Topic: [ANNOUNCE] MC2Slim Squeezebox Integration V1.6 (Read 20187 times)

Craig · « **on:** July 18, 2008, 01:40:58 pm »

MC2Slim is a small program that runs alongside Media Center or Media Jukebox and allows you to treat your Squeezeboxes as MC Zones and play your music as if they were a soundcard on your PC.

The program needs to be installed and run on the same PC that you use for MC but can connect to a remote Slimserver.

New features in v1.6 include
Added support for Media Jukebox 12
Added detection of connection to HTML port
Added support for use with a Media Center Library Server client
Added detection of MC 'Playing Now' changes (including reordering)
Added support for Media Center Radio mode

More info and the download can be found at
http://www.duff-zapp.co.uk

Enjoy
Craig

haylo75 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 16, 2008, 10:43:05 am »

I'm a longtime MC and Squeezebox v2 user and can't believe I just found this plugin! I do love the Sqeezebox, but the web interface is such a drag when one is used to the extensibility of MC. My prayers have been answered as I can now use remote desktop to my main PC and shove the output right to my Squeezebox.

I'd never worked with Zones in MC, but I found it to be very easy to set up an Auto Zone to point to my Squeezebox. Question: I tried flipping back to Zone 1 when at my main PC and queuing up a track. Both tracks were coming through my main PC speakers, but the [SB] zone still played just what was pointed its way. Is there a way I can mute the [SB] zone at my main PC while still listening to Zone 1?

Thanks so much for your contribution!

----------------
Listening to: Rainer Maria - I'm Melting!
via FoxyTunes

Craig · « **Reply #2 on:** August 16, 2008, 11:09:31 am »

Thanks Haylo,
I'm glad you like it and find it usefull.

The Volume slider in MC is particular to the zone so just go to your squeezebox zone and turn it down or right click it to mute (make sure 'use MC volume' is turned off in MC2Slim), your normal MC playback zone will be unaffected.

Alternatively you can go to 'playback options' in MC and send that zone to an unused output on your soundcard (if you have one).

Craig

haylo75 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 17, 2008, 12:35:51 pm »

Craig - Sorry, I should have noted that I did have the 'use MC volume' option unchecked in MC2Slim. I will look at the second option as I'm sure I have an input I'm not using.

Is there a way to log in a verbose manner what's going on in MC2Sim? I used it for about 4 straight hours yesterday and there were two occasions where MC2Slim seemed to have lost sync control. Both times the Sync indicator in MC2Slim was fully lit. I stopped and restarted the process and that cleared things up.

----------------
Listening to: Serena Maneesh - Simplicity
via FoxyTunes

Craig · « **Reply #4 on:** August 18, 2008, 02:58:02 am »

Well if you're using V1.6 then there's a 'debug view' option under then MC2Slim menu which also enables some logging options. I only ever intended it for my own use so it's not pretty but you can take a look.

The sync light relates to the playback position between MC and the SB not the entire program and indicates that they are within a second of each other (I don't think that more accurate sync is possible).

If it's something you can recreate then I'll take a look but I found that it works fine unless there's excessive playlist jumping and search back/fwd going on.

Things can go amiss if you mess around in the last 10 seconds of a song because this is when MC2Slim detects changes and goes to work.

hope this helps,

Craig

widman99 · « **Reply #5 on:** September 27, 2008, 05:00:36 pm »

I'm trying to download MC2Slim, but get a 404 error.

Thanks,
pete

Craig · « **Reply #6 on:** September 28, 2008, 05:39:38 am »

Sorry about that, It's fixed now.

Craig

widman99 · « **Reply #7 on:** September 29, 2008, 07:20:00 am »

I use Girder for IR control of my HTPC and this seems to cause a conflict with MC2Slim. If I try running the program with Girder enabled, it either locks up MC12 or responds so sluggishly that it is unusable.

Any hints or ideas?

Thanks,
pete

Craig · « **Reply #8 on:** September 29, 2008, 08:49:00 am »

Sorry,

I've never used girder but I guess they're both trying to use the MC Com interface together.
I don't know of a way around that, maybe someone with more girder knowledge can help?

