Could I request a simple "Now Playing" web UI please?

[Me My Self and I]

Is there any chance that Brennan might consider adding a simple "now playing" web page to the B2? That I could display on a tablet and see from across a room at a glance.

With a large (nearly full screen) album art image, the track title and artist name underneath (or if in landscape orientation to the side) and nothing else. Possibly with next/previous and play/pause buttons and/or track play time - time remaining.

The existing web pages only show a small image for the album art with a large amount of empty space around it. I can zoom in on the album art but have to do this each time I open the page.

I had wondered about running a second Raspberry Pi and scripting it to pull the information from one of the existing web pages then re-displaying it, but this seems overkill for the task.

My final option is to try to create my own custom page and have that served by the Brennan but I would rather not "hack" into it if possible.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Have you looked at the alternative Web UI options? - I use the traditional one but some of the others appear to be more like what you want. 

From the traditional Web UI select the cog icon and from the menu select other Uis.

Fred

[PMB]

Hi mkste,

So a full screen display of the album art, track, album and artist name with track elapsed time that can be toggled between this view and the web UI screen?

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Mark Fishman]

I think you're after the "mobile" or "new mobile" UI -- the "new mobile" seems to have a bigger album art display.

[Me My Self and I]

Sorry it has been so long!

Yes what you describe would be ideal. A really simple, large album art display and little else. It could have its own web address, it doesn't have to be able to toggle to or from anything else if it is easier, just BIG!

[Me My Self and I]

Here's how the WebUI looks on my tablet:

[Me My Self and I]

What I would like is something like this:

Something I could easily read from across the room. I did that by zooming in in Vivaldi but it is really difficult to do. Once I've pinched and zoomed, it is tricky scrolling the stretched page into the right position, and when the track changes the information may stretch across more or fewer lines, making the buttons appear and disappear.

The elements in the html appear to have a fixed dimension, rather than scaling relative to the screen dimensions. The mobile views could be less limited if they scaled to the height/width of the screen.

If I had a free choice, landscape would be better, but If I could have the album art very, very, nearly full width (or height) I'd be really grateful.

[Daniel Taylor]

Given what they have already got the WebUI to do in its various formats, I think it would be pretty easy to add another format as you've described.  I wouldn't be surprised if Paul had already put it on the Wish List.  And I think if he'll mention it to Martin, he might like the idea.  I guess we'll have to watch this space.

[Warren Knauer]

This is a good suggestion as posted; however, it would be fantastic if it were implemented both in the web interface and as an HDMI output !!

[Daniel Taylor]

Yeah.  They already have some basic stuff going out the video part of the HSMI.  So it'd be nice if they could send out the active WebUI too.  I realize it would be just a display with no input from the TV.  But with the remote control, it would be a good start.

[PMB]

All comments noted and added to the Wishlist.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Sean Inglis]

Hi,

I''ve stuck an experimental "big screen" display here:

http://www.strateum.net/seannan/v2/

* enter the IP address of your device and hit "ReFetch DB"

* after a second or so it should load

* play something

* hit the "Big Display" button and you should get a, well, big display

* tap anywhere on that display to toggle display of previous / play-pause / next buttons, and a 4th button that returns you to the ordinary display

If you change tracks on the device itself, or through the app, or through the built-in web-ui on another device, the big display should keep more or less in sync with what's currently playing - could be out by a second or so.

Lots of glitches etc. - I did the simplest thing possible for chunks of it - but it looked tolerable to me on an old tablet.

S

[Me My Self and I]

Oh yes! Thanks Sean, that is ideal.

Does this "need" to run from your personal site, or is it possible to put (host?) it on a "local" host? I was thinking of something like my NAS by way of an example.

What ever, the concept you've delivered is wonderful. Many thanks for your efforts. 

Here is how it looks on my Surface Pro. Easily visible across the room.

[Mark Fishman]

Silly me! I thought the point of a mobile device was that you could have it NEXT TO YOU, so there'd be no need to look at it from across the room. That would also allow you to control it by reaching out a finger, instead of walking back across the room.

Ah, well. To each his own, I guess.

On Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 3:47:58 PM UTC-4 mkste...@gmail.com wrote:

Oh yes! Thanks Sean, that is ideal.

Does this "need" to run from your personal site, or is it possible to put (host?) it on a "local" host? I was thinking of something like my NAS by way of an example.

What ever, the concept you've delivered is wonderful. Many thanks for your efforts. 

Here is how it looks on my Surface Pro. Easily visible across the room.

[image removed]

[Sean Inglis]

Hi,

No there's no backend of any sort, all the searching, polling etc. runs locally in the browser once you've grabbed the DB, the site just gets the code onto the browser.

