[OLD] ServiiGo - Android 3G/Wifi Playback App - Beta

[will]

As long as the folder view can be toggled to or not to show, that sounds good. I tried Eminent player once, I got rid of it so I guess that says something. For video player I have used MX player, Moboplayer and Vplayer. all of them worked, but I prefer MX player. I haven't fully tested vplayer but it looks promising.

I do have an idea though, maybe a setting to change from the default video player app so that I can quickly change the video player app for testing.

Yes I have an on/off switch for it.

Ok i'll add Vplayer to my list. Yes I like MX player as well.

Choosing the video player is all done using android's built in system for finding apps that are capable of doing what is needed, e.g. play video. If I wanted to control which app is used, I would have to re-write it or specifically target certain apps by hardcoding their package names, so I won't be able to do that, sorry.

[ct1aic]

A stupid question... What TCP/UDP ports do I need to open in my firewall (and forward in my router) to access the Serviio remote via the Android ServiiGo app., from the Internet?

Rui @ Portugal

[zip]

23424 TCP and route it to 23424 TCP on the machine running Serviio

[ct1aic]

23424 TCP and route it to 23424 TCP on the machine running Serviio

Thank you. It is working now. More things for me to test

[will]

I've put a note about it in the first post, it is the same port that the media browser users so you can test that as well.

[will]

Similar site for serviigo http://willlunniss.bitbucket.org/serviigo/

[mavika]

Similar site for serviigo http://willlunniss.bitbucket.org/serviigo/

Both sites looks very good! Congratulations!

[offtopic]
I don't know if it was asked before:
zip, will: no plans to translate the serviio/go/droid webpages to other languages?
[/offtopic]

[will]

I'll upload the ServiiGo strings once I have done audio support, I want to avoid having to change them and then you guys having to re-do large portions.

Thanks, part of it is based on a template, but it is much better than the wiki.

[mavika]

I'll upload the ServiiGo strings once I have done audio support, I want to avoid having to change them and then you guys having to re-do large portions.

I know that this will only be done after things get stable.

I meant the webpages itself: serviio.org, willlunniss.bitbucket.org/serviidroid, googleplay site etc.

[will]

Ah, not sure, will have a think / look at how it could be implemented. Possibly for Google play.

[will]

I've uploaded an update to google play, the big addition in this is audio playback. Now it still needs a lot of work as I will explain in a bit, but I've been using it for most of the last week, so please, read my comments below and give me lots of feedback. The other notable change is that I broke the image caching when I added online images by including the authToken in the string used for hashing, effectively making the cache only useful for the current session. You will want to go into the settings and clear the thumnail and image cache as those are all now junk files.

  Code:

==== Beta 6 ====
*Added #2: [Audio] - Support playback
*Fixed a bug that caused the image cache to re-fetch images after authToken changes
*Fixed #10: Entering a folder for the first time should show 'Loading...' rather than 'No content'
*Fixed #9: Missing metadata is shown as null in the audio view
*Added #14: Add option to hide empty folders
*Added a limit of 100 tracks to the Audio->Random view


First thing to decide is the actions (and the default one) that users can use to add tracks to the playlist to be played. Currently long clicking a track, or pressing the action item when in an album, or a folder with audio tracks, you have the following options:
1)Queue : Adds the tracks to the end of the playlist, and starts playback if nothing is playing at the moment
2)Play next: Adds the tracks after the current track, and starts playback if nothing is playing at the moment
3)Play now: Adds the tracks after the current track, and skips forward and startings playing it

Now I can change both the names, what they do and the options, so let me know which is most useful to you.

One limitation at the moment is you cannot add tracks from the parent, e.g. you have to move into the folder to add the tracks. Later version will fix this, for now the toast will say Queued 0 tracks.


Next thing is the music player itself and navigation etc. Its hard to explain so give it a go. To get to it, either click the notifcation that is shown during playback, or press menu and select the music player. As for as the now playing/playlist display. an option would be to move the current track from the title, and add it over the cover art. I want to avoid wasting space where possible. So I could also loose the tabs and have swipe left/right with maybe a button. Anyway the point is it isn't remotely finished.


