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ragnar

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  1. To clarify my original post - -"pretty" means to feed relevant album art or "generic" wallpaper to the audio computer screen while music is playing. This only really applies to an audio computer located in the listening area, between the speakers, displaying the desktop to the listener that is sitting >10' away. -"coexist" means the ability to easily change music sources and adjust playback volume on the audio computer/component stack without having to resort to the keyboard or walking over to the preamp. -on the "easily" spectrum, switching between multiple apps on the control tablet (me as the user) is "Acceptable" while integrated and obvious one app control with no need of significant instructions or training for wife/casual users would be ">Fantastic". For an update of what I have figured out since my initial post - I have achieved "semi-pretty" and "+/- Acceptable". I figured out how to feed Spotify output through the JRiver WDM driver so I am getting (seemingly pretty good) output via the WASAPI driver as well as playback volume control via JRemote. Also getting a generic blank screen on Jriver's Display View when Spotify is playing which is OK. User interface on the tablet is a bit of an inconvenience while playing Spotify because I have to flip back to JRemote to adjust volume - not ideal, but not a deal breaker. If I leave Spotify open full screen on the computer as well, I can Alt-Tab between the 2 apps and see Spotify's borderline acceptable "Now Playing" screen on the display - the album art/playlist display sizings are not the best but better than nothing. The only real issue is the need to go over to the keyboard and Alt-Tab between screens. I can do this from the tablet using a VNC app but it is super not convenient and will definitely fail the Wife/CasualUser test. I am pretty sure I can make things a bit easier if I can figure out how to easily send keyboard sequences to the computer and then find an app that can be configured to attach these sequences to some BIG onscreen buttons - I'm thinking that a Harmony remote might be an optione or possibly a bluetooth keyboard emulator on the tablet. Research is ongoing. Pretty sure I could get Tidal and Roon outputting the same way though not sure how they would coexist if all programs were open at the same time. From what I understand, I could probably control Roon pretty easily via tablet in this scenario but I'm thinking Tidal might become "Not Easy" without requiring VNC control. Some random observations- -it would appear that the Spotify Connect functionality is a major game changer - they have now made it possible to listen anywhere and also control what is playing anywhere possible and made it essentially idiot proof. To ME, at present, a Spotify Premium subscription is a no brainer and is already changing my listening habits ...again. -Spotify >>Tidal for music discovery and number and quantity of service or user generated playlists. I may not have dug into Tidal enough, but, for now, Spotify seems to be pretty damn compelling. -Roon+Tidal - very nice, huge time sink but maybe a bit too pricey $25/m for 320MP3 or $35/m for HQ ....not sure yet. Not entirely sure I see the need to link Roon to my local files, Tidal definitely has enough music to keep my listening queue filled. ragnar
  2. I find that accessing JRiver using RDP somewhat problematic because logging in remotely locks the desktop and then I have to relog in via local keyboard to unlock the display. This is already a problem when JRiver TheaterView wanders to the wrong view or unexpectedly closes, I have to go to the keyboard and make changes. I have found an Android VNC program that works sort of OK from a tablet - RemoteRipplePro (!) BUT 1. It is not particularly "CasualUser/Wife" friendly. 2. It is awkward for anything more than a couple of keypresses or mouse clicks. What is needed is the ability to put some macro/custom command buttons on the JRiver/JRemote screens - (switch to a particular/specific view, switch to a different source... Hmmm....just thinking about JRiver/Spotify coexistence, wonder if virtual desktops might be a workaround here - have both running at the same time, use a hotkey seq to switch between screens....more experimentation seems to be warranted here! ragnar
  3. ...sigh.... I saw that thread and it made me sad I haven't had a chance to try out Tidal and Roon yet so I can't comment on their desktop or tablet UI but after a few days of Spotify I could see spending some (lots of) time grazing in their music library and being quite happy with their Android UI. BUT... can I have both JRiver and SpotifyDesktop running on the Server at the same time and have beautiful music come out the USB port? Will Spotify or JRiver come to the front when active and display their playing screen on the monitor? I could probably live with the Spotify screen even though it isn't really optimized for a 10' interface. I could also (probably) live with the JRiver screen keeping focus as it seems to default to a generic wallpaper display fairly quickly. I know I can configure multiple endpoints and go that route but then I lose the pretty display! NO SHINY! and that would make me sad again!... as well as having to deal with changing the preamp inputs each time (first world problems!) ....and then there is always the huge elephant in the room - with a single endpoint solution there will be less wailing and lamenting when the streaming service you are in love with suddenly disappears (see ongoing Tidal and Qobuz rumours) ragnar
  4. Audio PC JRiver + Streaming Questions on Happy Coexistance I currently have an audio PC in the listening room - SFF, SERV2012R2, 27" touchscreen display, 2Tb of local HD storage, JRiver w/JRemote(Android) 90% and JRemote (IOS) 10% usage. No user interaction via the Touchscreen monitor or local keyboard. (Until JRiver comes up with a workable touch based interface I probably wouldn't use another touchscreen monitor but the 27" size is quite nice visually) In general this works really well, both easy and convenient to use and the TheaterView - NowPlaying screen looks spectacular showing album art. BUT....I would like to be able to use also use Spotify or Roon/Tidal streaming as well, hopefully without having to deal with switching preamp inputs (run the streaming output through the AudioPC USB->DAC) AND either show the streaming service album art/now playing screen or ...nothing or the generic JRiver not playing anything image). Switching back and forth between JRiver and streaming should be accomplished from the tablet interface - PC outputs whatever is currently playing. Has anyone successfully accomplished something like this? I am in the early stages of trying stuff out and see issues regardless of which solution I try. Thoughts? Ragnar