Craig

MBlue72 · « **Reply #9 on:** October 21, 2008, 06:44:02 pm »

Hello all:

I have been using MC2Slim for a few days to drive my Squeezebox 3 and Stereo system. It was working great! Then today, MC12 crashed and I needed to start the task manager to manually “end task” to close MC12. At that time I was using MC12 with my computer speakers (not the Squeezebox). The next time I tried to use MC12 with the Squeezebox, nothing happened. The Squeezebox wouldn’t acknowledge the connection; no sound came from my stereo system. Nothing.

When I tried to manually start MC2Slim – nothing. I couldn’t get it to open by double clicking the desktop icon or right clicking/”open.” I also tried to run MC2Slim as the administrator – still no good.

I decided to uninstall and reinstall. I can’t do that either. The uninstall program will not remove MC2Slim. (What is going on here?). I tried changing the folder name to “MC2Slim – OLD” so I could reinstall a fresh copy. But when I try to reinstall MC2Slim I cannot. I get the message:

“C: Program Files (x86)\MC2Slim.exe
An error occurred while trying to replace the existing file:
DeleteFile failed; code 5.
Access is denied.”

Craig – thank you for developing this software. It was great while it lasted. Do you (or others) have any ideas to help me out of this problem?

I am on Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit); MC12 and version 1.6 of MC2Slim. Everything is fine with MC12 while driving the computer speakers. It behaves normally.

Thanks for any help,

Dave

MBlue72 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 26, 2008, 08:55:45 am »

Hello again:

Well, I thought I would let all of you know that I am up and running again. I'm not sure what the problem was but MC2Slim is working fine now. I wanted to let all of you know so no one wastes time working on this or, worse yet, any of you with 64-bit Vista systems don't give Craig's software a try thinking it was incompatible.

I rebooted everything and it is now working normally.

I am not sure why I had trouble uninstalling MC2Slim, but I am still new to Vista and that fault may be mine as well. I am wondering if program files (whether "x86" or native Vista) have some sort of special restrictions under Vista.

Craig -- thanks again. This is a great bit of work that makes MC much more valuable to me.

Dave

MBlue72 · « **Reply #11 on:** October 26, 2008, 10:20:38 pm »

Hello:

Well, my success was short lived. After using MC2Slim to drive my squeezebox for an hour or so, the combination has again become unstable and is crashing frequently. Even when not using the squeezebox at all, MC12 becomes unresponsive and I need to control-alt-delete/end task to close the program.

I am again back to trying (unsuccessfully) to uninstall or delete the MC2Slim application. This has become very frustrating.

Have any of you had success with MC2Slim on a 64-bit Vista system?

Thanks for any help or advise you might be able to provide.

Dave

Edit to add: I uninstalled MC12 and then was able to delete MC2Slim. I have re-installed MC12, but at this point have no intention of re-installing MC2Slim (unless I hear it is compatible and stable with 64-bit Vista).

MerlinWerks · « **Reply #12 on:** October 28, 2008, 10:10:16 am »

I believe MC2Slim installs a MC plugin as well as it's own entry in Windows (Program Files). Perhaps you need to uninstall the plugin via MC Plugin Mgr first before you can uninstall MC2Slim via Add/Remove programs.

MBlue72 · « **Reply #13 on:** November 03, 2008, 04:38:55 pm »

Hello again,

Since no one has responded to my question of October 26, am I to presume that MC2Slim is not compatible with 64-bit Vista? To recap -- I am on Vista Home Premium 64-bit and MC2Slim seems to be unstable and causes MC12 to crash repeatedly and eventually become unresponsive.

If anyone has successfully used MC2Slim with 64-bit Vista, please let me know.

Thanks very much. The concept of using MC2Slim to drive our Squeezebox without using SqueezeCenter is very appealing. I find SC very cumbersome.

Dave

Craig · « **Reply #14 on:** November 03, 2008, 06:12:52 pm »

Hi Dave,

Sorry but I can't be much help here. MC2Slim was written and compiled under XP as a 32 bit app, I've never used Vista64 so I can't confirm whether the problem is with MC2Slim or not. I can correct Merlinwerks though - MC2Slim does not install a plugin into MC, there is just the single exe that Merlinwerks pointed out.

Craig

MBlue72 · « **Reply #15 on:** November 03, 2008, 06:27:26 pm »

Craig,

Thank you for your response. I'll just wait to hear from other 64-bit Vista users (if there are any). MC2Slim is a great program and I am hopeful of using it.

Regarding uninstalling MC2Slim -- yes it was straightforward, but only after I uninstalled MC12.

