Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
I think the explanations here make perfect sense - unfortunately, software players are hobbled in the area of sync by the fact that Logitech has no control over or information pertaining to the myriad of combinations of hardware that can be in any PC. Spending inordinate time on getting this "corner case" working instead of continuing to innovate with new hardware and software versions to support the hardware players would be a big mistake in my opinion. -- damager damager's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=15940 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
While debugging 3.7 for 7.3.x. I noticed an odd issue which I think is related to Java. However this problem may not be limited to my system. On my system Softsqueeze playing MP3 and Flac files sync automatically with an SB3. I noticed when playing a transcoded stream such as WMA - when transcoded to MP3, softsqueeze synced OK but when transcoded into Flac it took 10-15 secs to sync. I may get around to investigate a bit further as there seem to be another softsqueeze bug that needs to be fixed. So when user commentrs on Softsqueeze not syncing - please provide info 1. Your system SC version and OS 2. The other player types (e.g SB1, SB3) 3. Stream or File being played ? 4. If format is transcoded - what is the format sent to Softsqueeze. 5. Does Softsqueeze sync after a while - say 15 secs ? -- bpa bpa's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1806 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Thiose parameters can only help in a minority of problem cases. The main issue is that the way that SqueezeCenter maintains sync between two different players replies on reports from the players. Every second, each player reports how many milliseconds of the track (or stream) have been played and the precise time (to the millisecond) at which this report is valid. Software players get this information by asking the operating-system sound driver. Some combinations of operating-system/sound-subsystem/driver/sound-card give an accurate result and all is well. For those that give an inaccurate result, there are three classes: - The report is wrong by a constant amount. This can be compensated for using the tuning variables. In practice, it is not that common. - The accuracy of sequential reports varies in a range of up to 20ms and for these cases the averaging algorithm in SC is usually sufficient. - The accuracy of sequential reports varies by more than a range of 30ms - I have seen plenty of logs illustrating ranges up to 200ms - and in this case it is not possible (at least, I have not been able) to produce a workable average that leads to usable synchroniztion. Note: the associated issue of the accuracy of the player/PC clock is a solved issue (for the vast majority of cases). -- awy awy's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7480 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
andyg;401665 Wrote: > Bottom line, it is not possible to get perfect sync with a software > player for every possible OS/soundcard combo right out of the box. The > latency in the OS, sound card driver, etc is just out of our control. > There are several knobs you can tweak in the sync preferences to try to > get perfect sync. If sync is very important to you, you can always pick > up additional hardware players which do work out of the box. :) What may > be useful is for someone to create a wiki page listing known-good > OS/soundcard combinations that are able to sync, and to post your sync > preference values. In summary, there are two elements that stand out : 1/ the synchronisation of players (hardware or software) is a key functionnality for customers 2/ the synchronisation of a software player is technicaly almost impossible. Maybe the solution could be that Logitech develops a module to help users to find the corect set of paramters to synchronize the softsqueeze. For instance, this modules would cast a rythm in the soft squeeze and users would have to click a button on each pulse : this may enable the module to compute the correct parameters no ? Another solution could be to cast in the platines to sync a rythm, the user would the adjust a parameter with real time effect on the sync : he could then easily find the correct value to sync his softsqueeze. My suggestions may be wrong or incomplete since i don't really know the cause of synchronisation problems, but i am pretty sure there is a way to enable users to easily find the correct values of the 4 parameters (unless someone has a method but i didn't understood how to modify these 4 values...) -- Benibur Benibur's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=29891 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
i would like to add my voice to how important a solid, reliable, intuitive spftware-based player is to complement the hardware players. i will let logitech decide where and how the future lies. if Squeezeplay is really made to work and somehow really mostly synch (i promise i will not be pedantic, anything in a solidly guaranteed 100-200ms realm is probably good enough) i shall not obeject to it. in a pefect world, though, i think the soft player should be integrated transparently into Squeezecenter, and if SqueezePlay is coded right it could be easily turned into a little mashup window within SC. but i feel that is where this ultimately belongs. i feel Logitech (wrongly) feels that a free standalone player could erode hardware sales. here's the deal: the only thing that should be free is the integrated player in Squeezecenter, the "command center" of an entire squeeze based audio solution. Make Squeezeplay work solidly, make it good software, and then you can charge for individual Splay based clients. I'd pay $30 a pop. please deliver on this vision - i utterly agree this is one of the big squeezecenter differentiators that has remianed a promise far lomnger than it should have been. at some point in time, squeezeslave got pretty close, and i truly LOVED that. -- pablolie ...pablo Server: 3.3 GHz Intel E8600 Core 2 Duo (8GB) - Vista Ultimate 64 & Ubuntu 8.10 64 Sources: SB3 (4), SB Boom (2), Duet, Accuphase DP65v CD Amplifier: Accuphase E306v Loudspeakers: Ceeroy 3-way tuned by Darmstadt Psychoacoustics Lab Headphones: Grado SR-1 pablolie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3816 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
