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[scm]

I've used MC to connect a giant external hard drive containing my huge music collection to an internet-connected laptop at home.

Then I would drive around in my car with another laptop connected to the internet via 3G and another copy of MC running and I could play all my collection streaming from the laptop at home.  That way I wouldn't need to run this external hard drive in my car and risk it being bounced around or stolen.

This was awesome, but now that I have a blackberry phone, and I love it's native MP3 player, I was wondering if anyone has or if anyone could create an app to achieve this same thing but using the native Blackberry Media Player so that all my phone short cuts and side buttons will still work to control the music.  Also, it would have to show the collection just as it does when you have your mp3s on a micro SD card, meaning:

Now Playing...
All Songs (4000)
Artists (900)
Albums (1500)
Genres (54)
Playlists (12)
Shuffle Songs


Allowing you to drill down and browse any way you choose.

Possible?  Impossible?  Major problems or deterrents to doing this?  Has it already been done?  I'll be your best friend if you make this app!

And if none exists for Blackberry, but one does exist for Android or iPhone, let me know about that.  It may be worth getting one of those phones just for the ability to access my ENTIRE music collection portably in the palm of my hand.

[HTPC4ME]

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Gizmo

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=58230.0

[scm]

Ok so Gizmo for Android.  Nothing for Blackberry?

[HTPC4ME]

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WebPlay

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WebRemote

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WebEngine_SDK

[scm]

Is it worth it for me to even attempt to get WebRemote and WebPlay working with my Blackberry, or is there 0 chance of it working?

I found a Blackberry app called jam11, and I've gotten it to work with a small sample of my library but only through itunes, and it's very buggy.  it's in beta so I definitely can't recommend it at all yet, but it purports to provide itunes streaming to your blackberry, and also shoutcast, and it functions as a micro sd card player for local music.

It looks great in theory, but it's not ready for prime time obviously.

Who out there has the best idea?  I just want to be able to browse by Genre, Artist, Album, All Songs from my Blackberry where the songs reside on my home computer Media Center, with the ability to rate as a bonus.  Any other ideas?

[Matt]

Is it worth it for me to even attempt to get WebRemote and WebPlay working with my Blackberry, or is there 0 chance of it working?

Do you know what formats the Blackberry supports?

We're probably giving it an M3U that points to MP3 files now.

Maybe there's a third-party media player that can play those files?

If there's some other format you need, we might be able to add support to WebPlay.

[scm]

I have OS5 for Blackberry.  This article talks about OS6.  http://techtips.salon.com/music-formats-blackberry-support-2180.html

I currently use a 32GB card full of MP3s.  The music menu supports playlists so M3U I imagine is supported.  I've really never had a problem playing anything on a blackberry, video or audio.

Two reasons I want to use the native player:

1.  It indexes all the contents of your Micro SD card so you can instantly drill down into, for example, genre (or artist, album, all songs, etc.), and while browsing it retains a search box at the top so you can begin to type in anything, maybe the first letter of an artist you want.  Genre is important to me and is my primary browse method.

The "Jam11" app I mentioned does not even have a genre option, and I just know it's gonna be a nightmare.  I spoke on the phone today with the developer and...not a nice guy.  I also don't like their terms and conditions with regard to privacy, not to mention that their defunk forums are literally full of porn spam and spam of other sorts.  He barely speaks english.

2. There are 3 relevant keys on the side and top of the phone that control the native media player regardless of whether the app is visible, and also regardless of whether you have keyguard on.  2 buttons on the side give you vol up and down if pushed and released quickly, while if held down for about .5 seconds they function as next and previous track.  I LOVE the economy in this.  A button on the top functions as pause/play.  So even if I'm doing something entirely different like browsing a webpage, or even if I've got the phone in my pocket with keyguard on, at any moment I have instant ability to squeeze the phone depressing my selection with full control over what I'm listening to.

When you say "we're probably giving it an m3u that points to mp3 files" do you mean it's pointing to the files that are to be streamed from the computer back at home?

[Matt]

When you say "we're probably giving it an m3u that points to mp3 files" do you mean it's pointing to the files that are to be streamed from the computer back at home?

Yes.  I think WebPlay, by default, provides an M3U when you play.  The M3U points back to the server machine and requests MP3 files (the server converts as necessary).

