I would be interested in an answer as well! (How to sideload the roon 1.8 APK on VITA?)
I registered my VITA to Roon v1.6. (With VITA on firmware 1.5 and 1.6), which worked really well - as supposed for a roon ready device. See my pics of the beautiful playscreens here. Since Roon 1.8, VITA is still hooked up to the Roon Core on my Nucleus, but marked „not certified“
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It should remain there over future updates.
Roon advised to not delete it in the settings; because I would not be able to register ist again … brave new world …
I took the plunge and bought a used Nativ Vita. It’s such a shame to hear that they may have been forced out of business possibly due to the pandemic. I hope someone picks up on the equipment and keeps it alive.
I’ve emailed Roon and asked if theres anything they can do to help me get Roon working on it (but as yet no response). While i don’t blame them in anyway for Nativ going out of business, surely it’s on their interests to give owners whatever support they can to keep them locked into Roon ?
I’m really hoping there is a way to sideload the Roon APK onto it. If not, am i right in thinking i’m going to end up limited to the Tidal app ?
Ok, so i managed to sideload the Roon Remote 1.8 (Build 764) APK onto the Nativ.
However there are now two issues.
It’s running very slow
The resolution seems wrong and images and writing are not clear, or take a long time to become clear.
Sideloading, can all be done on the Nativ while Roon 1.7 is installed. Here’s how i did it
On the Vita try to install Roon 1.8 through the update. This will open the Play Store and tell you it’s not compatible.
While Play Store is open, use the search tool to find a File Manager (i sued Filed by Google). Download and instal it.
Next while still in Play Store search for Google Chrome or any other browser). Install and run it.
while still in the Play Store, Open Chrome and search for the Roon 1.8 APK. Download it
As far as i can tell you can’t access the apps from the normal Nativ interface, but you can use the Play Store to access installed apps. so once again try to update Roon and enter the play store.
Search for your file manager, and Open it from within Play Store
go to the downloads folder and install the Roon APK.
once installed run Roon from the Nativ as normal
now you have the same problems that i have, hopefully we can find a solution.
Don’t worry, if you then want to try something else you can delete Roon from the Nativ main screen and then reinstall the non-working version 1.7.
This is how things look within Roon preferences on the MAC
I won´t try that for the moment since everything else is up and running
and I am mainly using VITA as a Roon endpoint, with Control via iPad
and the stream coming from my Nucleus.
Sometimes I am also using the music stored on the internal SSD of VITA.
But good to know, that sideloading works!
Yes, that is how I understood the Roon announcements.
Actually it should also work with Roon 1.7, because it was only with 1.8 that VITA was marked “uncertified” and they were warning not to delete it from the Roon Core´s settings.
Roon 1.6 Core no longer works. The servers to support metadata, search, tidal, etc are gone. The remotes for 1.6 are not forwards compatible to Cores running higher versions.
The uncertified thing had little to do with any specific version of software. We never released new software on the cutoff date
You can absolutely use the Vita as an endpoint when you have sideloaded 1.8. the sound is fine.
The issue is that the images are not clear (but then the whole App is not clear). I assume this is something within the ROON app itself, but it will need someone more technical than me to know.
The problem is that the Roon App when side-loaded does not display correctly on the Nativ (see photo i posted earlier) and is laggy.
I’m struggling to understand why that would be so, since as you previously said it’s just an Android App.
Obviously i understand that this would be for Nativ to handle, but since there is no response at all from them, i’m asking for your experience to see if there is something that we can try. Roon works on the Nativ as an endpoint, it’s just
For information, Tidal, Apple Music, Audible, Mixcloud apps all work just fine the only app that is not rendering correctly and is running slowly is Roon, so i’m struggling to see that it’s an issue purely with the Nativ.
Do you know what version of Android they are running? At some point, that version is going to get too old for Roon to run on reasonably (it may have already done so). Software must be kept updated to stay relevant, especially if it is driven by data from the internet.
they had 1 issue left in their roon ready certification – a sync issue when playing between zones… maybe we can just look past that with a caveat given that no more of these devices will come into existence… its a compromise of the roon ready program, but probably the right thing to do.
the 1.8 issue we are going to look into by sideloading it… I’m pretty sure we have one here.
ok, there is a fix in the next build that may impact the whole graphics issue and the extreme performance degradation – can you try and let us know when its out?