If you visit

http://www.strateum.net/seannan/v2/standalone.html

and just save *that* webpage somewhere local, you can stick that single file anywhere you like.

It was a bit of a manual process shovelling things into a single file but it should be fine.

I have noticed the odd time that the cover art doesn't update when the track changes, some timing issue I think depending what else is happening when you skip tracks.

You can also save it locally on a PC and then just open that local file in your browser for the same effect, no server at all really necessary.

Ta

S

[Sean Inglis]

There's no issue sticking it on the device itself incidentally - and I've tested that out - but there's a big difference between that and just loading a page up and chatting to it remotely - much easier to shoot yourself in the foot when you copy files to it directly.

One thing I'd say is that fiddling with this made me realise how much I like it's built-in web interface - some really nice touches.

[Sean Inglis]

You can do that in this case - if you change a track on the app or the device itself, the tablet will reflect that change after ~1s or so and act just like a big remote display.

I must give it a try on my Amazon Fire, see what it looks like on a BIG screen.

I am *quite* interested to know the use case for it - I suppose it means you can stick a large collection on random play and when you hear something you like you can glance up at it without fishing your phone out of your pocket. Or it saves explaining what's playing if anyone else is interested.

[Sean Inglis]

Hi,

Can you tell me what device it is you're testing on? The output of visiting https://www.mydevice.io/ would be useful. The text is somewhat smaller than I'd expect from other devices. Might be a Vivaldi thing, I'll install it and take a look.

I've made a few amendments if you refresh (not in the single file version yet)

* the background colour should now pick up the dominant colour from cover art when the track changes rather than using gray for the empty areas. This seems to work well in most cases - someone else's very clever code

* the track text now has a progress bar underneath it. If you click on the track text above / on the progress bar it'll skip to that part of the track

* the overlaid buttons at the top should resize more sensibly if you flip between landscape and portrait.

You might still get cover art stalling if you have more than one browser or interface controlling / displaying the device status at the same time. This does now seem to be an issue with the device itself responding to multiple requests for the same image at the same time. I'll look at a workaround at some point.

S

On Thursday, 27 May 2021 at 20:47:58 UTC+1 mkste...@gmail.com wrote:

[Me My Self and I]

I'm running it currently on a Microsoft Surface Pro. I think it might be a Pro 3.

I currently have the screen resolution set to the maximum, the font size to the minimum and probably have the settings in Vivaldi set to do much the same again to give me maximum screen acreage.

Your guess regarding the use case for i is correct, I'm using it on my Brennan B2 which has a large number of tracks set to random play. I have the output of this fed to an AM (medium wave) transmitter which provides a signal for my 1950s valve radios around the house as well as the "hi-fi" in the living room. Often a track pops up and I think "which album (or track) is that?" plus, I like to see the art as the tracks play.

I had noticed that the background had started to follow the predominant colour of the artwork, it looks really great, I'm most grateful.

I had seen the blue bar, but had failed to realise the importance of it!

I haven't tried turning the Surface pro around, as the stand holds it in landscape, I tend to keep it in landscape.

I can also work the Surface through VNC, which saves me bending down to it.

The text size is big enough for me to read across the room, easier to read than that on the B2 at a similar distance - once I've got the correct spectacles on that is ;-) mostly I can identify the tracks by the artwork alone so again, for me, it isn't an issue.

As I've said before, I'm truly grateful. This will make my Brennan so much more enjoyable. I'd hoped that the TV interface would have done something similar and/or one of the views on the web ui or app.

[Me My Self and I]

I've loaded the "html" onto my NAS and it is working superbly. 

I'm repeating myself here, but I really am extremely grateful to you Sean. 

Thank you very, very much.

[Sean Inglis]

On Sunday, 30 May 2021 at 18:12:42 UTC+1 mkste...@gmail.com wrote:

I've loaded the "html" onto my NAS and it is working superbly. 

I'm repeating myself here, but I really am extremely grateful to you Sean. 

Thank you very, very much.

Yes, yes, yes, never mind about that: what a great setup! I'm insanely jealous of it.

I love a table radio - I have a few Tivoli Model 1's and PAL's about - and it's the resemblance to a table radio and it's analog controls that really attracted me to a BB1. I've also considered a really low-powered FM transmitter in the past - hadn't even thought of AM, but in combination with the tone of a valve radio *chef's kiss*. I used to help my father do house clearances etc. and when I think of the number of valve radios / radiograms with beautiful hardwood cases that we heaved into a skip, I could cry.

