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[Messiahs]

BitRemote

I am pleased to communicate to all J River users that xpTunes has now become BitRemote.
I decided to join forces with DigiBit, www.digibit.es  a company specialised in digital music solutions to commercialize worldwide the iPhone/iTouch remote solution. From now on you can freely test the application and buy the solution in www.bitremote.com , together with BitRemote you get for free web interface BitWeb (fka BlackZone) that allows you to control MC from any PC in the network.

Usage:
remote control JR Media Center through your touchscreen / Pda / iPhone / iPod touch / mobile Phone /... you only need a webbrowser (>IE7, Safari, FF,Chrome,..).

xpTunes running on iPhone/iPod touch


xpTunes running on a webbrowser


gallery:
http://pix01.com/ca@Kg4c

video of xpTunes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YWXZqINOMc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr90fjk0BpM

Download latest version:
http://www.bitremote.com/index.php/download-bitremote

requirements:
net framework 3.5 or greater

first steps:
1.) Unpack the zip
2.) start xpTunes.exe
3.) choose Address and port (button ‚settings’)
4.) save values
5.) start Webserver
6.) connect to specified address (like ‚http://192.168.178.21:8081’) with your web browser
Port 8081 could be in use… perhapse you should use 8082 or so

serial/registration key (demo):
4316-7413-4376-3736

the skin xpTouch (for iPhone/iPod touch):
just some hints:
- Add xpTouch to your iPhone/iPod touch Homescreen
- try the following iPhone/iPod touch gestures:
   - move up -> shows playing now
   - move down -> back
   - move over fullscreen down -> main screen
   - move left/right -> browsing
- tab on Album (screen "playing") -> shows all album files
- tab on artist name (screen "playing") -> shows all songs from this artist


How to add xpTouch to your homescreen:
Launch Safari on your iPhone/iPdo touch
Browse to xpTouch
Click the Favorites (+) button at the bottom of Safari
Click "Add to Home Screen"
Click the "Add button"

recommendations:
- use a fixed ip address or your pc name (like http://messiahs:8081/)
    
hints:
- you can start xpTunes minimized -> "xpTunes.exe -min"
- you can use xpTouch on your G1 phone too

faq:

What are the limitations of a free version?

The only limitation is that the free version only shows 20 tracks.

How one can change number of items displayed per page (pages albums, artists, titles, etc)?

just open the .html file and change "showmaxitems=" to a greater number.

Markus

[carbo]

A very (very) early feedback: it is working like a charm !

I was afraid of the "alpha" state of your plugin, but so far, not a single problem encountered.
Moreover I have tested it on a Vista 64bit which is probably the worst testing environment.

Very impressive I have to say.  I will try it soon on my pda.
Only a few features missing for it to be a replacement of the default webserver (add to playing now, or play an entire album for example).
After that a few features like to be able to rate the current song or play an and it will be perfect.

Will it be possible to have a small doc, describing which functions your command.cgi accept ? I would like to integrate some call in my own webpages.

Great job !

Guillaume

[Messiahs]

hi carbo,

thanks for your feedback.

to play a entire album or playlist is on my todo-list. i hope that i will find the time in the next weeks.
to add something to "playing now" is a good point, but i have no idea how to solve this, because of space and javascript limitations (pda). I will try it.

In a "normal" environment rating sould be possible... but on a pda i don`t think so (javascript).

A small doc doesn't exists at this time... your only chance to find some commands is to look in the xpTunes_ppc.js file.

Markus

[AoXoMoXoA]

Thank you Messiahs!

So far it seems to work very smoothly and I love it!

I am using it from a laptop to control my music server presently.
I will let you know any thoughts and or issues after a bit of usage.

[Messiahs]

hi  AoXoMoXoA,

thank you for feedback.
if you have some css skills, you can easily customize the layout (at this time the theme/html-code is pda optimized).

Markus

[AoXoMoXoA]

hi  AoXoMoXoA,

thank you for feedback.
if you have some css skills, you can easily customize the layout (at this time the theme/html-code is pda optimized).

Markus

Unless CSS means Cooking, Sewing and Secraterial skills I think I am out of luck.   

[Messiahs]

;-)

[AoXoMoXoA]

OK, I think I may have found a bug.

When starting xpTunes server Media Center's CPU usage jumps from single-digits to 50% + and stays there.
Stopping the server function drops the CPU load, re-starting it bumps it back up again.

