Plugin: Squeezeslave

[WestView]

I decided to test the Squeezeslave plugin in after learning that Logitech had released a SiriusXM App for the Logitech Media Server. I've always wanted to be able to stream Sirius through my SageTV setup and had tried to do so in the past using the Not So Sirius plugin and Slimplayer. Unfortunately, at the time Sirius had changed the login authentication routines and Not So Sirus was no longer able to log in, so I gave up at that point.

The Squeezeslave trial mode test went well, and I was easily able to listen to music files (though only for 30 seconds) stored on my SageTV server or various internet radio stations through my HD300 while it was in standby mode (awesome!). However, to be able to listen to Sirius or Slacker I had to register Squeezeslave as a player through the Logitech mysqueezebox.com site. There was some difficulty getting the Squeezeslave plugin recognized as a player on mysqueezebox.com. I was able to resolve this by installing Squeezeplayer, registering it as a player on mysqueezebox.com and then setting up the SirusXM Internet Radio app in My Apps (as well as the Slacker app). Once I had done this, the Squeezeslave plugin showed up as a player in mysqueezebox.com and LMS and I was able to listen to Sirius satellite radio streaming through my SageTV setup!

I purchased the licence for the Squeezeslave and just had to reset the plugin configuration after installing the license to change the HD300 from trial mode to licensed.

To augment using the LMS web control or the HD300 remote to control playback, I've installed Logitech's free Squeezebox Controller app on my Android phone and can now change stations or pick one of my own playlists (or have LMS generate a random mix from my files) with a simple interface on my phone.

All in all, a great plugin, well worth the donation.

Regards,

Nigel

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by WestView

The Squeezeslave trial mode test went well, and I was easily able to listen to music files (though only for 30 seconds) stored on my SageTV server or various internet radio stations through my HD300 while it was in standby mode (awesome!).

Next release, very soon, will have the Pure Digital Audio Output finally available on the HD200/HD300 as well as the listen time in trial mode extended to 60 seconds, however please let me know whether you feel that the extended time is still too short...

Eddy

[routerunner]

Hi,

I thought you might interested to know that I had some audio coming through the HDMI port of my HD200 last night...still long way to go, however I'm over the moon

The implementation is mainly designed for an AVR as it still make more sense this way, it is a headless player and you shouldn't need your TV on to listen music, however I had it working on my TV last night and the draw back, at the moment, is a nice pink screen which is the equivalent of "Black" in RTU 501/601 YUV colour space

Eddy

[bikesquid]

Originally Posted by routerunner

Hi,

I thought you might interested to know that I had some audio coming through the HDMI port of my HD200 last night...still long way to go, however I'm over the moon

The implementation is mainly designed for an AVR as it still make more sense this way, it is a headless player and you shouldn't need your TV on to listen music, however I had it working on my TV last night and the draw back, at the moment, is a nice pink screen which is the equivalent of "Black" in RTU 501/601 YUV colour space

Eddy

You making any progress on this? I've got an eye on this plugin for my setup, and while I agree that 'headless' is the way to use it, many use the HDMI to route audio and/or video. Swapping inputs is less desirable than just not turning on the tv if there ain't nothing to watch, and easier to explain to the family over multiple inputs for one device!
Thx Eddy!

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by bikesquid

You making any progress on this? I've got an eye on this plugin for my setup, and while I agree that 'headless' is the way to use it, many use the HDMI to route audio and/or video. Swapping inputs is less desirable than just not turning on the tv if there ain't nothing to watch, and easier to explain to the family over multiple inputs for one device!
Thx Eddy!

The HD200 is basically done, however I haven't started the HD300 yet. I'm very busy with another project at the moment, however I do have plans to get back to this during Easter time, so don't hold you breath

I can tell you that it will happen, I just cannot tell you when, please be patient and you'll get your multi-room audio experience just the way you want it

Thanks
Eddy

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by bikesquid

You making any progress on this? I've got an eye on this plugin for my setup, and while I agree that 'headless' is the way to use it, many use the HDMI to route audio and/or video. Swapping inputs is less desirable than just not turning on the tv if there ain't nothing to watch, and easier to explain to the family over multiple inputs for one device!
Thx Eddy!

