SlimServer Driver (Test Release)

[Jonathan]

The release version of this driver is now included in CQC 2.0

Description:

This driver provides controls for the SlimDevices SlimServer. SlimServer (http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html) powers the new Squeezebox network music player, the free software SoftSqueeze (http://softsqueeze.sourceforge.net/) player as well as the original Squeezebox and SLIMP3 players, and can stream your music to any other software MP3 player. It supports MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, WAV and more. SlimServer is released under the Open Source GPL license.

This driver provides the following functionality:

Full control over SlimDevices including the Squeezebox, SoftSqueeze and the Transporter
Bidirectional communication to SlimServer for real-time status and control

Integration with CQC for media rendering


Quirks and Limitations:

SlimServer provides its own media repository that is separate and distinct from CQC. It is not necessary to set up the SlimServer media repository as CQC will provide all the information to the SlimServer as required for playing media that has been imported into CQC.

Connection Details

Upon installation the driver will ask for the hostname of the SlimServer and the name or ID of the network player it will be managing. If you have multiple network player devices you will need to load this driver multiple times, once for each of the network player devices you wish to manage. Once the driver connects it will communicate with SlimServer for the display and status information for the designated player.

How To
There is a how to by jkmonroe posted here: http://jkmcomputers.com/cqc/current/how-to

Sample Template Pack

You can download a sample template pack here (http://www.mediafire.com/?czwdygdzfyf) (it is too big to be attached to this post)
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5949/templatepacknb2.th.jpg (http://img300.imageshack.us/my.php?image=templatepacknb2.jpg)

[Jonathan]

10/14: Version 0.1

Initial Release for Testing


11/26: Version 1.0

First version for the new CQC 2.0 (1.7.20 build)
Now provides nearly full integration as a media renderer and media repository support for CQC


12/29: Version 1.3

Updates to support the new CQC jukebox/playlist functionality

[Rolecgroup]

Jonathan

Its looking good !!

Just given it a quick try - made Daughters name appear on the slimp - made her smile.

More importantly - set up a PlayPlaylist that starts a Shoutcast stream and using the DisplayLine2 i can see whats playing !!

Now will be able to build a nice Internet Radio page in CQC !!

Only real observation - sending to DisplayLine is good which will be useful for CallerID - but... will/is it possible to make the 5 seconds configurable ? - I'm not sure when the phone is ringing that 5 secs will be enough for you to hear phone/look at slimp etc.

Oh - and DisplayLine2 is the only one displayed when you go for double height text on a Slimp - not sure if its same on Squeezebox etc. - so might want to note that in the docs.

And another Oh - sending the PlayPlaylist command turns the Slimp on - coool !!

Top driver - thanks



Dean.

[Jonathan]

Just given it a quick try - made Daughters name appear on the slimp - made her smile.:-D Awesome! It's those little things that are so much fun!Only real observation - sending to DisplayLine is good which will be useful for CallerID - but... will/is it possible to make the 5 seconds configurable ? - I'm not sure when the phone is ringing that 5 secs will be enough for you to hear phone/look at slimp etc.

Next update will have a new command called "ShowMessage" which I think will do what you want:

Displays a message on the network media player screen. There are two versions, the second will use a large font to fill the entire screen. Duration is specified as a number of seconds, brightness is specified as a number from 0 to 4. The display will return to the previous brightness level after the message expires.

1. “Message Line 1” “Message Line 2” Duration Brightness

2. “Message” Duration Brightness

E.g: “Hello” “World” 10 4

[Rolecgroup]

Here's screenshot of Streaming Radio buttons, and DisplayLine2 for Now Playing.

http://www.samares.net/dabslimp.jpg

Thanks for the driver !!



Dean.

[Jonathan]

That looks pretty darn awesome! I listen to Club 977, SkyFM & Digitally Imported (Premium subscriber). Did you make those icons or find them?

I've just finished a quick template so I can play my albums from the CQC cover art browser. Next, I need to do what you did so I have all my streaming stations easily accessible that way :-D

[Rolecgroup]

Hi Jonathan

I did the icons myself - i've packaged them here if of interest to you http://www.samares.net/bed-overlay-dab.CQCTmplPack




Dean

[Ripper]

Jonathan as you know I'm a slimdevices newb :-) ...is it possible for me to use the driver as it is with the softsqueeze thing or do I need an actual network player?

[Jonathan]

It works fine with SoftSqueeze. I have downloaded SoftSqueeze 3 (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=105169) and have the headless version in my HTPC startup group so it always runs in the background without UI (and use the web or now CQC to control it)

[Ripper]

Thanks for the info gonna try to test this tomorrow some more when I have free time.

[johnnynine]

It works fine with SoftSqueeze. I have downloaded SoftSqueeze 3 (https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=105169) and have the headless version in my HTPC startup group so it always runs in the background without UI (and use the web or now CQC to control it)

In this configuration (without slim hardware) I assume that the streaming media plays via the pc speakers?

If this is the case, is there an advantage to using SoftSqueeze over Zoom Player to play streaming internet radio?

[Jonathan]

In this configuration (without slim hardware) I assume that the streaming media plays via the pc speakers?

If this is the case, is there an advantage to using SoftSqueeze over Zoom Player to play streaming internet radio?

Exactly. SoftSqueeze makes your PC act like a SqueezeBox using your soundcard which is great if you happen to have all your house audio running from SlimServer on SqueezeBox (or Transporter) devices already as it all then works seamlessly. For example, you can use the syncronization mode to have some or all of the devices playing the same material.

I think it would be serious overkill using it over Zoomplayer purely for streaming Internet radio on a PC :-D

However, if you wanted some other plugin functionality (http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?PluginsAudio) of SlimServer like their iTunes integration, BBC, XM Radio, Sirius Radio plugins, or LastFM integration etc. it might be worth checking out.

[MikeW]

This is a bit off-topic, but has anyone been able to stream Shoutcast stations using CQC/Zoomplayer? I tried this in the past and Zoomplayer would eventually crash or stutter badly when playing any shoutcast streams. I believe it's a problem with the shoutcast plugin for ZP. Last time I checked the Zoomplayer message boards other people were having the same problems and there was no fix.

MikeW

[johnnynine]

This is a bit off-topic, but has anyone been able to stream Shoutcast stations using CQC/Zoomplayer? I tried this in the past and Zoomplayer would eventually crash or stutter badly when playing any shoutcast streams. I believe it's a problem with the shoutcast plugin for ZP. Last time I checked the Zoomplayer message boards other people were having the same problems and there was no fix.

MikeW

I tried getting ZoomPlayer to open a .PLS url and the actual data stream url today and was unable to get zoomplayer to recognize it. It specifically has Open URL in it's menus, but I couldn't get it to work. MusicMatch opened them fine.

[Jonathan]

Well, I just took the plunge and subscribed to Sirius new online offering which gives you online access to their channels at 128K Windows Media Audio instead of their 32k low-fi feed.

As you can imagine, 32k sounds really bad, even XM Radio online at 64k was barely tolerable especially when most of my streaming listening is 192K MP3 from Digitally Imported/Sky.FM. However, I'm using the Sirius Plugin for SlimServer and listening to the 80's channel now and I have to admit the audio quality sounds much better than I thought it would :-)

Of course, now I want it integrated to my CQC driver! :shock:

The challenge, however, is providing a direct way to choose channels from my driver. Like most SlimServer plugins, the Sirius Plugin doesn't provide any way to talk to it via IP (to be fair, until SlimServer 6.5 there just wasn't any way for a plugin to communicate via IP anyway so it is going to be a while for plugins to make their functionality available that way) but I've got an idea for how to creatively get around that issue which when complete should work for any plugin (e.g. XM Radio or BBC too) :-D

[Rolecgroup]

This is a bit off-topic, but has anyone been able to stream Shoutcast stations using CQC/Zoomplayer? I tried this in the past and Zoomplayer would eventually crash or stutter badly when playing any shoutcast streams. I believe it's a problem with the shoutcast plugin for ZP. Last time I checked the Zoomplayer message boards other people were having the same problems and there was no fix.

MikeW

Thats why i was really pleased when Jonathan release the driver - i'd tried Zoomplayer but found it to crash it, and not always start the stream.

Jonathans driver works everytime !!!



Dean.

[Jonathan]

Jonathans driver works everytime !!!

Heh, now wait, it'll set fire to something for sure! :shock:

I will have an update posted with some better instrumentation and a couple of bugs fixed (if you play a streaming URL with a port number in it then it crashed the driver due to an error in my parsing routine and the driver also had issues reconnecting if it lost connection to the SlimServer) later this week.

[MikeW]

Exactly. SoftSqueeze makes your PC act like a SqueezeBox using your soundcard which is great if you happen to have all your house audio running from SlimServer on SqueezeBox (or Transporter) devices already as it all then works seamlessly. For example, you can use the syncronization mode to have some or all of the devices playing the same material.

I think it would be serious overkill using it over Zoomplayer purely for streaming Internet radio on a PC :-D

However, if you wanted some other plugin functionality (http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?PluginsAudio) of SlimServer like their iTunes integration, BBC, XM Radio, Sirius Radio plugins, or LastFM integration etc. it might be worth checking out.

Since I can't get ZP to play shoutcast streams reliably I don't think this is overkill at all. I've never used SlimServer or it's supported hardware devices. Can Softsqueeze replace ZoomPlayer for my whole-house audio player? My plan was to use multiple instances of ZP along with an M-Audio 410 sound card to drive multiple independent sound zones. Can Softsqueeze do the same thing? Can I have multiple instances of Softsqueeze on the same computer?

MikeW

[Jonathan]

Can Softsqueeze do the same thing? Can I have multiple instances of Softsqueeze on the same computer?

Yep, looks like you can. I managed to find a thread on this topic which you might want to read. This guy is running 15 zones!

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28525

AWESOME! That did it... this is very excellent and answers the last riddle of my design scenario. My goal was to create a 15 zone, 15 source, IP based whole house audio system for under $7000. I am now able to do that.

- 15 copies of SoftSqueeze are launched, each with a unique MAC and use their own output on one of three M-Audio Delta 1010 LT PCI cards. The outputs from the soundcards will feed into 15 Audio Source AMP-100 amplifiers.

- 15 PocketPCs running SlimRemote in 15 rooms of my house will connect to these SoftSqueeze instances

Giving me 15 zone, 15 source sound system completely controllable from anywhere in the house, with the ability to syncronize and un-syncronize zones.

Only wires I need to run are the speaker wire from the audio source AMP-100s to the in-wall speakers throughout the house.

And the only hardware I have to maintain is the server running SilmServer and the 15 instances of SoftSqueeze.

The pocketPCs will also run an interface into Homeseer, my home automation system.

Beautiful- thanks all :)

[Jonathan]

Hopefully this is good news for Slim Devices :)

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28821

I am pleased to announce that Logitech is acquiring Slim Devices, and I am glad to have the opportunity to share the news here in our forum before the official press release goes out.

We have been building a relationship with Logitech for quite some time. As we got to know their executive team, it became clear that there was a compelling opportunity for us to work together to bring Slim Devices’ products to the mainstream market. As you may know, Logitech recently launched the Wireless DJ music system, and also produces Harmony remote controls, which many of our customers already use with their Squeezeboxes.

This is an opportunity for us to introduce Squeezebox and Transporter more quickly to a lot more people. Slim Devices will benefit from Logitech’s brand, their retail channel, their expertise in developing quality hardware, and their existing portfolio of complementary products such as speakers and remotes. Logitech believes this will be a fast growing segment of their business, and we are looking forward to making that happen.

One of the most exciting things about this opportunity is Logitech’s enthusiasm for our open development model, and the way we collaborate as a community to improve our products. We plan to expand this model as we continue to develop great new software and hardware. SlimServer will continue to be available free of change under the GPL, and we will participate in these forums in much the same way.

All of our employees have accepted new employment offers, and we will remain in our Mountain View location. Dean, Patrick and I expect to stay for the foreseeable future.

I’ll be here on the forums if you have any questions, and as always, welcome your feedback and ideas.

