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[jkolker]

Would like to see the Video -> Shows section indicate Season and Episode, and sort in appropriate order.  Not sure how it's being sorted now, but it's not that.

[lynes88]

Still having problems getting this feature to work.  I can see Panel on my local machine running JRiver...but can't connect from any mobile device.  My guess is a port access issue but I am not well versed in how to verify or make sure that is the case.  I can get into my Linksys router settings and see a section that refers to a single port forwarding... but it is really confusing on what to do next.  Is that likely my issue?  Anyone else have a Linksys router that can show me a screenshot?

[JimH]

The wiki has a topic called Network Access .

The firewall must allow access on 52100 to 52199.  You don't need port forwarding unless you're trying to connect from outside your LAN.

[wburkett]

I am finally starting to explore panel (I am not an early adopter!  ) and it's looking pretty cool.  I also have a question.  Someone asked this question in mid 2016 and did not seem to get any kind of response:

Is there a way to shuffle the selected tracks rather than just "play all (in order)"?

Bill

[JimH]

We may add a shuffle button later, but for now ...

Try using the Radio button.  It requires setting up Car Radio playlists.  These can be static lists or Play Doctor lists.

[JimH]

You can also add a smartlist and then use it as a Car Radio button.

[RD James]

We may add a shuffle button later, but for now ...
Try using the Radio button.  It requires setting up Car Radio playlists.  These can be static lists or Play Doctor lists.
You can also add a smartlist and then use it as a Car Radio button.

I have randomized smartlists that I use to control music playback in Media Center.
None of these randomize when I play them through Panel. I get the same tracks every time.

[wburkett]

We may add a shuffle button later, but for now ...

Try using the Radio button.  It requires setting up Car Radio playlists.  These can be static lists or Play Doctor lists.

Thanks for the quick response, Jim.   I guess either I wait or try and learn Car Radio/Play Doctor.  (No idea what these functions do.) 

[wburkett]

Well -- how about this?  While I was researching Car Radio and tinkering around trying to figure out how it works, I also FINALLY discovered a solution to a long-standing desire of mine: shuffle by album (shuffle album).  I know all you long time MC users and technically-savvy newcomers probably knew this for a long time and find it obvious, but I, as a semi-technical newbie, never found this particular, explicit solution anywhere: to randomly sort (shuffle) a smart playlist by album "Modify Results": with three modifiers:

  (1) Remove duplicates of: Album
  (2) Shuffle
  (3) Expand to full albums

Brian G provided me a nice script to do this a while back (thanks, Brian), but this makes life so much simpler!!!

And thanks for the suggestion, Jim - I took a couple of big steps today.  (It does reinforce, though, the idea that the UI is non-intuitive and obtuse.)

Bill

[JimH]

And thanks for the suggestion, Jim - I took a couple of big steps today.  (It does reinforce, though, the idea that the UI is non-intuitive and obtuse.)

Obtuse?  Maybe you mean obscure.

It's probably not possible to make complex capabilities intuitive.

[wburkett]

Obtuse?  Maybe you mean obscure.

It's probably not possible to make complex capabilities intuitive.

You're right: "Obtuse" is the is the wrong word.  And you're probably right about the complex capabilities.  (But Shuffling By Album isn't complex or unusual.)

I've figured out how to work Car Radio and how to get a smart playlist to Shuffle (i.e., randomize the order of) Albums.  Accessing those smart-playlists-that-shuffle through Panel seems to provide the "shuffle" behavior I was looking for.  Car Radio doesn't appear that useful to me (and was a bit of a red herring, actually) because when assigning a playlist to a button it give me only two choices: "Plays the same static list each time" and "Play Doctor plays a new mix of similar music each time", neither of which give me what I want.  These two choices are useful choices, but how about another choice to play a smart playlist exactly as it's defined?  If the smart playlist shuffles, I can't get that behavior through a Car Radio button.  (And btw: at a UI metaphorical level, calling the feature "Car Radio" is, I think, a pretty good intuitive choice for what it does.)

[JimH]

There's a way, but it has a bug I just reported tonight.

"I tried to add a smartlist to a Car Radio button.  I used the right click > link to playlist.  It worked, but it changed the number of buttons to 1000."

You can right click again to set the number of buttons back to something sane.

[wburkett]

There's a way, but it has a bug I just reported tonight.

"I tried to add a smartlist to a Car Radio button.  I used the right click > link to playlist.  It worked, but it changed the number of buttons to 1000."

You can right click again to set the number of buttons back to something sane.

Thanks, Jim - yup -- that worked and experienced that bug.  I totally missed the "link to playlist" button because I was following the "press and hold" approach for assigning a "station" to a button. 

[tyler69]

Is there a way to change the video quality streamed to Panel?

[BradATIMA]

Is there a way to change the video quality streamed to Panel?

At the moment there is no way to change the quality; however, there are plans to implement that in the near future. For now, the quality is at its highest setting and future options would likely only allow you to turn down the quality.

[tyler69]

Thanks. Looking forward to it. Is this considered for 23?

[BradATIMA]

Thanks. Looking forward to it. Is this considered for 23?

Yes, it will still be in 23.

