I also had the problem with beiing unable to browse the now playing list in Windows 7. I did manage to fix it by restoring my Win7 (x86) to a restore point from 2 days back. Ik have had this app for a  couple of days now and I really love it: It's like the Itunes remote control app in the way that it provides feedback and browsability of my music library. There are a couple of bugs that are really annoying however:

• As mentioned the "now playing"list breaks and only displays the current track.
• The volume slider works with an ever increasing time delay, growing over time to a minute or more, aspecially when playing flac. Volume control doesn't work when playing dts tracks but since this is quite a hassle to get working altogether, this migt also be a AC3 problem.
• Coming back from Iphone sleep, the app allways states it's not connected, have to start it again.
• Takes a huge amount of time synchronizing.
• Cover art is very blurry. I can imagine that this was done on purpose keeping sync times down but it's still ugly.

 Maybe look into the following suggestions:

• Is it possible to let MediaCenter Start when the you start the app?
• (Really unlikely that this is possible but would make it amazing): Equalizer presets for albums? This would be sooooo cool... (I think Itunes has something like that?)
• Shutdown and start of the MediaCenter PC (trough magic packet?)

I know I'm asking a lot and I understand you have little time. You made a killer app, keep up the good work!

 Hey,

 I released a new server yesterday. 

The most important thing: I found a way to repair the "now playing" queue not available problem under windows 7. The solution is pretty simple and I have to apologize that I have not found it before. Even if it was hard to find it. Anyway, a fix is included in the installer. It also works under vista and requires no reboot when applied.

Second, the server is now installed by a full-fledged installer. Installation should therefore be much easier than before. Also, the installer sets the correct folder permissions, adds a windows firewall rule to let the server be accessible in the local network, checks he requirements (.NET Framework, Media Center closed ...) and allows to specify the server name on a fresh installtion. Existing installation will be detected and an update performed.

The server functionality itself was only very slightly modified. Most important, the phase 1 of the synchronization process should be much more robust now. Especially in case of currupt audio files (in the german MCE forum, we were able to pinpoint this a the major cause for problems in the first sync phase. Reason is that the wmp needs 0.5 seconds to deliver the track info for corrupt audio files. This caused the old server version to detect a problem and abort the sync if there were a few of such files.).

 

Regardings your questions in the previous posts:

@rcolbeck:

Shuffle control (on/off) is available as long as the wmp remoting works. The icon is then located in the now playing view. With the new fix, this should be working somewhat reliably now (if remoting breaks, you have to applie the patch). 

For the next release, I am planning a "shuffle" feature as you described it. On request (a play shuffled button), the server shall select a subset (perhaps 100 tracks?) of the selected category and add it in random order to the playqueue.

Yeah, the way you described to import playlists works. Just play the playlist from the MCE interface and import the synced now playing queue as playlist in vmcMote.

 @MRO:

"now playing list breaking" is now fixable under windows 7 

I know that the volume control is sluggish. The Media Center SDK provides no way to set the volume to a new value. Instead, I have to simulate the +/- click you would do on a remote. Somehow, this is not handled performant by Media Center. Sorry about that.

I have a reconnect timeout of 6 seconds in the app. I know that the iphone is pretty slow in restoring the WLAN connection. I will increase the timeout in the next client release.

Time it needs to sync: If you provide me a faster WMP, sync phase one would be faster  Snyc Phase 2 takes quite a bit as storing the transmitted information into the SQL database on the device is not the fastest. Sync Phase 3 takes the time it takes as there have to be quite some byte to be transmitted and the internal solid state memory in the device is not the fastest in storing the images. We are dealing with a mobile device here at all. This is no desktop platform and therefore brings some performance constraints. What I want to say: There is a lot going on during a sync and I am having pretty heavy constraints on both sides (WMP library interface speed, IPhone memory speed to name the two biggest ones). Its a bit unfair to always want everything in an instant if it is just not technically possible.

"Cover art blurry": You should read the settings manual (readme.txt or website). You actually can increase the resolution to 320x320 in settings.xml. It is 160x160 by default. And yes, the default is a compromise to keep the needed sync information at an acceptable level. Oh, and be aware that the default WMP folder.jpg resolution is only 200x200.

It is not possible to let MediaCenter start if you start the app. The server is started by a Media Center addin. Therefore, it is not running when Media Center is not running. My main target audience are people who use Media Center on a dedicated PC in the living room as a DVR were Media Center is alwas running. Therefore, I did not considered this to be a problem

Equalizer presets for albums: Media Center does not have something like that. At least I am not aware of it. So how should I remote it???