Hi,

the release with the HDMI audio output support is out now, please follow the instructions in the Squeezeslave plugin's announcement thread.

Enjoy!
Eddy

[bikesquid]

Originally Posted by routerunner

Hi,

the release with the HDMI audio output support is out now, please follow the instructions in the Squeezeslave plugin's announcement thread.

Enjoy!
Eddy

Hey Eddie, I just gave the HDMI output a quick try and it looks like it works great!... Instructions are clear and after fiddling the firewall it's all set.... but I've got sync issues! 30 seconds goes by awful fast, and I can't figure out how to get it playing again, is it just one shot per power cycle?

BTW, nice job.

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by bikesquid

Hey Eddie, I just gave the HDMI output a quick try and it looks like it works great!... Instructions are clear and after fiddling the firewall it's all set.... but I've got sync issues! 30 seconds goes by awful fast, and I can't figure out how to get it playing again, is it just one shot per power cycle?

BTW, nice job.

Thanks, the new release has the trial timeout increased to 60 seconds, to start the song again just press play again on the remote or on your controller (iPhone/iPad or Android).

Trying to perform a perfect multi-room sync in 60 seconds can be challenging as you need to fiddle a little bit, however you can achieve a good sync enough to appreciate the system in trial mode and make perfect alignment later...

Eddy

[MacDaddy]

Hello Eddy. I've been using the Squeezeslave plugin for quite some time and truly enjoy it. Recently I've been using more on-demand services for my music and Spotify is quickly becoming a must-have. I can use Triode's 3rd Party Spotify plugin and get great functionality for all my Squeezebox Receivers. However when I try to play through my HD200/Squeezeslave it won't work. It shows that Spotify is sending a Ogg Vorbis format file (and I've been able to play it independently with success). I recall back to Pandora days and a similar issue where the MAC address had to be in the range of Slim Devices hardware allocations for a software player to work properly.

Is there a way to allow for a MAC address override for Squeezeslave? Or some way to at least get the first few octets in to the 00:04:20:xx:xx:xx range and have something randomly follow?

Thanks for your consideration.

[bikesquid]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy

I recall back to Pandora days and a similar issue where the MAC address had to be in the range of Slim Devices hardware allocations for a software player to work properly.

Is there a way to allow for a MAC address override for Squeezeslave? Or some way to at least get the first few octets in to the 00:04:20:xx:xx:xx range and have something randomly follow?

question unrelated to squeezeslave. wonder if this is why a pc that was working fine as a software player using squeezeslave started with buffer underrun problems on a wired connection once the pc's mac address was changed for other reasons? I hadn't linked the problem to the mac address change... if anyone's got any additional info I'd love to hear about it... . a quick web search didn't show me anything I haven't already seen but I'd love to get this pc working again. All my other software players are behaving just fine including the HD300/HDMI with the 1min preview.

[MacDaddy]

The Pandora "feature" I encountered did not manifest itself as buffer under run. The stream showed an "invalid device type" (I believe that was the error in the log). Once the software player MAC was adjusted to the Slim Devices range, then everything played. That was with Pandora, other services may mask the error differently.

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy

Is there a way to allow for a MAC address override for Squeezeslave? Or some way to at least get the first few octets in to the 00:04:20:xx:xx:xx range and have something randomly follow?

The MAC address override function has been disabled on purpose to avoid invalidating the license, however I can introduce a new setting which will present to the LMS interface a Pandora/Spotify compliant MAC address, produced by replacing the first three octets of the original extender's MAC address with the Logitech SlimDevice signature which will inevitably introduce the small risk of MAC duplicates.

The new setting must be disabled by default otherwise it will screw up all the existing user settings (LMS uses the player MAC address to identify the player and store the settings).

Before messing up with this, I would like to gather a general interest on having the Pandora/Spotify compliance setting implemented, therefore please have your say.

