Reviews & Comments
Reviews and Comments about SqueezeCommander:
Review by Clinton Stark from StarkSilverCreek (US):
[...]
Now, I can control the entire system from the palm of my hand using trusty Droid. And the software is extremely well executed, supporting swiping of screens, pop up menus, large format album art (for me, essential). It’s fast, allowing me to scroll through hundreds of artists on the server upstairs with the flick of a finger.It’s the ultimate remote control.
[...]
Review by Digiplace (Netherlands):
[...]
Met behulp van deze applicatie gebruik je de Android telefoon (in mijn geval een HTC Magic met de standaard Vodafone 1.6 firmware) als grafische remote voor het bedienen van de server. En dat werkt zonder enig voorbehoud fantastisch goed!
[...]
Kortom: Warm aanbevolen voor iedereen met een Android telefoon én een Logitech Squeezebox.
Some comments from Android Market:
“In my opionin the best app for Squeezeboxes on Android. You have a kind of SB Touch.” – Percy
“Ein muss für alle squeezebox-besitzer. Unterstützt mysqueezebox.vom. Ist jeden Cent wert.” – Andreas
“Brilliant app, worth every penny, quicker then the remote” – Nick
“Appli la plus complète pour le contrôle des squeezebox. Ne manque plus que la lecture en streaming sur le téléphone.” – Raphaël
“I really cannot praise this enough. Very slick and intuitive UI. Access to your SB apps. Stable. Got a Squeezebox? Buy this now.” – Anton
“This is better than I expected, simple to connect and straight into my Napster account on my Nexus 1. This is a must for SB owners.” – Martin
“Wow. I’m particularly impressed by the responsiveness which means it’s useable in practice. Worth every penny.” – Mark Wheadon
“Wow. Wow. I’ve tried some of the other apparently for Squeezebox but this is by far the most complete of them. Thanks for the app.” – Kjartan Abel
“Wow it works so well. No config hell, it just function right off the bat” – Mots
“Sehr gute app. Erfüllt ihren zweck und ist jeden rappen wert. Besonders praktisch: man kann die musik direkt auch auf’s phone kopieren” – datacore
“Love the pause of my home stereo when i get an incoming call on my cell. People are amazed.” – Johnny
“Highly impressed. Worth every penny. Didn’t have a remote for my Squeezebox, this is even better.” – grupstra
“I tried every free squeeze box app in the market (ok so I’m cheap) but I could get none to work. With this ap in 5 minutes my house was rockin!” – Joseph
“Tried free apps first and none of them worked for me, this app worked straight away, has great features and gets regular updates.”- Justin
“Met afstand de beste controller voor mijn squeezebox classic. The best controller there is.” – Digiplace
See all comments on Android Market.
If you like my work, buy me a beer. (Suggested: 3€ for a beer, or more for more beer ;-) )
I managed to get android market working and purchase the app – well worth doing.
I followed the instructions here http://www.google.co.uk/support/forum/p/Android+Market/thread?tid=0d08062f4040774b&hl=en
Great app, well designed, works well.
Would be great if I could use it from a public network and for it to initiate streaming from my squeezecenter to my HTC Desire.
Looking forward to future developments – Thanks
Hi. Excellent application. Thank you. It goes lot farer then other alternatives. It is fast and responsive… Well done.
I suggest that you make a “playing now” widget to put on the home screen. That would be so great.
It’s on the TODO list:
http://www.squeezecommander.com/trac/ticket/7
I can add the Samsung Moment to the list of phones with which this works well. I got mine tonight and after setting it up I went right to the Android Market to order SqueezeCommander. I think it’s funny how some folks complain that an app costs money when it’s so little and so worth the price. Thanks for your generous efforts!
Would really love to buy the app! But I can’t, because Market does not accept my valid amex-cc. I don’t know what to do to pay. Sorry.
You may want to try SlideME:
https://slideme.org/application/squeeze-commander
Or contact Google Checkout Helpdesk about the issue.
Christian
I’ll try that, thanks for the info!
OK, just found out they accept AMEXCO in the US only, but display the logo and accept the input of the card and confirm it as valid. This is a very strange behavior. I’ll try slideme once I find the time to register for another service…
Thanks again.
