music port software and it seemed to have no issue - wonder how it will go w/ full system set up and how the keypads will handle the meta.

When you scroll on the keypads is it true that it scrolls item by item? There is no way to skip ahead by letter (Like on the Soundbridge you can scan forward by first letter then drive down from there). I have a massive collection and scrolling through song by song.. or even artist by artist will be very cumbersome. Obviously not an issue if I am using the Media Control Server Software on a PC, but issue on the keypads.

Again - thank you very much!

Zavodny:

I think it depends on what your goals are...

I really like being able to scroll through the songs on the keypads....it is fairly smooth. If you don't care about the keypad control then maybe there is some other choices out there...but Music Port is a descent solution that works without too mcuh tinkering (at least my setup was smooth, but royalj's wasnt...).

I don't know about FLAC..I think i mentioned in another thread...if Windows Media Player can play it thats a good start, but i dont think it's a full gurantee that it will work...mainly getting the metadata into the MP woudl be the trouble part..but who knows..it may work..

Overall i like the solution..but think the GUI can use some more work and royalj and I have been trying to figure out how to get some control over the MP without the keypads...

Maybe NuvoPete or Autonomic can chime in... can an external automation program (we're primarilly interested in CQC here) send commands to the MP/MCS to go the next song, pause, etc. It's obviously possible since they have their flash GUI do it..but is there a documented protocol so we can have somebody write a CQC driver for it? At the moment i have good control through CQC over my T2FXG tuner (very good control actually) and the E6G itself, but none over the MP sources.

 

[royalj7]

Zavodny,

I'll give a quick rundown on the highlights of my install. I was going to put this in my Showcase thread (the one I mean to start any day now) but since this is a linked thread that Dan is collecting I'll cover it here.

The initial install was alot more aggravating and PITA than it should have been. The majority of my problems could have been avoided by better documentation and the not having incorrect information posted (Nuvo still has Windows Home Server as a supported OS, even though Autonomic has said it's not). The support you can expect from Nuvo in regards to the Music Port is minimal, as most anything of any complexity is handed off to Autonomic. I almost returned my system because I was not getting much help with some show stopping problems. I shudder to think of getting support between the two of them if the problem can not be tied down to a hardware or software problem immediately. I had a pretty bad experience with Autonomic's tech support at first, but since then they have seemed responsive and on top of their game. It took a week and a half, but they fixed the duplicate song problem I was seeing with my playlists, which made me happy. Also, see my previous comments about Pandora and not making decisions based on planned features.

With all that said, Nuvo MP is the lest expensive option I know of to have metadata at the keypad location. As with MavRic, that was a very important point for me. If you are not interested in keypads, there are better solutions. I can not say enough good things about the EG6 system itself. The amp and keypads look great, good sound (though I'm not an audiophile), and fairly easy to hookup. I don't think the Allport is a good solution, or if they do use the Allport there should be a rack mounting option, but overall the base system is great. Really, the keypads are the bee's knees.

Another issue is the lack of support with the automation system I'm going with (CQC). I foolishly saw there was a driver for the EG6 so just assumed it also could handle the Music Port, not so. So that was a bummer, as being able to control the Nuvo with a touchscreen or mobile client would be pretty awesome. Hopefully someone in the CQC community can help with this.

The scrolling of songs works well and I have no problems there. My music collection is approximately 12 of VBR MP3's, so I don't know about FLAC support. I use WMP to organize my music, which works pretty well.

So that's my feelings. Positive and negative. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

 

[royalj7]

When you scroll on the keypads is it true that it scrolls item by item? There is no way to skip ahead by letter (Like on the Soundbridge you can scan forward by first letter then drive down from there). I have a massive collection and scrolling through song by song.. or even artist by artist will be very cumbersome. Obviously not an issue if I am using the Media Control Server Software on a PC, but issue on the keypads.

It is a true scroll item by item. It starts slow then progressively picks up speed, at it's fastest it goes through my artist list in about 15 seconds. The other control you have is to skip to the end or beginning of the catagory. So all the way to Z or back to A (or whatever is first). So if I'm looking for an artist who starts with "S", I'll skip to the end then scroll backwards.

