"SimpleFeatures" - iTunes Server Plugin [SUPPORT]


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Check the readme for forked-daapd. Never tried it, not sure if it works  :)

 

Selecting output devices

  ------------------------

 

Remote gets a list of output devices from the server; this list includes any

and all devices on the network we know of that advertise AirTunes: AirPort

Express, Apple TV, ... It also includes the local audio output, that is, the

sound card on the server (even if there is no soundcard).

 

By default, if no output is selected when playback starts, the local output

device will be used, following the principle of least surprise (ie not

selecting an output device at random that can be anywhere in the house or

elsewhere). forked-daapd will error out if the local output is not usable

(no soundcard, bad permissions, ...).

 

There are two ways to select the output devices in Remote:

- in the settings panel;

- in the AirPlay panel during playback.

 

Be aware that the settings panel doesn't show any output device when there

is only one; the one output device that is available is automatically used.

 

forked-daapd remembers your selection and the individual volume for each

output device; selected devices will be automatically re-selected at the next

server startup, provided they appear in the 5 minutes following the startup

and no playback has occured yet. Again, principle of least surprise.

 

 

AirTunes devices

----------------

 

forked-daapd will discover the AirTunes devices available on your network. For

devices that are password-protected, the device's AirTunes name and password

must be given in the configuration file. See the sample configuration file

for the syntax.

 

 

Local audio output

------------------

 

The audio section of the configuration file supports 2 parameters for the local

audio device:

- nickname: this is the name that will be used in the speakers list in Remote

- card: this is the name/device string (ALSA) or device node (OSS4) to be used

  as the local audio device. Defaults to "default" for ALSA and "/dev/dsp" for

  OSS4.

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Thanks, bit confused though.. (newb alert). You wrote that part of your itunes server plugin is forked-daapd, I thought that it brough was an itunes server which in base fools applications to think that an external itunes library is present.

 

This readme however looks like forked-daapd can also play music, that would be great and I am happy to test and play around with it but am unsure how to do that, should I look for some kind of commandline actions to do this ? There is no web-based frontend as far as I can tell..

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1. So how fast does it take to connect?  For example I had all my music on my server before but it would take a few minutes, sometimes 5 or more before it would connect.  I was trying to connect to it from my laptop. 

2. How does this work, all my music is on my server and than I point iTunes on my laptop to it? 

3. Any delay in connecting or playing music?

4. Can i play two different songs from it, one on my laptop and one on my Mac Mini?

5. If I make playlist it will show up on all devices right?

 

Thanks, sorry for all the questions.

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speeding ant- does your last post regarding the fact that it will serve movies/tvshows/music from one directory mean if i combine all into a single directory, this would work?

 

I'm cautious to try and upgrade to the beta version as my current version is just so damn stable.  But if that statement above is correct, that may force me to do the upgrade.

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1. So how fast does it take to connect?  For example I had all my music on my server before but it would take a few minutes, sometimes 5 or more before it would connect.  I was trying to connect to it from my laptop. 

2. How does this work, all my music is on my server and than I point iTunes on my laptop to it? 

3. Any delay in connecting or playing music?

4. Can i play two different songs from it, one on my laptop and one on my Mac Mini?

5. If I make playlist it will show up on all devices right?

 

Thanks, sorry for all the questions.

 

On my computer with a large database it takes up to 20 seconds to connect.

It works the same as itunes sharing, displaying the library automatically in the itunes sidebar. All music is on unraid.

No delay in selecting a song.

You can play from multiple devices at one time.

If you copy a playlist into your music folder it will display in the shared library.

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speeding ant- does your last post regarding the fact that it will serve movies/tvshows/music from one directory mean if i combine all into a single directory, this would work?

 

I'm cautious to try and upgrade to the beta version as my current version is just so damn stable.  But if that statement above is correct, that may force me to do the upgrade.

 

Technically it should. You can also use multiple directories. This version is much faster, but ive not tested video yet.

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Thanks, bit confused though.. (newb alert). You wrote that part of your itunes server plugin is forked-daapd, I thought that it brough was an itunes server which in base fools applications to think that an external itunes library is present.

 

This readme however looks like forked-daapd can also play music, that would be great and I am happy to test and play around with it but am unsure how to do that, should I look for some kind of commandline actions to do this ? There is no web-based frontend as far as I can tell..

 

I'm fairly sure that its designed to connect to airplay devices, and you can control it via remote. Haven't tested that yet.. :-)

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1. So how fast does it take to connect?  For example I had all my music on my server before but it would take a few minutes, sometimes 5 or more before it would connect.  I was trying to connect to it from my laptop. 

2. How does this work, all my music is on my server and than I point iTunes on my laptop to it? 

3. Any delay in connecting or playing music?

4. Can i play two different songs from it, one on my laptop and one on my Mac Mini?

5. If I make playlist it will show up on all devices right?

 

Thanks, sorry for all the questions.

 

On my computer with a large database it takes up to 20 seconds to connect.

It works the same as itunes sharing, displaying the library automatically in the itunes sidebar. All music is on unraid.

