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

[mkanet]

Okay, I know I must be doing something wrong. It is pretty frusterating; expecially since I use this addon regularly.

Is it normal to do ALL the below steps just to play a radio station in my favorites list? It seems a bit ridiculous...

Step #1: Go to slim player menu (with remote or keyboard)
Step #2: Press Power (I have to press power every single time)
Step #3: Press Favorites/Playlists button once to switch to Favorites
Step #4: Press Favorites AGAIN to go from "iTunes: Top 25 Most Played" to actually go to Favorites list for real.
Step #5: Press select button on radio station you want to play.
Step #6: Press select button again to actually start the radio station.

There seems to be 4 extra steps (compared to WebRadio) to go through every time I want to play a radio station.

Any suggestions to reduce these steps?

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Okay, I know I must be doing something wrong. It is pretty frusterating; expecially since I use this addon regularly.

Is it normal to do ALL the below steps just to play a radio station in my favorites list? It seems a bit ridiculous...

Step #1: Go to slim player menu (with remote or keyboard)
Step #2: Press Power (I have to press power every single time)
Step #3: Press Favorites/Playlists button once to switch to Favorites
Step #4: Press Favorites AGAIN to go from "iTunes: Top 25 Most Played" to actually go to Favorites list for real.
Step #5: Press select button on radio station you want to play.
Step #6: Press select button again to actually start the radio station.

There seems to be 4 extra steps (compared to WebRadio) to go through every time I want to play a radio station.

Any suggestions to reduce these steps?

I tried the same (previously I stopped playback).
Step #1 go to slim player menu
Step #2 press play start playback of last played station.


How come you need to press power each time, do you restart sagetv in between?. Slim player remembers the last view (either playlist or favorites) for as long sagetv is running.

I could make slim player auto power on, as you suggested previously, when entering the slim player menu. Also I will make the current view persistent via the sage property file, so when you restart it will remember the view (playlist or favorite).

One othe thing that will be in the next version is your proposed direct select option, which when enabled bypasses the options menu when slecting a station.

- Chris

[mkanet]

Chris, thanks for getting back to me. After I use slim player, I almost always put sageTV to sleep; including when my sleep timer puts sageTV to sleep for me at nights. You would actually be surprised to know just how much I use your addon!

Also, sometimes, I will do something in slim player transparent mode that it doesnt like or doesnt expect which causes slim player to power off without any warning. I'm sure this has probably happened to you as well, but I'm not sure if thats something that can be fixed or not.

I am thrilled to know that you plan to have slim player to remember the last view via the property file, auto-power on, and direct select option!

I'm actually more excited about your upcoming update than the SageTV 6 upgrade itself!

Since this is my favorite addon for SageTV, I'm going to send you a paypal donation for all your hard work!

EDIT: I can't find the paypal link anymore. Are you still accepting donations?

PS: I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not.. but when adding the ability to remember the last view, could you also have it remember the last station played, so when you go to slim player menu, it automatically highlights the last station played; so, all you have to do is press enter/select? That would make things as simple as possible. What do you think?

Originally Posted by koelec

I tried the same (previously I stopped playback).
Step #1 go to slim player menu
Step #2 press play start playback of last played station.


How come you need to press power each time, do you restart sagetv in between?. Slim player remembers the last view (either playlist or favorites) for as long sagetv is running.

I could make slim player auto power on, as you suggested previously, when entering the slim player menu. Also I will make the current view persistent via the sage property file, so when you restart it will remember the view (playlist or favorite).

One othe thing that will be in the next version is your proposed direct select option, which when enabled bypasses the options menu when slecting a station.

- Chris

[alleghator]

Will this work with SageMC?

Hope this doesn't sound dumb ... I don't know enough about how these things work.

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Also, sometimes, I will do something in slim player transparent mode that it doesnt like or doesnt expect which causes slim player to power off without any warning. I'm sure this has probably happened to you as well, but I'm not sure if thats something that can be fixed or not.

