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[Hendrik]

This is the latest version of Gizmo (JRiver's Android application).  Please post bugs here.  Please start a new thread for anything requiring discussion.  Non-bug posts will be deleted.

Download: http://jriver.com/install_gizmo.html

The build is also available through the Play Store.

21.0.1 / 95 (December 15, 2015)

NEW: Support for ChromeCast Audio devices.

20.0.36 / 94 (November 19, 2015)

Fixed: Video Playback was broken in recent Android Versions (5.1/6.0)

20.0.35 / 93 (October 23, 2015)

Changed: Lengthened the time of retries for connecting so that Gizmo will be more likely to connect to a machine that just wakes up.

20.0.34 / 92 (November 26, 2014)

Fixed: Streaming Music with Gizmo's Cache active did not work on Android 5.0.

20.0.30 / 91 (November 05, 2014)

NEW: Support for PonoMusic World.
Changed: Video Playback hides the navigation bar and soft buttons completely on Android 4.1 and above, using the full screen for playback.
Fixed: Library Item names scale properly with devices font settings.
Fixed: Playing over ChromeCast properly sets the "Played" status of media.

19.0.135 / 90 (May 27, 2014)

NEW: Gizmo can control the volume of the ChromeCast.
Fixed: Playing Now was broken when remote controlling Media Center with a long Playing Now list.

19.0.134 / 89 (May 16, 2014)

Fixed: Streaming video to ChromeCast was not working if HTTP Live Streaming was turned off in Gizmo settings.
Fixed: Gizmo was not working properly on Android 2.2/2.3 in the previous version.

19.0.133 / 88 (May 8, 2014)

NEW: Support for streaming to ChromeCast.
Fixed: Further increased stability when seeking in Videos.
Changed: Increased the size limit of playlists from 100 to 1000 tracks when controlling a remote Media Center server.

19.0.114 / 87 (February 3, 2014)

Fixed: Video could show in the wrong aspect ratio on some Android versions.
Fixed: Seeking in streaming Video could result in playback aborting and returning to the library browser.
Fixed: Seeking to the same position twice (ie. back to start) could fail.

19.0.113 / 86 (January 31, 2014)

NEW: Support for streaming video from Media Center using HTTP Live Streaming (requires MC 19.0.113 or newer, and Android 4.0 or newer).

19.0.110 / 85 (January 28, 2014)

NEW: Ratings are shown and can be changed on the Playing Now screen.
Fixed: Browsing Album folders with extra large thumbnails could result in an out of memory condition causing Gizmo to hang.

19.0.108 / 84 (January 21, 2014)

Changed: The seek bar will only act after releasing the handle, allowing for more precise seek control (especially with video).
Fixed: Trying to seek in a file currently being written to the cache could cause Gizmo to hang.
Fixed: The On-Screen Android Navigation Bar would not hide again during video playback when it was manually shown by interacting with the screen.
Changed: The Playing Now screen will show the title of the file which was last playing when in "Stopped" state, if any.

19.0.107 / 83 (January 15, 2014)

NEW: Gizmo reacts to headset Play/Pause commands from simple one-button cable headset controls (ie. the default headsets from many phones).
NEW: Playback is automatically paused when a headset is disconnected, to avoid potentially unwanted "noisy" playback.
NEW: Optimized Playing Now view in landscape orientation.

19.0.88 / 82 (December 6, 2013)

NEW: Updated Playing Now buttons.
Changed: Added the ability to disable playback caching in Options.

19.0.50 / 81

NEW: Added ability to customize the number of files that get downloaded ahead in a playlist.
Fixed: Cache pruning was not working properly in some cases, causing the download cache to grow too large (should be capped at 512MB).
Changed: When silently reconnecting, Gizmo will issue wake requests (previously it only issued wake requests when connecting manually).

19.0.41 / 80

NEW: Repeat mode is optional (in Menu > Options > Repeat mode).
Fixed: The list of zones would not appear with build 40.

19.0.40 / 79

Changed: Gizmo uses the mime type application/octet-stream for audio file transfers to avoid ISP or carrier blocking (requires MC 19.0.39 or newer).

