Topic: Panel in MC24 (Read 38808 times)

JimH · « **on:** April 26, 2018, 09:12:39 am »

Panel for MC24 has already had many improvements since it was first introduced in MC23.

Instructions

Here's the original thread on Panel.

Panel is a web app. It's part of MC, and it allows you to connect to MC from any browser on any device.

Recent improvements include:

Context menu for Playback
Click on an audio track to get the menu. Choose Add to Playing Now, Play with Playdoctor, etc.

Ratings
Click on the stars to rate a track. The rating is synced with the server if you have set authentication and log when you use Panel. The rating has a small delay before being displayed.

Themes
You can set a light background (shown above) in Settings.

Radio JRiver

Radio Paradise

Other Streaming
Works only on the server at this time.

tyler69 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 26, 2018, 10:57:54 am »

Minor GUI issue: can the rating stars be made consistent looking? It seems there's a fix distance to the play duration. Please see the screenshot for reference.

Manfred · « **Reply #2 on:** April 26, 2018, 11:59:00 am »

Small improvement or question: Instead of playing file -> playing title?

tyler69 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 26, 2018, 01:56:36 pm »

The rating stars are a nice addition. An idea: Would it make sense to fill the stars with a solid color when the mouse hovers over them? I think it might provide usability benefits.

tyler69 · « **Reply #4 on:** April 26, 2018, 03:00:18 pm »

Please consider making Panel remember the position (in the library) when the user clicks on an album (in album view) or on an artist (in artist view) and "jumps" into the new page/selection.
It gets tiresome pretty fast to browse the music collection from the beginning on each time when I click on the back arrow after I selected a track in a particular album.

JimH · « **Reply #5 on:** April 26, 2018, 03:02:50 pm »

We'll do it soon.

tyler69 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 26, 2018, 03:07:02 pm »

Thank you.

wig · « **Reply #7 on:** April 27, 2018, 07:39:43 am »

Really glad to see the context menu added. I'm not seeing Play Doctor as an option, though.

Here are my options in 24.0.19

Play(file)
Play(all)
Add file (to end)
Add file (play next)
Add all (to end)

Any chance we'll be able to personalize the context menu with Play Options from the client? For example, these options would cover 99% of my mobile listening:

Play (with Play Doctor)
Add file (as next to play)
Add album

A.K. · « **Reply #8 on:** May 02, 2018, 10:41:28 am »

Suggestion for Panel, faster navigation between artist, album, genre etc. without the need to jump several pages back or through home button.

TheShoe · « **Reply #9 on:** May 03, 2018, 04:49:58 pm »

any chance you can fix the artwork such that movie posters and tv show cover art is proper ratio and not square?

Kreator · « **Reply #10 on:** May 07, 2018, 10:34:39 pm »

Using Panel in Chrome on my Android phone (Galaxy S9+) have become REALLY sluggish.
Sometimes have to touch a title 10 times or hold and then release to make the context menu appear...
In Chrome on my PC works fine. Also did not have a problem in MC23.

JimH · « **Reply #11 on:** May 08, 2018, 07:14:24 am »

Are you connected via your LAN? Or via Internet?

What browser are you using? It may not like the popup. You could try another browser.

BradATIMA · « **Reply #12 on:** May 11, 2018, 08:07:07 am »

Quote from: Kreator on May 07, 2018, 10:34:39 pm

Using Panel in Chrome on my Android phone (Galaxy S9+) have become REALLY sluggish.
Sometimes have to touch a title 10 times or hold and then release to make the context menu appear...
In Chrome on my PC works fine. Also did not have a problem in MC23.

This actually wasn't a lag issue, but it was a bug that should be fixed in 24.0.27. For now, you can prevent this issue by pressing on the desired track in the area the Play menu will appear in.

aklegal · « **Reply #13 on:** May 13, 2018, 11:40:05 am »

Is it possible to add an info or metadata link to the context menu? I don't think it needs to be as robust as the one you see in JRemote but have playcount, last played, file type for sure and maybe bitdepth and samplerate.

If it had this I would abandon the JRemote and EOS remotes. With each release of JRiver they become slower and buggier anyway.

msch997 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 27, 2018, 05:04:15 am »

Firstly Kudos

I missed MC23 but subscribed again at MC24, the 64 bit version of JRiver is worth the price of entrance alone. Great JRiver stability on my HTPC. Great work guys. Thank You.

