1 (edited by cbreeze 2011-12-30 15:58:00)

Topic: Subsonic on chumby

Subsonic on chumby

Based on a tip from another forum posting, I recently installed a media server/transcoder called Subsonic.  I have a local install running on a Mac Mini and I also signed up for a hosted service as well (which has a 30 day trial period wink )  It's an amazing piece of software for getting access to your music from virtually anywhere.  It's available in almost every favor, including Linux, Mac and Windows.  It currently has clients for Android, iPhone, WinPhone, Browser and now chumby. smile

With the Subsonic app for chumby, you can stream your music library on any chumby, all models have been confirmed to be working.  The Subsonic server allows for each chumby to control it's own music selection.  We've had 3 different chumbies around the house, playing completely different music simultaneously from the same server.  I haven't been this excited about a widget since Chumbyland. smile

To use the Subsonic server with any "external" application, like a widget, after 30 days requires a small donation of your liking.  It's worth every penny in my opinion.  It's just a single developer smile.  There is more information about that on the Subsonic site.

The Subsonic for chumby app is in beta and will be updated often.  Be prepared for bugs and other quirks.  Please report problems here.

Enjoy your music!! big_smile

NOTES:

You can not use a sub/redirecting domain as your server path.  You must use either a local ip or the actual ip address of your Subsonic server.

The Subsonic for chumby app is currently in public beta.  After the beta a free lite version will be available, as well as a donation based "enhanced" version.  There are no limitations during the public beta period.

-dev

Updated 9.15.11 - External edits are no longer needed to use the latest Subsonic server (45) with a chumby device. smile

Re: Subsonic on chumby

Why no Chumby8 support?  I think all of the original apps should be able to at least run on it scaled up and blocky.

In any case, this looks really interesting.  Want some help porting it to the Chumby8? smile

3 (edited by cbreeze 2011-06-10 10:21:02)

Re: Subsonic on chumby

hansendc wrote:

Why no Chumby8 support?  I think all of the original apps should be able to at least run on it scaled up and blocky.

In any case, this looks really interesting.  Want some help porting it to the Chumby8? smile

It should work fine on Chumby 8 (I should have worded it better).  It's just that I have not been able to test on an actual Chumby 8, only Infocast8.

-dev

Re: Subsonic on chumby

cbreeze wrote:

It should work fine on Chumby 8 (I should have worded it better).  It's just that I have not been able to test on an actual Chumby 8, only Infocast8.

Ahhhh...  OK, I'll test it when it gets approved and let you know.

5 (edited by cbreeze 2011-06-11 07:41:07)

Re: Subsonic on chumby

It has been pointed out that Subsonic is kind of particular about folder structure.  Here is some info regarding that from a Subsonic user:


The basic premise of the following information is that for best results from Subsonic, you should build your music paths like so:

Music Folder/Artist/Album/<all music tracks>

For those using most systems your folder structure may already work (you can simple point to your current music folder in Subsonic, even network shares).  If you have an iTunes library that is unorganized, you may have to do some housecleaning.

SubSonic assumes you are controlling your music storage hierarchy.  This means that the program assumes you are organizing your music via the file system, not by "tags" embedded in the music files.

The term "album" is synonomous with "folder".  On SubSonic's Home screen, when it says it's displaying 10 albums, it's really displaying 10 FOLDERS (which it assumes is a collection of songs on a particular album).

So, if all your music is in one big folder (shame on you) and you are relying on some music player to organize and display the music in some hierarctical format, SubSonic is going to be painful for you.  SubSonic assumes that the ROOT of your music folder doesn't have music in it - but is INSTEAD filled with ARTISTS folders.  Within the ARTISTS there are ALBUMS folders (which are their own folders) and within those albums are SONGS on that album.

In fact, songs that are on the ROOT of your music folders will NOT show up in the Android SubSonic app for playback - despite the fact that you CAN get to them from the web interface.  Make sure all your music is in a folder off the music folder you have specified.

For example, if your music folder is C:\MUSIC - make sure there are no songs in that folder - only more folders:

C:\MUSIC\BEACH BOYS - CALIFORNIA GIRLS.MP3

... will NOT show up at all in the Android app - and will appear on the BOTTOM of the music listings in the web interface.

C:\MUSIC\BEACH BOYS\BEACH BOYS - CALIFORNIA GIRLS.MP3

... will render you the response you're probably expecting. It will show up in the Android app under BEACH BOYS and it will show up in it's own section within the web interface.

