Dear all

For years, I have been using Anders Odlund's BM-Link to link my iTunes Library into my B&O framework via BeoPort / BeoLink PC 2. I was and still am very grateful that Anders ended my frustration with B&O's own Windows-based media player SW. However, over the years Anders did not have the time / the equipment to adapt BMLink to the current developments of the iTunes SW. In several threads of this forum we shared our frustration about this fact, but since user PhilLondon is working on his LinkPlayer software, we dare to hope again.

In fact, the only reason I open this thread is to thank Phil for the great work he is doing. And - as a second reason - I find it not appropriate anymore that we use the thread "Snow Leopard - Update: BM-Link not 100% compatible. Don't upgrade yet!" to comment on Phil's progress any longer.

I hope you agree that Phil's work deserves a thread of its own - this one!

Best regards

Stefan

I have been away from the forum for several days

(sorry, but Christmas is always a busy time with a herd of elephants)

None the less I have been testing/using LinkPlayer 0.7 every day - mostly in the new full screen Menu mode

I am now confident enough that I have been demonstrating it to visitors and letting the family use it

I have integrated PLEX and eyeTV with it, and I am in the process of organising the herd's Movie and TV collections so they can be accessed via LinkPlayer and PLEX

I agree......it works wonderfully.  The former software for use with Apples is totally obsolete now.

My hats of to phil as he is a genius, the software works perfectly and the voice over the named song is great when people wonder what track is playing.  Currently using 0.7 and i have to say its great.  No problems so far but i am still waiting for my IR control to fit to my beoport so i can try the various other features that Phil has placed in it such as Plex and Eye TV.

I have a query though as my firmware in my beoport is the original and it will not update.  Will this affect the trial??  I believe its 1.16.

Thanks again Phil

 

 

Thanks for the new thread and encouragement.

Carl Sheerman:

waiting for my IR control to fit

Make sure you get the special one for the Beoport which is slightly different from the one that connects to the Beolink Active.

The full screen mode can also be used with an Apple Remote.

I am not sure what were the new features of the firmware, but if all is working fine for you, you should not worry.

I'll still be working on LinkPlayer during the holiday, but I'm going to take it easy. There is still a few features and refinements I'd like to add to it before the final release.

p.

PhilLondon:

I'm going to take it easy

you deserve a GREAT Christmas

you have given all of us testers a great toy to play with, and everyone else great hopes for 2010

Hello everyone!   I too am testing Linkplayer and agree its a great program and exactly what I was looking for.  It's working great for me but I still cant get the artist/song title on my BS9000.  Im running a mac mini with snow leopard and the beoport is linked to the 9000.  I've checked and unchecked the 8, 12 and more display boxes to no avail.  I will sometimes get the track number info but that has been it.  I'm using a brand new masterlink cable....could it be faulty?  Is it my
Beosound?  Any help would be appreciated.

 

Chris

Chris, same thing on my BS9000 here: When I switch from one song to the next, the song title is being displayed for about 3 secs, then is replaced by N.MUSIC again.

I have never invested a thought about this because BM-Link behaves exactly the same way.

Have you checked on the firmware your BS9000 has? You may want to verify following this link.

Guys,

Please make sure you raise any issue with me by following this procedure:

http://web.me.com/philrobin/LinkPlayer/Feedback.html

If when I release a new version, the bug you have raised is still present, do not hesitate to raise it again.

The BS9000 should work with the 12 characters display setting. Let me know if it doesn't.

Thanks,

      Philippe

Thanks, Philippe.  I will do that when I get home.  To answer your question Stefan,  I am pretty sure I have the Mark III because of the pin security.  With Beoplayer I got the artist info for a couple of seconds but with Linkplayer or BmLink i dont.

Hi

Yes a big thanks to Philippe- he has done a great job.

Im still using itunes 8.2, too nervous to switch to 9 as as least BM LINK has some functionality presently

Have been trialling LINK PLAYER .7.   I don't get the track titles displayed properly on my beocentre 2 either... Artist title will change, but track title will stay the same even the song has changed.

This may be rectified with itunes 9.... but im anxious about that.

