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[Hendrik]

We are releasing a new version of JRemote for Android.

This version builds on JRemote2, bringing the internals up to date and adding some new features.
All features from JRemote 2 remain available, including CloudPlay, Theater View Remote, local and remote playback, and everything else.

New features in JRemote3:

- New internal player for better hardware support, and better integration into modern Android - in particular improving the notifications.
- Image/Photo Viewing
- Support for managing playlists

JRemote3 is available on the Android PlayStore, currently at a reduced introductory price:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jriver.jremote3

[BryanC]

Cool! Two related requests for v3:

1. File multi-select for playback enqueuing and playlist operations
2. Ability to edit tags in the metadata section, preferably in conjunction with multi-select

[Awesome Donkey]

I can happily say that JRemote3 works wonderfully with Android 15's notification system and that 1) I can now see metadata and control playback on my smartwatch and 2) JRemote3 is detected by Pano Scrobber and can now scrobble playback to last.fm through it. YAY!

I'll start a little wishlist of requests for the future.

1) Add year (or date) somewhere when viewing an album along with bit-depth and sample rate info too.



The likely best place would be at the top left somewhere, maybe before the bitrate and file type? So it could appear like this: 1998 / 1053Kbps flac or something like that. Maybe uppercase the filetype too from flac to FLAC so it would look a little nicer, IMO. Or maybe use the little filetype FLAC image used in now playing? Add in the bit-depth and sample rate somewhere too and it's perfection! Though honestly I think the bitrate part can be hidden for lossless formats as that doesn't really matter at all. Matters for lossy, not really for lossless and could use that room to add year/date, bit-depth and sample rate info.

2) Add year (or date) on the now playing window somewhere.



Maybe this can go on the bottom right or in the center between the zone and the bit-depth/sample rate/file type area? There should be somewhere to easily put it in, since IMO it's a vital piece of metadata that should be shown during playback, IMO.

3) Add a feature to hide/remove the rating stars from now playing. Yeah, this again. Not a fan of ratings as I don't use them at all, so it's wasted space for me. I don't want to end up accidentally selecting a rating, but thankfully I use read only authentication so any changes like that doesn't stick.

4) Add an option to switch to now playing when starting playback on an item. I've requested this before and I seem to vaguely recall a reason why it doesn't work, but again, posting this just in case.

5) Android TV support. This is probably the biggest, most complex request I have. Android TV is a bit of a untapped market I feel, with loads of Android/Google TV devices out there like the Nvidia Shield TV, Chromecast 4K, Google TV Streamer, RockTek G2 and variants, etc. Having the ability to stream video, especially from a server using JRVR, might be very appealing to a good number of users.

I'll probably have more harebrained ideas later when I have a chance to think of them.

[markf2748]

First impression:  works nicely, snappy.

Questions:
1) How do I access Image Views?  I see my MC server's Audio Views listed under "JRemote Audio" on the phone, but none of the server's Image Views appear on the phone.

2) Audio Views work, but I recently renamed two of those Audio Views on the server.  Why do they show up in JRemote3 with their old names, while in MC 33.0.47 the Tree and View Tabs have the new names as expected?  Is a reset needed somewhere?

Request:  Lyrics can be displayed via the "info" button followed by scrolling through metadata to the lyrics section.  Same as in JRemote2 - kinda clumsy.  Please add a one-hit direct display of embedded lyrics from the Playing Now screen.

A zero real estate implementation for example: "swipe up" on the Playing Now screen shows lyrics of currently selected track.  Swipe down from lyrics screen returns to Playing Now.  If no lyrics are in the file, then the swipe results in a slight bounce of the display.  I've seen this in another Android player app and it works well.

Otherwise, add a Playing Now lyrics button or add to the 3-dot menu in upper right corner of Playing Now to show a dedicated lyrics screen.  Make it smart - only appears or in active state when lyrics are embedded in the selected track.

[Hendrik]

Questions:
1) How do I access Image Views?  I see my MC server's Audio Views listed under "JRemote Audio" on the phone, but none of the server's Image Views appear on the phone.

2) Audio Views work, but I recently renamed two of those Audio Views on the server.  Why do they show up in JRemote3 with their old names, while in MC 33.0.47 the Tree and View Tabs have the new names as expected?  Is a reset needed somewhere?

