HQPlayer + Muso

[jeremyb]

I've created this thread specifically to discuss the HQPlayer and Muso as a combination.

 

I'm the author of Muso and would find it easier to monitor integration issues in a dedicated thread, rather than the generic HQPlayer thread.

 

Alternatively you could post to the muso forums: musoware forums

[4est]

For starters, thank you for making this happen! I bought Muso specifically for this use.

[bibo01]

Hi Jeremy,

 

Is there going to be a Mac and/or Linux version?

[jeremyb]

I can't promise at this time that there will be Mac/Linux versions of Muso, I can only state that I intend to look into it. Muso is currently windows-only software build with Microsoft .NET, but Microsoft has recently opened up the .NET core runtime distributions for Mac and Linux via the Visual Studio Code project, which is an exciting development.

 

Any cross-platform version of Muso is likely to be missing certain features however, like the Pivot viewer (which was only ever an experimental feature rather than being in the Muso core), and anything else that is windows-dependent.

[skipspence]

Hi Jeremy,

 

Thanks for opening the thread.

 

My main wishes with remote control first which is in beta phase - that's understood.

 

My main issues with remote are:

- Loading is very slow still, specially search artists which more important for me and I wish it could be improved soon

- Playing Now often shows Playing Nothing, then "hangs" - tracks names don't change...though you can change tracks

- To play the next searched item I need to reload the link for remote, refresh only doesn't help

- To activate the remote I need to click the button in program first, - I'd prefer to have it run by running muso

 

Other:

- Scanning music folders automatically by running muso ?

- Starting muso by boot/logon ?

 

It's definitely not all but I will come later with other wishes

 

Thanks again and my best in developing your nice product!

 

Alex

 

PS. I'm on Windows Phone and I would not change if muso remote works better on other phones

[jeremyb]

Planning on looking again at the Now Playing information in the neat future, though this is largely due I think to the instability of the hqp-control command to request the playlist details.

[Miska]

Planning on looking again at the Now Playing information in the neat future, though this is largely due I think to the instability of the hqp-control command to request the playlist details.

 

I recommend implementing the XML protocol straight, instead of calling hqp-control (it's just a quick and dirty example code)... Then it is also easier to trace down where something goes wrong if it does...

 

The XML stream that makes things break would be interesting to see.

[jeremyb]

I recommend implementing the XML protocol straight, instead of calling hqp-control (it's just a quick and dirty example code)... Then it is also easier to trace down where something goes wrong if it does...

 

The XML stream that makes things break would be interesting to see.

 

Can you point me to any developer information on how to implement the XML protocol?

[Miska]

Can you point me to any developer information on how to implement the XML protocol?

 

Source code for the hqp-control is here:

Signalyst

 

Look at ControlInterface.{cpp,hpp} for details. The protocol should be pretty clear from there.

 

If you use the protocol you can also get cover art which is now omitted by the hqp-control.

[jeremyb]

Source code for the hqp-control is here:

Signalyst

 

Look at ControlInterface.{cpp,hpp} for details. The protocol should be pretty clear from there.

 

If you use the protocol you can also get cover art which is now omitted by the hqp-control.

 

The XML structure is pretty clear, but how I use that to interact with HQPlayer is not - I'm not a C++ programmer.

[bibo01]

2.3.14

Remember tracks queued to HQPlayer RAMDisk on restart (helps NP info)

Build remote artist list more efficiently by passing json structure rather than html between server & browser

- and dont refresh artist list on returning from picked artist

[jeremyb]

2.3.14

Remember tracks queued to HQPlayer RAMDisk on restart (helps NP info)

Build remote artist list more efficiently by passing json structure rather than html between server & browser

- and dont refresh artist list on returning from picked artist

 

I'll try to remember to post Muso release info that affects the HQPlayer integration here.

[skipspence]

2.3.14

Remember tracks queued to HQPlayer RAMDisk on restart (helps NP info)

Build remote artist list more efficiently by passing json structure rather than html between server & browser

- and dont refresh artist list on returning from picked artist

 

No access to RAM disk by start/restart Muso. At least in SoftPerfect. Then Muso crashes. Unmount/mount helps. Didn't test the other RAM program though.

 

Artist search in Remote still very slow and not responsive. Need to reload the remote link for every new search.

 

Playing Now shows only one track or Playing Nothing, no volume change.

 

Is it possible to add time and volume bars in Playing now?

 

Thanks in advance for further improvments in Muso Remote

[jeremyb]

No access to RAM disk by start/restart Muso. At least in SoftPerfect. Then Muso crashes. Unmount/mount helps. Didn't test the other RAM program though.

The user running Muso has to have read/write access to the folder you specify - what do you see when muso crashes assuming you've ensured this? Remember Muso doesn't know it's a RAMDisk, it's just a folder that it needs to write to. I don't know what SoftPerfect is, or the "other RAM program".

 

Artist search in Remote still very slow and not responsive. Need to reload the remote link for every new search.

Do you mean it's slow showing the artist list (Artists link on home page), using the filter on that page, or is slow on entering an artist name in the Search page? How many artists/albums do you have in your collection?

 

Playing Now shows only one track or Playing Nothing, no volume change.

Tap on the cover and it will show player controls, including volume change (up/down) buttons. Where it's showing it's playing nothing, does it also show it's playing nothing in the main Muso window? If so this is likely to be the known issues with hqp-control.

