[support] dlandon - Logitech Media Server


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11 hours ago, cracksilver said:

Hi there

 

Does anyone know if this LMS Docker can connected/used with piCorePlayer as a client?

 

https://www.picoreplayer.org/

 

Would like to sell my sonos system and run a few selfmade boxes with piCorePlayer OS.

 

Greg

 

Can confirm that it works with PiCorePlayer. 

 

Note that if you're running a 'hybrid' setup of Squeezebox hardware and PCP, that (in my experience - maybe different DACs work better?) the PCP and the Squeezeboxes won't sync perfectly (the music will drift and will get a little out of time - which can be annoying if they're within earshot of each other). 

I don't know if multiple PCP will drift away from each other, or if they remain in-sync like the official Squeezebox hardware, as I only had one PCP. 

Due to this, I disabled the DAC (IQaudIO Pi-DAC+) in my PCP install, and now use it just as a touchscreen interface that controls a Squeezebox receiver (the headless squeezebox). You can get Squeezebox Receivers for around £50 on eBay (cheaper than a Pi + PSU + DAC). You *might* need a Squezebox remote (when it's sold as a bundle of remote + receiver, it's known as a 'duet') to set up the receiver, though. There are ways around that, though - go check on the squeezebox forums: https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?105330-Any-way-to-setup-duet-receiver-without-controller - but I have no experience with it, as I have a controller* (two of them, actually - I bought them as Duet bundles.

 

Also, I don't know if you've had previous experience with LMS, but if not: don't sell your Sonos until you've run with the LMS system for a while. LMS' integration with streaming services is about what you'd expect for decades old abandonware (well, "community run") - that is to say, everything feels hacked together. If you use ANY streaming service with any frequency, you'll probably end up preferring the Sonos (or end up buying a stack of Chromecasts/airplay devices, as I did).

In saying that, however, for accessing your own music collection, I still think it's the best out there. In fact, I just dropped £250 on a Logitech Transporter, and absolutely love it. I plan on staying in this abandoned ecosystem for the next decade, too. Especially as there's heaps of relatively cheap hardware on eBay now.

 

*side note: don't be tempted by the controllers - they're terrible. If you can get one bundled with a receiver, fine - but don't expect to use it, as it's just so, so, so much easier (and better) using a phone app these days. They have not aged well.

 

If you have any other questions about the LMS ecosystem, or about PCP, do let me know - I love the platform, despite its quirks. And having PCP (+ Jivelite) as a touchscreen interface that sits on my desk still brings me joy.

 

Info on Squeexebox hardware: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_(network_music_player)

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Main_Page

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3 hours ago, jademonkee said:

Can confirm that it works with PiCorePlayer. 

 

Note that if you're running a 'hybrid' setup of Squeezebox hardware and PCP, that (in my experience - maybe different DACs work better?) the PCP and the Squeezeboxes won't sync perfectly (the music will drift and will get a little out of time - which can be annoying if they're within earshot of each other). 

I don't know if multiple PCP will drift away from each other, or if they remain in-sync like the official Squeezebox hardware, as I only had one PCP. 

Due to this, I disabled the DAC (IQaudIO Pi-DAC+) in my PCP install, and now use it just as a touchscreen interface that controls a Squeezebox receiver (the headless squeezebox). You can get Squeezebox Receivers for around £50 on eBay (cheaper than a Pi + PSU + DAC). You *might* need a Squezebox remote (when it's sold as a bundle of remote + receiver, it's known as a 'duet') to set up the receiver, though. There are ways around that, though - go check on the squeezebox forums: https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?105330-Any-way-to-setup-duet-receiver-without-controller - but I have no experience with it, as I have a controller* (two of them, actually - I bought them as Duet bundles.

 

Also, I don't know if you've had previous experience with LMS, but if not: don't sell your Sonos until you've run with the LMS system for a while. LMS' integration with streaming services is about what you'd expect for decades old abandonware (well, "community run") - that is to say, everything feels hacked together. If you use ANY streaming service with any frequency, you'll probably end up preferring the Sonos (or end up buying a stack of Chromecasts/airplay devices, as I did).