That's something I seen a couple of times. Becuase its transparent mode. I cannot do anything about it. Maybe a new slim server version would help. But it's difficult to find out what exactly has been fixed and what new bugs would pop up.

Since this is my favorite addon for SageTV, I'm going to send you a paypal donation for all your hard work!

EDIT: I can't find the paypal link anymore. Are you still accepting donations?

Forget about it. I filled my pockets already. No, kiddin'. I removed it because I don't want to encourage other developers to start begging for money.
The reason I contribute to the community is because I love the product, and the credit you get when people like your plugins.

PS: I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not.. but when adding the ability to remember the last view, could you also have it remember the last station played, so when you go to slim player menu, it automatically highlights the last station played; so, all you have to do is press enter/select? That would make things as simple as possible. What do you think?

Actually, this works already. If you select the play button on the menu or the remote's play key, playback will start of whatever was playing last time. But because of the slimplayer's power off this will not work after going to sleep. But, i've found a way to get this working even after restoring from sleep mode. This will be in the next version.
Highlighting the currently selected station is in my opinion not a good idea, because it would interfere with the funtion of that part of the menu, i.e. giving the user all freedom to select a new track/playlist or favorite for playback. Also the next version optionally will show the currently playing station title in the now playing area.

- Chris

[koelec]

Originally Posted by alleghator

Will this work with SageMC?

Hope this doesn't sound dumb ... I don't know enough about how these things work.

No. Flackbar needs to create an special version of this plugin (like he did for the webradio plugin) so it can be used in the SageMC STV. But since webradio was the first of its kind he was rather quick with that one. Slimplayer has considerable more to offer than my simple webradio plugin (browsing for new stations, other formats), but needs some more configuration. The new upcoming v1.1 will simplify operating it and hopefully it will gain in popularity and might convince Flachbar or somebody else to create a SAgeMC version for it.

- Chris

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by koelec

No. Flackbar needs to create an special version of this plugin (like he did for the webradio plugin) so it can be used in the SageMC STV.

Actually, Morgan111 ported the web radio to SageMC and deserves the credit ... You'll have to beg him for an update ...


Dirk

[koelec]

I've just uploaded Slim Player version 1.1.

changes v1.1

• 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)

Screenshots available here:
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ad.php?t=20296

Download it from here:
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...do=file&id=121

quick installation (only if you have installed a previous version of slimplayer):

• unzip downloaded file into sagetv/sagetv folder
• restart sagetv
• import slimplayer-v1.1.stvi

If this is the first time you install slimplayer you have to follow the installation described here:http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ad.php?t=20296

enjoy.
- Chris

[mkanet]

Thank you thank you thank you Chris!!! This is definitely an early Christmas present for me! WOW!!!

[mkanet]

Chris, I am happy to say everything works right out of the box. Menu navigation is extremely intuitive! Very, very polished interface!

There seems to be a significant problem, I'm not sure if it's something I'm doing wrong or not...

One of the first things I did was navigate to my Sirius Radio station, however, I am not sure what I'm supposed to do to actually select/play the station. I can get as far as to show the station. If I hit the play button on my remote (like I used to with version 1.0), it will not play. What's the trick to play the station? I've tried pretty much every single button on my remote.

Thanks again for such a great addon!

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Chris, I am happy to say everything works right out of the box. Menu navigation is extremely intuitive! Very, very polished interface!

There seems to be a significant problem, I'm not sure if it's something I'm doing wrong or not...

One of the first things I did was navigate to my Sirius Radio station, however, I am not sure what I'm supposed to do to actually select/play the station. I can get as far as to show the station. If I hit the play button on my remote (like I used to with version 1.0), it will not play. What's the trick to play the station? I've tried pretty much every single button on my remote.

Thanks again for such a great addon!