  5. ""... someone selected Flashlight from Parliament. Well Last.fm had nothing about the group and was showing images of Parliament in action, you know, like congress - it was quite funny."" As long as it was funny and noone searched on "Fleshlight" - I know I was surprised using PerfectunesAlbumCoverSearch when trying to find Hot Club of Cowtown & Swing -!!!!!! ...interesting images, not really related to that particular CD and DEFINITELY not appropriate for a polite get together! "Do some googling, there is a way to tell the OS that you don't want to be logged out. You can also tell it to automatically log you in upon reboot and launch apps you want to have running at start up (i.e. JRMC). I did this, and it wasn't a registry trick, but I can't remember how - it was specific settings in specific dialog boxes drilling down to the specific settings. There is also a setting in JRMC regarding the display and keeping it on at all times (I might be able to find that option - I'll report back)." I may not be getting logged out, will have to watch a bit more carefully but JRiver does seem to revert away from the cover display back to the more generic NowPlaying c/w the last.fm images. "Yea, that's the way it is. I would be very interested if you could find a way around that. We have a lot of systems engineers where I work and they all think this is by design to prevent two different access points having control of the computer at the same time. Part of this may be because I have admin rights." There has to be a way as you would want/need shared access if you were providing in place tech-support/remote assistance - problem is finding the right rerminology to search - hopefully someone will provide the correct settings. "Now playing screen - you mean with the tracks on the left and the album cover on the right? If so, mine updates as tracks change, even if it's the same album. It doesn't actual swap out the album cover until the next/new songs has been playing for a few seconds. I have a little stand and I keep the iPad running JRemote near my listening station, showing the Now Playing screen most of the time." The NowPlaying screen seems to update OK, I was referring to the full screen AlbumCover image only, no track info - that doesn't seem to update with track changes. Tks for the suggestions, hopefully more will be forthcoming from others as well. Ragnar
  6. Anyone have any suggestions on good musical genre newsletters/review compilations. Have found lots of blues related websites that review and suggest bands and albums to listen to but other genres - not so much. For Blues in particular Blues Bytes has given me lots of suggestions to look for but.... what about other genres? What have you found useful in finding new "STUFF" ? Specifically I would love to find out about new or recommended releases in Western Swing, Americana, Country (Traditional or Honky Tonk Focus), Folk, Jazz Vocal.... any suggestions or recommendations? ragnar
  7. Long time forum follower and low intensity computer audio player dabbler but never really had a need to replace the Sonos system that was working pretty well (except for the 64k track limitation) ...but, now that JRemote seems to have matured enough, I'm ready to jump in 100% to the ComputerServer/JRiver experience ...if I can figure out some weird sH%#$/irritating features. Running JR20 on a SERV2012R2 (i7, 16Gb, SSD for OS, 1Tb spinning iron HD for storage) machine, it has a local monitor/keyboard (for now), direct connection to externalDAC (Peachtree NovaPre) and HiFi. Have a licensed copy of AudiophileOptimizer ready to try out but have not got around to it yet (3 weeks of mind numbing effort to clean up 100k tags and 6k of album art - don't ever want to do THAT again) JRemote running on an IPAD AIR and main control/configuration is (most conveniently) from an upstairs desktop via Microsoft RDC. Library is 6000+ albums, more or less externally cleaned up and tag corrected, +95% of albums have folder.jpg artwork in folders (not embedded). Have a couple of original iPads available for control or display purposed but they are limited to earlier versions of JRemote due to IOS upgrade limitations. I love the current capabilities of JRemote - given a properly tagged Library, it makes selection and control very easy and is wife/guest friendly. I currently have a monitor sitting on top of the hifi stack that looks damn impressive showing image displays while the music is playing but there are some issues. Main questions so far: 1. (JRiver) Where does the JRiver NowPlaying image display get its pictures and is there a way to filter/control them. It appears that 80% of the pictures being displayed are ..correct, but 20% are wrong/inappropriate - for example Patti Griffin will show mostly pictures related to Patti Griffin the singer but will also randomly show pictures somehow related to random other people named Patti Griffin - most seem pretty innocuous and are irritating if obviously wrong but I am worried something embarrassing might show show up at an inopportune moment in the middle of a party playlist? 2. (JRiver/Microsoft) It seems like I can (usually) get to just showing the folder.jpg and it seems to keep the display alive while playing but once the playlist is over, the machine seems to go into sleep mode and I have to log in again...which is a pain. Is there a way to keep the machine from logging out, no problem with the monitor going black as long as I can force it to reawaken when the music starts again? Any suggestions? 3. (Microsoft) When I log in remotely to the Server it logs off the local user and shows the Windows Log in screen, is there a way to disable this so I don't have to locally log in after every remote session to get back to showing the desktop display view? 4. (JRemote) Not entirely sure I want or need to keep the monitor at the HiFi but the folder.jpg display is VERY nice...I thought about putting an IPad or tablet on the stack as a permanent control/display leaving the server headless but it would appear that when showing the JRemote fullscreen now-playing display, it doesn't get updated when the track or album changes - is this a limitation in JRemote or in my configuration abilities? Any and all comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated (essentially equivalent message was also left on the JRiver forum) Ragnar
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