Superb App! Thanks again!
Super that you put it on SlideME as payapps are unavailable in Denmark. It seems that Google adopted some policies from Steeve Jobs.
It’s a really impressing app you’ve made. I was astonished when the first call muted my box – excellent feature. It’s even working better and faster than iPeng and more responsive than the original Squeezebox Duet remote.
I still haven’t found the way to group several devices making me able to control volume simultaniously
Leif,
You can sync multiple players using the sync button (“~”).
Synced players will play the same music, but you cannot change the volume on all players simultaneously, yet (like it is possible in iPeng).
I’ll probably add such a feature in the future…
Christian
Does this app work on the new HTC EVO?
Doug,
Yes, that should work without problems.
(BTW: If you have such a device, please contact me by mail and you can become an official beta tester. I’m searching for someone with an HTC EVO…)
Christian
android AT flattermann DOT net
Thanks, Christian. That’s great to hear. I don’t have the evo yet, but I will in a couple weeks and i’ll contact you then.
Great app!!! Do you have a roadmap or wishlist (published) for further developments? I would like to see an improvement during browsing though lists. I can understand that not all information is available when browsing, but maybe it is possible to show the first letter (like on the touch) when you are racing through a large list.
Joost,
I’ve installed a Bug/Feature tracker for SqueezeCommander:
http://www.squeezecommander.com/trac/
Feel free to create new tickets for bugs/feature requests or comment existing tickets.
There’s also a roadmap that includes most of the accepted features for the next version (0.9.4.3 right now):
http://www.squeezecommander.com/trac/roadmap
The A-Z index is a good idea (could you please create a ticket for this?), but it needs some prerequisites, namely a complete caching of the albums/artists/… information, because right now, we cannot know the first letter of the list entries while scrolling because the entries are loaded from the server on the fly.
Thanks,
Christian
Hi Christian,
I will look into this later today, since I cannot open the links from where I am now…..
About the prerequisites you mention: does it have to be a complete cache? If you have that available, the need for an A-Z index is less urgent, since the information can be shown instantly when you stop scrolling.
“All” you need for the indexing is the number of items in the list, and knowing where each index starts. (updating during playing?). Then, when you stop scrolling, you can get the complete data from the server.
But a complete cache, when it does not take to much space store and time to maintain, would be much better of course
Joost
Joost.
Wow. hanks. SqueezeCommander is a lot better than my Squeezebox Touch for remote control. No endless turning that silly wheel to scroll through my 4000 artists.
Now if you could get the music to play on my HTC Hero (like the Touch does) it would be perfect, especially if it could access my home server remotely.
Does this work with the Touch? I assume so, but couldn’t find a confirmation.
Thanks,
Rick
Jarome,
Playback is a planned feature, but it turned out to be much more complicated than expected… :-/
See also http://www.squeezecommander.com/trac/ticket/4
Christian
Rick,
Yes, SqueezeCommander works without problems with a Touch!
The only caveat is that you cannot download your music from the Touch to the Android mobile, because the Web Interface (http://serverip:9000) is missing on the Touch and that’s needed for downloads.
(Well, you can activate it through SSH, but it will not work out-of-the-box…)
Christian
Christian,
Short reply;
Excellent app., which has singularly resurrected my squeezebox server and players. I’m running it on an HTC Droid @ 2.1 Android, with SqueezeCentre 7.3.3 running on a QNAP TS-119 (on latest firmware, about 3k FLAC albums), with 2 network receivers, a classic 3, and a boom, with one controller now running with 7.5 fimware(I’ll explain later).
Longer;
I’ve been running with 2 recievers and 1 classic with the above server configuration for about a year now. All of my collection is FLAC ripped directly from my CD collection, about 3K cds in total. I’ve never been overly happy with the performance, particularly when using larger playlists (about 1k tracks), and synchronisation. The controller (when using the appropriate 7.3 r???? firmware) would take an age to switch between players, but it was workable with patience.
Apparently SqueezeCentre 7.3.3 is the most stable release of the server for the QNAP TS-119, and I’m not too bothered about the additional functionality in the later releases, so I don’t want to upgrade the server.