I checked this and I cannot reproduce it. If I press the play button on my remote it starts playback of the station I navigated to.
Can you try different stations, e,g shoutcast? Maybe the problem is with the Sirius plugin.

- Chris

[mkanet]

It appears that the play button on my remote doesnt affect this plugin anymore. I even tried to get out of navigate mode (while the station I want is shown below) and press "Play" on the menu, and still.. nothing plays.

This happens for all radio stations, not just sirius. Play on the Slim Server interface does work correctly. I can also still use my Play button on my remote for other functions on SageTV.

Originally Posted by koelec

I checked this and I cannot reproduce it. If I press the play button on my remote it starts playback of the station I navigated to.
Can you try different stations, e,g shoutcast? Maybe the problem is with the Sirius plugin.

- Chris

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mkanet

It appears that the play button on my remote doesnt affect this plugin anymore. I even tried to get out of navigate mode (while the station I want is shown below) and press "Play" on the menu, and still.. nothing plays.

This happens for all radio stations, not just sirius. Play on the Slim Server interface does work correctly. I can also still use my Play button on my remote for other functions on SageTV.

Ok, Michael there's something I changed v1.1 that might cause this problem.
I changed the mapping of the play button to issue the play command on the Command Line Interface instead of sending the play button to slimserver.
I did this because the play command resumes playback of a station after sleep and play button does not. But the weird thing is that the play command is working for me. I'll check it again and will create a patch for this.

- Chris

[mkanet]

Thanks for looking into this.

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Thanks for looking into this.

Micheal,
Can you try the attached stvi and see if this fixes the problem?

- Chris

[mkanet]

Chris, I reverted back to the original STV without Slimplayer 1.0, and imported the version 1.1 patched Stvi, but unfortunately, the play button still doesnt work. This modified version didnt seem to make any difference.

Originally Posted by koelec

Micheal,
Can you try the attached stvi and see if this fixes the problem?

- Chris

[mkanet]

Okay, now the play button works for Shoutcast radio stations. But for some weird reason it wont work for the Sirius Radio plugin. Is there a reason why it (the patch) would affect only the Shoutcast radio stations and not the Sirius stations?

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Okay, now the play button works for Shoutcast radio stations. But for some weird reason it wont work for the Serius Radio plugin. Is there a reason why it (the patch) would affect only the Shoutcast radio stations and not the Sirius stations?

I would not know right now. The patch reverts the play function mapping back to what it was in v1.0. At this moment I have to cook dinner. I will check this out later this evening.

- Chris

[mkanet]

Enjoy your dinner Chris. I found out one more clue/consistency which hopefully will help you figure out the problem:

This problem also happens when I try to select to play any favorites (accessed via Slim Player 'navigate' feature). They simply wont play when hitting the play button on the remote. There are probably other similar items that cannot be played/selected.

PS: What key do I press on the keyboard to select/play the station I want via Slim Player 'navigate' mode? My intuition tells me to press Enter; but, that's reserved for entering/exiting 'navigate' mode.

Originally Posted by koelec

I would not know right now. The patch reverts the play function mapping back to what it was in v1.0. At this moment I have to cook dinner. I will check this out later this evening.

- Chris

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Enjoy your dinner Chris. I found out one more clue/consistency which hopefully will help you figure out the problem:

This problem also happens when I try to select to play any favorites (accessed via Slim Player 'navigate' feature). They simply wont play when hitting the play button on the remote. There are probably other similar items that cannot be played/selected.

Ok, I think I solved it. Please try the attached stvi.

Originally Posted by mkanet

PS: What key do I press on the keyboard to select/play the station I want via Slim Player 'navigate' mode? My intuition tells me to press Enter; but, that's reserved for entering/exiting 'navigate' mode.

Remember a squeezebox is controlled by a remote. And on this remote (take a look at the remote part of softsqueeze) there's no such thing as a enter key. To start playback you have to press the play button. This is why I decided to dedicate the enter key to entering and exiting the navigate mode.

- Chris