Continued interest in this plugin?

[reidfo]

How much interest in there in continuing use of this plugin? I was considering it, but it doesn't seem to be maintained any longer.

If there's significant interest in using this plugin (I for one want to use it) then I will consider purchasing the source code and updating it. What features or fixes are you all looking for?

[completelyhis]

+1

hi,

i think that homeseer and jrmc are good products. It would be heaven on earth if they could work together well.

i've got jrmc15 and the v 2.2.0.4 of the hspi_jrivermc.dll, it works ... For the basic operations play, stop, pause, vol+ vol-,... I can turn on/off radio with my kr22 for example, it wakes me up...

One big issue is connection between jrmc and hstouch. The buitin app doesn't work well, there is no multiroom support, artwork doesn't appear everytime, you can navigate in your library but you can't play the songs.

I think that the effort to make it work well is not huge.

I wonder if developing a dlna standard interface could be smarter... But i dont know the standard limit...

[reidfo]

ok, good to hear there's some interest here! I'm leaning heavily towards buying the source code. In order to distribute the "new" plugin I'd have to sell it on the HS store to comply with the license agreement. Would you guys be willing to pay a very modest sum for an updated plugin to cover my costs and time? Current plugin I think costs about $30. My goal here isn't to make a lot of money, but to cover costs and also to hopefully make this into a kick *** plugin.

Here are some of my thoughts on improvements:

• Improve the reliability and compatibility with newer versions of JRMC
• Improved multi zone support (VERY important for me)
• Pre-built HS Touch interfaces (have to think how to distribute this)
• Future - Native Android and iOS player interface w/ multi zone support. This would probably end up being a separate paid app.

Other stuff... ??

[nightwalker]

I initially had high hopes for JRMC and this plug-in to control music around the house with HSTouch screens. It didn't work out well and I converted 4 of 5 of those screens to music only. I do still hope one day to be able to integrate HomeSeer/HSTouch and music.

[JML]

I am ok to pay for a solution that evolves with the (too ?) many versions of JRMC

[reidfo]

Well, I just purchased the source code and I'm starting to look through it. I could really use some help prioritizing the work that needs to be done on this plugin. What are the major issues you guys have, in order of significance?

Since I'm not a long-time user of JRMC like some of you I could use the help. I've been using HS for a while, and I bought JRMC because I see great potential. As soon as I get a TO DO list together I'll post it here and then start updating the plugin.

[Aksor]

I would like to see coverart display with search and playlist capabilities and also access to the now playing queue and of course zone selection and be able to add individual songs to the queue and also to remove them.

Thanks

[Aksor]

As priority I'm not familiar with the original plugin as I have been using Girder and Netremote so I'm not sure what was available but from what I read it had to do with playlistst no playing nice and no search capabilities or play queue.

[reidfo]

I would like to see coverart display with search and playlist capabilities and also access to the now playing queue and of course zone selection and be able to add individual songs to the queue and also to remove them.

Thanks

Are you looking to do this from the HS web interface or from HSTouch?

[nightwalker]

My personal choice was to use HSTouch as the interface. There are lots of web based interfaces that can be used now, even just the JRiver interface. My wants are to integrate HSTouch and Music, it's the missing piece of my automation system. Right now I use a multi-zone jukebox player on those screen instead of HSTouch. The problem is most players try to get to complicated with too many features and that makes it less user friendly, especially to family members or guests. I have no desire to stand in front of touchscreens giving family or guests lessons on how to add a song to what's already playing.

[jwilson56]

Well as someone who uses JRMC daily in my whole house audio setup I think it would be great to see a robust plugin written. For me it would have to fully support JRMC's multizone capabilities. This means being able to set which zone you want to control and then have full access to the playing now track list, current playing track artist/album/track name as well as the track position for that zone.

It will also have to be able to browse and search the JRMC database directly (not store a queried copy inside Homeseer) as well as order and create playlists and save them.

