Author Topic: MusicBee Remote (Remote Control for Android)  (Read 496935 times)

wysocki

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Ahh, you got me thinking and I found the answer: the playlist button actually DID work, but it adds the playlist to the currently playing tracks, so I didn't see its effect! I was assuming that it would immediately switch to playing that playlist and there would be some more noticeable change in Musicbee. Maybe should have a couple of buttons on the playlists: play or queue? Seems like if you select a playlist, you'd kind of want to switch to it now instead of queuing a whole playlist for later. BTW my plugin is v.1.1.0.1456.
Thanks again!

kelsos

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Ahh, you got me thinking and I found the answer: the playlist button actually DID work, but it adds the playlist to the currently playing tracks, so I didn't see its effect! I was assuming that it would immediately switch to playing that playlist and there would be some more noticeable change in Musicbee. Maybe should have a couple of buttons on the playlists: play or queue? Seems like if you select a playlist, you'd kind of want to switch to it now instead of queuing a whole playlist for later. BTW my plugin is v.1.1.0.1456.
Thanks again!

Your assumption is not wrong. Without looking at the code, I would assume that it would play directly too. I will have to see why that might not be the case

Lennyroquai

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Hey,

First, a huge thanks to Kelsos. Last time i've used the remote was years ago : but due to the limit of the playlist to 500 items, i had to abandon MusicBee to JRiver ! And i've just discovered what you've done and tested the remote : it's a beast !

Only one question for me (and sorry if it already been answered) : i use musicbee as "full random in all the music i have", but if i play a specific music through the remote (oh god ! that search feature is wonderful) how to i get back to the "play any of all my music" ?

Should i create a playlist of "all my songs" and just click on it ?
On the Main MusicBee i have a "All artists" by default and the main screen with all the songs. when needed i just click on it and then on a random song and "voila"

Thank you

You can still queue your whole library from the track tab in the library there is a `Play Now (Queue All)` option that queues everything and plays the selected track. Would this help?

Or you imaging something closer to queue everything and selected a random track?

Hey kelsos,

Sorry for the very late answer.
The "Play Now (Queue All)" is doing the trick ! Thank you !

For info, I don't why : but the number show by the app (xxxxx tracks successfully queued) differ from the number of tracks showed in the desktop application. Maybe some "bad items" in the library, i should check.

kelsos

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Hey,

First, a huge thanks to Kelsos. Last time i've used the remote was years ago : but due to the limit of the playlist to 500 items, i had to abandon MusicBee to JRiver ! And i've just discovered what you've done and tested the remote : it's a beast !

Only one question for me (and sorry if it already been answered) : i use musicbee as "full random in all the music i have", but if i play a specific music through the remote (oh god ! that search feature is wonderful) how to i get back to the "play any of all my music" ?

Should i create a playlist of "all my songs" and just click on it ?
On the Main MusicBee i have a "All artists" by default and the main screen with all the songs. when needed i just click on it and then on a random song and "voila"

Thank you

You can still queue your whole library from the track tab in the library there is a `Play Now (Queue All)` option that queues everything and plays the selected track. Would this help?

Or you imaging something closer to queue everything and selected a random track?

Hey kelsos,

Sorry for the very late answer.
The "Play Now (Queue All)" is doing the trick ! Thank you !

For info, I don't why : but the number show by the app (xxxxx tracks successfully queued) differ from the number of tracks showed in the desktop application. Maybe some "bad items" in the library, i should check.

Hmm maybe some duplicate track?

mikehd

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Hi,
I've only just started using the MusicBee Remote but am very pleased so far. The only issues I've encountered are:

Output options: I see the expected Primary Sound Driver, Headset, and Speakers, but also my Denon (Heos equipped) AVR, and my HEOS speaker. But not only a single instance of each but a seemingly ever growing list of these devices. I tried to use them as output but it wouldn't work.

Is the app intended to show these types of devices as output options?

Feedback: when I tried to send feedback for the above, the app would force close when I had logging enabled and checked the "include logs" box.

