Music library help/questions.

[Kenny Hektik]

I have seen several people deploy nice music library interfaces to their HSTouch devices. I want to do the same and before jumping in I am looking for suggestions, feedback with experiences and some answers to questions. So any feedback from someone who has ventured down this road would be greatly appreciated.

My main use for this would be on an iPad. I have used an app/pc combo plugin called jumiamp (I think) and it does basically what I want but it has its downsides. It's not within the HSTouch app, it's ugly and pixelated (I think its meant for the iPhone/iPod), it has a poor ability to search and if you try to open the music share folder with a large library... its good as crashed.

What I would like to have with this.

1. The ability to handle a very large music library.
2. Display album art of currently playing track.
3. Standard play/pause, stop, skip, ff, etc. buttons
4. Display Artist/Title/various id3 information.
5. Have search by alphabet, so an A button would list all of the artists that begin with the letter 'A'.
6. The ability to have a search field, not too important though.

My questions pertaining to the deployment.

1. Do I need to have a centralized server? If so does it need to be on the HomeSeer server or would a media server work?
2. Suggested plug-ins and software with pros/cons.
3. Overall suggestions about tackling large music libraries.

If I need to purchase software like JRiver, etc. for a better experience or less band-aids I am fine with that. I just want to have it as solid as possible and feedback/input/ideas from those that have tackled this with large libraries would be awesome.

Thanks.

[mrhappy]

I'm getting on OK with the Windows Media Plugin, its certainly improved over the past releases and I have HSTouch screens (screenshots on request). Its not absolutely perfect but i'm not sure what is...

In terms of your requirements it does 1 (well depending on what you mean very large, I think nightwalker on here has 10000+ songs), 2, 3, 4 - 5 I would have to check but I believe you can filter a selector box based on a button so you might be able to narrow down the artists by letter, I think 6 is slightly out of its limits at the moment.

For your other questions then for the WMP plugin I think that the music can be on a networked drive (the plugin uses the WMP library and i'm sure you can add remote shares), hopefully someone will be able to advise about large libraries....I probably only have around 3500 MP3's.

[nightwalker]

The Windows Media Player plug-in will do all you listed in HSTouch, except for maybe the search field and that could be possible and I just don't know how. Like most players these days it's pretty dependant on Playlists that may or may not be cool with you. I use it on occasion with a very large library stored in a stand alone music server and it does fine.

I can't say i ever tried to use it with the Iphone/Ipad though. it has a trial period so you can try it out and see if it does what you want.

[Kenny Hektik]

Mr. Happy, if you would like you to send over/post/attach screen shots (if its not too much trouble), I would like to see them... brainstorming is nice and I can post some once I get it working.

With the Windows Media Plugin you guys speak of, is it just the Media Player/HSPI_MEDIAPLAYER.dll that you are using or something different?

As far as a large collection, I have a very eclectic taste in music and my collection continuously grows. I am probably one of the few people left that loves going to the used section of the music store and digging around for half the day for obscure treasures and right now I am nearing the 30,000 MP3 mark.

Thanks for the quick responses, I have finally got everything else to my liking for control so lastly I prepare to dive in to the music piece.

[mrhappy]

If you download it from the updater/thread in the forum it should install the files you need, I think its more than just the dll on its own but essentially yes that is the plugin i'm using.

My setup just looking back at it is quite simple, but its doing some of what you are after...

On the main screen is the volume slider, the top text is the next two upcoming tracks, the right hand side buttons and bottom row buttons are self explanatory and the right hand buttons play streaming radio through the WMP plugin. The center image is the cover art and the fields underneath it are the ID3 tags from album/track/artist - if the text is too big to fit in the element then it marquees. The second screen is a selector which can be configured to display album/playlist/track. Just clicking on one of the tracks starts them playing - it is possible to go more advanced and use the current playlist selector box.

Thats about it really, except on my main home screen I duplicate the play/stop buttons and cover art. I usually display it in the linux client so the text looks a bit nicer. I am limited on space as its a 7" touch screen.

[antoon]

mr.happy,

How do you get managed the top text for the upcoming tracks.

[mrhappy]

Its a script I wrote here http://forums.homeseer.com/showpost....7&postcount=27 ...I think its unpredictable on large playlists though. Just needs the scripts and a couple of events...

[nightwalker]

My screens are a little different than mrhappy's but the function is almost the same. I've lost track of weather or not the latest MP plug-in is in the updater or on the support thread. As far as I know the latest is 2.5.0.15, although I'm hoping for another update. The only thing I can't answer for you is if it will work on an Ipod or Iphone with a large library. Right now i have somewhere around 500gigs on a music server. I have no idea how either of those clients will do getting that much data.

[Kenny Hektik]

How are you porting it to the interface? Is there a community customization script you guys using, or did you each do your own?

...back to eating dinner and searching forums more. I keep getting sidetracked. Being new to homeseer (and loving it), I get distracted with other topics/threads/ideas... I love making my home one big toy.

Cheers!

[nightwalker]

If I remember right there is a sample that comes with HSTouch that should get you started.

[Kenny Hektik]

Wow, I did not think I started drinking that early. Because I thought there was one in there, but I just looked in the custom tabs, ignoring the music tabs... No more drunk forum browsing for me...

[Kenny Hektik]

Well to report back, it works great on the iPad with a big library. It's looking ok so far. I do appreciate your guys input. It helped to deploy it quick which I know my woman thanks you for as well.

I do need to implement a rating via the interface to keep some music from playing, and recommendations?

[mrhappy]

Not sure on the rating to be honest, I think you can display the tracks rating but as to how to change it or only play tracks with x rating then i'm not sure if you can do it. I think the way in which the plugin interfaces with WMP its quite a read only style interface, I don't think you can change the tags or anything like that.

[Kenny Hektik]

So this is my first attempt, not the prettiest but it's functional and working and a good starting point...

[mwaite]

Man that is a good starting point! How did you design the x? OK just kidding... couldn't resist!