First of all: On Metadata-handling Roon does a good Job!
What I`m missing:
Ability to Import Track-Ratings: I know - Roon is Build to handle more than One User - ist makes no sense to use my ratings for other Users. BUT: I would expect some sort of respect to the curating of my Music - so i would expect an Option to easily Import Track (and Album) ratings into the Roon Universe. There might be some workarounds - but I‘m Not paying a premium prize for workaround!
handling of Audio Books and Audio Drama: Roon simply is Not capable to handle smoken content in any way. This missing Feature is a catastrophy and barly acceptable.
Using my Audio remotly: Roon is simply Not designed to do that. I don‘t know, if the Roon-Team is forced to restrict the use to LAN only or if they decided to do - in the 21. Century such an approach is Not sustainable.
Just to address your points and possibly commiserate:
I think if ratings are the only problem you have with Roon’s metadata handling, you’re actually in a pretty good position. Then again, I doubt if the inability to import track ratings devalues Roon much.
Roon is not an audiobook reader. It was designed to be an audiophile digital music player. Nothing more nothing less. If your use case exceeds that design philosophy, Roon may not be for you. On the other hand, there are a plethora of ways to play audiobooks outside of Roon.
Not sure what you mean here. I don’t know any audio player that allows remote access of ones own library. Roon can be portable. Simply install your core on a laptop and take your music with you on the laptop or portable hard drive. Even if you use Roon at home and office, you can have a library in both places and simply enable the core at home or office depending on where you are. As for true remote access, Roon has said it’s on the roadmap. They’ve been saying it for a while now, but I think one day we’ll get true remote access to our home library.
iTunes handles remote library listening without effort. Apple Music uploads any files in your library not in Apple’s general library so that it they are available to you remotely.
Yeah, theoretically JRiver does the same. But it’s not really accessing your library on your own home network, which is what most people are asking of Roon.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but JRiver accesses user’s files that they have uploaded to JRiver’s servers. So JRiver can access it’s own servers. It can’t remotely access files located on your home network which is what Roon users are asking for.
if you have MC set up correctly you have a Media Server which contains references to your local files. This serves your local network just like the Roon Server
By opening a specific port you can access that Server across any internet connection\
so it gives you access to all your LOCAL media, Music Video , Images even eBook recently.
The CloudPlay function is what you are referring to which is access to a Cloud based library of uploaded files by JRiver users.
Roon users are looking for the former feature , its been part of JRiver for years literally. CloudPlay is fairly recent
Thanks for your feedback. I would like to respond.
to Akimo: I would like Roon to support audiobooks (spoken usually by one person, usually related to a certain book) and audio drama (a play usually with several person, based on one or more books) within Roon. I would like to have one solution for my audio files. Within the existing setup my audiobooks / audio drama totally get lost - and metadata are a catastrophe.
This is not about podcasts.
to @David_Gibson: I do own about 20k audio files with track ratings. As a representative of the “group of former iTunes-Users” my feedback is addressed to the Roon-Team: a) I like the innovative approach of Roon using tags for tracks / albums / performers ---- but b) I dislike the ignorance of Roon about the effort I invested in the past to curate my library of music and as a potential customer I aspect a more caretaking approach to help me secure my ratings
to @David_Gibson: about audio books and Audio Drama: My feedback is addressed a) to the Roon-Team to make transparent my wishlist of features a “good” archive for my audio files should offer … and to b) other people who are searching for a “new home” for their audio files: I passed on my findings, that Roon - for now - does offer no support for audiobooks / audio drama.
to @David_Gibson: remote-access: there are several competitors who offer remote access. Starting from NAS-Companies like Synology to media archive solutions like Plex / emby and audio servers like subsonic… All this product have other problems and I can’t say I have found a product, which covers all aspects I desire.
to @xxx: Hope you now understand, that you are not addressed by my post. My post is addressed to a) the Roon-Team and b) people searching for a new home for their audio files - I simply consider my feedback as one voice within the ocean of information they probably scan to make up their mind.
What is interesting: There is no post from the Roon-Team. …