[LARQ]

Great script. Thanks.

[tcdiem]

First of all .. really thanks for this plugin .. but I've run into some issues

I would like to listen to music from both my living room and office/studio at the same time, so I don't need to crank up the volume of one of the sides to listen on the other (not neighbor friendly). Often I work from home and would like to roam around keeping the music flowing .

0. I have noticed that (for whatever reason) squeezeslave -L doesn't list my HDMI output, but xbmc (nightly with AE) lists it on system->settings->audio. I was running squeezeslave under X with the same user as the X user (same as I start xbmc normally).

1. I couldn't get any audio to playback, using the skin from your repository, I can connect to the server, the current playing music information comes up but on the server, the music progress is ticking but on the xbmc screen its not. Same happened with xbmc running on windows and linux . From that point, I've tried to run squeezeslave on the cmdline.

2. cmdline works flawlessly .. which would kinda serve my purposes (since I would have to control via the logitech media server and not possible to simply work from the xbmc "music" thing), then I'm not sure if the remaining of my issues is related with this thread, although I'm using the squeezeslave application that is distributed via xqueeze.

3. on Raspberry PI (running openelec build 11674) I have the following error when trying to run squeezeslave :

Code:

root ~/.xbmc/addons/script.xsqueeze/resources/bin/squeezeslave-1.2-311-armel-lnx26 # ./squeezeslave -m00:00:00:02:03:04 192.168.192.8
./squeezeslave: /usr/lib/libasound.so.2: no version information available (required by ./squeezeslave)
./squeezeslave: /usr/lib/libasound.so.2: no version information available (required by ./squeezeslave)
Expression 'paTimedOut' failed in 'src/os/unix/pa_unix_util.c', line: 387
Expression 'PaUnixThread_New( &stream->thread, &CallbackThreadFunc, stream, 1.,
stream->rtSched )' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 2910
output_thread: PortAudio error2: Wait timed out

Do you have any idea regarding the rPI issue or any suggestion (or how can I get more info) for why the xbmc plugin apparently doesn't play ?

Just as a note to someone looking for a solution similar to "my problem" - multiroom audio :
As mentioned, the syncronization isn't suitable for same room environments, didn't spend time investigating the reasons, but the audio sometimes starts syncronized and drift slightly away, sometimes catches up, sometimes not .. but although the difference was always something under 0.2s, on extreme, it makes a bit uncomfortable if you can hear both streams well. In my case i have a corridor between both rooms, so if the volume is on a nice level and you can't hear well on the corridor, you don't notice it.

[bossanova808]

0. This is because of aggressive AE behaviour - it exclusively locks the audio device, even when xbmc itself is not playing audio, when it should release it (at least when media isn't playing and GUI sounds are off) - Disable exclusive mode. I am presuming this is your issue, that's what happens with Frodo on Windows, I haven't tried with Linux yet myself. Nothing mych I can do about it, I have raised the issue several times with teh AE people but no response yet. I presume that before release they will tidy this up and as release gets closer I will certainly push hard for this as this will cause a LOT of issues without outside-of-xbmc behaviour.

1. see 0 - this has absolutely zero to do with skins, of course. All Xsqueeze does is launch an external player via python but just as if it is from the command line. You can check the actual command line statement used in the xbmc.log file, and of course with the extra switches setting in XSqueeze you can basically do any command line you like.

2. I presume you mean it works from the commandline when XBMC isn't running - see 0

3. I haven't done much with the Pi myself - Paul Webster in this thread seems bit of an expert. But my guess is OE Pi does not include the required alsa stuff. It works moderately ok with Raspbmc, but alsa on the Pi is thoroughy alpha quality so far.

4. Sync - Are you actually measuring this somehow? I've not heard anything that feels like 200 ms of difference...but if you're mixing different platforms with distinctly different architectures, then I am not that surprised. There are controls in both squeezeslave and LMS you can explore to improve things. But yeah, as I said, it's basically fine for room to room sync, but in room sync you'd really want identical systems and even then with software players it's basically impossible for it to be perfect....because there are buffers involved.

[tcdiem]

0. This is because of aggressive AE behaviour - it exclusively locks the audio device, even when xbmc itself is not playing audio, when it should release it (at least when media isn't playing and GUI sounds are off) - Disable exclusive mode. I am presuming this is your issue, that's what happens with Frodo on Windows, I haven't tried with Linux yet myself. Nothing mych I can do about it, I have raised the issue several times with teh AE people but no response yet. I presume that before release they will tidy this up and as release gets closer I will certainly push hard for this as this will cause a LOT of issues without outside-of-xbmc behaviour.

I kinda understand that AE is using exclusive lock, since this is the same from few years back (and multiple platforms, not linux only) to do audio passthrough ... I was trying to see if there's a way to play into AE but apparently that isn't possible, not in a overnight hack

3. I haven't done much with the Pi myself - Paul Webster in this thread seems bit of an expert. But my guess is OE Pi does not include the required alsa stuff. It works moderately ok with Raspbmc, but alsa on the Pi is thoroughy alpha quality so far.

4. Sync - Are you actually measuring this somehow? I've not heard anything that feels like 200 ms of difference...but if you're mixing different platforms with distinctly different architectures, then I am not that surprised. There are controls in both squeezeslave and LMS you can explore to improve things. But yeah, as I said, it's basically fine for room to room sync, but in room sync you'd really want identical systems and even then with software players it's basically impossible for it to be perfect....because there are buffers involved.

