Music Idea

[PiX64]

I have recently started using an amazing server/client software for all of my music management, streaming to mobile devices over wifi and cell network, etc. it is called subsonic http://subsonic.org.

It really is a pretty awesome app and i would love to get it integrated with sage. I realize that you guys haven't released much about the music features in Phoenix, but in my opinion the music management and such of Sage has been mediocre at best. The best i have seen so far is the Slimplayer plugin which is of course not having sage manage the music.

So i have been reading up on the API for subsonic and it is SUPER easy and straightforward to use. http://www.subsonic.org/pages/api.jsp

I was wondering if it may be possible to get support for subsonic in the new Phoenix Music section? If it is not something you guys want to tackle i would love the opportunity to help you guys out and work on the coding and such. Im not so good with the ui aspect of things like meinmaui is but i can do middle layer and backend coding.

If this isn't an option, then my next question is Are you going to allow people to create their own plugins which work with phoenix? I know you mentioned at one point or another that "if you guys do your job right we won't need any other plugins" which while i can def. appreciate that i woul d really like to try and integrate subsonic.

I suppose if you all come up with something phenomenal that just blows us away for Music as you did for the rest of phoenix thus far, then i will just use that, but i figured i would ask and get some feedback from the Phoenix team.

~Mike

[PiX64]

I forgot to add that one of my main motiviations here is to get a workable whole home audio solution through sage. Sonos is far to expensive, and another "device" to maintain. I really just want Sage to be the center of my media while in the home.

[stuckless]

While I don't see us doing an implementation for this, people will be able to extend phoenix and add their own plugins.

Something like this would fit great a vfs plugin (ie, a new VFS source for music), and then it would be browsealbe using the normal phoenix media browsers.

At some point, I'll provide some technical information on how people would go about creating new vfs sources for media (It's not that hard)

[PiX64]

I thought about VFS and doing it that way, but the playback is more of an issue in my opinion. I suppose if the UMB Music support is head and shoulders above the standard STV, as is everything else in phnoenix, then that solution would def. be attractive to me.

The only downside i see to a VFS is that one would need to go and presumably setup all metadata for songs, albums, etc. when you have a 30+k song library that could be quite tedious.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by PiX64

I thought about VFS and doing it that way, but the playback is more of an issue in my opinion. I suppose if the UMB Music support is head and shoulders above the standard STV, as is everything else in phnoenix, then that solution would def. be attractive to me.

The only downside i see to a VFS is that one would need to go and presumably setup all metadata for songs, albums, etc. when you have a 30+k song library that could be quite tedious.

Actually the vfs supports custom metadata from the source. ie, a VFS item has a Metadata object as well. The implmentation can populate that object so that the VFS has metadata. I do this for online videos and movie trailers today.

[PiX64]

so theoretically you are saying i could create a VFS which would point to my subsonic server and then the subsonic server could produce all necessary metadata/albumart/etc for things to show up correctly in BMT?

or am i missing what you meant?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by PiX64

so theoretically you are saying i could create a VFS which would point to my subsonic server and then the subsonic server could produce all necessary metadata/albumart/etc for things to show up correctly in BMT?

or am i missing what you meant?

That's exactly what I'm saying.

[PiX64]

Well thats perfect! how would one go about doing that? :-) im willing to be
a guinea pig.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Well thats perfect! how would one go about doing that? :-) im willing to be
a guinea pig.

It's great that you want to do this... but I think that I need to spend some time writing up the process, etc, since it will require some intimate knowledge about the VFS structures, (IMediaFile, IMediaFolder) and its useful implementations, VirtualMediaFile and VirtualMediaFolder, etc.

It may take a couple of weeks before I can fully document that.

[PiX64]

fair enough. anyway you need me to help you just let me know!

pm me email me whatever...