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[Fred1]

Would someone please explain how the last.fm plugin works in MC?

I do know what last.fm is, but i dont know what i can do with it in MC.
In MC's help i can't seem to find a hint and even a search in the forum isn't really helpful.

Can you tell me what the plugin does?
Is it possible to record with it?

Best regards
Fred

[datdude]

The plugin located under the Tree -> Services and Plug-ins (you may need to enable it under Tools -> Plug-in manager -> Interface) is simply for submitting the songs you listen to in MC to the last.fm (audioscrobbler) service. If you have a last.fm account, you can login to that and see the songs you played in MC.

[marko]

if you enable the "buddy system", pressing the chosen key combo will produce a list of tracks recently listened to by people in your friends list at last.fm
entries with a smiley face beside them also exist in your own library... double click to play.

It is not possible to record with it, no.

-marko.

[p7389]

last.fm is pretty great. I use it mostly for myself, to see what I have listened to, and to see if it generates something interesting recommendationwise. Theoretically, I could get this information out of MC, but at last.fm it's "safer", and more convenient. And you can show it to others. Yup, I recommend it.

It'd be cool if you could listen to last.fm radio through MC. tags/similar to/people's playlists, etc... Perhaps even integrate some tagging and "love this"-functionality. But I guess last.fm maybe wouldn't like that...

[JimH]

Theoretically, I could get this information out of MC, but at last.fm it's "safer", and more convenient.

Can you explain what you mean by safer?

[p7389]

Nothing more than the human equation - nothing to do with MC . If the stats are on last.fm, nothing on my end will screw them up (in terms of formatting computer, computer crash, hardware failure etc)...

[adamsp70]

Sadly it doesn't seem to work for MC running off a remote library (as a client).....

[marko]

18. Changed: Last.fm plugin now works with library server files.

try build 422 available from the thread at the top of this forum. it should be working now.

[adamsp70]

Oh - fantastic! I'm scrobbling again.....

 

[adamsp70]

Although..... it only seems to work if i have the last.fm service page open in MC, then i see all the tracks being uploaded fine.

As soon as i switch away to "playing now" or anything else, it stops uploading, and when i go back to the service page, all the tracks that have been uploaded have been cleared!

I've installed it on a few machines, all with the same result....

[p7389]

Although..... it only seems to work if i have the last.fm service page open in MC, then i see all the tracks being uploaded fine.

As soon as i switch away to "playing now" or anything else, it stops uploading, and when i go back to the service page, all the tracks that have been uploaded have been cleared!

I've installed it on a few machines, all with the same result....

I guess this isn't it?

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=44553.msg304968#msg304968

Seems something of a stretch since you tried it on several computers. And usually people mention that they use Vista if they're having problems... 

[c1c9k72]

Although..... it only seems to work if i have the last.fm service page open in MC, then i see all the tracks being uploaded fine.

As soon as i switch away to "playing now" or anything else, it stops uploading, and when i go back to the service page, all the tracks that have been uploaded have been cleared!

I've installed it on a few machines, all with the same result....

Same problem here.

Sounds like a Vista issue.  Having to deal with a lot of those these days.  Thanks, Microsoft.

[p7389]

Same problem here.

Sounds like a Vista issue.  Having to deal with a lot of those these days.  Thanks, Microsoft.

Do you have UAC enabled or disabled? I'll just quote the post I linked to above:

Yesternight I deactivated UAC in order to modify and install som graphics drivers (to work with mobility card).

Anyway, today I noticed that the last.fm plugin was acting up. It didn't start up, except when you had it active in MC, and once you left it it terminated by itself (log said "Told to exit"). I tried to restart the app, the computer etc.

So I thought, what's different? I reactivated UAC, and now it works again.

I don't mind UAC (it's a bit annoying at initial install, but not in day to day operations), so it's not an issue for me. But it is strange nevertheless.

I really don't get why it should have anything to do with it though, if it indeed is the problem...

[c1c9k72]

Do you have UAC enabled or disabled? I'll just quote the post I linked to above:

I really don't get why it should have anything to do with it though, if it indeed is the problem...

