Slim Player (internet radio, mp3, wma, etc from SlimServer)

[koelec]

There's a new version of SlimPlayer available which a.o adds support for extenders and placeshifter..
Read all about it here:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=41893

- Chris


OBSOLETE INFO BELOW

The Slim Player plugin is an integrated player for playback of internet audio streams and local audio files served by the SqueezeCenter (formerly known as SlimServer) software. If you don't know slimserver read all about it here: http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_features.html.
Being based on the Softsqueeze player that comes with the SlimServer software it features full support for MP3, Flac, Ogg, AAC and Wma(through transcoding in slimserver) files and streams.
This plugin gives you all that my simple web radio plugin provided and much more... Because this plugin provides nearly transparant access to the slimserver you get a lot of additional features.

• Support for additional radio stream formats (not just limited to shoutcast streams, but also through plugin's: SiriusRadio, LastFM, Live365, AlienBBC, etc).
• Browse for new internet radio stations and add them to your favorites list or playlists.
• Volume control icons
• Shows artist information like Biography and picture (like in simple web radio plugin) for both local and internet content.
• Shows tag info for local content.
• Like with simple webradio the playback is stopped whenever the Sage Media Player player starts and vice versa.
• Slim server has an facility to use plugins. I haven't used many of them yet, but if a plugin doesn't rely on graphic being send to the player there's a good chance it will work with Simple Slim Player.
• Of course you can have multiple SageTV instances connect to the slimserver and have the same content available to all of them

.
Unfortunately, again I have to let users of MVP and Placeshifter down, because this plugin will work with neither one. This is because MVP and Placeshifter only playback content streamed by the Sage Media Player. Since the Media Player does not accept input streams it will not work together with the slim server. Hopefully this plugin will be popular and triggers something at Sage to support internet streams natively, so that MVP and placeshifter users can enjoy it too.


screenshots:
Main screen shows either playlists or favorites and now playing info in the bottom pane. Highlight playlist item and press play key to start playback or press option key to show option dialog where you can delete the playlist or simple press delete which shows a confimation dialog to delete the playlist.
Other playlist control functions are available through navigation mode (accessible via navigate button) or through the slimserver's web interface.


Main menu screen showing the navigation mode dialog in which you can navigate the slimserver's menu (shown in bottom panel) by using the arrow keys.

In navigation mode you can press the info button to access special keys like now playing, search, play&hold, etc. The numbers shown between brackets are shortcuts to execute the key by pressing the listed number key. For an explanation of how to operate these refer to the squeezebox manual here http://www.slimdevices.com/documenta...ners-Guide.pdf


Main menu screen slimplayer option dialog.


Now Playing screen shows at the top pane the transparent output from slimserver much like the display of softsqueeze or squeezebox. The Info panel shows artist/track info of the currently playing track. You can toggle between artist info and track info by pressing the show track info/artist info button. Any track info shown depends on the present tag info of the content. You can even have lyrics showing up here.


Now Playing screen showing track info of currently playing track.


Installation:
Be aware that slim player and the former simple web radio plugin cannot live together in one STV, that's why the web radio STV code is removed upon importing the slimplayer STVI.

