"Official" Olive Thread Opus 4, Opus 6, Melody 2, Olive 2, Olive 4/ 4HD, 06HD - Page 7

The Opus 4 internal DAC can't handle anything higher than 16bit/44100Hz files. However, I was able to play every Gimell test file including the 24bit/96000Hz file through the digitial out to my external DacMagic.

I did some experimenting with my Opus, Melody, DacMagic and high resolution files today, and here are some highlights.

I was able to stream all of the Gimell test FLAC files (up to 24/96) across my network from the Opus to the Melody, and play them using the digital out on the Melody into the DacMagic. I was also able to stream mp3 and m4a files from the Opus to the Melody without any issues.

The MV2020 is a different matter. It does not support FLAC, so I was unable to try that. I was able to stream mp3s and wav files from the MV2020 to the Melody, but in both cases the artwork is missing. I was unable to stream m4a files or wma files even though the MV2020 supposedly supports those formats.

Now, I don't know if the issues with the MV2020 are the MV2020 or the Melody. I get the impression the UPNP/DMA standard is not really locked down, so incompatibilities between "compatible" devices is not uncommon. The HP website only shows a handful of Digital Media Adapter devices that are compatible with the MV2020.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...roduct=3193058

So, if someone is thinking of purchasing a Melody with the intention of using it to stream files from a UPNP/DMA server, I would give Olive a call first and see if they have any insight into which UPNP/DMA devices work and don't work with the Melody.

FYI - I had Twonky installed on the MV2020 at one point, but deinstalled it when I got the Opus. I ran out of time today, so trying the MV2020 with Twonky will have to wait. I'll let you know when I have a chance to re-install Twonky on the MV2020.

Yes.

I re-installed Twonky 4.4 on my HP MV2020 and was able to stream all of the Gimell FLAC test files (including 24/96) to the Melody and play them through the DacMagic. Only issue is that the artwork doesn't show up with the FLAC files.

I was also able to stream MP3 and WMA files from the HP MV2020 via Twonky, and the cover art does show up on the Melody for both MP3 and WMA files.

Twonky doesn't support M4A files, so no go there. For some reason I couldn't get the WAV files to play, even though Twonky is suppose to support them.

I think from my experience you would be in pretty good shape if you used Twonky with the Melody/DacMagic. The "new" HP MV2 MediaServer runs Twonky. The older MV1 (what I have) runs Syabas, and HP has not provided an update.

I'm going to download a free trial of the Twonky 5 and run on my PC to see what happens.

Good news. I was able to stream the FLAC test files using the latest version of Twonky 5 on my Windows Vista 64 machine to the Melody, and the cover art works. Pretty easy to navigate too. The only issue is that it takes a moment for the song info to come up after the music has started.

The bad news is that while the current version of Twonky 5 can stream FLAC to DLNA devices, it does not support playing FLAC files on the PC yet. They are aware of the issue, and are working on a solution.

http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6203

In case you missed it...

New features:

* New network setup
* Danish language support

Software bug fixes:

* CD track recognition w/o network access works now
* Audio volume drop in left/righ channel has been resolved
* Wireless network recognition has been improved
* MAESTRO software
o Supports now more than 64 album covers
o Composer are displayed correctly
o Problems of editing multiple metadata fields has been resolved

Sorry I wasn't clear. I'm was running all the Gimell FLAC test files from Twonky over the network via a PC -> Melody (via digital output) -> DacMagic -> Amp. The internal Melody/Opus DAC can't handle anything higher than 16/44.

If you are thinking about a Slim Devices Transporter, or Opus for that matter, and want to use FLAC and MP3, a Melody with a DacMagic and Twonky is a less expensive alternative at around $1050. The only issue is that Twonky doesn't support M4A files, which I find a bit strange.

I haven't run into any other limitations. I would drop an email to Olive about what you discovered.

I discovered a bug in the Album Artwork section of Maestro. If the album name starts with a special character, for instance a dash - or question mark ?, you are unable to see the songs in the bottom table. When I removed these characters from the album title, the issue went away.

One other thing. For some reason the album artwork doesn't like albums that start with the letter "Z." For example, I have U2's Zooropa album on the Opus, and while it shows up fine under Genres, Album Name and Artists, it shows up as "unknown title" in album artwork. I tried editing the album while in Album Artwork and it didn't make a difference.

I've already notified Olive of these two issues.

I've kind of avoided the whole album artwork issues buy ripping my CDs with EAC, editing the metadata in Media Monkey and importing over the network.

In this case I imported Zooropa over the network. I also tried importing the CD directly on the Opus, and still had the problem. In this instance the album artwork was correct when I imported the CD directly in to the Opus.

MediaMonkey will allow you to convert FLAC to MP3. Tools -> Convert Audio Format, follow the instructions. You could also use BonkEnc to convert from FLAC to M4A/ACC (what I do) which is the native iPod format and is a bit better than MP3 in compression and sound quality (just Google BonkEnc and you'll find it).

iTunes, since it also syncs up other info like calendar, contacts, apps, etc.