General Comments on iOS App / BluOS

Answered
Tony Paille

I just purchased a Node 2i recently, on the strength of the audio quality. The mobile control application suffers from some usability problems and the lack of support for Plex is mystifying.

The control app does not allow for drag and drop of items from the selection pane on the left to the play queue on the right - I have to select a menu icon and then add the item to the play queue from a list of options. Then, it adds it to the list either after the currently playing item or at the end: I now have to go to the play queue and select yet another menu icon to put the queue into edit mode, where I can rearrange where that song is in the play order and then close out of edit mode. This is cumbersome at best and is not a modern way of interacting with lists. There is no means of selecting multiple items from the selection pane, other than to have the software automatically add everything to the play queue. I work in software design professionally and I am very disappointed by the limitations of the app. In all honesty, this app feels like it is the first working code from a developer, who wanted to get the functionality working before moving on to usability features like drag and drop, automatically going into edit mode if I press a song in the play queue for a specified time, etc. My plan was to move to using my iPad as the sole interface to my collection, but I can't imagine spending hours screwing around with a clunky interface like this to create playlists and dynamically generate song lists. 

As to Plex support, I am astonished that it is not present. I have seen requests for this from years ago. I am quite sure that anyone who would buy a Vault is not a possible Plex user, and vice-versa, so there is no conflict of interest between your products and Plex.

Another person requested the user not have to wait until your search for a network share fails before they are allowed to enter one - again, old request that has not been addressed. A simple checkbox for whether to not do an automated search would be appreciated.

I hope to see improvements in the software in the near term. 

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Comments

7 comments

Date Votes
  • Official comment
    Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Hi Pat

    Thanks for your patience. We will be in touch.

  • Pat McCarthy

    Don,t hold your breath. I have node 2 and love the streaming quality.  That being said, the BluOS software support is a real piece of bad product from my experience.  Try to get to talk to someone after repeated email back and forth which advises you to read Some overly manual that ultimately just doesn’t resolve issues...I am an older retired guy with 50 years of music collected and now digitalized so it is frustrating getting told instructions that do not work...

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  • Pat McCarthy

    I guess that the way things are.  Does NAD see all this stuff I read about BluOS? I have used NAD products since the original 3020 series...they have always been fine 

     

    0
  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Hi Pat

    Thanks for your patience. We will be in touch.

    0
  • Pat McCarthy

    ANOTHER ROTTEN EXPERIENCE WITH BLUOS SOFTWARE...GOT CHARGED 30 DOLLARS ON A CALL TO SUPPORT (DONT THESE FOLKS KNOW THAT AN 800 NUMBER IS CHEAP AND IS BETTER FOR THEIR (AND YOUR) BRAND?)

    GIVEN A LINK TO AN APP THAT DOESNT FUNCTION CORRECTLY...OSTENSIBLY TO CLEAN FILES FOR EXTERNAL HD TO ACCEPT DL FROM ITUNES...THANKS A BUNCH...

    I HAVE A COUPLE THOUSAND DOLLARS INVESTED IN NAD...GREAT PRODUCTS POOR PARTNERSHIPS...

     

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  • Tony Paille

    Now that I have been using the Blusound for a few months, I have to say that I continue to be unimpressed by the software in general. Trying to connect to Amazon Music was confusing, and trying to create playlists on Tidal seemed to not work at all. I just opened the desktop app (BluOS Controller) again and lo and behold, the playlists on Tidal that I had created are now showing up. but trying to delete them (the ones I created just to see if ti worked) does not appear to work. I no longer have the ability to create new playlists. When I go to Tidal, the lists I tried to delete appear to be gone, but they remain in the BluOS Controller app, even after closing it and reopening.

    Tony W - is this a standard experience with this software? You tell Pat you will be in touch but ignore my comments. Pat comes back unhappy still 5 months later. Will there be improvements? Nothing much seems to have changed in the 6 months I have had this product, though there have been firmware updates for the player. Do you guys have a roadmap for upcoming features that you can share?

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  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager
    • Edited

    Hi Pat

    https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/217894298

    • Select Help, Send Support Request directly from the App on your Phone or Tablet
      PC Users select Player, Configure Player, Send Support Request. A Player log is attached to your request
    • Search our online knowledgebase.
    • E-mail us: support@bluesound.com
    • Call us Monday to Friday 8:00 am - 7:00 pm ET: 1-855-531-4666 (Toll-Free in Canada and The United States)

    Hi Tony

    When developing third party services such as TIDAL or Amazon, we are limited to their API. We have been speaking with Amazon about the poor experience and how they can provide us with a better experience for our mutual consumers. As for your TIDAL playlists not deleting, They should refresh and update automatically but againwe are limited to what TIDAL's servers also updating and providng current information. If the problem persists, please try resetting your link by selecting Music Services, TIDAL and logout. Select Help, Diagnostics, Rebbot and restart your Player. Once you are back up and running, select Music Services, TIDAL and log in again.

     

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