1. download slim server software version 6.5 or higher from here http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html and install it; on one of the installation screens leave checkbox to start slimserver automatically checked and read through the getting started info to get acquainted with it.
2. If the SlimServer is not running on the same machine as SageTV and you have a firewall setup on the SlimServer machine, you will need to open up port 9090 tcp for access to the Command Line Interface used by SlimPlayer.
3. Right click on slim tray icon and select open SlimServer to open up its web interface (alternative open http://localhost:9000/ in browser)
4. configure basic server settings like music folder, playlists folder etc and click rescan to have slimserver add new music files to its internal library
5. Also under server settings select File Types from the drop down list at the top. Softsqueeze supports playback of MP3, FLAC and OGG. For other types slimserver has to transcode this into one of the supported formats by softsqueeze. For the WIndows Media file format only leave first one checked, i.e. Windows Media FLAC wmadec/flac). Leave all other file types as is. Make sure you click on the Change button to commit the changes you made.
6. Go back to home screen by clicking on Home in the navigation path shown near the top of the page.
7. Start softsqueeze player (listed in left pane under Help)
8. Verify that the player works. If you don't here any sound from the speakers, please check the slimserver's volume control accessible via slimserver's web interface (in the right hand upper corner of the main page).
9. Exit softsqueeze player before continuing.
10. Copy softsqueeze.jar file from location "C:\Program Files\SlimServer\server\HTML\EN\html\softsqueeze" to the JARS folder in your SageTV folder. If you're using SageClient, put in the SageClient install folder instead.
11. download slimplayer plugin code from here http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...do=file&id=121
12. Unzip slimplayer zip file into SageTV root folder (default C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV)
13. Start SageTV and import slimplayer-1.1.stvi into your current STV. This will add Slim Player menu item to the Online Services menu.
14. Alternatively, if you are using Nielm's Dynamic Menus, create an menu item for the internal screen called "SlimPlayer by koelec".
15. If you like you can map a remote key to the "custom2" commmand to launch the SlimPlayer Main Menu with a single remote key click.
16. [optional, if you want better sound quality] download java MP3 plugin and install it. http://softsqueeze.sourceforge.net/javamp3plugin.html

If you need access to the advanced configuration of softsqueeze you can select the config icon on its interface to popup the configuration dialog. Here you can configure things like MP3 decoder, Sound device and others. Things you change here are also valid for slim player.

If you want to run SageTV on a different machine from the slimserver, then you have to change the slimserver hostname (defaults to localhost). You can do this either through the configuration dialog of sofsqueeze or directly in the registry.
Open up the registry by running regedit and changing the slimserver key value data in the folowing location:
HKEY_USERS/Software/JavaSoft/Prefs/org/titmuss/softsqueeze/slimserver.

Version 1.3 adds the ability to customize the artist information html scraping script.
The slimplayer-ai.xml file contains a WebHarvest script which is run everytime a different artist is playing.
You can modify/update this script to compensate for changes in the source site. By default artist info is scraped from
http://search.music.yahoo.com. You can change the file to get the artist info from elsewhere. The Webharvest jar file part of the distribution can be run to startup the WebHarvest GUI in which you can customize and test the script. For details see http://web-harvest.sourceforge.net/.
note: the current slimplayer-ai.xml only works correctly in Europe, because the urls for content yahoo uses in Europe are different from US. So, someone please try to localise the script for US and post it on the forum for others to enjoy.


Known issues

• Accessing the squeeze network will switch the network connection from slimserver to squeeze network and because currently slimplayer cannot display the graphical UI from squeeze network this will possibly hang Slim Player. You will need to restart SageTV to recover from this.
• When X icon clicked or ALT-F4 and SageTV is configured to go to sleep, will not stop slim player playback. Currently SageTV doesn't forward this event to stv code.
• This plugin does not work with neither placeshifter or MVP.
• Multiple version of the apache commons httpclient jar file in the JARS folder of the Sage TV install dir can prevent the artist retrieval function from proper working. In that case make sure that only the commons-httpclient-3.0.1.jar remains.
• If you don't hear anything and the volume slider is way up, check the colume shown on the right pane in the web interface of slimserver. Slimserver has it's own volume control, independent of the system volume.
• Issue with muting and start of playback. The visual muted indication will remain muted if you start playback of a new stream. This is due to a defect in slimserver. Just click the mute button 2 times to synchronize it again.

History
v1.3 2009-2-18

• externalized html scraping script for retrieving artist info

v1.2.2 2008-12-08

• fixed missing artist picture caused by changes on yahoo.com

v1.2.1 2008-10-04

• fixed a bug with international characters appearing wrongly in favorites list and playlist names when using the plugin with SqueezeCenter 7.1 or 7.2

v1.2 2008-3-10

• made code work with SqueezeCenter (=SlimServer 7.0)

v1.1 2006-11-8

• fixed skin dependency between slimplayer and softsqueeze
• fixed bug where live tv would start again (video_on_menu set to always) when sagetv goes to sleep while slimplayer playing
• implemented slimplayer auto power on
• renamed transparent mode to navigation mode
• added navigate button on main screen
• added option "showcurrentstation" to show current playing station (for remote content only)
• added option "simpleselection" to bypass optionmenu when selecting a station, so it starts playback immediately
• new slimplayer options menu to set options simpleselection and showcurrentstation
• changed layout of main screen
• fixed LastFM artist info (didn't work because of different current title format)

v1.0 2006-10-03

• initial release

Enjoy.

