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[dgcrane]

Hi,
 I was hoping to confirm something in regards to the trancoding options. Is transcoding only applied to music being streamed to a portable device ? An example would be I have three zones... one is going though my main home system, one is a B&W A7 and one is my phone. I would only like the transcoding to happen when streaming my collection over LTE and not while controling at home.

Thanks
Darren

[Soul_Rvr911]

Is transcoding only applied to music being streamed to a portable device ?

Yes, that's correct Darren - the transcoding options only apply to media being streamed to your device.

Thanks for this... Could the repeat be a bit faster, or accelerate on duration of time down? It still takes a bit to get to the end of a longer cover in the cover flow...

I could make the repeat faster, yes, but when I was playing around with this feature I found the current speed to be the most reliable - as in, ending on the correct item when lifting your finger. There is a quicker way to navigate than holding a directional button: the 4 buttons below the directional arrows are for Home, Page Up, Page Down, and End. I just noticed that they don't work in 3D Album view (neither do the real keys on your keyboard), but they do work in Cover view. Try them out, let me know if they work better for you.

[MikeO]

Hi

I am running Android 4.0.4 , and I get a message in the play store saying the app is not compatible with my device

Can this be the case ?

Mike

[Soul_Rvr911]

I am running Android 4.0.4 , and I get a message in the play store saying the app is not compatible with my device

Can this be the case ?

Yes Mike, that is the case - the minimum OS version is 4.1 (API level 16).

[dgcrane]

Hi there,

I was wondering as well if it's normal that I have to kill EOS completely when I go from LTE to WIFI (or vice versa) for it to recognize that my phone has automatically flipped to WIFI and to continue having access to my library. I currently have EOS set to access my library using an access key.

Thanks
Darren

[Soul_Rvr911]

I was wondering as well if it's normal that I have to kill EOS completely when I go from LTE to WIFI (or vice versa) for it to recognize that my phone has automatically flipped to WIFI and to continue having access to my library. I currently have EOS set to access my library using an access key.

Hey Darren,

eos stores the access key's connectable IP address in memory, so it can continue to make connections to your library server without needing to perform the access key lookup again. So you will need to relaunch eos in the scenario you describe, where your server's connectable IP address changes.

Cheers!

-L

[J-a-k-e]

A requests that comes to mind - Gizmo gives you the option to change the volume of the current selected zone via the up and down volume buttons of the android device, would it be much of a chore to introduce this for eos at some point?

Also is their a way to configure a gizmo library view for audio so that for example within the default artist view I could say change the "type to filter" search box to search by song name? So in theory if I wanted I could search/select an artist and then search for a song within the context of that artist.

[randycw]

Do you have an instance of MC running on multiple PCs - one PC in the patio, one PC in the master bedroom, etc? If not, how are the zones created, and what is the playback device for each? Does the BB10 version of eos exhibit the same behavior as the Android version? Are any of these zones linked?

MC runs on a single PC.  That PC is connected to a 16 channel amplifier via an 8 channel audio card and 4 USB DACs.  The audio card is divided into 4 zones within MC (each zone getting 2 channels) and each DAC is a zone within MC.  So MC has 8 zones to play to (master bedroom, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, living room, basement, garage, patio, and kitchen).  In most cases these are individual zones, however, I do like to link the living room and kitchen, or the living room, kitchen, and patio.  Also when we happy parties, I'll link nearly all of the zones together.  I use the tablets and phones as remote controls for these zones, the tablets are mostly mounted to the walls in the zones/area they control:  the computer is in the mechanical room of the house in a rack, and rarely gets touched.

It turns out that BB10 does the same thing, but with only two phones (each mine) I hadn't actually noticed the behavior before.  Now that eos is getting more widespread use in the house it became readily apparent.  And, while my family prefers the eos interface to Gizmo (along with the volume control, sleep timer, and zone linking), they have begun to gravitate back to Gizmo as they don't like having to constantly check for the proper zone.

[BernhardS]

I purchased eos now and I think there is a bug:

When edit the current playlist and save (I removed the track after the current track) - the playlist will not really be refreshed. The removed track also appears in playing now.

track 1 - track 2 removed - track 3

Playing track one, the next playing is track 3 but track 2 will shown as current playing.

[Soul_Rvr911]

A requests that comes to mind - Gizmo gives you the option to change the volume of the current selected zone via the up and down volume buttons of the android device, would it be much of a chore to introduce this for eos at some point?

Also is their a way to configure a gizmo library view for audio so that for example within the default artist view I could say change the "type to filter" search box to search by song name? So in theory if I wanted I could search/select an artist and then search for a song within the context of that artist.

