Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[danrien]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you all know that a new version of Music Canoe, an android client that hooks into JRiver Media Center's MCWS, is available! The biggest question will likely be: why the name change? Well, frankly, I like Music Canoe better.

The second big question will be, what's new in this version? Well the big feature that was added was syncing your audio to your local device:



Here's a full list of features, in case you haven't used the app yet:
* Reliable streaming from your home server running JRiver Media Center
* Synchronize audio from MC server to device
* Play local files when present and metadata match
* Updates server with now playing information
* Interfaces with Bluetooth remote control clients and Pebble watches
* Interfaces with apps that implement the Scrobble Droid interface (Simple Last.fm Scrobbler is my scrobbler of choice) for scrobbling to Last.fm or Libre.fm
* Intuitive layout
* "Material" Design

Download it on the Google app store here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lasthopesoftware.bluewater

[danrien]

I also just want to add - I'm actively seeking feedback on any issues with Music Canoe. You can post them on here (I browse here fairly frequently) or on Github: https://github.com/danrien/projectBlueWater/issues.

Enjoy!

[JimH]

Congratulations on the new release!  And thanks! 

[danrien]

Thanks JimH! Always fun to do a dogfood project on someone else's API!

[kurushi]

Nice gui simple & clean

[danrien]

Thanks Kurushi!

[KMan66]

Having trouble getting this to run ...

Samsung S4 Mini
Android 4.4.2

Have tried to run it several times over the last couple of days, including clearing cache between runs ...

Symptoms:

After entering access key and authorization, I get a screen that just says "Settings" at the top, and a non-rotating progress circle in the middle.  It sits like this for as long as I wait (up to half an hour).

Sometimes, Android will prompt me that Music Canoe is not running, but not always.

Once, it changed to a black screen with a "syncing" notification in the notification bar, and sat there for a long time.

[blgentry]

^ Similar symptoms here:  Android 4.4.2 .  I can't get it to display any music; it just hangs in similar ways to the report above.

Brian.

[danrien]

Yikes that's no good! Fixed and should be out on your devices as soon as the update takes hold in the Play store.

[KMan66]

Yikes that's no good! Fixed and should be out on your devices as soon as the update takes hold in the Play store.

Excellent, thanks for the quick fix ... works for me now!  I will play with it more this weekend.

[KMan66]

So I was hoping that the sync'ing capability would allow me to copy music to my phone, and then play that music without a connection to media center.

So far, I haven't had luck doing that ...

2 issues:

1)  Music Canoe won't start unless it has a connection
2)  Even though I sync songs to the phone, they don't appear to stay sync'd.  Perhaps I am trying to do this wrong.

What I did:
- Created a smart list that contains a random selection of songs from a bigger play list
- Told Canoe to sync it.  It did copy songs over ... but later when I go to play them ... it doesn't appear that they are sync'd.

Is the problem that the smart list changes every time it is accessed?

[danrien]

So I was hoping that the sync'ing capability would allow me to copy music to my phone, and then play that music without a connection to media center.

So far, I haven't had luck doing that ...

2 issues:

1)  Music Canoe won't start unless it has a connection
2)  Even though I sync songs to the phone, they don't appear to stay sync'd.  Perhaps I am trying to do this wrong.

What I did:
- Created a smart list that contains a random selection of songs from a bigger play list
- Told Canoe to sync it.  It did copy songs over ... but later when I go to play them ... it doesn't appear that they are sync'd.

Is the problem that the smart list changes every time it is accessed?

Music Canoe does require a connection to the server. This is because it uses the server to get back file and playlist information - for example, if you have a dynamic smartlist, it depends on the server to give what that dynamic playlist would return on each request. Your music should be accessible by other music programs once it is synced however. If your smartlist changes dynamically, then yes, files will get changed every 3 hours (that's the current sync schedule), or every time the sync is ran. If you have a set list of music you want to keep on your device, I recommend "casting" a wider net, i.e. if you have a smartlist that plays 3 hours of 4 and 5 star songs, then sync all 4 and 5 star songs. You can also just sync albums, artists, etc.

[KMan66]

Thanks, that is helpful info.

I will either have to do what you suggest, or move away from the dynamic playlist.

[zxsix]

Does this handle transcoding flac to mp3 when saving songs to the local device?

[danrien]

It actually only pulls down files using Media Center's the "Medium" conversion setting - which I believe converts it to a 256kbps MP3. I've considered adding a setting to not do conversion, or change the conversion, but haven't gotten around to it (and may never do so).