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nbpf · 08-02-2016, 11:40

(10-01-2016 18:24)simoncn Wrote:
(10-01-2016 17:57)nbpf Wrote: I am completely new to Minimserver. My main motivation for using Minimserver is its ability to support browsing classical music collections. I have used MPD (mainly in conjunction with ncmpcpp and MPaD as clients) for about three years and I am very happy with its stability and sound quality.

But its hard-wired, non-customizable system of tags is almost unusable for classical music. With Minimserver, upmpdcli and MPD, I have now managed to set up an ideal music server. Thanks to all developers of these great products!

There is one open issue: when directly controlling MPD via MPaD (iOS), I can open the booklet of the currently playing album on an iPad (MPad relies on an HTTP server for displaying cover art and booklets, I have an HTTP server running on the same machine that runs Minimserver, MPD and upmpdcli). On a Debian laptop, I can run a simple script to fetch the booklet of the currently playing item.

Is there a control point for iOS compatible with Minimserver that supports opening the booklet of an album? I have checked Linn Kinsky and mconnect and both do not appear to support this functionality.

Thanks, nbpf

PS By the way, mconnect also does not apper to support gapless replay: it sends single files to the renderer instead of full playlists!

Welcome to the MinimServer forum!

I don't know of any UPnP control point for iOS that can display an album booklet. Perhaps other forum users might be able to suggest something.

I believe BubbleUPnP on Android supports this but I haven't tried it myself.

If you find a solution for this, please post it here.

I have installed and tested BubbleUPnP. It is probably the best control point for my setup, but it does not seem to support displaying an album booklet. I might be missing something, of course.

On a Linux system and in the context of a Minimserver, upmpdcli and MPD based solution, I can easily w-get and open a "booklet.pdf" file stored in the same directory of the currently playing item with a short bash script based on mpc, w-get, etc. This is a very simple and effective solution, if you are interested I can post the code.

However, on Android or, even worse, iOS, one cannot rely on bash, mpc, etc. Here, a clean solution would probably require Minimserver to serve local "booklet.pdf" files in much the same way as it serves, if I am not misunderstood, local "folder.jpg" files.

Is this something that would make sense from your perspective? Is it possibly already supported?

Best,
nbpf

PS I am almost done with adding "work", "period" and "conductor" tags to my classical music collection. With Minimserver's intelligent browsing it is now a pleasure to search and browse through the collection. Thanks!

simoncn · 08-02-2016, 12:22

(08-02-2016 11:40)nbpf Wrote: However, on Android or, even worse, iOS, one cannot rely on bash, mpc, etc. Here, a clean solution would probably require Minimserver to serve local "booklet.pdf" files in much the same way as it serves, if I am not misunderstood, local "folder.jpg" files.

Is this something that would make sense from your perspective? Is it possibly already supported?

MinimServer doesn't serve folder.jpg files to the control point. It uses these files to provide default artwork for audio files in the same folder that don't contain embedded artwork. The artwork for the file (either embedded or from a folder.jpg file) is sent to the control point usng the standard UPnP protocol for sending artwork metadata.

There is no standard UPnP protocol for sending booklet metadata and I don't have any plans at present to attempt to invent a nonstandard protocol for doing this.

nbpf · 08-02-2016, 18:21

(08-02-2016 12:22)simoncn Wrote:
(08-02-2016 11:40)nbpf Wrote: However, on Android or, even worse, iOS, one cannot rely on bash, mpc, etc. Here, a clean solution would probably require Minimserver to serve local "booklet.pdf" files in much the same way as it serves, if I am not misunderstood, local "folder.jpg" files.

Is this something that would make sense from your perspective? Is it possibly already supported?

MinimServer doesn't serve folder.jpg files to the control point. It uses these files to provide default artwork for audio files in the same folder that don't contain embedded artwork. The artwork for the file (either embedded or from a folder.jpg file) is sent to the control point usng the standard UPnP protocol for sending artwork metadata.

There is no standard UPnP protocol for sending booklet metadata and I don't have any plans at present to attempt to invent a nonstandard protocol for doing this.

I understand Simon, thanks for the feedback! It is a pity that UPnP does not support liner notes metadata. Especially for classical music, booklets are usually so much more interesting than cover art or lyrics... I am going to implement another ad-hoc solution: upmpdcli can be configured to run a script every time a play action is performed. With this feature, it should not be very difficult to create a symlink to the proper .pdf file and serve the booklet via http. Best, Nicola

nbpf · 09-02-2016, 14:58

(08-02-2016 12:22)simoncn Wrote:
(08-02-2016 11:40)nbpf Wrote: However, on Android or, even worse, iOS, one cannot rely on bash, mpc, etc. Here, a clean solution would probably require Minimserver to serve local "booklet.pdf" files in much the same way as it serves, if I am not misunderstood, local "folder.jpg" files.