In many respects, I also got a BB1 precisely because it looked like a self-contained unit, and I wouldn't be tempted to fiddle about with it. I wanted a well-designed opinionated, specialised interface and I thing it succeeds extremely well at that. If it had maintained the alphabetical order when loading new music, I don't think I'd have poked around much.

Looked at coldly, there's little that a smartphone in combination with a good quality wood-trimmed bluetooth speaker couldn't do that a BB1 does. But I think it does a really great job of capturing the romance of fiddling with a dial and listening (and the YT playback is a really smart move for ad-hoc listening).

WRT to the larger display, thanks for the feedback, and I'll take your future positive comments as implied, save your typing :). After a week away from the screen I'm going to make a few changes, and I'm really more interested in what's wrong with it than what's right.

Ta

S

[Sean Inglis]

Hi,

I've made a a few updates including the standalone.html version which should be reflected in the files at the previous links.

* You'll have to re-enter the IP address as I've changed the internal setting name. That shouldn't change again,

* There are 4 new buttons when you tap the display. They toggle on and off the Track, Album, and Artist text, and flip the position of the background image between centered / aligned to top or left. 

* The settings should all now be persisted so if you refresh / reload from now on, you shouldn't have to fiddle to get them the way you want

I still don't have a particularly successful way to scale or wrap the text sensibly when it's displayed - at least not one I like.

There are a lot of different methods to do this all with their own drawbacks so I'll ponder that for a bit

S

[Me My Self and I]

Oh, that is good.

I personally prefer the album art on the left but it is good to have the option.

Thanks again.

I've just fired up my old(ish) Android TV box that I'd been using for a while as a music player whilst I pondered what to get to replace the HiFidelio when it started to fail, before I bought the Brennan.

With the Android box hooked up to the TV I get a really big display! 

I've had to stop using the Surface Pro as not long after I took the picture of it working, the screen started to act up (seems like it is a known, common problem) and it's now making it's way towards e-waste. 

The little white "dot" at the top of the screen is the icon for Alpha VNC which allows me to remote control the Android TV box from the PC. The B2 is just visible in the lower right corner under the TV for scale.

[Dick Cooper]

Paul

Having the app, mobile and new mobile screens showing the track elapsed time like the 'original' would be really useful (answering the question: is that awful song going on much longer??). Any timescale since your 28 April 2021 post please?

Dick.

On Wednesday, 28 April 2021 at 09:58:36 UTC+1 PMB wrote:

[PMB]

Hi Dick,

Martin is aware of the wished for options but hasn't indicated if and when these will be introduced, sorry.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Dick Cooper]

Sean, Looked at coldly, as you say, there's little that a smartphone and a bluetooth receiver can't do that a BB1 or B2 can. With a £90 smartphone, a £30 or so bluetooth receiver (can't remember how much I paid for mine) plugged into my old hi-fi, and some free software (Musicolet is my current preference, uses folders like the B2) I have a handheld music jukebox that can also make phone calls. I bought the phone to control my B2 because the B2 remote doesn't have a display, but now I find I don't really need the B2 at all. Irony, oh irony, you are a bitter fruit, as someone else may have said. If anyone out there is still designing GUIs, here's what my phone/music jukebox looks like. If the B2 looked more like that, maybe I'd still love it. DC.

On Friday, 4 June 2021 at 11:51:50 UTC+1 Sean Inglis wrote:

[Dick Cooper]

Understood - but you wouldn't think it would be too hard to code as the 'original' version of the UI has the elapsed time bar already (and a number showing the volume setting). Anyways, we'll know what the priorities are when a new release comes out.

[Mark Fishman]

>> a handheld music jukebox that can also make phone calls

It's only handheld if you ditch the connection to your old hifi, and then you're probably stuck using earphones. Plus, if you're actually paying for telephone service, you're liable to being interrupted without warning by scammers and telemarketers using auto-diallers -- by some estimates, 80% of all telephone calls in the US are junk or attempts at ID theft. If you don't pay for 'phone service, you might as well just get a portable music player.

What follows should prove that I am not inclined toward a career in marketing.

The Brennan devices are aimed at something else, e.g. a truly self-contained ripping/playback system (amp & loudpeakers included). It seems to be primarily designed for people who listen to randomized playlists and who only occasionally feel the need to find out exactly what is playing at that moment. Because of the somewhat minimalist off-the-shelf hardware employed, it is not as easy as one might wish to make it into "all things to all people". Because the software is not open-sourced, dropping in alternate features, controls, or appearances would have to be done -- and then supported -- entirely by the company, which probably means Martin.