Best regards,

Sean

[auphan2]

Thank you Jonathan !!!!! This is a great driver. You have enabled me to actually stream shoutcast/internet radio stations. I can also create playlists from my albums and shuffle them without having to use zoomplayer.

I have one queston about the display line 2 info. I can only get the info that it starts out with and then it is not updating. I can manually make it update by pressing a pause button on the IV. I am sure that I am doing something wrong but do you have any guess what is causing the line 2 info not to update. Not sure if it matters but I am using Softsqueeze as the player.

Thanks again for the awesome driver.

[Jonathan]

I am sure that I am doing something wrong but do you have any guess what is causing the line 2 info not to update. Not sure if it matters but I am using Softsqueeze as the player.

Thanks again for the awesome driver.

You are welcome, I'm happy it is working well for you. Mea culpa, I uploaded the version where I had those update lines commented out. I've just re-uploaded the driver with those lines uncommented so if you redownload it things will work properly!

[auphan2]

Thanks for the quick response. The update was able to fix my issue.

Anyone having problems with zoomplayer and internet radio stations should download this plugin immediately.:-D

[johnnynine]

Thank you Jonathan !!!!! This is a great driver. You have enabled me to actually stream shoutcast/internet radio stations. I can also create playlists from my albums and shuffle them without having to use zoomplayer.

Is it possible to create a playlist with all my songs, and play them randomly?

Or is there another way to do this with cqc?

[Jonathan]

Is it possible to create a playlist with all my songs, and play them randomly?

There is a randomplay command in the driver that uses the randomplay SlimServer plugin. You can do random tracks, random albums etc. Does this not do what you want?

[auphan2]

Is it possible to create a playlist with all my songs, and play them randomly?

Or is there another way to do this with cqc?

You can create any kind of playlists you want in SoftSqueeze. Once you create a playlist you can use a command button to access your playlists in CQC. If you create a large enough playlist you will get an error message from CQC when you first start the playlist. I guess this is a buffer issue with the driver because this is probably not what Jonathan had in mind for the use of this driver. Close the error message and the playlist will start once all the info is loaded into the player/driver. You can then send a shuffle command if you choose to the playlist. Let me know if you need any help with this.

[Jonathan]

Can you post the error you get? I'm not hardcoding any limits in length deliberately so I'd like to fix this.

[auphan2]

Jonathan this is the error I am getting.

CQC Error Dialog Dump
--------------------------------------
Time: Sun, Oct 22 10:11:49 2006 -0500
OS Info: 5.1.2 [2600]

Error Dump
Bedroom,CQCServer,CIDOrbWorkerThread2
(CQCKit,CQCKit_DriverBase.cpp.4065,API Failed-Not Found,2016-0-0)
The value written to field Slimserver Master.PlaylistPlay was rejected by the driver

The playlist will still play once it loads into the player but the size of the playlist determines the amount of time waiting. For a 500 song playlist this process might take 30 seconds. The radio stations loading do not cause this error.

Thanks for your help.

[Jonathan]

Hmm, okay, so SlimServer isn't returning success until the whole playlist is loaded and I'm timing out the command too quickly.

I think I'll change my code to allow me to set timeouts values per command (instead of a single global timeout value) and that way I can change the commands that have potentially long operations like load playlists to have a much higher timeout value than the simple immediate action commands in the next version :-)

[Dean Roddey]

If it's going to take 30 seconds, you really need to just queue the list and start spooling it out a bit at a time in the poll callback until it's all loaded.

[Jonathan]

If it's going to take 30 seconds, you really need to just queue the list and start spooling it out a bit at a time in the poll callback until it's all loaded.

The stored playlist is sitting in SlimServer (in mysql), I just send the one single command to SlimServer to put that stored playlist name (e.g. "all my songs playlist") into the active play list and wait for it to say it is done and successful. I have no idea what that playlist contains at that time as it is just a name to the driver.

Most commands get a response immediately but it appears that this command doesn't get a response from SlimServer until SlimServer has completed the work and if you choose to load up a playlist with 1500 songs it could take some time depending on how fast the computer is.

What I'm not sure about (and would have to test) is if this command is blocking or not. It may be that I can still send and receive other commands while the load is processing so the driver would not need to wait and could pick up the result in the poll method. However, not sure what I'd do with that result since the command has completed and if it wasn't sucessful there isn't much I can do with that information.

What do you think, if it is non-blocking should I just return immediately for that command since it has an unknown execution time?

My poll method is very simple. It sends two packets and receives two packets. The first packet gives me what is showing on the device display and the second gives me all the status information that I then parse.

There are other ways to shuffle all your songs by using the randomplay command instead but since SlimServer uses MySql to store everything it really has few limits on size and 1500 items in the playlist isn't a big deal for it once it has done the row copy to the active playlist table to handle.

[Dean Roddey]

If it's non-blocking and it won't play until the operation completes, you could always set a busy flag and either clear it when you get the final confirmation (if one arrives) or when some obviously reasonable time has passed (i.e. assume you must have missed the confirmation for some reason and just give up.) Or, if it allows you to continue to interact, just don't do anything, just send the command go on about your business.

[Jonathan]

You can create any kind of playlists you want in SoftSqueeze. Once you create a playlist you can use a command button to access your playlists in CQC. If you create a large enough playlist you will get an error message from CQC when you first start the playlist. I guess this is a buffer issue with the driver because this is probably not what Jonathan had in mind for the use of this driver. Close the error message and the playlist will start once all the info is loaded into the player/driver. You can then send a shuffle command if you choose to the playlist. Let me know if you need any help with this.

Ok, I've made some changes I'd like to get feedback from you to see what you think and if this solves your problem with large playlists, if so, I'll update the version on the first page.

This version removes the error when a playlist command times out (15 seconds) and provides a new field called "Busy" that is true if the SlimServer is processing a command. This means if you want to, you can use this field to wait until the command does finish processing or use states to disable the buttons etc during processing.

However, if SlimServer is busy and you try to send another command before it finishes processing it WILL return an error. This is by design.

[PeterT]

Looks exciting, thanks for your efforts Jonathan.

A possibly dumb question, but will we be able to dispense with the use of the JRiver Media Center for scanning into the media repository in CQC 2.0?

[auphan2]

This is the error I am getting after the update.

CQC Error Dialog Dump
--------------------------------------
Time: Wed, Oct 25 14:37:53 2006 -0500
OS Info: 5.1.2 [2600]

Error Dump
Bedroom,CQCIntfView,CQCRunActionThread
(CIDOrb,CIDOrb_ClientBase.cpp.654,API Failed-Timeout,1008-0-0)
The server at 192.168.1.100:13507 did not reply within the requested time. Proxy class=TCQCSrvAdminClientProxy


Could you possibly make the timeout default longer(maybe 60 seconds). I dont know if this will cause problems or not but on the larger playlists that should give them ample time to start. Small playlists run perfectly and do not give the timeout error. I am sure most of my problem is that my current server is just to old and slow. Thanks again.

Jason

[Jonathan]

From what I've seen so far (based on this finding at http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=2686) , if you rip your CDs using the new CQC 2.0 media repository then SlimServer should also find the ripped media files on the hard drive the next time it scans for media (or if you force a rescan) and update its own database and so the two should stay in sync. You won't need J River at all.

In any case, the driver will need updating for 2.0 as Dean has added and updated widgets that would allow me to surface more SlimServer functionality.

[Jonathan]

This is the error I am getting after the update.

CQC Error Dialog Dump
--------------------------------------
Time: Wed, Oct 25 14:37:53 2006 -0500
OS Info: 5.1.2 [2600]

Error Dump
Bedroom,CQCIntfView,CQCRunActionThread
(CIDOrb,CIDOrb_ClientBase.cpp.654,API Failed-Timeout,1008-0-0)
The server at 192.168.1.100:13507 did not reply within the requested time. Proxy class=TCQCSrvAdminClientProxy


Could you possibly make the timeout default longer(maybe 60 seconds). I dont know if this will cause problems or not but on the larger playlists that should give them ample time to start. Small playlists run perfectly and do not give the timeout error. I am sure most of my problem is that my current server is just to old and slow. Thanks again.

Jason

Thanks, however, this error isn't from my driver and looks more like the interface viewer timed out waiting for the CQC server to respond. It could be SlimServer was using too much CPU time and starving out the CQC server while it was loading the playlist? Might want to run taskmanager and watch what happens when you run the command.

[auphan2]

Not sure what is causing the error. The CPU never goes above 35-45% on the server when the error pops up. I am going to mess around with it tonight and maybe switch servers and see if anything changes.

[Dean Roddey]

The driver cannot stay in a callback for that long. It really needs to do that long an operation after returning from the request to do the playlist thing, and do it in bits during the polling operating, probably setting a flag and field indicating that it is doign so so that it can deny field writes in the meantime and clients can wait for it to complete. It's not kosher for the driver stay in a field change callback for a long time. The client is waiting for the confirmation of the field write and will only wait so long and it won't happen until the driver returns successfully from the field write callback.

[auphan2]

Now the other error is back again. Error pops after 3 seconds from all machines.

CQC Error Dialog Dump
--------------------------------------
Time: Wed, Oct 25 19:50:57 2006 -0500
OS Info: 5.1.2 [2600]

Error Dump
Bedroom,CQCServer,CIDOrbWorkerThread4
(CQCKit,CQCKit_DriverBase.cpp.4065,API Failed-Not Found,2016-0-0)
The value written to field Slimserver Master.PlaylistPlay was rejected by the driver

Same as before the playlist will still load and play.

[Jonathan]

Bah, sorry, my fault. Had logic reversed. My fault for rushing things (heading on a flight to London in the morning).

Anyway, I've tested it with a 1,000 song playlist I created and I think it is good now. 3rd time a charm :roll:

[auphan2]

Great job Jonathan. Everything works perfectly now no matter what size playlist I send.

You are a great asset to this community. THANK YOU!

Jason

[johnnynine]

There is a randomplay command in the driver that uses the randomplay SlimServer plugin. You can do random tracks, random albums etc. Does this not do what you want?

Yes this is what I want. :)

Is there another way to do this in cqc without installing softsqueeze or the slimserver plugin? I'm only familiar with using the jriver media repository to play a selected album.

[Ripper]

Jonathan I haven't given much feedback on the driver because I'm just about to move into our new home but I do intend to try it a bit more once we get settled...thanks again!

[jkmonroe]

Im looking forward to using this driver. Any idea on when 2.0 compatible will be available?

[Jonathan]

Im looking forward to using this driver. Any idea on when 2.0 compatible will be available?
I'll be interested in updating it for 2.0 when Dean is to the point where he is able to post the new CML API documentation updates for CQC and he wants developers to play with it :-D I'm very interested in seeing what the new functionality of 2.0 will allow me to do with this driver.

Right now, however, I'm still trying to figure out how to get XM and Sirius plugins for SlimServer to be usable from the driver. So far, no luck without me making some changes to the plugins (which are written in perl and my perl skills are somewhat lacking)

[Jonathan]

Great job Jonathan. Everything works perfectly now no matter what size playlist I send.

You are a great asset to this community. THANK YOU!
You are welcome! Very happy we've solved that issue :-D

Playing around I realized the IR receiver in the SqueezeBox will report back on any IR signal it can see, not just the remote that comes with the device so the next feature I'll be adding is a driver field with the last IR code the device has received, you can then set up CQC event triggers to execute and do something when a specific IR code is seen :-)

[Jonathan]

Yes this is what I want. :)

Is there another way to do this in cqc without installing softsqueeze or the slimserver plugin? I'm only familiar with using the jriver media repository to play a selected album.
I can't answer that really but I do not think the current version of CQC understands playlists natively so I'm thinking the Zoomplayer driver doesn't either but I could be wrong :-( I suspect we'll see some very nice capabilities in the 2.x releases however!

[penngray]

after reading this whole thread it sounds like purchasing Zoomplayer Pro last night was probably wasted $$$.

It sounds like you guys have created a way to have playlists through CQC and squeezebox. I was wondering how I was going to play music during parties now I might have my answer

Can CQC create the playlists on the fly? I mean can I Queue songs in a big list? Is this an enhancement to the driver?