Thirdly is playback, at the moment I let android download and play the track. It isn't great though as it quite often won't buffer enough of the track, and if you skip back before the buffer, it has a fit. This will be replaced in the next beta, and will also enable pre-loading of tracks to avoid the pause between them when on a low connection.

[mavika]

Thx for beta6, I will test it.

[will]

@mavika Ok do let me know how it goes, some of your requests from the last beta are in there, so do give your media with no metadata a quick check.

Right so out of the current issues, the biggest one which isn't just a case of fixing it, is navigation which I haven't spent much time on because I wanted to get the core parts of audio playback working first. I want to stick the the android design patterns, but I don't want to waste space if possible, especially with nowplaying and playlist tabs for users who just want to browse videos/look at photos.

At the moment music player is its own activity with Playlist and Now Playing tabs at the top. You get to it by clicking on the notification or going menu -> music player. Once in it pressing the home icon then takes you back to the main browse activty. It works well, once you know how to use it, ideally I want it to be obvious first time though. One option would be to have three tabs at the top of the screen which I could hide when the playlist is empty:

Browse | Playlist | Now playing

I'm going to move the song title + artist album info from the title to the now playing view I think as it looks a bit empty on larger phones.

So here is what it looks like at the moment.

Music player (initial rough version)

device-2012-06-09-092330.png (170.25 KiB) Viewed 19559 times

[mavika]

Finally I had a little time to check the new version.

@mavika Ok do let me know how it goes, some of your requests from the last beta are in there, so do give your media with no metadata a quick check.

First of all thank you for resolving my requests. I was happy to see on bitbucket they get fixed.

These are OK now:

• #2: [Audio] - Support playback
• #9: Missing metadata is shown as null in the audio view
• #10: Entering a folder for the first time should show 'Loading...' rather than 'No content'

My issues:

• Sometimes the app has crashed while adding a track - next time trying the same it doesn't. (I hope you received crash report, ServiiGo sayed it has been sent.)
• Changing screen orientation in Music Player closes it, and makes ServiiGo to restart and re-login. (This doesn't happen while browsing media.)
• While playing an audio file the length of the track is displayed incorrectly in the notification are. (It shows the system time of the starting of playback?)
• There is no option to exit Media Player? (Just by clearing the playlist.)
• While browsing media there is a typo: xy itmes - instead of xy items
• The Music Player sometimes doesn't plays the next song on playlist, it gets stuck at the end of a track. (I will check this more thoroughly.)
• #14: Add option to hide empty folders - This works, but... (I will explain this later.)

[will]

My issues:

• Sometimes the app has crashed while adding a track - next time trying the same it doesn't. (I hope you received crash report, ServiiGo sayed it has been sent.)
  

Ok will check that.

Changing screen orientation in Music Player closes it, and makes ServiiGo to restart and re-login. (This doesn't happen while browsing media.)

Just found that myself, will fix in next version

While playing an audio file the length of the track is displayed incorrectly in the notification are. (It shows the system time of the starting of playback?)

It just displays the time when the track started playing, next version will display more info about the track and the cover art

There is no option to exit Media Player? (Just by clearing the playlist.)

Just press the back button on your phone or the home icon at the top. Or do you mean to remove the notification, that goes when the playlist is empty, or when you have played to the end of the playlist, otherwise android might kill the app and then loose the playlist

While browsing media there is a typo: xy itmes - instead of xy items

OK

The Music Player sometimes doesn't plays the next song on playlist, it gets stuck at the end of a track. (I will check this more thoroughly.)

Hmm could be an issue that will simply go away in the next release when I manage the downloading myself.

#14: Add option to hide empty folders - This works, but... (I will explain this later.)

[mavika]

#14: Add option to hide empty folders - This works, but... (I will explain this later.)

