[mythtv-users] MythMusic interface

Gabe Rubin gaberubin at gmail.com
Mon Jul 26 16:56:52 UTC 2010


On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 4:29 PM, Christopher Kerr <mythtv at theseekerr.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 10:39 AM, Gabe Rubin <gaberubin at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Future tweaks:
>> It appears that you can have squeeze running at all times, so I will
>> probably modify my mythtv startup script to include that.  If I can't,
>> then I will have a button call up squeeze using irexec.
>
> You certainly can - see
> http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-960748.html , for instance
> (sorry, I'm on a locked down net connection, so I can't check if that
> link is the right one, but I think so)
>

This is similar to what I have done.  Instead of putting squeeze in my
startup scripts, I put it in a script that ratpoison executes whenever
it starts up (does a few things, but mainly loads up myth).  I have a
reset button on my remote that restarts X and reloads myth mainly used
for when myth crashes, but this will restart squeeze as well.

>> I will check out SqueezePlay, the gui version, but doubt I will use
>> it.  The whole purpose of this was to be able to control things from
>> the web.
>
> You can set it up so it only acts another controller for the
> Squeezeslave daemon - that way you don't HAVE to use it, but it's
> there if you want to fiddle with things from the TV.
>
Probably never going to actually install it.  It did not appear as
trivial to install as the headless program (or the server) and I am
not sure what benefit I would get out of it.  It actually appears that
mythmusic has a better interface for using with a remote than the gui
version, so if I ever want visuals or album art on my screen, I can
always use mythmusic.  However, the whole issue was trying to navigate
through 1000s of albums with a remote, which was difficult at best, so
I want to move away from that.

Now, I can do this perfectly.  I can either control squeeze through a
desktop computer or through my iPhone.  I installed iPeng, which is a
$10 app that controls squeeze players.  It is a little more than I
accustomed to paying for apps, but it does everything I want.  It
shows all the album art and lets me pick music based on album, artist,
or other criteria.  I can easily search using this and go to any
internet music stream including many pre-built.  I could do this all
via a web browser on my iPhone as well, but the app really is a nice
interface to accomplishing what I want.

>> It would be nice if I could get some visualizations or something.  I
>> will check out the mythtv plugin, but for now, that seems to
>> complicated for me to setup.
>
> I've got mine set up so that Squeezeplay audio runs on an analogue
> output to a different input on my stereo reciever, whilst MythTV audio
> runs via HDMI to the TV (and from there to the TV input on the
> stereo). That way, the TV doesn't have to be on, so I don't feel the
> need to have it show anything. You might consider something similar.

That is what I have been doing.  I have my myth box connected to my tv
via DVI->HDMI and to my receiver via optical cable.  I never actually
need my tv on to listen to music, so I have just been turning the tv
off when using squeeze.  I think I am going to add an activity code to
my logitech harmony remote that, when I press it, will turn the tv off
(or not turn it on), make sure the receiver is on, and execute squeeze
in case it was turned off before.

I have to say, squeeze really seems like the exact solution I wanted.
I looked into a few years ago but I think at that point you needed a
hardware frontend.  With the headless program I am using and the
iPhone app, this really takes care of my music needs.  I see that the
server is GPL software.  With all due respect to the mythmusic
creators, it may be worthwhile to piggyback off squeezebox development
and put some of that code into myth.  It does seem a lot more powerful
than what we currently have.


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