Remotes have their own set of views, you can set them up in the settings under Media Network -> Advanced -> Customize views for JRemote, Gizmo & Panel

[markf2748]

Remotes have their own set of views, you can set them up in the settings under Media Network -> Advanced -> Customize views for JRemote, Gizmo & Panel

Thanks - I forgot about that (I knew that "Add or Configure DLNA Servers... > Customize Views..." did not help since JRemote3 presumably does not use DLNA here).  Questions 1) & 2) resolved  . 

The swipe in from right side to see individual images is nice, especially the pinch gesture to zoom.  Some Observations wrt viewing images:

O1 - For entries in MC's "... > Category > Type > Expression > Display > Expression to display", JRemote3 concatenates multi-field and multi-line entries into a single-line rolling display.  I find the "roll" does not start right up after selecting an image album.  I must swipe from right to view the individual album images and then return in order to activate the "roll".   Instead, the "roll" should start as soon as one selects an image album.

O2 - If the display expression in O1 includes image-specific fields, such as [Name], then the roll could start with first image and work through them one-by-one, changing the thumbnail to match or highlight/underline the image to which the roll point applies.  Currently the roll seems to loop on a single image, but it's not clear what determines which image it rolls on.  Similarly, when returning from a swipe, the thumbnail and roll should start by matching the last image which was viewed.

O3 - Consider respecting expression's specified multi-line display using a smaller font size instead of concatenating lines into a single long rolling line.  Smaller font static multi-lines are more comfortable to read than large font rolling lines for most people.  Roll as a last resort only for those long lines that do not fit the display space. 

O4 - When viewing images one at a time by swipe in from right, the images are unlabeled.  Can we have an option for the image name (or specify an expression) to display with these images - perhaps another, wider, possibly multi-line display?

O5 - In one use case, I'd like to play audio tracks while simultaneously viewing album art which is stored in an Image View.  This does not seem possible now.  If I play audio and then try to view images with a swipe in from right, the audio stops.  Manual scrolling through the images without interrupting audio playback would be sufficient, as is available in other players.

[UncleMilt]

GLAD to see the investment JRemote3. Makes me Happy!

The new version is dramatically more responsive in ALL respects but particularly searching for artists. Nicely done.

If I leave Playing Now list and search for a track in Artists, upon returning to Playing Now list - I must scroll down the list to "find" the track Playing Now.
Could you please center Playing Now list (upon returning) - to position on the track currently "Playing Now"?

This is particularly annoying, if the number of tracks in the Playing Now list has hundreds of tracks.
One must do a lot of up-swiping to find the track Playing Now and/or edit list around that track.

Most grateful for everything you're doing!

Uncle Milt

[thecrow]

I just paid for the upgrade to V3, sorry to say the annoying bug when you browse in the Video or Image sections and you change from Portrait to Landscape, JRemote dumps you back into the Audio section, losing your place, is still there.

[newsposter]

Thank you Hendrik and all!  Perfect timing......

[Hendrik]

I just paid for the upgrade to V3, sorry to say the annoying bug when you browse in the Video or Image sections and you change from Portrait to Landscape, JRemote dumps you back into the Audio section, losing your place, is still there.

Its definitely supposed to remember where you navigated to. I'll take a look soon.

[Hendrik]

I just paid for the upgrade to V3, sorry to say the annoying bug when you browse in the Video or Image sections and you change from Portrait to Landscape, JRemote dumps you back into the Audio section, losing your place, is still there.

Can you elaborate on the actions you are taking, where you navigate? I tried the things I would attribute to your description and rotating my phone keeps the location.

[thecrow]

Can you elaborate on the actions you are taking, where you navigate? I tried the things I would attribute to your description and rotating my phone keeps the location.

Using phone in portrait mode, Connect to server, select Video, select a view like Shows, turn phone into landscape mode, Now I am see the left hand side menu to select Audio, Images, Video etc and behind that is the root Audio page with my selection of Audio categories.

Tried three different Android devices:
LG V60 running - Android 13.
Asus ZenPad 3S 10 - Android 7
iBasso DX240 - Android 11

And I always saw this issue with JRemote2 as well.
I am happy to try to get to the bottom of this if you are not seeing the same behaviour.

[Hendrik]

It works fine here on my phone as well as the android emulator, but i'll try to load some additional android versions into the emulator and see if there is something to see.
Confusing though that you have it on three devices but its just fine here.

[Hendrik]

Actually I managed to reproduce it in one case - after connecting to a different server it seems to happen. But after I shut the app down once and it uses the saved server automatically, its fine. Something I'll look into, now that I know how to reproduce it.

