FrontView+ [for Windows]iMon replacement, NowPlaying 2nd Screen

[MEB 26]

Would this be useful if using an old laptop as our player where the laptop screen is used as the secondary? Its not touchscreen but would be nice to display the artwork while playing.

[GlennNZ 83]

Is there anything I can do, minus reorganizing my movies, to fix the "Movies" area in FV+??

 

Hi

Back (just)

 

Somewhat jet-lagged - but need to stay awake so have been working on this.

Annoying there is some dev Emby Server Movies Database bug which I struggled with for a while - very very slow DB access - such that I though none of the queries were running.  Disabled Display/Movies/Collections to resolve.   Sure Luke will fix soon - but certainly wondered what I was doing wrong for a while.

 

Anyhow:

Try this dll  Replace the same-named file Remote.Emby.dll within FrontView+/Plugins Directory

 

Deals with multiple movie Library's with different folders, rather than the one movie library with folders within.

 

Will need to do full DB refresh though

 

Glenn

Remote.Emby.zip

[Xzener 729]

Glenn,

 

I replaced the file, but am unable to perform a library refresh. If I delete the Emby connection and attempt to recreate it... Emby is not in the "Remote API" dropdown list. Had to put the original file back to get FV+ working correctly again.

[Xzener 729]

This may be a limitation of this whole setup... Is there a way to keep focus on Emby Theater while using both the FV+ GUI and a Harmony remote?? I seem to have to move the mouse cursor back over to Emby Theater after pressing FV+ screen.

[GlennNZ 83]

Hi Sorry missed your quick replies

Did you unzip the file?  Should be a dll and the same name (sorry simple question I know)

[GlennNZ 83]

Glenn,

 

I replaced the file, but am unable to perform a library refresh. If I delete the Emby connection and attempt to recreate it... Emby is not in the "Remote API" dropdown list. Had to put the original file back to get FV+ working correctly again.

Presume it is still zipped - as would explain it. Unless file corrupted or some other file based issue.

 

I have added a setting in Settings/Library - Checkbox for Show Audio Menu. If unchecked will remove middle Audio Library and have made another build 1.137 - just uploading it now to Mediafire - including this and Emby Plugin Fixes/Changes for your situation.

 

This may be a limitation of this whole setup... Is there a way to keep focus on Emby Theater while using both the FV+ GUI and a Harmony remote?? I seem to have to move the mouse cursor back over to Emby Theater after pressing FV+ screen.

 

Definitely possible - that is my usage.

FV+ tries very very hard not to steal focus - and doesn't (even opening and closing windows, and minimizing/restoring windows) -- unless you press a button - but even then it gives it back immediately to Remote Controlled App (depending on the apps name - will check ET hasn't changed its name given v2.4).

 

The settings.xml setting GiveFocus - true - returns focus to the mediaplayer remote at certain intervals - set to true if there are any focus issues.

 

 

There is also a MouseMode On/Off setting that hides the cursor and may be more useful for your usage.

 

 

Uploading.. 1.137 now...

https://www.mediafire.com/?e5rodbyamx08f9n

Edited July 15, 2016 by GlennNZ

[Xzener 729]

Will install later today and report back. Thanks for the changes/fixes. BTW, yes it was unzipped, replaced the file of the same name.

[Xzener 729]

Glenn,

 

v1.137 is working well so far. Did a full library scan... It actually found some folders that were empty, had to manually delete them and run another scan. After that, all seems well.

 

How do you feel about adding more remote functionality to the now playing screen? It would be nice to have a stop button. Also, the volume scroll bar doesn't seem to be working. Is this a known issue, or unique to my setup? 

 

Also, how do you feel about adding a bit of gradient (or dimming) the backdrops?

 

Not seeing a "Givefocus" option in my settings.xml, only seeing a Keepfocus which is set to true.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Xzener

[GlennNZ 83]

Glenn,

 

v1.137 is working well so far. Did a full library scan... It actually found some folders that were empty, had to manually delete them and run another scan. After that, all seems well.

 

How do you feel about adding more remote functionality to the now playing screen? It would be nice to have a stop button. Also, the volume scroll bar doesn't seem to be working. Is this a known issue, or unique to my setup?

 

Also, how do you feel about adding a bit of gradient (or dimming) the backdrops?