I haven't looked into monitoring the press of the device's hardware volume keys. I'll let you know!

eos doesn't allow filtering when results get down to the file level. This is because file lists have much more data available to them than the "browse" grid lists before them, and trying to define the filtering behavior at this level would be difficult. (Should it search all of the available fields for the filter value, or just the fields visible in each row item?) Plus, allowing filtering at this level would also affect the behavior when tapping an item to play: since filtering is entirely client side, there's no easy way to tell MC to play the list that's visible aside from adding files one item at a time. You might want to consider using the Search function instead, which is available from the navigation drawer.

MC runs on a single PC.  That PC is connected to a 16 channel amplifier via an 8 channel audio card and 4 USB DACs.  The audio card is divided into 4 zones within MC (each zone getting 2 channels) and each DAC is a zone within MC.  So MC has 8 zones to play to (master bedroom, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, living room, basement, garage, patio, and kitchen).  In most cases these are individual zones, however, I do like to link the living room and kitchen, or the living room, kitchen, and patio.  Also when we happy parties, I'll link nearly all of the zones together.  I use the tablets and phones as remote controls for these zones, the tablets are mostly mounted to the walls in the zones/area they control:  the computer is in the mechanical room of the house in a rack, and rarely gets touched.

It turns out that BB10 does the same thing, but with only two phones (each mine) I hadn't actually noticed the behavior before.  Now that eos is getting more widespread use in the house it became readily apparent.  And, while my family prefers the eos interface to Gizmo (along with the volume control, sleep timer, and zone linking), they have begun to gravitate back to Gizmo as they don't like having to constantly check for the proper zone.

I should be able to do something about this. As you're aware, eos is currently switching your MC's active zone. This was easier to develop because it meant that I never had keep track of the active zone within eos; if I tell MC to switch its active zone, then any commands issued to the "default zone" afterwards automatically affect MC's active zone.

I can modify this behavior so that eos keeps track of the currently active zone. The active zone's ID could be persisted alongside the rest of the active server's information. When sending commands, eos can append its active zone to the request, which would remove the need to tell MC to switch its active zone. I would guess that this is how Gizmo behaves.

I purchased eos now and I think there is a bug:

When edit the current playlist and save (I removed the track after the current track) - the playlist will not really be refreshed. The removed track also appears in playing now.

track 1 - track 2 removed - track 3

Playing track one, the next playing is track 3 but track 2 will shown as current playing.

Does this occur when you're doing device playback, or controlling a remote zone?

[BernhardS]

I purchased eos now and I think there is a bug:

When edit the current playlist and save (I removed the track after the current track) - the playlist will not really be refreshed. The removed track also appears in playing now.

track 1 - track 2 removed - track 3

Playing track one, the next playing is track 3 but track 2 will shown as current playing.
Does this occur when you're doing device playback, or controlling a remote zone?

... only when controlling a remote zone.

On my laptop where JR runs I see the right playback range immediately after press "save" in eos.
On my tablet where eos runs the changes of playback range will also immediately shown but not when tracks where deleted from list. In this case I must close eos and start again or change the view (e.g. go to images and go back to playing now) so that the list will be updated. "Refresh" have no effect.

[csimon]

I can modify this behavior so that eos keeps track of the currently active zone. The active zone's ID could be persisted alongside the rest of the active server's information. When sending commands, eos can append its active zone to the request, which would remove the need to tell MC to switch its active zone. I would guess that this is how Gizmo behaves.

I think it needs to work both ways, is that what you're implying, or not? When you change zone on a remote, it should change the server's active zone (or at least have an option setting to switch this behaviour on or off). For example, if the MC PC is connected to a TV and has Zone 1 active (another room maybe, or this was the last zone that you used) and you send video to Zone 2 which is the TV, the video won't play because that isn't the active zone, what MC will display is the music currently playing in Zone 1.

But also, when the server's zone changes (for example due to Zone Switch), the remote's zone should also change otherwise you can't control what you've just played.  Again, this could be a choice setting, but the two choices should be independent and not mutually exclusive because you might want both behaviours.

[Ancientflat]

I have only been using this for a few hours. I am only using it for remote for a single room 2 channel setup controlling a headless Mac Mini, no video, zones or other complicated stuff. It is works very well and looks excellent. However I would like to be able to enlarge the thumbnails in the library views so that us older folks don't need to reach for the reading glasses or hold the tablet at arms length and also my pet desire, total album playing time to be available somewhere, possibly in the album track list view, would be marvellous. Otherwise it does all I can want, and probably a hell of a lot more besides, smoother and brighter than Gizmo

[nitephlight]

Purchased. Thanks for your time and efforts

[randycw]

I can modify this behavior so that eos keeps track of the currently active zone. The active zone's ID could be persisted alongside the rest of the active server's information. When sending commands, eos can append its active zone to the request, which would remove the need to tell MC to switch its active zone. I would guess that this is how Gizmo behaves.
Does this occur when you're doing device playback, or controlling a remote zone?

I would appreciate this modification.  Thank you.