I understand this is not your full time job, and appreciate the work you've put into it. Let me know if I can help troubleshoot the above on my phone any further for you.
mikehd

kelsos

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Hi,
I've only just started using the MusicBee Remote but am very pleased so far. The only issues I've encountered are:

Output options: I see the expected Primary Sound Driver, Headset, and Speakers, but also my Denon (Heos equipped) AVR, and my HEOS speaker. But not only a single instance of each but a seemingly ever growing list of these devices. I tried to use them as output but it wouldn't work.

Is the app intended to show these types of devices as output options?

Feedback: when I tried to send feedback for the above, the app would force close when I had logging enabled and checked the "include logs" box.

I understand this is not your full time job, and appreciate the work you've put into it. Let me know if I can help troubleshoot the above on my phone any further for you.

Hey Mike sorry for not answering before. I was on a small easter vacation and I tried to disconnect a bit and relax. I will check your e-mail and answer there.

Mahesh

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1) Android MB Remote requires internet for connecting with MB.  Even though internet is not available in wifi router, it should work.
2) MB Remote PlayLists - Need Search button
3) MB Remote PlayLists - Need an option to see list of tracks in Playlist (like how we do it for album)
4) MB Remote PlayLists - Need an option for Queuing playlist.
5) Grouping of album is required in MB Remote - using same settings as in MB.
6) Artist split done in MB is not reflected in MB Remote.

kelsos

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1) Android MB Remote requires internet for connecting with MB.  Even though internet is not available in wifi router, it should work.
2) MB Remote PlayLists - Need Search button
3) MB Remote PlayLists - Need an option to see list of tracks in Playlist (like how we do it for album)
4) MB Remote PlayLists - Need an option for Queuing playlist.
5) Grouping of album is required in MB Remote - using same settings as in MB.
6) Artist split done in MB is not reflected in MB Remote.

Hey Mahesh, could you write a few more details on what you mean by each of them, I am not really sure what 1) is about for example.

Did you try the remote on a network without internet connection and it didn't work for you? I cannot see why? The Android INTERNET permission is the one to perform any network connectivity, there is no distinction between local or remote networks, it covers all.

2 and 3 are planned, I have them in mind, 4 though should work by clicking on a playlist.
5) I am not using MB much these days so any chance you could provide an example?
6) same as 5 an example would be really welcome :)

SonicRings

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Can you please add a Library view mode where it sorts the library by path? That, and add a scroll bar so we don't have to swipe up for 20 minutes to get to the bottom of our libraries? As it stands, I can only use this plugin as a remote control for adjusting the volume and pausing/skipping songs. I'd really like to be able to add songs to queue comfortably.

Mahesh

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1) Android MB Remote requires internet for connecting with MB.  Even though internet is not available in wifi router, it should work.
2) MB Remote PlayLists - Need Search button
3) MB Remote PlayLists - Need an option to see list of tracks in Playlist (like how we do it for album)
4) MB Remote PlayLists - Need an option for Queuing playlist.
5) Grouping of album is required in MB Remote - using same settings as in MB.
6) Artist split done in MB is not reflected in MB Remote.

Hey Mahesh, could you write a few more details on what you mean by each of them, I am not really sure what 1) is about for example.

Did you try the remote on a network without internet connection and it didn't work for you? I cannot see why? The Android INTERNET permission is the one to perform any network connectivity, there is no distinction between local or remote networks, it covers all.

2 and 3 are planned, I have them in mind, 4 though should work by clicking on a playlist.
5) I am not using MB much these days so any chance you could provide an example?
6) same as 5 an example would be really welcome :)

Hi Kelsos, Thanks for the reply.

1)  MB Remote depends on internet.  Generally all andriod apps which works on wifi, does not require internet.  If internet goes down for few minutes,  MB remote becomes offline. (even though wifi is connected).
5)  First, We need to understand how grouping of album works in MB. I will explain this in a different post..
6)  If artist field is "Artist1; Artist2" for any track.
MB shows it as two different artistes.
    Artist1
    Artist2
But MB Remote shows it as one artist.
    Artist1; Artist2
7) Also observed one more issue.  Synced Album Arts are vanished after few hours.  When I opened MB remote, very next day after syncing,  all Album Arts are vanished. Now sure why this is happening.  Once it happens, album arts are not syncing again.   I can sync album arts only after uninstalling and installing MB remote.

dh5217

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Since I need a remote and I just found MusicBee a few days ago, I am very grateful for the remote plugin and Android app.  I saw on Google Play that development of the remote is on hiatus, but I wanted to say thank you!!! Everything works well enough for me, though I do have have one small question/request if I may.