My UAC was turned on, but I just turned it off to test things.  Unfortunately, I'm in the midst of something, so I can't reboot at the moment.  Will check that soon and report back.

EDIT: Turned the UAC off, and the same thing happened.  The last.fm plug-in was "told to exit" when it's window wasn't open.  Turned the UAC back on, and it's still doing the same thing.

[p7389]

OK. For me the problem seemed to coincide almost to perfectly with my spell of UAC turned off to be a... coincidence. But I dunno...

[Smoofus]

I ran into the issue of the last.fm plugin stopping if not actively viewing it as well... I changed the PluginMode registry setting to get it to stay running.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JRiver\Media Center 12\Plugins\Interface\last.fm

Make sure the PluginMode setting is set to '1' not '0'.

This should force the plugin to be 'Always active' rather than 'Active when visible'.

[c1c9k72]

I ran into the issue of the last.fm plugin stopping if not actively viewing it as well... I changed the PluginMode registry setting to get it to stay running.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JRiver\Media Center 12\Plugins\Interface\last.fm

Make sure the PluginMode setting is set to '1' not '0'.

This should force the plugin to be 'Always active' rather than 'Active when visible'.

Mine was set to 0.  Which raises the question: Is it supposed to be 1?  And if it's supposed to be 1, why are some of them getting switched?

[marko]

Mine was set to 0.  Which raises the question: Is it supposed to be 1?  And if it's supposed to be 1, why are some of them getting switched?

a-hem...
Services and Plugins > Last.fm > Options (button in top-left) > General > "Run the plugin when media center starts"

[p7389]

When I had the problem that was checked, and I'd guess that this is the case for the other people here too. Of course, my problem disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared.

[Smoofus]

Mine was set to 0.  Which raises the question: Is it supposed to be 1?  And if it's supposed to be 1, why are some of them getting switched?

I wondered that same thing myself. I believe it is supposed to be 'Always active' as I know for a fact it was 'Always active' when I first started using it and then it just stopped working unless I had it visible... which blew.  I have MC installed on two machines and the last.fm plugin changed to 'Active when visible' on my Vista machine only.  I am certain that it was always on to begin with though.

If you go to Tools->Plug-In Manager... and then choose Interface->last.fm you can see what the mode is currently set at.  Some how my mode changed to 'Active when visible' and the only way I could get it back to 'Always Active' was to do the following...

I changed the PluginMode registry setting to get it to stay running.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JRiver\Media Center 12\Plugins\Interface\last.fm

Make sure the PluginMode setting is set to '1' not '0'.

I wish I knew what I did that changed it to the 'Active when visible' mode but I just don't know.. That setting does not even seem like its user editable unless you change it in the registry and the only time I edited the registry was to change it back to the logical 'Always active' mode.

I thought it was just me but it looks like others are having the same issue so I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or if it aggravates me more for not knowing how it got dorked to begin with..

[c1c9k72]

a-hem...
Services and Plugins > Last.fm > Options (button in top-left) > General > "Run the plugin when media center starts"

It was checked the whole time.  All four checks were checked the whole time.

Thanks a lot, Smoofus, for finding this.  It was really going to screw me up if I didn't get that fixed, and it looks like you've done it with minimal muss or fuss.

[adamsp70]

Fantastic - that registry hack works for me too.

Many thanks....

[Alex B]

I want to use last.fm - sometimes. I don't want to start it when MC starts.

Also, I don't want to edit the Windows registry. Registry editing is not something that users are supposed to need to do or understand.

I don't think it works properly now. I am experiencing the same thing as others above did. last.fm works only when the plugin page is visible.

The plugin page could have a few additional easy buttons (there is plenty of room besides the Options button):

Modes:
- Run (submit in real-time)
- Queue items (i.e. submit later when internet is available)
- Stop (clear queue)
- Pause (preserve the existing queue, but don't gather new entries)

Actions:
- Submit queued items now

Options:
- Options (as it is now)


EDIT

I just experimented a bit more with it. It seems that when internet connection is not available the queue is not visible until the the submission actually happens. IMO, the items should appear as queued in the list. It should be possible to remove the unwanted queued items before the submission. For example, personally I do a lot of testing with various audio tracks which do not represent my listening preferences.