[High-End]

paid!
just because of the shuttdown and playlist edit playlist.
shutt down works as expeced.
but edit playlist? my thought was that I could rearange the play now list... but nothing happend....

[High-End]

i think eas is a remote for jrmc.
what then is behind " display mode"? changing the display of the server? for what?

I use eos with a tablett.
From my point of view the " playing now" screen waisting to much space.
Is it possible to show the playlist beside the cover? If yes because of the long filenames ( genres: classic) be aware of line breaks ;-)

Next: I am not sure if this is a jrmc think...
the infos shown at the " playing now" screen are feeted by title and interpret. for pop to jazz OK.
but in classic I us only ORCHESTRA, PERFORMER, SOLOISTS and Chor. Is there a way to switch between "title and interpret" and a classic gernres view?

[Soul_Rvr911]

... only when controlling a remote zone.

On my laptop where JR runs I see the right playback range immediately after press "save" in eos.
On my tablet where eos runs the changes of playback range will also immediately shown but not when tracks where deleted from list. In this case I must close eos and start again or change the view (e.g. go to images and go back to playing now) so that the list will be updated. "Refresh" have no effect.

Strange: I was able to reproduce this behavior once, but it isn't happening to me anymore. As a workaround, I changed the behavior so that the Refresh button will always cause the playlist to be refreshed as well. This change will be in the next release.

edit playlist? my thought was that I could rearange the play now list... but nothing happend....

Pressing the Edit Playlist... button brings up the Edit Playlist screen. You'll notice that each item in the playlist has a grey drag handle on the left. You can drag items around using this handle, or swipe them left or right off the screen to delete. When you're finished, press the Save button in the action bar the changes will be applied.

i think eas is a remote for MC.
what then is behind " display mode"? changing the display of the server? for what?

I use eos with a tablett.
From my point of view the " playing now" screen waisting to much space.
Is it possible to show the playlist beside the cover? If yes because of the long filenames ( genres: classic) be aware of line breaks ;-)

Next: I am not sure if this is a MC think...
the infos shown at the " playing now" screen are feeted by title and interpret. for pop to jazz OK.
but in classic I us only ORCHESTRA, PERFORMER, SOLOISTS and Chor. Is there a way to switch between "title and interpret" and a classic gernres view?

Yes, display mode allows you change the display of MC on your server. As an example, I use it to switch to Standard view when I want to use the browser on my HTPC.

What tablet are you using? If your tablet has a high enough resolution, you should see the playlist at the bottom when in portrait mode, or to the right when your tablet is held landscape. The title doesn't wrap; it will be truncated if it's too long to display on a single line.

I'm not quite sure what you're referring to with respect to the Playing Now screen. eos doesn't show genre information, just artist, album, and title - are you referring to MC's display?

[Soul_Rvr911]

I would like to be able to enlarge the thumbnails in the library views so that us older folks don't need to reach for the reading glasses or hold the tablet at arms length and also my pet desire, total album playing time to be available somewhere, possibly in the album track list view, would be marvellous. Otherwise it does all I can want, and probably a hell of a lot more besides, smoother and brighter than Gizmo

Thanks for the compliment! I'm glad you like eos.

By popular demand, I've added a setting to scale the grid items to 80%, 100% (default), 125%, 150%, and 175%. Any grids that have already been rendered won't change size so you'll need to restart eos, or browse to another list and come back in order for the setting to take effect. Depending on the size of your device screen, some of these options may not render differently - the grid view is still configured to stretch the items to fill any leftover space.

As you requested, I've also added the total playing time to track list views. Both of these changes will be available in the next build of eos.

[Soul_Rvr911]

I think it needs to work both ways, is that what you're implying, or not? When you change zone on a remote, it should change the server's active zone (or at least have an option setting to switch this behaviour on or off). For example, if the MC PC is connected to a TV and has Zone 1 active (another room maybe, or this was the last zone that you used) and you send video to Zone 2 which is the TV, the video won't play because that isn't the active zone, what MC will display is the music currently playing in Zone 1.

But also, when the server's zone changes (for example due to Zone Switch), the remote's zone should also change otherwise you can't control what you've just played.  Again, this could be a choice setting, but the two choices should be independent and not mutually exclusive because you might want both behaviours.

Hmm, sounds like there's merit to both approaches. I'll have to give the impact of these changes some thought. It does seem like this behaviour should be controllable by the user, I'm just not sure of the best way to provide this option.

The one thing eos can't do is track changes that are made directly through MC. e.g. - if you change the active zone on MC, eos won't know until you go into the Zones page and hit Refresh. Until then, it still thinks the active zone is the one that was previously being controlled. Currently this isn't an issue, since it only requests playback information for MC's active zone. But you can see this for yourself if you change the active zone in MC and then go to the Zones page in eos (or even open the Volume panel on Playing Now): the checked zone will be incorrect.