Even better would be to adopt this hierarchy:

C:\MUSIC\BEACH BOYS\GREATEST HITS\BEACH BOYS - CALIFORNIA GIRLS.MP3

The reason being that SubSonic will assume ALL the songs in a folder BELONG TO THE SAME ALBUM.  If they don't, your cover art is going to be ... random seeming ... at best.  If you have a ton of Beach Boys in a folder from different albums, SubSonic will get the album name from one of them, throw the artwork in the folder, and EVERY song in that folder will show that cover art - right or wrong.

BAD METHOD (you're asking for trouble)

C:\MUSIC\JOURNEY - SEPARATE WAYS.MP3

C:\MUSIC\JOURNEY - WHEEL IN THE SKY.MP3

C:\MUSIC\JAMES BROWN - I FEEL GOOD.MP3

C:\MUSIC\JANET JACKSON - RHYTHM NATION.MP3

OK METHOD (Expect the unexpected; music will be available but cover art will be whacked)

C:\MUSIC\J\JOURNEY - SEPARATE WAYS.MP3

C:\MUSIC\J\JOURNEY - WHEEL IN THE SKY.MP3

C:\MUSIC\J\JAMES BROWN - I FEEL GOOD.MP3

C:\MUSIC\J\JANET JACKSON - RHYTHM NATION.MP3


GOOD METHOD (music will at least be organized and available in SubSonic; cover art will show the right artist, but wrong album)

C:\MUSIC\JOURNEY\JOURNEY - SEPARATE WAYS.MP3

C:\MUSIC\JOURNEY\JOURNEY - WHEEL IN THE SKY.MP3

C:\MUSIC\JAMES BROWN\JAMES BROWN - I FEEL GOOD.MP3

C:\MUSIC\JANET JACKSON\JANET JACKSON - RHYTHM NATION.MP3

BEST METHOD (cover art should be accurate, etc)

C:\MUSIC\JOURNEY\FRONTIERS\JOURNEY - SEPARATE WAYS.MP3

C:\MUSIC\JOURNEY\GREATEST HITS\JOURNEY - WHEEL IN THE SKY.MP3

C:\MUSIC\JAMES BROWN\GREATEST HITS\JAMES BROWN - I FEEL GOOD.MP3

C:\MUSIC\JANET JACKSON\RHYTHM NATION\JANET JACKSON - RHYTHM NATION.MP3

TOTALLY ANAL METHOD (like the BEST version above, but you really need something else to occupy your free time)

C:\MUSIC\80S\J\JOURNEY\FRONTIERS\JOURNEY - SEPARATE WAYS.MP3

C:\MUSIC\70S\J\JOURNEY\GREATEST HITS\JOURNEY - WHEEL IN THE SKY.MP3

C:\MUSIC\OLDIES\RHYTHM AND BLUES\J\JAMES BROWN\GREATEST HITS\JAMES BROWN - I FEEL GOOD.MP3

C:\MUSIC\DANCE\FEMALE\J\JANET JACKSON\RHYTHM NATION\JANET JACKSON - RHYTHM NATION.MP3

So the moral of the story - be anal with your music filing system.  Most people using SubSonic are probably 80-90% of the way there already;  it's the iTunes people that are due for a rude awakening.

-dev

Re: Subsonic on chumby

cbreeze wrote:

It not showing in the new apps, but you can get to the widget from here.

That just redirects me back to: http://www.chumby.com/guide.  You can see it since you're logged in to your account, but others can't until it's approved (I think).

Re: Subsonic on chumby

hansendc wrote:
cbreeze wrote:

It not showing in the new apps, but you can get to the widget from here.

That just redirects me back to: http://www.chumby.com/guide.  You can see it since you're logged in to your account, but others can't until it's approved (I think).

roll - duh! Well it was up but then I changed the name, so that must be why.  I sent a message.

-dev

Re: Subsonic on chumby

It's live smile Subsonic for chumby

-dev

Re: Subsonic on chumby

It runs on the Chumby8 just fine.

It might be nice to replace the spashscreen with some informative error message.  I put the crossdomain.xml file in the wrong directory and it just sits there.

It's probably also a good idea to dial back the maximum bit rate that it requests by default.  I have some high-bitrate stuff that made it skip pretty badly until I went and tweaked the max bitrate for the chumbies in Subsonic itself.

Re: Subsonic on chumby

hansendc wrote:

It runs on the Chumby8 just fine.