[tyler69]

Thanks again. Are audio track and subtitle controls also under consideration?

[stevedig]

Been watching the new panel develop since i first noticed it in 22. definitely coming together nicely. 23.62 now plays all my flac audio and mkv video content. love it!

just a couple of thoughts which i'm sure are in the plan someplace... but i thought i'd voice em. thanks for listening btw.

1. needs a stop playback button. something that ends playback locally and closes the player thumbnail or stops playback on the remote device all together. it's not often... but i do, at times, want to stop.

2. video cover art on movies, and tv series / seasons aren't quite displaying right. they are cut off, square rather than displaying the full cover art image. it just a visual thing. i'm sure it will come eventually but thought i'd mention it.

3. love the list type view under a tv season. lets me see the full title for tv episodes and movies with longer ones, unlike web gizmo. still needs the episode thumbnail image tho. you don't realize how much you miss them until they are gone. they are surprisingly good visual queues for episode content.

4. being a guy... i'd love some button color options other than the pastels.

nit picky horse snot mostly but with these few tweaks i'd move from web gizmo to panel full time for all av playback control in the house.

love this mc app! keep up the great work!

[stevedig]

And one other item. We need a little navigation help. A back button within each view within the panel would be awesome.

When viewing audio sorted by artist I have about 9 pgs of artists with multiple albums under each. If I navigate to pg 4 and select an artist there to view the albums there in I can't go back up to the previous view of pg 4. The web browser back button returns me to pg 1.

The same is true under TV shows of which I have about 5 pgs (next pg / prev pg). Once I enter a series to look @ the available seasons the only way back is the browser back button which returns me to pg 1 of tv series.

This can make browsing large AV libraries challenging, frustrating even. Web Gizmo still wins in this as well.

It's coming along very nicely. Can't wait to see what's next!

[wig]

My Panel plays aren't being logged in the database. Is this a settings problem?

[wig]

I'd like to build a link that includes login credentials for my phone's home page. How do I do that?

[mwillems]

I'd like to build a link that includes login credentials for my phone's home page. How do I do that?

You mean a link that automatically supplies the credentials?  Panel uses basic auth so, depending on your security concerns, you can just use

Code: [Select]

http://username:password@example.com/

Obviously the username and password will be visible to anyone using that browser so it's not the most secure method, but is by far the easiest.

[BradATIMA]

My Panel plays aren't being logged in the database. Is this a settings problem?

I believe this is because authentication isn't fully implemented into Panel yet.

[RD James]

It would be nice if a link like http://wg.jriver.com/<your_access_key> worked with Panel to connect you to the server directly from any location, and even better if that link could include login credentials - though I suppose they're then being sent in plaintext over an HTTP connection.
 
Same thing for JRemote. I believe that's still using HTTP and not HTTPS?
I'd prefer an option in JRiver to disable HTTP connections altogether and only accept HTTPS.

[Hendrik]

I'd prefer an option in JRiver to disable HTTP connections altogether and only accept HTTPS.

You can do that with firewalls or only forwarding the HTTPS port in the router. Fully exposing an unprotected system to the internet (or any uncontrolled environment) is not something anyone should be doing.

[wig]

I believe this is because authentication isn't fully implemented into Panel yet.

Cool.

If I could get plays logged and scrobbled, and compression enabled (which I see discussed above) I'd be pretty happy with Panel as a mobile player.

[RD James]

You can do that with firewalls or only forwarding the HTTPS port in the router. Fully exposing an unprotected system to the internet (or any uncontrolled environment) is not something anyone should be doing.

JRemote (iOS) can't connect via SSL, and that site to connect via an access key only uses HTTP.
Edit: and for that matter, if there was some way to get UPnP or Port Triggering working with it, rather than having to use Port Forwarding, that would be good.

[dtc]

Panel is coming along and is generally pretty usable these days for music on a PC. However, on smaller devices in Playing Now, the displays of the Name (Track)  and Artist data are often truncated. On a tablet and especially on a phone it is pretty much unusable for anything but short names. This is particularly a problem for classical music.  In portrait mode on my phone it looks like only about 12 to 14 characters are used.

Having the tags share the display line with the track timing does not allow enough room for the tags.  Gizmo, for example,  has the tags, the controls and the timing on separate lines. With that, there are only minor truncation in Portrait and in landscape mode there is a nice layout with long tags wrapped.    In landscape mode, it also switches the layout to make use of the extended width. Hopefully the Panel design can be changed to work more like Gizmo, without the truncation issues.

I am using .66 with an Android phone and table using Firefox.

[JimH]

We're aware of the problem.  Thanks.

[dtc]

Thanks Jim. I will look for a new design going forward.

There was also a post from someone who said he say thumbnail text displayed in Panel, although I have not seen it myslf. Hopefully that is also on the list. Being able to show multiple tags should be useful, even if it isnot the full expression language available in MC. That post was specifically about HTML tags, which also would be useful. Do you know how he say thumbnail text in Panel? It would be a nice feature.

[JimH]

Newer screenshots from MC 23.0.70.

[JimH]

Screenshots of Panel on a phone

[tyler69]

Is there a way to change the video quality streamed to Panel?