A bit off topic... my HOPE is that squeezeplay will address some of the shortcomings of the other available software players (SoftSqueeze and squeezeslave). The development the squeezeplay player is actually supported by "slim", and the plan is to support many more audio file combinations - other than just 44.1k for example (some network radio streams are at different rates, and don't play correctly on the other players). The software players don't seem to work as well with other aspects of internet radio streams (or some of the other music services) - with issues such as funny buffering, really slow startup times. I am hoping that the squeezeplay audio player will develop into a stable product AND that somehow it could be ported into a very low overhead player utility such as squeezeslave, to allow a PC to reasonably emulate the hardware players without using a lot of the host PCs resources. I understand good syncing is also a challenge... I would imagine a reasonable compromise would be to stabilize the behavior of the players delays (if possible), so that it would be possible to tweak other settings (delays) to optimize the sync behavior for a given setup. -- tcutting tcutting's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17402 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
andyg;401665 Wrote: > What may be useful is for someone to create a wiki page listing > known-good OS/soundcard combinations that are able to sync, and to post > your sync preference values. See http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/SqueezePlay#Synchronization_With_Hardware_Players -- awy awy's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7480 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
netnewt;401633 Wrote: > I remain passionately for Softsqueeze. I assume you have no plans to > make Squeezeplay VISIBLY EMULATE the range of hardware players? IMO, Softsqueeze is a great presales tool for the SB3. It looks and works like the real thing. SP works like an SBC, but that's not obvious. -- epoch1970 epoch1970's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16711 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
netnewt;401633 Wrote: > No-one has yet been able to tell me the point of Squeezeplay over the > standard Squeezecentre GUI? If it's not going to emulate the hardware > players, please tell me what it's for and what advantage it has over > the standard GUI and its selection of skins? It's so simple you must have overlooked it: Squeezeplay plays music on your computer. The SC gui has absolutely zero playback function. -- aubuti aubuti's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2074 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
Bottom line, it is not possible to get perfect sync with a software player for every possible OS/soundcard combo right out of the box. The latency in the OS, sound card driver, etc is just out of our control. There are several knobs you can tweak in the sync preferences to try to get perfect sync. If sync is very important to you, you can always pick up additional hardware players which do work out of the box. :) What may be useful is for someone to create a wiki page listing known-good OS/soundcard combinations that are able to sync, and to post your sync preference values. -- andyg andyg's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3292 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
mherger;397771 Wrote: > > I really think development should have been continued with > SoftSqueeze > > whilst there is no viable alternative > > We're rather concentrating on the new software than trying to fix > legacy code. SqueezePlay will be much better as a player than > SoftSqueeze has ever been. > > -- > > Michael I remain passionately for Softsqueeze. I assume you have no plans to make Squeezeplay VISIBLY EMULATE the range of hardware players? Do you? You seem to be missing the point that this is what many users like. I agree with Mick Seymour. No-one has yet been able to tell me the point of Squeezeplay over the standard Squeezecentre GUI? Please tell me what it's for and what advantage it has over the standard GUI and its selection of skins? -- netnewt netnewt's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11734 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
Thanks for the response Michael. Is there a timeframe for SqueezePlay to be out of beta? -- Mick Seymour Mick Seymour's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21137 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
> I really think development should have been continued with SoftSqueeze > whilst there is no viable alternative We're rather concentrating on the new software than trying to fix legacy code. SqueezePlay will be much better as a player than SoftSqueeze has ever been. -- Michael ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