19.0.39 / 78

NEW: Added lock screen controls while playing on the device.
NEW: Bluetooth track information is provided when playing on the device (using AVRCP).
NEW: Bluetooth controls work while the screen is off.
Fixed: Web radio streams that were stored in the library or playlists were not playable on the device.  
Faster: When clicking the header to switch modes while connected to a dead server, the menu of choices will appear much faster.
Fixed: In some cases 'Error communicating with server' could show incorrectly on the screen.

19.0.38 / 77 (September 12, 2013)

Fixed: The cache downloader could crash in some cases.

19.0.35 / 76 (September 4, 2013)

NEW: Added thumbnail size option (menu button at top right > Options).
NEW: Added a screen lock option to keep the screen on (dim or bright) while Gizmo is showing (useful for tablet installations).
Changed: The volume up and down commands work when playing on the device (for cases when there are no hardware volume buttons).
Changed: Bluetooth play and pause commands will trigger the play/pause button (for devices without a play/pause button).
Changed: Stopping playback stops the read-ahead caching system from working ahead.
Fixed: Playback stats are fired when playback starts instead of when the cache reads-ahead for a file (requires MC 19.0.35 or newer).
Fixed: When playing a video, playback would sit at a black screen instead of return to the browse screen in 19.0.32.

19.0.32 / 75 (August 28, 2013)

NEW: Added the ability to 'Play (with Play Doctor)' from anywhere in the audio browse tree.
NEW: When a server call fails, the program will retry a few times.
NEW: The program will attempt to automatically switch the server IP address as it transitions from wifi to data.
NEW: File playback caching uses ranged requests so an interrupted download is resumed instead of restarted.
Faster: When there is no wifi or ethernet, connecting to a server will skip local addresses.
Changed: Audio playback loops the playlist until stopped (unless the playlist is only one track).
Changed: Added a system so that partial cache entries (from a crash or other problem) will never get used.

19.0.31 / 74

NEW: Improved cache system so that the playback of the first file also plays from cache (but playback still starts immediately).

19.0.30 / 73

NEW: Playback on device uses a caching system that reads-ahead and keeps files between runs, increasing reliability with weak connections.
Faster: Browsing switches screens faster.
Faster: Android 4 devices load thumbnails concurrently for improved performance.
Faster: When connected to MC19, thumbnails load faster.  

18.0.180 / 72

Changed: Errors communicating with the server show an information bubble, but don't cause the program to automatically reconnect to the server.
Changed: When acting as a remote, an error communicating with the server to get information about what's playing will look more transparent.
Changed: When playing on the device, the program will retry for up to 10 minutes to open the URL to better handle sporadic connections.

[contium]

21.0.1 / 95 (December 15, 2015)

NEW: Support for ChromeCast Audio devices.

Is high res audio supported?

[This2ShallPass]

I have a fair number of music files, having collected/ripped through the years, in FLAC, MP3, WAV and MP4 formats. Evidently, there are some files that were acquired through iTunes, and not necessarily through any account of my own. They won't play for me (I get asked to download Quicktime). I would like to identify and cull them. Is there a way, through MC (or through any means), to perform this task?

As it stands, I only stumble upon them when playing music, and have to delete them individually as they come up in the queue. Not very practical when employing the many methods I can use to play my music (JRemote, Gizmo, etc.).

[blgentry]

^ Itunes files should have file extensions of .M4A, or .M4P.  M4P files are "protected" and use Itunes DRM, and probably won't play on anything but Itunes, and only then after being authorized.

I would search your library for M4P files.  If you don't find any, then go looking for M4A files.  Try some of them.  If you find any M4As that won't play, look at the Compression field and see if it's different than the rest.  I suspect it's only going to be M4P files that give you problems, but I'm not totally sure.

Brian.

[This2ShallPass]

1,429 .m4a files and 432 .m4p files...

Relatively confident that the .m4a files are fine. I have a friend who uses that format when he rips, as he uses Apple products to playback. They're worked well for me.

But you're absolutely right Brian! It was the .m4p files! I installed Quicktime, which allows the files to actually "play", but make no sound at all. I uninstalled Quicktime, and now I clearly have to replace these files with ones that work.