Shutdown and start the Media Center PC: Well, I am actually thinking about something that would allow shutdown. Startup by WakeOnLan might come then too. But this is in a distant future, I am too restricted in spare time.

 

Well, that was a long posting. I hope you like the new server release and I could answer some questions. Even if I had to dampen a few wishes. My time is unfortunately limited as this is a private project, and it therefore consumes my spare time to delop it.

Greetings, Thomas

Hi again,

 Thanks for the new version, the one-track problem is solved indeed, thank you. It does have a weird habbit tough: When I play 3 or 4 different radio stations after eachother, it won't change anymore after that: Attempts to change to a different station or a albumtrack results in the same radiostation, playing on. There is no way to change  music anymore, I can only stop sound by pressing stop on the remote tab.

Do you know how to fix this?

Greetings, Matthijs

Hi Thomas

I have purchased this app from Itunes and am now controlling my music on my media center.  Great Application, just what I was looking for.

I was wondering if there is any chance that there will be a web based Client that will run on the Media center, which I could use from a Tablet PC.  If not would it be posible to get some info on the server app that you have written so that I can develeope a similar Client that will run on a Windows PC or as a browser app

Regards

Paul

thm82:

Regarding albums with no cover: Either, there is no cover jpg in the folder of the album, or the "album" has perhaps less than 4 tracks? I used the rule that only covers for "albums" with 4 or more tracks are synced to identify files that exist in the library with a cover tag, but only one track of the album is present as a "single". I have done this to limit the amount of covers that need to be synced somewhat as they consume space on the device.

Hi there, this is a fantastic app and have being using it the day it was released in the app store.

I have a few questions if i may:

1/ Is there a setting I can change to allow all the cover art to transfer across, i have a number of single songs which require cover art but under the above rules these will not be displayed. If not will there be a setting in a future release?

2/ Im running WIN 7 64 Bit and the volume control doesn't work, i see you have released a new version to the app store does this fix this bug?

3/ Finally, will you be releasing this app on the ipad? It would be absolutely perfect for such a device

Thanks for your replies and keep up the good work, i am surprised that no one else hasn't released an app as good as this

Cheers

James

Finally downloaded the new server and did a quick test. Installation was easy although I had some trouble figuring out how to kill wmp. Every time I'd kill the process it seemed to pop up again a minute later. I ended up killing any process that seemed to have to do with media serving, etc (I have a few different remote apps, Orb, etc) and then made sure I rebooted the PC after running your install to ensure everything started again.

Yes I see the shuffle in the Now Playing view and tried that out, and it seemed to work fine.

 I also tried the Playlist Import from the Now Playing view and that seemed to work fine too.

 I will do more testing later and await the new App update.

 (I still don't know what enqueue means but I guess I better read the documentation.)

Thanks Thomas!

Hello, I just bought the app and I have a problem. I had only one track displaying in "now playing" and applied the fix. Then it is exactly the same (except instead of seeing "one track mode" I see 1/1). But in "song list" in media center I have my whole playlist. The thing is that I want to be able to add a playlist with all my songs in vmcmote and because of this problem I can't. Maybe if there was a "song" tab in the library of vmcmote I could just click "play all" and have all my songs shuffle and now I can't. If I don't find a solution for that I will need to ask a refund for your app and that's a pity 'cause I like the principle a lot. Thanks !

@vilrockerdefer: vmcMote should show you all the song in your current now playing queue after applying the fix. It needs to attach to the wmpuice addin in WMP to do so. You can check the addin view in the WMP preferences to check if it is really enabled. I do not fully understand what you mean with: "I want to be able to add a playlist with all my songs in vmcmote and because of this problem I can't". Even if vmcMote is not showing the current now playing queue (due to the wmc remoting problem), it will still put all tracks from an album into the queue on your media center if you hit the "Play" button in the popup after hitting the "Enqueue/Play All" cell for an album.You should probably check out the short promotion video on the vmcmote webpage to see the core set of things that vmcMote can do and how to preform them.

If you are searching for an "play all tracks in my library" button, that is indeed not supported in vmcMote. But you can select a genre an enqueue a random subset of its tracks. I do not support a "play all" as this would mean an incredible huge now playing playlist in case of big libraries -> Problem is that reading the now playing queue from the WMP is not fast by any means and it would be technically really difficult to sync the information with vmcMote due to that.