 

Is it possible to add time and volume bars in Playing now?

I want to minimise communications (between muso and HQPlayer, and muso and remote) until at least the Now Playing info is rock solid - adding more comms while it's being temperamental is asking for trouble.

[skipspence]

The user running Muso has to have read/write access to the folder you specify - what do you see when muso crashes assuming you've ensured this? Remember Muso doesn't know it's a RAMDisk, it's just a folder that it needs to write to. I don't know what SoftPerfect is, or the "other RAM program".

Read/write access is enabled in program option, RAM disc is shared for all users, when Muso stops working it shows "access denied", but when I unmount RAM disc and mount it again - it works. Maybe it's not Muso and the RAM disk mount on boot is not correct...

 

Do you mean it's slow showing the artist list (Artists link on home page), using the filter on that page, or is slow on entering an artist name in the Search page? How many artists/albums do you have in your collection?.

The slowing is in Artists list, I didn't test Search yet. I got several thousands of artists/albums entries.

 

Tap on the cover and it will show player controls, including volume change (up/down) buttons. Where it's showing it's playing nothing, does it also show it's playing nothing in the main Muso window? If so this is likely to be the known issues with hqp-control..

When I tap the cover it not shows the player but offers the playing options instead, and never goes to player when I choose Play now, I can get to Player by tapping star icon right upper corner, in Player controls it shows Playing nothing, but when it shows track playing, it never updates when it plays to next one... and no volume control response

 

I want to minimise communications (between muso and HQPlayer, and muso and remote) until at least the Now Playing info is rock solid - adding more comms while it's being temperamental is asking for trouble.

That's understood..

 

My evaluation key of HQP has expired yesterday - now I really need to extend the key to go further. Is it any possible?

I still not in position to buy HQP fully 'coz it's not fully functional to me without a library tool like Muso is aiming to be...

And so it goes...

[jeremyb]

My evaluation key of HQP has expired yesterday - now I really need to extend the key to go further. Is it any possible?

I still not in position to buy HQP fully 'coz it's not fully functional to me without a library tool like Muso is aiming to be...

 

I can't really help you there sorry. I can only say that I'm prepared to put more work in to get the integration working smoothly, it is still early days and I'm sure it will become more stable over time.

[pocarrie]

There is a special and/or hidden setting to show "song lyrics"?

Actually I can't do that, even with files (flac or dsf) that have lyrics as tags inside.

S.O. Win 8.1, Muso 2.3.14, visualization size "normal".

Thanks

[jeremyb]

There is a special and/or hidden setting to show "song lyrics"?

Actually I can't do that, even with files (flac or dsf) that have lyrics as tags inside.

S.O. Win 8.1, Muso 2.3.14, visualization size "normal".

Thanks

 

Yes Muso should read lyrics from tags, and show them on the Now Playing page, or if there are none in the tags should look them up from the song title & artist name - if you are having trouble with a particular file you could send it to [email protected] and I'll see what I can find out.

[pocarrie]

Ok, but the problem is that "Now Playing" doesn't work, clicking on the icon the space remains empty and the page does not appear, with all types of files (wav, flac, dsf, m4a).

I've tried to run Muso as administrator, but without results.

[pocarrie]

Addendum (if this info can help): as external player I use HQPlayer v. 3.8.1 located in ramdisk ("M" drive letter, path M:\HQPlayerdesktop.exe)

[jeremyb]

Ok, but the problem is that "Now Playing" doesn't work, clicking on the icon the space remains empty and the page does not appear, with all types of files (wav, flac, dsf, m4a).

I've tried to run Muso as administrator, but without results.

 

I think that will be due to the hqp-control utility not providing the necessary information, it still doesn't appear to be stable in providing details of the playlist. I'll put something in a later version to detect this and to make it clear in Muso when HQPlayer isn't providing the necessary feedback. My first attempt at integration assumed that no feedback information would be available for HQPlayer, I may have to revert to that stance if the natural assumption is that Muso is at fault. Foobar is another player where integration was only possible one way.

[jeremyb]

Another problem with the hqp-control's --get-playlist query, is that if there are any non-standard characters in the file's path, these get mangled in the result. For example, if you send HQPlayer a filename

Armahda meitä Miserere.flac

It will return this path in the --get-playlist result:

Armahda meitä Miserere.flac

This makes it impossible (or at least very hard) to work out what is playing, since Muso uses the path as the key.

Might post this in the generic HQPlayer thread.

[jeremyb]

2.3.16

HQPlayer poll will recognise where playlist query has returned an error and show this on the player & remote NP status

Make remote use same player poller as Muso desktop to prevent double-polling and so reduce comms issues

[bibo01]

2.3.16

HQPlayer poll will recognise where playlist query has returned an error and show this on the player & remote NP status

Make remote use same player poller as Muso desktop to prevent double-polling and so reduce comms issues

Now Playing always reports an error from hqp-control not providing the playlist (using no remote). It never works.

[jeremyb]

Now Playing always reports an error from hqp-control not providing the playlist (using no remote). It never works.

 

That may be the case for the music you are queueing, I have found hqp-control is consistently failing in reporting the playlist for some files, consistently working for others. I've reported this on the main HQPlayer thread - this change to Muso was to remove any doubt where the fault lies.