Could we start a Gofundme or similar for RoonLabs to provide the following?
Work is work, but when you can afford more workers, it gets done quicker. It’s almost 2019, and there’s only one reason I can think of that these features aren’t available: money.
I think setting up a GoFundMe in an attemp to get these features is a bit hysterical.
The support here is great. The people actually know what they’re talking about and can solve problems. Hiring newbies as support staff would be a bad idea, they’ll probably know less than us.
I agree with @Woo. I had a fairly complicated tech issue to move my Roon core from one place on my Synology NAS to an external SSD. The experts in this responded quickly with exactly what I needed.
Since Roon is an ongoing organization, I think starting a GoFundMe would be odd. It is not a regular stream of revenue, and it would be like Apple starting a GoFundMe page to develop the next iPhone.
However I have also thought that the one time payment for a lifetime subscription to be odd as well. If a large percentage of Roon users pick that option there will be a dwindling steam of future revenue. I can only assume Roon has done the analysis on this and knows what they’re doing. But a better model may be that everyone needs to pay for major updates and improvements. You can still run your current version on the lifetime fee, but if you want the update to the newest version with awesome new features, that comes at a cost. That seems to be a model better geared to long-term success.
Is this for real ??
IYHO, of course.
For everything I like about Roon (and there’s plenty), there’s equally as much that can be vastly improved. But given the $500 “lifetime membership” model (why don’t the just call it a “perpetual license” as that’s what it is), I completely understand why Roon software is what it is: good enough to sell hardware.
YMMV, and that’s okay too.
I think you’re so wide of the mark.
Just for the record, there are real support staff, Alexa was actively researched and found not to be up to the job while playing music, and the other points you mention are either on the roadmap or already flagged feature requests. I suggest you spend a little more time on the community site!
I deleted some posts and cleared some flags in this thread.
It’s fine to disagree with the original post but let’s stick to pointing out what we think is inaccurate, as opposed to attacking the poster.
Or we can all just ignore the inaccuracies and move on with our busy lives 
Not sure what you mean. Are you saying that Roon gets revenue from the manufacturers who are willing to have their products listed as Roon Ready?
Other odd thing I’ve noted is that NAD has several products that are Roon Ready, but they don’t promote Roon on their website. On their website they are promoting their BluOS software. I purchased a NAD C-368 with the MDC BluOS module specifically because it is Roon Ready. That information is on the Roon site, but not NAD’s. Why go through the process to have your product certified as Roon Read, but not promote it at all?
I also just noticed that on Roon’s NAD page, the following sentace with a link takes you to a 404 error page. Visit the NAD Digital Music page info
A remote solution is an existing Roon goal. I don’t understand that further development resources for Roon is the bottleneck here. Where to store the local library and how to access it are significant issues. Global upload bandwidth and cloud storage are currently problematic. It is bad enough Roon having de facto responsibility for network functionality, owning upload bandwidth issues would be a whole new cross to bear.
I don’t know enough about voice control to comment about it.
I support user notes/reviews and would also like to see a capacity to share them between users. I don’t recall Roon ruling this in or out of their roadmap.
Roon have hired several Support staff who actively solve user issues online in the Support category. Using the Forum enables solutions to be searchable, permitting users to quickly find prior solutions for known issues.
Roon has published extensive documentation in the Roon Knowledge Base. The online documentation is edited and updated as the software changes and develops.
I’m sorry, but I don’t buy that. Plex has been allowing outside access for years, with video. You keep the data on the users’ core, ask 'em to punch a hole in their firewall, and you’ve got much of the problem solved. If you ask me, it also happens to be a problem higher on the list than remote, synced, lyrics displays, but, well…
You’re probably right about cloud storage, though. I can totally see “What do you mean, FLAC requires a better signal than 32kbps mp4 ?” type stuff popping up. Yes, in some cases (say, sat connections), getting the data up can take a while and be problematic, but there have been known ways around this for a while. You could also deal with it in a “hybrid” way, i.e, offer to measure a given users’ bandwidth and upload the stuff that’s higher-than what’ll easily go through to cloud storage. Then, getting the data down can be a pain: if there’s an emphasis on keeping quality intact, it’s also likely always going to be flakier than full-on streaming services - “ma, ma, I’m getting dropouts while driving down the highway, and I don’t with Spotify…” situations with users. So, not even taking legalities into account, it’d all be a huge burden, and I can totally understand why a small team like RoonLabs’ wouldn’t want to deal with it.
