Music Playback - Song Titles & Cover Thumb During Aerial Screensaver?

[KevinSartori 22]

Hi.  I recently purchased an Apple TV 4K (3rd Gen).  I noticed a nice OSD feature while using the Spotify app that would be really nice addition for Emby music playback:

When the Aerial screen saver is running, it shows the artist and song title, plus the cover thumb, at the start of each new song.  It displays this info for about 8 seconds.  Oddly, the album cover thumbnail is intermittent and only displays about half the time.

Any chance we could see this helpful feature added to Emby's music playback?

Thanks!

Edited November 26, 2022 by KevinSartori

[Luke 42077]

Hi, yes we can take a look at this. Thanks for the feedback.

[KevinSartori 22]

Hi @Luke.  I thought I'd check in on this request.  Have you folks made any progress on determining how apps like Spotify are able to show a What's Playing pop-up on the Apple TV 4K?  Thanks!

[Luke 42077]

HI, not yet, but this is on our to do list. Thanks.

[Luke 42077]

HI, do you mean this screensaver?

https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial

If yes, then they actually have to integrate with us, not the other way around. See here for example a request for them to support Vlc:

https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial/issues/1274

[KevinSartori 22]

Hi Luke,

Yes, Aerial is the default screensaver for the Apple TV device.  Based on that last comment in your GitHub ticket link, it seems like the beta version of Aerial now supports artist and song title display for all audio playback:

Quote

It will show any app that playbacks audio in macOS now, including VLC !

Of course, Apple TV devices use tvOS, not macOS, but hopefully that feature will carry over!

Thanks for chasing this down.  I'll keep my eye on the GitHub page for the next release to confirm this works with Emby audio playback!

Thanks again!

[KevinSartori 22]

I just realized that this GitHub page is a project to carry over the Apple TV Aerial screensaver over to macOS devices outside of Apple.  You're correct, @Luke, the comments there do seem to confirm that support for Apple Music and Spotify are hardcoded in.  I wonder if there's someone at Apple you could contact to request they add support for Emby to the Apple TV version of Aerial in the same way that these other developers have with the version for macOS?

Thanks!

[Luke 42077]

@KevinSartoriI think there is a good chance this will work now in the upcoming Emby for Apple TV 1.8.0 release. Thanks.

[KevinSartori 22]

Woo hoo!  Looking forward to it!  Thanks!

[Luke 42077]

@KevinSartorihave you tested this on Emby for Apple TV 1.8.0?

[KevinSartori 22]

Thanks for the follow up, Luke!  It works really well and it's really nice to be able to see what song just started playing while the screensaver is enabled!

You know, I think music playback is one of the great underrated features of Emby.  Particularly so on the Apple TV 4K, where there really aren't many options for folks looking for a nice music player geared toward local file playback.  Thanks again for all the effort you continue to put in!