Thanks again for taking the time to write the program and trying to help me.

Dave

MerlinWerks · « **Reply #16 on:** November 03, 2008, 07:14:13 pm »

Quote from: Craig on November 03, 2008, 06:12:52 pm

Hi Dave,

...I can correct Merlinwerks though - MC2Slim does not install a plugin into MC, there is just the single exe that Merlinwerks pointed out.

Craig

Sorry for the wrong info

, I generally try to be more accurate with my posts. It was the "J River Media Center Applet" for the Controller/Squeezeplay that installs a plugin...
I'm tryin out all kinds of stuff with my new toy, gotta bit confused I guess

Craig · « **Reply #17 on:** November 04, 2008, 02:23:58 pm »

No problem Merlinwerks

With regards Vista 64, google shows that there should be no problem with most apps,. However it does mention V64 having two different 'Program Files' directories for 32 and 64bit apps. I don't think my installer is aware of that so it may be worth checking that it gets installed to the correct one.

Craig

MBlue72 · « **Reply #18 on:** November 04, 2008, 03:57:26 pm »

Craig:

Thanks for thinking about this.

Vista automatically checks each application program and "bins" it to one of two folders -- either "Program Files" (for 64-bit applications) or "Program Files (x86)" (for 32-bit applications). I just checked and the J River program files were all placed in the Program Files (x86) folder upon installation. Therefore I don't think this is the problem since Vista would undoubtedly recognize MC2Slim as 32-bit and place it accordingly.

I have had virtually no problems with Vista, so I am surprised by this. I now have more than 120 programs on this machine and about 100 of these are 32-bit applications.

I may just try it again in a week or so. The only real hassle (if it is unstable) is re-installing MC12 and redoing the various settings that I like. I am new to MC so there may be an easier way to do this but last time I just changed the settings manually. If I try reloading MC2Slim, I will definitely let you (and other readers) know how it works out.

Thanks again,

Dave

MerlinWerks · « **Reply #19 on:** February 23, 2009, 09:45:26 am »

Hi Craig,

Will this make it easier for MC2Slim to function? I seem to recall a comment about difficulty in parsing commands from MC.

13.0.125 (02/18/2009)

3. NEW: Added system-wide broadcast mechanism so third-party applications can monitor and respond to program events.
( documented in C++ header file at the top of http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Media_Center_Core_Commands )

Craig · « **Reply #20 on:** February 23, 2009, 06:35:21 pm »

I did see that but I wasn't sure what it meant at first. I've had a dabble but can't seem to capture any messages as yet. If anyone can give a few pointers for capturing system messages in Delphi then I'll try and investigate further.

Craig

JaysonG · « **Reply #21 on:** April 19, 2009, 08:31:38 am »

Well done, with this plugin you gave me a reason to upgrade from MC12 to MC13. Was perfectly happy with 12 until I saw this.

JimH owes you $15 lol.

Thanks.

MBlue72 · « **Reply #22 on:** May 06, 2009, 04:32:19 pm »

Hello:

Back in October and November I installed and unsuccessfully attempted to use MC2Slim with MC12 (messages 9-11, 13,15 and 18 of this thread). I am on 64-bit Vista and figured that was part of the problem. I have finally gotten the chance to work on this again and am still having a problem, although not quite as severe.

Background: I am a classical music lover and am using "Album" to contain each piece (symphony, string quartet, etc.). Then each movement is included as a "song" within that album.

I have updated to MC13. I reinstalled MC2Slim last Friday and had five days of success. (What a great program Craig!) Then last night and today, I have had a strange problem. I will describe the sequence of events as clearly as I can:

1.   I start MC13, then MC2Slim
2.   I select an album/piece (today I played Haydn’s String Quartet, op 42). I let it play through.
3.   Just after the end of the last movement, I can see MC13 goes briefly into a “waiting” mode.
4.   then MC13 goes into a “buffering” mode … and the last movement plays again!
5.   then MC13 and MC2Slim freeze up and both programs become unresponsive. I cannot minimize, close, pause the playback, or anything else.
6.   In this state, the only way I can get the programs to stop is to invoke task manager and “end task.”
7.   If I take no action and let the final movement keep repeating, I get the message “MC2Slim lost contact with Media Center 12” (despite me using MC13). The only choice I am given is an “OK” button, which if invoked, shuts down MC2Slim.