Good to hear.

 

Backdrops - can be completely edited in the skin folder - easier to duplicate default folder and rename to something else. Can then be select in settings screen. Large download on one thread with a lot of different colors for skins. You can edit the backdrop image to any gradient or preferred color, likewise the other skin images are all changeable.

 

Will have a look at stop button.

 

Volume scroll does work on local remotes (Kodi) - server remotes (Emby/Plex) Emby server actually doesn't know the players volume (knows if mute or not) which is limiting factor.

Actually just checked and frontView api+ does send volume info to FrontView - so should be able to enable. Probably was low on remote control list and forgot.

 

But even then only controls PCs volume, and if using Amp/Receiever for volume then of limited use. (Which is my usage - which is why haven't noticed)

 

Was considering linking it via http to Amp with http control (mine does have) but haven't got around to it as yet.

 

Glenn

Edited July 15, 2016 by GlennNZ

[Xzener 729]

Setting "Keepfocus" true or false still is not giving focus back to Emby Theater controls on my remote. Am I missing something?

 

Thanks for giving the option to disable "Audio"... But now the GUI has an awkward space in the middle. Would it be possible to move Video and Other tabs closer to the middle to fill the void??

 

Also, noticed while in details screen of a movie, the back button is not on screen, but pressing the screen in the vicinity where it should be goes back to the movies list.

 

Please, don't take offence, but the details screen for videos seems thrown together. Would you be willing to reorganize items in the details view for a more polished look? I could give you a couple design ideas.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Xzener

[GlennNZ 83]

Setting "Keepfocus" true or false still is not giving focus back to Emby Theater controls on my remote. Am I missing something?

 

Thanks for giving the option to disable "Audio"... But now the GUI has an awkward space in the middle. Would it be possible to move Video and Other tabs closer to the middle to fill the void??

 

Also, noticed while in details screen of a movie, the back button is not on screen, but pressing the screen in the vicinity where it should be goes back to the movies list.

 

Please, don't take offence, but the details screen for videos seems thrown together. Would you be willing to reorganize items in the details view for a more polished look? I could give you a couple design ideas.

Thought you might notice the hole in the middle! Again it comes down to editing the xaml code (this isn't in the skin). Did fiddle a bit but quite annoying time consuming - was hoping they would be pinned to each other but weren't. It is on the to do list.

 

Should be able to enable volume controls - and with more difficult seek bar controls (which also aren't functioning in Emby). Also on todo list.

 

Details view Back button - simply press anywhere to go back.

 

Details screen for videos - again it's an xaml skin - which is in the skin folder - I have yet to find a app for editing easily mainly given dependencies of this file. Happy to take suggestions - but the time spent is enormous.

[GlennNZ 83]

Setting "Keepfocus" true or false still is not giving focus back to Emby Theater controls on my remote. Am I missing .

Maybe.

What is the name of Emby player? From task bar Details screen -Eg "Emby.Theater"

 

Have added some more focus debugging to next build.

(But yes does work)

 

Have checked with www.happydroid.com/focus app (no virus that I can find) which is a little console app that reports the window that has focus. Frontview returns focus immediately to Emby.Theater (sometimes so quick the focus app doesn't recognize that it ever had focus)

Difference however when you click on Emby Theater focus goes to electron.exe - so this may be issue.

 

If keen to run focus app and see what is grabbing focus probably worthwhile.

 

Glenn

Edited July 16, 2016 by GlennNZ

[GlennNZ 83]

Confirmed that is Focus issue with new emby theater

Seems that electron process needs focus rather than running Emby.Theater process yet electron doesn't have a open foreground window (which is what FV gives focus to) Also there are three electron processes running.

Presume fixable and will get on it when can. (Although made need some Luke/Emby advice)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Xzener 729]

@@Luke is there a process of Emby Theater FV+ can choose to keep remote focus on the Emby Theater screen? Lemme know if you need more details.

[GlennNZ 83]

Seems a issue with emby.theater focus handling that has changed recently

 

Focus does go to emby.theater as planned but remains without keyboard or remote focus. Clicking on emby theater gives focus to electron which fixes issue.

