The B&O app is just presenting what your DLNA Server provides. I have a Synology NAS and I cannot search either.

If indexing is bad its probably how your DLNA server is treating the content.

This is how it looks in my app:

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Yes indeed, well the B&O app represents DLNA music poorly, and in only the most basic way. I find it barely useable.

While B&O integrate audio video pretty well using their own products only (BVs, Beolabs, standalone Beosound speakers etc), if one choses to stay in house, for music listening if you are a Tidal / Qobuz and DLNA user, you are very compromised.  

I have switched the 18s/19 connected to my Beovision to a pair of 50s (awaiting installation).

At the same time I have subscribed to Roon to integrate my Tidal and DLNA music. Yes there are setup costs - a subscption and a Roon server, but the Nucleus server can be stashed away anywhere and is plug and play.

To bring it back to your Harmony room setup and draw parallels - my 50s will be shared with my Beovision (connected via Powerlink) and a Linn streamer (connected via RCA). If you aren't inclined to do the Roon thing, a Linn streamer alone (RCA to 50s) will achieve the same broad outcome.

While this new setup of mine is not in place yet, I'm pretty confident it should allow sharing the 50s between video (Beovision) and music (Linn/Roon).

At the end of the day, B&O produce some beautiful looking and sounding speakers, but for listening to music there are some inflexibilities. Beolabs require a Beovison or Core which bring them in line (functional source wise) with Beosound standalone speaker systems.  The listening scenarios these embrace are TuneIn radio (fine), Deezer (fine) and streaming via AP2/CC anything else. While that is ok I guess with their mid priced speakers, it leaves those wanting to use Tidal/Qobuzz and DLNA having to integrate 3rd party audio components.

They will not produce an app like Naim, Linn and others do with a wider embrace. It's a shortcoming, but dont expect it to be addressed.

However, higher end speakers like the 50s offer flexibility of inputs, and the ability to share 50s (for ex) between a Beovision and a 3rd party streamer does make them still a good choice.  Volume control will have its quirks - (1) the Linn / Roon app will be the default way (using a Beoremote requires an IR eye) and (2) if you start music on the streamer, and the Harmony was showing a video source, you'll need to mute speakers other than the 50s.

But these seem relatively minor quirks, and big picture you'll have a setup that works well for video and audio. Not using the B&O app for audio is no loss really.

The 50s allow you to chose the input priority if multiple inputs are used...I dont believe the 18s offer the same flexibility, in that the prioritisation is baked in.

 

 

SoundsGood wrote:

Hello,

I have some strange setup at home. I've been a B&O fan for decades but at some point I decided to upgrade my audio system. So I have two systems that I could combine with each other. In the audio area I have a Linn Klimax system for my vinyl collection (LP 12, 350 Exakt). In our living room we have a Harmony with Lab18 and Lab 20. A Linn Streamer is also connected to the Harmony, so that I can easily access a Melco Audio Server with a MinimServer music database from both rooms.

But now comes the question...

For convenience, I would like to use only the Beo App in the living room.

When I access my music database from the Beo app, I get all the albums, artists, titles etc. displayed, but I can't search! I always get a message that the DNLA server is not searchable. Is this because of the Melco implementation or B&O? Does anyone have a solution?

Also the representation is terrible!!! Album have no cover, there is no correct index, etc ... Is it because of my music database or the B&O app? With Linn it all works ... I can even save my playlists in the cloud. Searching is possible over all titles, artists, album, general, etc ...

My digital music database is not really big (about 1500 albums).

Where I am at the moment ... another thread should actually be created. I have Tidal and Qobuz as streaming services, both with 192/24 streaming support ... why are they not supported by B&O? Most audio providers have at least 2 services to choose from.

Because of all these things I am still hesitating about purchasing a Lab50.

But my real question was about the search function and the DNLA server.

Greetings from Hamburg,

Thomas

 

SG,

I can confirm that both my Melco N1ZH2 and an Auralic Aries G2 can pull files via DNLA into the BeoApp but they cannot be searched. 

There is a limited search functionality with the DNLA Files in say the BV Eclipse (but this is I think part of the LG firmware). Harmony will be the same?

 

I have a pair of BL90s, which either source from a BV Eclipse (via Powerlink) or an Auralic G2 setup (Streamer/DAC/Clock) via XLR.

Using the Beovision and the Powerlink, the tracks are pulled from the Melco and files/folder/Album Art are listed on the TV display.  

 

For discerning entertainment, I switch over to the Auralic system and an Essence remote and IR sensor control the BL90s volume. The file selection is via the Auralic DS server App.

I find this works very well - volume via the Essence and track selection (Auralic DAC output =100 fixed to 4.8v). However, as per some of my previous posts, I wish B&O would support its flagship products better with either a streamer, music server or just a plain competent remote than can tie 3rd party volume with the B&O ecosystem or be sufficient good enough as a component in that Ecosystem.

 

With respect to searching on the BeoApp (which the Melco also interacts with a Beoplay A6 and a couple of Mk2 Essences with BL3 loudspeakers), I find that the App is good enough but correct labeling helps immensely. I file all my albums Folders with the following nomclementure:-

Music (Directory)

Artist Name (Folder Lv1)

Artist Name - Album Name (Folder Lv2)

Tracks (inside Folder Lv2)

I embed album art into each file using a tag editor rather than allow the other equipment to guess what they think it should be. 

 

On 300-odd Artists, 900 Albums, this is totally workable and good enough for me.

 

Finally, looking at your setup, I would not overly worry about an integrated remote/App setup too much. Annoying it is not just one unit, but the Apps from Auralic, Linn etc are very good (Melco not so) and using your BR1/Essence to control B&O volume while concentrating on selecting music is not as inconvenient as you may think and the boost you will get from playing your Linn system via the BL50s directly will more than make up for that inconvenience. 

 

The final part of your issue (an mine) is the lack of support for Qobus and Tidal withing the B&O ecosystem. Again, if it is possible (Tidal maybe), then if the TVs do support, you can only go via the Powerlink route to the loudspeaker. 3rd party hardware/software prevails here again and I wish B&O would get on the case rather than keep with mediocre Spotify and Deezer.

B&O are Ok for general listening with their current ecosystem of powerlink and deezer etc.. but once you bring the BL90/50 into the mix, they need a serious uplift everywhere (Streaming music systems, cabling, Tidal/Qobus compatibility etc..) to get the best out of them. BS Core and Moment are not serious answers.

10

 

 

 

 

 

Agreed entirely.

Mr10Percent has explained more eloquently what I wrote above.

And in the sane way as he, I'd connect my streamer to the speakers (50s in my case) direct, as he has with his 90s. And then both the Harmony and streamer can share the speakers.

 

Personally I agree, the way DLNA material is accessed via the B&O app is very poor. I use the BLI app where you can perform a search of your DLNA content but given the fact that DLNA material is accessed only by the Beosound Moment you can imagine that it doesn't work the best way.

I prefer to use Roon for listening my DLNA collection I prefer owning music than renting it so I have quite a large collection. I use a NUC as the core and I use my Beosound Essences (CC) to listen to it. It is a bit annoying that you can not distribute CC around the house but to overcome this obstacle it use the Airplay service of the Essences (sound quality is not as good as the CC but I do so mainly when we have guests). Furthermore you have Tidal and Quobuz embedded.

Given that we have a new "Essence" kind remote it would be nice to have a new Essence as well...one that would be Roon-ready and the specs to exploit all the power of the high-end products.