I suppose the transcoding of the video files takes place on the server, not on the client (the computer I used for playback)?

[JimH]

That's correct.

[dtc]

Screenshots of Panel on a phone

IMO, placing the thumbnail text on the album cover is not desirable. It saves space but makes the display hard to use.  I have many albums where the thumbnail text is very hard to read when superimposed. In addition, it is very easy to scroll through the list when the text is below the album cover. It stands out. With it is superimposed, it is much harder to focus on the text and thus much slower to scroll. You spend your time having to focus on the text rather than being able to scroll quickly. I can post screen shots, but I suspect most people will find issues with the new placement.

Also, the playing now displays in both portrait and landscape mode are incomplete on a phone. Many of the screen elements are not displayed. The whole design needs to be re-worked for tablets and especially for phones. What works on a PC does not work well on a small screen. Again, I can post screen shots, but anyone who uses Panel on a phone will probably see the same thing.

I am using a Samsung S7 and a Samsung tablet.

[JimH]

IMO, placing the thumbnail text on the album cover is not desirable.

We plan to change this.

[DJLegba]

I'm not sure if this has been reported before. I just got the 23.0.70 update and Panel appears to be ignoring the track number.

Edit: I think the problem is the album view inherits the parent sort. I have a view that lists albums in random order. When I expand an album from this view the tracks are also in random order. When I expand an album from a non-random view the tracks are listed in the correct order. The track list should definitely not inherit the sort order of the parent view.

[dtc]

in another thread there was a discussion that a browser cannot take exclusive access of the output sound device on a Windows PC and therefore any audio that goes through a browser on a Windows PC will pass through the Windows mixed and therefore it will not be bit perfect. 

Given that, it seems than running Panel on a Windows client PC and outputting the audio to the client DAC will pass through the mixer and therefore will not be bit perfect.

I did a little experiment and played a 176 KHz file on a client using Panel and indeed the client DAC received a sample rate determined by the Windows setting for the sample rate for shared mode.

Can anyone confirm that this is the case - that a Windows client running Panel will output at the shared mode sample rate? And, is there is any way around this?

If this is correct, it seems like client server (Tremote) is the better way than Panel to get bit perfect on a Windows client.

[Hendrik]

If you already have MC installed on a system, you can either use a local Panel to remote-control that instance of MC, or just use MC directly. Panel is not meant to replace MC itself.

[dtc]

If you already have MC installed on a system, you can either use a local Panel to remote-control that instance of MC, or just use MC directly. Panel is not meant to replace MC itself.

Hendrik - just to be sure, you agree that Panel on a client PC will not be bit perfect.

I was hoping to use Panel on a remote PC where MC was not installed or where a different version was installed - like at a friends house. I can still do that - I just have to realize it is not bit perfect.

[Tom D.]

I have an Amazon kindle fire.  Can I add Panel to it and if so, does this mean that I can use Panel on my tablet to play JRiver on my Bel Canto RefStream without opening JRiver on my Mac?  If so, How do I get Panel on my tablet?

Thanks
Tom

[dtc]

I have an Amazon kindle fire.  Can I add Panel to it and if so, does this mean that I can use Panel on my tablet to play JRiver on my Bel Canto RefStream without opening JRiver on my Mac?  If so, How do I get Panel on my tablet?

Thanks
Tom

You access Panel through  a browser. Not sure how well it works on a Fire. Within your network, just access through your browser using  the appropriate IP address - like 192.168.x.xx:52199. To access a playback system other than the Fire you probably need to connect the Fire to the playback system through an analog connection using the DAC in the Fire. I do not think you can pass the digital signal, unless you have a way for the Fire to connect digitally to your playback system.

[mkelly]

I bought MC 23
but I need a ROAD MAP to tell me how to setup PANEL.
I have no idea what I trying to do!
I would like to be able to play my music on my iPhone in my car, the music resides on a Windows PC at home

[JimH]

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Panel

[JimH]

A demonstration of Panel is here:

Id Outside

[JimH]

Two years ago, I proposed a theoretical interface call Pretty Face.  Panel is looking Pretty Good now.  Thanks, Brad.  Thanks, Keenan.

[dtc]

Panel is definitely getting better, but I think the UI on mobile devices still needs some real work. Do you have plans for customizing the UI for small devices?

[JimH]

It's evolving.  Today's build should be better.

[timwtheov]

Anyone having problems with Panel freezing when it's accessed? I searched Interact a bit but couldn't find anything.

I've tried it using Chrome and Microsoft Edge on both my desktop (the localhost) and laptop PCs, and I even tried it on my Galaxy S7's Chrome browser as well, and each time the page loads after I enter the User and Password, but I can't push any buttons (including the settings button) and eventually it times out, giving me the little Chrome sad face when I'm on that browser. I believe I tried it once after it launched from an external location to no avail as well. Media Network works, as I use JRemote all the time, both inside and outside my network. My antivirus is Windows Defender, and again, I think it's all set up properly, given that I can use Webgizmo, Gizmo, and JRemote within or without my network.

I attached a jpeg below. This is what happens every time. Any suggestions?