[marko]

I think that the queue file is written out if there's anything in it at the time MC is closed.

You could include a search filter in the plugin options to exclude files you're testing etc.?
presumably, 'test' files are not saved in the same location as your main library music is, so perhaps a [filename (path)] rule would do the job?

I do not see the "only works when plugin page is visible" thing reported here.
I have selected the option to run the plugin when MC starts and it just works for me without any hassle or registry editing. I don't know why, nor how to begin trouble shooting the problem.
Occasionally, I do fall foul of the last.fm spam filter, presumably because a track is submitted in real time before the queue is uploaded, or, because the queue is loaded back-to-front.
The spam filter problem definitely needs some attention.

[Alex B]

I think about 50% of my playback is something that I would not like add to my last.fm profile. I may be listening to arbitrary (possibly poorly tagged) tracks when tagging and organizing my library or, as I said, I may be testing MC. When testing I mostly use my own library, only rarely I use external test samples. I don't want to use last.fm as a documentation tool for creating a record of everything I have happened to play.

One would like to think that the option "enable last.fm support" would keep the plugin running after it is enabled in the current MC session. I wonder why the other option to not run last.fm when MC starts is available at all if it makes the plugin to stop when browsed away from the plugin page. The plugin is next to useless if it works only when it is visible.

The logic is different from e.g. Library Server's logic. You can start Library Server in the plugin page and it will not stop until you go there again and press the stop button. MC remembers the last used Library Server state between sessions. Different parts of MC should use similar logic when possible.

I would need the better queue features when I am using my laptop away from home or office. I would like to be able to submit the queued data when the internet connection is available again. The queue should be preserved even if MC is closed between sessions. If it would be possible to see the queue and remove tracks from it before the submission unwanted entries would not end up in the last.fm profile. In addition, some users have a dial-up or mobile internet connection and they may want to submit periodically.

[Alex B]

I enabled all four "main > general" last.fm options, restarted MC and the plugin still works only when visible.

Probably that is related to this:



However, Plug-in Manager does not provide any means for changing the "active when visible" mode.

(... and no, I am not going to edit the registry. Not this time. I pretend to be an ordinary customer.  )

[c1c9k72]

(... and no, I am not going to edit the registry. Not this time. I pretend to be an ordinary customer.  )

However you want to handle it, or not, is fine.

One thing I can tell you is that you DO NOT want to turn off Vista's UAC if you do get last.fm working.  I made that mistake this morning, and when I launched MC12 for the first time, it told me that the last.fm plug-in could not be found or initialized.  It required a re-installation of the core MC12 program to get it running again, once I'd restarted the UAC.

I'm going to turn the UAC off again and then reinstall MC12 to see what happens.

EDIT: Ok, so when you turn off UAC (which I really do recommend, if you don't want to have to confirm every move you make twice), you have to reinstall MC12 to restore the functionality of last.fm.  But after the reinstallation, you have to also to the registry edit to get it be "Always Active" once again, because it defaults back to "Active when Visible."

[Alex B]

However, Plug-in Manager does not provide any means for changing the "active when visible" mode.

On a second thought, I think this part is fine. If I have understood correctly, the "active when visible" text inside Plug-in Manager means that the plugin should be completely disabled when it is hidden. When it is set to "Show" it is available in the tree and ready to work.

All other options should be handled by the plugin's UI.  For example, Library Server is "active when visible" and it doesn't stop when other parts of MC are browsed.

However you want to handle it, or not, is fine.

I'm just a happy and ignorant customer. I am afraid of the registry. Here's my picture:

One thing I can tell you is that you DO NOT want to turn off Vista's UAC if you do get last.fm working.

I have XP SP2.

[c1c9k72]

I have XP SP2.

Now that's interesting.  That means that this wasn't limited to Vista.  But it's not happening so much that everybody's having the same problem.  Weird.

[adamsp70]

I was on XP as well - defintely not just a Vista thing.

The registry works the same in both OSes anyway.....

[Alex B]

So what should I do?