Recently I added a Boom to the network, at around the same time I added your app to my phone. Everything ground to a glitchy halt, which is a little disappointing. I could no longer use playlists, or synchronisation reliably. I’d previously tried the 7.5 firmware on the controller, and it worked much better, apart from some missing functionality eg ‘adding to playlist’, which I use a lot, so I had to revert to the 7.3 controller firmware.
I did some extensive testing yesterday in order to identify what was causing the performance issues, your app, or the additional Boom (which I was about to sell). In short it’s the 7.3 firmware on the controller that’s the bottleneck, if you switch more than once between players with large playlists the server will eventually spin into a non recoverable 100% CPU level, mysqld being the culprit, I think the controller is deadlocking with itself, at which point I have to re-boot the server.
However I’ve been using your app as the controller for 24 hours now, I can add a playlist of over 1k tracks to all four players and synchronise them in a matter of seconds, repeatedly and reliably, with no glitches or pauses. I’ve left the controller on the 7.5 firmware, which I can use when the phone’s not at hand, it’s not perfect but it doesn’t degrade the performance of the system and is 90% functional. Add to that the additional functionality for cueing up next track, bumping up the track list etc., and I can now DJ in real time, excellent!
This is much better than using any Logitec software/hardware interface…
…oops sorry HTC Desire, not Droid (must have Android on the brain!)
Is it possible to add a volume control at this great full app, that would be niche.
Dirk,
what do you mean?
You can control the volume of all players on the PlayerServerScreen ( see http://www.squeezecommander.com/trac/wiki/MultiPlayerMultiServerScreen ).
Furthermore, you can control the volume of the current player with the hardware Vol+/Vol- buttons on your phone.
Christian
hi,
can anyone tell me, whether SqueezeCommander supports 3rd party plugins – especially Dynamic Pllaylist in combination with SQL-Playlist?
…I simply want to select and play such dynamic playlists via Commander(not necessarily editing).
cheers
andrej
I’m having trouble switching between the Squeezebox server and my Rhapsody service running on the touch. How do I switch sources?
andrej,
No, this does not work yet, but I’m working on it.
Christian
Jeff,
What do you mean with “Rhapsody service running on the Touch”?
Rhapsody is available as Squeezebox App.
That means you need to install the App through the App Gallery.
After that, you can access Rhapsody through the “My Apps” section in SqueezeCommander.
Christian
Ok, let me try to explain (bear with me, I purchased a Squeezebox Touch yesterday and am trying to get everything up and working). So far the only problem I’m having is the following:
I can see and play my Rhapsody library from the Touch.
I can SEE my Rhapsody subscription library and browse on SqueezeCommander but I can’t see a way to PLAY a song or album. How do I initiate a new Rhapsody song/album from the Droid?
I can get as far as selecting an album, getting the track list, selecting a song — but then all I see is song info — with no way to play. The top of the screen says “Playlist Empty.” No album art is displayed.
If I do the same from the Touch, I can play the album and SqueezeCommander then displays album art, gives me the track list and I can select a different song, etc. Everything works — but I can’t choose another album from the Rhapsody library.
Jeff
Hmm, guess it helps to read the documentation….
Press and hold for 1 second. That brings up the PLAY option.
OK. But if I want to change artist/album do I have to go all the way back to “my apps” and then “Rhapsody” and then “my library” and so forth?
I don’t see a shorter path.
Jeff
But that said…
I love it! SqueezeCommander + Squeezebox + Rhapsody finally, FINALLY, gives me what I’ve been waiting/hoping for — any music controlled via remote control from the Droid.
Thank You!
Jeff,
right now, you need to follow the path as described (My Apps -> Rhapsody -> My Library).
But I’ll try to improve this in the future, e.g. save and restore the last position in the menu hierarchy…
(This is valid if you already went back to the NowPlayingScreen in the meantime. If you are still in Rhapsody, you can use the BACK button to go back a screen…)
Christian
Thanks a lot Christian for implementing Dynamic Pllaylist in combination with SQL-Playlist into SqueezeCommander. …what do you think, when will it be available? ..roughly?
..can’t wait
cheers
andrej
andrej,
Well, Dynamic Playlists should work as soon as SqueezePlay menus are implemented.
