mcsMusic Feature Requests and Problem Reports

[bruce l]

Ok making progress -

1) Downloaded includes from updater. Found out footers.asp is not part of package. Searched and found it posted in thread on board. No more errors about missing asp pages.

2) Downloaded CDJ and installed it. No more errors about slinkx.ocx. I only had winamp selected in player list. All of CDJ boxes were greyed out. I checked the mcsMusic.ini and only reference to CDJ was with the mdb file setting. It sounds like you have a reference to slinkx.ocx regargless of player selected.

NOW it still is not working.

3) I can't generate automatic playlists.
MP3 lib root = C:\Music - which is the folder that contains all the folders of my CDs.
.m3u = C:\Music\Playlists\m3u

I goto "Build PL" tab, select "By Genre" and click "Auto Build PL". The lib manager program runs but no playlists showup in the "Play List" tab.

4) I can not get either Now Playing or HS device manager to control the winamp player. I have tried loading WA directly = no control. I have not got HS or Now Playing to load a copy WA automatically. How is it supposed to work? WA is installed properly and runs fine under normal (directer user) control.

I am really looking forward to getting this working. Thanks for the help.

Bruce

Only 2 things are infinite - the universe & human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe. A. Einstein

[Michael McSharry]

Renegade,
The slinkx.ocx is associated with the CDJ player. I though I had the logic setup so it would only load it if CDJ was selected. Bruce L had the same problem and downloaded it. I would prefer that this not be necessary. I'll have to look into why it is happening.

The status bar updates at the bottom are normal. It is a heartbeat, watchdog, and carrier for any updates that are needed on the screen.

I'm not certain if V1.1.0 has made it to the updater yet. If not then download the zip file at the top of this forum and expand it into the homeseer root folder while maintaing the file strucutre. WMP only became available in this version. I suspect, however, that if you were able to select it, then you have this version of the plugin running.

Once you have some playlists, then you need to make them available for the Browser. This is done by using the right-arrow or dbl-click on a playlist name. Check the radio dots to make certain you are directing them for m3u and Browser.

When you bring up Now Playing then the upper pulldown should include the playlist of interest. If you select it then WMP should launch and the frames on the browser will update based upon the status returned from WMP.

It may be that the slinkx.ocx is causing problems. Be patient and I will figure out why.


Bruce L,

Autoplaylist generation is based upon information in the database. The database is populated from the content in the file folders by clicking the Reconcile button on the Library Tab. To test, just take a small set of folders and copy them to a temporary library location. The reconcillation involves a lot of processing so dont start it on the full large library until you are certain you understand how the process works.

Winamp launches when the Now Playing playlist is selected. It should also do the same when one of the playlist quick select virtual devices is selected. This means that a playlist needs to exists to get started. If you make a playlist by hand, Winamp, or use an existing one then the information will not be in the database so the Now Playing screen will not update complete information.

Genre information should come from the ID3 tags. I do not recall if I autopopulate the genre table based upon this or not when the ID3 is included in the reconcile. In my case I captured most of the Genre info from the internet radio and then edited the database based upon the reconcile output. To get started, make it simple and don't bother with Genre info.


Again, copy a few artists to a test library. Setup the plugin to use this library. Use the reconcile button on Library Tab. Use the Build playlist by Artist on the Build Pl tab. Go to the Playlist tab and select the m3u playlists for browser operation (radio controls) and right arrow to move them to the right panel. Go to Now Playing and select a playlist from the pulldown.

[bruce l]

Well I've been doing exactly as you describe. I have the file locations setup and run library update. It runs thru it's steps without errors. But autogen playlists does nothing.

I checked the DB file and can't find any information that looks like it came from my mp3 library. So let me ask you this - what format and content is expected in the mp3 library?

Mine is setup like this
C:\music
contains folders generated by winamp ripper for each cd.

C:\music\artistcdname1
files.mp3 actual mp3 files
title.m3u playlist for this CD,contains all the songs in the folder
title.pls more winamp playlist info

C:\music\artistcdname2
C:\music\artistcdname3
C:\music\artistcdname...etc

There are no subfolders in the artistcdname folders and each artist folder is the same format. Is this how your library manager expects it?

My playlist m3u and pla folders are empty. I assumed playlist generate saves it's files there.


Also I am finding vast numbers of copys of folders your program is generating. Like copys of the playlist folders, copies of the mdb database files, copies of an empty folder in my winamp folder. Is it supposed to do this?

Bruce

Only 2 things are infinite - the universe & human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe. A. Einstein

[Michael McSharry]

It is expecting the library to be in Artist \ Album \ Track.mp3 organization. This is likely why you are not having any luck. I can give you a vbs script to restructure your folders. If the ID3 info is in the mp3 files then we will be able to name the albums to something meaningful automatically.

Let me know if you want me to make the vbs script. Before doing it all, however, do a couple mp3 files in this structure manually. I should just add a "Build/Augment Library button and let it be as automatic as possilbe for those who have a flatten structure.