Thanks to everybody for all comments and encouragements I got on the simple web radio plugin and this new one.
Thanks to flachbar for his Import Utility, you can not do STVI's without that anymore.

- Chris

[geogecko]

"SageMC" - Phrase not found. That is the error message I got when I did a CTRL-F search on this thread...Ane know how to fix that? Perhaps the PayPal Donate button?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by geogecko

"SageMC" - Phrase not found. That is the error message I got when I did a CTRL-F search on this thread...Ane know how to fix that? Perhaps the PayPal Donate button?

I was going to post to mention that but I figured it must be an IE bug. Hopefully we'll get verification that your proposed fix will work.

[Morgan111]

I was looking at doing a SageMC port again unless someone has that on their mind to do already. I'm working on the SageMC Movie Theater download page at the moment but hope to finish that tonight.

(Between this and the new Sage release, iTV gets slipped a little more...)

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by Morgan111

iTV gets slipped a little more...)

Oh, darn...but I understand.

This slimplayer looks like it will be nice (to stay OT...).

[redman]

Thanks for all your good work.


"Unfortunately, again I have to let users of MVP and Placeshifter down, because this plugin will work with neither one. "

Is this only with version 5? or will this be the same issue with Sage 6.0?
Have they changed anything in the media player with the new version?

Cheers
Chris

[JDizzy]

Started setting this up and got to the point of loading up player (not from withih Sage) to see if it worked (# 7 & 8) ... it did as far as the song title loaded and the graphic equalizer was moving...but nothing was coming out of my speakers.... (so I figured it didn't work)..
Could not find anywhere to define codec or sound related stuff so bailed out.

I send my sound out through Soundblaster card but it is setup for all system sounds to go out through it...can't figure it out...

I am running it on same machine as Sage is running (not client).

JD

[something fishy]

@JDizzy
The Softsqueeze player has a volume control that is independent of the main system volume and mixer controls. Might that be it?

Cheers
Eric

[koelec]

Originally Posted by JDizzy

Started setting this up and got to the point of loading up player (not from withih Sage) to see if it worked (# 7 & 8) ... it did as far as the song title loaded and the graphic equalizer was moving...but nothing was coming out of my speakers.... (so I figured it didn't work)..
Could not find anywhere to define codec or sound related stuff so bailed out.

I send my sound out through Soundblaster card but it is setup for all system sounds to go out through it...can't figure it out...

I am running it on same machine as Sage is running (not client).

JD

You probably have to increase the volume in slimserver.
Open up web interface of slimserver and in the right panel try to click on one of the volume buttons (try 11).
If that doesn't work you can try using a different sound device by opening up the config dialog of softsqueeze.
It's a tiny tray like icon at the top. Here you at some tab you can change the sound device being used.
But normally you don't have to change this because the primary sound driver is selected by default,
so I figure it's the volume control in slimserver.

- Chris

[koelec]

Originally Posted by redman

Thanks for all your good work.


"Unfortunately, again I have to let users of MVP and Placeshifter down, because this plugin will work with neither one. "

Is this only with version 5? or will this be the same issue with Sage 6.0?
Have they changed anything in the media player with the new version?

Cheers
Chris

Yes, they have changed a number of things, mostly that it now supports more file types (like ogg, wma, flash video). But no stream support.
They now use a new player for playback of addional file formats like flash video which by itself is capable of stream playback, but the problem is that the Sage API to use for starting playback only accepts files. It's all completely file type based, and streams are protocol type based. I will report this as a serious ommision that we still cannot playback web streams.

- Chris

[briands]

Originally Posted by koelec

Yes, they have changed a number of things, mostly that it now supports more file types (like ogg, wma, flash video). But no stream support.
They now use a new player for playback of addional file formats like flash video which by itself is capable of stream playback, but the problem is that the Sage API to use for starting playback only accepts files. It's all completely file type based, and streams are protocol type based. I will report this as a serious ommision that we still cannot playback web streams.