[High-End]

Strange: I was able to reproduce this behavior once, but it isn't happening to me anymore. As a workaround, I changed the behavior so that the Refresh button will always cause the playlist to be refreshed as well. This change will be in the next release.
Pressing the Edit Playlist... button brings up the Edit Playlist screen. You'll notice that each item in the playlist has a grey drag handle on the left. You can drag items around using this handle, or swipe them left or right off the screen to delete. When you're finished, press the Save button in the action bar the changes will be applied.
..

What tablet are you using? If your tablet has a high enough resolution, you should see the playlist at the bottom when in portrait mode, or to the right when your tablet is held landscape. The title doesn't wrap; it will be truncated if it's too long to display on a single line.

I'm not quite sure what you're referring to with respect to the Playing Now screen. eos doesn't show genre information, just artist, album, and title - are you referring to MC's display?

edit playlist:
I saw the buttons left from the audio files. but they have no function. If I tap on these buttons nothing happens.

I own a galaxy tab 10.1 note.
it makes no difference wether I use portrait or landscape mode. The playlist is always below the control buttons.

play now:
I ask for a gernes-dependent display: for genres classic it would be nice to see as usual title and album but as an adon: Composer, Orchestra, Conductor, Soloist and Chor but no artist
for all the rest for genres: artist, album, and title
But I think this is mainly a MC topic?

[rogervb]

Just bought the app, thanks for your good work! Would it be possible to add the bit depth and samplerate in the playing now screen?

[daveman]

Bought the app and it looks great!

One issue on my Samsung S4.  It works great from within the network but once outside my network I am unable to connect.

dave

NOTE:  I realize now that I have to have a different server option set up for the outside network... is there any way to have the sever connect to the internal and extrenrnal IP addresses (on after the other) the way that Gizmo does?

dave

[JohanJooste]

Great app Guys. Used Gizmo until I stumbled on this and I am impressed. Keep up the good work.

[Soul_Rvr911]

edit playlist:
I saw the buttons left from the audio files. but they have no function. If I tap on these buttons nothing happens.

I own a galaxy tab 10.1 note.
it makes no difference wether I use portrait or landscape mode. The playlist is always below the control buttons.

play now:
I ask for a gernes-dependent display: for genres classic it would be nice to see as usual title and album but as an adon: Composer, Orchestra, Conductor, Soloist and Chor but no artist
for all the rest for genres: artist, album, and title
But I think this is mainly a MC topic?

They aren't buttons to be tapped, they're drag handles. Press and hold your finger on one, then slide to rearrange.

I looked up the Galaxy Tab 10.1. That device is supposed to be 1280x800dp, so you should be getting the two-pane view in both orientations. Are you sure that you don't have orientation lock enabled on your tablet? If you take a look at the screenshots attached to my first post in the thread, you should be seeing what's in the 4th screenshot when your device is held in landscape (Screenshot_2014-05-21-20-40-38.jpg).

NOTE:  I realize now that I have to have a different server option set up for the outside network... is there any way to have the sever connect to the internal and extrenrnal IP addresses (on after the other) the way that Gizmo does?

dave

Thanks for the compliement Dave!

You don't need to have two different servers defined if you're connecting using access key. If you go into the Manage Servers screen and hit Edit on your server, you'll see a checkbox labeled "Remember connectable address". If you uncheck it, eos will look up the access key on every launch instead of caching the address for future launches. Then you only need one server entry in eos, since it will automatically determine which address is connectable. (Keep in mind, though, that you'll need to restart the app when switching networks, since the last connectable address is still stored in memory!)

[daveman]

If you uncheck it, eos will look up the access key on every launch instead of caching the address for future launches. Then you only need one server entry in eos, since it will automatically determine which address is connectable. (Keep in mind, though, that you'll need to restart the app when switching networks, since the last connectable address is still stored in memory!)

How about having it automatically release the connected address upon a failed connection that way it would attempt to relook up the access key without having to restart the app?

Dave

[Soul_Rvr911]

How about having it automatically release the connected address upon a failed connection that way it would attempt to relook up the access key without having to restart the app?

Dave

The app isn't designed to handle "dynamic" IPs in this manner - aside from on launch, the only time it makes access key requests is when the active server is changed. In addition, there are a large number of reasons that a connection can fail, and the exceptions thrown by the Android runtime don't make it easy to determine the exact cause. These exceptions can also occur literally anywhere in the app, since it's functionality is entirely dependent on connections to the library server. As such, it's difficult to know when another access key lookup is required.

[High-End]

They aren't buttons to be tapped, they're drag handles. Press and hold your finger on one, then slide to rearrange.