Also, could I get an example template with the squeezebox stuff on it? It will get me up to speed quicker on how to use. It would have to be an 2.0 export though.

[penngray]

Yes this is what I want. :)

Is there another way to do this in cqc without installing softsqueeze or the slimserver plugin? I'm only familiar with using the jriver media repository to play a selected album

I think this thread explains the only way to have playlists outside of using CQCs music repository (which doesnt allow MP3s so I can not use it).


I have been waiting for a playlist solution and I guess its time to figure out how much slimserver and softsqueeze costs.

[Dean Roddey]

CQC supports playlists via our own repository in 2.0, in which case you can use ZP to play our playlists.

[penngray]

Yes sorry Dean if I was not clear on that point.

I have 10,000 MP3s and I can not convert them to your repository therefore I will be using J.River repository and that does not have playlist functionality.

Either way, is there a way to get this slimserver driver into 2.0 so I can import it into my 2.0 development?

[Dean Roddey]

He'll have to load it into 2.0 and export it from there.

[penngray]

Jonathan, could you load the driver into 2.0?

[Jonathan]

Time for another release:

* Fixed timeout error when trying to play large playlists

* Added new field "Busy" - set to true when SlimServer is busy processing a long command (such as a large playlist). You can use this field to wait until the processing is finished as during this time the driver will not accept any other commands.

* Added new field "AddTitleCookie" to allow a basic way of adding songs to the end of the current playlist from the cover art browser instead of immediately playing them (via PlayTitleCookie)

* Added new field "LastInfraredCode" containing the IR code last seen by the device. The receiver in the Squeezebox will work with a variety of remotes so you can use this field to trigger an event when it sees a particular code from a particular remote.

I'll look to also release a 2.0 version when I have the time to install 2.0 on my test environment.

[Rolecgroup]

Excellent work Jonathan !!

Couple of questions...

Is there a Next Track command ? - have found stop/pause/play etc.

The zoomplayer driver has CurArtPath available for Media Image to display cover art - will this be possible in a future release.

Another thing which you are probably aware of - media track browser works but if you select a single track from it - it repeats this track rather than move onto the next track as with zp driver

Also cant get addtilecookie to work - just seems to lock viewer up for a second or two.



Dean

[Jonathan]

Next track can be done a couple of ways, you can use the Remote Command field value "Forward" and "Reverse" which will play the next and previous track or you can use the PlaylistCurIndex field and set it to "+1" or "-1" to go to the next or previous track.

AddTitleCookie will add the album titles to the end of the current playlist but doesn't change the play state (unlike playtitlecookie which will start playing) so maybe you need to hit "Play"?

[Rolecgroup]

Jonathan

Doing more playing - works great except it doesnt like some of my albums

Get this error :-

http://www.samares.net/slimperror.jpg

The same albums dont affect ZP - virtually every album effected are ones that i've bought from iTunes burned/rip and retagged, but a few others are ones that i tagged ages ago.

Any pointers on what to look for - i'm guessing its something in the tags - but from what i can see titles/artists are simple like with no odd punctuations etc.



Dean.

[Jonathan]

Any pointers on what to look for - i'm guessing its something in the tags - but from what i can see titles/artists are simple like with no odd punctuations etc.
What the driver does when it gets a cookie from CQC is do a lookup in CQC to find the artist name and album name that the cookie represents.

It then asks SlimServer to look in its database and find the ID of the artist and upon success then looks for an album with the artist ID and the specified album name. The driver then caches that cookie information in memory. It is worth noting it is this code that has to be changed for CQC 2.0 to support the new media functionality, everything else in the driver works under 2.0 but not this functionality yet.

So, the first thing to check is that that artist and album you selected in CQC appears and is tagged identically for both the artist name and album name in SlimServer's database through the web interface.

If that seems to be fine, then it would be useful to set the driver logging to "High" and execute the command and send me the (rather verbose) log output. Because the driver polls every 850ms you will want to only have logging set to high for the shortest possible time otherwise the log will be large :-)

[Rolecgroup]

What the driver does when it gets a cookie from CQC is do a lookup in CQC to find the artist name and album name that the cookie represents.

It then asks SlimServer to look in its database and find the ID of the artist and upon success then looks for an album with the artist ID and the specified album name. The driver then caches that cookie information in memory. It is worth noting it is this code that has to be changed for CQC 2.0 to support the new media functionality, everything else in the driver works under 2.0 but not this functionality yet.

So, the first thing to check is that that artist and album you selected in CQC appears and is tagged identically for both the artist name and album name in SlimServer's database through the web interface.

If that seems to be fine, then it would be useful to set the driver logging to "High" and execute the command and send me the (rather verbose) log output. Because the driver polls every 850ms you will want to only have logging set to high for the shortest possible time otherwise the log will be large :-)

Jonathan

Ok - i re-indexed my Slim DB as it hadnt been done for a while - that fixed the new ones which i'd added to JRMC but not to slim - now on to the old one that doesnt work.

Have looked at it in both slim and JRMC

Tag are name - King
title - Steps in Time

Both show identical.

Can you direct me on what to turn on for high logging, and where the output will be.


Thanks



Dean.

[Jonathan]

Can you direct me on what to turn on for high logging, and where the output will be.

Run the CQC Log Monitor from the CQC program group. Then run the Admin Interface program from the CQC program group and click the Administer Server Drivers button (where you added the driver in the first place) and look on the bottom right of the window when you click the SlimServer driver name. It will say "Verbose Log" and probably "Off". Change it to "High" (it will be effective immediately, you don't need to close the window) and run the command that fails. Then turn it back Off.

The Log Monitor will have shown a bunch of debugging data, you can use the button called "Snap to File" to export the data to a text file to send to me.

[Rolecgroup]

Jonathan

htpc,CQCServer,CIDOrbWorkerThread0
(CQCKit,MEng.System.CQC.Runtime.CQCLogger.312,Stat us-App Status,0-0-0)
Sending SlimServer command: artists 0 1 search:King

htpc,CQCServer,CIDOrbWorkerThread0
(CQCKit,MEng.System.CQC.Runtime.CQCLogger.312,Stat us-App Status,0-0-0)
SlimServer response: artists 0 1 search:King count:8 id:1189 artist:The 45 King

htpc,CQCServer,CIDOrbWorkerThread0
(CQCKit,MEng.System.CQC.Runtime.CQCLogger.336,Stat us-App Status,0-0-0)
SlimServer command error: artists 0 1 search%3AKing count%3A8 id%3A1189 artist%3AThe%2045%20King

htpc,CQCServer,CIDOrbWorkerThread0
(CQCKit,CQCKit_DriverBase.cpp.4065,API Failed-Not Found,2016-0-0)
The value written to field slimp3.PlayTitleCookie was rejected by the driver

Just a snip of the output - looking at it i'm guessing its something to do with The appearing in there..

I've looked at the tags assigned to the files and there's no mention of 'The' - but having another look i've found an artist called The 45 King - so is it getting confused in someway ?



Thanks



Dean.

[Jonathan]

I've looked at the tags assigned to the files and there's no mention of 'The' - but having another look i've found an artist called The 45 King - so is it getting confused in someway ?


I think I see what is happening. The artist search for "King" returned 8 matches as SlimServer seems to be doing some smart/fuzzy matching. I am only looking at the first result which in this case isn't the one we want. I think I need to change my logic to look at all the results and find the one with our exact match.

[Jonathan]

Dean, can you try this test build and see if this one resolves the issue... and if not, post the logs again. Thanks.

[Rolecgroup]

Jonathan

yep - works a treat !!

Still cant seem to get AddTitleCookie to do anything though..

Other little quirk observed is that if you select a single track from the Media Track Browser it loops on that track rather than moving onto the next.

Also noticed that the elapsed time and full track time dont tie up, the elapsed time seems to end about 10-15 secs sooner than total time.

Brilliant driver !! - really got me re-using the old Slimp which was starting to feel a bit neglected with all this CQC stuff ;-)



Thanks



Dean.

[Jonathan]

Good to hear it is working. I've upgraded my system to the 2.0 beta so I'll be working on changing the SlimServer driver to work with the 2.0 media repository and hopefully I can resolve your issues too.

[Rolecgroup]

Hi Jonathan

Glad you've got the 2.0Beta installed - we are now reliant on your slimserver driver for most of our audio listening, so i'm holding off on changing to 2.0 until you've got a 'slim for 2.0' driver :-)



Dean.

[Jonathan]

Glad you've got the 2.0Beta installed - we are now reliant on your slimserver driver for most of our audio listening, so i'm holding off on changing to 2.0 until you've got a 'slim for 2.0' driver :-)

I'm ripping music as of last night into the new repository, next stop will be making that music work with Slim, so I'd expect a first test release by the weekend...

[auphan2]

I'm ripping music as of last night into the new repository, next stop will be making that music work with Slim, so I'd expect a first test release by the weekend...


Great news Jonathan. Looking forward to the next release.

[Rolecgroup]

Is the new driver going to be the new Media Repository only ? or will we still be able to tie it to a JRMC repos ?

I wasnt sure whether to take the plunge with the new Repository, though this might swing it :confused:



Dean.

[Jonathan]

Is the new driver going to be the new Media Repository only ? or will we still be able to tie it to a JRMC repos ?

I wasnt sure whether to take the plunge with the new Repository, though this might swing it :confused:
I'm open to supporting both but my first goal will be to get the best integration I can with the new media repository through the CML API's that are made available to the driver :-)

[Dean Roddey]

I think that hte question was whether it would be specific to our repository vs. J.River. The answer would be no. The media architecture hides the details and he wouldn't really know or care which one he was working through. The CML interface is the same regardless.

[Jonathan]

Okay, here is my first build for 2.0. There is quite a lot of rework in the driver from the 1.x version, hopefully all for the better :-)

No documentation updates yet and a number of fields have been added and a number have changed their names to fit in with Zoomplayer and Theatertek drivers for consistency. Use the new PlayMedia field to pass a Title, Collection or Item Cookie to be played.

Good news, the issue with having to keep SlimServer's media database in sync with the media repository is gone. I can now send the specific pathnames of each item to be played and SlimServer will add the song to its database on the fly.

I've also rearchitected the driver to take advantage of SlimServer 6.5's new subscription mode. That means instead of sending the 4 queries per second I used to do I'm now getting sent events from SlimServer when things happen. When the device is idle that means only one packet every 20 seconds to process which in turn means much less network traffic and less load on SlimServer (and CQC).

A bunch of smaller stuff, code cleanup, better comments, small fixes along the way are in there too. The only place I'm not certain about is when selecting albums in CQC that have a LOT of tracks and if CQC would timeout during that. I'm not sure if I should move that to a queued operation because I could see if you had an album with 50 tracks, it might take 5 seconds to get those all loaded into SlimServer to play.

So go play with it :-D

EDIT: Removed files, latest version is posted in the main post

[auphan2]

:-D All of my playlists and radio stations are working perfect. I have had the driver running since late last night and it hasnt missed a beat. I have not had a chance to play around with the cab with a large album but I will later today.

You added quite a few new options in this release. I really like the addition of the MenuSearch Artist,Song, and Album. This will be very useful feature down the road.

Thanks for getting this release out.

[auphan2]

The only place I'm not certain about is when selecting albums in CQC that have a LOT of tracks and if CQC would timeout during that. I'm not sure if I should move that to a queued operation because I could see if you had an album with 50 tracks, it might take 5 seconds to get those all loaded into SlimServer to play.

So go play with it :-D

You were right about albums with a lot of tracks. Anything for me that has over 35-40 tracks causes an error.

CQC Error Dialog Dump
--------------------------------------
Time: Sat, Nov 25 01:41:36 2006 -0600
OS Info: 5.1.2 [2600]

Error Dump
Office,CQCIntfView,CQCRunActionThreadThread0
(CIDOrb,CIDOrb_ClientBase.cpp.683,API Failed-Timeout,1008-0-0)
The server at 192.168.1.104:13507 did not reply within the requested time. Proxy class=TCQCSrvAdminClientProxy

Player will still play once device is ready. Like before you have to exit out of the error and all is fine. Hope this helps.

