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

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mkanet

I can't seem to get the artist information and picture anymore. It looks like other people are having the same issue.

Hi Michael,
They changed something on music.yahoo.com.
The attached slimplayer.jar fixes the problem.
Simply unzip attached file to sagetv folder.
Be sure it prompts to overwrite the existing slimplayer.jar file.
I also will add the fix to the full download on the downloads page.

cheers,
- Chris

[koelec]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I can't seem to get this installed properly. I followed the instructions and I can play songs via "SoftSqueeze" but in Sage I get a blank menu on the right side (under Favorites).

I'm running SlimServer on the same machine as the SageClient that I installed the import. I'm running the 6.0.16 beta.

I'm not sure where to start debugging but the log file is attached.

If you don't have any favorites or playlists on slim server then these lists will appear empty (blank) in sagetv.
Is the slim server output shown in the bottom panel ?
You will have to use navigation mode (choose navigation button) to select a song to play from local disk or start a web radio station). From there you can add a station to the favorites lists (press the right currsor) and they will appear in the favorites list.
Another way is to use the slim server web interface to create playlists and or favorites.

I've looked at the log file. I see slimplayer is connecting to slim server just fine.

If you get it working be sure to install the patch I just posted in this thread which fixes the missing artist info.

- Chris

[CanadianEh]

Any chance this is being ported over to SageMC? I'm holding off on switching back to SageMC until this exists

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mike1961

I'm not getting the artist picks either.

Regarding my hugely frustrating problem which I wish someone could help me with, I did discover something VERY interesting:

1. It seems totally random. If I select the SAME station over and over again in Sage it brings me to a random station in the playlist (or so it seems random).

2. I finally found a way to play the station I want and this is really bizarre but I think it provides insight into the problem. If I go to slimserver from internet explorer on my client workstation to: http://192.168.1.10:9000 then I CAN play the correct station by clicking the play button outside of Sage and in Internet Explorer and it will then show the correct station in Sage.

It seems that Sage WANTS to play the correct station because it keeps saying Now Playing 28 of 30 in the list. However, I noticed that the playlist in my Sage is NOT in the same order as in SlimServer on my fileserver. I think that is where the problem is. It seems that Sage is reading the playlist in the wrong order or something.

3. I tried copying the entire Sage directory from my other client workstation which plays everything just fine but that did not solve the problem. I'm stumped as to the problem but the fact I can play them from localhost should be a clue to someone who perhaps can help me with this problem.

(EDITED: the only other difference I can think of is the computer that is not working has IE7 but I can't recall if I upgraded before or after the problem started).

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,
I will try to help you.
First we will turn on debug logging for the slimplayer plugin.
Open up the log4j.xml (in same folder where sage.properties is) file in wordpad.
Set priority level from INFO to DEBUG:
<category name="nl.cmkprojects.sage" additivity="false">
<priority value="INFO" />
<appender-ref ref="SageAppender" />
</category>
to
<category name="nl.cmkprojects.sage" additivity="false">
<priority value="DEBUG" />
<appender-ref ref="SageAppender" />
</category>

Restart sagetv and reproduce your problem.

Post the (zipped) sagetv_0.txt file so I can take a look at it.

Don't forget to change the debug level back to info.

- Chris

[mkanet]

Thanks for the quick fix Chris! The update fixed the problem.

-Michael

Originally Posted by koelec

Hi Michael,
They changed something on music.yahoo.com.
The attached slimplayer.jar fixes the problem.
Simply unzip attached file to sagetv folder.
Be sure it prompts to overwrite the existing slimplayer.jar file.
I also will add the fix to the full download on the downloads page.

cheers,
- Chris

[tmiranda]

I tried the new .jar and it did not make any difference. Part of the problem is that I am not sure what I am supposed to be seeing!

When I click "Navigate" a pop-up is displayed saying to use the Left, Right, Up and Down arrows to navigate the SoftSqueeze menu. The only option on this pop-up is "Close". While this pop-up is displayed the panel on the right has "Favorites" on the top but nothing else. When I click "Close" the "Favorites" panel is blank.

Pressing the up and down arrow keys navigates me through the panel on the left "Play, Navigate, Now PLaying, Stop Playback, Show Playlists, Back". Pressing the left and right arrows has no effect at all. The "Favorites" panel stays blank.

I can get the label on the panel to the right to toggle between Playlists and Favorites by clicking on the Show Favorites / Show Playlists option on the left panel.

No matter what I do nothing appears on the right panel except the top label.