Using MC's internal Remote Server makes no difference to CPU loading.

[Messiahs]

hi AoXoMoXoA ,

it's not a bug it's a feature ;-)

xpTunes prefetches and parse all your data at startup (artist, title, genre, album, playlists) to provide a faster browsing.
it depends on your number of files how long JR needs to provide all this informations.

I can slow down this feature (cpu usage will then go down), but then you have to wait before you can connect to xpTunes.

[AoXoMoXoA]

Ahh, OK. Makes sense in that case.

Question, once it does this, does it save the data or must it reload each time you run it?

[Messiahs]

Every time you start it, the data will be prefetched.
i have no plans to save the data at this time....  my PC takes for 20 sec about 40% CPU usage... that's ok for me.

How many (audio-) files did you have and how long is JR at 50% CPU usage ?

 

[AoXoMoXoA]

I presently have over 100,000 audio files imported into Media Center. 
I will note the high-load time next opportunity. I do not expect it will cause any great problem as the time should not be excessive.

Any objection to some screenshots?  Likely to stir more interest.

[Messiahs]

I presently have over 100,000 audio files imported into Media Center. 

wow, ok i never tested with this number of files ;-). how is the page load ?

Any objection to some screenshots?  Likely to stir more interest.

No objection... but still remember, that it's an alpha and some changes are already done (add file to playing now).

[AoXoMoXoA]

page load time is pretty snappy for most; Artists and most others are about 2 seconds, but some of the longer lists take up to a minute or so. I did not have the patience to attempt the Tracks list.   

[neFAST]

Yes, screenshots please! :p

[AoXoMoXoA]

Each pic shows a different page with unique controls at the bottom of the page. I shrunk my browser window to remove the excess background space as this is presently designed and setup for PDA rather than PC.











I did not include the "Artists", "Albums" or "Tracks" list views as they are rather large with my library. They do list the contents with the Alphabet grouped in 3's for quick browsing.

[SpedInFargo]

I'm just now thinking (dreaming) how I'm going to lay out my concept of whole-house audio using something like this.  One thing that I'm thinking about (struggling with) is how I'm going to use something like this in conjunction my new Denon receiver (which also has its own web interface and ability to respond to telnet commands).

What I would LOVE to see is something like this with some very basic controls for my receiver's second zone - something where I could at least send commands for power, source, volume, etc. - just the very basics...  Would be fun if there would be someplace for some "user defined functions" that could be plugged in to this...

A plugin for a plugin?

[Messiahs]

@AoXoMoXoA
Thanks for the pictures and your explanations !

@SpedInFargo
Should be no problem when you have some little javascript- and html skills.
All you can see in the pictures are pure html, javascript and css. So you can add buttons like Poweron /Volume up and so on very easily. xpTunes is a small webServer, so you can add and change html-pages by your own.

I already control my hifi environment with a pda.... that's because i spend some time to xpTunes ;-)
I use a infrared-sender (http://www.irtrans.de/en/) to control this little evils.

 

[Messiahs]

@users with gmail account

sry, i'm not able to send you the zip.

gmail answered:
SMTP error from remote server after transfer of mail text:
host gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[64.233.185.114]:
552 5.7.0 Illegal Attachment 61si3525665wry

[Dare978Devil]

Man, this is great!  It works just the way I hoped it would.  It is actually a pretty darn good replacement for NetRemote.  There are a few features which I wish I could help you with, but my programming skills are somewhat lacking.  Someone already mentioned it would be pretty cool to either pick a playlist and have it automatically added  to Playing Now, or the same thing when picking an album.  It's not a big deal, because I couldn't do that with NetRemote either.  What I did was pick whatever albums I felt like listening to on the server, then shut off the LCD and controlled it all from my laptop.  This works in exactly the same way.

Would be cool to have the window come up in a pre-configured size since I am not using this from a PDA, but I'll work on that and see if I can figure it out for myself.

Thanks for sending it,
DD.

[Doof]

This is really sweet. I especially like that we can customize the html. I'm sure the web gurus out there will have a field day with this.

Just a couple of suggestions off the top of my head...

Options that let you specify that it runs at Windows startup, minimizes to the system tray, and starts minimized. It's easy enough to do #1 & #3 manually, but it would be cool to have that available all in one interface.

