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Author Topic: What We're Working On Now  (Read 7524 times)

JimH

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What We're Working On Now
« on: May 28, 2015, 06:20:41 pm »

Bob returned from his baseball trip today.  Six games in a week or something like that.  His e-mail has him buried so I said, "Why don't we do an Android media player?"  The look on his face was priceless.  

After he had fully recovered, he said, and I quote, "iOS might be a lot easier."

He also found that the server room temperature was pretty warm, so he took the radical step of cleaning out the air conditioner.

And then there is QNAP.  Before he left on the trip, he got MC running on the ARM version of their NAS.  Now he needs to package it up so it can be installed by others.  It's based on Linux.

Luckily, Bob has John's son, Adam, to bury in work, so Bob will cope.  Adam returned for his third summer of work at JRiver.  He's just finished his junior year at University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where he's studying film and computer science.  Last summer he did a lot of the work it took to port our Linux version to ARM, so we have high hopes for him this summer.

John is glad to have another paying member of his carpool.  He's working on a new project, called Doctor Who.  It is an archival system for your playlists.  You will also be able to download playlists from other users.  Once the list is downloaded, MC will search for and set the file location for anything you have in your library.  All of this is working now and we have about 25 playlists from the four beta users who were kind enough to contribute.  Our intent is to build the playlist database, so we can mine it for artists who are often played together.  By doing this, we'll be able to let you start with a "seed" track or tracks you like, and fill in around it with other related artists and tracks.  If you don't have the tracks in your library, we will search for them in the Performer Store and play them.  It's similar to Play Doctor, but instead of just your own files, you will have a much much larger library of tracks to draw on -- more than 16 million.

The rest of the team is working on the infinite lists they have.  Our current priorities are:

Flawless video across networks and to tablets
Touch screen
Streaming

I'm working on my itinerary for next month when I will visit Le Mans for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race that has been taking place each year for almost a hundred years.  I'm looking forward to the beer and sausage.

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fitbrit

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2015, 11:25:25 pm »

Those priorities are good ones!
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kstuart

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2015, 01:09:12 pm »

 If you don't have the tracks in your library, we will search for them in the Performer Store and play them.
This sounds like roaming charges.... meaning that if there are a hundred tracks not in your library, then 100 times 0.99 = $99 and ad infinitum.

fitbrit

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2015, 09:02:30 pm »

This sounds like roaming charges.... meaning that if there are a hundred tracks not in your library, then 100 times 0.99 = $99 and ad infinitum.

I believe it plays only a free sample if not in your library.
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GaryWW

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2015, 10:18:32 pm »

And then there is QNAP.  Before he left on the trip, he got MC running on the ARM version of their NAS.  Now he needs to package it up so it can be installed by others.  It's based on Linux.

I, for one, am so looking forward to this!  :-*
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danrien

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2015, 10:21:20 pm »

Bob returned from his baseball trip today.  Six games in a week or something like that.  His e-mail has him buried so I said, "Why don't we do an Android media player?"  The look on his face was priceless.  

I think I can understand that feeling ;D

Sounds like you guys have a lot in store! Interested in the shared playlist feature - curious as to what kind of privacy controls would be in place for a feature like this.
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JimH

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2015, 07:30:06 am »

This sounds like roaming charges.... meaning that if there are a hundred tracks not in your library, then 100 times 0.99 = $99 and ad infinitum.
At this point, when it plays a file from the store, it will play a 30 second preview if you have no subscription.  If you do have a subscription, then it will play the full track.  It isn't a purchase of the download.

In the future, we may hook this up differently, but even the 30 second preview is useful if you're interested in finding other music you like.  We'll probably link it to an option to purchase the full track.

Once it's further along and public, we'll give everyone a chance to tell us where they think we should go with it.
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kstuart

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2015, 03:10:29 pm »

Okay, that's good then.