I just updated MC12 on my old W2k office PC (I have really not used MC on that PC). Before the update it had the v. 12.0.224 installed and last.fm was introduced in 12.0.313 for the first time.

The latest MC version on this PC shows the same Mode value as on the other PC: "Active when visible". If this is wrong then the installer has a problem.

On the other hand my default installation of Media Jukebox 12 shows "Always Active" and last.fm seems to work normally. It doesn't stop when I browse the other areas of MJ12.

Here is the system info of my office PC:

Media Center Registered 12.0.438 -- C:\Soft\MC12\

Microsoft Windows 2000 5.0 Service Pack 3 (Build 2195)
AMD Athlon 1398 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 775 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81.4916 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.0.2800 / Shell32.dll: 5.0.3900 / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0002) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright ? 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0002)

Ripping /   Drive G:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No 

Burning /  Drive G: PHILIPS  CDRWDVD2010        Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:4  MaxSpeed:4  BurnProof:No
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: No /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /

Portable Device Info
  Removed devices:


Interface Plugins:
  last.fm (Active)
  Library Server (Active)
  TiVo Server (Active)
  UPnP Server (Active)

[Alex B]

Bump

[RhinoBanga]

Try this:

Switch off all anti-virus software (in case it's preventing registry access)
Uninstall MC
Delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JRiver path in the registry if it still exists
Delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\JRiver path in the registry if it still exists
Reboot
Make sure the old MC installation directory is deleted from your HDD
Install the latest MC
Run MC BUT THEN EXIT STRAIGHT AWAY
Have a look at the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JRiver\Media Center 12\Plugins\Interface\last.fm path to see what (if anything) is in there
Run MC and navigate to the last.fm plugin, click the tree entry to make it active.
You should get the options page showing.   Check the "Enable last.fm support" and "Run the plugin when MC starts" and hit OK.   The "Run..." entry toggles the PluginMode.
Exit MC and check the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JRiver\Media Center 12\Plugins\Interface\last.fm path to confirm the PluginMode is now indeed 1.
Enable your anti-virus app.

[marko]

Delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\JRiver path in the registry if it still exists

If anyone tries this, I'd strongly advise exporting this registry entry before deleting it.
It will contain many MC customisations, settings, options and MRU's, including your navigational favourites list if you use the feature.

[Alex B]

I have just tried to get straight answers.

Is the plugin mode intended to be "Always on"?
If yes, why does MC not set it so?

And yes, I tried a clean install -- uninstalled MC12, removed all MC12 registry entries (I didn't remove my MJ12 and MC11.1 entries), and reinstalled. After this the plugin mode was "Active when visible".

Also, as I explained, my other PC had a very old MC12 build before I installed the current build. It had never had the last.fm plugin installed before so the last.fm configuration was brand new.

The plugin seems to work fine if I manually change the registry key value to 1. I tried this after restoring my previous registry and MC configuration.

In any case, I don't think users are supposed to be able to edit the registry.

[c1c9k72]

I have just tried to get straight answers.

Is the plugin mode intended to be "Always on"?
If yes, why does MC not set it so?

The plugin seems to work fine if I manually change the registry key value to 1. I tried this after restoring my previous registry and MC configuration.

In any case, I don't think users are supposed to be able to edit the registry.

I think the plug-in has to be always on, or else it just doesn't work well (or at all, really).
But, there's a glitch somewhere in either the MC12 install or the plug-in installation that keeps switching the key value.  Alas, I can't tell you where the glitch is.  Or when it will be fixed.

It's a great plug-in, but unless you're a power user who is comfortable tinkering with your registry entries, it's usefulness is going to be extremely limited for those who have this problem.

Keep the thread going and someone will notice it.

EDIT: My upgrade to the latest version (.447) did not reset the value, so that might be a glimmer of hope.

[Matt]

The idea for plugins is that we do not set them to "always run" until they are enabled.  This prevents the program from having to load every plugin.  For example, if you don't have a Tivo, running a Tivo server all the time is a little silly.  The same applies to the last.fm plugin.

Once last.fm is enabled, it should remain set to always run.

Are people seeing something other than this?