--Jamie

 

[felixrosbergen]

I somewhat agree with the Allport not being ideal. But i put a 2 gang LV ring on the board where my ELK and other things are mounted and it's worked out quite well...

Funny thing is that the Allport interconnects at the NuvoNet cables, but if you have the E6G, Tuners and MP sitting on top of each other in a rack and the allport on/in the wall you end up running 4 cables from the same stack of components to the allport. Woudl be nice if you could daisy chain nuvo devices (e.g. 'in' and an ' out' port on each device with like 6" patch cables). In the end i woudl be the difference between bringing 6 speaker wires and 6 keypads (12 cables total) from the wall to the rack OR have all that on the wall and have the big fat allport cable + 1 patch cable per device going to the wall...

The combination of daisy chaining the devices and keeping the speakers/keypads on the wall woudl be nice.

 

[royalj7]

I made the Allport work also, just had a fabricate a custom bracket for it to fit in. But I'd like some off the shelf solution for rackmounting.

--Jamie

 

[broconne]

I noticed earlier in the thread that NuVo said they would add Pandora support sometime in the future. However, it looks like the autonomic software supports XM streaming. Will that be supported by the NuVo software update as well?

That would be a killer feature for me.

 

[forgets]

I noticed earlier in the thread that NuVo said they would add Pandora support sometime in the future. However, it looks like the autonomic software supports XM streaming. Will that be supported by the NuVo software update as well?

That would be a killer feature for me.

i would hope they add it as well (for some reason, i think i remember it being there already, but then again i've been using autonomics MCS most of the time lately..)

Which brings me to my current dillemma, anybody else having problems installing the software? I recently went back to windows xp x64 since the trial for windows 7 RC is going to be up soon, and now i've found that neither autonomics MCS nor nuvo's music port software will install.. To be a little more specific, the software says it installs, then asks for a restart at the end of the install, but after restarting, all the files are gone.. ( there's no /autonomic folder in program files) .. it's as if it never installed. I've gone through the install process a couple of times, each one saying it was successful then asking for a restart (and before i restart i can confirm there is a /autonomic folder in program files with the proper program files in them) but alas, on restart they're gone.. anybody had this happen? what gives?

I've since tried switching back to windows 7 x64 and even x86, but keep getting the same results.. whereas it once worked on both of those o/s'es. sometimes upon restart i'll get an error that states there was a problem with autonomic's software and it didn't install correctly and it asks to send a report to microsoft about it.

I'm beginning to think this is something software based with whatever it's downloading from nuvo or autonomic since all my other programs install fine.. the only other theories i have were that the redistributable's weren't installing correctly, so i've tried uninstalling / reinstalling, and also tried installing them from Microsoft's download page, both the 2005 and 2008 versions of Visual C++ redistributable.. no luck.

I figured i'd ask here since autonomic reads up on this thread every now and then.. anything else i can try to make it work..? I also tried installing from the cd supplied with the music port (an older version) but that was a no go.. and on my last try, the server from nuvoaudio.com (where it downloads from nuvo started giving me a 500 internal server error and the installer said it was unable to contact the host. (sorry if i crashed your server folks at nuvo, didn't mean to!) .. is there any way i can download the files directly that the installer needs (so i don't have to keep taxing nuvo's or autonomic's servers?) anywho, i'm open to suggestions from anyone, thanks!

 

[royalj7]

I would try to contact Autonomic tech support directly. Anything involving the software and windows Nuvo isn't going to be much help on. Quite odd. Do you thinking the trial MCS has anything to do with it? Were you back using the Nuvo MP software before switching to XP?

 

[Neurorad]

Perhaps, forgets, that the software has a limited number of installs. I'd contact ACS.

 

[felixrosbergen]

A bit OT, but i though if you activated Windows 7 RC that it would be good for a year or so..i just put it on one of my machines actually...

 

[forgets]

A bit OT, but i though if you activated Windows 7 RC that it would be good for a year or so..i just put it on one of my machines actually...

