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I’ve had another look this morning and maybe it needed some time – the app now shows that PC as s source in the Music section (if you scroll down past the crappy Deezer content I never use), but it doesn’t show any albums/tracks.
I know that PC is working okay as a streaming device as I can see the device (and its content) on other devices, just not on the B&O app.
Screenshot:
I just reconnected my Essence and had a quick play. Initially I couldn’t access my QNAP server, but strangely the Essence would still play a couple of tracks from an earlier playlist.
I then deleted and re-installed the B&O app, added the QNAP server and it worked again. Various screenshots follow:
IMPORTANT EDIT: You have to press the + sign to the right of the ‘available server’ for it then to become a useable ‘HomeMedia server’ in the app.
In the above examples the music files on my QNAP NAS are stored in FLAC format. A quick google search for supported formats gives the following:
Supported audio formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, AIFF Standard sample rates up to 192 kHz, stereo and up to 24 bits Note: WMA lossless is not supported
Luckily I have a spare Win11 laptop here at the moment that I am fixing for a relative (my desktop is Win10), so later today I will set that up a Win11 server and experiment further.
Update: I just tried Win11. I copied a few FLAC albums, and a single mp3 album onto the Win11 laptop and enabled the built in DNLA media serve – screenshot as below:
On the B&O app, I went to Music, Settings, HomeMedia and pressed ‘add new’. It searched for ages and nothing showed. I then went back into the Win11 screen above and where it says ‘name your media library’ I changed the name by deleting the space between ‘Nell’ and ‘Laptop’. When I pressed ‘OK’ the Win11 server immediately appeared on the B&O app, so I pressed the ‘+’ to add it and the Win11 albums were immediately available. Screenshots below:
Both FLAC albums and mp3 played fine to the Essence, with cover art showing on the app.
So it would seem that the B&O is hesitant to find new HomeMedia servers, and maybe my Win11 Media Library name change forced some kind of rebroadcast over the network that then triggered detection.
Happy to investigate further if you have no success.
EDIT: I just tried all the above from my Windows 10 Desktop with exactly the same result: Changing the media library name triggered the server to appear in the app.
Going back to the original reason for this thread, my Beolink Converter NL/ML arrived today. I connected it to my router via a network cable, then connected it into my ML network. It recognises my Essence, even though that is only connected via WiFi – I had assumed I would need to make a wired connection to the Essence, but that is not the case, which is useful.
It was quite easy to set up but I cannot control Spotify Connect via remote control, which is what I was hoping.
I have set the BL Converter’s ML Role as ‘Source Center’, and this allows me to select my Essence as the NL product for N.Music and N.Radio. I was able to set N.Radio to link to ‘B&O Radio’ on the Essence, and that works – I can select that with my Beo4, and use the number keys to choose favourite stations.
I cannot however select Spotify, as it isn’t available – when it gives me Essence sources available to use, Spotify is not listed (but Deezer is):
It’s a shame, as the setup manual for the BL Converter shows that Spotify is available as a source, but in the example given that is when using a Beoplay V1 rather than an Essence. Seems odd that it’s not available on the Essence Mk2, given that it does have Spotify connect?
I did find a way around it, kind of. Instead of using Spotify Connect to play music to my Essence, I can just connect via Bluetooth instead, having set the N.Radio source to ‘Bluetooth’ in the BL Converter. Once connected, if I play Spotify on the connected device, I can use my Beo4 to pause, play, skip tracks.
So, I might decide to cancel my Spotify subscription and sign up to Deezer instead!
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