In saying that, however, for accessing your own music collection, I still think it's the best out there. In fact, I just dropped £250 on a Logitech Transporter, and absolutely love it. I plan on staying in this abandoned ecosystem for the next decade, too. Especially as there's heaps of relatively cheap hardware on eBay now.

 

*side note: don't be tempted by the controllers - they're terrible. If you can get one bundled with a receiver, fine - but don't expect to use it, as it's just so, so, so much easier (and better) using a phone app these days. They have not aged well.

 

If you have any other questions about the LMS ecosystem, or about PCP, do let me know - I love the platform, despite its quirks. And having PCP (+ Jivelite) as a touchscreen interface that sits on my desk still brings me joy.

 

Info on Squeexebox hardware: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_(network_music_player)

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Main_Page

Hi jademonkee

 

Thanks for the detailed description.

My goal is to replace Sonos with selfmade opensource multiroom devices. On the one hand there are 6 loudspeakers and 4 amps which hang on loudspeakers.

Basically we listen to internet radio and music is streamed from the Unraid Share.

I would like to implement the players (clients) with raspberry. The server should (if possible) run on unraid. That's why I came across the LMS. I know it is an outdated server but I have not found any other music server that is multiroom capable and runs on unraid. Airsonic is sensational. But unfortunately not multi-room capable.

As far as the client software is concerned, I have read through the internet for a few nights. There are some players.

PiCorePlayer
psmusicbox.com
volumio.org
runeaudio.com
mopidy


I don't yet know which ones are currently being developed and which ones are really good. I am only at the beginning of this project. I have been using Sonos for 14 years, but this update strategy is getting annoying.

I ordered a PI board and a DAC today. You have to start somewhere ;-)

 

best wishes greg

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Also check out max2play https://www.max2play.com/en/ 

It uses LMS and PCP, but may have some extra bits that make internet streaming services a bit better (maybe, I haven't looked at the project in years). Although, streaming internet radio (rather then subscription services) in LMS is perfectly fine once you add the sources - I recommend linking your https://tunein.com/ account, so that your favourites are available in LMS - makes adding stations much easier.

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3 hours ago, cracksilver said:


I don't yet know which ones are currently being developed and which ones are really good. I am only at the beginning of this project. I have been using Sonos for 14 years, but this update strategy is getting annoying.

I ordered a PI board and a DAC today. You have to start somewhere ;-)

 

best wishes greg

Interesting to read of someone going the other way! (sonos -> LMS)

 

One interesting thing you can do is, if you have a multi-channel audio card, you can set up multiple virtual squeezebox clients on a singe machine / VM and manage your zones that way. It depends, of course, on your topology. if you have centralised amplification with speaker wire runs to zones, this can work out really well.

 

I have some (very old) posts on the topic you might find interesting;

https://mediaserver8.blogspot.com/2012/04/whole-house-audio-step-1.html

https://mediaserver8.blogspot.com/2014/04/whole-house-audio-step-2.html

 

The second, in particular, deals with the headless 'SqueezeSlave' software. The is the cleanest, most efficient way I've found to run LMS multi-zone.

 

 

 

Edited by meep
Oops. Duplicated the links :-(
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Interesting.  I use a three Squeezebox players at home (Radio, Receiver and SB3), but have had various alternatives over the years.  One of them was a touch-screen O2 panel which I meant to sell on, but forgot).  Plus Softsqueeze machines.  The radio still wakes me up every morning.

 

I use Volumio on a standalone Pi as a media player at gigs that can be controlled from a browser.  However, haven't looked at it in a while (just set up and left it).

 

As mentioned earlier, the receivers are the way to go for a "just works" solution.  Once they're connected to your wi-fi, they're perfect.  Also echo the fact that the Controller is awful.

Edited by Cessquill
Pressed save too early
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Thank you all for your inputs. Seems I have started an interesting project :-) wanted to start this for a long time. Use sonos for about 14 years. But in my eyes it has become very annoying with time. All the updates and changes that are made over and over again. Registration was not mandatory in the early years.

 

I got my Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and the HifiBerry Audio DAC+ Light this morning ;-) Of course I installed PiCorePlayer and tried it out. The LMS runs on my unRAID server which is at home. Later I want to try to install the LSM server on my unRAID in the data center to access it from outside via the NginxProxyManager.