How difficult is it to revert to an earlier version of itunes if i need to? I've downloaded version 8 just incase and its sitting on my computer- it wont let me instal it though as i already have 8.2. Any ideas ? Probably im a little off topic?

A big thanks to Philippe again.

Happy Christmas to all

 

David

First de-install itunes and than you are free to install what ever version you like.

Achilles:

but with Linkplayer or BmLink i dont

both softwares work for me on my BeoSound 4

(and I don't believe a cable would be an issue, but settings/firmware on the 9000s might be ...)

Here is the BS4 showing BMLink's display info

 

and here is the BS4 displaying LinkPlayer's info: first an iTunes ripped CD and then an iTunes radio station (which scrolls)

 

elephant:

I have integrated PLEX and eyeTV with it, and I am in the process of organising the herd's Movie and TV collections so they can be accessed via LinkPlayer and PLEX

 

I would like to link a Mac into my B&O system.  My main priority is to pull the internet, net radio, net music (itunes), BBC iPlayer, etc onto my TV.   Of course it would also be nice to pull the B&O devices onto the Mac.

I have a couple of questions:

1. What's the advantage of using LinkPlayer/Beoport over connecting an AppleTV or Mac Mini directly to the back of the TV and using the STB-C?

2. Is it possible to pull video off the Mac onto TV(s) connected to the Beolink system?  What connections are needed?

I'm new to LinkPlayer, so apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Regards and Happy Christmas to everyone!

AP

Whoops!  Correction:  With Bmlink I got the artist info for a couple of seconds.  Beoplayer through windows does not show the meta data.  

On another note, I really prefer the Itunes coverflow mode in full screen as the primary display.  Is there anyway to have Itunes start up in this mode through any player? 

Chris

 

 

Philippe,

I have sent a log of an error that made the default volume return to 00 on the linkplayer.  I wonder if any other beta testers have had this problem.  I will attempt to reproduce the problem for the log file.

Regards and a Merry Xmas again.

Carl Sheerman

On earlier versions of the beta, the LinkPlayer interface would show "16" as the volume.  The latest version turns the volume to a zero value which is displayed as nothing.

This is irrelevant to me as I have no speakers attached to the BeoPort and therefore I have not filed a bug.  Nonetheless, this somewhat mars the beautiful fullscreen interface Phil has created, because I get a "Volume" label with a black void below.  And yet I recognize that showing "16" or any other value would also be meaningless as I sit listening to a linked device in another room with another volume setting.

Carl Sheerman:

Philippe,

I have sent a log of an error that made the default volume return to 00 on the linkplayer.  I wonder if any other beta testers have had this problem.  I will attempt to reproduce the problem for the log file.

Regards and a Merry Xmas again.

Carl Sheerman

I have not noticed this problem. How exactly does it manifest itself?

 

I just used the program and did not notice any problems with the volume. It works fine and is displayed correctly?

Phil has realized a good job! Thank you very much. The software is very good, better than bm-link!

I have a question, what kind of analog tv target I need? At the moment I have a EyeTV DTT (Elgato), but it´s digital and I can't find the link channel. Can you recommend any analog TV target compatible?

I am interested to control my HDR2 out my home.

I have created a script behaviour for Remote Buddy and now I can control N.MUSIC, CD, Radio,... with my Ipod Touch.

Regards

 

Pestria:

I have a couple of questions:

1. What's the advantage of using LinkPlayer/Beoport over connecting an AppleTV or Mac Mini directly to the back of the TV and using the STB-C?

2. Is it possible to pull video off the Mac onto TV(s) connected to the Beolink system?  What connections are needed?

 

As part of understanding the potentials of my system I have used my Mac in two modes: 

 

Using my Mac integrated to BeoVision as a monitor

To do this I wired my BV8 to my MacBook using a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI cable, and a simple audio mini-jack to RCA cable (this is because Apple does not put audio onto the video interface that drives the HDMI).

I see the Mac OSX desktop, and I use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to control my interactions.