Is it possible to automatically refresh the list in mediabrowser after changeing this option? Now I have to refresh it manually to take it effect.

Now my experience in this regard - I try to explain it with a long example

Example folder structure:
folder1: contains 15 mp3 files
folder2: contains 2 video files
folder3: contains 1 mp3 file
folder4: contains 2 video files and one subfolder
----subfolder of folder4: contains 1 video file

While browsing audio media:

Option enabled to display empty folders:
folder1 -> displays 15 items
folder2 -> displays 0 items
folder3 -> displays 1 item
folder4 -> displays 1 item
----subfolder of folder4 -> displays 0 items

Option disabled to display empty folders:
folder1 -> displays 15 items
folder2 is not shown (this is how it should work)
folder3 -> displays 1 item
folder4 -> displays 1 item (this is my problem)
----subfolder of folder4 is not shown (this is how it should work)

Summarizing:
With disabled option: folder4 should be hidden, because it doesn't contains any audio files. It shows it has 1 item (the hidden subfolder) but if I enter it it's empty.

(I know it's possible to have 100 subfolders nested in - but how to handle this?)

[will]

#14: Add option to hide empty folders - This works, but... (I will explain this later.)

Is it possible to automatically refresh the list in mediabrowser after changeing this option? Now I have to refresh it manually to take it effect.

Now my experience in this regard - I try to explain it with a long example

Example folder structure:
folder1: contains 15 mp3 files
folder2: contains 2 video files
folder3: contains 1 mp3 file
folder4: contains 2 video files and one subfolder
----subfolder of folder4: contains 1 video file

While browsing audio media:

Option enabled to display empty folders:
folder1 -> displays 15 items
folder2 -> displays 0 items
folder3 -> displays 1 item
folder4 -> displays 1 item
----subfolder of folder4 -> displays 0 items

Option disabled to display empty folders:
folder1 -> displays 15 items
folder2 is not shown (this is how it should work)
folder3 -> displays 1 item
folder4 -> displays 1 item (this is my problem)
----subfolder of folder4 is not shown (this is how it should work)

Summarizing:
With disabled option: folder4 should be hidden, because it doesn't contains any audio files. It shows it has 1 item (the hidden subfolder) but if I enter it it's empty.

(I know it's possible to have 100 subfolders nested in - but how to handle this?)

At the moment, this is not possible as the API only tells me that there are some child items, not that they are folders. This is something that can be worked around though to improve the experience later on when I also let you open an artist and press play and it automatically goes and fetches the albums and all the tracks.

Auto refresh, yes I will put that it. The idea of these first betas (proably up to around beta 9 for my current roadmap), is to get the raw functionallity there. In the final beta versions i'll then start to polish up the app, set sensible defaults, remove unused options etc and fix little things like that.

[mavika]

At the moment, this is not possible as the API only tells me that there are some child items, not that they are folders.

I see - ok.

Auto refresh, yes I will put that it.

Thank you.

First thing to decide is the actions (and the default one) that users can use to add tracks to the playlist to be played.

I think the best way is to put options for these actions. Someting like in ServiiDroid options: the action performed for short/long click.
For me short clicking an item I like to play it now not queuing - but this is a matter of taste.

Just press the back button on your phone or the home icon at the top. Or do you mean to remove the notification, that goes when the playlist is empty, or when you have played to the end of the playlist, otherwise android might kill the app and then loose the playlist

No, I need an option to close Music player, remove notification, kill app, free memory.

[will]

Ok, I'll have a look at all of those points hopefully later today to see what I can come up with.

When using play rather than queue, should I clear the current playlist, add the new tracks and play, or add the tracks to the end and start playing them.

Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk 2

[mavika]

When using play rather than queue, should I clear the current playlist, add the new tracks and play, or add the tracks to the end and start playing them.

I prefer the second one. I don't like when the playlist get cleared, just add to the end of the list. But this could be also an option in settings - others maybe prefer the other way...