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#289787 - 14/11/2006 18:29 Slim / Squeezebox users...
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
I just picked up a Squeezebox (which I'm still waiting for - UPS lost it or stole it) and have been playing with Slimserver so far. And of course reading instructions and their message forum.

Their forum sucks pretty large for searching, so I have a hard time finding anything. Can't wrap search terms in quotes nor specify it must match ALL search terms ('AND' operation).

I'm trying to find out if anyone has made any plugin or patch that will let you do a Tweak by Artist, Album or Genre feature like is present on our beloved empeg.

I'll eventually post the question in their forum, but I'm trying to avoid it as I just signed up - don't you hate new posters with a bunch of questions? I also have to keep my mouth shut there about how crap the forum software is and the fact no one has posted an index of plugins. It really is a quagmire of information and noise. Lots and lots of noise.
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Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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#289788 - 14/11/2006 18:50 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: hybrid8]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Bitt Faulk

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#289789 - 14/11/2006 19:06 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: wfaulk]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
I found the Wiki after writing the post. I had only been browsing the community forum where I saw someone suggest keeping a list but the thread fizzled and didn't mention the Wiki.
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Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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#289790 - 14/11/2006 23:06 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: hybrid8]
tonyc
carpal tunnel

Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
It just so happens I posted about this exact issue, and didn't get the feeling that such a plugin existed. I wanted to write it, but these days my time to do such things is extremely limited.

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18444
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- Tony C
my empeg stuff

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#289791 - 15/11/2006 07:35 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: tonyc]
loren
carpal tunnel

Registered: 23/08/2000
Posts: 3826
Loc: SLC, UT, USA
Grrr... my slim server has been driving me nuts. I installed a bigger HD, moved everything over to it, including the iTunes library, and ever since the scanner has been crashing. Sorry, OT, just venting since I too am not feeling the love from their support. I've had this Slimp3 forever it seems, and it's always giving me some sort of hassle. Still love it though!
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#289792 - 19/11/2006 17:03 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: loren]
DWallach
carpal tunnel

Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
Slim Server is just not a high-performance application. It's got lots of great features, but it needs to be rewritten to be multithreaded and use a proper database.

At this point, I've basically given up on my Squeezebox as a primary means of listening to my music library. I've got the Mac Mini up and running, and I'll be getting some kind of shiny flat panel in January. Then, my music interface will be iTunes and a Bluetooth keyboard (mounting the file server via NFS).

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#289793 - 19/11/2006 17:07 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: DWallach]
gorman
new poster

Registered: 29/05/2006
Posts: 21
Quote:
Slim Server is just not a high-performance application. It's got lots of great features, but it needs to be rewritten to be multithreaded and use a proper database.

At this point, I've basically given up on my Squeezebox as a primary means of listening to my music library. I've got the Mac Mini up and running, and I'll be getting some kind of shiny flat panel in January. Then, my music interface will be iTunes and a Bluetooth keyboard (mounting the file server via NFS).
What size is your music collection? At 18,254 mine is working fine...

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#289794 - 19/11/2006 17:12 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: loren]
tonyc
carpal tunnel

Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
No problems here with SlimServer 6.5 and my ~8000 song collection.
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- Tony C
my empeg stuff

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#289795 - 19/11/2006 21:02 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: DWallach]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14484
Loc: Canada
Quote:
.. a primary means of listening to my music library ..


For me, the solution is still just an empeg in a dock.

Cheers

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#289796 - 19/11/2006 21:20 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: gorman]
DWallach
carpal tunnel

Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
Quote:
What size is your music collection? At 18,254 mine is working fine...

It's about the same order of magnitude (around 24K songs). What kills it is if you ask it to play the whole collection shuffled. It takes almost two minutes before it starts actually playing anything, and the UI is completely unresponsive while it's thinking about it.

(This is with SlimServer running directly on my Infrant file server, with some kind of embedded Sparc processor, but I saw similar behavior on my older dual-1GHz G4 PowerMac.)