[Jonathan]

You were right about albums with a lot of tracks. Anything for me that has over 35-40 tracks causes an error. Player will still play once device is ready. Like before you have to exit out of the error and all is fine. Hope this helps.

Thanks, I figured as much and it turns out it was actually quite easy to add an internal queue to my code, so now it immediately starts playing the first track and then adds the rest to a queue that is gradually sent during Poll() cycles so there shouldn't be a limit (and if you play another collection while it is still loading it dumps the queue properly). You just (obviously?) won't be able to select a track (item) if it hasn't sent it yet to the device so don't hit play and then try and immediately select track 50! :-D

[auphan2]

That fixed the error Jonathan. Thanks again for all the work you put into CQC.

[Jonathan]

Excellent :-) I think we're closing in on finalizing it and packaging it then. I just need to get the documentation updated.

Dean, if you are going to add a CML method for CheckMediaCookieType() I'll switch my code to using that method instead before I finalize it.

[Dean Roddey]

I'll try to get that into the drop today.

[Jonathan]

Thanks Dean!

The main post has been updated with the latest build that requires today's CQC 1.7.20 drop and is now feature complete with updated documentation :-)

This build has a working "SelectMenuPath" field that allows for automated navigation through the device menu. You may wish to use this if you have downloaded or are using any of the plugins for SlimServer such as Podcasting support.

For example, if you want to have a CQC command button that plays the latest "This Week in Tech" podcast you would do the following:


Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.SelectMenuPath, Plugins/Podcasts/This Week in Tech/#2)
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.RemoteCommand, Play)


The menus are seperated by "/" characters and "#2" selects the second menu option which will be the latest show (since we don't know what name it will be) and then the second field write pushes the "Play" button to start playing the podcast. However, because it has to walk the menus it may not work 100%.

[Jonathan]

We want to allow people to select albums that will be queued up to be played and we want the songs to be shuffled.

Answer:

Use the "EnqueueMedia" field instead of "PlayMedia" from the Cover Art Browser command to add the selected collections to the end of the current playlist. Set the "PlaylistShuffle" to "Songs"

You should also force the playmode to "Play" that way if nothing is currently playing it will start.
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.EnqueueMedia, %(MediaRTV:ColCookie))
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.PlaylistShuffle, Songs)
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.PlayerMode, Play)


Note, using the EnqueueMedia is a feature specific to this driver for doing a jukebox solution so don't expect things like the Media Item Browser to understand or support it!

[Jonathan]

Just for fun you can download a sample template pack here (http://www.mediafire.com/?czwdygdzfyf) (it is too big to be attached to this post).

Thanks to Ripper for the controls, and no, the level meters on the right are not real, sorry! Someone with some skills could probably make them into an enumerated image control though to reflect the volume setting.

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5949/templatepacknb2.th.jpg (http://img300.imageshack.us/my.php?image=templatepacknb2.jpg)

[Dean Roddey]

For the next release I'm definitely going to improve the digital VU meter widget to support a number of different LED styles so that it can be used in more places such as that.

[Prefect]

For the next release I'm definitely going to improve the digital VU meter widget to support a number of different LED styles so that it can be used in more places such as that.

Can you also make it so they can be optionally horizontal? I wanted to use one in one of my templates, but I needed a horizontal one.

Also, the pedant in me wishes you would rename it something like "bar graph widget" because VU means something very specific, but that's neither here nor there. :)

[beelzerob]

Speaking of the VU meters (and sliders), Dean, are you going to make the min/max limits of the control dynamic like we discussed so it can be used to move within a playing media content? In other words, for content that is currently recording, the "end time " of the media will be increasing.

[Dean Roddey]

I think I'd put that functionality in a new progress bar widget.

[Ripper]

For the next release I'm definitely going to improve the digital VU meter widget to support a number of different LED styles so that it can be used in more places such as that.

Would be nice is somehow we could use our own images to create our own VU or bar graph widgets..I imagine this is probably somewhat technical to achieve but if it could be done it would be a nice option.

A spectrum analyzer widget something like this would also be cool :-)

http://homepage.mac.com/bismark/bs-spectrum/Images/bs-spectrum.png

[noshali]

Soory...I am jsut starting out. I installed the slimserver and it stays at Starting slimserver and nothing happens. Am I doing something wrong???

regards,

[Jonathan]

You are doing fine. SlimServer is the media manager but it alone just runs as a service waiting for connections since it supports having as many players (zones?) as you may need.

The CQC driver will connect to the SlimServer service and actual player clients need to connect, either physical hardware like the Squeezebox or software players like the Softsqueeze application which you can run on computers with soundcards to turn them into networked audio players.

You can download Softsqueeze from:

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=105169&package_id=113211&release_id=453295

When you install it, there is a GUI version (which is good for checking everything works) but also a headless (non GUI) version you can just stick in your startup group and forget :-)

Hopefully we can get a HOWTO guide up and running. There is one started that also includes how to also use the XM Radio Online plugin with the driver too :-)

[robashroy]

There was quite a bit of discussion about Pandora Music Service. Does this driver now allow you to choose channels in CQC to play on Pandora?

[Jonathan]

There was quite a bit of discussion about Pandora Music Service. Does this driver now allow you to choose channels in CQC to play on Pandora?

Unfortunately, not. While Slimdevices do support Pandora they don't have support for it in SlimServer. You have to change and connect the Squeezebox to their Internet server. While there has been rumours of an API for the Internet server there are no timeframes. If they ever add a Pandora plugin, then it would support it.

[jkmonroe]

how-to here (http://jkmcomputers.com/cqc/current/how-to)

[Ripper]

jkmonroe...excellent how-to! Great work on figuring all that out.

Now I have a question and I *think* it might be possible...for people like me who own the Russound ST2-XM and IVB who owns the Polk XM we only get 16 characters max for Artist/Album/Song data and assume the slimserver plugin is getting the full character set shown on XMRO and its not cut-off at 16 characters.

Simply what I would like to do is continue using the Russound ST2-XM for the audio but I would like to use the Slimserver XMRO plugin to display full length Artist/Album/Song info...if I change from channel 42 to lets say channel 48 on the Russound I want the data to update the fields but I don't necessarily need to be streaming the actual music..I just want the full length data from xmro to be displayed while still using the Russound and wonder if its possible:-)

[LesAuber]

Maybe a stupid question but if all I would like to do is run xmro is the CQC media repository needed?

[jkmonroe]

no. you only need the repository if you are going to use the Cover Art Browser to hold your logos.

[LesAuber]

Thanks, I'll have to give this a try.

[Jonathan]

Thanks, I'll have to give this a try.

When you add the driver it WILL ask you for a media repository. However, you can simply point it at a dummy repository (just add one such as the J. River and point it to that) and it will be happy and you'll still have all the commands other than the two that only work with the media repository (PlayMedia and EnqueueMedia) working fine.

[jkmonroe]

i may be confused, but the slim driver works fine with the jriver repo. i thought he was talking about the cqsl repository in case he doesnt buy the addon. im using the jriver repo and the playmedia and euqueuemedia commands work just fine. :-D

the only thing im using the cqsl repo for are the xm and radio logos.

[LesAuber]

Thanks again. Hopefully any empty directory will do as I have no repository, J. river or otherwise.

[Bauer83]

Is anyone having trouble playing XM radio online from Canada. I can log into the site that both the Canadian and American sites link to, and have it stream no problem. When I go to the slim server, it says that I am logged in, but it remains stop even when I press play. It also it properly displaying which song is currently playing, which confuses me even more, as that means it is showing that it is connected properly.

[Ripper]

Arent the Canadian and American sites the same for data..as far as I know the stations are just mirrored?

[Jonathan]

Is anyone having trouble playing XM radio online from Canada.
I'd suggest posting the question to this thread:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29867

Canada has definitely been an issue for most third party XM radio online players and this one may be no exception. There are differences in where the audio is streamed from and even differences in what channels are available etc.

[jkmonroe]

thread, im sorry for yelling at you. i should have just said bump. no hard feelings, ok?

[Bauer83]

thread, im sorry for yelling at you. i should have just said bump. no hard feelings, ok?

For any people interested, I decided to reinstall the Slimserver program, and to my amazement, XMRO worked perfectly fine (and I live in Canada). The slimserver seems to run a little slow(sloppy) on my computer at the moment, and I can't tell if it has to do with my wireless network, or the software, or something else. I am running it on a pretty decent machine, so who knows.

[Jonathan]

There is a bug in the driver parsing that means if you are using drive letters for your media location (e.g. D:\Music) instead of a UNC (\\HTPC\Music) and you pass a title or collection cookie it won't populate the CurColCookie and CurTitleCookie fields which are used for the various media widgets.

I've fixed this and will submit it to Dean for including in the next CQC release.

[Rolecgroup]

We want to allow people to select albums that will be queued up to be played and we want the songs to be shuffled.

Answer:

Use the "EnqueueMedia" field instead of "PlayMedia" from the Cover Art Browser command to add the selected collections to the end of the current playlist. Set the "PlaylistShuffle" to "Songs"

You should also force the playmode to "Play" that way if nothing is currently playing it will start.
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.EnqueueMedia, %(MediaRTV:ColCookie))
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.PlaylistShuffle, Songs)
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.PlayerMode, Play)

Note, using the EnqueueMedia is a feature specific to this driver for doing a jukebox solution so don't expect things like the Media Item Browser to understand or support it!

Hi Jonathan

Just done my v2.0 upgrade and all is working sweet !!

Is there anyway to display a list of queued items ?

The Media Item Browser showed tracks with V1 - will it show them with V2 ?

I'm thinking of having different pages for straight album selection, and then seeing the list of now playing, and a JukeBox as your instructions above.



Thanks



Dean.

[Dean Roddey]

There is a bug in the driver parsing that means if you are using drive letters for your media location (e.g. D:\Music) instead of a UNC (\\HTPC\Music) and you pass a title or collection cookie it won't populate the CurColCookie and CurTitleCookie fields which are used for the various media widgets.

Everyone should probably be using a UNC name anyway.

[jkmonroe]

Well, for those of us using real NAS devices with specialized file systems UNC wont work.

[Dean Roddey]

How can something be visible on the Windows file system if it can't be seen as a UNC name? Even to create a shared drive you have to point it at a UNC type name, right? Or do you have to use some special driver on the Windows side that can only create drive letters?

[jkmonroe]

There is a driver/service that gets installed. There is no real way to get an iSCSI device to speak over IP without a protocol 'adapter' so using UNC isnt an option.

[Jonathan]

FYI - Do not upgrade to Java 6 at this time as it will cause problems for SoftSqueeze 3.2.

UPDATE: Softsqueeze 3.3 has been released and resolves this issue

[auphan2]

Thanks for the heads up Jonathan.

[bph]

There is a driver/service that gets installed. There is no real way to get an iSCSI device to speak over IP without a protocol 'adapter' so using UNC isnt an option.
The important upshot of which is that everything else in windows thinks it's a locally attached drive. This has great advantages.

The work around for things that insist on having a UNC name, though, is this:


Say your iScsi connection is q: and you computer is named BigBox.
Share drive q:, as in "net share MyOwnDrive=q:\"
Refer to the path as \\bigbox\myowndrive (file://\\bigbox\myowndrive), even while working on BigBox.

[Acoba]

I just installed slimserver and softsqueeze and then added xm and siruis plugins. I can listen to the sirius stream but the xm. When I try xm online, the softsqueeze player displays "cannot connect to the server for: <station ID>" I can login and listen to xm online (not through slimserver) at least that verifies my login info is correct. Any suggestion?

[Jonathan]

Is there anyway to display a list of queued items ?
I've just finished coding it so the next update will include the ability to show the list of queued items (up to 50) in a vertical browser widget :-)

[auphan2]

:-) This is a great addition and something I have been really missing. Thank you.

