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[vagskal]

I normally do not use MC for music playback, but after extensive support from Andrew FG (of Whitebear) I can finally (sort of; we are still working) use MC to get music to play on my Squeezeboxes. But I am confused by the MC UI for playback.

1. Do I have to stop browse my library and use the tree to select a player to get the play controls and display now playing info text on top of the screen to work with a specific player? Or am I missing something obvious, like a right click menu to select which player to work with? (I know about the Send To... command but that does not switch the player to work with.)

2. How can I use my links to look up something about the now playing track when browsing my library? Can I somehow "select" the now playing track shown in the display now playing info text on top of the screen and invoke a link from the links bar?

3. Sometimes I have MC player controls in the Win 7 task bar and sometimes I do not. The play/pause icon is not toggling, the play icon is always visible. These might be bugs.

4. All songs played on my Squeezeboxes via MC/Whitebear are getting scrobbled twice to last.fm, once by MC and once by Logitech Media Server. Is there a rule or something in the expression language I can use to exclude/include songs played to certain zones? I only want to scrobble songs played on the MC PC ("Player"). For now I turned off scrobbling in MC.

5. The wiki says about the Library Server: "It provides on-demand streaming of files (music and images) from a server to a client." Must the demand come from the client or is it somehow possible to push from the server to the client so that music is played on the client PC? The client I installed on another (headless) PC in my LAN did not show up under Players in the MC server. Must I enable Media Network on the client as well? Just wondering (I realize I can revert the setup, if I want to be able to play from one library on both PCs using the PC with monitors and keyboard).

[JimH]

So many questions!  For your first one, try clicking on each zone under Playing Now.  That makes that zone active.  Anything you do after that affects only that zone.  You can also drag content to any zone there without first clicking on it.

Your solution for scrobbling is the only one I know about.

For your last question, read about DLNA on our wiki.  You can push or pull.  You can also use a controller.

[vagskal]

OK, thanks for the replies. I hoped that there would be an easier way to load/activate a player that did not involve stop browsing and switch to a player view. But the Back button is a great help.

DLNA: Aha, I must have the Media Server as Renderer switched on on the client. I tried it now but I could not get it to work. Ah well, I leave that for now since I already have a Squeezebox connected to a stereo right next to the MC client PC and do not really need to use that PC for playback at the moment. (My initial attempt to use the same access key on both servers confused MC, maybe there could be a check so that the same access key is not already in use on the same LAN. I need MC to be smarter than I am.)

I guess I will have to stop browsing and switch to the player view to be able to use a link on the now playing track.

This playback thing opens up a whole new array of possibilities with MC!

[vagskal]

Hmm, now Cover Art => View (first file) does not work well when one of my Squeezeboxes is the active player. I guess there is no way to always send images to the Player, i.e. a monitor on the PC invoking the command.

[Matt]

OK, thanks for the replies. I hoped that there would be an easier way to load/activate a player that did not involve stop browsing and switch to a player view. But the Back button is a great help.

Ctrl+T also toggles zones.

You can also pick a target zone with right-click > Send To > Play.

[vagskal]

Ctrl+T also toggles zones.

Thanks, that was helpful!

Is the player icon supposed to be green only when something is playing, or paused, in that zone _and_ that zone is loaded in a view or active? If I do ctrl+T the green light goes out and I do not get the point.

If I do Detach Display in a DLNA player view and then maximize the detached window the PC screen goes all black. Manually adjusting the window to cover the whole monitor and then Hide borders works. Maximizing a detached view from the Player view works. I am using the black skin and is showing cover art. I guess it is intentional that there are fewer display options on DLNA play to player views than on the Player view.

Sorry for all the questions but this is all new and exciting for me.

[rick.ca]

I guess I will have to stop browsing and switch to the player view to be able to use a link on the now playing track.

Not for a Panes View. Just include a pane that will make selections based on the specific track, album or artist currently playing. Not wishing to devote separate panes to such things, I create a set of smartlists for those, and include a playlist group pane that includes all my audio playlists (which are organized in a tree).

The screen shot shows my 'Playing\Now' list, which is simply ~d=t (Limit Database to Playing Now). Note I have an expression column If(IsInPlayingNow(),♪,), so 'Playing\Album' shows the entire album with the tracks in PN flagged.

[vagskal]

Not for a Panes View. Just include a pane that will make selections based on the specific track, album or artist currently playing. Not wishing to devote separate panes to such things, I create a set of smartlists for those, and include a playlist group pane that includes all my audio playlists (which are organized in a tree).

The screen shot shows my 'Playing\Now' list, which is simply ~d=t (Limit Database to Playing Now). Note I have an expression column If(IsInPlayingNow(),♪,), so 'Playing\Album' shows the entire album with the tracks in PN flagged.

Thanks that was helpful! You are very kind and generous with your time and advice.