Eddy

[MacDaddy]

I think that would be a good solution for me. Even if the MAC address happened to be another device, the odds of them also using the same on-demand service are extremely remote.

[eagleshot]

Hi Routerunner,

A while ago I had to reformat my windows home server and did a clean install of SageTv. I am trying to get this great tool up and running again but can't seem to get it to go from trial mode to license mode on my one extender. It is the same extender I originally had things working on. I got this license prior to the trial mode version. Could that be part of the problem?

Thanks for any help!
Mike

PS: Sorry I also emailed you the same information.

STP-HD200 login: root
STP-HD200[/tmp]# ps
PID USER VSZ STAT COMMAND
1 root 2736 S init
2 root 0 SW< [kthreadd]
3 root 0 SW< [ksoftirqd/0]
4 root 0 SW< [events/0]
5 root 0 SW< [khelper]
9 root 0 SW< [async/mgr]
69 root 0 SW< [kblockd/0]
79 root 0 SW< [khubd]
82 root 0 SW< [kseriod]
100 root 0 SW [pdflush]
101 root 0 SW [pdflush]
102 root 0 SW< [kswapd0]
103 root 0 SW< [aio/0]
104 root 0 SW< [nfsiod]
105 root 0 SW< [cifsoplockd]
107 root 0 SW< [crypto/0]
205 root 0 SW< [mtdblockd]
255 root 0 SW< [usbhid_resumer]
258 root 0 SW< [rpciod/0]
328 root 2864 S /usr/sbin/inetd
370 root 2752 S /bin/sh ./runsage
373 root 252m S ./bin/cvm -Djava.io.tmpdir=/tmp -Dsage.paths.logs=/tm
423 root 2800 S /sbin/udhcpc -f -i eth0
549 root 2816 S /bin/sh
9786 root 2752 S /bin/sh ./squeezeslavelauncher -F
9798 root 83280 S /tmp/squeezeslaveplayer -F
9858 root 2800 S /usr/sbin/telnetd -i
9859 root 2816 S -sh
9865 root 2800 R ps
STP-HD200[/tmp]# uname -r
2.6.30-sigma
STP-HD200[/tmp]# cd /tmp/nfs
/tmp/nfs: bad directory
STP-HD200[/tmp]# ls
configold locks resolv.conf
hostname log run
hosts private sagetv_0.txt
lan random-seed squeezeslavelauncher
STP-HD200[/tmp]#

[routerunner]

email from a Squeezeslave user:

Hi Eddy,

Thank you for your reply.

Since I was not planning to use LMS server I set an IP address in your plugin to my SageTV server. This seemed to allow WoL capability to start working (SageTV server now wakes up).

If you plan to do further development of the plugin in the future, I would suggest the following

1) Enable HDMI for HD100

2) Allow disabling squeezeslave client while still enabling WOL (or separating this capability in a separate plugin)

3) Consider configuration where LMS and SageTV servers are running on different machines.


Once again, thank you very much for your help!

Best Regards,
Michael.

[kha]

Hi,

I got Squeezeslave exclusively for utilizing WoL feature on HD100. I do not have squeezeserver running on the same machine where SageTV server is.

My problem is that HD100 becomes unresponsive after going into standby and remaining in stand by for some time. If I put HD100 into standby, sleep SageTV server, and shortly after that power up HD100 using a remote, evrything works fine: SageTV machine does wake up. However, if HD100 remains in standby for some time, commands form the remote do not go through: I have to reboot HD100 by powering it down to restore its operation, then WoL works again.

Does anyone have a similar experience or thoughts on what may be causin this behavior?

As a wish, it would be great if there would be a standalone plugin that only provides WoL capabilities without any squeezeserver features. I am suspecting that there may be some memory leak in the situation whne HD100 switches from Sage to Squeeze mode and cannot locate the Squeeze server

Regards,
Michael

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by kha

Hi,

I got Squeezeslave exclusively for utilizing WoL feature on HD100. I do not have squeezeserver running on the same machine where SageTV server is.

