Author Topic: MusicBee Remote (Remote Control for Android)  (Read 496973 times)

vpsaxman

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Just wanted to say, as a newcomer to Android, this plugin (and app) are a dream come true. They work flawlessly on my Nexus 5X and Win 10, which wasn't the case with the equivalent plugin on iOS (but this was due to Apple's poor implementation of their remote app). Still, the MB plugin was a breeze to install, and the app looks great, has great functionality and is intuitive to use.

Thanks so much for developing these!!

finch1000

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Fantastic plug-in and app, kelso!

The only thing that would make it better is if you could add music to Now Playing from the Music Explorer (X-Box Music / Groove Music).

Vince3536

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Something major frustrating I found is that the remote app is miles away from what the MediaMonkey remote (MMRemote app http://www.mmremote.net/, so not the official MM remote app!) can do.
I can only search with the MB remote!? Not browse my library?

This is very bad. I really like MB and wished the remote app was not so bad.

So my wish is: improve the MB remote app!

For the moment I'll need to stick with MediaMonkey and the excellent remote app.

dgbx

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Just a note to say thanks for all the work you have put into this excellent plugin...gratis no less!

kelsos

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Hello Vince

Indeed the remote is far from complete, unfortunately when I started building it there where some wrong choices that limited the further development of features. I am currently in the process of rewriting it, thus the lack of updates, however the progress has been really slow.

Reasons include my army service a year ago and currently my work, that takes 9-10 hours per day and in some cases even weekends, making it relatively hard to keep a steady development schedule for the remote.

The target is to add these missing features and make a good remote experience.

Regards Kelsos

Vince3536

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Hello Vince

Indeed the remote is far from complete, unfortunately when I started building it there where some wrong choices that limited the further development of features. I am currently in the process of rewriting it, thus the lack of updates, however the progress has been really slow.

Reasons include my army service a year ago and currently my work, that takes 9-10 hours per day and in some cases even weekends, making it relatively hard to keep a steady development schedule for the remote.

The target is to add these missing features and make a good remote experience.

Regards Kelsos

Thanks for replying and explaining. I can imagine it takes a lot of time to work on such an app and if you already have a busy life it's even harder.
Hopefully you will find some time and perhaps you can have a peek at http://www.mmremote.net/ to get an idea of what you could build as well.

Kind regards and good luck!

Kgro

  • Guest
Hello Vince

Indeed the remote is far from complete, unfortunately when I started building it there where some wrong choices that limited the further development of features. I am currently in the process of rewriting it, thus the lack of updates, however the progress has been really slow.

Reasons include my army service a year ago and currently my work, that takes 9-10 hours per day and in some cases even weekends, making it relatively hard to keep a steady development schedule for the remote.

The target is to add these missing features and make a good remote experience.

Regards Kelsos

Just wanted to thank you for taking the time to make this app, library browse would be amazing, however for a free app this is still terrific. I would honestly be more than happy to pay for such a function, however I understand that won't change your time restraints.

Thanks for making this, love musicbee and this makes it so much better. :)

Joolee

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Is the development version of the plugin in a usable state at the moment? I would like to interface with MusicBee with my home automation system and the ability to use websockets would be a real help! Otherwise, I would need to reverse-engineer your current socket connection...

kelsos

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The api of the development branch seems to work ok, feel free to give it a try.

Vince3536

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Hi Kelsos,
Any time yet to improve the remote app?
It's the only reason I'm not switching MusicBee yet :)

kelsos

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I am really not sure how long it will take, due to work and stuff, but I am working on both the new REST API and the new implementation of the client, since it is almost a rewrite though, a lot of things have to get improved (previously working currently broken).

As soon as I a feel that this is testable and not a complete mess I plan to release an alpha version.

dieter-janssen

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The app is great - thanks so much!

I'm able to see all the devices at home via wifi, but suddenly today it won't see the music server patched into the stereo. I can see the server via LogMeIn, DropBox, etc, but the error message I get via MusicBee Remote reads: failed to connect to /192.168.1.9 (port 3000): connect failed: EHOSTUNREACH (No route to host).

The android phone has been updated as has the music server. All machines (including wifi) have been restarted.

The android phone will see the music server via LogMeIn, Dropbox, etc, but not via MB Remote. The MB Remote on the android phone will see all other machines in the house and connection is no issue.

Looking at the music server's install of MB, the MB Remote plugin status is "running". The address is consistent across all machines. Doing a rescan from the android says "Service successfully found". The music server is set to 'default'. So when switching screens to see my phone's player display, it shows me a different machine.

Not sure what's missing here.

Any ideas?

kelsos

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That's weird, it seems that the multicast works properly but something stops the connection to the actual service.
Did you try updating the firewall rules?

dieter-janssen

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I did try disabling the security to see if that's what's going on - it's Windows Defender on the machine I can see but can't control. I've tried all this with admin privileges as well.

Here's a diagram I put together of the whole set-up: https://www.dropbox.com/s/41tccqj0j29b0nu/DJ%20Audio%20Setup%20%282016-04-16%29.png?dl=0

Last Edit: May 15, 2016, 11:00:41 PM by dieter-janssen

BassT

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Hello kelsos,
i just want to thank you for that app. I really like to use it and it does what i need it to do. It improves the usage of MusicBee a lot for me.

To be honest, i would not use things like browsing the library and stuff a lot, that's much faster on my PC via keyboard and mouse than on a small smartphone. But seeing title information and beeing able to control the playback is just awesome. Thanks again.

There are some small wishes, maybe you can have a look at it:
- Controling the system's volume via app (not only the MusicBee's) and unmuting it (Often i'm on the balcony and the Computer's volume is not loud enough or even muted)
- Sometimes it seems to lose the connection, even if MusicBee is running, it shows track information of an previous song and cannot be controlled anymore. When i go to Settings > Manage Connections and scan again, it works again. Its okay for me at the moment, but if you could have a look at it when there's time...
- (for a far later date maybe) I would wish to stream the MusicBee output to the phone, would be a great addition some day :-)