Thanks!

[kiorenui]

"Artist" mode now displays a list of all "songs" by that artist. That may be a great thing if you are 12 but grown-ups who like music want "Album" structure. We may not want to scroll through hundreds of "songs" by a given "artist" to get to the actual recording we want.

Please revert.

P.S.: scare-quotes reflect the fact that tags for artist and album can be all over the place for people who listen to classical music, for example. JRiver shouldn't be chasing people who want to listen to Top 40 anyway.

[Hendrik]

Gizmo shows the structure you tell it to show, it doesn't have anything built-in, it asks MC what to show. If you want an Artist -> Album structure, then tell it that in MC, under "Options -> Media Network -> Advanced -> Customize views for JRemote, Gizmo, WebGizmo"

Note that such an Artist -> Album structure is the default, and always has been for the last couple years, unless you changed the views in your MC setup.

[bulldogs]

Can you play stuff on Youtube from Gizmo?

[The Big Labinski]

Will be there an development of Gizmo? 2015 is a long time ago.

[scrutinizer]

Will be there an development of Gizmo? 2015 is a long time ago.

My thoughts exactly. Especially since Gizmo is one of the only things that keep me on JRiver though I won't be upgrading my license unless I see some improvement.

I have a pretty large music library and Gizmo keeps crashing after a while (on several devices) due to what looks like a memory leak related to the cover art fetching/caching.

JRiver should really invest more energy into that app. but I don't think they fully realize its value.

[HTPC4ME]

has gizmo development ended here?

[struct]

Gizmo has been working well for me for a few years.  Recently, it has stopped being able to successfully Google Cast to my TV from my phone.  I can cast for a while, but it stops after two minutes, any two minutes of any movie but always after about two minutes.

I can play the movie on the phone, no problem.

Any ideas why this behaviour might have started?  Maybe a TV update and Gizmo needs to catch up?  I noticed that JRiver is not accessible from outside networks, but I can't imagine this affects functioning on my local network.

Any ideas are welcome.

Thanks

[JimH]

Is Chromecast built into the TV?  Did you try power cycling?

[struct]

Hi Jim,

Yes it is Chromecast built into a Sony kdl65w850c.  I have cycled a few times.

Unfortunately I don't have another chromecast device to test on to see if it is the TV (maybe I need to fix that with a visit to the shops).

I went through a spell of not using Gizmo for a while and I can't identify an action that has caused this change in behaviour.

Any other ideas?

Thanks

[dtc]

If it just started, Google announced that it had a problem with its servers and Chromecasts were not working correctly. They said is was fixed, but the fix may not have gotten to your device.  I got an email from them on the 28th, with a statement that the problem occurred the day before.  Not sure this is your problem, but wanted to point it out.

"You may have noticed a problem with your
Chromecast yesterday morning. We found a glitch
with one of our backend systems and spent the day
working hard to get everyone back up and running.
It's frustrating when technology doesn't work the
way it should, especially when you're depending on
it. We're sorry that this happened.
 
There's a fix rolling out to all Chromecast devices
now. If you're still having trouble, let us know here.

 
Thanks for sticking with us.
 
- rishi, on behalf of the Chromecast team"

[pgrisham]

My son and I use Gizmo alot. We have noticed though that Gizmo will just quit and disappear with no error message of any kind. This happens while bluetooth is being used. As best we can tell, it doesn't happen at home (Yamaha stereo) but it happens in the car (Pioneer receiver). I just noticed it because I don't use it as much as my son in the car, but he informs me it has been doing it to him for many months. Our setup of course is streaming from the home server over the cell signal to the bluetooth receiver in the car while driving.

One difference I just considered--home is local network on the wifi, and in the car it is cell signal. Could that help identify the problem? Maybe when the cell signal gets weak?

[MGD_King]

One difference I just considered--home is local network on the wifi, and in the car it is cell signal. Could that help identify the problem? Maybe when the cell signal gets weak?