You're right, i read somewhere else August 20, 2009.. but it turns out that's when they're going to stop allowing people to download the RC.. the trial is good till 2010, so i jumped the gun there.. i think i'm going to re-install it soon.

Perhaps, forgets, that the software has a limited number of installs. I'd contact ACS.

I'm starting to think you're right, maybe they're recording my IP address and denying my connection.. every install of windows is a clean install, so there'd be no registry keys or anything to indicate to them how many times i've been reinstalling it other than how many times their servers are getting hit by my IP address. If they could provide a way for me to download the files needed for install myself i could just burn the new ones to cd.

I''ll email them probably on monday if i don't get this figured out, or if they don't respond.. also i was trying to switch back to the nuvo branded version of MCS, however, neither nuvo's nor autonomic's versions will install at this point.

 

[Neurorad]

What's the advantage of ACS's software, over Nuvo's, if any? Why would you switch back?

It seems that if I spend the extra money, that I can use ACS's software for streaming of Pandora and/or Rhapsody and/or internet radio, and not rely on Nuvo's FW update to accomodate - I have a suspicion that Nuvo won't support these added functions, to promote sales of the Nuvo MP Server.

I don't understand the use of a dedicated, stand-alone server. If one's music files are on the PC, what's the use of a server? I think it's the minority of people, affluent or otherwise, who keep music files on a dedicated server.

 

[forgets]

What's the advantage of ACS's software, over Nuvo's, if any? Why would you switch back?

The only advantage i see to ACS's software right now is that they've got more of the features we want available right now.. as for switching back, it's cause the trial ran out, and my nuvo key registers with their software but strips out the pandora functionality.. i still used it because the ACS brand software is newer, and doesn't crash at all .. the nuvo branded one would crash 1 out of 3 times trying to load my library (it's large which seems to be the problem).. the ACS version is newer, which means that problem has already been fixed.. just have to wait for the nuvo version to catch up. The advantage for the nuvo version is frankly it's paid for.. i'm sure software was part of the cost of the Music port.. and i don't really want to pay out another who knows how much for the ACS version when nuvo's will have the same functionality, just have to wait for it.

It seems that if I spend the extra money, that I can use ACS's software for streaming of Pandora and/or Rhapsody and/or internet radio, and not rely on Nuvo's FW update to accomodate - I have a suspicion that Nuvo won't support these added functions, to promote sales of the Nuvo MP Server.

they'll support pandora, the update is supposed to be released around the same time as their music port server. I think autonomic is till working on other internet radio services like rhapsody.. i know xm is supported at this time too per MCS. I think nuvo is going to keep up with the updates for a good while (and even then, once i've got internet radio, i can't think of anything else i'd want..) since we've all paid a nice chunk of change to nuvo for the software, and ACS is providing the updates free of charge to their customers (for all of version 2.. i know there was a nominal fee to upgrade from version 1 to 2, though) so i don't see why NuVo wouldn't do the same. I'm predicting as long as the music server gets updates to the software, the music port will as well.. however when autonomic reaches version 3 of MCS, then who knows what'll happen.. I'll decide what to do when it comes to that point, i guess.

 

[forgets]

Just in case some of you don't get the emails from NuVo, a Concerto system upgrade has been posted from ver 2.54 to 2.56, which makes it so that navigating the music port by pressing the forward or backwards buttons on the keypad scroll by page now (instead of skipping to the bottom of the library).. works really well, and i'm glad nuvo implemented it.

As for my update, I'm still having problems even installing the autonomic software.. i tried running it with a log as per the email from autonomic, but that causes the install to hang.. The autonomic version refuses to install, and i have no idea why since all the files are deleted on reboot.. however i managed to get the nuvo version to install (no idea why, it worked on the second try) so i'm just going to enjoy it for a bit, and stop mucking around with computers so much.

 

[Neurorad]

I'm curious as to where did everyone buy their Nuvo system.

I know someone recently mentioned Tony at Setnet - searched and couldn't find the post.

PM me, plz, if you don't want to post online. I don't need to know prices, just the vendors.