I CAN go to the slimserver web page (localhost:9000), start playing a song, pause it, go back to Sage SlimPlayer and click "play" and it plays.

I also am having difficulty with the SoftSqueeze player. No matter what I press on that nothing works, not even the "x" to close the player. I did have success using a web applet slimplayer. I have tried uninstalling the SlimServer and reinstalling, no joy.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[koelec]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

When I click "Navigate" a pop-up is displayed saying to use the Left, Right, Up and Down arrows to navigate the SoftSqueeze menu. The only option on this pop-up is "Close"

When in navigate mode can you navigate the softsqueeze menu? If you press down/up keys you should see the menu (shown in the bottom panel) changing.

Also, did you try to create a playlist in the slim server and see it appear in slim player ?

- Chris

[tmiranda]

Chris,

There is no SoftSqueeze menu.

I have the slimplayer pointed to a test directory that has one album and one playlist. If I click "play" the first song of the album starts playing and the bottom panel changes appropriately. The Now Playing option also does what is supposed to do: the screen changes to show me the information about the artist and track info. Stop Playback also does what is suposed to do.

The problem is that there is no SoftSqueeze menu at all. Pressing the left and right keys when the SoftSqueeze menu is supposed to be displayed does not change anything on the bottom panel.

Playlist list is also empty.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Tom

[tmiranda]

Chris,

It's something Java related. I was running the latest java from www.java.com. I uninstalled it and installed 1_4_2_12 and now the playlists work. Still nothing under Navigation however.

I'm hoping one of the 1_5 versions will get everything working. Rather than me trying them one-by-one, which do you recommend?

Edit: Using 1_5_06 Navigate "sort of" works. Pressing the arrow keys changes the message on the bottom panel but nothing appears on the right panel so I am navigating blindly.

[koelec]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Chris,

It's something Java related. I was running the latest java from www.java.com. I uninstalled it and installed 1_4_2_12 and now the playlists work. Still nothing under Navigation however.

I'm hoping one of the 1_5 versions will get everything working. Rather than me trying them one-by-one, which do you recommend?

Tom,
I'm not aware of any java version dependency. I used 1.4 and1.5 without problems.
After dinner I will try the versions you are using myself and report on this.
I 'm really stunned about navigation mode not working because evrrything else seems to be working. If you select navigation mode button and press down or up key on remote or keyboard the text shown in the bottom panel should change.
If still not working I suggest you turn on debug logging. since i'm currently replying on my palm pda i will not repeat how to set this up here. please look at the post i replied to mike1963 on how to edit the log4j.xml and post the result.

- Chris

[tmiranda]

Chris,

Here is the log file. I opened up Sage, went to slimplayer, selected navigate, pressed various arrow keys a few times.... Selected a playlist (SHotcast station), exited.

I'm using java 1_5_6. I hope this helps.

Tom

[mike1961]

Chris - here's the log file. Thanks, Mike


tmiranda - did you run the softsqueeze program otherwise adjust your registry settings to recognize the IP address? I will say that I too have had this problem before as well. Make sure you have the latest version. In the past, when I had it I found I had to go out of the radio and back in the first time launching sage for it to show up. But it hasn't been a problem in the latest versions.

[koelec]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Chris,

Here is the log file. I opened up Sage, went to slimplayer, selected navigate, pressed various arrow keys a few times.... Selected a playlist (SHotcast station), exited.

I'm using java 1_5_6. I hope this helps.

Tom

Tom,
From the post you edited I got: navigation "sort of" works. "pressing cursor keys changes the bottom text, but the playlist panel does not change".

I first want to make sure you understand how it is supposed to work. It might be that you don't have a problem at all.

The bottom panel shows the output of the slim server. This is a two-line display simulating the squeezebox two-line display. Additionally the first line in the bottom panel may show the station (for remote stream) or playlist currently playing. The output of the slim server is two-line menu tree structure, imagine it to be a file folder structure, which you can navigate using the arrow keys. At the top level you start with:
SoftSqueeze Home (1 of 11)
Now Playing

In navigation mode you can traverse the menu, start playback of the item being shown or whatever the item is representing. Some menu items give you the possibility to add a station to the favorites list. If you do this it will appear in the favorites overview in the right panel of slim player.
So, only if you add something to a playlist or the favorites list you might see something happening in the right panel of slim player. The slim player does not maintain it own playlists or favorites, it is just a view of the lists present in the slim server. If you want to know how the menu works please read the slim devices manual on the squeezebox, here: http://www.slimdevices.com/documenta...ners-Guide.pdf

Alternatively, (and more conveniently) you can create playlists using the slim server's web interface. If you do this, they will appear in slim player, where you can select them for playback.
Remember switching between favorites list view and playlist view in slimplayer by selecting the "Show playlist" or "Show favorites" button.