I am able to run any application, including using an application's full screen mode. However applications like native iTunes are not easy to navigate at a three metre/ten foot distance because of font sizes and the need to be accurate with mouse clicks.

I have found that it is more relaxing to use media centre applications like Front Row or PLEX, both of which can be controlled by the Apple Remote (the old AR is Infra-Red but a different IR signal from B&O's).

Although this approach is good, it does not allow me to share my Apple's audio with my BeoSound in another room, not with my distributed BeoLabs.   

 

Using my Mac integrated with the B&O audio-visual environment

To do this I wired my BV8 to my MacBook using a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI cable, and a simple audio mini-jack to RCA cable (as above), AND I wired the audio via a mini-jack splitter to my BeoPort, I wired the Mac's USB to the BeoPort's USB, and I connected BeoPort to the B&O environment via the BeoLink MasterLink cable.

In this mode, I use Phillipe's LinkPlayer to translate B&O IR commands from the BeoPort into Max OSX application commands for the LinkPlayer software, or for Front Row or for PLEX.

I am able to now access the music collection on my Apple and distribute around the house, including running Net-Radio and Net-Music on the BeoVision.  In particular I like seeing the track information on my BeoSound 4 and on the BeoVision 8 (when it is in PC mode), and of course in rooms that only have BeoLabs I can make use of the voice-over capability that Phillipe added for annunciating key iTunes meta-data.

 

Some thoughts

I have found that I prefer using the Beo4 via LinkPlayer/Front Row to control a DVD that I have in the Apple's CD/DVD slot, however I am experimenting with capturing my DVDs (particularly my DVDs of music performances) onto an external hard drive and just using the Beo4 LinkPlayer/PLEX interface.

 

I have also explored the option of directly connecting BeoLabs to the BeoPort: this has the advantage of not needing the BeoVision powered on for listening to music.  However I reverted to having no speakers attached to the BeoPort.

 

I have considered using my Mac only as an Audio centre, and not providing Video support - however I have found that running a media-centre (even in beta-test mode) is changing my viewing habits.  I think I will not go back to only watching free-to-air TV nor only using a cable set-top- box.  I think I can even see a time when I will cancel my cable subscription if only to escape from advertising.

 

At first I added a lot of PLEX channels (the BBC's iPlayer is one of these), however I have started removing some channels as I have found them to not be as informative as I had hoped/expected.

 

I have not succeeded (yet) in getting any video transmitted from the BV8 to other televisions - I think the issue is that currently B&O only supports forwarding analogue signals from a BeoVision's chassie.

 

I hope that helps your appreciation of the possibilities that LinkPlayer provides.

Achilles:

On another note, I really prefer the Itunes coverflow mode in full screen as the primary display.  Is there anyway to have Itunes start up in this mode through any player? 

PLEX (by itself, or via LinkPlayer) offers a coverflow view of your itunes library ...

but you have to first select 

0/ PLEX if you are in LinkPlayer, then

1/ Music

2/ iTunes 

3/ Artists (as above), or Genre, etc 

Luigi:

At the moment I have a EyeTV DTT (Elgato), but it´s digital and I can't find the link channel. Can you recommend any analog TV target compatible?

I recommend the EyeTV hybrid: http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/hybrid/product1.en.html It is "hybrid" so it gets DTT and analog TV, and FM radio.

Elephant

 

Which options (both for the linkplayer and BV8) did you use in "mac integrated with the audio-visual enviroment"?

 

 

mylpen:

Which options (both for the linkplayer and BV8) did you use in "mac integrated with the audio-visual enviroment"?

Hi, I worked with Phillipe on this and he made some adjustments to the software I believe ... we are still trying to resolve some undocumented protocol between the BV and the BeoPort ...

So Phillipe advised me to set LinkPlayer to option 4, and my BV8 is set to option 2

For the moment you should set LinkPlayer to option 4, and connect the B&O IR Receiver on it.

Pressing a source like TV or RADIO or N.MUSIC would call the source on the TV or on the BS4, depending on the room you're in.

Pressing LINK , then a source would control LinkPlayer directly.

What is your set-up ?

What BeoSound, BeoVision and in what rooms ?