[scm]

Then it theoretically should work for blackberry eh?

I have a license for MC14, and my MC16 just expired.  Is there a way to request a trial extension to get this functionality working before I upgrade?

[Matt]

Then it theoretically should work for blackberry eh?

I have a license for MC14, and my MC16 just expired.  Is there a way to request a trial extension to get this functionality working before I upgrade?

For obvious reasons, there's no way to extend a trial.  Perhaps you could try another machine.

We don't have a Blackberry to test, so I don't know if it will work or not.

I can say that right now is one of the best times to buy an upgrade.

[scm]

So MC16 will be around a while and 17 isn't coming down the pipe soon?

[scm]

There is in fact a way to request a trial extension of 10 days where J River emails a 15 digit code to be entered in.  But I'm not interested in endless trials, I'm interested in giving J River some money.

I believe you that it's a good time to upgrade, but the only feature I'm attempting to achieve in the upgrade is the one I have posted here.  Please help me get it working and you'll establish a whole new inroad into Blackberry users (there are many of us) and I'll purchase the upgrade.

[JimH]

So MC16 will be around a while and 17 isn't coming down the pipe soon?

Hard to say.

[scm]

Ok I've enabled Library Server and I can see the WebPlay from my computer browser when I go to localhost:52199.  However, in port forwarding, it accepts the IP of 192.168.0.2 when I attempt to port 52199.  However, I thought I was supposed to use my external ip.  However, when I attempt to put in my external ip (17*.**.**.***), it gives the error "ip address and lan ip are not in the same subnet".

Naturally any attempt to access it from my cell phone browser times out and the attempt fails.  I've tried to figure this out.  Can someone help?

[scm]

Ok ok nevermind.  I did it.  For others who have this difficulty, here's how to do it:

I have Media Center 16 running on my internet-connected computer at home with the "Media Network" settings all done according to the instructions in the wiki in order to be running the Library Server.

I went to command prompt (in Windows, you can type in "cmd" into the RUN or SEARCH areas to bring this window up.  Then I typed "ipconfig" to figure out my IP.  You'll see at the bottom of one of the sections "Default Gateway".  Not this.  Up one more line is "Subnet Mask".  Not this.  Up one more it says "IPv4 Address".  This is what you want.  Mine was 192.168.0.8.  This is an internal IP address just for use within your local network at your house.

Then I go to my browser and login to my router in order to do the port forwarding.  I type in "192.168.0.1" in order to login.  Find my way to wherever the "Advanced Port Forwarding" section is.  Type in 51299 in the port fields (beginning and end), TCP for the protocol, and 192.168.0.8 (yours may be different) for the IP address.

I then went to a website to determine my external IP address (those "what is my ip" sites).

I opened up my Blackberry web browser while connected to my normal cell phone network which is 3G, and went to my external ip address and the port I have forwarded.  "***.**.**.***:51299"  Your IP will be different of course.

This brought up the Media Center page where I could select WebPlay and then which Genre or Artist or Album or Rating I wanted to browse.  I go into a genre like "Blues" and click "Shuffle" and it generates an M3U playlist with references to the files on my home computer.

Blackberry asks if I want to OPEN or SAVE this file.  OPEN it and it then behaves almost EXACTLY like the songs are literally on your phone, including with album art, and artist details, etc. on the native Blackberry media player.  You can play/pause, go to next/previous song just like normal, but you can't move within the song, like moving the cursor to the middle of the song for example.

I have been wanting to do something like this for so long.  This is the best!

It's a little glitchy here and there (my phone NEVER freezes, but it's frozen a few times during the streaming process), so I'll report back if I learn more later.  But at least it works for the most part!  

[scm]

Ok after using WebPlay for a few days with my blackberry bold, I have a further question that relates to general networking:

Using Gizmo, all you need is your server access key and the Gizmo app will find your IP address.  Using blackberry, which does not support Gizmo, you have to use your browser and type in the public IP address of the computer hosting the music collection.  This logs you into the WebPlay interface which is very similar to the Gizmo interface for Android and iPhone.

However, since this IP address changes if I restart my modem/router, is there a way to create a static public IP?  I did some google searching and didn't really find any useful info.

I know how to create a private static IP like 192.168.0.3, but not a way to keep my public one the same.  I'm thinking that I didn't find any good answers on google probably because this can't be done for some reason.