Luke suggests programmatically focusing on emby.theater is correct (and FV does this) and then EB should handle resulting focus (which is does not appear to)

 

Glenn

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited July 16, 2016 by GlennNZ

[GlennNZ 83]

Hi Update Following Below

 

Somewhat frustrating experience - which brings back memories of first sorting out Emby Remote FV Connection.

Spent some wasted time trying to sort out focus, and move focus to electon (child of Emby.Theater) which I believe is difficult, if not impossible. Luke has confirmed on another thread that the focus should go to Emby.Theater who should pass it on to electron (that is not happening in my testing). Oh well, wasted time, gave up and moved on to Volume controls and sliders.

Then spent half the night trying to figure out why Volume Slider wasn't working - changing various json body components etc.etc.

Discover that doesn't work from within server Swagger UI - despite getting Http 204 return.

Obviously an issue with either Dev Server or ET that doesn't response to volume controls.(!)

 

Anyhow:

 

New Version 1.139

 

Believe both are right within FV just waiting ET to fix

Fixed layout issues if Audio Menu Hidden

Correct functioning of Mute Button on Now Playing Screen (reflects Player Mute or Otherwise)

Added Stop button to Now Playing Screens

Within Emby:

Functional Seek Bar

Functional Volume Slider/VolumeUP when ET supports such.

Correct Focus confirmed - awaiting ET fix

 

https://www.mediafire.com/?ediqevez6vacvkr

 

Glenn

Edited July 17, 2016 by GlennNZ

[Luke 37027]

Hi Update Following Below

 

Somewhat frustrating experience - which brings back memories of first sorting out Emby Remote FV Connection.

Spent some wasted time trying to sort out focus, and move focus to electon (child of Emby.Theater) which I believe is difficult, if not impossible.  Luke has confirmed on another thread that the focus should go to Emby.Theater who should pass it on to electron  (that is not happening in my testing).  Oh well, wasted time, gave up and moved on to Volume controls and sliders.

Then spent half the night trying to figure out why Volume Slider wasn't working - changing various json body components etc.etc.

Discover that doesn't work from within server Swagger UI - despite getting Http 204 return.

Obviously an issue with either Dev Server or ET that doesn't response to volume controls.(!)

 

Anyhow: 

Believe both are right within FV just waiting ET to fix

Fixed layout issues if Audio Menu Hidden

Correct functioning of Mute Button on Now Playing Screen (reflects Player Mute or Otherwise)

Added Stop button to Now Playing Screens

Within Emby:

Functional Seek Bar

Functional Volume Slider/VolumeUP when ET supports such.

Correct Focus confirmed - awaiting ET fix.

 

Uploading (slowly now).....

 

https://www.mediafire.com/?ediqevez6vacvkr

 

Glenn

 

I would use the regular web client as your baseline for testing of receiving remote control commands through the api, since that is what's built into the server. If another app isn't responding to a given command you can just assume it's not implemented yet and just send the user to us.

[GlennNZ 83]

I would use the regular web client as your baseline for testing of receiving remote control commands through the api, since that is what's built into the server. If another app isn't responding to a given command you can just assume it's not implemented yet and just send the user to us.

Thanks Luke.

 

It that case - sadly -  it doesn't work either.    Have tried - Firefox, Chrome - SupportsRemote true, commands within.  Same response - ToggleMute GeneralCommand works but not VolumeUp, VolumeDown or setVolume.

 

Using mobile client within Chrome at ServerIP:8096 - VolumeUp, VolumeDown, SetVolume controls -go with no errors but no change in play volume.

 

As per other ET thread:  (but obviously more than ET issue - either mine or server

 

eg.

localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/c0d8e3e9f3bba3846ba3d2d4884fe65b/Command/SetVolume?api_key=82618a3dbab34fd4a09aeba89d4cfd6a

(with body : {Arguments:{"Volume":"75"}}  )

 

 

or

http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/c0d8e3e9f3bba3846ba3d2d4884fe65b/Command/VolumeUp?api_key=82618a3dbab34fd4a09aeba89d4cfd6a

 

(but same ToggleMute command does work)

[Luke 37027]

set volume works fine. no problem found. just tested with two different browsers, one controlling the other.

[Luke 37027]

Similarly, VolumeUp and VolumeDown also work, no problem found.

