Kinsky Mac OSX Davaar Manual

Introduction

This manual assumes that you have intermediate computer and internet skills.

The UPnP forum defined an Audio Visual specification, UPnP AV, which defined the interaction between UPnP control points and UPnP devices. The UPnP AV architecture was designed to be independent of device type, content format and transfer protocol.

The Kinsky software suite is a range of UPnP control point implementations as defined in the UPnP AV specification.

A Kinsky control point coordinates the operation between Media Servers, Silver Disk Players and Media Renderers, in response to user interaction.

Installation

System Requirements

Operating Systems

Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 up to Mac OS X Mojave 10.14

Minimum System Requirements

System RAM: 512MB

Video Card: 800x600

Wireless: 802.11b

Recommended System Requirements

System RAM: 1GB

Video Card: 1024x768

Wireless: 802.11g

Installing

Before you start the installation procedure please ensure you have closed any running instances of Kinsky.

To install Kinsky double-click on the Kinsky<version>.pkg, downloadable from the www.Linn.co.uk download page. Follow the on screen installation instructions to complete the installation. Upon a successful installation, you can access Kinsky through the Applications folder.

Uninstalling

To uninstall Kinsky, drag the Kinsky icon from the Applications folder to the recycle bin.

Updating

Select Check for Updates from the Help menu.

A dialog will appear, informing you whether updates are available and guiding you through the steps required to update if a new version is available.

Operation

Kinsky contains four main areas, Controls, Now playing, Source information, and Browser

The Controls area at the top right of Kinsky provides the standard windowing controls, room and source selection buttons, plus the controls to skip track, resume/pause a track, seek within a track and, (if the room has a preamp), control the volume.

The Now playing area at the top left of Kinsky provides information about the currently playing track, e.g. track title, album, artist, etc.

The Source information area on the right side of Kinsky provides additional information and controls for the currently selected source. For example for a Playlist source this area provides the ability to select, add, remove, and re-order tracks.

The Browser area on the left side of Kinsky provides management and access to the installed Kinsky plugins. You use the browser to locate media to play within the current room.

The Controls area

The controls area groups together all of the commonly used controls for room and source selection, and playback.

Room Selection

A typical modern home contains multiple HI-FIs, each of which are typically located in different rooms. You can configure a Linn device to appear in a particular room within Kinsky, either using its web configuration interface or using Linn Konfig.

The room selection box provides a way for a user to move between the different rooms, allowing the user to see what is currently playing in the selected room, as well as allowing the user to control the music playing in the selected room.

When moving between rooms the music will continue to play.

When a room is selected all preamps and sources in the room are brought out of standby.

Automatic Room Selection

Kinsky can be configured to automatically select a room at start up.

The start up room can be configured in the 'Startup Room' page in the options dialog.

The default behaviour is for the last selected room to be selected.

Putting a room into standby

To put a room into standby, first select the room within the room selection dialog, and then tap the button. When the room selection box shows 'Select a room' the room has been put into standby.

Source Selection

The source selection box provides a way for a user to change the current music source in the selected room. The number and types of sources available in each room depends on the HI-FI components installed in the room (see sources). Only one source can be selected at a time within a room. Click a source to switch to that source. The dialog will close and the Source Information area will display the new source information.

Seek Control

If the currently playing track allows seeking (e.g. it is not a radio station), then the seek control will be enabled and display the current track time (either elapsed or remaining).

The seek control has two active areas, the outer ring and the inner circle (where the current track time is displayed).

Rotate the outer ring using the mouse to seek to a different location within the track.

If the 'use rotary controls' option is deselected, then this will change to an up/down button on either side of the outer ring, which can be pressed and held to seek within the track.

Click the center of the seek control to toggle the current track location between time remaining and time elapsed.

Volume Control

If volume of the currently selected room can be controlled by Kinsky, then the volume control will be enabled and display the current volume.

The volume control has two active areas, the outer ring and the inner circle (where the current volume is displayed). The volume control glows differently depending on which area is currently active.

Rotate the outer ring using the mouse to turn the volume up or down.

If the 'use rotary controls' option is deselected, then this will change to an up/down button on either side of the outer ring, which can be pressed and held to change the volume.

To mute or un-mute the volume click in the inner circle. The volume control dims when the volume has been muted. If the volume is muted and you rotate the outer ring, this will unmute the preamp.

Transport Control

If the currently selected source is able to be controlled by Kinsky, then the transport controls will become enabled. These control starting/stopping playback and moving backwards and forwards between playlist tracks or radio presets.