I played around with the Homeseer plugin before giving up on it and have to say it was a far cry from what it should have been. Netremote communicates with almost all versions of JRMC and does so seamlessly. In fact the way in which it works is could be considered 'graceful'. The secret lies in its Mediabridge server side application that Netremote uses to bridge between the two. Also Netremote is essentially like HSTouch giving you the GUI side for the client. All Netremote clients talk to JRMC through Mediabridge and all information is shared with a propagated variable table making for a tighter integration between the two. Having HSTouch request something from JRMC through a Homeseer plugin (at least how it was written) was clumsy at best.

For me I can be using several Netremote clients (touchscreens, PC, laptop) all at the same time. Whenever I make a change on any client all the other clients instantly reflect that change (under a second). Each client can be pointing to any of my six zones. It is truly amazing how well Netremote works with JRMC. It is something worthy to come close to for functionality and performance.

As I own HS2 I would be interested to see what you come up with. I also own Elve Pro and have been working with the creator on his JRMC plugin. It has come a long way towards being what it should be but still lacks some performance issues syncing the data across a few clients.

If you are unfamiliar with my Now Playing project you can view the details in my Cocoontech blog:

http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/ind...&showentry=119

[reidfo]

jwilson, do you use multiple audio zones sync'd together? If you do I'd like to know your experience with it. Since I don't yet have my speakers and amp installed for whole house audio, I'm trying to figure out what the experience is like, and how good the audio sync is between zones.

I am planning on installing my speakers and amp over the holiday weekend, and plan to use my sound card's multiple outputs to drive the different zones. The problem is though I have more zones than I have soundcard channels, so if I want to play something to the entire house it's going to span more than one sound card. Not sure what kind of drift I can expect. I guess I'll find out soon.

[reidfo]

I would like to see coverart display with search and playlist capabilities and also access to the now playing queue and of course zone selection and be able to add individual songs to the queue and also to remove them.

Thanks

Agreed. That will be a goal, though since I am just starting with the plugin I'm not sure how long it will take.

For me it would have to fully support JRMC's multizone capabilities. This means being able to set which zone you want to control and then have full access to the playing now track list, current playing track artist/album/track name as well as the track position for that zone.

Absolutely. Multizone audio is the ONLY reason I went for JRMC instead of iTunes. I use iTunes every day on our Macs, but I want a whole house audio solution, and that means multizone with sync capability.

It will also have to be able to browse and search the JRMC database directly (not store a queried copy inside Homeseer) as well as order and create playlists and save them.

jwilson56, do you have a specific reason for this? I can understand not wanting to deal with sync issues between the JRMC database and the local HS cache, but is there something else that makes this a problem?

[jwilson56]

jwilson, do you use multiple audio zones sync'd together? If you do I'd like to know your experience with it. Since I don't yet have my speakers and amp installed for whole house audio, I'm trying to figure out what the experience is like, and how good the audio sync is between zones.

I am planning on installing my speakers and amp over the holiday weekend, and plan to use my sound card's multiple outputs to drive the different zones. The problem is though I have more zones than I have soundcard channels, so if I want to play something to the entire house it's going to span more than one sound card. Not sure what kind of drift I can expect. I guess I'll find out soon.

I have always used a hardware based sync setup. I don't think you can get 100% sync with software. Last year I added a Shinybow Matrix Switcher which is the ultimate piece of hardware. I got a great deal on a used on off Ebay. Again check out my blog on CT.

[jwilson56]

I have almost a thousand CD's ripped into JRMC. Pulling all that information into Homeseer seems pretty foolish seeing as to how JRMC's API has great abilities to query its database. JRMC is THE database and the last time I checked Homeseer was not. Elve Pro's creator recently added the database query to his and it works much better. Right now I can setup a list based on artist or album or genre or even a list of playlists (including the smartlists built into JRMC). I can jump to a letter, search for anything, drill up and down whatever the list is displaying. I can rip a CD and its included automatically.

Personally I would download a trial copy of Netremote and use the demo skin to play around and see how it works. It will give you a better understanding as to what so many of us Netremote users like about it.