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[mcascio]

Hi Folks,

A 30 day trial version of MusicLobby is now available for anyone wanting to take a test run:
http://www.cinemaronline.com/musiclobby.html

MusicLobby interfaces directly with J River's software.  Just start up MusicLobby and you are up and running.

[nila]

wahoo

Sweet - thanks - I'm gonna have some fun for 30 days!! (unfortunately I cant afford it and dont really have a need for it so the fun is only for 30 days)

[10sne1]

I get the impression I need "Main Lobby" before I can use this.  Am I correct?  This stuff looks pretty neat...but not sure I can justify the cost!

[mcascio]

For those of you trying out MainLobby/MusicLobby, there's helpful information on getting started on the following page:
http://www.cinemaronline.com/musiclobby.help.html

[mcascio]

10sne1,

Yes - you'll need to install MainLobby prior to MusicLobby.

[lOth]

Just installed the trial version. Although it plays fine whatever is already in 'playing now' I fail to add anything. Whenever I try to browse the submenus of 'Audio' (for instance when I click on 'Albums (grouped)) MC crashes.

Netremote 0.982 installed
RemoteServer.dll downloaded from netremote.org, dated 6/22/03

Media Center Registered 9.1.219 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1788 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 457 MB, Free - 150 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.60 (1021) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1999 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: N/A

Ripping /   Drive D:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
 Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
 Eject after ripping: No /  Play sound after ripping: No  

Burning /  Drive D: TOSHIBA  DVD-ROM SD-R2312   Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:24  MaxSpeed:24  BurnProof:Yes
 Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: No /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: No
 Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

Listening to: 'Only The Strong Survive' from 'Holonic' by 'DJ Krush' on Media Center 9.1

[mcascio]

Hi lOth,

Do you have a netremote plugin running simultaneously as the MC Remote Server?

Also, Flash has a problem with funky characters.  Check your songs for any non standard US keys.  Symbols like a cent symbol or german characters will cause it to crash Media Center.

Try creating your own scheme with a few songs to see how it actually works.  Depending on how corrupt or how many songs you have with these characters it may be hard to track down the culprit.

[johnp]

Dont forget Ben Sweet's updated remoteserver.dll  Without it you wil not have happy results.  Also I believe Main Lobby is available as a demo also isn't that correct??

Excellent looking product Mario!

JP

[mcascio]

Thanks John.

I'm pretty sure he has the correct remoteServer.dll based on the 6/22/03 date.


If anyone is seeing duplicate entries being added to the Playlist, let me know.  It may be a bug I introduced in the trial version.

[iCamp]

Am I alone in thinking the price is outrageous?

Looks cool...what does it do that make it $150 better than myHTPC (which is free, BTW)?

[JimH]

Am I alone in thinking the price is outrageous?

Outrageous is a strong word for a product created by someone trying to do something for people who had expressed a strong interest in it (and maybe make a buck).

If you think it's too much, don't buy it, but give Mario a break, please.

[Omni]

Not that the maestro of JRiver needs my concurrence, but I agree.  I was going to post in that other thread, too, but I didn't.  If you don't like the price, fine, but don't flame the product (which you are indirectly doing with these types of comments).  If you are really into creating a superb home entertainment center, $150 is literally chump-change.

A word to mcascio:  Don't lose heart.  This is the same bunch that almost staged riot just because they had to pay an extra $5 for MC over MJ.  

I just wonder where Mastiff is hiding.  This product seems right up his alley.  

Omni

[Flobalob]

Great concept but needs a little work.
Sort of where Hairstyle should be heading.
I downloaded and never got it to work just freeze ups.
Again, it looks pretty cool though
Maybe I'll try again with a later version

[mcascio]

I care not to get in pricing wars but would rather focus on the features that people feel would benefit the program.  Unfortunately it will not be in everyone's price range.  The 3D software I use to design a lot of the graphics cost around $1500, I could of instead purchased some other software that also does 3D for $50.  I made a choice to use the $1500 software because I think it allows me to make the graphics I create look better.  To each their own.

You can get free water out of the sink - or you can always spend a $1.50 for a bottle of Evian.

Flobalob,

I can help troubleshoot if you'd like to try and see why it's locking up.  You may try a fresh reinstall of MainLobby to see if that fixes it.

[_K_C_]

Great concept but needs a little work.
Sort of where Hairstyle should be heading.
I downloaded and never got it to work just freeze ups.
Again, it looks pretty cool though
Maybe I'll try again with a later version

I've found a couple of things that choke MusicLobby - Mario is aware of them already.

(1) Unassigned:
eg if you're sorting by Genre/Artist/Album and if your files don't have these properties assigned, then they'll be listed at the top of the list as [unassigned].

(2) Foreign characters.  See posts above.

(3) Very long Playing Now.
Not sure how I manage it, but sometimes I manage to put all of my collection in Playing Now without realising it.  This can make ML look as though it's not loading - I guess it is, but it'd take a while!

