Squeeze Control for Android (support thread)

[wayne@angrygoat]

Wow, that's pretty sneaky. Google didn't even send me an email or any kind of notification. Thanks for clarifying that for me and of course thanks for the wonderful app.

I always assumed that Google would send notification emails. They always did whenever test purchases I made expired. Maybe it's a setting in your Google account?

 

[Sarah Danks]

Hey Wayne, I'm trying to figure out if this will work for me on my Nexus 7. I upgraded to Android 5 (don't do it!!!) and the Logitech Squeezebox Controller app is no longer working.

My music and the Logitech Media Server software are all on a Synology NAS, and I have two Logitech UE players that are running on the Squeezebox software option. Everything connects over my wifi.

In your app description, you said: "This app can be quite demanding on the server compared to other controller apps and as such may not work well with a server running on a NAS. Complaints in the reviews about slowness is likely due to having the server on a NAS." So, are you saying that your app is likely to not run well for me? (I'm not sure where I would run the Logitech Media Server if not on my NAS, and Synology, if I understand correctly, actually has an OS running all this stuff.)

 

[wayne@angrygoat]

Hey Wayne, I'm trying to figure out if this will work for me on my Nexus 7. I upgraded to Android 5 (don't do it!!!) and the Logitech Squeezebox Controller app is no longer working.

My music and the Logitech Media Server software are all on a Synology NAS, and I have two Logitech UE players that are running on the Squeezebox software option. Everything connects over my wifi.

In your app description, you said: "This app can be quite demanding on the server compared to other controller apps and as such may not work well with a server running on a NAS. Complaints in the reviews about slowness is likely due to having the server on a NAS." So, are you saying that your app is likely to not run well for me? (I'm not sure where I would run the Logitech Media Server if not on my NAS, and Synology, if I understand correctly, actually has an OS running all this stuff.)

Depends on the size of your music collection. Less than 10,000 songs should be ok on a NAS, though not ideal. The problem with running LMS on a NAS is that NAS's tend to have low powered CPU's and a limited amount of RAM and they are optimized for sharing files on a network, NOT running a music server.

Basically just about any type of general purpose computer would run LMS better than a NAS. Some people run it on old laptops. For testing reasons, I run several servers and one of them is running on a Raspberry Pi, which goes for about US$50 with all the necessary parts. What I would recommend is to keep your music files on the NAS, but run LMS on a separate computer.

BTW, which Nexus 7 do you have, I have the 2 gen one and Android 5 works great on it.

 

[Sarah Danks]

Thanks very much for getting back to me, Wayne

I have a 2012 wifi Nexus 7. I'm happy with it.
Android 5.0.2 slowed it down and sucked up battery. 5.1 has improved that somewhat.

Well, your screen shots look good; I have fewer than 10,000 mp3 files; and I think my Synology DS213j is on the beefy side as NAS devices go. (It's designed to run a small, in-house business network with ftp access from the web but there's only me on it.) So, maybe I'll give your app a shot. I wish there was a trial version.

Sarah

 

[wayne@angrygoat]

Thanks very much for getting back to me, Wayne

I have a 2012 wifi Nexus 7. I'm happy with it.
Android 5.0.2 slowed it down and sucked up battery. 5.1 has improved that somewhat.

Well, your screen shots look good; I have fewer than 10,000 mp3 files; and I think my Synology DS213j is on the beefy side as NAS devices go. (It's designed to run a small, in-house business network with ftp access from the web but there's only me on it.) So, maybe I'll give your app a shot. I wish there was a trial version.

Sarah

I think the main issue with the DS213j is the RAM. The specs only list 512Mb. My install of LMS sitting idle, is already using almost 150Mb. When active, it could possibly go higher. That woud be a large portion of the NAS's RAM already and the NAS's OS and other functions are going to need RAM too.

If Squeeze Ctrl's performance is unacceptable to you, email me your order number and I'll refund your purchase.

 

[Sarah Danks]

WOW.

OK. This just may be the best $7 I've spent in all my 60+ years.

I am truly impressed, Wayne. Not only does it do everything I need, it's beautiful and customizable. Seriously. Dude. Nice job.

 

[mookz]

Hi Wayne,

Just purchased the app and tablet add-on. Very impressive!