I will try to create a Now Playing pane, called NP to save space. Is there a way to have a Player pane to replicate the player Overview view in a panes view? I guess not. And too bad that there seems to be no way of displaying where the song is playing/was/is to be played.

(I might need your, and MrC's, help to clean up the Whitburn Billboard list according to my naming conventions now that pasting huge data amounts into a field is no longer an issue (in beta builds). Unfortunately, I have to do some paid work for at least a couple of weeks so it might be some time until I have time to devote to this.)

[rick.ca]

And too bad that there seems to be no way of displaying where the song is playing/was/is to be played.

My, aren't you challenging?

Include this expression column in Playing Now: Save(CustomData(#), Seq[Filename], 1). If necessary, scroll the list so a value is saved for every file. Include this 'PN' expression column in your library view: Load(Seq[Filename]). Refresh to ensure values are loaded for all files.

When using your PN pane to restrict the list, you can then use the 'PN' column to sort by the PN sequence. When you clear the pane selection, the list will revert to the default grouping and sorting. If you prefer, you don't even need the PN pane—just sort the PN column to bring them all to the top of the list.

[vagskal]

Thanks, but I am not sure what you mean. CustomData(#) returns 0 for every track for me.

What I meant was a way to determine to which player's playing now playlist a track belongs. I have several players and IsInPlayingNow() therefore returns a lot of tracks that I have been playing and then stopped the player. I have to manually delete the playlists from the players I do not currently use to get a manageable view.

I found several other useful threads regarding how to build a playing now view. One issue I have is that IsPlaying() for me only works for the Player, i.e. when playing on the PC, not for the other Squeezebox zones. According to the description the function is supposed to determine if a file is currently playing in any zone. Is it working for you?

[MrC]

It seems that the green Playing Now status indicator, and PlayingNow() for DLNA zones is not working.

- The green indicator under Playing Now goes away when the zone focus changes.

- PlayingNow() returns 0 for a DLNA Playing Now zone regardless of the focused zone.

[rick.ca]

Thanks, but I am not sure what you mean. CustomData(#) returns 0 for every track for me.

Sorry, I don't know why it won't work for you. Occassionally global variables produce a result I don't understand. Sometimes that situation is 'fixed' by restarting MC. In this case, after restarting, repeat the steps to ensure the variables are properly set: Start a playlist. Check your PN column in the Playing Now list. Switch to your library view and refresh. Does that help?

What I meant was a way to determine to which player's playing now playlist a track belongs.

I don't know of any way to do that. IsPlaying() and IsInPlayingNow() return all tracks in any zone. So this technique is going to produce confusing results if there are multiple zones in use, even if dormant but not cleared. Furthermore, although zones are shown separately, Playing Now behaves like one view. It's not possible to use different expression columns for each zone to set global variables per zone.

According to the description the function is supposed to determine if a file is currently playing in any zone. Is it working for you?

Yes, but I don't use DLNA. Maybe this is better for you. You can still use PN to show what's playing in your Sqeezebox zones, while using this technique to show what's playing on the PC in your library view. If there's no way to determine what's playing by zone, this is the best you're going to get.

[vagskal]

Even plain CustomData(#) in an expression column always returns 0, with no global variables involved. A restart did not help. What is your proposed method supposed to achieve? A sequence number for all tracks from all players in the custom now playing view? I do not think that would be useful for me.

MrC confirmed that IsPlaying() and the green player icon are broken for DLNA zones. That (the green player icon going on and off) was part of my confusion with the MC playback UI.

I have Squeezeboxes (zones) in different rooms that I play one after the other: bedroom SB late at night and first thing in the morning, then kitchen SB (unfortunately no bathroom SB), then dining/living room SB (all via JRemote) until I get to play on my home office SB where the PC controlling MC is. By that time the custom now playing view is filled with tracks from playlists in other zones than the home office zone I want to control. An easy way to transfer playlists between zones would also help my use case, now I just use JRemote to pick another album to play when I switch player. This might, however, soon improve for me since AndrewFG just this morning seems to have almost fixed an issue with Whitebear that made it impossible to send to synced Squeezeboxes.

[rick.ca]

Even plain CustomData(#) in an expression column always returns 0, with no global variables involved.

I'm not sure exactly how it works, but CustomData(#) accesses the internal index of a list—the 'Seq' number that appears in the left-most column of a playlist view. Outside of such a view, I'm unaware of anything it will return.

What is your proposed method supposed to achieve?

By saving the Seq# in the global variable Seq[Filename], it is assigned to each file in the list, and can be recalled in any other view. Doing so allows the same files to be selected and shown in the same order as the playlist.

A sequence number for all tracks from all players in the custom now playing view? I do not think that would be useful for me.

Generally, it would not. I thought since IsPlaying() was not working for other zones, you might be able to use the technique to show what's playing in your PC zone. But if any of the same files were playing in any of the other zones, they would show as duplicates with the incorrect Seq#. I don't see any way around that.