Chrisreunion:

I chose to buy a second-hand Mac Mini and use it only as a music server with Linkplayer.

I'll keep Snow Leopard to be able to use the built-in CD/DVD playback features..and the Apple Remote!

 

These are good points.  I should point out that we watch quite a few DVDs using the Mac Mini as media center under FrontRow.  I have read FrontRow ceases to exist under OS X 10.7 Lion.

What I like about FrontRow and LinkPlayer together is that in order to watch a movie:

1.  Hit "N.RADIO" on Beo4, this turns on Mac Mini and TV-room speakers.  Insert CD on Mac Mini.

2.  Turn on projector.

3.  Select FrontRow on LinkPlayer, hit go, watch movie.

4.  There is no step 4.

 

Now, if I switch to Lion on the Mac Mini, will watching a DVD become a more cumbersome activity?

N.B.: our other Macs are already on Lion OS X 10.7

You can re-install FrontRow on Lion, instructions can be found online.

Yesterday I worked on integrating Spotify as an internal source. made some good progress, but I guess it requires a few more evening of work.

Last winter, I almost got it working and it was awsome (worked exactly like LinkMusic, with album art, etc...), but for some reason once the source was stopped, it couldn't be restarted.

Since then, Spotify has updated their SDK and they provide a new sample code that doesn't seem to have this issue.

Spotify in LinkPlayer would be really good as it is now available in many countries.

p.

I have a very innocent question: will Linkplayer 2 be free?

I'll be a free upgrade yes.

That's it! Spotify now works fine in LinkPlayer 2.

I have implemented the navigation by playlists. Need to add navigation by Artists and albums. (Looks like Genre is not available in Spotify's meta data).

p.

PhilLondon:

That's it!

OK ... its a wrap

With B&O doing a launch on 17th August, and Apple on 7th September you have GOT to beat them to their punches

And tonight I designed a new icon... Will look better in the Dock.

    

P.

 

 

PhilLondon:

And tonight I designed a new icon... Will look better in the Dock.

    

P.

Looks great !

Will there be a new version of the iPad/iPhone app as well ?

Hi Phil,

I like the new icon very much! I'm also looking forward to LinkPlayer V2 to get some stability back with it working on Lion. The Spotify and EyeTV features sound great too! 

Many thanks and please keep up the good work!

Best

Rob

 

PS as always happy to beta test if you need it.

Hi Philippe,

Sorry forgot to ask, when do you think V2 will be released? Can't wait :-)

Best,

Rob

One more precision about the icon... it will turn into a mini display when the virtual remote window is closed. Looks cool.

I am currently working on ironing the most obvious bugs, hoping to release the first Beta version here by the end of the weekend.

To avoid dissapointment I need to stress that this is far from being the final version. It will not contain all the features, not all the sources and will not work with the current version of LinkRemote.

But this new version's code is so much cleaner that this Beta testing phase should allow me to fix all of them more reliably than before. Also it will allow me to add more features more easily in the future.

I'll make sure the Beta can be installed alongside v1 without interfering, so you can switch between one an another.

Currently it will contain only the "internal" sources:

• Music, plays iTunes Library and audio podcasts,
• Radio, Plays internet radios,
• CD, plays the CD in your CD drive,
• Video, plays videos stored in the iTunes library, Video folder, EyeTV archive and also Video Podcasts,
• Photo, Displays photos from the iPhoto Library and RSS photostreams (Mobile Me Gallery, Filckr...). No background music for now.
• Web, Navigate through your safary bookmarks and RSS feeds.
• Spotify, plays music in your Spotify playlists. Requires a Premium Spotify subscription.
• Menu, as before, allows to choose between all the other sources. In the preferences, you can select which sources is displayed and re-order them.

No external sources have been re-implemented yet, such as EyeTV live TV, Plex, iTunes Music, iTunes Radio... I will try not to re-implement the sources that duplicate internal sources.

The new version of LinkRemote is well under way as well, but Apple's distribution mechanism makes it difficult to distribute it for Beta testing.

p.

 

 

 

Hi Phil,

Sounds very good, but do I understand it in the right Way: you don't want to integrate iTunes Musik anymore so that i can't remote iTunes with the New linkPlayer?

You'll still be able to play music stored into your iTunes Library as before, but it will not launch iTunes, the music will be played by LinkPlayer's internal music player.

This is to reduce dependencies on Apple's implementation of iTunes. Everytime they release a new version, it makes LinkPlayer or BM-Link fail.

Also LinkPlayer 2 new architecture, will allow a better use of multiple sound cards, and playing the music with iTunes doesn't allow me to direct the music to a specific sound card.

But again, the reason of the Beta phase is to get feedback, so we'll see how it goes.

The reason I sold my BS5 was the lack of gapless playback, so I'm really looking forward to your new version.

As I can remember from your previous version the internal player didn't play gapless, iTunes does. Has there been some changes made so the internal player will be capable to play as the original music. 

There has been some changes to the internal player. It has "less gap" but I haven't test if it was totally gapless as I do not have gapless albums to test.

No live recordings?

Beogen:

No live recordings?

 

Not in this first Beta, this will come back. I will be looking at a better way of integrating EyeTV.

 

I'll now be posting in this new thread.

 The download link is now available in the new thread  

PhilLondon:

 The download link is now available in the new thread  

Although Linkplayer 2 is available, and I have been testing it, I still use Linkplayer (1) mainly.

So when I saw there was a new PLEX version available, I downloaded that and installed it under LinkPlayer and got it working :-)

I have been experimetning with various settings and options, I have downloaded the iOS version (which you have to pay for) and that is VERY nice, and I have set up their myLpex cloud service as well (and tested it (of course)).

So if, and only if, you are feeling adventurous give it a go.

One (silly) thing I liked was the Alaska skin, which has an animated pictue of a LP record playing for when you are listening to music