I just recently picked up an HP Slate Pro 21, which is essentially a 23 inch 1080p monitor / oversized Android 4.3 Tablet. It would make a nice front-end for a media-jukebox and put on the wall for a man-cave!

Any chance of maybe getting some additional customization functionality put in?

* Chromecast - Make the display image look just like the tablet screen where the Current Playlist and Now Playing panes are side by-side. Real-time display of current playtime would also be nice.
* Allow for different colored backgrounds for each of the panes
* Allow for customized views on the Jukebox mode - Rather than having a screen full of album covers, have 3/4 of the screen display album covers by artist, album, genre, year, favorites, or new music. The user can choose. The other 1/4 can be the cover of the current song playing with artist track number, track name and the current playlist. This would be similar to how you already have the playlist display button in the upper right hand corner, but it would not be a transparent layer.
* Disable individual playback controls on each of the display modes. Mainly, in jukebox mode, I would like to keep people from skipping tracks, being able to add tracks as play next, and easily add a full album to the playlist. Essentially, make the jukebox view look and feel like modern jukeboxes found in bars and pubs.
* Password protect the app settings or at least the sections that lock out controls.

Ok.. I know this is a lot, so I'll stop.

Thanks!
- Mark

 

[wayne@angrygoat]

* Chromecast - Make the display image look just like the tablet screen where the Current Playlist and Now Playing panes are side by-side.

I'm not sure if I would want the TV display to look that busy. Also since the list is obviously not interactive and the fonts will have to be big enough to easily read at 10 feet, you probably won't get that much more info.

Real-time display of current playtime would also be nice.

I planned on adding a progress bar at some point, I just haven't gotten around to it.

* Allow for different colored backgrounds for each of the panes

Probably not. That will just look too strange.

* Allow for customized views on the Jukebox mode - Rather than having a screen full of album covers, have 3/4 of the screen display album covers by artist, album, genre, year, favorites, or new music. The user can choose. The other 1/4 can be the cover of the current song playing with artist track number, track name and the current playlist. This would be similar to how you already have the playlist display button in the upper right hand corner, but it would not be a transparent layer.

I'll consider this, though the only other sorting method that LMS supports for albums, besides the existing two (by album or by artist), is by new music.

* Disable individual playback controls on each of the display modes. Mainly, in jukebox mode, I would like to keep people from skipping tracks, being able to add tracks as play next, and easily add a full album to the playlist. Essentially, make the jukebox view look and feel like modern jukeboxes found in bars and pubs.

I'll think about adding a way to disable controls in Jukebox View and maybe Player View, but definitely not the Full View.

* Password protect the app settings or at least the sections that lock out controls.

No passwords, I don't want to have to make some sort of password recovery system.

 

[acidric]

Hi Wayne,

I bought the app for the whole family, 3 smartphones and 2 tablets.
It works really well, I miss just one option I had on other applications.
Is it possible to add an option to turn on wifi automatically at startup?

sorry for my bad english

Acidric

 

[JayLaFunk]

Hi,

Just bought this after being a long time iPeng for iPad HD user, slowly getting used to it but 1 question, it shows my 2 players and I can switch but how do I get it to show the devices that I have installed the app to so that I can hear my music through my Android devices.

Cheers
Jay

 

[wayne@angrygoat]

Hi,

Just bought this after being a long time iPeng for iPad HD user, slowly getting used to it but 1 question, it shows my 2 players and I can switch but how do I get it to show the devices that I have installed the app to so that I can hear my music through my Android devices.

Cheers
Jay

Unlike iPeng, Squeeze Ctrl is only a remote control, it is not a Squeezebox player. I have a separate player app called SB Player.

 

[JayLaFunk]

OK, Cheers

 

[acidric]

hi,

You have not seen my post? or I asked a stupid question? :-[:-[

Acidric

 

[wayne@angrygoat]

hi,

You have not seen my post? or I asked a stupid question? :-[:-[

Acidric

Sorry, I forgot to post your answer. Yes I can add that in a future update.

 

[JayLaFunk]

Hi,

How can I get rid of the highlighted text from the image below so it just shows Artist - Title and show track numbers?.

Edit: tried to post image but I don't have enough posts

It shows Artist - Title [Album Title] (track duration) (current time) when I just want track number Artist - Title, it is taking up a lot of space and looks congested.