I have connected my 2 KRK Rokit 4 active speakers to the new PCP computer. I must say that sounds very good. I have also successfully tested a synchronization with 2 Macs. Everything seems to go in the right direction. 

 

Next I will build a Raspberry with a HIFIBERRY AMP2 and test it with normal speakers. If this works as successful as it should, there is a third model i want to check, the standalone wireless speaker. But I am still looking for the 3 way speakers in the right size with a nice design.

 

What I really like about the LMS is the response time and the fast synchronization between the server and the control apps. Even if several apps are open, they always show the same thing within the shortest possible time. 

 

For the operation on the mobile phone I have the free Squeezer App and the Orange Squeeze App. I like Orange Squeeze better.

The handling on the Mac via the web interface from the last century is rather tedious, but it works. Maybe I can find something better...

 

greg

 

PS: does anyone know an active forum for this things?

 

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10 hours ago, cracksilver said:

...

 

For the operation on the mobile phone I have the free Squeezer App and the Orange Squeeze App. I like Orange Squeeze better.

The handling on the Mac via the web interface from the last century is rather tedious, but it works. Maybe I can find something better...

 

greg

 

PS: does anyone know an active forum for this things?

 

I agree: OrangeSqueeze is the best on Android. For iOS, try iPeng. 

 

There are still people active over at https://forums.slimdevices.com/ 

Including the developer of PCP and Jivelite.

If you haven't already, I recommend getting a RPi 7" touchscreen as a handy interface and 'Now Playing' screen (install Jivelite from within PCP). It's possible to fit the DAC and the RPi into a Pimoroni case with a few light mods and a bit of determination. 

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Just my 2 cents on the controller front. If using iOS, iPeng is definitely worth it. For Android I think the options are pretty miserable TBH and no where near as polished as iPeng. I used Squeezer for a while and was reasonably impressed. Then I bought Orange Squeeze and IMO it is not that great... maybe a little bit better than Squeezer but not worth the asking price IMO. However my tip is to install the Material theme/skin for LMS and then point your Chrome browser to that. It has a wonderful responsive design so works equally well on a desktop as on a mobile device. You can get chrome on Android to create a nice little icon and place it on your homescreen, which will then open a chrome-less (app like) experience. Very nice indeed 🙂

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9 minutes ago, johnieutah said:

However my tip is to install the Material theme/skin for LMS and then point your Chrome browser to that.

Wow!  Thanks for that.  Haven't stopped by their forums in a while so this passed me by.  I've installed it straight from the plugins, restarted and navigated to /material.  Looks great and is snappy.  If I get on with it on the desktop I'll make it the interface default.

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1 hour ago, johnieutah said:

However my tip is to install the Material theme/skin for LMS and then point your Chrome browser to that. It has a wonderful responsive design so works equally well on a desktop as on a mobile device. You can get chrome on Android to create a nice little icon and place it on your homescreen, which will then open a chrome-less (app like) experience. Very nice indeed 🙂

Holy smokes I had no idea that existed. Thanks so much!

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1 hour ago, johnieutah said:

Also if you're on windows there is a lovely little PWA wrapper called squeezlite-x that has some nice desktop integration stuff like notifications etc....

https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/p/squeezelite-x/9pbhmtnp9037#activetab=pivot:overviewtab

 

Here's the support thread:

https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?108550-Announce-Squeezelite-X

 

Have fun.

Good to see Squeezelite still going strong.  Used to have it installed at work and stream music from home before the likes of Spotify and Plex came along.  And IT clamped down on open ports.

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Hi all, 

I'm trying to figure out how to rename the digital inputs on my Transporter. 

I found these instructions: https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?54831-Labelling-transporter-digital-inputs-possible

Which says to create a custom-strings.txt file in the same directory as strings.txt

So thought I'd open a terminal window and try and find that strings.txt file, but can't find it anywhere.

The post suggested Slim/Plugin/DigitalInput/strings.txt

But there is no Slim directory

Any logitechmediaserver directory I've found doesn't contain Plugin, or if it does, doesn't contain DigitalInput (or strings.txt).

Any idea where it is? Or is this method no longer applicable? 

Thanks for your help! 