And a question... Would it be possible to modify the HTML so that we could browse our collection the same way we can in MC now? Using the same View Schemes, thumbnail views, etc? Would that just be a function of the html, or the app itself?

[AoXoMoXoA]

This is really sweet. I especially like that we can customize the html. I'm sure the web gurus out there will have a field day with this.

And hopefully they will share some of those custom html and css files for those of us who are code-impaired.    It would be realy nice to see some posts with screenshots and links to the required files.

BTW, I'd like to see the "auto-start, minimized" option as well.

[Messiahs]

thanks to all for your feedback.

autostart/minimized option
done..

Would it be possible to modify the HTML so that we could browse our collection the same way we can in MC now?

i hope so ;-)... but you will need some javascript and html skills.

Using the same View Schemes, thumbnail views, etc? Would that just be a function of the html, or the app itself?

I never looked to View Schemes, thumbnail views, etc... when they are html based i think (with some modifications)... yes.

I really appreciate custom html templates... but pls wait some weeks, because some commands will be changed.

[Alex B]

Thanks for your work. xpTunes looks interesting. I'll send my mail address by PM.

[AoXoMoXoA]

thanks to all for your feedback.

autostart/minimized option
done..

Great! Will you post an update, or need we send the email addresses again?

[Messiahs]

I will send you the update. ... but i need some more time to add some stuff.
Perhaps in 3 or 4 weeks i can release a new version.

[Messiahs]

happy new year to all

here is a small layout test for the next version:
http://www.stardev.de/test/cssTest3.html

it takes longer than expected, but i think you will love the new version ;-)

Markus

[llafriel]

This sounds very promising. The standard pda version would probably function straight away as a side panel in Opera, nice.

http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g247/llafriel/?action=view&current=pic2.jpg

[Messiahs]

@llafriel
lol, looks nice :-)

[llafriel]

The program works very well. Works with my pda, with my sidepanel in opera, even works with my mobile phone through edge. Although the page is rendered very big in opera mini. Looking forward to the next version!

[Messiahs]

a new version is out... hope I didn't forget anyone. If so then send me a short message or email.

it's only a beta 'preview'... i don't have enough time.

have fun
Messiahs

[Messiahs]

trash.....

[llafriel]

I just redid the graphics and layout a bit.
http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g247/llafriel/?action=view&current=pic-1.png

Didn't recieve your new version btw.  (hint, hint)

[Messiahs]

looks really really nice !
good job ;-)
hope you will share it.. if possible..

[Messiahs]

xpTunes version 0.3:

1.) a pda optimzed version will follow in the next couple of weeks

2.) some problems with the VisDemo (JR Version > 12.0.318)
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=44509.0

3.) to fully enjoy the fullscreen-mode you have to change securities setting in IE to "low" (Trusted sites) and add your server-ip to Trusted sites.



here is a small description:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/using/howto/security/settings.mspx

[Messiahs]

here is a short video of xpTunes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr90fjk0BpM

[Shasta Mcnasty]

PM sent, I'm interested in testing.  I've got about 50K tracks stored on a physically inaccessible server.  I used to run WinAmp with the BrowseAmp (webserver) plug-in to control it from my WiFi PDA.  But it's really painfully slow.  I've switched over to MC which is great but the built-in Remote Server is pretty minimal.  Your enhanced Remote Server looks to be exactly the ticket.   

[Messiahs]

PM sent, I'm interested in testing.  I've got about 50K tracks stored on a physically inaccessible server.  I used to run WinAmp with the BrowseAmp (webserver) plug-in to control it from my WiFi PDA.  But it's really painfully slow.  I've switched over to MC which is great but the built-in Remote Server is pretty minimal.  Your enhanced Remote Server looks to be exactly the ticket.   

PM sent.
50K sounds like a good performance test ;-) , but do not expect to much.

[Messiahs]

beta team is now complete and i'm now waiting for some feedback....

i already saw a really nice new skin,  but don't want to talk to much about it at this moment.

Markus

[neFAST]

Tried v0.05 (is that the last one ?) on my computer since I don't have any PDA. No bug so far.
How do you send command to MC, what's that control.cgi?

[Messiahs]

hi neFast,

yes, V0.05 is the last one (not many changes to V0.03).
V0.05 is optimized for pc.... a pda version will follow in the couple of weeks (or month).