Have started using panel from inside My network and connecting to the HTPC Main JRiver/ Library using the Access key method. Running Panel on other computers all connected by Gigabit Ethernet to the HTPC. HTPC is dedicated with 16 GB RAM, i5 processor, Nvidia Graphics card etc etc and running 64 Bit Windows 10. Browser used both Edge and Chrome.

All I can get when in Panel and in the settings menu (the gear) and under Audio Quality, High, is 320 Kbps MP3, no Flac at all and most of my library is Flac.

I have looked about in JRiver Options, Media network, DNLA, on the HTPC JRiver/ Library server to try change this but have not been successful, perhaps I am missing something? Or is that limit by design? Please note I am playing over my internal network over wired connections, Gigabit Ethernet, CAT6 cabling etc.

As a test I also launched panel from the Options, Media network menu on the HTPC JRiver itself so no network to take into account and have the same limitation both testing in Edge and Chrome. Chrome is the preferred browser on my computers.

Appreciate some feed back, thanking you in advance.

JimH · « **Reply #15 on:** May 27, 2018, 06:06:32 am »

Thanks for the kind words.

When you're playing "Here", you're using the HTML5 capabilities of the browser. It's possible, but not certain, that this could support FLAC. We're investigating the possibility now. If so, we'll add it.

msch997 · « **Reply #16 on:** May 28, 2018, 07:18:23 pm »

Quote from: JimH on May 27, 2018, 06:06:32 am

Thanks for the kind words.

When you're playing "Here", you're using the HTML5 capabilities of the browser. It's possible, but not certain, that this could support FLAC. We're investigating the possibility now. If so, we'll add it.

Thank You Jim

msch997 · « **Reply #17 on:** June 16, 2018, 07:41:19 am »

Quote from: msch997 on May 28, 2018, 07:18:23 pm

Thank You Jim

I see that MC24.34 update has this change implemented. Thank you again for that. Much appreciated

How does one see what format the playing file is from within panel to confirm it is happening, ie source file in FLAC and Panel is playing FLAC and not transposed to MP3?

BradATIMA · « **Reply #18 on:** June 18, 2018, 08:55:10 am »

Quote from: msch997 on June 16, 2018, 07:41:19 am

How does one see what format the playing file is from within panel to confirm it is happening, ie source file in FLAC and Panel is playing FLAC and not transposed to MP3?

At the moment, the only way to check is to use the browser's developer tools. One way is to look at the response header of the GetFile request in the Network tab in the browser's developer tools.

msch997 · « **Reply #19 on:** June 18, 2018, 09:24:56 am »

Quote from: BradATIMA on June 18, 2018, 08:55:10 am

At the moment, the only way to check is to use the browser's developer tools. One way is to look at the response header of the GetFile request in the Network tab in the browser's developer tools.

I will have a bash at that

No guarantee I will manage but will try. Thank you though for the suggestion.

jkolker · « **Reply #20 on:** June 22, 2018, 11:03:31 am »

Would like to see Seasons supported for recorded TV Shows. Also would like to see a check or indicator of movies/shows watched, just as they appear on the computer-based center.

JimH · « **Reply #21 on:** June 29, 2018, 06:09:21 pm »

Radio JRiver is now working with Panel in MC 24.0.40. There is a new orange streaming icon.

Pinkie2 · « **Reply #22 on:** June 30, 2018, 07:08:23 am »

On my iPad, Panel doesn’t seem to support “momentum scrolling “ which would make going thru long lists less of a pain.
Is that something that can be fixed?

~OHM~ · « **Reply #23 on:** July 01, 2018, 01:38:11 pm »

I give up on this....I can connect one day and then the next I can't. We had a storm last night and the power was out for 5hrs. now I can't connect.

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #24 on:** July 02, 2018, 06:37:40 am »

I've been using Panel in MC 24.0.40 for the last couple days (streaming music from my main PC to my Windows 10 tablet), and these are my impressions, thoughts and suggestions.

It's rather stable
Panel is very snappy and rather nice to look at. Pretty face? Indeed.
Love both the dark and light themes. Got an idea for how this could be enhanced below.
Quite enjoy the slider at the top to scroll to different letters in the alphabet.
Radio JRiver is rather... interesting. Heard some songs I've never heard before that I quite enjoy. Though the downside for me is my internet connection is slow and streaming lossless can be problematic, to say the least. Fortunately, I've gotten word that my ISP is (FINALLY) upgrading the internet in my area, so I should have a much faster connection by the end of the year. I look forward to using this more once my internet connection isn't an issue anymore.