Well, I got around to testing SoftSqueeze with 7.3.2 yesterday and it won't even play in sync mode whereas it sync'd fine on 7.2.1 on exactly the same hardware. Sync one way and the SB continues but no output from SS, sync the other and the SB stops playing as well. I really think development should have been continued with SoftSqueeze whilst there is no viable alternative except to buy another hardware player to fill the gap. Ah. Penny just dropped. -- Mick Seymour Mick Seymour's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21137 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
Mick Seymour;397318 Wrote: > What version of SC are you using, running on which OS and how many SBs > are you running. Hi, My server is v7.3.2 on an old Vaio notebook. I have two SB3's (which sync fine) and a year-old MacBook connected to the entertainment system (which is +/- 1/2 second when synced.) If I could reliably sync the MacBook my system would be nearly perfect. I've tried squeezecenter versions since 6, Squeezeplay, SoftSqueeze and Squeezeslave and none of them have synced to the SB's. Any suggestions would be helpful. I haven't tried adjusting the latency at the MacBook because there seems to be a lot of variability in the delay. I'm open to it though. -- EyeRonik1 EyeRonik1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=20292 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
EyeRonik1;397147 Wrote: > Software syncing is a big deal for me, and it has never worked. I have > overlapping zones and 1/2 second of latency turns music into noise. I > don't have whole-house audio without it. What version of SC are you using, running on which OS and how many SBs are you running. -- Mick Seymour Mick Seymour's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21137 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
Software syncing is a big deal for me, and it has never worked. I have overlapping zones and 1/2 second of latency turns music into noise. I don't have whole-house audio without it. You should be grateful that it ever worked for you. -- EyeRonik1 EyeRonik1's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=20292 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
I love listening to the same songs with my gf, about 250 mi across the country. So we checked out the current sync options again yesterday using SC 7.4-25017. When using the phone, I have about 350kbps upstream left on my ADSL line, so we set her software players to 128kbps downsampling (LAME, Q7). - -Playing songs from the local music library, using both SoftSqueeze and SqueezePlay:- Works quite nice (max. .5s difference as far as one can tell on the phone [which again has delay of course]). No real glitches, only very occasional brief "Waiting to sync" messages on both SBC and software players. (i.e. every 20 minutes or so) - -Playing Deezer, using both SS+SP:- Totally messes up her software player and my receiver, up to the point of having to restart her software player, and needing to »cold restart« (pulling the plug, the front button wouldn’t work anymore) my Duet receiver. *Maybe* due to trying to access Deezer »Soul« which currently doesn’t play anyway here. - -Playing a podcast:- No sound with SoftSqueeze, nothing on receiver while synced. Receiver could play it when unsynced, SoftSqueeze couldn’t. SqueezePlay on her side could also play it, only when unsynced. So my »overall experience« is that both SoftSqueeze and SqueezePlay seem to sync »okay« when playing local files, but both behave problematic when trying to sync remote files/streams to a hardware player. I could never get two SqueezePlay’s to sync, but syncing one Softsqueeze with one SqueezePlay seems to work on local files. SqueezePlay seems to have slight advantages over SoftSqueeze regarding bitrates/file formats it’s able to play. I agree that trying to »remote sync« over a low-bandwidth Internet connection with additional transcoding used is probably the »worst case« — but as you can see, it has its uses ;-) -- Moonbase Moonbase: 'The Problem Solver' (http://www.kaufen-ist-toll.de/moonbase) Moonbase's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21594 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
I love SoftSqueeze for its ability to look like a real player on screen, complete with remote. SqueezePlay in its current revision. is completely useless unless you control it from a browser. I'd have though it would be working far better than it does by now. It feels like it is a developer's spare time task. SoftSqueeze works well for me. On 7.2.1 it sync'd with my hardware players without problems. I have not tried syncing using with my current 7.3.2 because it is really a 'convenience' to run it on the PC. If I seriously wanted to listen to music in my office, I'd move the wife's Boom in during the day. However, while SoftSqueeze continues to work, I'll carry on using it. When SqueezePlay comes out of Beta, I'll try it again. -- Mick Seymour Mick Seymour's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21137 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
Thank you everyone. Some interesting responses. Several point out that it may have worked for me, but not everyone. A valid point. I confess I did assume it worked for all. I am impressed by the forum though, and the speed with which I got comments. I remain unpleasantly disposed towards Squeezeplay, even though it is in Beta. However I understand that's just my personal preference. I guess my main wish for Softsqueeze to be maintained is a no go. I'n not a coder so I have to accept this :-( It seems a terrible shame though - again to me it does! -- netnewt netnewt's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11734 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