How do you send command to MC, what's that control.cgi?

xpTunes is a sort of wrapper. With control.cgi you can tell xpTunes that a command follows.
First, you have to know that every file/playlist has a Id in MC.

so e.g.:
playFileById

Code: [Select]

http://serverIp:port/control.cgi?command=playFileById&value=25045
plays file with ID 25045.


getCoverById

Code: [Select]

http://serverIp:port/control.cgi?command=getCoverById&value=25045gets the cover (of file 25045)

if you want to use it in a html file you have to use:

Code: [Select]

<img src="control.cgi?command=getCoverById&value=25045">
or (because i saw your nice template)

Code: [Select]

<img src="TRACKINFO_INSERT_IMAGE"/>but this always shows the curent playing song (you can use nearly every command listed here: http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Track_Info_Template_SDK)....

play

Code: [Select]

.../control.cgi?command=playplays the current selected track

stop

Code: [Select]

.../control.cgi?command=stopstops the current selected track

and so on...

if you have some more questions.... let me know!
Markus

[Doof]

Am I still on the beta team for this? If so, I apologize for not being to active about it. I just got done fighting a months-long battle with my home computer. Now that that's all straightened out, I'd love to get back to poking at this thing.

[Doof]

This is awesome. I'm accessing xptunes through my iPod Touch, and now it's like a little wi-fi remote for my HTPC.

It's a little too small to use easily, but I'm sure once some of the PDA oriented "skins" for this arrive, it'll be much nicer.

[Messiahs]

new version (0.06) is available.
If you don't get the download link (via email), please resend me your email-address (the restrictions of the boardmail drives me crazy).

changelog:
- some changes in xpTunes_ppc.js (bug with ie7)

[Shasta Mcnasty]

Wow this is great!     It's exactly what I want for the PC...I'd sure like to see the code for llafriel's Opera sidebar skin, I think that would be a great PDA layout.

Still having some Javascript issues with the Titanium skin on my PDA (Palm Tungsten C).  The built-in browser doesn't do Javascript.  Opera Mini is supposed to, but I can't get the page to load.  I don't think the problem is with xpTunes though, I've been having problems with other pages in Opera Mini.  Still working on it, will keep you posted.

[Shasta Mcnasty]

Working great with Opera Mini on my Tungsten C now.  The problem was with Opera Mini not xpTunes.  Opera Mini (I'm running version 3) doesn't like dotted-quad IP addresses, I had to set up an entry in my router's local DNS for the jukebox (I use a static local IP address for the jukebox, so the DHCP server doesn't automatically fill in the entry). 

I already had MC set up to serve the library across the firewall (port-forwarding) and use www.no-ip.com to map the dynamic IP address that my ISP gives me to a static domain name, so I can listen to my library from work.  I added the xpTunes port so that anyone with a smartphone can see what's playing and add tracks to Playing Now (really only useful when they're at my house I suppose...

[vtn]

I have been using the.05 version now for a couple days.  This development is a very nice compliment to JRiver. 

As for different perspectives:
- layout is pretty clean
- information on tracks is very good
-no bugs so far

Suggestions
The first suggestion would be to have an initial skin with big buttons, inlcuding volume up/down.  I have a touch screen (tablet laptop) that I purchased to use for the front end access to my media center.  Big buttons help to make selections easier.

Another suggestion is to continue this concept into videos and pics.

Lastly, I would suggest to make the web client more interactive.  Perhaps "now on deck" with the title of the next song (scrolling, fading or in a corner like a whisper) to be played or a sound meter would be a nice touch.


As I told Messiahs, I want to impress my wife with not only the ease of use but with the eye candy that this has all the potential for.  A great start with the potential to be sexy.


Thanks!
vtn

[Messiahs]

thanks for all your feedback !

here is a short description how xpTunes works.

click on:
artist name = shows all songs for an artist
cover or album name = shows all tracks in this album
i = shows informations about the artist (you.fm)
+ = adds the item to playing now
- = deletes song from playing now
stars = rate song
> = plays element (playlist, album, song)

Markus



 

[Doof]

I was walking around the house last night accessing xpTunes from my iPod Touch's built-in Safari browser. It worked great, but it definitely needs a PDA sized UI built for it. Was somebody working on one that's availalbe to download and test?

[adamsp70]

Hi there - got everything set up for testing on a single machine. xpTunes seems to do everything very well except that it doesn't refresh when a new song is played.

Looking at the javascript code i think it is supposed to do this, isn't it?