I looked up the Galaxy Tab 10.1. That device is supposed to be 1280x800dp, so you should be getting the two-pane view in both orientations. Are you sure that you don't have orientation lock enabled on your tablet? If you take a look at the screenshots attached to my first post in the thread, you should be seeing what's in the 4th screenshot when your device is held in landscape (Screenshot_2014-05-21-20-40-38.jpg).

playlist:
I start playing a complete record.
only on 1 of 12 song i could see the lenght
tap on "edit playlist"
I see 12 songs. 1/3 of them I can switch to the left side = delete. 2/3 no reaction when holding the button.
rearage is with non of the song possible.
tap on save to go back to plan now. left below the picture I cann see 2/8. the playlist ist still 12 songs long.
landscape or portrait, the playlist is always below the picture

[TinMan81]

Hi! Bought eos today. Great app, especially edit playlist function. But i have same playing now problem as High End have. Playing now screen looks same in portrait and landscape mode (list of tracks below cover art). I have Sony Xperia Z2 tablet. Anyway, thanks for your hard work.

[Soul_Rvr911]

But i have same playing now problem as High End have. Playing now screen looks same in portrait and landscape mode (list of tracks below cover art). I have Sony Xperia Z2 tablet. Anyway, thanks for your hard work.

Thanks TinMan81!

I just looked at the layout files again, and I think I found the problem: both your and HighEnd's devices are using the wrong layouts because their screens are so large. I've tried to accommodate multiple screen sizes in both orientations, but it appears that for any device that has a screen where both the width and height are greater than 720dp the platform ends up choosing the same (vertical) layout. I'll have to tinker with this some more to find a way to get it to lay out the way I want (and the way you'd expect!).

-L

[csimon]

Hmm, sounds like there's merit to both approaches. I'll have to give the impact of these changes some thought. It does seem like this behaviour should be controllable by the user, I'm just not sure of the best way to provide this option.

The one thing eos can't do is track changes that are made directly through MC. e.g. - if you change the active zone on MC, eos won't know until you go into the Zones page and hit Refresh. Until then, it still thinks the active zone is the one that was previously being controlled. Currently this isn't an issue, since it only requests playback information for MC's active zone. But you can see this for yourself if you change the active zone in MC and then go to the Zones page in eos (or even open the Volume panel on Playing Now): the checked zone will be incorrect.

Can you do it by polling every so often for the current active zone?  Or, since MC doesn't actually activate Zone Switch between items, only at the start of a playlist (which itself is a bit of a problem - they might fix this limitation in the future) , can you at least poll for the active zone at, say, 1 second into the first item that has been played?  Does MCWS allow you to interrogate its active zone?

The two situations I mentioned I think are both limitations of the current "client/server" model that MC uses.  Situation 1, where you cannot start a video remotely when you have more than one zone, is deliberate behaviour apparently so I assume this means it will not be altered, so it is up to the remote to change the active zone on the server so that video works.  Situation 2, where MC is not able to notify the client when the server switches zone ... I'm not sure if this is deliberate behaviour or just wasn't catered for when Zone Switch was implemented. JRemote always struggled with the latter and it was never achieved, and I'm pretty sure Gizmo can't do it.

[Soul_Rvr911]

I just published v1.1 of eos to Google Play. It should be available in the next few hours. Changelist:

New:
-Added Grid Size setting
-File lists show Total playing time

Fixed:
-Refreshing the Playing Now view wasn't always retrieving an updated playlist
-Very large screens (smallest width >720dp) weren't laying out Playing Now correctly in landscape

[Soul_Rvr911]

Can you do it by polling every so often for the current active zone?  Or, since MC doesn't actually activate Zone Switch between items, only at the start of a playlist (which itself is a bit of a problem - they might fix this limitation in the future) , can you at least poll for the active zone at, say, 1 second into the first item that has been played?  Does MCWS allow you to interrogate its active zone?

The two situations I mentioned I think are both limitations of the current "client/server" model that MC uses.  Situation 1, where you cannot start a video remotely when you have more than one zone, is deliberate behaviour apparently so I assume this means it will not be altered, so it is up to the remote to change the active zone on the server so that video works.  Situation 2, where MC is not able to notify the client when the server switches zone ... I'm not sure if this is deliberate behaviour or just wasn't catered for when Zone Switch was implemented. JRemote always struggled with the latter and it was never achieved, and I'm pretty sure Gizmo can't do it.

Yes, MCWS does allow you to determine which zone is currently active. But I don't like the idea of polling for anything at specified intervals. Doing so unnecessarily contributes to battery drain, since it forces the CPU and wireless radio(s) to stay awake.

Managing state here is tricky. "Push" isn't available, so if a remote client wants updated state it has to request (i.e. - "pull") it. In the general case where the user controls everything through eos this isn't an issue, since most changes to MC's state are made through the remote app, so it is aware of the change. It's when changes originate on the server (automatically or otherwise) that the remote's model of MC gets out of sync with MC's actual state. You mentioned that JRemote suffers from similar issues, which isn't surprising - this isn't a trivial problem to solve!