I did, however, run into a couple of issues;

SSL doesn't work (using the local.jriver certificate) without browsers giving a privacy error notice. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that we probably need to install the certificate into the system store? If anyone has a step-by-step tutorial on how to get this working without encountering issues in the browsers, I'm all ears (would obtaining a Let's Encrypt certificate or something like that help?).
Music glitches when switching to Playing Now (and back again to the previous view using the back button). Using uncompressed WAV with the Disable forced conversion box checked. Though it seems to do this regardless of the conversion settings.

My suggestions;

Gapless playback. This is my number one wish on the list - I've been spoiled by MO 4Media with its gapless playback capabilities on Android. If gapless playback is possible with Panel, this could be a game changer, IMO. So tell me, would gapless playback be possible in Panel?
It desperately needs a list view to show Artists/Albums in addition to the thumbnail view. I find using a list view is much easier to navigate than the thumbnail view. This is my number two wish on the list. Using JRemote as a basis might help here for how it should look.
It needs an option to hide the rating stars. Personally, I have no use for these and I keep hitting them accidentally and it gets pretty annoying, IMO.
An option to change the theme depending on the time of day, e.g. light for the day and dark for the night. Could take the current time for sunrise and sunset for the system time zone and set accordingly. Call it something like the Dynamic theme.

Overall, I like where Panel is going, and will follow the continued development.

Castius · « **Reply #25 on:** July 05, 2018, 10:50:09 am »

My biggest issue is how long it takes for video cover art to display. Even when i use localhost on the server it's on.
The TV recording section can take minutes.

I also wish it use a dynamic way of loading new pages of content. So it was more remote friendly.

tyler69 · « **Reply #26 on:** July 05, 2018, 01:59:33 pm »

The currently highlighted track does not advance for me. I have a very long playlist open in Chrome on macOS (I'd like to use Safari but it gives me a sluggish experience) and currently, the track that is playing is not visible anymore (fullscreen mode). Wasn't this (currently playing track highlighted and in focus/on top) implemented some time ago?

BradATIMA · « **Reply #27 on:** July 09, 2018, 11:15:38 am »

Quote from: tyler69 on July 05, 2018, 01:59:33 pm

The currently highlighted track does not advance for me. I have a very long playlist open in Chrome on macOS (I'd like to use Safari but it gives me a sluggish experience) and currently, the track that is playing is not visible anymore (fullscreen mode). Wasn't this (currently playing track highlighted and in focus/on top) implemented some time ago?

This was implemented, but it has one limitation at the moment. If the currently playing item goes off the page, it's no longer rendered, so Panel can't find it and scroll to it when the track changes. Clicking on the Playing Now button while on the Playing Now page will bring it back to the top.

hoyt · « **Reply #28 on:** July 12, 2018, 12:08:06 pm »

I've been playing with Panel more recently and have some thoughts:

1) The thumbnails re-cache and takes minutes to produce a view for my server.
2) When I'm in portrait mode on my mobile device, the volume slider is hidden.
3) I can't use the built in volume keys on a phone to control remote media (I send it to a DLNA renderer for example). They work for locally playing media of course.
4) The rating stars only turn orange for the star that you hover over. The orange hovering should show the full rating. Meaning, if I hover over star #3, 3 stars should be orange. This is how it works in MC, so I think it should be the same.
5) There also seems to be no way to un-rate something. If something is rated as 2 stars and I want to just rate it as nothing, I should be able to click the 2nd star to unset the rating.

hoyt · « **Reply #29 on:** July 12, 2018, 12:29:43 pm »

Quote from: Awesome Donkey on July 02, 2018, 06:37:40 am

...
I did, however, run into a couple of issues;

SSL doesn't work (using the local.jriver certificate) without browsers giving a privacy error notice. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that we probably need to install the certificate into the system store? If anyone has a step-by-step tutorial on how to get this working without encountering issues in the browsers, I'm all ears (would obtaining a Let's Encrypt certificate or something like that help?).
...

Yes - getting a trusted certificate makes that problem go away. With a trusted cert installed in MC from Let's Encrypt, I get a lock icon and am not shown a "Are you sure you want to connect" dialog. I'm not sure how you can generate a LE relationship with just MC running.

If you have a linux box on your network, then it's not hard and there are a lot of good tutorials online for setting this up (better than I would write). The end output is that you get a script to run as a cron job that will renew your certificate every X days; they expire every 90, so generally you set it up to run weekly. Then you need to manually move two files from the web server into MC. I thought I read somewhere that they were looking to make that process easier with a script of some form. That would be nice. Until then, I just manually SFTP the two needed files to my MC box when I need to.

tyler69 · « **Reply #30 on:** July 14, 2018, 11:24:58 am »

Is it possible to see the artwork for movies in Panel instead of a list?