[Luke 37027]

Also make sure you've read here to learn how to determine what commands an app supports:

 

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby/wiki/Remote-control

 

The fact that an app is not responding to VolumeUp is not necessarily an error, problem, or bug. The api will tell you what commands each app supports so that you can present your remote control UI accordingly.

[GlennNZ 83]

Also make sure you've read here to learn how to determine what commands an app supports:

 

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby/wiki/Remote-control

 

The fact that an app is not responding to VolumeUp is not necessarily an error, problem, or bug. The api will tell you what commands each app supports so that you can present your remote control UI accordingly.

 

Ok  - But does the Client Volume Change?? Because on mine the server response is Http 204 - but no change in volume.

 

These are supported commands - to Chrome Web Browser as a test.

    "SupportedCommands": [
      "GoHome",
      "GoToSettings",
      "VolumeUp",
      "VolumeDown",
      "Mute",
      "Unmute",
      "ToggleMute",
      "SetVolume",
      "SetAudioStreamIndex",
      "SetSubtitleStreamIndex",
      "DisplayContent",
      "GoToSearch",
      "DisplayMessage",
      "SetRepeatMode"

From Swagger when use ToggleMute: Success.

 

 

When use VolumeUp  (from Swagger)

 

 

Success from the Server end and reply - yet there is no change in the clients Volume Setting???

 

Server log below to multiple request:

http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/e0061c3acacf545a4558f5fe8b870494/Command/VolumeUp
2016-07-17 14:42:30.9098 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/e0061c3acacf545a4558f5fe8b870494/Command/VolumeUp. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.103 Safari/537.36
2016-07-17 14:42:30.9138 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 204 to ::1. Time: 4ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/e0061c3acacf545a4558f5fe8b870494/Command/VolumeUp
2016-07-17 14:42:31.0698 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/e0061c3acacf545a4558f5fe8b870494/Command/VolumeUp. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.103 Safari/537.36
2016-07-17 14:42:31.0698 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 204 to ::1. Time: 8ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/e0061c3acacf545a4558f5fe8b870494/Command/VolumeUp
2016-07-17 14:42:31.2398 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/e0061c3acacf545a4558f5fe8b870494/Command/VolumeUp. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.103 Safari/537.36
2016-07-17 14:42:31.2398 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 204 to ::1. Time: 10ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/e0061c3acacf545a4558f5fe8b870494/Command/VolumeUp
2016-07-17 14:42:31.3808 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/e0061c3acacf545a4558f5fe8b870494/Command/VolumeUp. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.103 Safari/537.36
2016-07-17 14:42:31.3808 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 204 to ::1. Time: 12ms. http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/e0061c3acacf545a4558f5fe8b870494/Command/VolumeUp
2016-07-17 14:42:31.5418 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://localhost:8096/emby/emby/Sessions/e0061c3acacf545a4558f5fe8b870494/Command/VolumeUp. UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.103 Safari/537.36
2016-07-17 14:42:31.5418 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 204 to ::1. Time: 6ms. 

Edit:

 

Further testing

DisplayMessage - works with alert window to Player.

 

Edit:

Reviewing the client log from the Developer Tools/Chrome - I can see the VolumeDown commands! - however the Mediaplayer setting volume does not relate to the playback volume.  (see volume slider).  The slider does not change despite these commands coming through.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Glenn

Edited July 17, 2016 by GlennNZ

[Luke 37027]

i believe you but i can't reproduce it. all of those volume commands are working fine in my testing.

[Xzener 729]

Also, as Luke stated to me earlier, if you are bitstreaming (which I usually am), volume control is strictly handled by the receiver.

[GlennNZ 83]

Also, as Luke stated to me earlier, if you are bitstreaming (which I usually am), volume control is strictly handled by the receiver.

 

I agree and is also my usage - which is why haven't noticed the slider not working - as don't use it.

 

Have you tried 1.139 - a few posts back (fixes Gap amongst other changes)??

(Also does the volume Up/Down or slider work for you - as it seems to for Luke, but clearly not me?

 

Happy to consider WebSocket connection to Receiver (if available - newer ones appear to be possible, and I have recently upgraded my receiver)  Then can have option to select Receiver and FV will communicate with Receiver Volume/Slider/Mute etc.  (might be a while off as life is catching up now...)

 

Glenn

Edited July 17, 2016 by GlennNZ