[Jonathan]

THIS IS A EARLY ACCESS TEST RELEASE

I've just updated the first post with the 1.1 testing release. This release hopefully fixes the issue with using drive letters instead of shares, has improved display updates support for streaming media and includes an additional driver field (PlaylistItems) that can be used with the vertical list browser to show the current and upcoming items (in Album - Song Title format)

If you install this driver you will find it will be called "SlimServer-Test". It will NOT replace the release (1.0) driver and you will need to specifically remove any devices that are using the 1.0 driver and add the 1.1 test release instead to use the new functionality. You can, however, have both versions installed and in use without any conflicts.

Please don't install this unless you specifically want to be an early access release tester and play with the new features. If you are happy with the current driver functionality, you should not upgrade and simply wait for the next release of CQC.

[Dean Roddey]

Be sure to indicate -Beta or -User or some suffix like that in the model name in the manifest, to keep it from clashing with the production version.

[Jonathan]

Be sure to indicate -Beta or -User or some suffix like that in the model name in the manifest, to keep it from clashing with the production version.
Yep, it shows up as SlimServer-Test as the model name.

[Dean Roddey]

BTW, we'll probably do a 2.0.1 in a couple weeks. So if you can shoot for getting an updated version into that release, it would be optimal.

[Acoba]

Jonathan, is sirius online going to be supported or is it currently supported in the recent update?

[Jonathan]

Jonathan, is sirius online going to be supported or is it currently supported in the recent update?
FYI, I don't myself have Sirius or XM service but I've used both in the past. The new XM radio plugin for SlimServer people are using was designed to work properly from a remote interface but the Sirius plugin wasn't.

That being said, it should work just like for Podcasts by using my menu navigation code, something like this could be put on a command button:

Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.SelectMenuPath, Plugins/Sirius/#20)
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.RemoteCommand, Play)

You'd need to check manually what the menu path is, I'm assuming it is something like "Plugins" then "Sirius" then select entry #20 and finally hit the play button. You'd have to play around to find something that works for you. It will be slow since it has to manually navigate the menus but it may be better than nothing!

[Rolecgroup]

Hi Jonathan

Great work with the new driver - having a little problem with the PlayListItems..

Certain albums do not list - i've noticed that each list starts by showing two copies of the first track, and then populates with the rest of the tracks - this doesnt happen on around 25% of the albums i've tried

http://www.samares.net/cqcscreen.jpg

If i press the next track button (remote forward) the audio and slimp change ok - but the track detail stays the same on CQC.

Also noticed this quirk showing on Slimserver

http://www.samares.net/slimpscreen.jpg

It keeps showing now playing as the first track selected through CQC - the correct cover and details pops up each time a track starts then it jumps back to the first cover. - Obviously not a problem as i'm using CQC, but dont know whether it means anything.

Also noticed you can select a track from the slimserver page, and it takes CQC about 5 tracks before it spots it - again not important as no one should be using slimserver pages !!

The Playlistitems display is great - is it possible to add functionality to it to be able to select a track from the list, and start playing from there ?



Thanks for the great work



Dean.

[Jonathan]

I've posted test version 1.2 on the first page. Asking SlimServer for more than 20 items in the playlist seemed to cause problems so I've dropped the limit to asking for the next 20 instead of 50 songs. Also, the playlist didn't work for playlists that were for streaming media, it should now.

Dean is adding the API's to CML to enable me to provide cover art in the next version of CQC and I'll add that when it is available so for now, there is still no cover art available for the cover art widget.

[jkmonroe]

OK, now that the item repo browser is out, I tried to use that and Slim to enqueue individual items but keep getting an error that the value written to the field was rejected by the driver. i guess its expecting a colcookie and is getting an item cookie. is this going to be fixed?

also, the -test version of teh driver was not loading properly on my machine. to quote dean:

The problem is that the text escapement rules changed, and a couple of drivers were hit by it. ALl of the shipped drivers are fine, but the ones you have are not compiling because of this, which is why they went away.

hopefully this will all be fixed. i cant wait for the jukebox with individual items. :-D

[Dean Roddey]

The SlimServer might need to be updated to make use of this, I don't know.

[Jonathan]

Version 1.3-TEST is posted, this requires the CQC 2.02 build to work and now has the ability to Enqueue individual media items.

Dean - this build can go into the next CQC build if you want.

[jkmonroe]

works great!! :-D

[Dean Roddey]

Yeh, send me the exported CML and the updated Manifest and I'll get it into the next drop.

[dchayer]

FYI, I don't myself have Sirius or XM service but I've used both in the past. The new XM radio plugin for SlimServer people are using was designed to work properly from a remote interface but the Sirius plugin wasn't.

That being said, it should work just like for Podcasts by using my menu navigation code, something like this could be put on a command button:

Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.SelectMenuPath, Plugins/Sirius/#20)
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.RemoteCommand, Play)

You'd need to check manually what the menu path is, I'm assuming it is something like "Plugins" then "Sirius" then select entry #20 and finally hit the play button. You'd have to play around to find something that works for you. It will be slow since it has to manually navigate the menus but it may be better than nothing!

I am trying to get sirius to work. I am just getting familar with slim and could use some help. How would I figure out what the the menu path is? is it as simple as what shows up on the slim screen?

Great job on this driver.

Thanks,
DCC

[Jonathan]

I am trying to get sirius to work. I am just getting familar with slim and could use some help. How would I figure out what the the menu path is? is it as simple as what shows up on the slim screen?
Yes, that is exactly it. Look at the screen, copy the text and repeat :-) I'd suggest building the command and testing it one menu level at a time until you have a complete path that works.

[dchayer]

Yes, that is exactly it. Look at the screen, copy the text and repeat :-) I'd suggest building the command and testing it one menu level at a time until you have a complete path that works.


Thanks! I got it to work. I am now entering all the sirius channel data in the repository.

Just as a side, I upgraded my sirius subscription to premium, CD quality, and it sounds great! Much better than the unit in my car. I think it may be close to CD quality, I am impressed.

This is a great plugin! Thanks for the effort.

DCC

[dchayer]

I just thought that I was pass along what I have found using this driver with the sirius plugin:

1. because you need to use the SelectMenuPath command to tune to a sirius station you can not use softsqueeze in headless mode.

2. The format that you need to put in the media repository for the file location is

Sirius Radio/Browse By Number/15

Below is the script for my action on collection set using the cover art bworser

Devices::WaitDriverReady(slim1, 8000)
Devices::FieldWrite(slim1.SelectMenuPath, %(MediaRTV:LocInfo))
Devices::FieldWrite(slim1.RemoteCommand, Play)

I have also created sirius icons. When I finish up mine setup and screens I will post a how-to, screens and icons.


I also highly recomend upgrading your sirius account to premium online. The audio quality is excellent.
Thanks,
dcc

[jkmonroe]

bump :-D .......

[LesAuber]

I'm obviously missing something, most likely simple and obvious, but after installing slimserver which seems happy, installing the XM plugin, setting up my XM ID and pswd and then installing softsqueeze I just get a can't connect to server for whatever channel I try and play. It logs in ok, shows my correct ID and sees the various stations with current artist. I also have access to previously set up presets but if I press play I get the can't connect message. FWIW I can use xmonline ok on this machine.

I checked window firewall and it has the ports allowed as an exception for the two that slimserver uses. I also tried just turning the firewall off but no joy. Also it doesn't appear that CQC uses these ports. Any ideas?

[Acoba]

The problem may be the xm plugin. I had similar problem with version 1.1. Version 1.1.1 which can be found on the slimserver forum fixed it for me.

[LesAuber]

Thanks, this works, though it still seems a little squirrelly. I don't see it listed as a plug in now in slimserver though the xm online is there and I did have a little trouble with it stopping slimserver at first. Pressing play on softsqueeze seems to make it repeat the login sometimes too. All of this could be pilot error on my part.

[LesAuber]

Excellent driver. Up and running on XM. Has anyone done a set of XM station logos? I sort of recall that they exist but don't remember who. Advancing old timers I guess.

A little OT but the XM high bit rate feed sounds about the same as direct line out from my MyFi. Hardly HiFi but as good as or better then the FM stations around here.

[Jonathan]

FYI, it appears Logitech/SlimDevices will be supporting Rhapsody in the 7.0 version of SlimServer (no release dates on that however) for the US market:

"You'll be able to browse Rhapsody's music guide, charts, search for artists, albums, or tracks, and generally do everything you can do with the main Rhapsody client right from your remote."

[Ripper]

Has anyone done a set of XM station logos? I sort of recall that they exist but don't remember who.


Check out this CQC Wiki page here Les for XM logos I made in various sizes

http://www.cqcusers.com:8080/index.php?option=com_uhp&task=view&Itemid=30&id=150

Multiple sizes in both .png and .psd format, I never converted them to CQC image format because it would have taken too long..we need abulk importer for things like that!

I'm sure if you decide on a certain size Dean will bulk convert them all to CQC images when he has time..he has a way to bulk convert.

[LesAuber]

Thanks, just what I was looking for. And actually Dean has some version of these packaged in the system files. Found them after I asked the question.

[Ripper]

I *believe* the version Dean has included in CQC were the very first ones I made from images grabbed from the website and fixed up..the quality is not as good as the newer ones I gave the link for but its sorta hard for Dean to add all the new ones in various resolutions..not everybody will want them in the same size.

[Ripper]

For people using the Sirius plugin with this driver I have made some Sirius channel logos..you can find them here.

http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=3488

[LesAuber]

I *believe* the version Dean has included in CQC were the very first ones I made from images grabbed from the website and fixed up..the quality is not as good as the newer ones I gave the link for but its sorta hard for Dean to add all the new ones in various resolutions..not everybody will want them in the same size.

Thanks ripper. For the few I need I should be able to resize and import as needed. I'll only be doing the few stations I listen to.

On a seperate topic. Has anyone figured out how to do a keypad for a application like this where one would want to input the number to xmradio://xx? How about a way to launch softsqueeze on a particular machine as needed? The XM plugin will only support one at a time.

And last a little OT again but am I the only one who has had choppy feeds from xmonline? It was the same on their player to so I don't think slimserver or the plugin has issue.

[Ripper]

And last a little OT again but am I the only one who has had choppy feeds from xmonline? It was the same on their player to so I don't think slimserver or the plugin has issue.

I had this problem before and thats why I bought the tuner..I'll admit however the tuner does not in anyway give you CD quality sound..I would esimate the stream to be at 80-100kbps...sound very similar to 128kbps mp3 files but sometimes I hear an odd tinny compression sound..if I flip sources between my ipod with 256kbps mp3s and my Russound ST2-XM I definetly hear a quality difference..ipod sounds much better imho.

I would imagine choppy feeds might be caused by the amount of users streaming from the xmro site.

[LesAuber]

I'd wondered whether a tuner made much difference. My little MyFi sounds much like the online version when the feed is going fine but I doubt it has the last word in DACs or output amps. I've noticed the compression. It's real obvious in the low bit rate online feed. Also seems like most of the attack and decay of the notes are missing as well as any indication that the music was actually recorded in a real environment. Still works for background. Don't know what the satellite bit rate is. The XM player shows 64 kbbs for the high bandwidth version. Sure be nice if they added a 128 kbbs option.

I was hoping this would work out as a viable alternate to using a tuner. The driver does work quite nicely. I'm just not sure I can count on XM being able to feed the data reliably based on the last couple days. Seemed to be working fine tonight through.

[Hiller]

As per the discussion on #CQC I'm posting a reminder :-)

I'm not sure the best way to impliment this...I'll leave that to you Jonathan...but some sort of filtering/sorting/searching for artists through the archive.org connection would be a huge benefit to me.

[MikeW]

Does the slimserver driver have the ability to remove items from the playlist after they've been played? I know that Dean mentioned that ZP and TT don't have this capability yet, but I don't remember reading anything about slimserver.

[jkmonroe]

yes. there is a 'clear playlist' command that you can use. thats what i do :)

[MikeW]

yes. there is a 'clear playlist' command that you can use. thats what i do :)

Does this remove each song one by one as they finish playing? What I'm trying to do is have my "Now Playing" screen show the playlist of all the songs which are remaining and remove entries after they are played.