My problem is that HD100 becomes unresponsive after going into standby and remaining in stand by for some time. If I put HD100 into standby, sleep SageTV server, and shortly after that power up HD100 using a remote, evrything works fine: SageTV machine does wake up. However, if HD100 remains in standby for some time, commands form the remote do not go through: I have to reboot HD100 by powering it down to restore its operation, then WoL works again.

Does anyone have a similar experience or thoughts on what may be causin this behavior?

As a wish, it would be great if there would be a standalone plugin that only provides WoL capabilities without any squeezeserver features. I am suspecting that there may be some memory leak in the situation whne HD100 switches from Sage to Squeeze mode and cannot locate the Squeeze server

Regards,
Michael

I had a similar behaviour from another HD100 user while ago, but he was using the standalone version. I spent some time into this, I even sent him a special executable to try to track down the issue, but he never bothered to let me know the outcome

I'll try to reproduce this on my rig. So you're not using the LMS and therefore you're setting the IP address manually. Do you know after how long the system become unresponsive? Is it happening during the normal day usage or after the whole night being into standby?

Eddy

[kha]

Originally Posted by routerunner

I had a similar behaviour from another HD100 user while ago, but he was using the standalone version. I spent some time into this, I even sent him a special executable to try to track down the issue, but he never bothered to let me know the outcome

I'll try to reproduce this on my rig. So you're not using the LMS and therefore you're setting the IP address manually. Do you know after how long the system become unresponsive? Is it happening during the normal day usage or after the whole night being into standby?

Eddy

Thank you.

Yes, I am providing fixed IP address of SageTV server to the plugin.

I am forcing a reboot of HD100 over the network every morning. However, by the evening it still becomes non-responsive. So, the problem must be appearing within 12 hours or less.

Regards,
Michael.

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by kha

Thank you.

Yes, I am providing fixed IP address of SageTV server to the plugin.

I am forcing a reboot of HD100 over the network every morning. However, by the evening it still becomes non-responsive. So, the problem must be appearing within 12 hours or less.

Regards,
Michael.

I did setup an HD100 like you and let the unit in standby mode (squeezeslave running) the whole night with an IP address pointing to a nonexistent machine (I have LMS running on my local networks and don't want to point to my SageTV server either) this way the unit is constantly trying to make a connection to a LMS like yours.

- Do you have your HD100 setup with a DHCP or static IP address? Mine is currently static.
- Are you using the standard SageTV remote only? I do.
- In your particular case, when the HD100 is in stand by you should notice three rapid blinks of the LINK green LED every 5 seconds, these are the attempts to connect to a LMS as the squeezeslave never gives up, can you please confirm?

I suspect that there is something on the network that causes a not handled signal which in turn makes the squeezeslave to exit from standby mode in a weird way...

Eddy

[kha]

Originally Posted by routerunner

I did setup an HD100 like you and let the unit in standby mode (squeezeslave running) the whole night with an IP address pointing to a nonexistent machine (I have LMS running on my local networks and don't want to point to my SageTV server either) this way the unit is constantly trying to make a connection to a LMS like yours.

- Do you have your HD100 setup with a DHCP or static IP address? Mine is currently static.
- Are you using the standard SageTV remote only? I do.
- In your particular case, when the HD100 is in stand by you should notice three rapid blinks of the LINK green LED every 5 seconds, these are the attempts to connect to a LMS as the squeezeslave never gives up, can you please confirm?

I suspect that there is something on the network that causes a not handled signal which in turn makes the squeezeslave to exit from standby mode in a weird way...

Eddy

Thank you

To answer your questions:

- My HD100 setup is with a static IP address.
- I am using a ubiversal remote where all original HD100 remote buttons are mapped
- Yes, when the HD100 goes in stand by I see three rapid blinks of the LINK green LED every 5 seconds. They go for some time and stop at some point. I did not time how long it takes before blinking stops. For sure, when HD100 gets into the non-responsive state, no blinks are present

Regard,
Michael