It might be nice to replace the spashscreen with some informative error message.  I put the crossdomain.xml file in the wrong directory and it just sits there.

It's probably also a good idea to dial back the maximum bit rate that it requests by default.  I have some high-bitrate stuff that made it skip pretty badly until I went and tweaked the max bitrate for the chumbies in Subsonic itself.

Thank you for testing and providing some feedback.  It's still very basic, but some more information will be added for errors.  I also have plans to be able to alter the bit rate in the actual widget.  The current one seems to be working for all the chumbies I've tested, but I would imagine that would depend on various factors.

Coming in the next release:

Browse folders while music is playing
Adding tracks and folders to the current playlist
More track information displayed

Thanks again.  Any and all feedback welcome. smile

-dev

Re: Subsonic on chumby

Great application widget!

A couple of things I noticed.

1 - Initially when installing Subsonic client on my PC I didn't know that I had to install the entire HTML address and tried for a bit with just the IP address of the server.  All is well when I changed it.
2 - Same for the Chumby Client.  IE: HTML address.  I also assumed that the default port for the client was 4040; changing that to port 80 worked fine.

I am currently running it on my 3.5 Infocast Chumbys.  How do I scroll down to see more music?

I haven't tested all of my music but it currently doesn't stream my "Across the Universe" ripped at:

44100Hz CBR 224 kb/s total (2 chnls)

12 (edited by cbreeze 2011-06-11 13:33:42)

Re: Subsonic on chumby

Subsonic for chumby 0.14

A few new features added as well as plenty of tweaks:

Separated player allows you to browse music library while listening to music.

New "Jukebox" functionalty allows you to add songs/albums to the currently playing tracks.

Lowered default bit rate for wider install base.  Will be customizable in next update.

Thanks for the comments, please keep testing and don't forget to rate the widget. big_smile

@pete_c: Thank you for the information and testing the widget.  You should be able to scroll the list by holding your finger on the "dots" to the right and then moving your finger up or down.  Let me know if that is not working.  I am not quite clear on the other part.  All my Subsonic set-ups all use an IP.

Enjoy!

-dev

13 (edited by pete_c 2011-06-11 14:21:22)

Re: Subsonic on chumby

Thank you cbreeze.

I just meant using an HTML address versus just the IP of the Subsonic server.

Got the scrolling function.  Reloaded the widget; I don't see the functions you mentioned.

I also noticed is I manual navigate to another song; it plays a little bit of the previous song before it starts to play the new song.  Just a short little snippet.

Should I delete the widge and then put it back?

Re: Subsonic on chumby

pete_c wrote:

Thank you cbreeze.

I just meant using an HTML address versus just the IP of the Subsonic server.

Got the scrolling function.  Reloaded the widget; I don't see the functions you mentioned.

I also noticed is I manual navigate to another song; it plays a little bit of the previous song before it starts to play the new song.  Just a short little snippet.

Should I delete the widge and then put it back?

There is not much to be done about that without complicated work-arounds.  It's a little "hiccup" as the buffer is cleared from the stream.  It mostly an issue concerning the streaming audio of a FlashLite app.  I'm glad you enjoy the widget and thank you for your feedback. smile

-dev

Re: Subsonic on chumby

Awesome work, I was hoping someone would take up this project. I had posted in the Amazon Cloud thread about the genius that is Subsonic - I've been using it very successfully via the web frontend and Android (over 3G) for some time now.

One thing to note for future possible development is that video is also handled by transcoding to FLV format. I don't know if this FLV video is compatible with the Chumby's FlashLite? Or the forthcoming FlashLite update? It would be amazing to get a one-stop-shop for all things audio/video on Chumby.

This will make me dig out my Chumby and use it once again!

Re: Subsonic on chumby

Looks great so far. From a quick glance at the app it would be nice if you could implement the getCoverArt.view method, instead of the spinning graphic, to show the album art that is playing.

Also the 'Random albums' feature (getAlbumList.view?type=random) is a great way of listening to music you forgot you had, I use it a lot in the Android app

Re: Subsonic on chumby

specific wrote:

Looks great so far. From a quick glance at the app it would be nice if you could implement the getCoverArt.view method, instead of the spinning graphic, to show the album art that is playing.

