Adventures in the Rooniverse...

[boomzilla]

I’ve just signed up for Roon (one year - trying it out before deciding if I’m a “lifer”).

I downloaded and installed the Roon core on my Mac Mini. I downloaded and installed Roon Remote on my iPad Mini. Through Roon Remote, I had the core index my USB HDD where my wav files reside.

Hence my first comment - The library is (technically) connected to the core - not directly to the Roon Remote program on the iPad. I should have been able to index the HDD directly from the Roon Core on the Mac Mini. But this is minor, and all’s well that ends well - the HDD is now accessible from Roon.

Which brings up my second complaint. I’ve spent LOTS of hours associating cover art with the correct files in JRiver (my previous media player). Roon lost more than half my covers and replaced many of the remaining cover graphics from (presumably) the internet with incorrect or low quality artwork. Boo Roon! So now I’ll have to spend all those hours (again) finding and associating the correct cover art. I’d expected better. Really.

So now I want to get Roon to stream to my Roon-compatible Oppo UDP-205. Found out I had to download & run “Roon Bridge.” Did it. When I finally found the right place in Roon Remote to find the Oppo, the Core recognized the Oppo and began streaming. But it would have been nice, again, since Roon is actually associating the Roon Core with the Oppo destination, if this could have been done from the Mac Mini. But it is what it is.

So now I’m getting music in my living room from the Core Mac Mini in my computer room. Everything is peachy, right? Well not exactly. About every 20 or 30 minutes, the iPad kicks me out of Roon and back to the home desktop. I restart Roon Remote, and although it picks up playback from where it was lost, the album view kicks me back to the beginning of the album list. This is a major PITA, because it’s a BIG album list, and if there’s any way to navigate around except by swiping a page of album covers at a time, I’ve not yet found it.

To be clear, when the iPad kicks me out to its home screen, audio playback STOPS until I restart Roon Remote on the iPad. Then I can resume where I was when Roon crashed. No idea what's causing this...

I also tried to get Roon to add TIDAL to my list of sources, but TIDAL keeps rejecting my password, despite the fact that it recognizes my account. I’ve changed passwords three times now, and still can’t get in to my own account. This is not a Roon problem so far as I know, but rather a TIDAL one. I’m beginning to think that I REALLY hate TIDAL…

Other small hitches:

The Roon screen on my iPad mini is stuck in landscape mode and won’t display in portrait mode.

In Roon, I often seem to get multiple copies of the same artist (Bob Seger / Bob Serger and The Silver Bullet Band / Bob Seger & Angela Merkel / Etc.).

The touch screen of the iPad mini is VERY sensitive when in Roon. I often touch something I didn’t intend to (fat-finger syndrome) and end up who knows where.

Suggestions welcomed.

[DYohn]

Sounds like a lot of learning curve and operator error stuff to me.

As to your iPad going to sleep shutting down the Roon Remote, this is not correct. Either you are inadvertently closing the remote program or perhaps your iPad needs a system upgrade or something is wrong in your installation. I run Roon Remote on two iPhones and two iPads and this behavior does not occur. As far as landscape VS portrait mode, on iPad that is correct for now.

[DYohn]

Also, FYI, there is an entire Roon community forum where you will likely get more up to date answers than from someone like me whose system works great so I may not be up on all the latest tweaks and fixes for those with different setups.

[klinemj]

Step back and take a deep breath...I'll tackle one of the items you list for now.

Regarding Roon Core "recognizing" the Oppo and streaming to it...If you go to the upper left of the screen (the 3 horizontal lines) and click it, you will see a pull down menu with "settings". In that, choose audio. You will see from this all the possible devices Roon "sees" and can output to. You can "enable" or "disable" any you like. Enable all the ones you want to have available and disable any you don't want to have available.

Once you do and then exit Roon settings, you will see on the lower right an icon and a name showing whichever audio device it is set to go to at the present time. If you click that, it will show a list of "zones". These are all the devices that you "enabled" in settings. Once you choose one on a particular remote control device, Roon will hold that until you change it. This is actually a nice feature because I use my Surface Pro 3 table to control sound at my critical listening area (where I output to my UltraRendu - which is how I named it in Roon) and in my headphone area in my loft (where I output to "R-Pi" - which is how I named it in Roon). (You can "Group" zones like in Sonos if you want, but that's a different topic...) Once you have things set up in "settings", you just go here to select which one to use if the one you want is not selected.

Hopefully, this helps you get that "Roon streamed to Oppo" issue resolved.

Mark

[Casey Leedom]

boomzilla, the Cover Art should still be there on your Hard Disk. It generally treats your stored Music Collection as Read Only for the most part. What's probably happening is that Roon is preferring its own Tags and Cover Art over your own. I know that there's a setting in Roon where you can specify that you want your Tags to take precedence. There may be a similar setting for Cover Art.

Casey

[mr]

Don't give up! This software is more than worth the trouble you will have learning to master it. I am two years in and still finding new features.

[mr]

Nov 7, 2018 15:53:43 GMT -5 Casey Leedom said:

boomzilla , the Cover Art should still be there on your Hard Disk. It generally treats your stored Music Collection as Read Only for the most part. What's probably happening is that Roon is preferring its own Tags and Cover Art over your own. I know that there's a setting in Roon where you can specify that you want your Tags to take precedence. There may be a similar setting for Cover Art.