Not sure if you are aware that in http://code.google.com/p/squeezeslave/downloads/list there's also the armhf binaries available (not only armel). Most currently builds of OpenELEC, raspbian and so on uses the hardfloat opposed to armel. Since I've trashed already my openelec SD card to install raspbian, I cannot test it on openelec. At least on raspbian squeezeslave works flawlessly (well .. apart from some random lockups ).

Regarding sync, no bulletproof way of measuring it, if a music is about 120-140 bpm, its one beat per 0.5s. If the audio is out of sync for approximately half a beat, I've guessed its close to 0.2s. Now that I've got squeezeslave to work on raspberry pi, I will try to use and and comment later on my experience. If it works nicely, I will try to setup some build environment for xbmc and its libraries for the rpi, which might take a bit long to build.

[bossanova808]

Exclusive lock is fine - but not when you're not playing audio and gui sounds are off (well, if you ask me) - hogging the audio device even when not playing back will definitely make XBMC less friendly on a lot of platforms where XBMC isn't the only thing being used....so I still presume they will look at this....

But no, no audio is done via XBMC/AE. You could just hand off the stream that LMS provides I guess, but it wouldn't overall work nearly as well. The general point of this is reasonable syncing (otherwise you'd jsut use the XBMC music system, right) - and Squeezeslave is the best way to do that.

I have seen the stuff about the Pi & hardfloat but don't really know anything about it - those squeezeslave builds only just recently went up - honestly I can't be bothered right now until someone actually produces a fairly ready-to-go release. The code is on googlecode, though, so you can certainly do a pull request for Pi stuff if you fancy fixing it up...but once there is a fairly solid release, I will probably look at it again depending on my real-world schedule...which is a bit nuts lately.

[nijk]

I was hoping that someone might be able to help me out here. I'm trying to get Xsqueeze working on my RaspBMC install. I've installed the Xsqueeze Add-on on three different RaspBMC installs on different SD cards. On each I have the same problem:

When I run the add-on I get the message 'Failed to create Squeezeslave process' it then provides a message about chmod +x the binaries

I have chmod'ed the binaries which has made no difference (in fact I believe that they already had the correct permissions as the xbmc.log file suggests this)
I have tried to execute the 1.2-311-armel-lnx26 squeezeslave binary with sudo ./squeezeslave but I receive the message 'sudo: unable to execute ./squeezeslave: No such file or directory'
I have also tried to install squeezeslave manually on the Raspberry Pi and encountered the same issues.

It feels as though I've missed an important step somewhere along the way. I am happy to provide my log file should that be of any help.

[bossanova808]

I think I need to put the new hard float binary in there for you as the Raspberry platforms have moved to this format I think. In the meantime if you copy this in place of the other, it should work I'd say.

I haven't had much time lately but I'll try and look at this soon.

[nijk]

Thanks for the amazingly fast response

I'm not sure what you meant by "In the meantime if you copy this in place of the other, it should work I'd say."

One thing I did notice was that I am able to execute the oss-static version, from which I get can find my server

<code>sudo ./squeezeslave-oss-static -I</code>

However I am still having issues with most other commands, using server IP or the flag -L all result in:
PortAudio error4: Host error. Could not open any audio devices.

[bossanova808]

I mean use this hard float binary instead of the included one: https://code.google.com/p/squeezeslave/downloads/list

(direct link is http://squeezeslave.googlecode.com/files...x31.tar.gz )

For more general squeezslave questions, I am not really the person to ask - I'd ask here : http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?93607

You also need alsa to be set up, see back a bit in this thread for Paul Webster's notes on that.

---

(and honestly I have plugged my Pi in once and got super bored super quick I am afraid - might be a while before I have motivation to re-visit...)

[illiac4]

Hi! I'm building XBMC support for O2 Joggler. This is touch screen device.
Is it possible to add button to view the player something like original player has so that the users can directly use buttons on the screen to naviagate?

[bossanova808]

Code up a window.xml and it should be possible. Look in the addon skin folder to start you off, but jsut add buttons and call appropriate things I guess...what buttons do you mean?

[illiac4]

Something like this:
http://www.whathifi.com/forum/computer-b...-tablet-pc
http://www.google.si/imgres?um=1&hl=sl&c...,r:25,s:24

[bossanova808]

Yeah that's emulating a Touch unit - if you fancy hooking up all the Lua stuff, good luck to you Short version is no, not quite like that.

But some basic touch buttons would in theory be possible....I dunno when I will have time to work on it though, and I don't ever use XBMC on touch devices really...I do have an iPad but I never use it, it was a gift. I find it pretty annoying to be honest

[illiac4]

Ok tnx. If and when you have time it will be nice.

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I have looked into post of original developer of SqueezePlay and he hates Lua too and uses just skin.
http://www.jogglerwiki.com/forum/viewtop...=533#p9025

[illiac4]

I have tested you player and it works really good from iPad and running on Joggler. Also iPad finds them instantly as soon as the plugin is started. It is fast and responsive. It works also from android Logitech Squeezebox controller However it would be nice to have on screen buttons. ATM it is impossible to exit the plugin because there is no x on screen