Mnyb;396301 Wrote: > others can by luck stumble open the working setting right off. This is how it worked for me. When I first fired up SqueezePlay, it was out of sync with my hardware player. I had the SP sound coming out of the PC speakers while I listened to the hardware player through one ear of the headphones. Got a feel for the delay that way and made a guess at what to enter for the "Player Audio Delay (ms)" setting. Turned out to be the right guess and it synced up perfectly after that. There are still small glitches in the audio, but I'm sure these will get worked out. -- MeSue Sue http://www.last.fm/user/MeSue MeSue's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=985 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
netnewt;396282 Wrote: > Way back in Squeezecentre v7.2 and before, it was possible to > synchronise Softsqueeze with hardware players such as Squeezebox 3. > This functionality is important to me, and was significant in my > choosing a Squeezecentre based system over Sonos and others. I have > four Squeezebox 3's and a Boom. > > I have raised frequent tickets about this. All of a sudden, Logitech > announced that synchronisation "could not be guaranteed" with software > players such as Softsqueeze and the new Squeezeplay (we'll come to that > in a minute). Well, that statement is a bit ripe! Slimdevices never > uttered such words and this was a piece of functionality that was prime > in my decision to buy the Logitech system. To be suddenly told this I > feel is a very poor show from Logitech. > > Your goal is laudable, but please, let's not re-write history. Maybe sync'ing with SoftSqueeze worked for *you* in SC 7.2 and earlier, but this was by no means universal. It all came down to specifics of the latencies in the pc running the software player, and that's still the case. Just search the forums, and you'll see that many people had sync problems with software players before the sync code was rewritten for 7.3. Likewise, Slim Devices never guaranteed sync'ing of software players. Again, search the forums and you'll see. So you can't lay this as a policy change by Logitech. Finally, the complete rewrite of the sync code for 7.3 was a tremendous improvement for the sync'ing of hardware players. Besides providing more reliable sync of hardware players, it also paved the way for gapless sync'd playing, sync'd crossfade, etc. Making the hardware players work as well as possible is understandably the first priority of Logitech/Slim Devices, because that's how they make money. So any improvement in sync'ing of software players cannot be at the cost of reliable sync'ing of hardware players. -- aubuti Nothing high-end, but music anywhere I want it. MSI Wind desktop (Ubuntu 8.10) feeding: Basement: SB2 > JVC JA-S44 > ESS Tempest LS8; Kitchen/Dining: Duet > AudioSource Amp100 > 2 pairs Polk RC60i; Living room: SB3 > Technics SA-EX140 > Bose Acoustimass 3; Bedroom: Boom + SBC; Study: Duet > Klipsch ProMedia 2.0; Kid's bedroom: SB2 > Klipsch ProMedia 2.0 http://www.last.fm/user/aubuti/ aubuti's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2074 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
funkstar;396295 Wrote: > Just to add, the timing of the two outputs is a bit off. But as I don't > intend actually listening to music like this (the boom is just a couple > of meters away at teh other side of the room) I'm not going to spend > time working out what delays etc to put into the server settings. Every > system is going to need different delays etc due to differences in audio > hardware, the windows mixer and ausdio drivers. Anyone worked up a good method for this tinkering ? (please wiki it ) there is a bunch of settings probably interdependent in some way. So while I can be tinkering for hours without getting sync others can by luck stumble open the working setting right off. And also important when to give up, there infinite combinations of pc hardware all can not work, so some cases will be doomed to begin with. This problem is special that some that never got it to work with the old SC got it to work now, and others like the OP has it broken now. So it is an over generalization to say that it worked before, it did for some. Just like it is now but not for the same users apparently. I for example never had working sync before and I don't have now either. Assuming ones own user case is the norm is easy to do. not many of us have experience from totally different systems. -- Mnyb Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
Have you tried another software player to see if it will sync up? The C program slimp3slave is about as fundamental/simple as it gets. You will need a C compiler and a curses library to create the executable. I don't think anyone has tried to port it to windows yet. But, providing windows hasn't made the sound drivers obfuscated like they did the usb dirvers, an experienced windows developer shouldn't have much of a problem. Keep in mind that even though the SqueezeBox and it's firmware is in the hands of Logitech now, the development of SqueezeCenter (aka SlimServer) and at least Softsqueeze has been an open source effort. So when you post, you are not necessary asking Logitech to do something. It's more likely you need to convince the developers here to add a feature in their spare time. ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
Just to add, the timing of the two outputs is a bit off. But as I don't intend actually listening to music like this (the boom is just a couple of meters away at teh other side of the room) I'm not going to spend time working out what delays etc to put into the server settings. Every system is going to need different delays etc due to differences in audio hardware, the windows mixer and ausdio drivers. -- funkstar funkstar's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2335 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
