Topic: PlugPlayer - Only loads one track (Read 13679 times)

pcstockton · « **on:** October 31, 2010, 02:41:07 pm »

I am really hoping there is some kind of solution to this.....

When I select an album in PlugPlayer it plays the entire album if I keep Plugplayer open/running.
But if I close Plugplayer, playback stops after the song is over.

It seems like even if I create a playlist inside Plugplayer, only the current track is "loaded" into Media Center.

Is there a way to make the currently selected album create a "List" in Media Center of the whole album?

Thanks in advance!
Patrick

csimon · « **Reply #1 on:** October 31, 2010, 05:06:34 pm »

This is a "feature" of DLNA. Tracks are added to an internal playlist on the controller first and then the playlist is sent to the renderer. The controller passes tracks in the playlist one by one to the renderer as the previous one finishes because most renderers can not handle an entire playlist downloaded to them. Therefore if the renderer is closed, the music stops. This may be improved in the forthcoming upgrade to the iPad's operating system which allows multitasking, so you could "minimise" PlugPlayer and load another application and PlugPlayer will continue running.

PlugPlayer behaves like this by design to be compatible with all renderers. See http://www.plugplayer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=673&sid=eb954f89080613f3b4ce7fa6400f3d89 and http://www.plugplayer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=644&sid=eb954f89080613f3b4ce7fa6400f3d89.

Whether JRiver could handle the downloading of playlists in their entirety if the controller sent them, I don't know, but it looks like PlugPlayer doesn't allow that to happen anyway.

pcstockton · « **Reply #2 on:** October 31, 2010, 06:02:17 pm »

Thanks!

That seems to makes sense. Although I am using on a iPhone 4 and it does run in the background when you leave the app. But the music still stops unfortunately.

I was hoping Plugplayer would be the perfect remote for J River.... back to the drawing board.

Thanks again for the help.

Patrick

pcstockton · « **Reply #3 on:** October 31, 2010, 06:03:28 pm »

FYI,
I thought I should add that I am not serving up music or anything with the Plugplayer. I am only using it as a controller with J River set to Server and Renderer.

-Patrick

rossp · « **Reply #4 on:** November 01, 2010, 05:47:05 am »

This is the way DNLA works. It would be nice if the controller (plug player) could send the entire playlist.

Ross

csimon · « **Reply #5 on:** November 01, 2010, 05:53:24 am »

I guess it depends if the DLNA specification allows for this or whether it is outside the protocols. If it allows for this, then surely there must be some way of the server indicating to the controller that it can accept playlists (there must be some sort of negotiation and handshaking going on between the various devices, such as which codecs are available, etc).

So, it is up to JRiver to have the functionality and to tell the controller that it's got the functionality.
And it is up to PlugPlayer to understand when a server tells it that it's got the functionality and to change its behaviour accordingly.

If this is outside the scope of the DLNA specification than I doubt whether we are going to get two custom modifications to two independant programs.

csimon · « **Reply #6 on:** November 01, 2010, 06:25:58 am »

Ah - look at these threads on the PlugPlayer forum...

http://www.plugplayer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=359&sid=30e0f604e33ef9daaf09a8f64598ba71
http://plugplayer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=365&sid=f44b5714d1dec55fd2e4023b44de8cde&start=20 - read entire thread

rossp · « **Reply #7 on:** November 01, 2010, 09:07:23 am »

Well it looks like plugplayer can send the playlist if the server handles it. Up to the J River folk to make their servers accept a playlist then.

Ross

pcstockton · « **Reply #8 on:** November 01, 2010, 09:47:15 am »

Very interesting. Thanks for chiming in everyone.

It seems that ticking "Wifi When Locked" should solve the iPhone side of things. Although it would be good to be able to send the playlist to Media Center.

I will try the "Wifi when Locked" setting as soon as I can get home.

-Patrick

bob · « **Reply #9 on:** November 01, 2010, 04:05:02 pm »

Quote from: rossp on November 01, 2010, 09:07:23 am

Well it looks like plugplayer can send the playlist if the server handles it. Up to the J River folk to make their servers accept a playlist then.

Ross

Actually, the renderer needs to accept a playlist which ours does. I'm not sure we are exposing it in a way such that plugplayer knows it can handle the playlist however.

First, I need to get PP working with playlists on some hardware I have available for testing.
I've tried with a Buffalo Linkstation as the server and the WDTV as the renderer and it doesn't work for me.
I deleted the server and renderer configurations from the PP device menu as detailed in the PP forum thread.
When I browse the buffalo, select a few tunes, hit OK to send them to the PP playlist, start playing the playlist and then exit PP to the main iTouch menu, the song plays but does NOT go on to the next song at the end.

So, long story short, unless I can get PP to actually play a list of tunes on hardware I have it's going to be difficult to get it work using MC.

pcstockton · « **Reply #10 on:** November 01, 2010, 05:30:57 pm »

Well, changing the settings for PlugPlayer to "Stay Connected to Wifi" solves the basic problem of needing to keep the app running.

Thanks for the heads up on that.

Of course the playlist in PlugPlayer does not get transferred over to Media Center, which I admit would be great. Then you could control from either PlugPlayer and/or from directly in MC. Now only Volume, Previous, and Pause/Play work on PlugPlayer generated playlists. MC cannot control Plugplayer anything but those few commands.