- Chris

I have not loaded the beta yet, waiting on new hardware to do a total rebuild, but I assumed the new "Google videos" were streams.

[blade]

Originally Posted by briands

I have not loaded the beta yet, waiting on new hardware to do a total rebuild, but I assumed the new "Google videos" were streams.

It does buffer the google videos and starts playback while still downloading.

[CanadianEh]

Hi Koelec,

Does this plug-in work with SageTV 6.0.11 beta? I'm not having much luck. When clicking on Slim Player from the Online Services menu, the screen half-renders showing the playlist side of the window and then text overlays the left-hand column.

Just curious

Thanks!
-Jay

[koelec]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

Hi Koelec,

Does this plug-in work with SageTV 6.0.11 beta? I'm not having much luck. When clicking on Slim Player from the Online Services menu, the screen half-renders showing the playlist side of the window and then text overlays the left-hand column.

Just curious

Thanks!
-Jay

Jay, yesterday I upgraded to v6 beta and the slim player plugin works fine on my system. I havealso loaded the dynamic menu's plugin and the imdb plugin. No problem here. Can you tell me whar plugins youhave loaded and maybe attach your stv, so I can have a look.

- Chris

[koelec]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

Hi Koelec,

Does this plug-in work with SageTV 6.0.11 beta? I'm not having much luck. When clicking on Slim Player from the Online Services menu, the screen half-renders showing the playlist side of the window and then text overlays the left-hand column.

Just curious

Thanks!
-Jay

One thing that might be the cause this would be the df-sageutils.jar is missing or wrong version. could you please check if the jars from zip file are present in the JARS folder of your sagetv install. And also take look in the sagetv log file: sagetv-o.txt and look for any errors when sagev imports the slimplayer stvi file.

-Chris

[CanadianEh]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the quick response. I've grabbed a screenshot of the problem and the STV. After upgrading, I have not imported any STVI's or added any plug-ins back in, except this one. In the past, I've installed the web server, winamp plugin, the web radio plugin, movietims, and perhaps another one.. those shouldn't be in this stv version however.

I do have the df-sageutils.jar file - 16,255 bytes - 9-08-06

I have not installed the Dynamic Menus plug-in - is that required?

Also, I'm running Java 1.4.2.... not sure if that plays into this... also, I didn't see anything strange in the log file..

[koelec]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the quick response. I've grabbed a screenshot of the problem and the STV. After upgrading, I have not imported any STVI's or added any plug-ins back in, except this one. In the past, I've installed the web server, winamp plugin, the web radio plugin, movietims, and perhaps another one.. those shouldn't be in this stv version however.

I do have the df-sageutils.jar file - 16,255 bytes - 9-08-06

I have not installed the Dynamic Menus plug-in - is that required?

Also, I'm running Java 1.4.2.... not sure if that plays into this... also, I didn't see anything strange in the log file..

Jay,

It's not 1.4.2, that working as well.
SlimPlayer is not depending on any other plugin. I saw that the STVI code is there, but all references to Themes in the STV are unresolved. DOnt know how this can happen. Only thing I can think of is a wrong sageutils version, but the details about it you've listed are OK. Can you please turn on debug logging in sage.properties by specifying the following line:

debug_logging=TRUE

(first shutdown sagetv, before you edit the properties file.
Please reimport the slimplayer stvi and post the sagetv-0.txt file.
Hopefully this will reveal something.

- Chris

[CanadianEh]

Thanks for the reply, Chris. I'll try this out a little later this week. I'm travelling early this week so I've gotta back-burner this

I'll let you know how it goes when I get back to testing

[mkanet]

I have no problems using the Softsqueeze 3.0 standalone java player.

This is what my Slimplayer SageTV screen looks like:



What should I try?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by mkanet

I have no problems using the Softsqueeze 3.0 standalone java player.

This is what my Slimplayer SageTV screen looks like:



What should I try?

Following the installation instructions.

Make sure you don't have the simple web radio plugin installed. Importing this should of removed it.

Did you stop softsqueeze player BEFORE copying the softsqueeze player .jar file into the Sage TV JARS folder?

Gerry