option to map 'artist' to 'album artist' during playback

[kaled]

I know that this topic has been discussed in the past. Some UPNP renderers such as Denon Heos show the album artist field during playback. This is an issue when playing compilations as you don't get to see the artist name playing.
Denon claim they have implemneted the ID tags correctly so there is little chance of change from them.
Is there any possibility of having an option built into asset UPNP to be able configure mapping what ID tag fields are shown during playback. For example, a manual overide that maps the artist field to the album artist field for playback?

[GBrown]

So does this mean your AlbumArtist field is currently not filled in your library? Perhaps if not, the alternative would be to simply copy what your current Artist tag is to that field. This may be easier than mapping, or expecting Denon to make a change on their end.

[simbun]

Have you tried using another UPnP control point?

There have been a few threads on another UPnP Server forum of users using BubbleUPnP, with the Denon acting as a simple UPnP renderer. This way you'll get a much richer experience than by using the Denon app.
I don't know if it will allow you to send music to a stereo pair, or a group that's been set up in the Denon app, but would be keen to find out more if you get a chance to try it.

[kaled]

Album artist is filled in for my library. This is only an issue with albums that 'various artists' i.e. compilations. The Heos devices for some reason default to showing the album artist field when playing back. Other UPNP servers such as Synology Audio Station, or PLEX correctly show the artist, rather than album artist on playback. I'm not saying the mapping of these servers is correct, the Heos implementation could be wrong with Asset UPNP.

So are you suggesting using BubbleUPNP as my server, or controller? Either way this isn't an option. The whole point of Asset UPNP is the rich features available and flexibility in browsing my libraries. The Heos is absolutely fine and required for grouping multiple HEOS devices, which I have quite a few, including several with their own displays.

[simbun]

Album artist is filled in for my library. This is only an issue with albums that 'various artists' i.e. compilations.

Are you saying that if a track on a regular album (albumartist is not 'Various Artists') has a track artist that differs to the album artist, then the track artist is displayed correctly, or just that it's not as much of a problem, as it's not just 'Various Artists'?

The Heos devices for some reason default to showing the album artist field when playing back. Other UPNP servers such as Synology Audio Station, or PLEX correctly show the artist, rather than album artist on playback. I'm not saying the mapping of these servers is correct, the Heos implementation could be wrong with Asset UPNP.

I'm assuming then that the 'Now Playing' screen on the app and the screen on your hardware devices both show the same thing, the albumartist?
It's curious that it works for other servers but not for Asset; it would be interesting to see exactly what was sent to the HEOS app from those servers, as it could be that they didn't send the albumartist tag along with the track details and so the app/device defaulted to artist, or it doesn't understand a particular UPnP object type in use, or something along those lines. I wouldn't have thought they were tailoring their response because they know they're talking to a Denon product, well Plex maybe, but not Synology.

So are you suggesting using BubbleUPNP as my server, or controller? Either way this isn't an option. The whole point of Asset UPNP is the rich features available and flexibility in browsing my libraries. The Heos is absolutely fine and required for grouping multiple HEOS devices, which I have quite a few, including several with their own displays.

I was suggesting to use an alternative UPnP control point, not a different server, realising this would have meant still using the HEOS app for defining groups. From what I've read the HEOS app isn't great (currently a score of 2.4 on Google Play), and I didn't think it surfaced the rich browsing experience that Asset offers, are you saying it does?

I've been looking to purchase some wireless speakers for around the home but local metadata support is generally awful. If I could access the full UPnP browsing experience of the server from the HEOS app, or play to groups/stereo pairs as defined by the HEOS app using a standard UPnP control point then I'd be very interested.

If you have a chance you should install another UPnP control point just to make sure your Asset configuration is correct (that you see track artist when playing a song) and that it is definitely the HEOS system that's causing the problem. The next step would be to see if you can capture the DIDL/information that's being sent to the HEOS app from the various servers - unless someone else has already investigated this.

[simbun]

I don't know if you've already given up but I've just discovered that you can tailor the servers response to the client. In BubbleUPnP this change adds the track artist to the track title for Various Artist albums, I have no idea what it'll do in HEOS but it might be worth a go.

If you go to:

Asset UPnP Configuration > Edit Advanced Settings > General Settings > Settings Override (Control Point Specific) : Edit Override Values

You should see your control point on the right pane. On the bottom of the left pane, type '=' followed by the name of your control point (I couldn't seem to copy it which wasn't particularly helpful, but you don't have to type the whole thing in just the start of it). Below this type '[NoAssetAlbumArtist]'. Mine looked like:

=Android/12 UPnP/1.0 BubbleUPnP/3.6.3
[NoAssetAlbumArtist]

Even if I just typed '=Andro' it matched my controller, but you don't want to put so little in that it matches everything else.