It’s possible that this device is also either running out of RAM or storage and we are getting some type of swapping or delays. For example, we are seeing our image atlas taking 13 seconds to load, and we have a very slow 7" Amazon tablet can do this like less than 150ms.
I’d try to reboot it and start roon from the start and make sure other things arent running… maybe that will have an impact.
It’s really unfortunate, but I’d look into replacing that thing… it was a beautiful idea, but clearly not executed well.
For example, just did a quick google for the GPU in it and I’m getting results from 2012. Yikes. That said, we run “ok” on stuff from that era, so there is more going on here than just old poorly performant hardware.
Well, i’ve instigated a return with the seller and ordered a Bluesound Node 2i (which also seems to have some issues, but at least it’s live and kicking and support from it’s developer isn’t likely to disappear).
It’s such a shame as it really was a beautiful looking piece of kit and one that also sounded great, but in the end the mixture of old android system and Nativ seemingly going bust makes it totally unviable.
In the end i decided that Roon integration was more important to me.
Thanks for your help. See you on the bluesound threads
Hello Danny, please help!
… and me, I am sitting here with my 4500$+ NATIV system. Everything is working fine … (besides the android app, which I do not really need) … I am mainly using NATIV VITA as a RAAT endpoint for my Nucleus, controlled via iPad. But VITA now shows up „uncertified“ to the Roon Core (even though it had a certification, by the time I bought it - listed on Roons website and Nativ´s as well !!!). If I would delete it now by mistake, I would not be able to get it back… Leaving my VITA and the NATIVE system inoperable with Roon and as a stranded investment. For me and possible future users/owners.
Of course I am aware, that with Nativ out of business, there will arise problems sometime in the future with software and maybe even with the RAAT protocol.
But what is the use of banning VITA from the Roon Cores?
I bought a Roon lifetime subscription; a Roon Nucleus; and the entire Nativ system.
I trusted and expected, to be able to use it for a long time!
What will happen to a 30k$ DCS or 6k$ Auralic components in 5, 6, 7 … years, when they run out of software-updates? Will they also be banned or UNcertified, making all these components useless?
SO PLEASE HELP:
A) Define a Roon standard by keeping all products, that once have been certified, certified for lifetime!
B) Bring the VITA back to the list of certified products & back to my Roon core!
I could live with a „no more updates“ or „not supported anymore“ label for this product; but banning my VITA actively is really hard!
I assume you mean Roon Ready Certified. That already exists, but the Vita was never Roon Ready Certified so it doesn’t impact it.
We asked Nativ to not run a goofy version of Android without Google Play Store. They ignored us. But they did include a sideload method, so that’s good. That said, we can not support old Android hardware forever. Not even Google does that.
When did you get the Vita? When did it work as a Roon Ready input for you and when did it break?
No, they will not have this problem. You are confusing multiple matters. The Nativ never got certified. They sold it to you on a lie.
As far as I remember: I got the VITA end of 2018 (and the WAVE & PULSE in 2019), directly from Nativesound. I first used it as an integrated music system with music stored on its internal SSD - no Roon back then.
Later on (End 2019?) I bought the Roon lifetime subscription and shortly after that the Nucleus. From then on I only used VITA as RAAT endpoint, controlled via iPad and streaming from Nucleus (internal SSD or Qobuz) to VITA (I almost never used the Roon Android App on VITA itself; I dont need it !).
So it must have been in 2019, that I registered VITA to the Roon Core (on Nucleus as well as on my Win10 PC); everything working perfectly fine.
But with the Roon 1.8 announcements I received an email saying that any connected product showing „uncertified“ would stay connected, as long as I do not remove it.
Which brings me to the above mentioned point, that VITA („uncertified“, but connected) is running fine as a RAAT endpoint, but at high risk of never beeing able to re-connect once the connection has been terminated or lost.
I assume, that I could use VITA as a RAAT endpoint for a long time, as long as the RAAT protocol stays unchanged. So please do not ban VITA from connecting to the Core as an RAAT endpoint (I already checked with my Win10 PC: Connection terminated; re-connecting not possible!!!).
Regards, Kai
Btw: I do not blame Nativsound for a lie. They said they were in the process of getting VITA Roon ready certified that time. And I remember the Roon website listing Nativ (besides many others) with this same status …