[Flobalob]

Mario
How would this work on a multi-zone system.
Say I had a few zones and used touch screens in different areas...Would that be supported?

[mcascio]

_K_C,

If you're hitting the PLUS sign on the left panel, that will send all the songs in that folder over to the Now Playing panel.  If you have a large collection, 1000+ songs, depending on your system, it could take some time to add them all to the Now Playing.

Flobalob,

Currently, the only way to handle multizones is to use a program called Girder to switch zones. Using MainLobby, you would add a button ontop of the MusicLobby interface - then assign a Girder event to the button.  The Girder event would handle toggling or switching to an actual zone.

We're working on tighter integration with J River's products so we can provide more features like zone control directly from MusicLobby.

[_K_C_]

Mario

I'm not doing it in MusicLobby, I'm doing it in Media Center, then I have trouble loading MusicLobby because on startup it's trying to load an enormous Playing Now list     Don't worry about it - I'll work out what I'm doing wrong eventually  

[dkan24]

_K_C,

Currently, the only way to handle multizones is to use a program called Girder to switch zones. Using MainLobby, you would add a button ontop of the MusicLobby interface - then assign a Girder event to the button.  The Girder event would handle toggling or switching to an actual zone.

We're working on tighter integration with J River's products so we can provide more features like zone control directly from MusicLobby.

Mario- I hate to "hijack" your thread "again", but this just isn't true.  You can switch zones in Netremote.  If it is built into remote server then shouldn't you be able to incorporate it into Music Lobby?  

Also, Is there a trial for Main Lobby?  Can I run a trial of Main and Music at the same time?  

[WickedEwok]

Just to clarify, although the protocol that both MusicLobby and NetRemote use are both in the RemoteServer.dll, the two protocols are actually very different.

Because Flash uses a specific format (Flash XML Sockets) MusicLobby uses that, but NetRemote uses a more compact protocol for better performance from the Pocket PC. The Flash protocol doesn't support all the things the NetRemote protocol does. I believe Dan Reicher is working on a plugin specifically for MusicLobby, though merging the two protocols together into the same RemoteServer is the best solution so people don't need to run more than one plugin for external control.

For those people who $125 might be a little too "rich" for right now, remember that NetRemote is still free, and allows for fullscreen interfaces configured in Tonto. It's not quite as Flashy as Music Lobby or MainLobby, but does have the same power to control Media Center. Release candidate 7 of NetRemote is available via the NetRemote Forum (http://www.netremote.org/phpBB2/). This version will be released to the "general public" very shortly.

[mcascio]

Ben,

Thanks for clearing that up for everyone.  I think some people were confused.

Yes - there is a 30 day trial of MainLobby available as well as MusicLobby and DVDLobby Pro 2.  They can all be run simultaneously without conflict.

[salsbst1]

Mario,

I just started my trial of MainLobby and MusicLobby.  A couple of issues:

1) lack of efficient Remote Control via Girder (I guess using keyboard shortcuts?) is a deal breaker for me

2) cover art doesn't always work... I guess that some of the covert art that works in MC is never going to work in MusicLobby?  Is there a batch process that can convert all bad jpgs to good jpgs?

3) One of my View Schemes causes a Media Core crash.  Having been reading on avsforum, I believe this is due to accents on some of the characters (I frankly don't even know how to type an accented character but EAC put them there when I ripped my music).

So, needless to say, the trial isn't going very well so far.  Can I cancel my trial and start a new one when some of these issues are worked out?

Thanks,
Stuart

[mcascio]

Hi Stuart,

We're still working on Keyboard shortcuts.

For info on cover art not showing up...see the following thread:
http://www.caseserve.com/cinemar/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=333

For the crashing issue, make sure you have the latest plugin.  Also, we're working on a fix to solve the accented characters problem.

[salsbst1]

Hi Stuart,

We're still working on Keyboard shortcuts.

For info on cover art not showing up...see the following thread:
http://www.caseserve.com/cinemar/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=333

For the crashing issue, make sure you have the latest plugin.  Also, we're working on a fix to solve the accented characters problem.

Thanks for the info on LViewPro to convert JPGs.  If I end up purchasing MusicLobby that will come in handy.

It seems like the Lobby suite isn't really targetted to those who would use traditional remote controls.  But,  I'm hoping that I'll find it works well once you've had a chance to implement keyboard shortcuts and to fix the accent thing.

Thanks,
Stuart

[mcascio]

For a list of upcoming updates to MusicLobby...stop by the Cinemar forum:
http://www.caseserve.com/cinemar/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1257#1257


Stuart,
Once we've nailed down some more features and additions to MusicLobby - we'll probably build a feature into MusicLobby that will automatically convert all problematic cover art for you.

[mcascio]

Sorry guys, the Cinemar forum has been acting up tonight.

If you can't connect there, you can check out more info from the AVSForum MusicLobby thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=280946&pagenumber=3