All the copies can be deleted. There will be a folders for playlists that are updated by the plugin and files for database that is updated. Backup is always good so dont be in a big rush to delete until you know the current playlists and database are in good order.

[Michael McSharry]

Bruce L,
I added the ability to import mp3 into the library and database from a flattened directory structure such as yours. I'm not positive if the ID3 genre info is correct, but otherwise you should be able to use this new capability. Download V1.2.0 to try it.

An except from the updated manual...

Library Management buttons are used to automate the management of the library’s database. If a artist / album / track structure already exists then the library can be imported into the database with the Reconcile button. If this structure does not exist, or additions want to be made without reconcilling the entire library then the “From non-Library Files” is used. In this case the files are assumed to be in either a flat structure where all information about the mp3 files is in the ID3 tags. It is also possible to start with a structure that contains artist folders with mp3 files within these. The third option is with a artist / album / track.mp3 structure. If album art (gif, jpg, or jpeg) files exists they will be included as well. The root of this import source path is entered in the text box below the “From non-Library Files” button. These files will be copied to the library root that is specified on the Files Tab and to the AlbumCovers path that is specified on the same Tab. The database will be updated with the information as they are copied. The originals will remain in place. ID3 information will be used when available otherwise default information based upon folder and file names will be used.

[Renegade]

Ok, I'm able to bring up the Now Playing screen in a browser now. I have most of my mp3's added to the library and was able to auto create some playlists based on artist. When I go to the Now Playing screen though, it doesn't look the screen shot you posted. After I choose an artist from the drop down, nothing changes. I would have expected the tracks for that playlist to be displayed. I'll try and post a screen shot with this post so you can see what I mean.

Also, when I try and use the playlist builder, there seems to be a problem with the page. It's geting a 404 error trying to load the footer include. It's looking at this path: File: C:\Program Files\HomeSeer\html\/includes/footer.asp
I thought I had downloaded the includes already, but I don't seem to have a footer.asp. I'll double check and make sure I did actually download them though.

[Michael McSharry]

Looks to be a 256 color resolution screen, but that is not your problem. Information on the screen is updated when WMP (in your case I believe) provides status when queried. Is the music playing? You will not see WMP, but you will hear the output.

The footer.asp does not belong. It is an old standard and I will make an update that does not require it.

Could you send the mcsMusic.ini so I can see the setup. It also allows me to replicate most of it for testing.

[Renegade]

Yeah, I know the colors are all screwy. Wasn't sure how big of an attachment I could post. The colors look fine in my browser.

No, I don't hear any music. But I wasn't expecting to either, I don't have any idea if I have the remote player setup correctly. And there aren't any speakers hooked up the PC actually running HomeSeer.

[Renegade]

Not trying to be impatient... really. Any update on my last post?

[Michael McSharry]

Sorry,
Totally forgot about you. I'll look now. I did look for footer.asp and found a reference in the Album Picker ASP pages. Is this where you experienced it or was it somewhere else?

[Renegade]

Like I said no huge hurry, just thought I would ask.

The footer.asp error was in the playlist builder.

The one I'm really looking to fix is the main NowPlaying screen. After selecting a playlist nothing seems to happen. If I hit the play button the screen still doesn't seem to change at all. At some point I would have thought it would dispaly the tracks in the playlist.

Also, if there is any additional info on setting up WMP as a remote player I would appreciate it. That's really the primary reason I'm trying to get this working.

[Michael McSharry]

Sorry to ask you this, but the playlist setup is recorded in the Playlist table of the database. Is the database sufficiently small to still be able to email?

I assume your media is on a different computer that homeseer based upon the database location being local and the other paths being network. Is "storage" the name of your homeseer drive or is storage the name of a drive on another computer. I see that I forgot to put this description in the manual. It was a recent addition and I will have to review exactly how it comes into play.

Another thing I noticed is the default Playlist folder is .pla and the default target is HS Device on the Playlists tab. If you are using WMP with the Now Playing interface then these should be .m3u and Browser. Since you do have at least one playlist showing on you screenshot, then you are likely ok here.

WMP has three modes of operation. One is homeseer computer, one is on a specific LAN computer (standard remote), and one is on the IE browser's client computer. Please confirm that you are planning on using standard remote mode and I will give you some more info on it.

[Renegade]

I'll copy the database off the server and email it to you.

Everything is on the same PC. I thought I saw in the docs(or the board) that to use remote players, you needed to specify the unc paths to the media files. I coul be mistaken about that one though. Although everything is on the same PC. HomeSeer and the media files are on different drives.

Storage is the share name where all the media files are located. The full path to them should be \\Renegade01\storage\media\audio or D:\storage\media\audio.

I'm not sure I know where you're looking at the default playlist folder setting? On the Playlists tab in mcsMusic setup? If so, I tried setting it to m3u and VR or Browser and no playlists show up in the dropdown.

Eventually I would like to use all three modes. Right now, either the standard remote or the IE browser would be most usefull. If one is easier to get working than either, it doesn't matter to me.