EDIT: It is. Settings in MC Media Network->Advanced->Customize view..->"Show categories in this order".

However, the artwork is cut off (quadratic). Is this also configurable?

tyler69 · « **Reply #31 on:** July 14, 2018, 11:43:10 am »

Why does Panel's GUI not follow the settings in "Customize View"? I do not have images or streaming set up, but I do see the categories in Panel. I even am able to listen to streams with the feature being deactivated in MC (which I expect not to show up if the feature is deactivated in MC).

TheShoe · « **Reply #32 on:** July 15, 2018, 06:52:53 am »

Quote from: tyler69 on July 14, 2018, 11:24:58 am

Is it possible to see the artwork for movies in Panel instead of a list?

EDIT: It is. Settings in MC Media Network->Advanced->Customize view..->"Show categories in this order".

However, the artwork is cut off (quadratic). Is this also configurable?

i hope they fix the artwork. this is one of those nit pick things but it bothers me

JimH · « **Reply #33 on:** July 15, 2018, 07:25:24 am »

We will fix it.

tyler69 · « **Reply #34 on:** July 15, 2018, 07:29:27 am »

Quote from: JimH on July 15, 2018, 07:25:24 am

We will fix it.

Thanks for the feedback Jim. Could you please also comment on:

Quote from: tyler69 on July 14, 2018, 11:43:10 am

Why does Panel's GUI not follow the settings in "Customize View"? I do not have images or streaming set up, but I do see the categories in Panel. I even am able to listen to streams with the feature being deactivated in MC (which I expect not to show up if the feature is deactivated in MC).

?

TheShoe · « **Reply #35 on:** July 15, 2018, 10:21:50 am »

Quote from: tyler69 on July 14, 2018, 11:24:58 am

Is it possible to see the artwork for movies in Panel instead of a list?

EDIT: It is. Settings in MC Media Network->Advanced->Customize view..->"Show categories in this order".

However, the artwork is cut off (quadratic). Is this also configurable?

can we show just the image followed by the title and not display the image filename as well?

tyler69 · « **Reply #36 on:** July 15, 2018, 10:33:05 am »

What are your settings in MC ("customize view")? I just add an item in MC and it shows the title in Panel. You might want to play around with the options.

tyler69 · « **Reply #37 on:** July 16, 2018, 06:36:21 am »

Quote from: tyler69 on July 14, 2018, 11:43:10 am

Why does Panel's GUI not follow the settings in "Customize View"? I do not have images or streaming set up, but I do see the categories in Panel. I even am able to listen to streams with the feature being deactivated in MC (which I expect not to show up if the feature is deactivated in MC).

I've just discovered, that while I streamed through Panel (Radio JRiver?) -although Streaming is off in MC- some links have been added to my library. They reference some flac/ape files with http/https links. I am not sure this should be like this when the streaming feature is deactivated, no?

BradATIMA · « **Reply #38 on:** July 17, 2018, 08:45:59 am »

Quote from: tyler69 on July 14, 2018, 11:43:10 am

Why does Panel's GUI not follow the settings in "Customize View"? I do not have images or streaming set up, but I do see the categories in Panel. I even am able to listen to streams with the feature being deactivated in MC (which I expect not to show up if the feature is deactivated in MC).

If you removed the Images category in Media Center, it shouldn't show up in Panel. However, you need to restart Media Center after making changes to customize view before it will take effect. Streaming, Radio KISS, and Engen are all hardcoded in Panel; however, Engen only shows up if there is an Engen server running.

tyler69 · « **Reply #39 on:** July 17, 2018, 08:54:10 am »

Thank you and you are right. "Images" is not showing up. I was confused by the icons. It's Radio JRiver and streaming (which both are hard-coded into Panel as I understand). For consistency reasons, I would have expected that the user will be able to control this from MC (like one can controls views in MC and JRemote). Furthermore:
1. Engen in Panel will show up only when available/installed
2. Radio JRiver/Streaming in Panel will show up regardless of availability/settings
3. Images in Panel will not show up when not checked in MC

Usability-wise I do not consider this the best solution.

hoyt · « **Reply #40 on:** July 17, 2018, 12:23:44 pm »

I've noticed with a smartlist in Panel that when I pull it up, it has alphabetized the tracks. Is this a known issue?