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#289797 - 19/11/2006 21:34 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: DWallach]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
While you can ask it to play your whole collection shuffled (for which it takes me about 30 seconds), it probably makes more sense to use its random song mix. That's nearly instantaneous. Any reason you particularly want to load all 14000 songs into the playlist?
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#289798 - 20/11/2006 00:06 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: wfaulk]
DWallach
carpal tunnel

Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
Quote:
Any reason you particularly want to load all 14000 songs into the playlist?

That's just my standard mode of listening to music. Find all Jazz. Shuffle. That sort of thing. There's no intrinsic reason that their software couldn't have been written to do this much faster.

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#289799 - 20/11/2006 12:09 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: wfaulk]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1900
Loc: London
Quote:
it probably makes more sense to use its random song mix. That's nearly instantaneous. Any reason you particularly want to load all 14000 songs into the playlist?


Didn't know that, it takes forever to start playing on my 25000 song collection, it's the lack of response that really gets you. Apart from that I've always loved my slimp3s/SBs.

Will have to remember random song mix.

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#289800 - 20/11/2006 13:56 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: tahir]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
The drawback to using the built in Random play is that you can get duplicate tracks. There's a plugin available that does the same type of on-the-fly randomizing but keeps track of what's already been played to eliminate duplicates.

I'm running 6.5.1 nightly of November 17th 2006. I've found a bunch of bugs that were introduced with 6.5 that have not yet been fixed. SS currently has a lot of issues building an accurate/complete list of your library - both on initial and update scans. Some of these issues get propagated into Slim's DB and others are run-time only (doing Gallery listing and certain types of sorting in SS doesn't produce expected results).

So far with a software-only environment it seems stable enough and usable. My biggest issue right now if that I've received no news from Slim support about my Squeezebox order since they first mentioned UPS screwed the pooch.
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Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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#289801 - 20/11/2006 13:58 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: hybrid8]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1900
Loc: London
Quote:
The drawback to using the built in Random play is that you can get duplicate tracks. There's a plugin available that does the same type of on-the-fly randomizing but keeps track of what's already been played to eliminate duplicates.


Any idea what it's called?

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#289802 - 20/11/2006 14:08 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: tahir]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
It's called RandomPlaylist: http://erland.homeip.net/download/do/viewapplication?name=slimserver-randomplaylist

I haven't tried it yet, but Erland, the author, seems to be active in the forums.
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Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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#289803 - 20/11/2006 14:11 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: hybrid8]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1900
Loc: London
Thanks, have d/loaded it and v6.5 server.

Anyone here run Roku's, how do they compare?

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#289804 - 20/11/2006 14:26 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: tahir]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
Here's a recent thread on the subject:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29770

I commented in that thread as well. IMO, the Roku players are not as complete a solution and seem to be on the way out over at Roku labs...
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Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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#289805 - 20/11/2006 14:35 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: hybrid8]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1900
Loc: London
Thanks Bruno, never realised it resampled.

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#289806 - 21/11/2006 04:29 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: DWallach]
SuperQ
addict

Registered: 13/06/2000
Posts: 429
Loc: Berlin, DE
6.5 has a separate scanning thread, and webserver thread, and has a mysql backend.. is that what you want?

I love my Squeezeboxen.. I have 2 SB3, an SB2, and am very very tempted to pick up a transporter as part of my plan to build a high-end audio-only setup.

*waves at tonyc from the slimdevices forums*
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#289807 - 21/11/2006 14:10 Re: Slim / Squeezebox users... [Re: tonyc]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
Tony, just FYI, I brought up the tweak thread again and added a super simple explanation that any Slimhead would understand. i find a lot of the people there are very set in certain ways and really (really) fight against certain types of change.

Someone recently mentioned that Slimserver is still in its infancy which brought some flack. Though it's quite capable and has a decent history behind it, in the grand scheme of things I completely agree. That's not something negative though. It's still a young product with a very bright future ahead of it as it moves beyond the limited hobby market into the mainstream.

Revist the thread if you get the chance. We need some more people chiming in with positive commentary on the feature and I think someone will pick it up.

Oh, I'm posting under the name "MelonMonkey" by the way.
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Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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