[vanhao2002]

Can you provide a non-Google store version? My phone cannot access the Google store due to regional restrictions (gms cannot be used)
thank you!

[JimH]

Can you provide a non-Google store version? My phone cannot access the Google store due to regional restrictions (gms cannot be used)
thank you!

No.  Sorry.

[Splungeworthy]

I am very interested in this. My sole use of this remote would be to stream from my home MC33 server to my Galaxy S23 Ultra, with Android 14. I tried to use PlexAmp with Plex but the sound was horribly compressed, and there were no settings that could fix it, so I'm going with my preferred media player. Will I be able to stream high bitrate files in original size to my phone? Because I have a great many Hi-Res files that I want to hear in their original state.

Is this difficult to set up? I'm a little tech challenged. If it works the way it's being touted, $6.99 is a steal.

[Awesome Donkey]

Yes, you sure can. I regularly stream content including hi-res from my MC33 server to my OnePlus 12.

[dconn2306]

In order to keep things organized I'm using the function on the server to sort the playlist by Artist, Album & Track.  When I add another song or album by a particular artist it puts it in order by those criteria.  Unfortunately the remote doesn't look at that sort list and just tacks any added music to the end of the playlist making it very hard to find things.  Yes I can use the find option to look for a song or artist but say I want to turn off shuffle and play all the songs I have by a particular artist.  If I select it on the server it does exactly that.  If I select it on the remote it will just play the songs in the order I added them.  I have attached pictures.  If I select it on the server it will play all the AC/DC songs in a row but if I select it on the remote it will play the a-ha song between them.  The playlist on the remote needs to sync with the one on the server.  I looked but I was unable to find a setting for that.  If I missed it please let me know.

[Splungeworthy]

Purchased the remote. I'm using the access key method. I put in what I thought were my credentials (I'm assuming it's the same credentials to access the forums?) When I enter those credentials in the remote, I get the following: "No SSL/TLS server port found". I'm on Spectrum, using their router and modem-I don't think I have access to port forwarding. What am I doing wrong? Could I be entering the wrong credentials?

Edit: The remote connects over wifi but when I switch to 5g I get "error connecting to server".

Edit 2: Could someone go over the proper entries for the Media Network area? Attached is my firewall settings.

[Awesome Donkey]

I put in what I thought were my credentials (I'm assuming it's the same credentials to access the forums?) When I enter those credentials in the remote, I get the following: "No SSL/TLS server port found". What am I doing wrong? Could I be entering the wrong credentials?

No, you need to setup Media Network in Media Center, then use the Access Key method to access it. Be sure to access it within your network, as outside your network can become VERY tricky depending on your ISP used and if they allow port forwarding (and don't use CGNAT which prevents port forwarding at which your options are limited).

Connecting via 5G would be considered outside your network so you'd have to forward port 52199 (and port 52200 if using HTTPS/SSL) on your router and see if it works, if it doesn't try rebooting your router and if that doesn't work you may have to contact your ISP to see if they allow port forwarding and/or ask if they use CGNAT on their network, at which if they do it'd be very complicated to access your MC library outside your network.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Media_Network

[Splungeworthy]

Could you walk me through setting up Media Network? I thought I had set it up within my own network, because it works when I'm on wifi. The whole reason I got this remote was so I could stream remotely.

[Awesome Donkey]

If it works with Wi-Fi with the Access Key in JRemote3, then Media Network is already set up and should work fine within your network.

Accessing your Media Center library outside of your network can be pretty complicated, depending on your ISP and if they allow port forwarding (or if they use CGNAT which blocks port forwarding). In simple terms you need to access your router for your Wi-Fi network and forward port 52199 (and 52200 if using HTTPS/SSL) and see if you're able to connect outside your network via 5G. If you can't, you may need to reboot your router so the port forwarding rules apply. If it still doesn't work, you need to contact your ISP and ask them if they allow port forwarding (or ask if they use CGNAT, which if they do no port forwarding).

Personally, and this is solely my opinion, I don't think it's really recommended to try to access your library outside your network like this in general and honestly I tend to not recommend such things. I don't know JRiver's stance on accessing outside your library, if it's really a good idea or not to do, I'd be interested in what they'd think. In my mind though, for one, accessing your library outside your network is technically a security risk because you need to open ports on your router, and anything like that *could* be used as some sort of attack vector, however unlikely it may be. If you enable SSL you have to generate a self-signed certificate (which to some may be seen as a security issue in its own right, e.g man-in-the-middle sort of stuff) but you still need to forward a port so it's still as bad security-wise. Within your local area network, it's fine. Outside of it, it becomes a bit... hairy.