I am wondering if Craig or any of you can make some sense of this sequence of events. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I love the idea of having MC13 be my "front end" for my SqueezeBox.

Another question ... have any of you gotten MC2Slim to work properly with MC13 on a 64-bit Vista system???

Thank you,

Dave

PS ... I did read the directions and have "switch tracks" set to gapless and the "do not play silence box" is unchecked.

JaysonG · « **Reply #23 on:** August 09, 2009, 12:41:43 pm »

Sorry, Windows Vista 32-bit here. Looking like I'm going 64-bit for Windows 7 so hopefully it all works out of the box.

Craig any plans to add the MC2Slim volume controller to MC GUI (Maybe selectable from the Volume Options when you left/right click the speaker from the volume slider)?

Craig · « **Reply #24 on:** August 10, 2009, 02:33:49 am »

I'm not sure what you mean Jayson,
There's already the option in MC2Slim to use MC's volume slider as the volume control.

The only plans I have at the moment are to make it compatable with MC14 but this will mean dropping MC12 support (supporting more than 2 versions at once makes it pretty unmanageable).

The MC12 compatable version will stay available though, just that any development will go towards the MC13/14 version.

Craig

raldo · « **Reply #25 on:** June 09, 2010, 01:27:51 am »

Quote from: Craig on August 10, 2009, 02:33:49 am

The only plans I have at the moment are to make it compatable with MC14 ]...]

Hey,

Do you have any plans to release mc2slim for mc15?

Craig · « **Reply #26 on:** June 10, 2010, 11:47:37 am »

I hadn't but I'll see what's involved, I don't seem to get much time for programming nowadays.

I didn't realise anyone was still using it.

Craig

Craig · « **Reply #27 on:** June 10, 2010, 04:25:35 pm »

That proved easier than expected but It's that long since I dabbled with MC2Slim that I can't guarantee it still works correctly.

Anyway there's a new version 1.7 on www.duff-zapp.co.uk that should be compatible with MC12 - 20 !!!

Let me know

Craig

raldo · « **Reply #28 on:** June 11, 2010, 08:37:23 am »

Quote from: Craig on June 10, 2010, 04:25:35 pm

Anyway there's a new version 1.7 on www.duff-zapp.co.uk that should be compatible with MC12 - 20 !!!

Thanks, I'll give it a try!

moyses · « **Reply #29 on:** August 08, 2010, 06:49:31 pm »

Hi Craig,
I wonder if you could help me. I have recently acquired MC15.0.80 and am trying to make it work with your MC2Slim version 7. I keep getting the message Waiting for Media Center and no sync. MC2Slim recognizes my Touch but that´s about it. I can only play through the Touch when using Squeezebox Server. Hitting play on Mc just plays through my speakers.
Could it have something to do with the fact that my Touch is operating via Wi-Fi?
Thanks in advance for possible help.
Moyses

Craig · « **Reply #30 on:** August 09, 2010, 03:57:39 pm »

I've not tried it with a Touch but MC2Slim communicates with the server not the player so if it list the player then that bit is working ok.

Are you running MC2Slim on the same PC as MC15? it needs to be but Slimserver can be on a remote PC as long as there is a network connection between the two.

Craig

moyses · « **Reply #31 on:** August 09, 2010, 04:10:28 pm »

Hi Craig,
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, they are both on the same PC under Windows XP.
Moyses

Craig · « **Reply #32 on:** August 09, 2010, 04:35:16 pm »

Are you sure you're using V1.7 of MC2Slim? previous versions won't work with MC15.
It's working fine here with MC2Slim V1.7, SBS 7.5.2 and MC15.0.92.

You could try the connect/disconnect options on MC2Slim's File Menu and I find it best to start MC before MC2Slim

Craig

moyses · « **Reply #33 on:** August 10, 2010, 08:32:43 am »

Hi Craig,
I followed your suggestion and just downloaded version 15.0.92 of MC. MC2Slim now works perfectly with SBS.
Thanks a lot for your help.
Moyses

Craig · « **Reply #34 on:** August 10, 2010, 04:34:42 pm »

Good, I'm glad you got it working. I'm not sure why it wouldn't work with 15.0.80, it was a much lower version of MC15 when I did the mods to the program.

Craig

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Author Topic: [ANNOUNCE] MC2Slim Squeezebox Integration V1.6 (Read 20187 times)