 

EDIT: I should note that the 'plugins' directory found in my appdata folder (\\PERCY\appdata\LogitechMediaServer\cache\InstalledPlugins\Plugins) contains my third party plugins, which all have strings.txt files in their dirs, but there is no dir for the DigitalInput plugin (which is a Logitech plugin).

I also checked the plugins directorys mentioned in the settings > advanced page in the UI: 

/config/cache/InstalledPlugins/Plugins, /usr/sbin/Plugins, /usr/share/squeezeboxserver/Plugins

Edited by jademonkee
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  • 5 weeks later...
3 minutes ago, brawny said:

Hopefully a simple question, but I haven't been able to figure out how to change the hostname of my LMS docker. 

Capture.JPG.68724e68f64dc47043f907d165ecae8d.JPG

 

Would like to have something a little more friendly than "14f53de05a80" show up in iPeng, and SqueezePlay, etc...

 

Thanks in advance!

Brawny

I don't know how to change that.  Ask the devs.

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29 minutes ago, dlandon said:

I don't know how to change that.  Ask the devs.

I did. Post and response is here: Logitech Media Server forums

The response was:

This really is the hostname, given by the underlying system. But you can
change LMS' name to something else in the Basic Settings/Media Library
Name. Please note that this would change the name shown in apps, but not
eg. the URL you'd have to use to access LMS.

 

I've made this change within the app in [Basic Settings -> Media Library Name].  Fixed!

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On ‎1‎/‎13‎/‎2020 at 10:26 AM, jademonkee said:

Also, I don't know if you've had previous experience with LMS, but if not: don't sell your Sonos until you've run with the LMS system for a while. LMS' integration with streaming services is about what you'd expect for decades old abandonware (well, "community run") - that is to say, everything feels hacked together. If you use ANY streaming service with any frequency, you'll probably end up preferring the Sonos (or end up buying a stack of Chromecasts/airplay devices, as I did).

In saying that, however, for accessing your own music collection, I still think it's the best out there. In fact, I just dropped £250 on a Logitech Transporter, and absolutely love it. I plan on staying in this abandoned ecosystem for the next decade, too. Especially as there's heaps of relatively cheap hardware on eBay now.

Hi there

 

I'm using LMS with PiCore Player since mid january and can say I really like it. It is fast, has a nice design and works without any break. No updates every second day like sonos. Im really happy with it. 

 

Indeed I have about 6 players they are running PiCore. 2 of them are old Logitech Hardware and 4 with Raspberry 3b+. I sold all the sonos stuff for more ore less good money ;-)

 

The only thing I could not solve right now, is remote connection when LMS is running on my remote unraid server in the servercenter. I just don't get a connection over NginxProxManager. I tried a few things but have no solution for that.

 

best regards greg

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On 1/15/2020 at 1:41 AM, Cessquill said:

Wow!  Thanks for that.  Haven't stopped by their forums in a while so this passed me by.  I've installed it straight from the plugins, restarted and navigated to /material.  Looks great and is snappy.  If I get on with it on the desktop I'll make it the interface default.

Yes great plugin. I have been using it for roughly a year now.

 

 

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21 hours ago, chip said:

Yes great plugin. I have been using it for roughly a year now.

Yes, it's my default now.  The only issue I have is if I'm controlling via Android and then go out.  I'll have the play options in the status bar that I can't get rid of unless I force close.   Probably me being me though.

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@dlandonany chance this can get an upgrade to 8.0.0? I'm keen to try out the online music service integration:

http://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/Logitech/slimserver/blob/public/8.0/Changelog8.html

I'm sure this feature will be of interest to others in this thread, too (particularly those that have come from Sonos)

 

I do note, however that v8 is still in development, so maybe even as a separate build until it's stable?

 

Thanks so much!

 

EDIT: bit more info on v8: https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?111600-Version-8-0-ready-to-test

Edited by jademonkee
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3 hours ago, dlandon said:

I updated to 8.0.0.  Let's see how it goes.

Ok. Updated, installed the Online Libraries plugin, as well as the dev build of the Spotty plugin, and it's working!

At least sometimes. Syncing seems to be a bit dodgy.

And hoooo boy do I have to clean up my Spotify playlist library now. There's also a lot of duplicate albums for those I have added in Spotify even though I have a copy in my LMS library.

Still: pretty neat!

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