I tried my other iPhone (3g), and it acts the same as MC in terms of controlling the other instance of PlugPlayer, i.e. there is no "Next Track" capability.

I neglected to try to seek ahead with the progress slider bar in either to see if you can control that outside of the initial Plugplayer.

It appears "Next" control only works on whatever initiated the playlist. If I start playback in MC with "Shuffle All", Plugplayer displays everything and can control volume, but also cannot control the "next" function.

So for the most part I am happy in that at least Plugplayer will continue to play tracks and not stop after the first IF it stays running. This is of course no help to 3g or iPad (until the update) users.

I really do hope though that it can send at least the album selected to MC at some point. I understand if an entire playlist cant be sent. But at least the currently playing album would be fantastic.

Thanks for the help everyone!
Patrick

pcstockton · « **Reply #11 on:** November 01, 2010, 05:34:47 pm »

Quote from: bob on November 01, 2010, 04:05:02 pm

When I browse the buffalo, select a few tunes, hit OK to send them to the PP playlist, start playing the playlist and then exit PP to the main iTouch menu, the song plays but does NOT go on to the next song at the end.

The iTouch will be the problem there. It doesn't run multiple apps does it?
On the iPhone 4 it does continue on provided you dont close the app manually in the app bar.

Given this, do you think it will be possible for PlugPLayer to send along the playlist to MC?

Thanks!
Patrick

bob · « **Reply #12 on:** November 02, 2010, 12:27:44 pm »

Quote from: pcstockton on November 01, 2010, 05:34:47 pm

The iTouch will be the problem there. It doesn't run multiple apps does it?
On the iPhone 4 it does continue on provided you dont close the app manually in the app bar.

Given this, do you think it will be possible for PlugPlayer to send along the playlist to MC?

Thanks!
Patrick

Well, the way it's supposed to work if playlists are supported properly is that PP should send it's playlist (list of songs in the playlist tab) to the rendering device then it's up to the rendering device to pull the songs from the server, it can go from one to the next without PP's help at all once the playing starts. That's why if the playlist was supported properly, you should be able to start it playing, then just turn off your itouch/iphone or even totally exit PP, it's no longer necessary for the playing of the playlist.

This is alluded to in the posts on the PP forum but I can't get it to send a playlist even with the equipment talked about there.

pcstockton · « **Reply #13 on:** November 02, 2010, 12:35:14 pm »

Thanks Bob, i see. So it is possible to have what we all seemingly want. Very nice.

I really hope you can find a way to make it work!

Thanks!
Patrick

bob · « **Reply #14 on:** November 02, 2010, 02:15:09 pm »

I posted a message on their forum. We'll see what they think...

rossp · « **Reply #15 on:** November 03, 2010, 08:29:00 am »

Thanks for your help on this Bob, this would be a great addition.

Ross

pcstockton · « **Reply #16 on:** November 10, 2010, 05:03:00 pm »

Any luck Bob??

I was also thinking it would be great for playlists to go to plugplayer as well. Not just from.
When I shuffle all in MC, PP does not get anything but the current track. Which means I cannot select "next" on my phone. It is greyed out.

It seems whatever is blocking playlists is doing it in both directions.

Thanks!
Patrick

pcstockton · « **Reply #17 on:** January 03, 2011, 04:31:42 pm »

Just wondering if there has been anything figured out on this front?

Bob? Anyone?

Is there anything I can do to help?

Thanks,
Patrick

rossp · « **Reply #18 on:** January 07, 2011, 05:00:42 am »

bob · « **Reply #19 on:** January 07, 2011, 11:43:18 am »

Like I said above, I'm going to need to see this working with some server before anything more will happen. I just tried it again with the WDTV, PP and Twonky and it doesn't work.
The version of Twonky I have doesn't claim playlist support in it's sourceProtocolInfo.

bob · « **Reply #20 on:** January 07, 2011, 11:58:50 am »

Also, we do claim playlist support (both m3u and pls) in our sinkProtocolInfo (our renderer) so we'll play them if we get them.

I read the long thread on the PP board again and I don't understand why the one can't simply exit PP after sending a playlist to the renderer.

If it was working the way I would expect it to, you should not need a connection or even a controller. The renderer should simply play back the urls in the playlist until it runs out. The playlist should be constructed of urls pointing at the server. The playlist could be constructed by either the controller for playlists created on the go, or by the server for playlists stored on the server.

rossp · « **Reply #21 on:** April 01, 2011, 04:32:37 am »

Bob, did you get any help from the plug player forum. Shame this does not work.

Ross

rossp · « **Reply #22 on:** May 19, 2011, 12:00:43 pm »

JimH · « **Reply #23 on:** May 19, 2011, 12:17:52 pm »

Are you using MC15? If so, please try MC16 from our download page.

rossp · « **Reply #24 on:** May 20, 2011, 04:36:13 am »

MC16 latest build

JimH · « **Reply #25 on:** May 20, 2011, 06:48:05 am »

Make sure you have Plugplayer up to date, then read and post on the Media Network board. There are some Plugplayer posts there.

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Author Topic: PlugPlayer - Only loads one track (Read 13679 times)