I don't think that would be the issue. Gizmo caches the tracks to the device and plays them (one of the best features of Gizmo IMO!) so the track would already be on your device. I've used Gizmo for years in the same scenario that you use it and I've never experienced your issue. For it to just "quit and disappear" makes me think there is something on the device killing it. What kind of device are you using? What version of Android? Do you have any antivirus on it?

[icanrule]

One difference I just considered--home is local network on the wifi, and in the car it is cell signal. Could that help identify the problem? Maybe when the cell signal gets weak?

Depending on your os version I would first make sure that battery save is disabled for Gizmo to make sure the os isn't shutting it down to conserve memory.

[SirTom2015]

Is Gizmo development done because of JRemote2? I find this app still has a heckeva lot faster access times when accessing my home library to stream than either JRemote2 or MO4Media and Gizmo hasn't been updated since 2015. Any thoughts on maybe updating this app?

[JimH]

Gizmo is a free app that works well, so it's not likely to change.

[masterK]

Just installed JRiver to try out along with Gizmo. I was hoping to use Gizmo to control my library and stream to playback devices, particularly my Chromecast, as it seems to be intended. The cool thing about the Chromecast is when you cast to it from an app it turns on the TV and the receiver, so it's minimal effort for maximum listening pleasure. I guess that makes me lazy? Sure. Anyway, I got Gizmo connected to MC using the access key. That was all pretty easy.

Then things got weird. When playing a playlist, I can get Gizmo to cast to the Chromecast/TV/receiver for one song. After that on the app it scrolls from song title to song title for about a second each, while nothing is playing on the device, but on screen there are song titles and a circling arrow and it says "Working". I tried it on the Google Home as well and got the same result.

After repeatedly failing to get this to work using the same process over and over (yeah, I know it sounds insane, but I always wonder if the electrons might suddenly start zagging when before they were zigging) I tried playing directly to the receiver as a DLNA device. This seems to work fine, but involves a bunch of clicking things and menus and settings to get to the right place on the receiver, and requires that the TV be on anyway. I was not able to play to the TV's DLNA receiver. Not sure what's up with that, but don't really want to go there anyway.

I wasn't able to find previous posts about this. Does Gizmo actually work, or do I need to pay for JRemote2? Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[JimH]

... I tried playing directly to the receiver as a DLNA device. This seems to work fine, but involves a bunch of clicking things and menus and settings to get to the right place on the receiver, and requires that the TV be on anyway. I was not able to play to the TV's DLNA receiver. Not sure what's up with that, but don't really want to go there anyway.

Your receiver's remote can probably put you in the right place quickly. 

[masterK]

Your receiver's remote can probably put you in the right place quickly.

Unfortunately, no that's not where Gizmo/JRiver would be useful to me. Casting to my Chromecast would be very useful. From my last post, "When playing a playlist, I can get Gizmo to cast to the Chromecast . . . for one song. After that on the app it scrolls from song title to song title for about a second each, while nothing is playing on the device, but on screen there are song titles and a circling arrow and it says "Working"."

Is this a bug? Considering there is a cast icon, it seems like Gizmo should be able to cast, which it cannot do for more than one song. Seems like a bug. Can it be fixed?

[RoderickGI]

Then things got weird. When playing a playlist, I can get Gizmo to cast to the Chromecast/TV/receiver for one song. After that on the app it scrolls from song title to song title for about a second each, while nothing is playing on the device, but on screen there are song titles and a circling arrow and it says "Working".

I just tried casting to my Sony KD-65X9300D TV and got exactly the same result.

Played one song, then Gizmo quickly flicked through all the remaining songs and then looped back through the Playlist continuously. This was shown best on the TV where the Cover Art for each track was shown. On Gizmo the Cover Art only changed every few tracks, probably as Gizmo couldn't keep up. This is very strange, as Gizmo hasn't been updated for nearly five years, and I have the latest version, 21.0.1 / 95 (December 15, 2015). This certainly used to work.
I'll note for other readers that Gizmo must be set to play to "Here" for Chromecast to work at all. Otherwise Gizmo just plays to the Zone selected. i.e. "Player" on the server it is connected to.