I’m working on that right now, but I need to implement something else (Comet connections) first, because that’s a prerequisite.
http://www.squeezecommander.com/trac/ticket/6
http://www.squeezecommander.com/trac/ticket/125
I hope that both things will be implemented until the end of October.
Add yourself to the CC of the tickets if you like to get notified as soon as this is implemented.
Christian
Hi Christian,
Have just purchased SqueezeCommander for HTC Desire and am having a problem but I am sure it must be operator error which is why I have not raised a defect. Basically, I cannot find out how to actually PLAY an album, or a track. The only way I’ve been able to play any music is to individually add tracks to a playlist, which seems like an overly complicated way of doing things.
All I want to be able to do is play an album, from the start, from the Music Library | Albums view, and when I hold down my finger on either the album in that list, or the All Songs entry for that album, I get a popup menu which gives the option to Play | Add | Insert | Download. Choosing Play here does nothing (although it does say ‘Now playing from…’
Now, something MUST be mis-configured or am I missing a trick here? I can’t see any setting and my SB works fine with regular remote and iPeng on my iTouch, so I am certain it’s something to do with SqueezeCommander.
Any and all help much appreciated, but if I don’t get a response in the next 24 hours I’ll have to go for the refund – which would be a shame as it looks like a great app if I can only get it to work.
Thanks.
Hi John,
Well, I’ve never heard of such a problem. :-/
You are right, if you select PLAY from the context menu, it should start playing immediately.
Have you tried to restart everything (Router, Server, Phone…)?
I see that you also sent me an email describing your problem.
I’ll answer to this email, because it’s easier and faster than communicating through the comments here.
Christian
Follow up: We were able to solve the problem by restarting all components (router, server, squeezebox, phone).
I cannot find Squeezecommander on Market.
Is there any other way of downloading this program?
Best Regards
David
David,
Unfortunately, Google does not offer paid apps in all countries (e.g. Sweden and Denmark are not supported). :-/
Therefore, I’ve also added SqueezeCommander to SlideME:
https://slideme.org/application/squeeze-commander
SlideME should work in almost any country, as long as you have access to a credit card or to Amazon Payments.
Christian
It is a pretty good app. The one glaring problem I have found so far is that it does not display the playlist items correctly. It displays all of the playlist items as the same despite the fact that they are different.
Example. i have station 1 playing.
I then add stations 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 to the playlist. When I go into the playlist to reorder them or to check them out, they all display as station 1 (the station playing) despite the fact that they are all different stations.
They will play in order, but again the second station 2 starts playing all of the other stations show as station 2 etc.
Is there a fix for this?
Droid Eris, 2.1 Android.
Marshall,
I never heard of this problem before…
I just tried it here, and it works as expected…
Does this happen to you for any radio station?
Could you please describe step-by-step what to do to reproduce the problem?
Thanks,
Christian
I will try.
1) open the app and select any station.
2) start playing one of the stations. When in the album art mode slide the screen to the left to reveal the playlist.
It will show the picture and name of the album/artist being played.
3) while that is playing go and select any other station.
4) select the station to play and pick “add to playlist” under the choices.
4a) you could also select insert as that just puts it as the next station to play. You can also select several and repeat steps 3-4.
5) go back to the currently playing screen and slide the screen to the left again to show the playlist.
6) Now the current station playing shows as always and the added stations are there as well.
6a) the only problem is that each station (while different) shows the same name and picture as the current playing station! I have put upwards of 7 stations in there before and this happens.
7) when the station plays it is the right station, but just the wrong picture and name.
any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Forgot to add. When the station is finished playing the playlist stations all change to the correct picture and name of the next on the playlist. This continues as each plays one after the other.
So in summary,
the station plays the correct content, but you can’t tell what is playing next unless you happen to remember the order , or you wait until the station starts playing and then it is revealed.
Hi Christian and thanks again for this app.
I barely use my squeezebox remote when my phone is too far and I’m too lazy to go and get it
Do you think it would be possible to support the use of squeezecommander on the lockscreen as long as there isn’t a music player on the lockscreen already?
Thanks,
Nicolas