The transport control reflects the controls that are appropriate for the currently selected source, e.g. for the Playlist source the transport controls are skip backward, play/pause, and skip forward.

Windowing Controls

These are the standard controls which allow the user to minimise, maximise, restore or close Kinsky. The bottommost of these buttons is an additional button which toggles Kompact mode.

The now playing area

The now playing area shows information about what is playing or ready to play in the currently selected room. If no room is selected, or nothing is ready to play in the selected room (e.g. an empty playlist), then this area of the screen will be empty.

Artwork

This displays the artwork for the currently playing track. Clicking on the artwork toggles full artwork view.

Metadata

This displays the metadata for the currently playing track. For example, the title, artist and album information for a music track, or radio preset name and metatext for a radio station.

Technical Information

This displays the codec, sample rate, bitdepth, lossiness and bitrate of the currently playing track.

This can be hidden by deselecting the 'Extended track info' option.

Sources

Playlist

The Playlist source allows a user to create a list of tracks that are played through in sequential order. A play indicator shows the currently playing track, which moves sequentially through the playlist as the list is played. When adding tracks (or a selection of tracks) to the playlist, you can choose to Play Now (inserts the track(s) at the end of the playlist and starts immediate playback of the added track(s)), Play Next (inserts the track(s) after the currently playing track) or Play Later (inserts the track(s) at the end of the playlist).

The Playlist source allows for gapless playback of tracks.

The Playlist source can hold a maximum of 1000 tracks.

Building a playlist

Direct Play

Direct play allows instant access to your media directly from your computer or the web. Just drag 'n' drop the media you want to listen to from your computer directly into your media renderer's playlist and sit back and listen.

Note: Using this feature requires that Kinsky remain open and accessible from your media renderer whilst you are listening to the media.

Media Provider Plugins

To browse a media server, first select the Library plugin from the browser's homepage, then select the media server you wish to browse for music.

To insert containers/tracks into a media renderer's playlist, drag and drop onto the media renderer's playlist (or right click and choose Play Now, Play Next or Play Later.

Deleting the playlist

To clear the current playlist click on the waste bin.

Deleting a track

To delete a track, or a selection of tracks, drag and drop the track(s) onto the waste bin.

Saving the playlist

To save the entire playlist click on the 'Save' button and enter the name you wish to give the playlist. It is also possible to save a selection of tracks from the playlist by dragging the a selection of tracks to the 'Save' button.

Grouping tracks by album

The Group playlist items by album option toggles a mode whereby consecutive items in a playlist with the same album name in their metadata are grouped under a subheading of the album details. This feature allows more items to be presented on screen at once and prevents duplicate artwork being shown in the playlist.

Reordering the playlist

You can re-order the tracks in the playlist by dragging and dropping either individual tracks (or if grouping is selected, by dragging the album header to move all tracks in the album).

You can also move items up and down by right-clicking and choosing move up/move down in the context menu for an item.

Repeat And Shuffle Modes

If the currently selected source supports repeat or shuffle modes, these can be toggled on and off by clicking the (repeat) and (shuffle) mode buttons respectively.

Radio

The Radio source allows a user to listen to internet radio stations, as well as podcasts and 'play again' shows. The Radio source allows a user to preset their favourite stations for quick access. A play indicator show the currently playing preset.

The Radio source can hold a maximum of 100 presets.  These are configurable by setting the appropriate TuneIn username under the TuneIn Radio section in your device's configuration page (or via Linn Konfig).

UpnpAv

The UpnpAv source allows a user to create a list of tracks that are played through in sequential order. A play indicator shows the currently playing track, which moves sequentially through the playlist as the list is played. When adding tracks (or a selection of tracks) to the playlist, you can choose to Play Now (inserts the track(s) at the end of the playlist and starts immediate playback of the added track(s)), Play Next (inserts the track(s) after the currently playing track) or Play Later (inserts the track(s) at the end of the playlist).

The UpnpAv source provides support for standard UPnP Media Renderers. If a Playlist source is available in a room it should be used in preference to the UpnpAv source as it offers the following benefits,

1. Gapless playback of tracks.
1. Retains the created playlist between Kinsky sessions.
1. Allows predicable playback in the presence of multiple control points.

Operation of the UpnpAv source is similar to that of the playlist source.

External

The External source allows a user to play external sources such as CD/DVD player, games console or portable music player.

The types of external sources are,

1. Aux
2. SPDIF
3. TOS
4. Analogue

Songcast

The Songcast source allows a user to listen to a remote Songcast source such as another DS on the network.

