USB versus NAS

[lovejoy]

This is sounding very similar to what I've found of late with network connected devices. The problem is most likely not with your NAS, but with the fact that your BTHomeHub is doing all of the heavy lifting in terms of routing, internet connections, firewalls, internal IP assignments and so on. Moving all of my audio related devices onto a separate router which is doing nothing but sending audio but with a bridge to the main router so that the audio devices have internet access if they need it, has made a tremendous difference - and I concur with your findings because I also tried playing music directly from an HD connected to my Pi over USB for a while and found this to be MUCH better than streaming everything over a network with just one router for everything - but if you want all of the convenience back along with the gains (and possibly more) in terms of sound quality, then a second router, or if your NAS happens to have the ability for two separate network connections, then this gives you everything...

[Clive]

Is this with the latest Pi with the improved USB? I find HD connected to USB is not as good as NAS but my router isn't doing much when I play music as I'm usually the only user. I'm using the orininal Pi 3 not the latest.

Also is the HD Pi USB powered or with its own PS that prevents back powering the Pi? This makes quite a difference.

[mightymonoped]

Clive, it's a Pi 3b (I believe) and the HD has it's own power supply, so no worries on that.

I'm intending to try either SMB or CIFS connection tonight, have no reason to believe it won't work as I have used it with various platforms before.

Richard,
I did consider putting an additional router in place but to be honest, it's just more kit that I don't really need right now. I'm happy to run an 'as needed' connection to both the NAS and the HD via the MBpro when I am adding to the Media Library. The NAS will function as a backup rather than as the primary library in this case and the HD will remain in place directly connected. This is a simple setup but actually meets all of my needs at this point.

All of this assuming I can get it all working of course :-)

[Clive]

Clive, it's a Pi 3b (I believe) and the HD has it's own power supply, so no worries on that.

Thanks Tony, the Pi 3B probably explains why the USB HD sounds best or at least equal to a lightly loaded router. I'll have to get one sometime to compare as the USB implementation on the 3B does seem to give genuine improvements.

[mightymonoped]

Good news! Connected fine under CIFS (permission issues under SMB) and have reconfigured JRiver to use it as the Main Library. Can now just rip directly to the HD from the MBpro as needed. Will use the NAS as a backup device from now on.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mikmas]

Good news! Connected fine under CIFS (permission issues under SMB) and have reconfigured JRiver to use it as the Main Library. Can now just rip directly to the HD from the MBpro as needed. Will use the NAS as a backup device from now on.

Great stuff !!
Glad you made progress - sometimes the permission errors with smb can be cured simply by adding the name of the drive .... in my case 'ALBUMS'

smb://moode/USB/ALBUMS

[struth]

didnt think cifs worked now. its ancient. yeah permissions can be a bugger.

[Yomanze]

Good news! Connected fine under CIFS (permission issues under SMB) and have reconfigured JRiver to use it as the Main Library. Can now just rip directly to the HD from the MBpro as needed. Will use the NAS as a backup device from now on.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Make sure you DO use that NAS to back up! Will give peace of mind and mean you’re not one of the unlucky souls who needs to re-rip it all. I recently read of someone who had to do 10000 of them, not fun.

[mightymonoped]

Make sure you DO use that NAS to back up! Will give peace of mind and mean you’re not one of the unlucky souls who needs to re-rip it all. I recently read of someone who had to do 10000 of them, not fun.

Don't worry, you're preaching to the converted! I've had to deal with many failed HD, SSD and RAID arrays in my time! :-)

[Mr. C]

RJ45 any day of the week