SlimPlayer Internet Radio plugin

[koelec]

Just finished porting my SlimPlayer stvi import to SageTV 7.
It can be installed from the plugin screen in SageTV7.

Slimplayer - Internet Radio (free and commercial services) streamed from Squeezebox Server.

Pandora, LastFM, Rapsody, Slacker, Live365, MediaFly, radioio, RadioTime, SHOUTcast, SIRIUS, Napster, Deezer....

Playback on SageTV local UI, Client UI and (with additional setup) on Extenders.

Requires separate install of Squeezebox Server software. The Squeezebox Server (formerly SlimServer and SqueezeCenter) is a streaming audio server supported by Logitech
(formerly Slim Devices), developed in particular to support their range of digital audio receivers. It is open source software.
You can download it from http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download.

SlimPlayer can run on SaveTV installations with local UI (server or client) without any additional setup (apart from this plugin and the Squeezebox Server software installation).

SlimPlayer can also run on extenders and Placeshifter with some additional setup/installation effort. Since SageTV cannot handle MP3 streams natively, two workaround methods are supported by SlimPlayer.
Hardware loopback is the easiest to setup, but requires a spare capture device (e.g. PVR150) being dedicated to SlimPlayer playback. The server's audio input is connected by cable to the capture device input.
Software loopback does not involve additional hardware. In this setup UNE (Universal Network Encoder) is used to create a software capture device. Commercial software VAC (Virtual Audio Cable) is used to create a virtual audio device,
which will take the SlimPlayer's audio output and redirect that to the UNE capture device's audio input.

For setting up either option for use with extenders refer to the slimplayer-README.txt file you will find in the slimplayer folder after installation of this plugin.

Just a single screenshot (more available on plugins screen SageTV7)


cheers
Chris

[craigap]

Thank you! I've been patiently waiting for this import. Great work once again.

There is one thing that I have noticed doesn't work right for me. The track info doesn't update after the first song that plays for any particular station I tune.

For example, when I tune Yahoo! Hard Rock the track info will come up for that first song, but it then never updates to the following songs' track info. All the other fields update appropriately thought (bio, news, photos). If I move on to another station (a radioio station for example) the first song I play will have changed to the correct track info, but again when the next song plays the info remains for that first song. If I go back to Yahoo! Hard Rock the info still remains the same as that first song that played the first time I tuned that station. Even if I turn off the power, exit slimplayer, come back in and turn the power back on, and start playing the station over again. The same info is there from that first song that played when I tuned the station. This happens for all the stations I've listened to so for (3 of them). I went ahead and restarted Sagetv and went directly into slimplayer where it immediately updated the info of the first song playing, but again it stayed with that first song's info for each song after-same behavior.

[koelec]

Originally Posted by craigap

Thank you! I've been patiently waiting for this import. Great work once again.

There is one thing that I have noticed doesn't work right for me. The track info doesn't update after the first song that plays for any particular station I tune.

For example, when I tune Yahoo! Hard Rock the track info will come up for that first song, but it then never updates to the following songs' track info. All the other fields update appropriately thought (bio, news, photos). If I move on to another station (a radioio station for example) the first song I play will have changed to the correct track info, but again when the next song plays the info remains for that first song. If I go back to Yahoo! Hard Rock the info still remains the same as that first song that played the first time I tuned that station. Even if I turn off the power, exit slimplayer, come back in and turn the power back on, and start playing the station over again. The same info is there from that first song that played when I tuned the station. This happens for all the stations I've listened to so for (3 of them). I went ahead and restarted Sagetv and went directly into slimplayer where it immediately updated the info of the first song playing, but again it stayed with that first song's info for each song after-same behavior.

thanks for the feedback
I will look into the track info issue

- Chris

[PiX64]

THANK YOU!!!! i love this plugin and am stoked to be able to use it again.

THANKS A TON!!!

[mzup]

I've never been able to get pandora to play thru this. It says I must be a subscriber to use pandora thru this device when connecting to Squeezebox server thru the web panel. I went online and tried to reinstall the pandora app and see that you need to go to pandora.com/logitech. When I do that it wants a code to activate my device, which I don't have. So how does it work if at all?

[gplasky]

I believe if you actually own a squeezebox you have access to the code you need for pandora. As an option you can get pandora on SageTV 7 thru the play-on plugin. That works for me.

Gerry

[mzup]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I believe if you actually own a squeezebox you have access to the code you need for pandora. As an option you can get pandora on SageTV 7 thru the play-on plugin. That works for me.

Gerry

Yea I figured that much but was hoping I can do it all from this app. Wanted to keep all music apps tied to one plugin and video apps tied to another.
Oh well.

[PiX64]

U cant just be a Pandora subscriber, you have to pay for Pandora in order for it to work with this plugin....

[mzup]

so if i buy pandora and will get a code?

[PiX64]

You won't receive a code from what i remember, you will just use the login and password on the slimserver, and it will recognize that the you are a pandora subscriber.......

check out this post i made to another thread

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...=23263&page=15

hope that helps

~Pix64

[PiX64]

With the new interface, i was wondering if this can be used on multiple extenders unlike the SageMC version...

~Pix64

[koelec]

Originally Posted by PiX64

With the new interface, i was wondering if this can be used on multiple extenders unlike the SageMC version...

