Roon ARC Downloads

I’m curious as to the format of downloads. For example, using my iPhone, I am choosing to download an album that I know is in DSD256. Does the full (and large) DSD256 get downloaded to the phone even though the phone itself can’t play at that resolution? If this is the case, then I presume the phone is doing the down sampling at the time of playback?

I would think the only reason to do this, especially as it puts a lot of load on the phone, is on the presumption that the user might connect it to an external DAC of some kind that supports a high resolution?

While I recognize the screen size is small, it would be nice if there was an ability to see the signal path as we can with the traditional Roon Remote App.

BTW, Wonderful upgrade!!! Very smooth overall. Always a challenge when we want less technical users to configure home access from outside so there are the expected posts concerning how to do that… but people will figure this out soon enough and the value of the upgrade is well worth it. Congratulations! We all thank you!

You can see the full signal path, it’s on the top right corner

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Thank you. I had missed that.

Yes, it downloads the full files and downsamples them at playback. How useful it us to have several GBs extra I don’t know, unless you also want to carry around a DSD compatible DAC that works with a mobile device such as a mobile phone. I already have other apps that can download converted files for use on my phone, but of course it would be neat to be able to do this in the Arc app, like “download full version” vs. “download converted version”.

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Hi Kris_M!
It looks to me like the new Roon ARC app on Android 12 is NOT downloading the whole album at once!

Scenario:
(1) Download a complete album
Done.
(2) Play the first - let’s say 3 tracks in OFFLINE mode of the smartphone (no wifi connection): Possible.
(3) Try to play one of the LAST tracks of the album: NOT POSSIBLE! Roon ARC hangs when trying to download more tracks! (at least this is my impression).
(4) Reconnect to WLAN: Roon ARC seems to download one of the last tracks I want to play
Download completed
(5) I set my smartphone to offline mode (no WLAN access to the core)
(6) Playing the last title is possible - if, and ONLY if it was downloaded manually before!

Could you please verify my observations.
If I am correct: I have to manually play each track of an album BEFORE going OFFLINE.
That would be the opposite of downloading the entire album at once… because only the “first” part has bee downloaded, other tracks will follow on demand. But if I’m offline, I cannot download further tracks…

Hello,

That sounds like a spot of bad luck. I’m on iPhone so I cannot replicate your problem exactly (when I’ve downloaded an album, I am able to play any track or the complete album seamlessly). I know there was an update for iOS yesterday, perhaps your issues have already been addressed in the update?

I have however noticed that I need to have the screen on and Roon Arc in the foreground when I’m downloading an album (it seems to be paused when the screen is locked). But I think that might just be an iOS “feature” (yes, notice my sarcasm here…)

I’m on Android 13 and I’ve been able to download entire albums. I’ve had the most success with my cd-based albums. I’ve had a few issues though.

I’ve noticed album/track download icons don’t always seem to refresh in a timely manner. For example, if I go to an album, click versions, and click the download button for the version then the download icon at the top of the page for the album doesn’t indicate that. If I move elsewhere in ARC and come back to the album, then the download status at the top of the page is correct. So overall, it seems like there is a refresh issue with download status icons.

I’ve also had an album where one track would not download. I cleared everything and tried again and still no luck. I think this was on the first day of release. I tried again the next morning and the full album downloaded. I’ve also had another album where ARC couldn’t make up its mind if the entire album was downloaded or not, which sounds similar to what you’re experiencing. I had another album where I thought the entire album downloaded, but I could only play the first couple of tracks and the rest errored out. I will add that these albums were FLAC 352.8 kHz 24 bit (yes, I realize this is pointless on a phone, and even my main system has no advantage with them) so I was pushing the limits.

Similar to what Kirs_M observed with iOS, I was wondering what happens on Android 13 when my display turns off or it goes to the lock screen. By long pressing the Roon ARC icon > App Info > Battery, I have changed Battery Usage to Unrestricted to see if that makes any difference in download reliability.