A list of all available Songcast senders which have been discovered on the network will be discovered and displayed in the source information list when the Songcast source is selected. Double click a sender to connect and start listening to it.

Browser

The browser presents a unified view of all the music sources on your local network. The home page of the browser consists of a list of currently enabled plugins]

Each of these plugins provides a view of media files that can be browsed and selected for playback in the playlist source.

A dialog will pop up containing all the metadata beloning to that item (such as title, album name etc).

Browser Controls

In addition to the main area of the browser, which displays the current location's contents, the browser has some controls which facilitate easy navigation within the contents of the installed plugins.

Up Button

The button takes the browser back up a folder, to the parent folder.

Breadcrumb

The breadcrumb control (shown at the top of the browser in the screenshot to the right) provides a "trail" which allows the user to see their current location within the browser and click on any of the parent folders to return to that location.

Bookmarks

Any folder within the browser can be added to the bookmarks list, allowing quick navigation back to that location at any time.

To add a bookmark, either browse to that folder, then click the Add bookmark button next to the breadcrumb, or else right click the folder and select Bookmark from the context menu.

A dialog will appear allowing you to customise the name of your bookmark. Choose an appropriate name and press add.

To browse to an existing bookmark, click the bookmarks button next to the add bookmark button and select the bookmark from the list which appears.

To delete a bookmark, locate it within the bookmarks list above, then right click it and select Delete from the context menu.

Toggle View Button

The browser provides two views, list view (presents the items within a folder in a sequential list, one per line) and thumbnail view (presents the items as rows of thumbnail images, with title underneath).

Clicking the button will toggle thumbnail view and clicking the button will toggle list view. These are mutually exclusive, so only one of the two will be present on screen at any time.

Size Button

Clicking the button brings up a slider which allows you to set the item size for the browser view you are currently in.

Browser Plugins

Kinsky offers a mechanism for offering its users new ways of finding content for their media players. This additional functionality comes in the form of Media Provider Plugins (MPP). A MPP offers a way for Kinsky to explore media content and for a user to select and playback this content on their media player.

Kinsky comes with a variety of MPPs by default (BBC, Folder, iTunes, Library, Local Playlists, Movie Trailers), however users can install other MPPs that offering content they are interested in.

Plugins are distributed in packages. A plugin package is a zip archive with a kpz file extension.

Enabling or disabling a plugin

A list of installed plugins appears in the Plugins page in the user options dialog. To enable or disable a plugin, tick or untick the tickbox next to its name.

Default Media Provider Plugins

BBC

The BBC plugin provides an easy way for users to browse and listen to BBC content. It provides links to live BBC radio streams as well as to the BBC's Listen Again and Podcast catalogues.

Folder

The Folder plugin provides an easy way for users to browse folders on their computer.

How to add and remove folders

There are two ways to add and remove folders from the Folder plugin.

1. Through the Folder plugin's options page add and remove buttons
1. Using drag 'n' drop
 1. Add by dragging the folder into the browser window at the location Home > Folder
 1. Remove by dragging the folder into the waste bin

iTunes

The iTunes plugin provides an easy way for users to browse their iTunes library.

Note: If you Music resides in the iCloud (iTunes Match) and NOT not located on your PC then this Music CANNOT be played on the Linn DS, (The DS does not have access to the iCloud)

* Select iTunes from the User Options to reveal the iTunes set up section.
* Browse for your iTunes music library file.  By default this file will be placed in /Users/<<username>>/Music/iTunes.
* If your iTunes music file is not in the default location it can be easily found by:
  * Open iTunes.
  * Select Edit > Preferences, and click Advanced.
  * Your iTunes music library file location can be found under iTunes Media folder location.

Library

The Library plugin provides a way to browse the UPnP media servers on your home network. A UPnP media server indexes your digital music collection and provides a mechanism for control points to browse your music collection.

Local Playlists

The Local Playlists plugin provides a way to browse, manage and insert DPL playlists into a media renderer's playlist.

To delete playlists or tracks, (within a playlist), drag and drop them onto the waste bin. To insert a playlist into a media renderer's playlist, drag and drop the playlist's icon onto the media renderer's playlist.

Movie Trailers

The Movie Trailers plugin provides an easy way for users to watch movie trailers on a video capable media renderer.

WFMU

The WFMU plugin provides an easy way for users to browse and listen to WFMU content. It provides links to live WFMU streams as well as to WFMU's podcast catalogue.