Is there a way to show either: track #'s, album names, or album art icons on the "Now playing" screen?  Any one of those three would work great.  It would be really nice if I could tell by looking at the queue how much of an album is left to play, since I listen to whole albums at a time, and I am not intimately familiar with song names on most of my music library.  For example right now it shows:

Title
Artist

Perhaps make it:

Title
Artist - Album

That easy change would do it for me!  Thank you once again for investing the time in the plugin and remote app!

SonicRings

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Hi, I'm noticing strange behaviour with your plugin since the latest update. Please see link here: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=35011.msg191517#msg191517

Basically, every time I open MusicBee, it maxes out my HDD by reading at ridiculous speeds. I'm assuming it's doing so for its artwork cache, but it does it even when no new music has been added.

I also don't see what the purpose of this cache is because you can't even see the artwork in the app other than whatever is currently playing.

I'm reverting to 1.1.0 for now. Looking forward to a fix!
Last Edit: May 30, 2021, 08:02:05 PM by SonicRings

kelsos

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Hi, I'm noticing strange behaviour with your plugin since the latest update. Please see link here: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=35011.msg191517#msg191517

Basically, every time I open MusicBee, it maxes out my HDD by reading at ridiculous speeds. I'm assuming it's doing so for its artwork cache, but it does it even when no new music has been added.

I also don't see what the purpose of this cache is because you can't even see the artwork in the app other than whatever is currently playing.

I'm reverting to 1.1.0 for now. Looking forward to a fix!

Hey, SonicRings can you give more information about your machine and collection (e.g number of albums, etc).
Also if it is possible could you enabled logging and do two runs so I can also see what the logs say?

The purpose of the cache is that starting v1.5.0 of the app you can view the covers in the library. The version is partially out to users but it is not available at 100% at the moment. The plan is to release it fully next week.

SonicRings

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Hi, I'm noticing strange behaviour with your plugin since the latest update. Please see link here: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=35011.msg191517#msg191517

Basically, every time I open MusicBee, it maxes out my HDD by reading at ridiculous speeds. I'm assuming it's doing so for its artwork cache, but it does it even when no new music has been added.

I also don't see what the purpose of this cache is because you can't even see the artwork in the app other than whatever is currently playing.

I'm reverting to 1.1.0 for now. Looking forward to a fix!

Hey, SonicRings can you give more information about your machine and collection (e.g number of albums, etc).
Also if it is possible could you enabled logging and do two runs so I can also see what the logs say?

The purpose of the cache is that starting v1.5.0 of the app you can view the covers in the library. The version is partially out to users but it is not available at 100% at the moment. The plan is to release it fully next week.

I'm not sure what you mean by "machines" but if you're asking for my specs, I have a Ryzen 1800X and GTX 1080TI, and I have 9566 albums.

Can you tell me how to enable logging?

Unfortunately it doesn't look like the covers work in the library in the latest version of your app with the latest version of the plugin. I'm on 1.5.0 on the app and 1.4.0 on the plugin and it looks the same as it always did:



I do have a cache folder in the AppData's mb_remote directory that has 9228 files and is 57 MB, so the artwork is theoretically there, it's just... not using it I guess?

kelsos

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That is interesting. And you don't see any covers for any of the albums at all?
I am using a VM to develop with a similar setup but with half the albums.

For the application, you can enable logs this way: https://mbrc.kelsos.net/help/#other-settings and you can send them through the feedback screen.
I am gonna need the application's logs too.

For the plugin https://mbrc.kelsos.net/help/#configuration you need to also enable the debug log option and send me the file.
There are two problems I will have to figure out. The first is why do you have this bad performance problem, and the second is why the covers don't properly sync.