If you’re talking streaming from a server at the user’s home to their car or phone then you are constrained by both upload and download bandwidth. In Australia upload speeds are shockingly bad until you are paying commercial rates. It is currently possible to stream Roon using a VPN (there are a few threads about it) but the experience is heavily weighted to unsatisfactory.
Nevertheless Roon doesn’t set themselves unattainable goals. It may be a longer term project, but it has not been ruled out.
Yeah, I’m well aware of all that. That’s why I used a fairly successful project that pipes video, which is generally more demanding ressource-wise, as an example.
There’s, once again, ways around a bit of it (though no magic with Australia-caliber bandwidth). Wether it’s worth the blood and sweat, both in code and in user / dealer education is another question entirely: I’d hate to be the company whose dealer-installed, internet-exposed music streaming software caused some rich guy’s wife’s dalliances to end up on youporn, for example, and given the intersection of entitlement and technical ineptitude that’s occasionally on display on this forum, I can totally understand why team Roon wouldn’t want to touch anything that might require support beyond nudging someone on where to enter a user/pass for an already established streaming service (and yes, this should very much be read as a compliment for Roon Support’s patience ;)).
Foremost, I am happy to have purchased a “lifetime membership” to Roon. The architecture of the software is perfect, especially the core/bridge paradigm and heterogeneous hardware support. Further, I do not mean to troll; what I love about Roon, I love, but what I dislike, I hate! Finally, I do have a technical background and understand the nature of many of the features I listed.
I’m not sure that the $500 is a good business model. If the analogy is a piece of hardware, that works because ultimately we all buy new hardware. But with Roon - specifically software - it’s different. So wink aside, Roon’s future revenue is contingent on find new customers, or perhaps hardware partners - I’ve spent my load. I have a perpetual license. Not sure how I feel about that.
I have spent some time on the community site, and again, I default to what’s good about it is great, but what isn’t, sucks. Just look at the issue of user-editable reviews for albums and artist: there’s a dozen or more threads. So for better or worse, you will hear more from me
As for remote access, both Logitech Media Server and UPnP/DLNA support it. I cannot speak about network speeds in Australia, but I hope that’s not the bellweather for whether to feature remote access or not.
Remote access is easily achievable, I already stream my Synology music via an app called DS music and their Qickconnect User authentication. For those that are interested I have put the link to their document which explains how it works.
I can stream movies as well as audio, and in NZ it works fine even to a mobile phone. I believe Roon could implement something similar for your own library but it gets more complicated for either restreaming Tidal or authenticating direct streaming of Tidal to a remote device.
If only Roon had decoding for a lossy algorithm with a bit of music industry acceptance and DRM features that was being heavily pushed to an audiophile target audience and is now being marketed as a high-quality solution to mobile streaming…
The OP, tired of waiting for very useful features, is willing to put up more of his own money to support Roon and is asking others if there’s an interest outside himself. Nothing wrong with that but it appears no one has interest in giving Roon more money to speed along features.
It’s not whether the features are on the road map or not, it’s that new functionality takes a long time to be implemented. One of the problems of further funding Roon, other than their willingness, is whether the features desired by those contributing would ever make it in the product. There are no guarantees.
Regarding the streaming from home feature, there is no argument here. It’s done by many vendors of different media types, including JRIver and has been for years. Any fears of additional support because someone’s upload or download speeds are too slow are pointless because that’s an easily identifiable issue and not for Roon to support. The worst possible support issues will be related to connectivity which should be minimal. This is a long overdue feature.
You could make the same argument about Roon Support for user network issues. It’s not feasible for Roon to tell users that they are on their own when it comes to diagnosing and fixing network issues.
Owning bandwidth issues isn’t a reason to not develop a portable Roon solution. It’s a reason to develop it properly and robustly.
Really? To me, it reads like a veiled insult to Roon developers/support.
Couldn’t agree more.
Thank you Johnseye for eloquently expressing my view, better than I.