There are other devices on the market, some of which might do more of what you like. Either they are priced substantially higher, or they require considerably more investment of your own time and technical skills. An almost certain path to disappointment is the desire to have one device that is suitable for every purpose (not to mention for everyone). Portable playback, background music for parties, and serious listening are three different needs; at least two, and probably three, different control interfaces and/or devices could be better suited to purpose. If you want only one copy of your entire music library, put it on the network so every device can share it -- but you'll still have to copy (subsets of it?) to carry it with you.

The B2 and BB1 do quite well what they are intended to do. They do not do well what they aren't intended to do at all. I firmly believe that the major failing in this regard is that the pre-sales documents -- brochures, web pages, adverts, enthusiastic descriptions -- are insufficient, and do not clearly and fully describe the intent and limitations of the products. Doing so would reduce sales volume, of course, and probably increase the *average* satisfaction of the remaining buyers, because people looking for something else wouldn't try to shoehorn the Brennan products into their particular desires. A specialist hifi shop is supposed to allow users to find out such information in person before buying -- but no one wants to pay for expertise and shopfronts anymore, so it's more important than ever that internet descriptions be accurate and complete.

Perhaps Martin should hire a tech writer with an engineering background to write such materials.

I'm sorry that you no longer love your B2, but happy that you have found out more about the kind of thing you would prefer. 

-- m.

[Dick Cooper]

Mark, you're right, the real weakness of the Brennan(s) is they're not easily customised. Some desirable features (standby=no, compressionmode=192k) are missing altogether from the B2, and others (mode=classical, show-wifi-strength) are unavailable from the Web UI and only available deep in the confusing menu structure, and I can only display the wi-fi address by turning the machine off - it's not on the info screen. As a former technical writer I don't think the manual is so very bad or misleading  (compared to some I've tried to use - I also own a Cocktail X10) but it's not great (or up to date - only two web UIs?). I agree the design aim is clearly to be a digital music jukebox, which is why I bought one. So, inevitably limited in function. Plus, techincal support exists, as it needs to (I always suspected that the B in the model names stood for beta-testing), which it doesn't for some other machines (I also own a...).

Cheers, Dick

p.s. I don't need to worry about ditching the connection to my hi-hi - I only listen to my music collection in my sitting-room. Oh, and in my car, but the music player there is good enough. Portable playback and parties are not where I listen to music. So I don't mind making one extra copy of my collection - it fits on a 256MB drive (I'm not a FLAC believer - the only lossless listening I know of is having the performer(s) in the same room and not having any CODEC or vinyl or tape in the way).

[Me My Self and I]

I actually ran Musicolet on an Android "TV" box that cost me something like £25. With a large USB stick, and a similarly large uSD card I could load all my music on it and set it to random in a similar way to my B2. I ran thiis for a while and while it did work, it was really difficult getting music on to it. I had to 'pull' the memory devices, which really meant shutting the whole thing down and restarting it. The length of time it took to rescan was painfully slow and it often crashed part way through the scan meaning I had to do it all again. Musicolet itself also seemed prone to crashing after a few days running 24hrs non-stop. I switched to VLC which was much more stable, if not as pretty to my eye. After some months of running this convoluted setup, I decided to go back to my HiFidelio. The Hifidelio was (is) a superb machine, and I would still be using it now if the displays had not eventually packed up totally making it only possible to operate them through VNC. I decided to give the B2 a try. It offered almost everything that I wanted, in a box that could be operated from the 'front'. The menu structure is incomprehensible, but I suppose it made sense to someone, once. I was only disappointed that the TV UI doesn't work well. If the TV UI could be implemented in a similar way to how Sean has managed to implement this 'Web' interface with the addition of sound over HDMI I would have my ideal music player.

Of course my *ideal* player probably differs from everyone else's, and clearly from Martin's. I can live with that. For now, the B2 is the closest thing I've seen to a replacement for the HiFidelio.

[Mark Fishman]

There still seems to be a company selling something called "HiFidelio". Have you tried to have your unit repaired?

[Daniel Taylor]

The B2 will play over the HDMI interface.  AFAIK, there never has been a TV UI.  But the WebUI is easily accessed with a smart-phone or tablet.

[PMB]

Hi Daniel,

Martin introduced a TV UI way back which was, at the time, intended as a debug monitor. However turning it on (Advanced menu) does display Track details and Album Art (if available) on the TV. The code has never been developed since then and the UI is prone to displaying the debug (similar to the one on the web UI) rather than the Track/Art.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Daniel Taylor]

What I've seen on my TV is nothing more than a debug monitor.  AFAIK, there is no way to send commands to the B2.  So I don't think it qualifies as a User Interface, as that would imply two-way communications.