Hi! Some answers/comments

+++ The Moment caches and allows DLNA search. This should make DLNA much more useful. The B&O app does not allow search and does not locally cache, which makes it slow and cumbersome

Search is really the top feature, specially when you have Deezer activated too. A shame that the app does not leverage the Moment search engine when controlling the Moment.

Note: I’ve not been able to leverage the PLEX DLNA server as songs over 44,1kHz cannot be inserted in my B&O products, Moment included, when using the B&O app as the DLNA controller, so I guess the same would happen when using the JukeBok to do the same, to be confirmed.

+++ The Mood wheel also seems nice and I could have all my DLNA songs on the mood wheel

MoodWheel is a great feature too, but you’ll never have ALL your DLNA songs available through the MoodWheel, only a subset and I don’t know what limits the number. What I definitively know is that when I launch songs through the inner ring, so amongst my DLNA songs as well as my Deezer favorite songs, after a while, songs not belonging to any of my collections are played while I have >45k DLNA songs and a lot in Deezer too. I cannot believe that the MoodWheel is running out of local songs knowing the diversity of my songs.

+++ Support of M3U playlists (maybe the app can this, too?)

It supports the playlists that your DLNA server exposes and does not have its own playlist management.

+++ Full native DLNA integration. I.e., I don't need to go through menus, but the artists show nicely in the main screen without the need to go through complex DLNA menus

“Full native DLNA integration” is a dream 🙂, but yes it groups songs behind artists tiles assuming your DLNA metadata are present, clean an accurate. Arists’ image management is far from being perfect, reason why they introduced customer self management of artists’ images. As a Glider or PLEX user, you’ll be disappointed by the poor options the Moment offers to order albums .... it has none ! And even the default sorting pretending to be by date is wrong.

--- No longer being updated? Still bugs and potential issues with future B&O products

Agreed

--- Low performance / less compelling form factor compared to ipad (it still looks like a cheap android within a beautiful case

Jukebox Performance is sufficient for the task it has to perform, honestly, and it now gives a legacy look and feel that is perfect for collectors’ addicts

--- Large, chunky charging station (aka as "heart”

The SoundHeart is .... the heart. The tablet (Jukebox) is useless without the heart. You have to see It as the perfect app to drive your Moment, and without the heart charging it, the tablet dies very quick!

Questions:

* Possible to use the Moment completely without the "heart"?

See above

* Any recommendations on wall brackets for the Moment (just the display, not the "heart")

See above

* If I had to keep the "heart", does it have a line-out that I can play via NL to non-B&O devices?

It has PL an WPL out, that’s it.

* How "fast" is the GUI assuming a massive DLNA library (> 100k songs)

GUI is not the CPU dog here but the heart is.

It can take up to 2 days to finish processing a 45k DLNA collection, which includes collecting, indexing, grouping, looking for images, looking for mood and building the xml files, stored in heart, and leveraged by the tablet to drive the music playing.

The Moment is reactive to any DLNA / Deezer (parking TuneIn here) collection change so you need to activate the Moment Expert mode to control yourself the refresh of the Moment database otherwise it may spend its time processing changes and you should expect strange behavior with large collections like yours such as no more DLNA songs available through the tablet .....

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Conclusion: I like my Moment, initially a perfect good companion of my BeoLab, now working side by side with my Core and other B&O products. It took time to get use to its immaturity, its issues, its imperfections and I know nothing will change now, but I’m still fan of its unique features and I has his place in my music ecosystem.

I have a dream: PLEX app running into the Moment!

Just wrote a very long answer through Beoworld app, not sure where the post went ...

steve1977 wrote:

* Possible to use the Moment completely without the "heart"?

Not possible. It need the ”heart” for charging and the “heart” have all communication with eg NAS and internet.

steve1977 wrote:

* If I had to keep the "heart", does it have a line-out that I can play via NL to non-B&O devices?

No

Hi Steve - few comments/answers:

I am currently using Plex and Glider to play music across several B&O speakers using Airplay-2; sometimes also via the B&O app.