( I still think you should check the legality on the name - I'm sure you're aware that it can't be called the "Star Wars Playlist" feature, for example. )

Louis

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #8 on: May 31, 2015, 01:29:08 pm »

Touch Screen would by excellent, I haven't been able to use MC on my Win8 tablet without switching back to PC mode.
Playlist share feature sounds very interesting and a potentially useful music discovery tool.
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enazarko

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #9 on: May 31, 2015, 04:25:41 pm »

Beer and sausage, yes.  Go on the big ferris wheel at night, it's a surreal experience watching the cars chatter around in the dark.

Ugh.  Missing my night driving shift experiences...  Never did LeMans (will remain on my bucket list forever) but was a night shift specialist for endurance racing in the US.  I was good at not losing positions while not breaking anything...

I love the smell of brake pads at sunrise.
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William-NM

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #10 on: June 01, 2015, 05:43:35 pm »

I like the idea of sharing playlists. I'm always saying that I'll set aside some time to put together some killer ones, but it doesn't happen that often. Likewise, exploring new music ... it's always fun to see what other people's current favorites are. I feel like I miss more than I 'catch', but my taste is pretty eclectic- Annette Hanshaw [20's - 30's] one minute, Big Data the next.
LeMans sounds like a blast.
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somebike

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #11 on: June 02, 2015, 07:38:11 pm »

I like the Dr. Who & shared playlists.
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Krunchy

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #12 on: June 03, 2015, 06:20:19 am »

Thanks for theses interesting projects, especially the NAS one.
I have a question concerning the performer store

Quote
If you don't have the tracks in your library, we will search for them in the Performer Store and play them

is the performer store still limited to the US? It would be a shame, and this function not useful for the non US residents.

Thanks
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JimH

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #13 on: June 03, 2015, 06:22:23 am »

You need a US zip code to use it.

We hope to add another online source or two in the future.  Amazon Prime might work.
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dallasjustice

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #14 on: June 03, 2015, 07:20:56 am »

You need a US zip code to use it.

We hope to add another online source or two in the future.  Amazon Prime might work.

That would be kewl.
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GaryWW

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #15 on: September 03, 2015, 10:50:35 am »

Any news on the QNAP App? Status? Will it (just) be a Library Server or full blown MC?

Cheers,
Gary
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JimH

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #16 on: September 03, 2015, 12:14:37 pm »

Any news on the QNAP App? Status? Will it (just) be a Library Server or full blown MC?
The one we've done runs on Linux.  It's the same as our Linux version.  Audio, video, and images.  I think its value on the QNAP may be as a DLNA Server, but I'm not sure.
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GaryWW

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Re: What We're Working On Now
« Reply #17 on: September 04, 2015, 03:26:13 pm »

The one we've done runs on Linux.  It's the same as our Linux version.  Audio, video, and images.  I think its value on the QNAP may be as a DLNA Server, but I'm not sure.

Some (all?) of the newer QNAP models have an HDMI port (or two) allowing the NAS to be connected to a device (e.g AVR) for, among other things, multimedia playback. Currently, I believe the only way to use the NAS as a media player is to install the HD Station software and the apps contained within. But there may be an opportunity here.

For those of us with multiple media players (running MC), being able to use a NAS as a Library Server would be a great benefit. I currently have multiple libraries because I am not going to run the "main" media server 24/7 just to make the library available to the other media players the odd time they need it.

DLNA Server - sure.

The, now in beta, QTS 4.2 will include:

HD Station apps:
Plex™ Home Theater, DeaDBeef, Clementine™
Browser: Chrome™, Firefox®
Multimedia streaming: YouTube™, Spotify®, Tunein™ Radio, Popcorn Time™
Communications: Skype®
Document editing tool: LibreOffice®
Small games: SuperTux™, OpenTTD, Wesnoth™
QNAP tools: QTS, QVM, File Station, Photo Station, Music Station, Video Station, and Surveillance Station

Included but not listed is XBMC/KODI.

QNAP is putting a lot of effort and resources into making their NAS devices useable as multimedia center / HTPC devices.

Is what you currently have available for download and how complicated is the installation?

Cheers,
Gary
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