Is there any chance of getting the following so that Panel is on par with JRemote/ MO 4 Media/ Gizmo in terms of Android usability?
1) Media buttons on the Android lock screen
2) Having the volume keys on an Android control a zone's volume
3) A persistent notification so one can easily jump back to Panel
4) Ability to view additional metadata
5) Ability to edit playlists

thezone · « **Reply #41 on:** July 20, 2018, 11:35:16 pm »

Hi all,

I have followed this guide https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,116687.msg806546.html#msg806546 on how to access panel but I can't seem to connect from outside the network. It works using a browser on the same PC that is hosting MC (using the link from the network settings in MC) but I cant seem to connect from a different pc or mobile with browser outside the network.

According to ipconfig my IP address is 10.0.0.xx rather than the 192.168.0.xx. Could it be a setting on my router that stopping the access?

Even when I use the https://jriver.com/panel.html method and insert my Access Key I get the same message "This site can't be reached".

In MC Media network options I ticked "Use media network to share this library and enable DLNA".

I also enabled SSL.

I have never used DLNA function in MC so this probably doesn't help.

Can anyone help please?

sjhilton · « **Reply #42 on:** July 20, 2018, 11:42:18 pm »

Hi - I've just started playing around with Panel. I have authentication enabled on my system and chrome prompts twice to log in (both on PC and on my Pixel 2). This occurs once with a pop-up dialog and then in the browser itself. This appears to be a Chrome issue (as it doesn't happen using Edge on the PC). Is anyone else using authentication experiencing this issue? Thanks.

JimH · « **Reply #43 on:** July 21, 2018, 12:21:46 am »

Yes, I've seen it. We've tried to fix it. Are you on 24.0.41?

JimH · « **Reply #44 on:** July 21, 2018, 12:23:58 am »

Quote from: thezone on July 20, 2018, 11:35:16 pm

Hi all,

I have followed this guide https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,116687.msg806546.html#msg806546 on how to access panel but I can't seem to connect from outside the network. It works using a browser on the same PC that is hosting MC (using the link from the network settings in MC) but I cant seem to connect from a different pc or mobile with browser outside the network.

According to ipconfig my IP address is 10.0.0.xx rather than the 192.168.0.xx. Could it be a setting on my router that stopping the access?

Even when I use the https://jriver.com/panel.html method and insert my Access Key I get the same message "This site can't be reached".

In MC Media network options I ticked "Use media network to share this library and enable DLNA".

I also enabled SSL.

I have never used DLNA function in MC so this probably doesn't help.

Can anyone help please?

Try from another device on the same network. Does that work?

From outside your LAN, your router must be configured to forward ports 52100 to 52200. See "Network Access" on our wiki for more information.

sjhilton · « **Reply #45 on:** July 21, 2018, 02:36:39 am »

Quote from: JimH on July 21, 2018, 12:21:46 am

Yes, I've seen it. We've tried to fix it. Are you on 24.0.41?

Thanks Jim. Not on all my machines. It looks like this was happening because I was connecting to my Linux (Docker) server, which is running an earlier version (24.0.28). I've tried connecting from both my Windows laptop and Pixel 2 to my HTPC running 24.0.41 (64-bit) and it's fine.

pompon · « **Reply #46 on:** July 23, 2018, 02:51:13 pm »

why use panel while we have j-remote ?

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #47 on:** July 24, 2018, 03:28:55 am »

Quote from: pompon on July 23, 2018, 02:51:13 pm

why use panel while we have j-remote ?

Panel is good for any devices that can't run JRemote or Gizmo. It's meant to work from any device that supports a modern web browser, which more-or-less is any of them these days.

It works on Windows, it works on Mac, it works on Linux. It even works from a Raspberry Pi, or even an Android or iOS phone. More-or-less anything!

Keep in mind Panel is still in its early days, and is being actively developed.

TheShoe · « **Reply #48 on:** July 24, 2018, 05:17:32 pm »

Quote from: Awesome Donkey on July 24, 2018, 03:28:55 am

Panel is good for any devices that can't run JRemote or Gizmo. It's meant to work from any device that supports a modern web browser, which more-or-less is any of them these days.

It works on Windows, it works on Mac, it works on Linux. It even works from a Raspberry Pi, or even an Android or iOS phone. More-or-less anything!

Keep in mind Panel is still in its early days, and is being actively developed.

hopefully there will be a solution for Apple TV and nVidia Shield TV too... perhaps it is on a roadmap to support such devices

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #49 on:** July 25, 2018, 03:42:21 am »

As far as I know, you can already use Panel on an Apple TV or Nvidia Shield TV.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Panel in MC24 (Read 38808 times)