Casey

On any album page, click the three dots in the box between "Focus On similar" and the "Heart". Click on "Edit". You will see the spot where you can find alternative covers "Identify Album". You will be offered several choices in most/many cases. Also, click the "Edit Album" area and you will find a section on "Album Artwork" for a choice of "Best", "Roon", or "File" as your source for cover art.

[chicagorspec]

Maybe if you weren't using that Mac Mini "conditioner" you wouldn't have these problems

Sorry, just couldn't resist from the earlier thread. It sounds like you've already had some good advice, and I hope you end up enjoying your experience with Roon.

[garbulky]

Update your ipad to the latest ios

[Loop 7]

If you would like me to resolve any issues remotely using screen share and voice, let me know. I think I have Roon figured out and am more than happy to help.

[boomzilla]

Thanks, gents.

I'm a member of the Roon forum too, and am getting some good stuff from there. As of now, everything (but TIDAL) is - repeat IS - working right but for the occasional crashes.

The Oppo is being used as the Roon destination (receiving data from Ethernet) and I'm using the coaxial digital output from the Oppo to feed my DAC. That way, I don't have to put up with the nasty Sabre implementation in my UDP-205. Once in digital coaxial format, I can feed any of the on-hand DACs (Emotiva Stealth DC-1, Mytek Liberty, or Arcam AVR550). Of the three, the Mytek and DC-1 are tied (different strengths, though) for "best" with the Arcam not far behind. The Oppo's built-in Sabre is a distant (VERY distant fourth).

By the bye - when the music stops, it stops in the middle of a song without my touching anything on the Roon Remote screen. Setup as follows:

[Loop 7]

I'm also in the Roon forums.

Did you open a ticket with Roon support?

This is paid software and, in my experience, the support has been excellent.

[wilburthegoose]

FWIW - my setup, which works perfectly:
Roon Core - a Windows 10 PC with a quad core i5 CPU, 32Gb of memory, and a 2Tb SSD
Roon Endpoints: The Windows 10 PC connected to my XMC-1 via USB, Oppo UDP-203 (sending audio to the XMC-1 via HDMI), Chromecast Ultra, a Raspberry Pi for my home office. There are a bunch of other audio devices connected (like iPad/iPhone/Denon via Airplay), but I don't use them.
Roon Contol = iPad, iPhone, or the Windows 10 PC.

I have about 26000 FLAC tracks and a bunch of Tidal albums in my collection.

Fortunately, I have no problems/issues. The only PITA I have is the need to wake up my PC, but I have a remote boot app on my iPhone. Once Roon is playing, the PC never goes to sleep.

Like almost everything in the world of IT, simpler > complex.

[Loop 7]

My Setup:

Roon Server: Mac Mini (2012) running 10.11.6)

Roon Endpoints:

- Mac Mini (a different one) running Roon Bridge > DAC > Preamp
- Chromecast Gen 1 > AVR
- Chromecast Gen 2 > AVR

Roon Control:

- Macbook Air (2012): running Roon - this seems to be my primary method of controlling Roon. It's lightweight and I like having the remote on the same device where I might be doing a few other things.
- Google Pixel
- Amazon Kindle tablet (completely hijacked)

[klinemj]

Nov 7, 2018 16:23:36 GMT -5 boomzilla said:

Thanks, gents.

I'm a member of the Roon forum too, and am getting some good stuff from there. As of now, everything (but TIDAL) is - repeat IS - working right but for the occasional crashes.

The Oppo is being used as the Roon destination (receiving data from Ethernet) and I'm using the coaxial digital output from the Oppo to feed my DAC. That way, I don't have to put up with the nasty Sabre implementation in my UDP-205. Once in digital coaxial format, I can feed any of the on-hand DACs (Emotiva Stealth DC-1, Mytek Liberty, or Arcam AVR550). Of the three, the Mytek and DC-1 are tied (different strengths, though) for "best" with the Arcam not far behind. The Oppo's built-in Sabre is a distant (VERY distant fourth).

By the bye - when the music stops, it stops in the middle of a song without my touching anything on the Roon Remote screen. Setup as follows:

Can you do a speedtest.net and post the results? The only time I have seen such issues with Tidal via Roon is when a) I was messing with my network and screwed it up and b) when a friend was trying to upload a massive video while we listened to Roon/Tidal. If your speedtest comes back really slow, that could be the issue.

Thanks,

Mark

[DYohn]

Nov 7, 2018 16:14:05 GMT -5 garbulky said:

Update your ipad to the latest ios

Quoted as a repeat.

[brubacca]

Cd players just aren't this difficult.

Don't get me wrong I don't even own a decent one, but everytime I'm IT to get music going I swear I'm buying one.

[Loop 7]

Roon Support

If you need to report an issue, you must add @support when making a new post.

[boomzilla]

Speed is very good. The iPad has the latest software and IOS update. The Mini has the latest OS-X update.

I think that the Roon forum may have found one problem. I may have installed Roon Server rather than Roon on the Mini. They say that if that's the case, it may be causing issues.

I'll call TIDAL tomorrow to see what's happening with my passwords.

[Loop 7]

Nov 7, 2018 18:05:50 GMT -5 boomzilla said:

Speed is very good. The iPad has the latest software and IOS update. The Mini has the latest OS-X update.

I think that the Roon forum may have found one problem. I may have installed Roon Server rather than Roon on the Mini. They say that if that's the case, it may be causing issues.

I'll call TIDAL tomorrow to see what's happening with my passwords.

Interesting about server. I've only ever run Roon Server and it's been issue free.