 

[wayne@angrygoat]

Hi,

How can I get rid of the highlighted text from the image below so it just shows Artist - Title and show track numbers?.

Edit: tried to post image but I don't have enough posts

It shows Artist - Title [Album Title] (track duration) (current time) when I just want track number Artist - Title, it is taking up a lot of space and looks congested.

I'm not sure what part of the app you're referring to. The items you're naming appear in a few different areas of the app. Email me the screenshot.

 

[JayLaFunk]

Screenshot sent to you by email, cheers

 

[VikingOy]

I find it very fair and honest that you chose to inform about how and why your app is not recommended if the Server resides on a NAS and/or if the client (App) is connected over a mobile connection.
However I fail to understand why you chose design the App in this way – as I cannot see any reason why it should have to chit-chat constantly with the server?

I currently use Orange Squeeze (Play Store) and it hardly incurs any additional overhead or excessive mobile surcharges beyond the streaming itself.

I would love to switch to your App as you offer features not found in Orange Squeeze, but your warning kept me from doing so.
I thank you for that honesty, but – as I said – I fail to understand your design policy.
You miss out on a on a big audience – with no gain.

P.S. my NAS is a QNAP TS-119 with approx 150k MP3 files, mostly 320Kb/s running LMS 7.8 on the NAS.
I currently have some 15 friends and family members around the world streaming off it using various client Apps. No problems!

Yours Sincerely
Oyvind

 

[wayne@angrygoat]

I find it very fair and honest that you chose to inform about how and why your app is not recommended if the Server resides on a NAS and/or if the client (App) is connected over a mobile connection.
However I fail to understand why you chose design the App in this way – as I cannot see any reason why it should have to chit-chat constantly with the server?

I currently use Orange Squeeze (Play Store) and it hardly incurs any additional overhead or excessive mobile surcharges beyond the streaming itself.

I would love to switch to your App as you offer features not found in Orange Squeeze, but your warning kept me from doing so.
I thank you for that honesty, but – as I said – I fail to understand your design policy.
You miss out on a on a big audience – with no gain.

P.S. my NAS is a QNAP TS-119 with approx 150k MP3 files, mostly 320Kb/s running LMS 7.8 on the NAS.
I currently have some 15 friends and family members around the world streaming off it using various client Apps. No problems!

Yours Sincerely
Oyvind

First of all, the warning about a mobile data connection and the one about using a NAS are separate issues. I'm not sure why you're lumping the two together.

Second, Orange Squeeze does not stream. It uses Squeeze Player to do so. I think you're mixing up apps.

The mobile data warning would apply to any Squeezebox controller app including Orange Squeeze. All Squeezebox controllers need to maintain constant connection with the server to receive status updates like track changes, play/pause state, track position changes, etc.. I warn people because on the surface, the app looks a bit like a simple music library browser that would only need to transfer data when you are actively using it. Also Squeeze Ctrl will run in the background to support the controls in the notification bar and the widget. The other apps just didn't bother to warn you.

The warning about the NAS is mainly aimed at people who have large song collections (10000+ songs). If you search through the squeezebox forums, you'll find that it is common advice for people with large music collections to run LMS on a standalone computer. Squeeze Ctrl will actually work alright with a NAS if the collection is not too large.

However compared to the official Logitech controller app, Squeeze Ctrl will request more data from the server because Squeeze Ctrl's interface displays more data. I don't have Orange Squeeze, but judging from it's screenshots, Squeeze Ctrl is likely requesting more data than it.

Also you cannot compare streaming performance with LMS control performance. They are two completely different activities.

Music streaming is basically just reading a file and sending the data through the network, something that a NAS is designed for.

LMS is a database and a webserver, two things that a NAS is definitely NOT designed for and browsing the LMS music library requires the use of both.

 

[lebobmorane]

Hi Sergey, I just purchased Squeeze Ctrl and the tablet upgrade (and left you a positive feedback BTW), I am encountering connectivity problems to the server. When I move to my den in the basement my tablet / phone connects to another access point (same SSID) but Squeeze Ctrl loses the connection. I get "Connection broken, reconnecting" and then "Cannot connect to server". Internet access still works however.

Can you help pls?