[LesAuber]

Any idea what would cause slimserver to stop after playing XM for a couple hours?

[Ripper]

I have had this happen with the XM player online..perhaps they do this to stop people from streaming all day and eating bandwidth when they are not actually listening...perhaps you could refresh the stream say every 3-6 hours to avoid this happening?

[MikeW]

I'm getting duplicate entries in the Vertical List Browser which is used to display the current playlist. When I select the first song to enqueue the vertical list browser doesn't show anything. I assume this is because the song is currently playing and is no longer queued up. When I add "song A" to the playlist the vertical list browser shows the following:

Song A
Song A


After I add Song B the following is displayed:

Song A
Song B
Song A
Song B


After I add Song C the following is displayed:

Song A
Song B
Song C
Song A
Song B
Song C

And this continues as I add more songs. Is this the expected behavior?

[Jonathan]

You have the repeat mode enabled in the player. The playlist will show that by repeating the list of songs once.

[LesAuber]

I have had this happen with the XM player online..perhaps they do this to stop people from streaming all day and eating bandwidth when they are not actually listening...perhaps you could refresh the stream say every 3-6 hours to avoid this happening?

Yes same here. And that may be what trips it off but in this case when I go to restart I find that the slimserver itself is stopped requiring it to be restarted on the console. Just selecting another channel whatever doen't seem to do it. I have had a couple instances when setting the player off and on seemed to do it. All I've had to do with the XM player is log back in.

It is true that I'm not really listening. XM is background while I'm doing something else. The sound quality is not good enough to actually set down and listen to. I find this to be the case with either the 64 kbbs XM online or direct from the MyFi. Maybe a better receiver would be different.

[Rolecgroup]

Does the official 2.0.14 release include the latest slimp driver or should i load the one on the first page ?



Dean.

[Jonathan]

Does the official 2.0.14 release include the latest slimp driver or should i load the one on the first page ?
2.0.14 has the latest build

[Rolecgroup]

Hi Jonathan

I seem to be having some odd behaviour with the vert list browser...

When i add an album using enquemedia i get a couple of tracks duplicated in the list.

When i add individual tracks using Media Item Browser - slimp plays the first track selected, but it never appears in the vert list browser - every single track i add from thereon in appears twice in the list browser.

Any thoughts ?

Also Media Image and CurColCookie dont display anything - is this right ?

I'm using the build released with 2.0.14



Thanks



Dean.

[Dean Roddey]

In order to act like the other renderers, it should work like:

PlayMedia - single track: Search the list of currently loaded tracks. If this one is found, make it the active one. Else, do nothing.
PlayMedia - collection: Wipe the list, set the list to the collection's tracks.

EnqueueMedia - single track: Add single track to the end
EnqueueMedia - collection: Add collection's tracks to the end

[Jonathan]

When i add an album using enquemedia i get a couple of tracks duplicated in the list.
Do you happen to have the RepeatMode set to any of the repeat modes? If so, you'll see this behavior.

The vertical list browser will show you up to the next 20 FUTURE playing songs, it does not include the currently playing song.

If you put the driver in High verbosity logging mode when you enqueue or play a song it will provide some useful debug information for me if you are having issues.

[ellisr63]

Thanks for an excellent driver Jonathan!!!
I can't find the "reverse" in the commands... the "forward" is there though. Finally got your template downloaded and inserted the "rewind" command... Now this works too.

How do you add Shoutcast?

I'm using the CQC database and can't seem to link the CQC images when I have my details template... How do I do this?

Also since CQc lists the music 100 to a folder how do I get Slimserver to see all of them? Got it to play all of the CQCfolders now I think..:-)
tia,

[ellisr63]

The images are there on the web version (but they are for the wrong albums:-( ).

[ellisr63]

Also there is a plugin that gives info about the Album... is that usable in CQC?



BTW loving the SLimserver driver ... so many options still to learn to implement:-)

[ellisr63]

In case anyone is interested..... here is an article about which versions to run.... some are supposed to be cleaner sounding than others..
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?PHPSESSID=l517m97fpkqsul44r162o56cp7&topic=26453.msg235106#msg235106

[ellisr63]

Jonathan is there any way for slimserver to retrieve the images from the wma... apparently when Dean made the repository he switched to where the image is now part of the wma file.
tia,

[Jonathan]

Jonathan is there any way for slimserver to retrieve the images from the wma... apparently when Dean made the repository he switched to where the image is now part of the wma file.
tia,
If the ZoomPlayer driver can make images work, my driver should also work as we both reference the same repository. That being said, I've not tested that feature in a while so it could be broken in the driver somewhere.

Right now I'm still unpacking from my move so I can't look at it immediately but I can add it to my to do list :-)

[Dean Roddey]

The image is not part of the WMA file, but it's not exposed as a raw image either.

[ellisr63]

The image is not part of the WMA file, but it's not exposed as a raw image either.
Is there any way it could be exposed... it might make it easier to use. Also why is it that all the wma files are saved as numbers instead of as the song title?

[dkemme]

Using this driver, can I set to have multiple slimdevices synchronized to all be playing the same song at the same time? I see a SetPlayerPref command and wonder if this could be utilized?

[Jonathan]

Using this driver, can I set to have multiple slimdevices synchronized to all be playing the same song at the same time? I see a SetPlayerPref command and wonder if this could be utilized?
You'd have to do this via the web interface or the devices themselves right now. It is something I could add to a future version of the driver however :-)

[Bodshal]

For those mad enough to try it out, my Perl script to extract metadata from the slimserver's database is available at http://www.flirble.org/chrisy/cqc/slim/slimlibrary.pl .

It squirts the XML to stdout, so you'll want to "> somefile.xml" it when you run it.

I think the defaults should work if you run it on a machine that has slimservers "built in" mysql database. I don't run the built-in mysqld here, so I can't test it without installing a fresh slimserver (which I may do if someone says it doesn't work!)

Command line options are:
chrisy@brae[~/slim/slimlibrary]> ./slimlibrary.pl --help
Usage: ./slimlibrary.pl [options]
Crudely exports the contents of the Slim Server metadata library into an
XML file that broadly resembles that of a J.River XML export for the
purposes of then using with the Charmed Quark J.River media repository driver.

Options:
--[no]trackartist Do [don't] include Track Artists [yes]
--[no]albumartist Do [don't] include Album Artists [yes]

--[no]encodeallentities Do [don't] encode ALL entities in the XML [no]
Otherwise do only bare minimum: <>&
--xmlencoding=<string> Encoding for XML [UTF-8]

--dbencoding=<string> Encoding for the database [UTF8]
(NB: MySQL expects "UTF8" and not "UTF-8")
--dbhost=<hostname> Hostname/IP address for MySQL database [127.0.0.1]
--dbport=<port> TCP port number for MySQL database [9092]
--dbuser=<username> Username to use when connecting to DB [slimserver]
--dbpasswd=<password> Password for that username
--dbname=<database> Name of the database [slimserver]

--methods=<string> URL Methods considered valid when looking at
media [file]
--exts=<string> File extensions considered valid when looking
at media [mp3,wav,flac,ogg]

--help This message
--debug Enable some debugging output

Enjoy.

Edit: Heh, Just noticed I didn't include any of the M$ formats in my "valid extensions" (I don't have any). You may wish tweak as desired.

Chris.

[panos_k75]

Has development stopped for this? It looks like a very interesting alternative to ZP.

[Bodshal]

Has development stopped for this? It looks like a very interesting alternative to ZP.
Not as such. While I prefer not to speak for the author, I believe he is in the middle of organising and becoming accustomed to new domestic arrangements. :)

Anyway, the latest version, in 2.0.14, is only a small handful of weeks old!

Chris.

[panos_k75]

You'd have to do this via the web interface or the devices themselves right now. It is something I could add to a future version of the driver however :-)


I am just about to start playing with this and see how it performs compared to ZP. Syncing the different zones together would be great to have...Isn't there a way to do this with the driver as it stands?

[Jonathan]

I am just about to start playing with this and see how it performs compared to ZP. Syncing the different zones together would be great to have...Isn't there a way to do this with the driver as it stands?

I have a test version of the driver with a new sync command to use. You can download the driver from http://www.mediafire.com/?fjzx2m2gmlw

The driver will be listed as "SlimServer-Test" driver which you will need to use instead of the normal SlimServer driver.

It has a new field called "PlayerSyncMaster" which can take the ID of a device to sync with or use the single character "-" to unsync the player. If you want 3 slave devices to sync with a single master, just send that command to each of the 3 slave device drivers with the ID of the master.

Be aware that results will vary:

Good results - SqueezeBox devices on cabled switched Ethernet
Poor results - SqueezeBox devices on 54mb wireless
Poor results - SoftSqueeze software player

The slaves will resync at the start of each song limiting the amount of drift. Streaming audio works too but drifts over time as it doesn't resync.

Wireless works but any wifi interruptions/drop outs/contention etc. will kill the sync and since it is a shared medium the more devices the worse it gets so I highly recommend using switched Ethernet for good results.

SoftSqueeze software player doesn't have accurate enough timings to appear to do a good job in my tests. Your results may vary though, I'd be interested to know how it compares to running multiple copies of ZP with the same audio.

[panos_k75]

Hi Jonathan,

All my players are the SoftSqueeze clients. I will give that a try and report.
Thanks,

P.

[panos_k75]

one more thing...Does the SetRepository field work for this driver?

[ellisr63]

Any progress on getting the images to appear from CQC rips?
tia,

[panos_k75]

I have similar problems with cover art. the media image widget does not display anything, when music is selected from IV CAB. It was working fine for Zoomplayer

[panos_k75]

Next track can be done a couple of ways, you can use the Remote Command field value "Forward" and "Reverse" which will play the next and previous track or you can use the PlaylistCurIndex field and set it to "+1" or "-1" to go to the next or previous track.

AddTitleCookie will add the album titles to the end of the current playlist but doesn't change the play state (unlike playtitlecookie which will start playing) so maybe you need to hit "Play"?

I am having problems with the driver when I try to play next/previous songs in the playlist. I have tried both methods and what I have noticed is sometimes the driver takes a while to update the next track information...So track1 is playing...i then press next for track2, but driver still displays track1 (while player plays track2). This could take anything between 10 and 30 seconds till everything gets back to sync.

Edit: After further troubleshooting it appears that the problem apears when I try to playmedia from the CQC IV via the media cookies. If I play something externally of CQC then it's fine. A pause and play again forces things to go back to sync again. Very weird. Anyone else has witnessed this problem?


Any ideas?

[panos_k75]

After hours of playing with this driver I really wanted this to work but unfortunately I have had too many issues. The most important was the "blocking" nature of the driver. Adding many albums in the queue would cause the driver into a "busy" state very often, and any other commands (even pause or play) would be rejected.

Another problem I have encountered was that my different driver instances (controlling different SoftSqueeze instances) after a period of time get confused. I.e. Zone 1 displays what Zone 3 is playing...etc...It looks like the MAC addresses get confused or something...if I remove driver and add it again then it works fine, but after a while same problems again.

I am really surprised I have encountered all these problems...Is this only me?

It's a shame as this driver has some features that I really liked, that the ZP driver doesn't provide.

Nevertheless, very good work. I hope development continues to iron these issues and make this the ultimate rendered driver. Its potential is huge and the sound quality of softsqueeze player is so much better than ZP.

[siegeld]

I'm a little confused about the architecture of this plugin and how the CQC media library works. The basic question is, how does the CQC media library interact with the SlimServer media library? To use this plugin, I am supposed to create a CQC media library, right? When the plugin talks to the SlimServer, how does it figure out what to tell it to play?

[Bodshal]

I'm a little confused about the architecture of this plugin and how the CQC media library works. The basic question is, how does the CQC media library interact with the SlimServer media library? To use this plugin, I am supposed to create a CQC media library, right? When the plugin talks to the SlimServer, how does it figure out what to tell it to play?
There is no interaction between the two libraries .