I tried playing from both my HTPC and Workstation PC MC Servers, with the same result on each. If I left it running for a while it sometimes paused and played one track, but I got the same result if I tapped Stop in Gizmo, so I think that was just the TV or Gizmo getting stuck and not moving on to the next track, so it played the current track. The same problem happens with video playlists.

I tried to cast the same Playlist to my HTPC, which Gizmo could see, but the Playlist just played locally on the phone then. It seems that Gizmo couldn't connect to the HTPC. The HTPC supports Chromecast Ultra, which maybe Gizmo doesn't. Possibly the problem is on the HTPC though as JRemote2 doesn't see Chromecast on the HTPC at all.



So I did try casting to the Sony TV from JRemote2, and the Playlist played. There seemed to be a bit of a delay while tracks were sent to the TV, but Playing Now in JRemote2 populated properly with the full Playlist and the track played through.


My conclusion is that the relatively recent changes in Chromecast have broken the Gizmo Chromecast capability, while JRemote2 handles the current Chromecast functionality.

[masterK]

JRemote 2 reviews on Google Play and iTunes stores are very hot and cold, overall it's not terribly well rated. For a $10 app that I'm thinking I have to pay to download to every device I want to use it on after buying the software, it's hard to justify.

[RoderickGI]

JRemote2 reviews on Google Play are limited and inconsistent because power users are mostly Beta testers for it, and Beta testers can't write reviews for it.
As I said above, JRemote2 works.
JRemote2 is a separate product. It is being developed currently. Yes, it still needs more work, or could benefit from more work. Some users wouldn't want it, so it is a separate purchase, rather than being free which effectively makes non-users subsidise users. $10 isn't a lot.
You only pay for JRemote2 once, and then you can install it on all your devices, as long as you are using the same Google Account on those devices. In fact, it is eligible for Family Library, so everyone in your family can install it for the one payment.

Gizmo is free, and yes, it has been a while since it was updated. It has been, and still is, a pretty robust App.
Gizmo doesn't have a trial period, so I assume you mean the Media Center trial period, which is 30 days. Support is via the forum, and mostly from other users like myself. If you don't get an answer in a few days, or a week at most, should should "bump" the original post. That is acceptable. It seems that you first posted in June but didn't follow up until August.
If Gizmo doesn't work with Chromecast now, as I documented above, it is probably because of changes in Chromecast. But in my case, it could be changes on my Sony TV as well.

JRiver have a bit of a different business model to many other software companies, and we aren't going to change that. The software is pretty cheap, really. Particularly if you compare to a Roon or PLEX subscription. Support via the forum keeps the software cheap.
Many, many software companies provide far worse, or non-existent support, even large companies.

Anyway, your solution is quite simple; buy JRemote2 and provide feedback on issues you find, if you find any, and JRiver will probably fix them. It is their current Android Remote product, with ongoing development. Gizmo is still useful, and it is good that it is still available, but it isn't a currently developed product. Supported maybe, but limited support.

[David Sydney]

I too use Gizmo as my main remote. Operates a lot faster than trying to load Panel. For me I can't see the compelling reason to use JRemote2 over Gizmo - when I have to pay $15 (Aus) before I can even try it - to see if it offers better control over MC. Considering JRemote2 is about half the cost of the upgrade of JRiver itself for a very small piece of functionality - I'm not understanding the value proposition?

[JimH]

... when I have to pay $15 (Aus)

AUD 13.73

[RoderickGI]

G'Day again David.

JRemote2 is a once-off purchase, with no annual update or upgrade cost. I assume that for the moment that will remain the case, as it is with most Play Store Apps that don't have in-App purchases.

As a once-off purchase I didn't compare the price to the MC update cost, but rather to a cup of coffee or two. It isn't a high price. It works pretty well now and is still in development. Chromecast works in it. The Playing Now functionality is better. It uses a better player on Android. It has System functions to control the MC Server (Sleep, Restart, Shut Down). There is more to be done, definitely, but it is getting there.

I still use Gizmo for some stuff, but I'm finding that it is having some issues due to Android and Chromecast changes.

[daveman]

any way to see version number?  It does not show up anywhere in Gizmo