Also the 'Random albums' feature (getAlbumList.view?type=random) is a great way of listening to music you forgot you had, I use it a lot in the Android app

Oddly I am using the cover art call.  I noticed that some of my tracks came up but not others.  I went ahead and made sure my music had covers embedded (using this free windows based utility) and all is good.  I am going to try another method of perhaps trying to just grab the artwork for a "folder" and see if that makes a difference.  But again my artwork is coming up fine, the album spinning is just a default placeholder.  I'll keep trying different things.

I do have plans for the random albums (songs, etc), which will hopefully be in the next update.  As far as video is concerned, I have just kept quiet on the topic until I can confirm it working.  Didn't want to get any hopes up. smile  I did build the ORB video widget (R.I.P) so I should be able to get something up quickly.

Thanks for the comments, and don't forget to rate the widget -- that's pretty much all we devs get. tongue  I am a little surprised that more chums have not picked up on this widget though, it's the music solution I have been waiting for a while now.  It's nice to have all the chumbies humming in the house again. big_smile

-dev

Re: Subsonic on chumby

Oh ignore it then... I was just quickly testing the app in the virtual chumby online - can't actually remember where I put my Chumby One since I moved house (eek!).

Will let you know how it goes when I get it running on the Chumby itself.

Cheers.

Re: Subsonic on chumby

Stupid question:

Does this support https?

Re: Subsonic on chumby

Hi dev.elephant,

I must say I am at least as exited as you are. However, I can't seem to get your widget to work.

I have my Chumby (classic) ready as well as a (registered) local subsonic server up and running. I've put the crossdomain.xml into subsonic's webapps folder. I've modified the applicationContext-security.xml to allow access to crossdomain.xml. (I even checked I can download it from the chumby with wget). I've added the subsonic "app" to my channel and configured it with "http://192.168.my.ip/subsonic/" (the path to my subsonic webapp) and correct username/pw combination.

However - when I start the widget on the chumby, it just sits there showing the black subsonic logo screen ("Easy Listening") and nothing else happens. The subsonic server log file does not report any activity or error. What am I doing wrong?

Any help appreciated... W.

21 (edited by cbreeze 2011-07-02 13:45:57)

Re: Subsonic on chumby

winston.smith wrote:

Hi dev.elephant,

I must say I am at least as exited as you are. However, I can't seem to get your widget to work.

I have my Chumby (classic) ready as well as a (registered) local subsonic server up and running. I've put the crossdomain.xml into subsonic's webapps folder. I've modified the applicationContext-security.xml to allow access to crossdomain.xml. (I even checked I can download it from the chumby with wget). I've added the subsonic "app" to my channel and configured it with "http://192.168.my.ip/subsonic/" (the path to my subsonic webapp) and correct username/pw combination.

However - when I start the widget on the chumby, it just sits there showing the black subsonic logo screen ("Easy Listening") and nothing else happens. The subsonic server log file does not report any activity or error. What am I doing wrong?

Any help appreciated... W.

Hello,

My apologies for the late reply.  You should only have something like "http://192.168.0.100:4040" in the server field and not the "subsonic" path (of course your ip and port are most likely different).  If that doesn't work please post your OS type.  I hope that solves your issue though.

-dev

22 (edited by cbreeze 2011-07-02 15:56:21)

Re: Subsonic on chumby

Subsonic for chumby 0.22

A few new features added as well as under the hood fixins:

Added ability to generate a random albums listing

Added ability to access the most recent albums played / added

Added a feature to play 50 random songs from your library

View current and recently played (includes all players on your server)

Touching the "Sub" in the upper left will take you directly back to the front menu

Thanks for the comments, please keep testing and don't forget to rate the widget.

Happy Listening!

-dev

Re: Subsonic on chumby

WOW.

This is an awesome app!! I was always wondering why there wasnt a nice interface to a local music library, and the marriage of the chumby with subsnonic is perfect.

I have this app running on my 3.5" infocast by my bed, and the infocast 8" in my kitchen.

Ill definitely be paying for this app when it comes out of beta.

Few wishes/requests:
* Be able to add a music folder that contains several folders (traversing)
* A playlist loader would be a great feature.
* Randomize songs based on folder (with traversing)

Thanks for this. Id go as far as saying this is the killer app for the chumby.

Re: Subsonic on chumby

New updates working well smile

One minor thing - I'm still not getting Album art? I get artwork on the Android Subsonic client though, which uses the same API command I assume.

Re: Subsonic on chumby

This may be a silly question, but how do I establsih what my server address is? at the moment, Chumby app defaults to: http://ip.to.subsonic:4040 I was expecting to find it in the set-up area of the Subsonic server?