I just checked the Playing Now response (/Playback/Info), and I noticed that the ZoneID is returned. The way eos currently operates, I can use this value to update the active zone info on the Zones page, although this fix would be purely cosmetic: eos doesn't use that value, it's only for displaying to the user. If I change eos as Randy requested - so that it becomes more zone-aware and starts requesting info about, or making changes to specific zones - the ZoneID in the response becomes redundant since it's the same value eos would have passed to the servlet.

What did you mean when you said "you cannot start a video remotely when you have more than one zone"? I don't use Zone Switching (or even have multiple zones to control!), so I don't know what limitations MC imposes here. Could you elaborate?

[Soul_Rvr911]

@csimon & @randycw:

I went back and re-read your requests, and I don't think these two behaviors are as mutually exclusive as I first thought. Let me summarize my understanding, and see if you both agree:

What eos needs is both:

• the ability to tell MC to switch the active zone (which is how eos currently operates), and
• the ability to control the playback of any zone without forcing MC to switch zones (which is how I presume Gizmo operates)

The best way to think about it would be as 2 separate columns of checkboxes for each Zone on the Zones page: one column that specifies "this is the zone eos is controlling", and the other for "this is the zone that MC has as active". There would need to be another "row" added for "Default", so that eos goes back to controlling whatever zone MC has as active. (Actually, this wouldn't need to be another row, it would really just need to clear the checkbox from the first column. But I can work out the UI later.) Tapping an item in the second (i.e. - the MC) column would elicit the current eos behavior, which instructs MC to switch zones.

This new setup should resolve both of your concerns. For @randycw, his tablets outside his rooms would specify the zone by using the first column. That way each tablet's selection wouldn't override another's. And for @csimon, you can use the second column to tell MC to switch its active zone as you currently do.

Am I on the right page here?

[Soul_Rvr911]

Ok, I've implemented what I described in my last post (so I hope my assumptions were correct! )

Take a look at the attached screenshot of the new Zones page. You'll notice that on the right-hand side of each zone is a new house icon. These are buttons that can be used to switch MC's active zone, and the bright one represents the library server's active zone. The checkboxes on the left that you're familiar with now change eos' active zone.

Examples: (Note that the active server is currently Decima, that "Player" is that MC instance's active zone, and that "Epsilon" is currently checked.)

• If a checkbox is checked, the commands issued from eos will specify the checked zone's ID. So even though "Player" is the currently active zone in MC on server Decima, commands issued will now affect zone Epsilon.
• If no checkboxes are checked, the commands issued from eos will control MC's currently active zone ("Player"). This is the behavior that you get with the current version of eos. A checked box can always be unchecked to get eos back into this mode.
• The special case here is the Device zone. You'll notice that it doesn't have a home button, since in this context it doesn't make sense. Checking the Device zone's checkbox will do as you'd expect and enable Device playback.

I'm going to have to give this some thorough testing before releasing, since it impacts a lot of core functionality. I need to be sure that commands are being routed to the correct location, and aren't changing the wrong zone!

[csimon]

What did you mean when you said "you cannot start a video remotely when you have more than one zone"? I don't use Zone Switching (or even have multiple zones to control!), so I don't know what limitations MC imposes here. Could you elaborate?

Let's suppose you have two zones, one goes to a DAC and is intended for audio, the other sends audio through HDMI and is intended for video to a TV.

You are at a MC client and have sent music to the audio zone on the server. You then stop the audio (because you want to watch a video on the TV), select the Video zone and then play the video. But because you are doing this from a client (and have selected the video zone on the server), the server's active zone does not change. It remains in the Audio zone and since there is no "video zoning" in MC, the video doesn't play because it's not the currently active zone, although you get the audio as MC allows concurrent multi-zone audio. You can only switch to display view for the currently active zone.  This problem occurs whether you are controlling the server from an MC client, a DLNA controller, or a handheld remote such as eos.  The server does not automatically change its active zone when one of its zones is selected on a client. This is deliberate, designed behaviour in MC - see http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=89754.0

That is Situation 1 - where the client needs to be able to actively switch the server's zone when a new zone is selected.  I don't know if eos dos this already (I've only got the trial version so far, I'm currently trialling remotes ones after giving up on JRemote), but JRemote does have this particular facility, it can be turned on or off in its settings.  MC clients don't have this facility, nor DLNA controllers. Not sure about Gizmo.  It's a client-side thing so it's the remote that must do this, not the server.

Ssituation 2 is where the server itself switches zone (either manually or via Zone Switch) and the client does not switch in accordance.  It's a real pain with Zone Switch because the whole point of it is so you can set zone changes to happen automatically via rules, but you still have to remember what rules you have set up and then switch zone manually on the client anyway (otherwise the playback controls are in the wrong zone), which renders Zone Switch useless because if the client has implemented Situation 1 correctly then you only have to manually switch on the client to get the server to switch anyway.