~Pix64

It can be used on multiple extenders, albeit not simultaneously. When playback was started on one extender, we'll have to press the stop button on the second extender to take over control andthen start playback on that extender.

- Chris

p.s. working on next update which will allow WebfeedEncoder to be used as an alternative to Universal Network Encoder for software loopback config

[waters10]

Hey there.

I was a user of the sagemc version of this plugin. I'm loving V7 so far, so I was happy to see a V7 version of this plugin.

I can't get it to work though. Every time I go to music/slimplayer, the last TV channel I was watching shows up on the preview window on the top right corner. If I go back to TV and stop playback to make sure there's no channel recording, when I open slimplayer the last channel that was tuned starts playing again after a few seconds. The music still plays together with the TV sound, so the plugin is working.

Any ideas? It might something stupid from my side, I don't know.

Thanks!

[koelec]

Originally Posted by waters10

Hey there.

I was a user of the sagemc version of this plugin. I'm loving V7 so far, so I was happy to see a V7 version of this plugin.

I can't get it to work though. Every time I go to music/slimplayer, the last TV channel I was watching shows up on the preview window on the top right corner. If I go back to TV and stop playback to make sure there's no channel recording, when I open slimplayer the last channel that was tuned starts playing again after a few seconds. The music still plays together with the TV sound, so the plugin is working.

Any ideas? It might something stupid from my side, I don't know.

Thanks!

My mistake. Some leftover from the sagemc version.
There will be an update of the plugin including some other fixes and instructions on how to use it with WebFeedEncoder as alternative to Universal Encoder.
- Chris

[PiX64]

I am following your instructions to use webfeedencoder, and I am unable to see Virtual audio cable in the webfeedencoder configtool...

here is what i did

i followed your readme step 4 i get stuck at 1) because the audio device doesn't show up. Yes i installed VAC and have it running as virtual audio cable one as you stated in the readme...

any ideas?

[PiX64]

Wrong version of webfeedencoder.....trying the Rc4


That did it....nm and thanks!

:-)

~Pix64

[PiX64]

Koelec,

My wife really likes the webfeedencoder and how I can add internet radio stations to the EPG lineup.

I was wondering if you can think of a way, or maybe its already possible, to add certain Slimplayer station such as her "Pandora - Rascal Flatts" for example as a channel in the lineup. This way instead of going to the slimplayer she can hit it directly from the EPG. I realize it is not difficult at all to just start up slimplayer and play her station from there, but she really likes the idea of hitting the station from the EPG...

Just a thought. If you have an ideas or need someone to test this out, i would be more than willing to help figure out if and how this is possible.

Thanks,
Pix64

[koelec]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Koelec,

My wife really likes the webfeedencoder and how I can add internet radio stations to the EPG lineup.

I was wondering if you can think of a way, or maybe its already possible, to add certain Slimplayer station such as her "Pandora - Rascal Flatts" for example as a channel in the lineup. This way instead of going to the slimplayer she can hit it directly from the EPG. I realize it is not difficult at all to just start up slimplayer and play her station from there, but she really likes the idea of hitting the station from the EPG...

Just a thought. If you have an ideas or need someone to test this out, i would be more than willing to help figure out if and how this is possible.

Thanks,
Pix64

Pix64,
Thanks for the feedback.
About the startPlayback from EPG, that's a good idea.
I already modified the code to support this.
My idea of implementing this is the following.
For each of your favorites in SqueezeCenter you setup
a channel with channel type Device(Audio) in webfeedencoder and VAC as the audio device.
The callsign of each channel must be equal to the corresponding favorite name in SqueezeCenter. The result is that when you start playback of the channel from the epg, slimplayer will start the favorite as configured in SqueezeCenter.

Still need to do a little work in order to ensure slimplayer is running without going to the menu, in case you start a channel directly from epg.

- Chris

[PiX64]

Koelec,

I have been playing around with WFE and slimplayer trying to get it to work correctly. I have it working correctly on my Server, but i dont' use the server to watch tv/listen to audio. I use HD200. The problem i am experiencing is i can hear the VAC demo "TRIAL" play through the extenders every 15 or 30 seconds, whatever the interval is, but the actual audio from slimplayer isn't working. I can hear it very faintly in the background, and there is an annoying static/buzzing coming out instead.

Everything worked perfectly with hardware loopback.

Is there something you can think of that i can try to get the audio to play correctly? possibly a setting on VAC....maybe a win registry setting...

Thanks,

~Pix64

[koelec]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Koelec,

I have been playing around with WFE and slimplayer trying to get it to work correctly. I have it working correctly on my Server, but i dont' use the server to watch tv/listen to audio. I use HD200. The problem i am experiencing is i can hear the VAC demo "TRIAL" play through the extenders every 15 or 30 seconds, whatever the interval is, but the actual audio from slimplayer isn't working. I can hear it very faintly in the background, and there is an annoying static/buzzing coming out instead.

Everything worked perfectly with hardware loopback.

Is there something you can think of that i can try to get the audio to play correctly? possibly a setting on VAC....maybe a win registry setting...

Thanks,

~Pix64

Make sure you select VAC as audio device in slimplayer's options/audio settings and verify with the Squeezebox server web interface that music is actually playing.

- Chris