Is this something that would make sense from your perspective? Is it possibly already supported?

MinimServer doesn't serve folder.jpg files to the control point. It uses these files to provide default artwork for audio files in the same folder that don't contain embedded artwork. The artwork for the file (either embedded or from a folder.jpg file) is sent to the control point usng the standard UPnP protocol for sending artwork metadata.

There is no standard UPnP protocol for sending booklet metadata and I don't have any plans at present to attempt to invent a nonstandard protocol for doing this.

Simon, I have played a little bit around with Bubble UPnP and it turns out that with Minimserver and Bubble UPnP, the problem of opening a reader with an album's booklet is almost (but not quite) solved:

As it turns out, tapping the cover art in the "Playing now" field of Bubble UPnP opens a list of metadata for the currently playing item. The list contains, among others, the item's URL One can tap the URL and open it in firefox or chrome. By manually replacing, for instance

http://192168178101:9790/minimserver/*/data/Alfred*20Brendel/Schubert*20Piano*20Sonatas*20D575,*20894,*20959*20*26*20960/01*20-*20Schubert*20-*20Piano*20Sonata*20No18*20in*20G,*20D894*20-*201*20Molto*20moderato*20e*20cantabile.flac

with

http://192168178101:9790/minimserver/*/data/Alfred*20Brendel/Schubert*20Piano*20Sonatas*20D575,*20894,*20959*20*26*20960/booklet.pdf

in the browser's navigation bar, one can open the booklet of the currently playing album, assuming that this is stored in the same directory under the name booklet.pdf.

This works fine and the only thing that is needed to access the booklet with a single fingertip is to automatize the above substitution. I have no idea how to do so under Android, but I'll think about that, please, see also https://github.com/medoc92/upmpdcli/issues/27

Best,
Nicola

nbpf · 10-02-2016, 12:08

(08-02-2016 12:22)simoncn Wrote:
(08-02-2016 11:40)nbpf Wrote: However, on Android or, even worse, iOS, one cannot rely on bash, mpc, etc. Here, a clean solution would probably require Minimserver to serve local "booklet.pdf" files in much the same way as it serves, if I am not misunderstood, local "folder.jpg" files.

Is this something that would make sense from your perspective? Is it possibly already supported?

MinimServer doesn't serve folder.jpg files to the control point. It uses these files to provide default artwork for audio files in the same folder that don't contain embedded artwork. The artwork for the file (either embedded or from a folder.jpg file) is sent to the control point usng the standard UPnP protocol for sending artwork metadata.

There is no standard UPnP protocol for sending booklet metadata and I don't have any plans at present to attempt to invent a nonstandard protocol for doing this.

For your information:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost...ount=10531

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost...ount=10535

Best,
Nicola

krutsch · 10-02-2016, 17:06

(10-02-2016 12:08)nbpf Wrote: For your information:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost...ount=10531

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost...ount=10535

Best,
Nicola

+1 ... I am hoping that Simon changes his mind.

nbpf · 10-02-2016, 18:11

(10-02-2016 17:06)krutsch Wrote:
(10-02-2016 12:08)nbpf Wrote: For your information:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost...ount=10531

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost...ount=10535

Best,
Nicola

+1 ... I am hoping that Simon changes his mind.

I very much hope that Simon and bubbleguuum will just collaborate, no one actually needs to adopt a different viewpoint.

Being able to open up the booklet of an album in a control point is an essential feature and I find it difficult to understand how people can be satisfied with solutions (Naim app, Linn Kazoo, Bubble UPnP, etc.) that do not support this functionality.

In fact, I find it difficult to understand how people can move away from CDs and printed booklets if the listening experience becomes then so incomplete. We should not trade quality for convenience, or, at least, not to this extent. I am currently trying to implement two workarounds:

1) use upmpdcli capability to run a script every time a play action is performed to update a symbolic link on an http server. This would allow one to access the booklet of the currently playing album by simply opening a constant URL. This could be saved as a bookmark and opened in the device running the control point application every time one wants to access the booklet. This solution would work no matter which control point is used.

2) use the URL of the currently playing item made available by MinimServer and displayed by Bubble UPnP to open a browser with an address pointing to the corresponding booklet. This would not need the user to run an http server and would not depend on upmpdcli to run the script.

Both workarounds have advantages and disadvantages and it is clear that both would be poor's man solutions. Also, I am not a good programmer and what is needed is a professional solution.

And I think that Simon and bubbleguuum are the best candidates for delivering such solution. I would be happy to pay an extra on both products if this would help improving the listening experience.