FYI: The Moment does not support Airplay, nor Chromecast

I am thinking to buy a Beosound Moment basically as replacement for the B&O IOS app. I see the following pros and cons:

You cannot see the Moment as a replacement for the App. The Moment heart (SoundHeart - SH) is the NL processing/streaming unit and the tablet (JukeBox - JB) is the Moment controller and nothing more. The SH is the one collecting DLNA songs metadata from your DLNA server, which means that you must have a very well curated collection to avoid surprises, it organizes the songs, collects their mood and the artists images from third party internet services - when they are available -  and builds its database for the JB to "play" with. What the JB sees is what the SH has processed.

+++ The Moment caches and allows DLNA search. This should make DLNA much more useful. The B&O app does not allow search and does not locally cache, which makes it slow and cumbersome

The Moment DLNA/Deezer search is one of the best features.

+++ The Mood wheel also seems nice and I could have all my DLNA songs on the mood wheel

Don't expect ALL your DLNA songs being accessible through the MoodWheel (MW). I don't know the exact logic behind the MW process, but what I definitively know is that when playing from the inner ring, i.e. your collection (DLNA + Deezer), after some playing time, songs are no longer coming from your collection but from B&O selected Deezer songs ...... with >45k tracks in my DLNA collection, I doubt that the Moment was not able to find more songs corresponding the the Mood selected.

That said, it does the job for 3 to 4 hours, Moods are usually well managed, and it is always great to listen to songs you'll don't think to listen too when you have a large collection.

+++ Support of M3U playlists (maybe the app can this, too?)

The Moment will only display playlist exposed by your DLNA server or Deezer, it does not manage playlists itself.

+++ Full native DLNA integration. I.e., I don't need to go through menus, but the artists show nicely in the main screen without the need to go through complex DLNA menus

With some limitations, e.g. album sorting is crap, artists images if far from being perfect. As Plex/Glider user, you may be quickly disappointed by the song selection options and the UI.

--- No longer being updated? Still bugs and potential issues with future B&O products

Correct

--- Low performance / less compelling form factor compared to ipad (it still looks like a cheap android within a beautiful case

JB has enough performance for what it has to do, i.e. control the SH

--- Large, chunky charging station (aka as "heart")

 But required as it is the heart of the system and the only way to charge the JB

Questions:

* Possible to use the Moment completely without the "heart"?

No, see above

* Any recommendations on wall brackets for the Moment (just the display, not the "heart")

Not applicable

* If I had to keep the "heart", does it have a line-out that I can play via NL to non-B&O devices?

The only output are PL and WPL.

* How "fast" is the GUI assuming a massive DLNA library (> 100k songs)

As stated above, the JB is not the processing bit, the SH is. For a collection like yours, count at least 3 days to complete (fetching metadata, moods, artist images, organizes and store).

They are many other things to know to properly adopt the beast, including patience, but at the end of the day it is a really nice kit unfortunately stuck while immature. I like mine.

Thanks for your long and thoughtful reply. Very helpful.

My library is perfectly organized, so i’m sure the moment can deal with it.

I don’t mind not having airplay/googlecast.

There seems to be one point that seems to be missing and would be really important for me. I cannot control other NL devices or b&o multi-room setup? So, i’d still need to use the b&o app (i.e., two devices to control my music experience). so, glider/plex may still be superior?

steve1977 wrote:

There seems to be one point that seems to be missing and would be really important for me. I cannot control other NL devices or b&o multi-room setup? So, i’d still need to use the b&o app (i.e., two devices to control my music experience). so, glider/plex may still be superior?

Correct, from the JB you can only join other products, full point. The App is still required for other products management such as product configuration.

FYI: I was not able to leverage the Plex DLNA service for songs higher than 44,1 kHz with any of by B&O products, including the Moment.
I use Twonky with the Moment as it also provides photo management that I leverage for my own artists images that are exposed by the JB.
When I want to use the PLEX instead (on computer or mobile devices), I leverage the Chromecast feature to stream from PLEX to my all B&O products but the Moment.

 

Interesting post.

I remember going to the launch/training on this.

At the time it seemed amazing, totally B&O (although I have never really used the mood adjustments on any device). It really looked to be an amazing piece of kit.

Never owned/sold one though.

It does not seem to get much love/support?

For the high price tag I wonder what B&O’s original concept and idea was for this device and did they anticipate just how dropped it is now?

Can’t help wondering why they do not put the same energy into the app and utilise the iPad etc.

Anyone got more input/info?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Can i turn off deezer and run the wheel solely on dlna?

Not overly interested in google cast as i cannot join speakers, but am limited to speaker groups.