[Michael McSharry]

A local player is one where the sound comes out of the homeseer computer. A remote player is one where the sound comes out of a non-homeseer computer on the LAN. In the WMP case, there is also the remote mode where the sound comes out of whatever computer on the WAN/LAN where the Now Playing screen is displayed.

You are correct that unc names are needed if standard remote operations are performed. That is because the remote player will be reading the media directly and it will need a network-referenced path. When the sound comes out of the Now Playing client's computer then the media is feed via the homeseer server and the plugin will handle the cache of these files. Of course the files need to be visible to the homeseer computer somewhere on the LAN.

The WMP playlist type is .m3u and the location of the folder is specified on the Files Tab. When managing a m3u playlist on the Playlist Tab you have two independent operations that can be done and they both use the same list box to display the selections made. When the radio button is "Browser/VR" then the selected items will be availble for the Now Playing display as available playlists and as playlists recognized via VR.

If you autogenerate playlists then the .pla format is created and a second step is needed to convert them to m3u. It is just a button click on the Build PL Tab, but it is a second operation. I think I should make this automatic so both pla and m3u playlists are generated together. From your database I see you have got over this hurdle.

If you manually create a .m3u playlist, and it is located in the specified folder for this type of playlist, and the m3u radio button is selected on the Playlist Tab then it should be visible in the left list box on this tab.

When I look at the playlist table from the database you emailed I see that pla playlists have been selected and no m3u ones. I also see that both the pla amd m3u playlists are stored in the same folder. I can make the plugin smarter, but for now you should not have both playlist types in the same folder. I think it finds the pla and ignores the m3u because it is of the same base name in the same folder. This is changed from the Files Tab. Since you are not interested in the pla playlists I would just delete them from the folder and use Access to delete the records from the Playlist table that have the type of pla. You likely do not need to delete the pla records from the Playlist table, but just want to make certain we reduce the number of variables in getting this to start working for you. After this is done and the m3u radio selected then the list should appear and the right arrow on the Playlist tab can be used to make them all visible to Now Playing.

I'm now testing the streaming MP3 capability and have found it to have very low CPU burden to produce the stream. If you are looking for a Client targeted sound then this may be a good option. It should be out next week.

For you, at this time, let us assume that you want WMP on computer ABC to be generating the sound output from your library that is on the homeseer computer. To test this functionality you need to copy the mcsMusicServer.exe to someplace on computer ABC and run it. It will be visible via task manager like a service. You also need to specify a WMP player from the Players Tab to have a location of \\ABC\... where the ... does not matter for WMP, but still use the actual path to the WMP player on computer ABC so you do not confuse yourself. I would have two WMP players selected at this time so you can toggle back and forth during the evaluation. The WMP icons will appear on the Now Playing screen. You could even have 3 WMP's selected. In this case the Executable path for the 3rd one would be left blank to indicate Client PC.

I have the logic to autocopy and autostart the mcsMusicServer.exe in the plugin, but defeated it when I could not remotely generate an interactive window that Winamp and CDJ needs. It is not needed for WMP so I could reenable it if only WMP is used as the selected players. At this time, you do need to do it manually. You could also put mcsMusicServer in your windows startup folder on computer ABC. It consumes very little resources and you will not even know it is there when idle or when playing music.

You will not see not much difference in Browser response to button actions between the Remote and the Local players. The Client player will be a little slower. If I get in the mood to write javascript then the Client player will actually be the most responsive.

[Renegade]

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I spent most of today going through my mp3's and correcting ID3 tags and moving them to the Artist\Album\Track format mcsMusic needs. Most of them were before, but just to make sure I'm not causing my own problems it seemed like a good idea.

After that was all done, I emptied all of my tracks from the mcsMusic.mdb from Access. Deleted all of my m3u and pla playlists. And then re-imported everything to the database. At this point, I opened up the database again to verify everything was making it in correctly. All looked good, so I generated the pla playlists. (BTW, generating Genre playlists didn't seem to work so I generated artist ones instead) With that complete, I generated the m3u playlists from the pla playlists. So far so good, I was getting pretty excited.

At this point, I went to the Playlists tab and selected m3u for the playlist type and Browser for the target and added all the m3u playlists to the "To be included in Pull Down" pane. With that done, I tried to bring up the NowPlaying screen. The dropdown was completely empty. Just to make sure it wasn't because the pla playlists were still around, I deleted them like you mentioned. I tried to bring up the NowPlaying screen again, and the dropdown was still empty. Again, just to make sure I deleted all the pla playlist entries out of the database and went to NowPlayimg again and the dropdown is still empty.

Also, just to make sure something odd wasn't happening I restarted HomeSeer between each of the above changes. So at this point I only have m3u playlists in my directory structure and database. But the dropdown on the web interface is still empty.

I can work on the rest of your reply, but I didn't want to accidentally make some other change that would screw up my testing so far. Let me know if there is something that you me to send you.