Music Improvements

[BloodyIron 24]

Let me clarify on a few things here, and share some thoughts/experiences.

 

1. I meant playing videos through dsub from subsonic. As in, on my phone. It does work, but it's not as good as I would want.

2. I have played lots of videos through the subsonic web app. It generally works rather well, but after trying Emby, I like Emby a lot more! Also the latest major version (as of this writing) that subsonic released like over a year ago, has even worse chromecast support than the version before it. The player is now HTML5, but the fidelity seems to be lower (through the subsonic web interface) compared to the major version before it (which was flash based though IIRC).

 

Subsonic is pretty much dead in the water. It works, but it's not exactly a long-term solution IMO.

 

 

 

 

Yeah--open up the API & let the community help some of the dev work!

 

 

Can't say I've even tried the video support for Subsonic. Wouldn't even dare lol. Thanks for sharing

[Luke 37071]

Lots of music improvements coming your way.

 

 

[BloodyIron 24]

I think I just lost my pants...

 

When it says "Playlist", is that the strict term of using a playlist file? Or is that a play queue that we can add/remove dynamically or what? I know in earlier discussion you said there is a strict distinction between the two, but I'm not sure if that's changed. Is the focus right now on better playlist support before better play queue stuff, or?

 

 

Lots of music improvements coming your way.

 

 

 

 

[Luke 37071]

that is the play queue.

[BloodyIron 24]

So, how can I tell when what I'm seeing in the GUI is talking about a playlist (say m3u) and not a play queue?

 

Also, does this mean I won't need playlist files to be able to say play an entire album and stuff like that?

 

This is sounding more like what I'm looking for, but some of the nuances I'm trying to be careful about since in earlier discussions between yourself and I there were distinctions you outlined between Playlist and Play Queue.

 

 

that is the play queue.

[BloodyIron 24]

Okay so I haven't had a chance to try this recently, so I have a few questions about some behaviour current/planned.

 

One of the things I've really appreciated about dsub/subsonic on my phone is the caching behavior.

 

1. When I want to play a song/album on my phone and it's not cached it will automatically start downloading songs and play as soon as enough data is cached, and continue caching in the background. I also have the ability to select # of songs downloaded "ahead" based on whether I'm on wifi or cellular. For example I have it download 3 songs ahead on cellular, but download all when I'm on wifi (because it's so fast anyways). Is this kind of behaviour already in Emby? If not, I think there's great value in this.

2. Chromecast. On my phone, I connect with dsub/subsonic to a chromecast, then tell it to start playing songs/an album. It won't cache the song whether it's on my phone or not in this case (which is actually my preferred behavior). Now, when I disconnect from Chromecast it then starts caching the current and upcoming songs right away (again based on parameters defined in #1). Is this kind of behaviour in Emby? Again, I think there's value in this kind of behaviour.

3. On my phone when I browse on my phone through dsub/subsonic albums, I can select entire albums/folders and tell my device to cache the selection, and I can queue up a bunch of stuff to cache. This is occasionally convenient, but it's most convenient when I'm at home and about to go on a long trip. This is because my home wifi is so fast that I can cache entire albums in just seconds, much faster than my cellular of course. Same thing, is this in Emby?

 

The reason I ask is because I've seen some mixed info about how Emby syncs/caches content to mobile devices, and I like the convenience of this method. That being said, I am totally open to even better methods too! I embrace change.

 

Thoughts?

[swhitmore 781]

Looking great Luke. I might start using Emby to store offline Music on my phone and use that as my default player.

[BloodyIron 24]

Oh, quick thought. Can we please get cross-fading?

 

I feel like a kid in a candy store. I can't wait!

[nwcatalyst 4]

Looking great Luke. I might start using Emby to store offline Music on my phone and use that as my default player.

Is this possible in Android yet? I know a month or two ago it wasn't possible - had to use another player to play the music stored/cached offline. 

 

Thanks for the updates Luke. Any insight into when iOS might get offline sync for music?

[boco 1]

Looking great Luke. I might start using Emby to store offline Music on my phone and use that as my default player.

 

Agree,  I like the progress.    Shuffle the Play-queue (now playing screen) would be nice.

Edited January 24, 2017 by boco

[Luke 37071]

A save to playlist button is being added to now playing screens, in case you want to save the current queue as a playlist for re-use later.

[ginjaninja 536]

A save to playlist button is being added to now playing screens, in case you want to save the current queue as a playlist for re-use later.

Good design decision to treat the now playing as a play list...imo at least one playlist should be remembered (a 'history') so you can 'undo' to the previous playlist if you accidently start a new playlist by default action you can get back..or close browser ..so you dont loose loads of effort.

 

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[Luke 37071]

Yes good idea, thanks.

[Luke 37071]

As requested when you start music playback, it will now transition you to the now playing screen. Enjoy.

[jordy 284]

As requested when you start music playback, it will now transition you to the now playing screen. Enjoy.

Nice, one click play - I like it. Well Done!!!

 

Now you have to do the same with Audio books - make multi-part books into a play list and then one click to play would be great

[Luke 37071]

identification.

>interface>prepopulate fields with known data point allowing the user to select / unselect as part of the search (rather than eg having to retype all the known data points like 'name')

>inter face> search results > show images , show synopsis, show albums (belonging to the match), in the tile summary, perhaps with scrolling text..make it much easier to identify the required result

 

No, we used to do this but then people don't realize they need to remove pre-populated data in order to expand the Identify search. It doesn't really make sense anyway, the whole point of Identify is to fix the Identity so it is more likely that you want to start fresh anyway.