One of the things I wish could be done would be to create some sort of "middle man" service that a user can pay a subscription for, and that service could connect to your MC server and grab content you want to play and send it through a server/proxy sort of deal securely and deliver it to the remote device outside your network. Kinda what Plex does allowing users to access their libraries outside their network kind of thing. No port forwarding, no VPNs, no storing any media/files server-side (just a in-memory cache serving the file(s) from the MC server to the remote device outside the network), nothing like that needed. Just your MC library accessible anywhere on any device, even outside the network without hassles like port forwarding. If I had a lot of time and a lot of resources, that's the kind of thing I'd actually look into doing and creating that.

[Splungeworthy]

Thank you for all the info. I understand the security implications. I don't see the need to use this remote while I'm home, since I'm right in front of the computer and don't really need a remote. But when it did link to the server over wifi, having my entire JRiver database at my fingertips was quite exciting (it's around 60K files), which is why I want to try to make this streaming service work.

1. Spectrum does allow port forwarding, but of course it's not simple. It asks you to reserve an IP address and then requires the following:
          a. An assignment name for the port.
          b. An external port
          c. An internal port
          d. Protocol (tcp,udp or tcp_and_udp).
2. When I assign a port to that particular server, does this have any implication for my internet service generally? And I assume this is reversible if it doesn't work.

I've never dealt with port forwarding before, and if this doesn't work because of Spectrum's infrastructure then que sera sera. Hopefully I can get a refund. But I really want this to work. Thank you again for your attention.

[dconn2306]

So I uninstalled the software from both of my devices.  I don't want to leave it for too long because if you can't solve my issue then the remote software is of no use to me.  What good is a remove that works with Playlists if I still have to access the main server to do what I want?  If you can't resolve the issue I will hopefully receive a refund.

[tschitschi]

It works fine on my Samsung Galaxy Tab Ultra S10 with Android 14.
But I still miss the ability to edit meta data as was possible with JRemote (vers. 1) - wich does not run on Android 14 anymore!

[Zhillsguy]

What is the current easiest method to access RP with JR3?

[JimH]

RP?

[Awesome Donkey]

Radio Paradise.

What good is a remove that works with Playlists if I still have to access the main server to do what I want?

That's exactly how the remotes work though, all of them require Media Center running on a device acting as a Media Server and require direct access to said device to function. None of the remote apps function as a standalone media player and they cannot play local media or playlists or anything like that. They're intended to be used on the same local area network the machine running Media Center is running on. Hence the term remote.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Remotes

[daveman]

I would like to be able to use this on my NVIDIA Shield.  Is it possible?

Dave

[Awesome Donkey]

Nope, it currently doesn't support Android TV and trying to install it likely won't be a good experience. JRiver for Android does support Android TV though.

[Awesome Donkey]

New version just came out, give it a go and report your findings here: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,140430.0.html

[Zhillsguy]

RP?

Yes playing it with remote. I don't see a way to play rp streaming. Maybe create a play list somehow? Can it be submitted as a feature request?

[hoyt]

Adding a 3rd voice asking for Android TV (Nvidia Shield) support. I use MO4 Media for this, but would be nice to standardize the experience a bit more.

I saw the comment about JRiver For Android working for Android TV. Maybe I need to try it again, but my experience with JRiver for Android was never good. It was horribly slow to load and horribly slow to navigate. It also dropped the server connection frequently. I've uninstalled it from all of my Android devices because JRemote was a much better user experience.

EDIT: I'll also add that JRiver for Android was an enormous install size. I think it was almost 1GB on my phone when I removed it. Sheilds have 8 or 16 GB of storage.

[JimH]

What is RP?

[Awesome Donkey]

What is RP?

Radio Paradise, I assume.

[Hendrik]

Radio Paradise is not supported on JRemote, I'm not sure if thats possible due to the way the limitations work. But it would also just be streaming from the web, Media Center would not be involved, so might as well access it directly?

[JimH]

Cloudplay works.

[Zhillsguy]

Radio Paradise is not supported on JRemote, I'm not sure if thats possible due to the way the limitations work. But it would also just be streaming from the web, Media Center would not be involved, so might as well access it directly?

MO4Media has been doing it for years. I can command the server to play RP, just not to the local remote device.