[High-End]

feedback reg. V1.1:
2 colum did work on tablet landscape ;-)
did you think it is possible to have scollling text if the text is longer than the available width?

edit playlist is rather randomly. from my side I made nothing wrong. I understand how it should work but it works in most times not ;-(

had some crashes and send you a report.

regards
h.e.

[Soul_Rvr911]

Let's suppose you have two zones, one goes to a DAC and is intended for audio, the other sends audio through HDMI and is intended for video to a TV.

You are at a MC client and have sent music to the audio zone on the server. You then stop the audio (because you want to watch a video on the TV), select the Video zone and then play the video. But because you are doing this from a client (and have selected the video zone on the server), the server's active zone does not change. It remains in the Audio zone and since there is no "video zoning" in MC, the video doesn't play because it's not the currently active zone, although you get the audio as MC allows concurrent multi-zone audio. You can only switch to display view for the currently active zone.  This problem occurs whether you are controlling the server from an MC client, a DLNA controller, or a handheld remote such as eos.  The server does not automatically change its active zone when one of its zones is selected on a client. This is deliberate, designed behaviour in MC - see http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=89754.0

That is Situation 1 - where the client needs to be able to actively switch the server's zone when a new zone is selected.  I don't know if eos dos this already (I've only got the trial version so far, I'm currently trialling remotes ones after giving up on JRemote), but JRemote does have this particular facility, it can be turned on or off in its settings.  MC clients don't have this facility, nor DLNA controllers. Not sure about Gizmo.  It's a client-side thing so it's the remote that must do this, not the server.

Ssituation 2 is where the server itself switches zone (either manually or via Zone Switch) and the client does not switch in accordance.  It's a real pain with Zone Switch because the whole point of it is so you can set zone changes to happen automatically via rules, but you still have to remember what rules you have set up and then switch zone manually on the client anyway (otherwise the playback controls are in the wrong zone), which renders Zone Switch useless because if the client has implemented Situation 1 correctly then you only have to manually switch on the client to get the server to switch anyway.

Ok, I understand. I think the changes I made last night might make eos a little better than JRemote in these situations.

If you look at the screenshot and description I posted in the message just before yours, you'll see that the Zones screen will soon enable you to change both eos' zone and the server's zone separately. For situation 1, you can use the new "Home" buttons on the right to tell the server to change its zone, regardless of what zone eos is set to control. And if you're relying on Zone switching as in situation 2, you can uncheck all of the checkboxes on the left and eos' commands will affect MC's currently active zone. That way if the zone switches automatically on the server, eos' commands will still affect the correct zone.

So in your example, I would think that the best solution would be to keep MC's active zone as your TV, and tell eos to control the audio zone whenever you want to play music. Then when you want to watch TV you can uncheck the audio zone in eos, which will cause commands to affect MC's active zone, which would be your TV.

[Soul_Rvr911]

feedback reg. V1.1:
2 colum did work on tablet landscape ;-)
did you think it is possible to have scollling text if the text is longer than the available width?

edit playlist is rather randomly. from my side I made nothing wrong. I understand how it should work but it works in most times not ;-(

had some crashes and send you a report.

regards
h.e.

Glad to hear that fix worked!

It might be possible to get text to marquee on the Playing Now page, but probably not in any of the file lists (including the playing now playlist). From what I understand, text will only marquee if the label is touched, and since touching a label in a files list means changing the playlist, this wouldn't work very well! I'll play around with it and see.

I haven't heard any other reports of issues with playlist editing. The only advice I can give is to make sure that you're keeping your finger on the handle while dragging, and to make sure that you're dragging straight up and down along the left edge of the screen.

Thanks for sending the bug report! I found and fixed the cause of your crash, and this will be included in the next build.

Cheers!

-L

[BernhardS]

edit playlist is rather randomly. from my side I made nothing wrong. I understand how it should work but it works in most times not ;-(

regards
h.e.

On my Samsung Galaxy 10.1 I had the same issue. Since I double tap the left (gray) button and hold it by the second tap it works fine.

[BernhardS]

I just published v1.1 of eos to Google Play. It should be available in the next few hours. Changelist:


Fixed:
-Refreshing the Playing Now view wasn't always retrieving an updated playlist

...It works...

Thanks Bernhard

[Soul_Rvr911]

On my Samsung Galaxy 10.1 I had the same issue. Since I double tap the left (gray) button and hold it by the second tap it works fine.

Hmm, two people experiencing the same issues, and both on the same device. At least there's some commonality here.

The component that provides list rearrange is actually from a third party library called DragSortListView. There are a number of configuration options available for it, so I'll spend some time playing around with them. I know it's possible to allow rearrange/delete without a drag handle, but I found that this setting made scrolling the list inconsistent. Without a handle you can touch anywhere on the item to start a drag or swipe-to-delete, and sometimes an attempt at scrolling would incorrectly be interpreted as a drag. But hopefully I'll be able to find some middle ground that works for everyone.