When you use CQC to tell SlimServer what to play, CQC generates a URL from the path to the file that CQC has in its repository. It passes this (and pretty much only this) to SlimServer. It's irrelevant whether the file that this URL points to is in SlimServers library or not.

Chris.

Unless you use, for example, the perl script I wrote to dump the SlimServer library into a J.River-like XML file that the CQC J.River driver can read.

[Jonathan]

After hours of playing with this driver I really wanted this to work but unfortunately I have had too many issues. The most important was the "blocking" nature of the driver. Adding many albums in the queue would cause the driver into a "busy" state very often, and any other commands (even pause or play) would be rejected.
The busy state means we have sent a command to the SlimServer and it has yet to acknowledge it. When you start adding albums we have to send each song to the SlimServer and it adds it to a MYSQL database. The faster your CPU and hard drive are, the quicker it will finish. You can use the busy flag to have CQC wait until all songs have been added before finishing the command. There is little I can do about this, while SlimServer is busy adding songs, it won't respond to any other commands.

My beta version of the driver opens two connections to SlimServer, one for adding media, the other for instant commands which might remove the need for the busy flag and fix the blocking issue but it is early days in my testing.


Another problem I have encountered was that my different driver instances (controlling different SoftSqueeze instances) after a period of time get confused. I.e. Zone 1 displays what Zone 3 is playing...etc...It looks like the MAC addresses get confused or something...if I remove driver and add it again then it works fine, but after a while same problems again.

I have one Softsqueeze and two Squeezebox hardware devices and have never seen this issue but never run multiple copies of Softsqueeze either. My suggestion would be use the Slimserver web interface options to go to each device and rename each player and use those names in the driver instead of MAC addresses and see if that helps.

[Jonathan]

Any progress on getting the images to appear from CQC rips?
tia,
I've just done some checking and it seems CQC isn't calling my method to get the cover art. I've got a method with this signature in my overrides:

Method QueryBufVal
(
[In] Card4 ValueId
, [In] String DataName
, [Out] Card4 OutBytes
, [Out] MemBuf ToFill
)

And I've added logging so I will know if it is being called and nothing is written to my log indicating CQC isn't calling it :-(

Dean, can you check this on your side?

[Dean Roddey]

OK, I'll look at that. It may not be, since probably no CML driver yet has needed to handle that method.

[panos_k75]

The busy state means we have sent a command to the SlimServer and it has yet to acknowledge it. When you start adding albums we have to send each song to the SlimServer and it adds it to a MYSQL database. The faster your CPU and hard drive are, the quicker it will finish. You can use the busy flag to have CQC wait until all songs have been added before finishing the command. There is little I can do about this, while SlimServer is busy adding songs, it won't respond to any other commands.

My beta version of the driver opens two connections to SlimServer, one for adding media, the other for instant commands which might remove the need for the busy flag and fix the blocking issue but it is early days in my testing.


I have one Softsqueeze and two Squeezebox hardware devices and have never seen this issue but never run multiple copies of Softsqueeze either. My suggestion would be use the Slimserver web interface options to go to each device and rename each player and use those names in the driver instead of MAC addresses and see if that helps.

Hi Jonathan,
It's good to see you are still around. It's a been a while now, but I remember that the more albums you add the busier the driver gets...I particularly remember that if you add the 15th album or something, the driver could be stuck in the busy state for almost 10 seconds...The other thing i noticed is that sometimes the busy flag would clear for a second or so and then back to busy again.

How do your program your logic around the busy flag?
What I have done is: everytime I add/play an album I check the flag to make sure it's not set to true. However it is very likely that the check will go through and the action still fail, probably because the flag was set after the check. I can't think of a way around this...Any ideas? For me the busy flag is the main show stopper...


With regards the many instances getting confused, I have given them different names and I get the same problem after a period of time.

[Jonathan]

OK, I'll look at that. It may not be, since probably no CML driver yet has needed to handle that method.
I'd appreciate it. As you can see, quite a few people would like that to work. Also, just a reminder that I'd also like to be able to use the new playlist functions you have added for ZoomPlayer from CML too (using the PLSerialNum field etc. and providing the playlist via a back-end method) :-)

[Dean Roddey]

Also, just a reminder that I'd also like to be able to use the new playlist functions you have added for ZoomPlayer from CML too (using the PLSerialNum field etc. and providing the playlist via a back-end method)

The renderers use the backend methods for two things:

1. They use the QueryBufVal to get the title or collection level cover art.
2. They use the QueryTextVal to ask for the current play list contents.

The playlist serial number thing is just a regular old field type thing. You just bump it each time you change the playlist.

[Jonathan]

This is a testing release of the SlimServer driver. The main change is that the driver now opens two seperate TCP sockets to SlimServer, one is used for adding media to the playlist in the background and the other is used for immediate commands. There is no more busy flag (and it has been removed)

When you install this driver you will have BOTH a 1.3 system driver and a 1.4 user driver (SlimServer-Test). You will need to remove the system one and then re-add using the SlimServer-Test driver.

[panos_k75]

Nice one Jonathan.
I will test this over the weekend and report.
P.

[panos_k75]

Jonathan,
I still can't see the cover art of the item currently playing...Has this been fixed?
Thanks,
Panos

[Jonathan]

Jonathan,
I still can't see the cover art of the item currently playing...Has this been fixed?
Thanks,
Panos
This is something Dean will have to address in future versions of CQC.

[panos_k75]

This is something Dean will have to address in future versions of CQC.

Dean,
Are you planning to fix this?
P.

[panos_k75]

Jonathan,

Unfortunately I still get the same problem where my 4 driver instances are getting confused with each other...I have 4 instances of the Squeeze Player, each with its unique MAC address. I create 4 instances of your driver associated with each player...Initially everything is fine, however after a while things get mixed-up....for e.g. Zone 1 driver instance controls the Z3 player etc...etc...

[Dean Roddey]

Dean, Are you planning to fix this?

Yes, support fully compliant CML based renderer drivers is on the list for 2.1.

[Jonathan]

Jonathan,

Unfortunately I still get the same problem where my 4 driver instances are getting confused with each other...
I really think this is a SoftSqueeze or SlimServer issue (bug?) otherwise I'd see this issue with all my hardware SqueezeBox devices.

The reason I say that is that every single command to and from SlimServer from the driver is prefixed with the mac address of the device from the configuration which is validated when the driver starts and never modified so it just really isn't possible for the driver to get confused that I can see.

[panos_k75]

I really think this is a SoftSqueeze or SlimServer issue (bug?) otherwise I'd see this issue with all my hardware SqueezeBox devices.

The reason I say that is that every single command to and from SlimServer from the driver is prefixed with the mac address of the device from the configuration which is validated when the driver starts and never modified so it just really isn't possible for the driver to get confused that I can see.


Jonathan I am not so sure....

I have given each player a name:

"Z1 - Player" for Zone 1,
"Z2 - Player" for Zone 2,
"Z3 - Player" for Zone 3 and
"Z4 - Player" for Zone 4

I also have 4 drivers:

"Z1 - Softsqueeze" assocated with "Z1 - Player"
"Z2 - Softsqueeze" assocated with "Z2 - Player"
"Z3 - Softsqueeze" assocated with "Z3 - Player"
"Z4 - Softsqueeze" assocated with "Z4 - Player"


When the mixup happens...then on the driver fields I can see that driver
"Z1 - Softsqueeze" has its PlayerName field assinged to "Z3 - Player"
"Z2 - Softsqueeze" has its PlayerName field assinged to "Z1 - Player"
"Z3 - Softsqueeze" has its PlayerName field assinged to "Z4 - Player" and
"Z4 - Softsqueeze" has its PlayerName field assinged to "Z4 - Player"

However if I look at the SlimServer configuration webpage, the association between players and names is stil correct...So It looks like something gets corrupted within the MAC addresses....If i remove and re-add the drivers in CQC then the association gets restored to the correct players...


My MAC addresses are:
XXXXXXXXX01 for player 1
XXXXXXXXX02 for player 2
XXXXXXXXX03 for player 3
XXXXXXXXX04 for player 4

Really weird...Any ideas how to troubleshoot this?

One another note, the removal of the "busy" field works like a treat!

[Jonathan]

Are you using the synchronization feature? Either via the driver or through the web console?

[panos_k75]

Are you using the synchronization feature? Either via the driver or through the web console?


Nope, I am not.

[panos_k75]

Thanks Jonathan,

Do I need to remove the other drivers first?

Will try and report...

Thanks,
Panos

[Jonathan]

Thanks Jonathan,

Do I need to remove the other drivers first?

Will try and report...

Thanks,
Panos
Yes, you should unload any other SlimServer CQC driver and load this one instead for each of your devices.

[panos_k75]

Yes, you should unload any other SlimServer CQC driver and load this one instead for each of your devices.


By the way, which softsqueeze client should I be using? 2.0 or 3.3?
There are quite a few flavors (jave, executable, etc...)

[dkemme]

Although I am using CQC to control my SlimDevices, I am reluctant to load up all my music into the CQC Media Repo and build my playlists again. I have my SlimServer using my iTunes folder for the music which has my playlists. Is there a way to tell the SlimServer to play a particular playlist in the iTunes folder?

[dkemme]

I bet this is not a SlimDriver problem but rather me not knowing how to use local variables, but I'm going to post here anyway because I bet others may try to control the volume of these devices. I have a button that is trying to lower the volume by one and here is the cmd:

Devices::WaitDriverReady(Kt_Slim, 800)
LocalVars::SetVariable(LVar:Volume, $(Kt_Slim.MixerVolume) - 1)
Devices::FieldWrite(Kt_Slim.MixerVolume, LVar:Volume)

The error message is:

The invoked command failed. Offending cmd was:

"Devices::FieldWrite(Kt_Slim.MixerVolume, LVar:Volume) "

with details:
Cannot convert the passed value to a form legal for field 'Kt_Slim.MixerVolume'

Any hints?

[Dean Roddey]

There isn't any support for math operators in the action command parameters. You would need to do:

LocalVars::SetVariable(LVar:Volume, $(Kt_Slim.MixerVolume))
LocalVars::Subtract(LVar:Volume, 1)
Devices::FieldWrite(...)

[dkemme]

Still not there:
Devices::WaitDriverReady(Kt_Slim, 800)
LocalVars::SetVariable(LVar:Volume, $(Kt_Slim.MixerVolume))
LocalVars::Add(LVar:Volume, 1)
Devices::FieldWrite(Kt_Slim.MixerVolume, LVar:Volume)

Gives error:
The invoked command failed. Offending cmd was:

"LocalVars::Add(LVar:Volume, 1) "

and detail:
Could not convert '75.00' to binary value of type 'tCIDLib::TInt4'

[Dean Roddey]

That is true. 75.00 is a floating point value. If you want to adjust that, you'll have to cap the value at the decimal point and just leave a integral value, add one, then write it back.

If you want to really adjust up or down the volume in float form, it would be best to have the driver support an Inc/Dec type field for volume that bumps it down by one on false or up by one on true.

[Jonathan]

I have a button that is trying to lower the volume by one
Did you try this?

Devices::FieldWrite(SqueezeBox1.RemoteCommand, VolumeDown)

Devices::FieldWrite(SqueezeBox1.RemoteCommand, VolumeUp)

[dkemme]

Did you try this?

Devices::FieldWrite(SqueezeBox1.RemoteCommand, VolumeDown)

Devices::FieldWrite(SqueezeBox1.RemoteCommand, VolumeUp)

Works great, I knew there must be a simple solution.

I guess I could use these RemoteCommands for picking the playlist (until I add or change the name of one) unless a more direct route exists via IP control.

[Jonathan]

Works great, I knew there must be a simple solution.

I guess I could use these RemoteCommands for picking the playlist (until I add or change the name of one) unless a more direct route exists via IP control.
You should be able to use the PlayListPlay command and give it the name of the playlist, or a URL, or a filename or the name of a favorite. It is pretty flexible.

[stinggray]

This a re post. It was recommended I post it to a different thread like this one.

