Author Topic: AirPlay plugin  (Read 66967 times)

emilles

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Improved support for MusicBee in latest release (v4.5).

http://emilles.dyndns.org/software/out_apx.html

* Supports a wide range of AirPlay devices and programs
* Streams audio to multiple supported devices over wired or wireless network(s)
* Synchronizes audio streams between multiple devices
* Displays track metadata (title, artist, album, artwork, progress) on devices that support it
* Supports full set of playback operations (play, pause, stop, seek, skip, etc.)
* Plays multiple tracks with no gap between tracks
* Supports remote control
* Supports password-protected remote speakers
* Supports multi-homed (more than one network interface) workstations
* Discovers remote speakers automatically using zero-configuration network protocols
* Supports static configuration of remote speakers for hard-to-locate devices
* Supports international characters for device names
* Supports mono and stereo input
* Supports standard sample rates (samples per second) on input
* Supports standard sample sizes (bits per sample) on input

Steven

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thanks emilles, i am sure some people will really appreciate this

perplu

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Possibly a big ask but an idea also .... what would be ideal is if MusicBee + AirPlay plugin could be ported to run on a NAS (Synology in my case); then you have a multiroom audio solution which doesn't need a laptop or PC running and then control using tablet or smartphone with the android remote.

But otherwise - MusicBee is a fantastic piece of software.

Cheers.

veryaner

  • Guest
Hi Emilles,
I've tried you plugin with xmbc airplay support and I cannot see the speakers when I tried to look up for them.
I saw them in a windows ITunes installed machine.

Thanks!

sssweat

  • Guest
I just discovered this plugin, it's really what I was looking for since I bought my Sonos Play 5 ! Thanks a lot ! :D

However, nothing is perfect, so here is a bug... MusicBee doesn't run if it is launched withaudio output set on your "remote speakers output" plugin. If I change the output back to default before closing MB, the next time I launch it it works correctly, but if I forget to do this, MS is stuck at launch...
I don't know whether it's a plugin or MB bug, by the way...
I use MB beta2.1.4859.

emilles

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@sssweat -- Sorry to hear there is a problem.  I have been testing with 2.0.  I'll have a look at the v2.1 builds and see if I can recreate the startup issue.

@veryaner -- I haven't been able to try XBMC myself. I have received mixed reports since release on how well it and the plug-in work together.  One user mentioned needing to install a different firewall package to get the auto-discovery working properly.  Or that could've been on Raspberry Pi.  I'll do some searching in my Gmail history.  Usually with a receiver like XBMC, the devs test against iTunes and once it works, consider it done.  AirPlay interoperability is tough for an audio sender.

boroda

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samus

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is this still in development? I get a crash when I try to configure it, complaining that coreApx is missing. I tried to manually register the dll using regsvr32, which promted me to choose eval, or license, but then it crashed when I said ok, it said not a valid dll. I also tried copying the coreApx dll into the plugin folder as well, but still get the sam crash when I try to configure the remote speakers.

I am on the latest version of MusicBee, and Bounjour...

Programie

  • Guest
I also got that apxCore.dll error and managed it to get it work. :-)

You have to copy the 3 apx*.dll files (apxCore.dll, apxGuard.dll and apxGuardRsrc.dll) from the Remote Speakers output plugin installation directory into your MusicBee installation directory.

I'm running MusicBee 2.3.5188 on Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and in that way it works for me.

But I have one problem with that plugin: I'm streaming the output of MusicBee to my Airplay compatible AV receiver (Yamaha RX-V475). The problem is that the music is played with an higher pitch... Is that a known bug?

postdeath

  • Guest
EDIT: It started working again this morning - no idea why

I had everything working perfectly, so I bought a license (which I haven't received yet). After restarting MusicBee, whenever I try to play using the plugin as output, MusicBee crashes :/

I have tried with 4.3, 4.4, and several of the 4.4 updates.

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:   APPCRASH
  Application Name:   MusicBee.exe
  Application Version:   2.4.5270.11026
  Application Timestamp:   539209be
  Fault Module Name:   MusicBeeBass.dll
  Fault Module Version:   0.0.0.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:   5377920b
  Exception Code:   c0000005
  Exception Offset:   00001afe
  OS Version:   6.3.9600.2.0.0.256.48
  Locale ID:   2057
  Additional Information 1:   5861
  Additional Information 2:   5861822e1919d7c014bbb064c64908b2
  Additional Information 3:   d1d9
  Additional Information 4:   d1d94a13d3609d6b740644c12508f581
Last Edit: June 09, 2014, 09:42:46 AM by postdeath

franco

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Hi all..

I installed the plugin AirPlay following all the instructions. The plugin is in evaluation mode. I still have 11 days.
I tried to send a mp3 file from MusicBee to an audio player .
My audio receiver is a Sitecom wma-1000, which has support DLNA and AirPlay.
The player is connected to my amp, but it does not emit any sound.
The plugin "sees" the player Sitecom who is regularly connected via WiFi
The same configuration, using WMP12 with the command "Play to", works well, but .... I do not like WMP12 ....

The environment is Windows 8.1
The release of MusicBee is the latest available (2.4.5270).
The release of the plugin AirPlay is the latest available. It comes from out_apx-4.9.zip.
What can I do?

Thanks in advance
Franco

emilles

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@Franco  Can you try this out?  Some devices don't handle the uncompressed ALAC stream.  This one has compression and may make the difference for you.  Otherwise, it should have everything else that is in v4.9 proper.

http://emilles.dyndns.org/software/out_apx/out_apx-4.9pr1.zip

4.9pr1 (2014-07-26):
* Reduced network utilization by compressing the ALAC audio stream

franco

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@Emilles,
Thank you for your quick response !!!
Well, I uninstall the old version and then install the new one.
Then I'll tell you how it goes


I still have 9 days of evaluation of the plugin
Tia
Franco
Last Edit: August 27, 2014, 10:09:17 AM by franco

franco

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Hello E.Milles !!
I installed the version of your plugin 4.9pr1
It works !!
Unfortunately, the sound quality is not good and I can not offer it in public in my dance school.
The sound seems like distorted and loses both the treble and the bass ...
Have you any suggestions to adjust and improve the sound quality ?

I want to use MusicBee !!!

The sound, with WMP12, it is unfortunately much better and very similar to what you get with cable connection ...
I still have 4 days of evaluation of the plugin
Tia
Franco

emilles

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Unfortunately, the sound quality is not good and I can not offer it in public in my dance school.  The sound seems like distorted and loses both the treble and the bass...  Have you any suggestions to adjust and improve the sound quality?

@franco  Re: the expiration on the 31st.  I can create a new build with a different expiration date as long as we are making progress.  Let's try to figure it out before then if possible.

As far as distorted sound, I am wondering if you have a DSP or some ReplayGain or something enabled in MusicBee.  Sound over AirPlay should be as clear as the source track.  I've not heard of the Sitecom WMA-1000 before.  Any chance you or a friend has an iPad or iPhone so you could quickly confirm that the receiver's AirPlay works fine?  Also, you could try adjusting the volume slider when playing to see if less volume is the answer.

Could you run DebugView before you start MusicBee?  There are instructions in the README file for doing so.  This should capture some important information to help me understand the problem.  You can email me the log and any additional support questions at: [email protected]