Cheers!

-L

[BernhardS]

Hmm, two people experiencing the same issues, and both on the same device. At least there's some commonality here.

The component that provides list rearrange is actually from a third party library called DragSortListView. There are a number of configuration options available for it, so I'll spend some time playing around with them. I know it's possible to allow rearrange/delete without a drag handle, but I found that this setting made scrolling the list inconsistent. Without a handle you can touch anywhere on the item to start a drag or swipe-to-delete, and sometimes an attempt at scrolling would incorrectly be interpreted as a drag. But hopefully I'll be able to find some middle ground that works for everyone.

Cheers!

-L

For me it works fine - I have no problem to tap two times. Ask High-End weather he could deal with this or not.

[High-End]

I will check that tap two times with my 10.1 note.
If it works I have no problem with that.

In the mean time.... I have a feature wish....: an off line mode with a special function
today if MC is not running eos will not start.
It would be nice if you would see a menue
retry
offline
exit

retry and exit is self explaining ;-)
but with off line you could have access to your off line catalogue.
you just have to sync the offline catalogue with the MC library in advance.
Than you could interact with the catalogue ala you are online.
Why? To see what you have and what your catalogue is missing...

did you think this can be implemented?

regards
h-e

[Ancientflat]

Hi, I missed your earlier post about adding resizing the grid and total playing time that you posted on the 27th. Thank you very much for doing that, the resize is working perfectly but I cannot find the total album play time anywhere. Should it be on the playing now screen or on the list screen that appears if I select an album? I have a Galaxy Note 10.1 which has the same playlist editing/selection problems that others have mentioned ( which does not really worry me) so I am wondering if the missing total playing time may be a Samsung only problem. Thanks for listening to us and fixing/modifying the app for us.

[Soul_Rvr911]

In the mean time.... I have a feature wish....: an off line mode with a special function
today if MC is not running eos will not start.
It would be nice if you would see a menue
retry
offline
exit

retry and exit is self explaining ;-)
but with off line you could have access to your off line catalogue.
you just have to sync the offline catalogue with the MC library in advance.
Than you could interact with the catalogue ala you are online.
Why? To see what you have and what your catalogue is missing...

did you think this can be implemented?

Sorry HighEnd, I can't see this happening. Presently, eos isn't caching any of the library - each list is loaded on-demand. That's why it fails to start if MC isn't running. This behavior is intentional: eos is designed to act as a remote control for a running MC library server, so the app can't function without one.

Hi, I missed your earlier post about adding resizing the grid and total playing time that you posted on the 27th. Thank you very much for doing that, the resize is working perfectly but I cannot find the total album play time anywhere. Should it be on the playing now screen or on the list screen that appears if I select an album? I have a Galaxy Note 10.1 which has the same playlist editing/selection problems that others have mentioned ( which does not really worry me) so I am wondering if the missing total playing time may be a Samsung only problem. Thanks for listening to us and fixing/modifying the app for us.

The total play time should be available on every list of files except the Playing Now playlist. (This is due to technical reasons, since the Playing Now playlist is implemented differently.) If you scroll past the last item in the list you should see it.

Hmm, I just took a look at the documentation for ListView footers, and it appears the current implementation of total playing time may not work for Android versions before KitKat (4.4). I missed that caveat when I added this feature. I'll switch around the code so that it works in all Android versions. This fix will be in the next release.

Cheers!

-L

[High-End]

For me it works fine - I have no problem to tap two times. Ask High-End weather he could deal with this or not.

this works for me fine also ;-)

regarding the offline DB:
perhaps if more user are interested in this feature....
in business language: this is a unique selling proposition ;-)

regards
h-e

[High-End]

had to send you some crash reports...

one smal issue regarding the playing now screen
in most times just one of all somgs in the playlist is showing the lenght of a title.
also the showing of the covers in the cataloug views are very slowly.
could you fix this with the next update.

[JohanJooste]

Hi Guys, very much enjoying this app - I have an issue though of intermittend crashes especially when scrolling through the
artists. I receive the error  "eos has unfortunately stopped working" and then shuts down. Please advise if there is a fix for this.

Currently using a Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 with Android version 4.4.2.0017 updated 2 July 2014.

Then may I request a feature add to the app please - on the playing now screen the artist name and songtitle is static - could
you add the feature of scrolling this every 15 or 20 seconds since some song titles are quite lengthy.

Thank you again for a great app.

Regards
JJ

[Ancientflat]

G'day again,

Thanks again for the coming Total playing time mod so that that it will work with the older androids. I just loaded EOS into a new Galaxy Note 8 running 4.2.2 ŕnd the edit button (three squares on top of each other) is missing from all screens except for the select for the playlist screen (the one with tick, done, selected then play arrow, add as next etc) . Everything else seems to be there and working though, the layout is great on the saller screen