WFMU-FM is a listener-supported, non-commercial radio station broadcasting at 91.1 Mhz FM in Jersey City, NJ, right across the Hudson from lower Manhattan. It is currently the longest running freeform radio station in the United States.

Kompact Mode

Kinsky provides a mode called Kompact mode which can be toggled on or off either by double clicking an empty area of the top bar with the controls and now playing information, or by clicking the Kompact mode button in the windowing controls.

Full Artwork View

Kinsky also provides a view called Full Artwork which can be enabled by clicking on the artwork in the now playing area of the screen. Clicking the screen again will exit full artwork view.

User Options

To obtain the user options dialog, select Preferences from the Kinsky menu. The dialog to the right should then appear.

Pick a category from the list of options categories on the left hand side, then the relevent options for that category should appear.

Troubleshooting

Known Issues

BBC LISTEN AGAIN

The BBC website has changed its URL's
The fix is to disable the BBC Plug-on for Kinsky. Install Kazoo Server on a PC/MAC/QNAP and enable the Media Apps - BBC, this has the correct web address. This will allow BBC Listen Again to work with Kinsky

Firewall port settings

If you are running third party firewall software, you might need to manually open the following ports,

* TCP 47832 to 47932 inclusive
* TCP 49832 to 49932 inclusive
* UDP 1900

If allowing permissions does not seem to affect the connection, please try disabling your firewall completely before launching to test this issue.

When I try to select a network card it only gives the option of "None"

Ensure that you have at least one network adapter card enabled.

When I start Kinsky I get a dialog saying "An error has occured whilst trying to detect available network adapters"

There is a known issue with Mono detecting network cards in the presence of some installed virtual machine software.

In order to get Kinsky to run you will need remove any conflicting virtual machine software.

At present we believe that !VirtualBox is the only virtual machine software that causes this problem to occur.

Artwork does not appear

Some Media Servers such as Fruppes no not support coverart. Other media servers do not like the size of the coverart, this should be resizesd to 600x600 pixels.

Check that the folder with the Music files have a coverart picture called "folder.jpg" with a size of 600x600, this will allow generally allow the album view to show the coverart. (Some coverart maybe in the PNG format, this should be opened and resiezed to 600x600, then resaved as folder.jpg)

Some UPnP Media Servers also require the coverart to be embedded within each Music file. This can be done with software such as MediaMonkey, Foobar2000, Tag& Rename etc., after which, rebuild your database to ensure that the UPnP Media server has updated its database

If you have changed any artwork recently, the UPnP Media server may still be looking for the older original version that no longer exists. We would recommend that you rebuild the Media Database then recheck.

If there was some error with downloading the artwork, there will be an entry in your Debug Console associated with that bit of artwork and it will give some reason for not being able to download the artwork and the URI to the artwork, hopefully this should help you fix the issue and at the very least try and download the artwork in your browser to see if you media server is providing a valid image!

Kinsky just doesn't run on my Mac. The icon bounces in the dock and then goes away.

Do you also have or have you ever had eLyric Music Manager installed? There is a known conflict between eLyric Music Manager and Mono. This issue is related to a file that eLyric adds to your Mac during its installation. We have discussed the matter with the makers of eLyric and they have assured us that it is safe to remove the file and that they will fix the issue in a future version. Note that if you have had eLyric installed and have subsequently uninstalled it, the problem persists as the offending is not removed during the uninstall process. To remove the file, do the following:

1. Open Terminal.app from (Applications/Utilities)
2. Type the following command at the prompt:

{{{ sudo rm /etc/launchd.conf }}}

You will be prompted to enter your password. Note that, as you type, the cursor does not appear to move. This is normal, just continue to type the password and hit enter.
3. Reboot your Mac

If this does not work, do the following:

1. Open Finder

2. From the Menu bar at the top select 'Go' the  'Go to Folder

3. Type in ~/Library/Kinsky and click Go

4. Select 'Options.xml' file and delete

After this, Kinsky, Konfig and other Mono applications should now work.

Kinsky crashes on PC/MAC/iPad/Android

If you are running Songcast on a PC/MAC then we suspect that Computer name is blank. (The Songcast app uses the name of your computer when constructing some metadata that it publishes onto your local network. The name of your computer is coming through as "<unknown>" which is exposing a bug in Songcast (present 4.3.4))
You should be able to see your computer's name from

 MAC "System Preferences -> Sharing" 

 PC "Control panel -> System and Security -> System. 

If it is a case that this name is simply blank, setting it to something like "Alex's Mac" might then resolve your issue.