Hi,
Here is a "complete" and "detailed" report about the EH-3 as it is working or not with third-party apps.
The third-party apps used are :
- Symfonium
- Bubble UPnP
- mConnect
- UAPP
- Neutron
- A&K Connect
- Hi-Fi Cast
- Media Monkey
I. EH-3 AS DLNA SERVER
a) With Symfonium
Symfonium can detect Media servers. But it is limited to some DLNA services like Plex or Emby... It does not detect other music servers. But it can make usage of Samba servers. Unfortunately Shanling is not able or does not want to give out details about how to connect to the EH-3 as FTP/ssh/smb or WebDav...
CONCLUSION : Symfonium is a NO-GO
b) Bubble UPnP
Bubble UPnP can detect automatically all DLNA servers available. The EH-3 is no exception. But browsing through the files of the EH-3 with Bubble UPnP is quite weird. Sometimes it is decently fast, sometimes it takes like 5 to 8 seconds to load the content of the directories.
CONCLUSION : Bubble UPnP is a OK
c) mConnect
mConnect can detect all avaialbe DLNA servers on the network. The EH-3 is no exception and it shows up. But once you're there, browsing through the files of the EH-3 is quite a question of luck. If you have to browse deeper than 2/3 sub-folders, then you almost always end up with one of the following messages "The server is not responding" or "mConnect stopped responding".
CONCLUSION : mConnect is a NO GO
d) UAPP
UAPP can detect all DLNA servers on the network and the EH-3 is no exception here. It is possible to browse throught the folders of the EH-3 with reasonable speed. As Bubble UPnP that speed is sometimes slow sometimes decent, but it is decently fast more often than with Bubble UPnP.
CONCLUSION : UAPP is a OK
e) Neutron
Neutron can detext all DLNA servers on the network. But the EH-3 is an exception. It is not detected. It can alternatively browse throught ssh/FTP servers, but as Shanling does not provide info on how to do this (without a real explanation as to why they do not want to do that) , it can't be used.
CONCLUSION : Neutron is a NO GO
f) A&K Connect
A&K is the software used by Astell&Kern. Few features but it detects all DLNA servers on the netwrok. It can detect the EH-3 and, surprisingly, can browse through thte files pretty quick.
CONCLUSION : A&K Connect is a OK and the best choice it seems
g) Hi-Fi Cast
Hi-Fi cast is an app developped to "cast" as the name says. It can detect all DLNA servers on the network. It detects the EH-3 but is unable to get the content of it. It displays a message ""Could not retrieve data from media server : Action failed (501)".
CONCLUSION : Hi-Fi Cast is a NO GO
h) Media Monkey
With a not super explicit interface, Media Monkey is able to detect all the DLNA servers on the network. And the EH-3 is no exception. It is possible to browse through the forlders of the EH-3. Speed is not stellar at all
CONCLUSION : Media Monkey is OK.
II. EH-3 as a renderer
Here, the protocol is a little different. I will try to take files from Emby/plex and when possible from the EH-3. I'll then try to playback to the EH-3. And see the result there...
a) Symfonium
As I can't take files from the EH-3, I will take them from Emby server and send them to the EH-3 used as a renderer. Playback starts ok after some seconds. The display on the EH-3 shows the expected sample and bitrate. So far so good.
But playback stops after first track...
CONCLUSION : the EH-3 is a NO GO as a renderer with Symfonium
b) Bubble UPnP
1. With the EH-3 as server :
- Playback has some problems to start... It begins to play and stops after 1 second. Then it starts for good. Maybe some problem with cache on the phone or the EH-3? Can't say. But that is acceptable if it's limited to that... But playback stops after first track. So EH-3 is A NO GO with BubbleUPnP when used as server and renderer.
2. With files played from Plex :
- Playback also has problems to start here. It's like when the EH-3 is used as a media server. But OK. It that happens on first track only and it has no other problems, I can live with that... BUT again, playback stops after first track. I played with settings to try to improve things : enable/disable gapless playbak ; enable/disab le FFmpeg conversion ;
CONCLUSION : the EH-3 is a NO GO as a renderer with Bubble UPnP
c) mConnect
1. With the EH-3 as server :
Of course, this assumes the EH-3 does not put mConnect to problems. Playback starts after 6 or 7 seconds. It should be mentioned that when the EH-3 is used as a server, the "Artist" tag is not displayed correctly. So the display at the front shows the track title but the second line, where the artist should appear, lists "Unknown". And this is with about ALL tracks from every artist... I consider this to be a bug of the "software" (which has numerous others but that is another story).
If the settings are "Gapless playback => off" it plays the tracks as it should. If the setting is to "Gapless playback=> On" then it stops playing after first track.
2. With Emby/Plex as server
If Emby or Plex is used as a media server, then the result is somewhat different. First, the Artist name is displayed correctly on the little fron display of the EH-3. That is already better. Second, the elapsed time is showed corectly, when it was only refreshed every 10 seconds or so when playing from EH-3 as a media server.