netnewt;396282 Wrote: > Now to Squeezeplay. Oh my god! What a dire piece of software. A total > mess, which fails to provide any functionality. The ability to actually > PLAY music using it is an afterthought and it doesn't work properly. The > purpose of Squeezeplay seems to have missed the point entirely - it > enables you to control Squeezecentre... but why? We have the web gui to > do that and it does a much better job. > > I asked Logitech what the purpose of Squeezeplay is and they can't seem > to tell me. One of their own staff told me that Logitech had "completely > lost their way" and that Squeezeplay is "an absolute abortion which does > not work and is unlikely to get much better". I hope Logitech don't look > for a scapegoat - it was actually refreshing to hear an honest opinion > rather than the usual spiel. Finally, Squeezeplay STILL does not > synchronise with the hardware players. SqueezePlay is beta software and right now is really just a direct port from the software on the Controller. The audio playback is being heavily worked on I can assure you that. The assertion that it "is unlikely to get much better" is completely wrong, that person is clearly missinformed. SoftSqueeze has been deprecated as the original developers (now official logitech employees) do not have the time to continue in it's development. So thats why it hasn't been updated to handle the changes made in 7.3, changes that were sorely needed to more forward with reliability. Squeezeplay will, in time, be a lot easier to syncronise with the hardware players as it doesn't rely on the Java audio stack that SoftSqueeze did. As I said though, it is under heavy development, so that functionality isn't there yet. And after writing all that, i decided to try it. fired up Squeezeplay and synced it with my Boom. Works a treat for me. -- funkstar funkstar's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2335 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Software Player Synchronisation Rallying call!
I hope this post will become a rallying call to the developers to do something about the lack of synchronisation with software players, preferably Softsqueeze. I do not think they understand how important this feature is. I hope others out there feel the same as I and will add their voice to mine. Way back in Squeezecentre v7.2 and before, it was possible to synchronise Softsqueeze with hardware players such as Squeezebox 3. This functionality is important to me, and was significant in my choosing a Squeezecentre based system over Sonos and others. I have four Squeezebox 3's and a Boom. I run Squeezecentre on both a server and a ReadyNAS, streaming both flac and mp3. However, my main office has a PC with Bose sound system powered from USB with no auxiliary inputs. The Bose system is lovely and I do not wish to change it. So, my solution was to run Softsqueeze. All worked well until after v7.2. Softsqueeze is a beautiful piece of software, providing the ability to mimic the actual appearance of hardware players and even the remote control. In my opinion this was a really classy feature. However, I am told that developers "completely redesigned" the synchronisation code after Squeezecentre 7.2, and it hasn't worked since. I have raised frequent tickets about this. All of a sudden, Logitech announced that synchronisation "could not be guaranteed" with software players such as Softsqueeze and the new Squeezeplay (we'll come to that in a minute). Well, that statement is a bit ripe! Slimdevices never uttered such words and this was a piece of functionality that was prime in my decision to buy the Logitech system. To be suddenly told this I feel is a very poor show from Logitech. Then they told me that they would not be addressing the synchronisation problem at all. Then they told me that they would, but it would be with their new software player Squeezeplay. A year and a half later and there is no progress. Now to Squeezeplay. Oh my god! What a dire piece of software. A total mess, which fails to provide any functionality. The ability to actually PLAY music using it is an afterthought and it doesn't work properly. The purpose of Squeezeplay seems to have missed the point entirely - it enables you to control Squeezecentre... but why? We have the web gui to do that and it does a much better job. I asked Logitech what the purpose of Squeezeplay is and they can't seem to tell me. One of their own staff told me that Logitech had "completely lost their way" and that Squeezeplay is "an absolute abortion which does not work and is unlikely to get much better". I hope Logitech don't look for a scapegoat - it was actually refreshing to hear an honest opinion rather than the usual spiel. Finally, Squeezeplay STILL does not synchronise with the hardware players. It was Logitech's own staff that suggested I voice this on the forums, as he said that the developers were stuck for new features and this might persuade them to solve an old feature that has been lost before looking for a new one. My rallying call is for Logitech to return the functionality to synchronise Softsqueeze with hardware players straight away. It used to work so it can be done, but it's been broken since v7.2. I do not wish to re-install this version (I did to check the sync still worked and it did) as it's getting a little old now. Oh, and please abandon Squeezeplay - it's disgusting and has no place with a Squeezecentre system, unlike Softsqueeze. Are there others out there who would like to see this? -- netnewt netnewt's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11734 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=60075 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