- Chris

ps, from the log file I see you were able to start playback of Chris Daughtry using the navigation mode. Starting playback in navigation mode does not add anything to the playlists or favorites views in the right panel.

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mike1961

Chris - here's the log file. Thanks, Mike


tmiranda - did you run the softsqueeze program otherwise adjust your registry settings to recognize the IP address? I will say that I too have had this problem before as well. Make sure you have the latest version. In the past, when I had it I found I had to go out of the radio and back in the first time launching sage for it to show up. But it hasn't been a problem in the latest versions.

Mike,

I think I figured it out.
You have multiple clients. For the one with the problem shuffle has been turned on. You can toggle through the shuffle modes in slim player's navigation mode by accessing the special keys menu (option key). Each time you choose the shuffle option from there the mode changes through the possible values (shortly visible in the bottom panel):
no shuffling
track shuffle by song
shuffle by album

If you set it to no shuffling, the playlist track selection works as expected.

In the next version I'll add an shuffle indicator, so you know the current shuffling state as you work the playlist.

- Chris

[tmiranda]

Chris,

Looks like I have some reading to do..... Hopefully when I understand how Slimplayer is supposed to work I will see I do not have any issues.

Thanks,

Tom

Edit: I deleted two or three playlists and favorites that I managed to create before downgrading java, read the slimserver manual, and now I think I have the hang of it! The user interface is really not very intuitive (slimserver issue, not your issue Chris) but that's what an old geezer like me gets when we mess with stuff best understood by teenagers... :-)

There was something not right when using the latest java. I managed to add a favorite but it was blank and did not play. If I get some time I will reinstall the newest java to see if it was just a user error or not.

Chris - Many thanks for your help and patience.

[mike1961]

Chris - that was it....thank you so much.

Mike

[koelec]

If you want to use the slim player plugin with Java 6,
you will have to upgrade the SoftSqueeze.jar to version 3.3.

You can download the SoftSqueeze version (3.3) from here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/softsqueeze/

Unzip it in a temp folder and copy the SofSqueeze.jar file over the old one in SageTV/SageTV/JARS.

- Chris

f.y.i - I'm running SageTV 6 with Java 6.0 - Since using Java 6 the GUI response times are much shorter - start of live tv or file playback is almost instantaneous. But beware there are some things that won't work correctly:
see this thread for more info on running SageTV with Java 6:
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ad.php?t=21947

[mkanet]

Hi Chris, I was curious how far you were able to get in recording keystroke macros (or whatever you call it), to allow puttiing Sirius Radio stations in Slim Player Favorites list. You had mentioned you were easily able to do this when proving this concept.

Merry Christmas!

[koelec]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Hi Chris, I was curious how far you were able to get in recording keystroke macros (or whatever you call it), to allow puttiing Sirius Radio stations in Slim Player Favorites list. You had mentioned you were easily able to do this when proving this concept.

Merry Christmas!

Hi Michael,

Had the macro function programmed already in the current version, but couldn't make a decision on how to expose it in the GUI. A recorded macro would fit nicely in the favorites list. But both playlists and favorite lists come transparently from slim server. I don't want to interfere with that. I guess an additional view would be the most easy to implement, listing the recorded macro's. The macro's will be stored in the sage.properties file.
What is your opinion on this.

- Chris

[mkanet]

Chris, ultimately, the reason for the macros would be to have one click access to sirius radio stations (and others) right on the main screen of slim player along with all the other favorites radio stations.

I think the best way to do this is to list the macros at the bottom (or top) of the favorites list (if any are defined) in sage.properties. This would still keep the favorites the way slimserver wants to display them. These macros could be separated by a small vertical bar... or not (depending which you think might look better). Ideally, the user should be able to navigate to the macro stations with only down/up arrows from favorites and visa-versa and select the item on the same screen. Selecting them should be identical to selecting favorites.

Is this possible?

Originally Posted by koelec

Hi Michael,

Had the macro function programmed already in the current version, but couldn't make a decision on how to expose it in the GUI. A recorded macro would fit nicely in the favorites list. But both playlists and favorite lists come transparently from slim server. I don't want to interfere with that. I guess an additional view would be the most easy to implement, listing the recorded macro's. The macro's will be stored in the sage.properties file.
What is your opinion on this.

- Chris