But result is basically the same : with gapless turned on, the playback stops after one track. If "Gapless playback" is set to "Off" then it plays tracks in a row as it should. But of course there is a "small" gap : about 1 to 2 seconds... Somewhat irritating, but let's say it is OK.
CONCLUSION : the EH-3 is a OK as a renderer with mConnect, but with hiccups...
d) UAPP
This is a little tricky. UAPP added the ability to cast only recently on so it is probably not completely "mature" as of now.
And depending on the settings, it plays or not.
If the EH-3 is set to "bit perfect" => playback starts after long time and not always. Some tracks are skipped before playback begins. So I set it to 16/44.1khz.
I'll make a long story short here : whatever the settings, I have playback or not ; I have playlist played as it shoud or not... Too random to be fully usable
If you select the EH-3 to play "bit perfect when possible" you can play tracks on the EH-3.
The front display of the EH-3 will show covert art ; it will also display the artist's name ; and the sample and bit rate will show correctly.
So far, so good...
It also skip to following track... BUT with a 2/3 seconds gap between tracks
I tried to enable the "Renderer is gapless playback compatible" in the EH-3 cast settings. I urge you not to do that. The gap will jump to 12/15 seconds...
I can live with 2/3 seconds but I can't with 15 seconds
Is that only possible since the release of UAPP 7.0.0.9 or was it because I installed a Wi-Fi repeater that improves the signal ? No idea...
But I have to say that this allows you to have "MorphIt" which is an easy way to apply EQ to your headphone (provided it is listed...mine are).
CONCLUSION :
- if you want to playback Hi-Res files, UAPP is a NO GO ;
- if you are ready to downsample your files, UAPP is OK... But honestly that is not the scope of the EH-3 is it ?
UAPP is probably the way Eddict should work
If only that "gapless" would be possible, then it would be perfect !
So UAPP is definitely a HIGH GO for the EH-3.
e) Neutron
It can only be used with an extrnal media server as the EH-3 is not recognized by Neutron.
When it is used with an external media server like Emby or Plex, it works.
BUT sound can become jerky at some point especially if the network get's crowded or used by someone else.
CONCLUSION : Neutron is a GO for the EH-3 but be aware that if sound gets jerky you'll have to hit "Pause" on the EH-3 and rthen resume after 8 or 10 seconds.
f) A& K Connect
1. With the EH-3 as a media server :
Playback starts after some seconds. It has to be noticed that it seems that A&K Connect is unable to retieve the cover art from the EH-3 used as a media server. Weird enough, the cover art is displayed on the front display of the EH-3. If someone understands something here, I'll be glad if he could explain... Because me, I am simply puzzled... Good thing, elapsed time is displayed correctly in A&K Connect. A&K Connect also does not recognize the "Artist" tag so as the artist, we have "Unknown" displayed on the front display of EH-3.
After track 1 A&K Connect stops playing files... As many other third party apps
2. With Plex as media server
Here, front display displays artist as it should. It also displays cover art, but weird enough even with Plex as a media server, A&K Connect does not retrieve cover art to display it.
Playback starts quite fast, which is good. Elapsed time shows correctly on both app and front display of EH-3.
But again : after track 1 playback stops...
CONCLUSION : the EH-3 is a NO GO as a renderer with A&K Connect
g) Hi-Fi Cast
It will only be tested with external media server as files cannot be retrieved by Hi-Fi Cast.
Playback start after 4 or 5 seconds. That is OK.
Front display shows artist name and cover art. So does Hi-Fi Cast.
Elapsed time is showed correctly in both app and front display.
Unfortunately, the playback stops after first track. Whatever the settings used on the "renderer" it does not skip to next track.
CONCLUSION : the EH-3 is a NO GO as a renderer with Hi-Fi Cast
f) Media Monkey
1. With EH-3 as a media server
Here again, artist is "Unknown"
Front display and app show coer art and elapsed time as it should. However, the app does not recognize the duration of the song so can't display how much remains to play...
But again, playback stops after first track
2. With Plex as a media server
Artist is now recognized as it should.
App displays elapsed time and recognizes duration of song so you know where you are.
Front display displays artist and track tile and elapsed time and duration. So all good here.
But again, playback stops after first track.
CONCLUSION : the EH-3 is a NO GO as a renderer with Media Monkey.
This is again a super long post...
The scope is to show Shanling some path of what can be improved to make their player a fabulous one !
My overall conclusion is that the EH-3 implementation of UPnP / DLNA does not fully comply to UPnP / DLNA standards.
I can't explain otherwise that almost ALL of third party software have so much problems going to next track.
The only one not plagued by this behaviour is Neutron, but then again, Neutron has it's own ways of sending files...
Any other explanation is of course welcome...
To make the EH-3 a great player (and a lot of other streamers like the EM5/EA5/EM7 and probably EM30), I would suggest 3 things :
- make the EH-3 used as a media server usable by any DLNA third-party app (which would include Neutron and Hi-Fi Cast)
- work on the fact that about NONE of the third party software used allows to skip to next track
- work on Eddict to add the NUMEROUS features that are missing...
Any comments are welcome...