[Splungeworthy]

So no amount of manipulation by Spectrum (through port forwarding) to allow JRemote 3 to connect to my properly set up server over 5g was working, even though over WiFi it would connect immediately, and so I'm giving up. This feature is part of this app's feature set, and is not working for me.

Any chance of a refund?

[Awesome Donkey]

If it doesn't work after forwarding the port(s), there's a chance they use CGNAT, did you ask them about it?

[stanger89]

Dumb question,

What's the difference between this and JRiver for Android?  Specifically for my use case which would be streaming from home to my phone when away (and I've already got the logistics of that setup).  I've had a few issues with JRiver for Android on my Pixel 7 Pro that prevent me from using it regularly.

[milsdrewbulch]

I probably won't update from JRemote2 to JRemote3 until a long-standing annoyance is fixed.

When controlling a client, there is randomly missing cover art in the grid under "Recently Added". These are replaced by blue music symbols which randomly correct after importing a new album on the server. A few weeks later when you import new albums, the problem surfaces again.

When JRemote2 controls the server directly this problem never occurs.

The problem is also apparent in JRemote for IOS when controlling a client instance.

This has been happening for many years not only here at my place, but at friend's places too.

[Awesome Donkey]

What's the difference between this and JRiver for Android?  Specifically for my use case which would be streaming from home to my phone when away (and I've already got the logistics of that setup).  I've had a few issues with JRiver for Android on my Pixel 7 Pro that prevent me from using it regularly.

JRemote3 is a remote which relies on Media Center running on a device locally within the network and can't playback local files or anything like that. JRiver for Android is basically JRiver Media Center running on Android with Panel as its interface and does allow you to play local files.

[Awesome Donkey]

When controlling a client, there is randomly missing cover art in the grid under "Recently Added". These are replaced by blue music symbols which randomly correct after importing a new album on the server. A few weeks later when you import new albums, the problem surfaces again.

I've never seen this happen and I've been using JRemote on Android for years. If I ever noticed this happening I would've reported it as things like that would bug the hell out of me. In my case all cover art in my library is JPG 1000x1000 and is embedded in my FLAC files. Is the cover art embedded in your files or an external (e.g. folder.jpg) file? Is building thumbnails enabled on the server when importing? You might also try the build missing thumbnails option if that's the case and not all are built on the server.

[stewart_pk]

Please display the volume not only in % but in also dB as JRiver MC does and as MO 4Media remote does.

[Hendrik]

I probably won't update from JRemote2 to JRemote3 until a long-standing annoyance is fixed.

When controlling a client, there is randomly missing cover art in the grid under "Recently Added". These are replaced by blue music symbols which randomly correct after importing a new album on the server. A few weeks later when you import new albums, the problem surfaces again.

When JRemote2 controls the server directly this problem never occurs.

The problem is also apparent in JRemote for IOS when controlling a client instance.

This has been happening for many years not only here at my place, but at friend's places too.

Just to be clear, your JRemote is connected to MC, which in itself is connected to another MC server?

In this case the issue is likely with MC itself lacking the icons for some reason. I can try to see if it reproduces easily.

[Hendrik]

In order to keep things organized I'm using the function on the server to sort the playlist by Artist, Album & Track.  When I add another song or album by a particular artist it puts it in order by those criteria.  Unfortunately the remote doesn't look at that sort list and just tacks any added music to the end of the playlist making it very hard to find things.  Yes I can use the find option to look for a song or artist but say I want to turn off shuffle and play all the songs I have by a particular artist.  If I select it on the server it does exactly that.  If I select it on the remote it will just play the songs in the order I added them.  I have attached pictures.  If I select it on the server it will play all the AC/DC songs in a row but if I select it on the remote it will play the a-ha song between them.  The playlist on the remote needs to sync with the one on the server.  I looked but I was unable to find a setting for that.  If I missed it please let me know.

This is a bit of complicated problem, because playlists have two orders - the actual file order as indicated by the "Sequence" (the Seq column in the playlist view in Media Center, the first column), and secondly whatever order you choose in MC. Re-sorting in MC does not re-sort the playlist itself, just displays it differently.
In your case, I assume the song from a-ha has the Sequence 39, which is missing in your screenshot between 38 and 40, hence the order its played as.

I'm not sure if we can use Media Centers UI order in the remote. Will need some investigation and likely changes in MC itself how it orders the playlist information.
There is also a potential problem with actually re-ordering playlist items, and then MC forcing a particular order, I guess? Will need to do some thinking.