Player poll

Discuss Muso, or get help

What player(s) do you drive from muso?

Squeezebox
11
34%
HQPlayer
13
41%
iTunes
2
6%
Foobar2000
5
16%
Winamp
0
No votes
Default Windows Player
1
3%
 
Total votes: 32

musoware
Site Admin
Posts: 1847
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:50 am

Player poll

Post by musoware »

In order for me to establish whether to continue support for specific players, it would be useful if users of Muso could fill in this player poll.
musoware
Site Admin
Posts: 1847
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:50 am

Re: Player poll

Post by musoware »

Not a great response so far!

I'm making a BETA 2.5 version of muso which is built on top of a newer .NET framework (4.5.1) which should allow me to keep pace with new technologies & libraries, I plan to have the option of an "embedded" player too. Installation will be via ClickOnce technology rather than old-style .msi installers, and it will be one version for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. Winamp support won't be in this version onwards.

Windows XP and similarly old OS's are also at risk - I won't be addressing issues specific to OS's that are de-supported by the 4.5.1 .NET framework and ClickOnce deployment.

I'll keep the existing legacy version available for download though, once BETA 2.5 becomes standard.
RichG
Posts: 215
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 4:46 pm

Re: Player poll

Post by RichG »

Hi Jez,

The biggest concern for me by far is Squeezebox support. Otherwise, having a choice of "Default Windows Player" could be very useful, particularly if it could be configured to trigger windows context commands, such as "enqueue file", and not just "play" - not sure if that would be possible.

Can't see many people missing WinAmp these days and personally I hate iTunes and all things Apple with a vengeance only matched with Margaret Thatcher :evil:

Version 2.5 sounds very interesting. I presume the update to .NET 4.5 will bring along some more CSS3 goodies to play with in our themes, like gradients and text shadows?

Cheers.
musoware
Site Admin
Posts: 1847
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:50 am

Re: Player poll

Post by musoware »

RichG wrote:Hi Jez,

The biggest concern for me by far is Squeezebox support. Otherwise, having a choice of "Default Windows Player" could be very useful, particularly if it could be configured to trigger windows context commands, such as "enqueue file", and not just "play" - not sure if that would be possible.

Can't see many people missing WinAmp these days and personally I hate iTunes and all things Apple with a vengeance only matched with Margaret Thatcher :evil:

Version 2.5 sounds very interesting. I presume the update to .NET 4.5 will bring along some more CSS3 goodies to play with in our themes, like gradients and text shadows?

Cheers.
Are gradients & text shadows not available now? .NET just uses the IE engine internally - back at version 2.0.00 I made the standard pages use the IE9 rendering engine which supports CSS3. I haven't had much time to play with CSS3 in the default themes - but feel free to give it a go in your own themes!

Squeezebox support is not in any danger, after all it's what I use Muso for! I don't see me switching from my multiple squeezebox players any time soon, there is still no serious competition.
RichG
Posts: 215
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 4:46 pm

Re: Player poll

Post by RichG »

IE 9 is missing a few interesting CSS3 options, like gradients, text shadows, transitions and 3D transforms which weren't introduced until IE 10. I'd have tried making use of some of these previously if they were available.

These two pages give a good overview of what's available in the defferent IE versions:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... s.85).aspx
http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css3_browsersupport.asp


My understanding is that .NET 4.5 brings the IE10/11 features into play - but I could well be wrong.
musoware
Site Admin
Posts: 1847
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:50 am

Re: Player poll

Post by musoware »

Pages currently have this meta tag:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9">

So, I'll change that to the following in 2.5 BETA and evaluate any layout issues:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge,chrome=1">
MDE
Posts: 479
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2013 12:05 am

Re: Player poll

Post by MDE »

musoware wrote:Not a great response so far!

I'm making a BETA 2.5 version of muso which is built on top of a newer .NET framework (4.5.1) which should allow me to keep pace with new technologies & libraries, I plan to have the option of an "embedded" player too. Installation will be via ClickOnce technology rather than old-style .msi installers, and it will be one version for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. Winamp support won't be in this version onwards.

Windows XP and similarly old OS's are also at risk - I won't be addressing issues specific to OS's that are de-supported by the 4.5.1 .NET framework and ClickOnce deployment.

I'll keep the existing legacy version available for download though, once BETA 2.5 becomes standard.
I suspect that the reason for the low response is that users only tend to visit this forum if either (a) they have a problem or (b) they are interested in the development of the software. Since Muso usually works very well, this means forum visits are quite limited ;)
This means that there may be quite a few users out there who do not know or care much about the planned changes (maybe still running on old LMS versions too). So long as you keep a legacy version available, I guess that will keep them happy. Another option is to email all users, but that has issues too.
FWIW my own personal vote would be for improvements to the iPad software, which doesn't always work and lacks some of the elegance of the desktop version - presumably because it is designed for phone formats (also I am still having trouble with sleevenotes - see separate post). I usually end up using iPeng on the iPad, now that I have worked out how to get sleevenotes there too, although I prefer the Muso browser if it all works first time.
musoware
Site Admin
Posts: 1847
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:50 am

Re: Player poll

Post by musoware »

MDE wrote: I suspect that the reason for the low response is that users only tend to visit this forum if either (a) they have a problem or (b) they are interested in the development of the software. Since Muso usually works very well, this means forum visits are quite limited ;)
This means that there may be quite a few users out there who do not know or care much about the planned changes (maybe still running on old LMS versions too). So long as you keep a legacy version available, I guess that will keep them happy. Another option is to email all users, but that has issues too.
FWIW my own personal vote would be for improvements to the iPad software, which doesn't always work and lacks some of the elegance of the desktop version - presumably because it is designed for phone formats (also I am still having trouble with sleevenotes - see separate post). I usually end up using iPeng on the iPad, now that I have worked out how to get sleevenotes there too, although I prefer the Muso browser if it all works first time.
I did send a broadcast email to all registered users asking them to participate, I did get my copy, perhaps most didn't.

True there's no remote designed for tablet; it is designed for mobile devices as you surmised. Ideally I want to separate the back-end and front end entirely and make it all browser based, but that will have to come later.
MDE
Posts: 479
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2013 12:05 am

Re: Player poll

Post by MDE »

I didn't get the email.
musoware
Site Admin
Posts: 1847
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:50 am

Re: Player poll

Post by musoware »

MDE wrote:I didn't get the email.
I suspect no-one except myself did - possibly a restriction imposed by by ISP preventing broadcast emails.
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