 

To the other posts before (sorry for the very late reply):

@MRO: The radio station behavior your are experiencing seems to be related to a problem of the WMP that I experienced with some radio streams: I know a few streams (like the mp3 stream of 1live in Germany) that will make the WMP to run with 100% CPU usage in about 50% of all play attempts. Can you reproduce the WMP not reacting by playing the streams directly in the WMP? That would explain the behavior.

@ostridpa: I have no plans for a web based version. Four reasons: 1. I do not have the time to do so. 2. It would be very much work as a complete re-development of the client part and considerable changes at the server (incorporating a webserver) would be needed 3. Transmitting all information on demand would slow things considerably down. 4. There is already such an solution (although experiencing the mentioned shortcoming of web-based solution). Have a look on "ngRC": http://sourceforge.net/projects/ngrc/.

@jmagoo: (1) There is no option to transmit covers for single songs. It is planned to relax the rule a bit in the future and detect very long songs to detect remixes and provide them a cover. (2) Yes, the latest version should have fixed the volume controlling under Win 7 64 bit. (3) An iPad version is in the works Its actually pretty complete already. However, I do not find the time to polish it up at the moment. Give me another 4 to 6 weeks or so.

@rcolbeck: "Enqueue" means: add something to a queue (in vmcmote: a track to the now playing list of songs, aka the now playing queue). 

 

Greetings from Munich,

Thomas

Problem is that reading the now playing queue from the WMP is not fast by any means and it would be technically really difficult to sync the information with vmcMote due to that.

Nevertheless, my problem is that you cannot make a "whole library" playlist. I don't mind if it is displayed correctly in the "Now playing" view or not. And yes, it is a big problem, because, as someone previously stated, this is the main use I would do from vmcmote... Is there not any "trick" to do that ? Edit a playlist in Excel ? I don't know ?

It is of course possible to add a "play everything" feature. However, as a really long now playing queue could affect the performance of the server I decided against it. As I wrote earlier, the WMP readout speed is a problem. With very long now playing lists, processing tasks would occur in the server that take so long that the next task is already waiting before the first had finished. In consequence, the server would not reacting for some time.

You can try the following however: First, enqueue your whole library from Media Center GUI (is this even possible???). Then start vmcMote and wait for the now playing list to be synced. If that should work with such a big list, go into the playlist view of vmcMote and import the current now playing list into the currently edited playlist. Afterwards, you can play that playlist to have your whole library enqueued. I am not sure if it will work out with a very long list, but you can try. For small playlists it is working fine.

I tried doing that, but I didn't try waiting a long time. When I do it (it is possible in media center, you just have to access the "songs" tab and click "play all"), it adds only one song to the "now playing" list in vmcmote, displaying "1/1" on top. Should I try it and wait a little ? a lot ? My library is more or less 10 000 songs large.

If vmcMote is showing you the complete now playing list in case you only have one album in your now playing queue, yes, you should probably wait and see if the server is able to fetch the whole library now playing list from the WMP. It could definately take some time. If not, you should first try to find out why vmcMote is in general not able to deliver the now playing queue to the device on your machine.

Vmcmote is indeed able to display one album but when I play the whole library the maximum it as reached so far is about 150 songs... Sometimes 30, sometimes 130... It depends. But now matter how much time I wait, it doesn't change. Fred

Well, given the lack of response I must suppose that there is nothing possible I can do. To other potential users having the same problem : XBMC Remote does exactly the same thing, but quite better, and you can play your whole playlist without a problem. Fred

Well, on my system I was able to get between 400 ad 700 tracks with vmcMote out of a 2380 tracks long now playing list. As I suspected, my code is not able to completely deal with the slow read-out speed from the WMP. It was never intended to do so however, as I (and I suppose a lot of the people who bought vmcMote) see vmcMote as a tool to browse and select music that one is in the mood for. In this scenario, you are hardly producing such long now playing lists.

xbmc remote might be better than vmcMote in some aspects, but it is for xbmc and not Windows Media Center if I am informed correctly. But if this very special feature (Play all) is indispensible to you, and the vmcMote "play random set of tracks of genre" feature does not do it for you, I understand if you change your media center environment because of the right remote app. Everybody has its priorities.  There will never be an app that servers all of them for everybody.

Greetings, Thomas

PS: One word about why xbmc remote may be more feature rich or better: as xbmc is open source, you have much better access to the system internals. You would wonder how much time I spent to even be able to get access to the now playing queue of Windows Media Center (There is no access in the Media Center SDK!). But as I really like the interface and stability of Media Center, well, I developed vmcMote.