I have setup SoftSqueeze to display line 2 on a template. On that template I have choices Album, Playlist,..... . Once I find something I have two buttons play and add. The play works fine but the add acts just like play without adding my choice to the list. With the add button what I'm looking to do is add to the list that is already playing. I have put in many commands. Like
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.RemoteCommand, Add)
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.PlaylistAdd, )
I'm sure it's simple but I seem to be missing something. If have any ideas I would sure appreciate it.

[Jonathan]

Okay, looks like the Add button has the same issue as the Play button and it seems the fix I did for Play will work for Add too so I've modified the driver to include that :-)

Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.RemoteCommand, Add) will now work

I've also changed the volume field to a Card instead of Float to make it easier to do calculations on it

1.42 test version enclosed...

[stinggray]

Thanks Jonathan. I'll try that this weekend.

[stinggray]

Jonathan thanks the add works fine now. You might want to check the shuffle. It seems to be hit and miss.

[stinggray]

Never Mind I got it.:oops:

[Micah]

Finally got around to testing this out and was stoked to see dchayer had already gotten this to work with the Sirius Plugin.

However, I can't seem to get his method to work. When I try to use the SelectMenuPath command I keep getting an error back that says, "The value written to field HTPC-SlimServer.SelectMenuPath was rejected by the driver."

I'm assuming that means the path I entered into the field is incorrect. However, I've tried a number of different path names/styles and they're all returning the same error.

I'm not sure what version dchayer is running but I have Slimserver 6.5.1 and plugin 0.8.2. When I manually play a sirius station Slimserver has the path listed as, "Sirius Radio / Browse Channel Numbers" and then the channels are listed as #. <channel name>. Using "Sirius Radio/Browse Channel Numbers/#" returns the error as does the path that dchayer listed as working for him.

Before I start chasing my tail, I wanted to see if there are any confirmed ways to use the SelectMenuPath that can tell me if it's working correctly for me or not. I am able to load a sirius channel using a playlist with CQC, so I'm pretty sure everything is kosher between CQC, slimserver, the sirius plugin and softsqueeze, but without confirming the command works correctly or not with my setup, I can't be sure.

[eded9698]

How do you launch Softsqueeze from inside CQC using a command button?

[Micah]

Personally, I just load it on start-up and leave it running in the background. Haven't had any trouble doing this and haven't seen any impact in system performance.

[panos_k75]

Personally, I just load it on start-up and leave it running in the background. Haven't had any trouble doing this and haven't seen any impact in system performance.



How do you load the softsqueeze instances? and which version of the softsqueeze client you are running? I have 4 instances up, and sometimes I get I get no audio out from one of the instances, although it does play the file.

[Micah]

How do you load the softsqueeze instances? and which version of the softsqueeze client you are running? I have 4 instances up, and sometimes I get I get no audio out from one of the instances, although it does play the file.

You're beyond me at this point. I just run a single instance of softsqueeze on my htpc. I may have to change it later when I really start looking at distributing audio but for now, it's just the one.

Haven't ever had the no audio issue either. Not sure what would cause that.

[dpass]

Is there a remote command for delete?

I have SlimServer running in a Jukebox mode with JRiver repository and my wife and kids love it, then can pick and choose their songs and add them to the list. however, a delete command would be great so I could remove the 9 instances of "Get your head in the game" from the High School Musical CD.

[Micah]

The PlaylistClear command will completely wipe your playlist. Not sure if that's what you're looking for or not but I believe it's the only way to remove items from the playlist.

[Jonathan]

Is there a remote command for delete?

I have SlimServer running in a Jukebox mode with JRiver repository and my wife and kids love it, then can pick and choose their songs and add them to the list. however, a delete command would be great so I could remove the 9 instances of "Get your head in the game" from the High School Musical CD.
Not currently, but I can add it to the wish list :-)

[dpass]

If you could add it to the wish list that would be great.

[panos_k75]

Jonathan,
I still can't see the cover art of the item currently playing...Has this been fixed?
Thanks,
Panos


This is something Dean will have to address in future versions of CQC.


Jonathan,

Is this do-able now?

Thanks
P.

[Dean Roddey]

It would be doable now, though he'd also have to implement the other aspects of a formal renderer driver, thought it's not a lot. There's a simulator driver in the latest beta that demonstrates how to do a CML based render driver.

[Jonathan]

It would be doable now, though he'd also have to implement the other aspects of a formal renderer driver, thought it's not a lot. There's a simulator driver in the latest beta that demonstrates how to do a CML based render driver.
Ooh, sounds like fun, will have to wait for a weekend where I'm not busy but I'll definitely be taking a look :-D

[Jonathan]

I've had a chance to play a little with the new CML support for media renderers and it looks like I'll be able to do a new version of the driver that takes advantage of this.

It means the driver should be a drop-in replacement for the existing internal CQC audio renderer driver with all the same features like the playlists, cover art etc. :-D

[dkemme]

That sounds great Jonathan. I am a bit frustrated getting my iTunes repo working.

I really like Slimserver's Web interface. The search capabilities are very easy to use. Any chance we could incorporate any of these or should I learn how to present a web page on my interface viewer?

[Rolecgroup]

I've had a chance to play a little with the new CML support for media renderers and it looks like I'll be able to do a new version of the driver that takes advantage of this.

It means the driver should be a drop-in replacement for the existing internal CQC audio renderer driver with all the same features like the playlists, cover art etc. :-D

Excellent - you are a driver god ;-)

Just like Beezlerob for his Grand Concerto driver - oh and everyone else who contributes drivers :-D




Dean.

[gacevich]

just tried to open the template pack in post #1 into cqc 2.3.1 and got an error message that it is not valid this this version of cqc. is this true or, once again, am i doing something wrong?

nevertheless, i sucessfully installed slimsever, softsqueeze and the xm plug-in. i can play xmradio online via softsqueeze...very psych'd. tried to set up a command button per jkmonroe's instructions in first post.

Devices::FieldWrite
P1=SlimServer.PlaylistPlay
P2=//xmradio:20



this doesn't start streaming of xm radio channel 20. when looking at squeezbox as i try to play chnl 20, it says playlist is empty. makes sense since i am telling it to play a "playlist". do i need to set up a playlist for chnl 20 or should the playlist be provided from chnl 20. very confuse, but also anxious to get this up and running.

the WAF will go way up when i get this programmed so she can cycle through her favorite stations via the uno-s1's around the house.

[Jonathan]

this doesn't start streaming of xm radio channel 20. when looking at squeezbox as i try to play chnl 20, it says playlist is empty. makes sense since i am telling it to play a "playlist". do i need to set up a playlist for chnl 20 or should the playlist be provided from chnl 20. very confuse, but also anxious to get this up and running.
It gets the playlist from the xmradio plugin so that is correct. Make sure you are using whatever the latest xmradio plugin is from the forum, the early ones did not support the "xmradio:" method of selecting channels. I don't have XMRADIO myself so I can't help more...

[LesAuber]

Try the command like this:
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.PlaylistPlay, xmradio://70)
The field is slimserver.playlist and the value must be typed in, xmradio://70

[panos_k75]

Guys,

I am using multiple instances of the Softsqueeze player for this. However I would like to have the ability to exit the player (i.e. close down the application). I know this is not currently possible. Is there any other way of doing this?

All other renderer drivers have an exit command under the "transport" menu.

[gacevich]

Try the command like this:
Devices::FieldWrite(SlimServer.PlaylistPlay, xmradio://70)
The field is slimserver.playlist and the value must be typed in, xmradio://70
thanks. allways helps to have the same syntax.

looking to have functionality to be able to press a button on a russound uno-s1 that will allow me to cycle through a list of presets/favorites...i can do this for the presets on my reciever. played around with the forward/reverse and arrow commands and was not able to cycle through the xm stations.

have not yet set up the category browser with favorite stations. do i need to do this in order to get the cycling thru favorites capability?

[Jonathan]

All other renderer drivers have an exit command under the "transport" menu.
I'm just having an amusing moment wondering how my SqueezeBox devices sitting in my house would implement an "exit" command and visualizing them getting off their shelf and walking out the front door... :tounge
More seriously, there is no way for the driver to get Softsqueeze to exit as that command doesn't exist in the protocol.

[panos_k75]

Understood:tounge

[beelzerob]

I fired up my Pandora account again recently, and remembered why I love that sight so much. Does this driver have ANYTHING to do with Pandora, since I noticed they utilize the squeezebox. The price is still very prohibitive for me on that, though.

[Jonathan]

The current version (SlimServer 6.5.1) does not let you connect to Pandora and have CQC manage the device at the same time.

The next version (SqueezeCenter 7.0, currently in alpha) has been designed to allow for this so in combination with a future CQC driver (yet to be written) and a released 7.0 server you will be able to use Pandora and other music services (like Rhapsody) controlled from CQC which should be pretty cool.

[beelzerob]

But that will still require the purchase of the $350 squeezebox to use pandora with cqc, right?

[Jonathan]

But that will still require the purchase of the $350 squeezebox to use pandora with cqc, right?
hmm, $299 last I checked, but actually, the paid version of Pandora *might* work with the 7.0 release (and Softsqueeze 3.5) as there is no DRM on the tracks.

[gacevich]

i have successfully got slimserver and xmro channel info driver working with softsqeeze 3.4 software. however, i can't get softsqeeze to play for 24 hrs straight without locking up. if i walk over to the server and restart softsqeeze, xmro will start streaming again.

anybody else encounter this issue? if so, how did u solve it?

one of my thoughts is to put a command button on XM Radio page to shutdown and restart softsqeeze. not sure how i would do this but am thinking it might be done with Appcontrol. seen some posts on this but not sure how it works.

[Jonathan]

I don't use SoftSqueeze but I do know there is a newer beta version here:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=39587

Might be worth trying?

[Wavy]

Hey Jonathon,

So do I understand correctly that with a new Slimserver driver, the Slimserver database would serve as the repository? I could get rid of J River? This would be awesome.

Wavy

[Jonathan]

Sorry, Dean has made it possible for CML to become a full media renderer with access to playlists and cover art etc. so the driver will work as well as, for example, the Zoom Player driver etc. with all the existing CQC widgets.

However, there is only read access to the media database from CML so it will not be possible to populate the CQC repository from the driver. Hopefully this is something Dean will consider in the future.

That said, with the new features of SqueezeCenter 7 along with the better integration into CQC widgets and the forthcoming remote device (http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=222605&postcount=7) I'd say we should have some very nice enhancements to play with in 2008 :-)

[stinggray]

Santa got me my SqueezeBox yesterday.:-D I have more questions now that I have one. When I navigate in to the "squeezenetwork" I loose the connection to the slimserver. Will this be fixed with the 7.0 version? Do we have a general idea (ball park) of the release for 7.0 and the driver for CQC.

[Jonathan]

Santa got me my SqueezeBox yesterday.:-D I have more questions now that I have one. When I navigate in to the "squeezenetwork" I loose the connection to the slimserver. Will this be fixed with the 7.0 version? Do we have a general idea (ball park) of the release for 7.0 and the driver for CQC.
Correct, in this version Squeezenetwork and SlimServer are two isolated services. In the new version (7.0) SlimServer acts as a gateway to Squeezenetwork so you can access all the functionality seamlessly.

No idea for the release or the driver. You can download the current development 7.0 if you want to play with it, the current driver will work but obviously doesn't take advantage of the new features.

[Jonathan]

General question for you guys, what functions do you use on the SlimServer web interface and remote controls and why vs. using the CQC driver?

I am trying to come up with the right architecture for the next driver design but there are definitely compromises that will need to be made mostly around which component "owns" the playlist. Right now, SlimServer does but if we use the CQC playlist manager in the next version which means being able to use all the new widgets then obviously CQC must own the playlist and all changes must be made by CQC, not via the SlimServer web interface.

Thoughts?

[LesAuber]

Jonathan, for what my opinion's worth I'd prefer the option to continue with slimserver simply because it's agnostic about file formats. I do not trust M$ not to decide to add some onerous DRM to wma at some time in the future.

I wouldn't weight this very heavily since at the moment all I use is the XM plugin though I have given some thought to adding a Transporter to the system at some time in the future.