No delay in selecting a song.

You can play from multiple devices at one time.

If you copy a playlist into your music folder it will display in the shared library.

 

thanks, one more question.  Can I sync my iphone to a shared library?  For some reason I don't think you can.

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I'm fairly sure that its designed to connect to airplay devices, and you can control it via remote. Haven't tested that yet.. :-)

 

Unless it's changed a lot from the original Firefly / mt-daapd, then it will not talk direct to AirPlay devices.  They require content in very specific codecs (Apple Lossless is normally used for audio) and when audio is streamed from your iPhone etc to an AirPlay client it is transcoded to that format by the iPhone before being sent.  There is an app for the iPhone etc called "Simple DAAP Client", and it did connect to Firefly.  Sadly it does not connect to Forked-Daapd for some reason.  If it did connect, it would perhaps then be possible to use the iPhone to play from the server and then to direct the output to an AirPlay device.

 

(Now wondering if I should try to put the older Firefly back on my server...)

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I'm fairly sure that its designed to connect to airplay devices, and you can control it via remote. Haven't tested that yet.. :-)

 

Unless it's changed a lot from the original Firefly / mt-daapd, then it will not talk direct to AirPlay devices.  They require content in very specific codecs (Apple Lossless is normally used for audio) and when audio is streamed from your iPhone etc to an AirPlay client it is transcoded to that format by the iPhone before being sent.  There is an app for the iPhone etc called "Simple DAAP Client", and it did connect to Firefly.  Sadly it does not connect to Forked-Daapd for some reason.  If it did connect, it would perhaps then be possible to use the iPhone to play from the server and then to direct the output to an AirPlay device.

 

(Now wondering if I should try to put the older Firefly back on my server...)

 

This was one of the features of forked-daapd as far as I'm aware. It allows you to push music to an airplay device via iOS/other remote. Forked-daapd supports transcoding, and has all the libraries built in to do so.

 

No need for an app for the iPhone, the standard iOS 4/5 music player will search for iTunes shared libraries and connect to them.

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This was one of the features of forked-daapd as far as I'm aware. It allows you to push music to an airplay device via iOS/other remote. ....

 

Oh - I was unaware of that.  :-[  Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.  I will have to see if I can get my iPhone to see the server (can't at the moment for some reason - do I need to something specific I wonder...?). 

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All slackware packages (with extension tgz or tgx) you want installed on boot go into /boot/extra folder. If it's not there then create it  :)

 

All plg files (The new standard for unRAID plugins, a new feature in V5) go into /boot/config/plugins/ . If the folder isn't there, create it  :)

 

Hope that helps!

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I'm fairly sure that its designed to connect to airplay devices, and you can control it via remote. Haven't tested that yet.. :-)

 

Unless it's changed a lot from the original Firefly / mt-daapd, then it will not talk direct to AirPlay devices.  They require content in very specific codecs (Apple Lossless is normally used for audio) and when audio is streamed from your iPhone etc to an AirPlay client it is transcoded to that format by the iPhone before being sent.  There is an app for the iPhone etc called "Simple DAAP Client", and it did connect to Firefly.  Sadly it does not connect to Forked-Daapd for some reason.  If it did connect, it would perhaps then be possible to use the iPhone to play from the server and then to direct the output to an AirPlay device.

 

(Now wondering if I should try to put the older Firefly back on my server...)

 

This was one of the features of forked-daapd as far as I'm aware. It allows you to push music to an airplay device via iOS/other remote. Forked-daapd supports transcoding, and has all the libraries built in to do so.

 

No need for an app for the iPhone, the standard iOS 4/5 music player will search for iTunes shared libraries and connect to them.

 

I hope someone allready has this running then and can give some examples, according to my knowledge it works in another way:

 

1) The "remote" software by apple can only connect to an itunes client, that itunes client will stream music that comes from an itunes library and the implementation on unraid behaves itself like an itunes library, this means (and I have done this just know) that I can connect the itunes on my pc to the itunes library on unraid and then have itunes play music. Itunes ofcourse is able to send that music to an airplay speaker.

 

2) If the daapd implementation on unraid is able to play music by itself (and send to an airplay speaker) you would need some kind of remote or web interface to actually select a song to play, that is indeed the functionality of the Apple Remote software, however, this can only connect to an itunes client (thru something called homesharing), apple remote will "find" apple itunes instances that are started up using the same email account OR you can add them manually in which case the remote software and the itunes client need to a handshake, it needs an action to be taken on the itunes client side. If the unraid implementation can behave like an itunes client it would need to have a functionality to perform that handshake from client side (and there is no such functionality).

 

 

Now what I CAN do is connect my iphone to the library on unraid and play music thru my iphone, but in this case daapd is not sending the audio but my iphone is (daapd is only serving the library). This is not an optimal solution since my iphone would be a permanent part in the chain.

 

The Killer feature I am trying to find (not sure if it exists) is the ability to have an implementation on unraid send music to airplay speakers... Does anyone have that running ?

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