[Alex B]

The idea for plugins is that we do not set them to "always run" until they are enabled.  This prevents the program from having to load every plugin.  For example, if you don't have a Tivo, running a Tivo server all the time is a little silly.

That's why I wasn't exactly eager to edit the registry.

The same applies to the last.fm plugin.

Once last.fm is enabled, it should remain set to always run.

Are people seeing something other than this?

In this thread adamsp70, p7389, c1c9k72, Smoofus and I reported that it stops instantly when browsed away from the plug-in page. Only the registry hack seems to help.

In MJ12 the "Run the plugin when Media Center starts" option seems to change the mode status between the two values, but that doesn't happen in MC12. (BTW, you may want to fix the "Media Center" part of that text line in MJ12.)

Shouldn't it also be possible to start the plug-in when preferred without restarting the program? It seems like MJ12 has the same "stop" problem if the plugin is not set to run on startup. A mode when it runs only when visible is useless. It should have a simple on/off switch for those how don't want to run it all the time.

[RhinoBanga]

**** YOU DO NOT HAVE TO EDIT THE REGISTRY ****

As I mentioned before ...

You should get the options page showing.   Check the "Enable last.fm support" and "Run the plugin when MC starts" and hit OK.   The "Run..." entry toggles the PluginMode.

Are you saying changing the "Run..." option is not changing the plugin mode?

[Alex B]

Are you saying changing the "Run..." option is not changing the plugin mode?

I and four others are.

... In MJ12 the "Run the plugin when Media Center starts" option seems to change the mode status between the two values, but that doesn't happen in MC12. (BTW, you may want to fix the "Media Center" part of that text line in MJ12.) ...

[c1c9k72]

**** YOU DO NOT HAVE TO EDIT THE REGISTRY ****

As I mentioned before ...

Are you saying changing the "Run..." option is not changing the plugin mode?

Yes.

[RhinoBanga]

Confirmed.

@ Matt ... there is something wrong with your version of the code.   My version of the plugin toggles the PluginMode fine.   The version being shipped with MC is not.

[Alex B]

I noticed that MJ12 has the following line in HKEY_CURRENT_USER:

Code: [Select]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JRiver\Media Jukebox 12\Plugins\Interface\last.fm]
"Active"=dword:00000001
MC12 does not have a last.fm item at all in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Could this cause the problem?

I hope the problem can be solved, but I don't think the current logic with two separate switches is self-explaining. Wouldn't it be simpler if the "enable" and "run" tickboxes would be combined to a single on/off switch?

For example, Library server has such a switch (Start/Stop Server). Its last used setting is remembered on next startup.

[haylo75]

I've confirmed via the StatusLog.txt file that even after checking the "Run the plugin when Media Center starts" box is checked, whenever I navigate away from the last.fm plugin interface the AS plugin thread terminates immediately.  Navigating back to the plugin interface restarts the AS plugin thread.  The mode in the Plug-in Manager remains "Active when visible" regardless of the checked status of the aforementioned checkbox.  I'm using MC 12.0.438 on XP SP2.  For me, this behavior is new to this build and I didn't experience the issue on prior builds.  I've read about the registry hacks, but that is not a road users should have to travel in order to get the plugin mode to work as designed.

Has this been registered as an official bug?  If not, is that done here via the forums?

I really like the integrated last.fm plugin!  Other than this latest wrinkle I have found it to be implemented well, and I especially like the queueing mechanism.

[RhinoBanga]

Has this been registered as an official bug?  If not, is that done here via the forums?

I wrote the software on behalf of J River ... so consider it officially recorded as a bug

[DarkPenguin]

Relative paths are bad, m'kay?

[DarkPenguin]

Should be fixed in 449.  (Plugin version 1.0.0.9.)

[haylo75]

I wrote the software on behalf of J River ... so consider it officially recorded as a bug

Thanks so much for all your work on this plugin!

DarkPenguin - I see 447 is the current build available from the latest version thread.  I tried substituting 447 for 449 on the FTP link but received a 550 Failed to change directory error.  Do you anticipate 449 being publicly available soon, or am I just looking in the wrong place?

[JimH]

449 isn't public yet.  Should be soon.

[haylo75]

Thanks, Jim... waiting ~patiently