Click OK, and back in the General Settings section, check that '[artist] - [title] for Various Artist album tracks' is checked, and then click OK and let it restart...and see what it looks like.

[kaled]

Thanks the comprehensive discussion. See below

Are you saying that if a track on a regular album (albumartist is not 'Various Artists') has a track artist that differs to the album artist, then the track artist is displayed correctly, or just that it's not as much of a problem, as it's not just 'Various Artists'?
OK, this is exactly what happens.
ID tag embedded into FLAC file is for two examples
[album artist] [artist] [track] HEOS display [artist] [track]
artist A artist A track 1 artist A track 1
Various Artists artist A track 1 Various Artists track 1



I'm assuming then that the 'Now Playing' screen on the app and the screen on your hardware devices both show the same thing, the albumartist?
It's curious that it works for other servers but not for Asset; it would be interesting to see exactly what was sent to the HEOS app from those servers, as it could be that they didn't send the albumartist tag along with the track details and so the app/device defaulted to artist, or it doesn't understand a particular UPnP object type in use, or something along those lines. I wouldn't have thought they were tailoring their response because they know they're talking to a Denon product, well Plex maybe, but not Synology.
yes, app and hardware screen show the same information as you describe.
Completely agree, I don't think there is any tailoring.


I was suggesting to use an alternative UPnP control point, not a different server, realising this would have meant still using the HEOS app for defining groups. From what I've read the HEOS app isn't great (currently a score of 2.4 on Google Play), and I didn't think it surfaced the rich browsing experience that Asset offers, are you saying it does?

I use the app all the time and is generally robust and it provides the rich browsing experience of asset UPNP in terms of the library navigation structure. Works perfectly well for me.

I've been looking to purchase some wireless speakers for around the home but local metadata support is generally awful. If I could access the full UPnP browsing experience of the server from the HEOS app, or play to groups/stereo pairs as defined by the HEOS app using a standard UPnP control point then I'd be very interested.

I have approximately 10 Heos devices throughout the home (they do more than speakers - AVRs, HiFi streamer, sound bars etc) and regularly group them, play different sources in different rooms etc. All works perfectly well.

If you have a chance you should install another UPnP control point just to make sure your Asset configuration is correct (that you see track artist when playing a song) and that it is definitely the HEOS system that's causing the problem. The next step would be to see if you can capture the DIDL/information that's being sent to the HEOS app from the various servers - unless someone else has already investigated this.

OK, so now I know what you mean by control point. So I've used USB Audio Pro (android app) and that correctly shows artist for albums that are compliations i.e. with albumartist set to various artists.

[kaled]

Apologies for the poor formating repeated the first part of my response

ID tag embedded into FLAC file is for two examples
[album artist]------[artist]-------[track]-----------HEOS display-------[artist]--------[track]
artist A------------artist A--------track 1------------------------------artist A--------track 1
Various Artists-----artist A--------track 1------------------------------Various Artists-track 1

[simbun]

I should be getting hold of a Home 150 tomorrow so I can check out its UPnP support (UPnP/DLNA isn't mentioned on any of the specification).
Whilst my primary server isn't Asset I'll see how it behaves with AssetUPnP too.

[kaled]

I should be getting hold of a Home 150 tomorrow so I can check out its UPnP support (UPnP/DLNA isn't mentioned on any of the specification).
Whilst my primary server isn't Asset I'll see how it behaves with AssetUPnP too.

How did you get on?

[simbun]

How did you get on?

In short, I got Various Artists albums displaying correctly using MinimServer (it's the one I know best) with a configuration change that altered MinimServer's response to the control point from:

<upnp:artist role="AlbumArtist">Various Artists</upnp:artist><upnp:artist>Phil Collins</upnp:artist><dc:creator>Phil Collins</dc:creator>

to

<upnp:artist>Phil Collins</upnp:artist><dc:creator>Phil Collins</dc:creator>

but that still didn't show track artists for any non-Various Artists albums (where track artist wasn't album artist or there was more than one).
In theory with the authors help I may have been able to address that too, but the app is so restricted to be of any use that I didn't spend any more time on it.

Maybe the above will help to identify the required change for AssetUPnP?