 

For the search results, we are already using all available information that is provided by the metadata provider search api's, which is generally just names, year, id's, etc.

[Steveo369 10]

The latest January '17 updates are looking awesome!  Thanks for the updates.

 

a few issues/potential features i'm noting - 

• iOS client - background audio play is still not functional; if app is changed, playback stops with the next song very inconvenient
• iOS client - I get an "up from bottom" white confirmation/notification between each song with options for Resume, Stop, or Cancel.  Play queue automatically advances to next song correctly without user input.
• Implementation of a shuffle function into the repeat button, consistent with most other players would be nice
• Shuffle all music/all songs or some other direct, easy, front-facing access to shuffling entire library

[ginjaninja 536]

The design already exists elsewhere  to show a 'more' drill down, so perhaps this 'more' could be extended to the music 'latest' 'recently played' and 'frequently played'?

 

Suggested design for 'Latest'

Increase number of objects to 'does it really matter'..user can just keep scrolling to right to go back in  time.

Timeline Markers - Months

 

recently played

Increase number of objects to 'does it really matter'..user can just keep scrolling to right to go back in  time.

Timeline Markers - Months

 

Suggested design for 'frequently played'

Slider to change window...last day, week, month (default), 3 months, 6 months, year,

 

thanks for considering.

[Luke 37071]

Yup, good idea

[BloodyIron 24]

Any word on when we can see volume control on mobile devices be handled by volume buttons on the mobile device (physical buttons)? This is agnostic of Music/Video, etc.

[Luke 37071]

I'm not aware of any issues there, better to discuss those in the appropriate section of the forum for the particular app in question.

[BloodyIron 24]

Uh, but my request about volume controls for mobile app was made in this thread?

[Luke 37071]

Ok yea, sorry this topic is in the Emby Theater forum so anything related to a specific app should be posted in the section of the forum for that app.

[BloodyIron 24]

Okay so I tried a bunch of Music related stuff just now, and here's my thoughts.

 

First, the specs:

1. v 3.2.1.0
2. Server Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
3. 8 core, each ~3.5GHZ (VM, but gave it beefy resources so it can ramp up as needed)
4. 4GB RAM
5. Core OS is on SSD storage, but media is on HDD/ZFS storage. In this case though the Music is on SSD storage (just coincidence in this case).
6. Phone, Android 7.1 Cyanogenmod setup. Official Emby app (not web browser in this case) from Google Play store.
7. Chromecast Audio included in part of testing, on an AC wifi network (plenty of bandwidth for music streaming)
8. MP3 files, V0 IIRC, each one ~5MB in size
9. Also tried with a Chromecast Video to see what that experience would be like.

Second, the thoughts:

So, I added a single album, created a new library for it, then tested.

1. It's rather slow to start playing songs, and change songs. When I say slow, I'm saying compared to my experience with subsonic. Considering these files are very small, and I've given Emby plenty of beef, starting/changing of songs should be much faster. This is pretty much the same when using the Chromecast. I tried listening on my phone, and also controlling my Chromecast Audio from my phone, and was generally equally slow. I just now (as writing this) tried it with a Chromecast Video, and some times it seems reasonably fast, so unsure if this is inconsistent or what here.
2. I miss not beeing able to control the volume from the volume buttons on my phone. I know this isn't specific to Music, but it's really something required for this kind of thing. I think such functionality would also benefit other types of media too.
3. When I sync an album to my phone, and then go into airplane mode, then relaunch the Emby app, it tells me to configure it to connect to a server. This... isn't a usable scenario and defeats the point of offline sync. Music I would say is probably the area that would best benefit from addressing content offline. This behaviour was actually very surprising to me as I now don't understand how any offline sync can work at all.
4. It would be nice if we could turn on a setting so that when we play songs/albums they naturally get synced to our phone, instead of having to check off which we want synced, then tell the app to actually process the sync. A passive mechanism (even if it's turned off by default), would add a lot of convenience.
5. When I connect my phone to any Chromecast, I lose the ability to control the playlist. It stops displaying any playlist, and I can't seem to find a way to see what's coming up next, etc. Naturally this is something that would be desirable to have.
6. When I do have the playlist, manipulating it seems pretty good. Dragging things around. I only briefly tested this, seemed to be good so far.
7. I was playing the album on my phone, this is the first time, then while it was playing I told it to connect to my Chromecast Audio. The song continued to play after it was connected, but my phone app didn't actually fully establish a connection to the Chromecast Audio. Naturally I lost control over what was playing. To get controls back I had to connect my Emby app again to the same Chromecast Audio, and the music seemed to not be interrupted, but I got my controls back. Curious inconsistency in connection establishment or something.
8. When I used the Chromecast Video, I saw the album cover in the bottom left, but a solid colour in the middle. I think it would be super rad if we had some sort of graphical stuff going on in the main screen. This could go all kinds of ways. This could be like, pictures from albums on Emby, or pictures for the band, or graphical visualisations like milkdrop, or all kinds of cool stuff. I think the more options we can add here, the merrier, but I think this area in particular is lacking.
9. I put only one album, with 6 songs in it. Considering how small it is, the scan of the library took way longer than I think it should. Perhaps there's some area for improvement in this regard? I did set the library to Music type and told it to pre-download meta stuff (not kept in folder).

 

All in all, I love where this is headed. There's some clear improvements, but right now this isn't enough for me to want to use it as my daily driver. I'd love to keep working with you lovely peeps to make this ab-fab, so hope this does help.

[Luke 37071]

Thanks, great ideas.