TV display

[Steve Woodhouse]

I know I’m flogging a dead horse, but really, if you could just introduce this.

Go to the video below, 1:14 to 1:49.

The image on the TV at 1:40, just give us that please.

Not everyone will either want it use it, but there are surely enough of us who’ll will to make it worthwhile.

Thank you.

 

[cvdlinden]

Work in progress...

From 7" up to 65". I will still need to do some more testing and code cleanup.
Would this work for you @bird ?

 

[castalla]

Work in progress...
View attachment 16261
From 7" up to 65". I will still need to do some more testing and code cleanup.
Would this work for you @bird ?

This is a big tease! Looks what people want... More details please

 

[bird]

Work in progress...

From 7" up to 65". I will still need to do some more testing and code cleanup.
Would this work for you @bird ?

Looks great! Really like the idea to put the format and quality under the progress bar.

 

[castalla]

Work in progress...
View attachment 16261
From 7" up to 65". I will still need to do some more testing and code cleanup.
Would this work for you @bird ?

Do tell us a bit more!

 

[hoohoohoo]

Work in progress...
View attachment 16261
From 7" up to 65". I will still need to do some more testing and code cleanup.
Would this work for you @bird ?

@cvdlinden - looks great at scale!

The back/fwd/play/pause controls have been lifted out (or obscured by a device?). Would you be considering that as a future item or just focusing on a minimalist display for now? I'm assuming that the top right gear is still your debugging aid, so ignoring it for now.

 

[fral]

The Ultra had a touchscreen that was not strictly necessary. It contained a phono that most consumers do not want. I'm just disappointed that they didn't go beyond hdmi pass-thru on a device that's clearly meant to be useful in an AV system.

I replaced my AVR with the Ultra and now I only have to use the TV as a switcher for the DVD player.

We're almost at the end of the game...

Did you think WIIM was just for you?

 

[cvdlinden]

@cvdlinden - looks great at scale!

The back/fwd/play/pause controls have been lifted out (or obscured by a device?). Would you be considering that as a future item or just focusing on a minimalist display for now? I'm assuming that the top right gear is still your debugging aid, so ignoring it for now.

You'll be getting a TV-mode icon in the top right corner to switch between normal operation, with play/pause controls, and a TV optimized layout.
Even in TV mode I figured you'd want to change settings/reload/reboot. And when in TV-mode you'll see the return icon, which is shown on the TV.

When you are on a TV, this one is using the TV Bro App as mentioned by bird, you do get control with your remote. But it is a hassle to move around with a remote. That's why there are no play controls visible. But if you really want you can get the normal layout, with play controls, you can just switch back.

TV mode:

Normal mode:

 

[cvdlinden]

Do tell us a bit more!

This is a work in progress, based on a post from bird in this thread (page-4#post-92784), which in turn is work he did himself based on a post from hoohoohoo (page-2#post-77243), who has referred to my (Raspberry Pi) solution.

Shortish summary:
I wanted a small touchscreen device on my desk while working from home. With immediate controls over pause/play. Whenever I got a call I didn't want to grab my phone to open up the WiiM app to pause and resume after. And I wanted to see at a glance what was playing if anything caught my ears. I'm often wandering through playlists I didn't curate...

Apparently there is a want for displaying the what's playing on a TV. Not really my use case, but this is the result of the efforts to do so. Mind you, it is still being worked on... so keep posted.

Anyway, if you are technically inclined, you can grab the current version here: https://github.com/cvdlinden/wiim-now-playing
Warning: things may get out of your comfort zone. How-to guides are and will be provided there as well.
(If you are really daring you can follow the development branch. Which may break stuff, temporarily.)

I must mention that all was heavily inspired by the WiiM app itself, work done previously by https://github.com/chrishuangcf/wiim-mini-ui and the GUI of Volumio (https://volumio.com/). Which was my previous audio setup before the WiiM Amp.

 

[castalla]

This is a work in progress, based on a post from bird in this thread (page-4#post-92784), which in turn is work he did himself based on a post from hoohoohoo (page-2#post-77243), who has referred to my (Raspberry Pi) solution.

Shortish summary:
I wanted a small touchscreen device on my desk while working from home. With immediate controls over pause/play. Whenever I got a call I didn't want to grab my phone to open up the WiiM app to pause and resume after. And I wanted to see at a glance what was playing if anything caught my ears. I'm often wandering through playlists I didn't curate...

Apparently there is a want for displaying the what's playing on a TV. Not really my use case, but this is the result of the efforts to do so. Mind you, it is still being worked on... so keep posted.

Anyway, if you are technically inclined, you can grab the current version here: https://github.com/cvdlinden/wiim-now-playing
Warning: things may get out of your comfort zone. How-to guides are and will be provided there as well.
(If you are really daring you can follow the development branch. Which may break stuff, temporarily.)

I must mention that all was heavily inspired by the WiiM app itself, work done previously by https://github.com/chrishuangcf/wiim-mini-ui and the GUI of Volumio (https://volumio.com/). Which was my previous audio setup before the WiiM Amp.

Thanks for the update... A few years back I would have tried it... Too long in the tooth now for all the coding, etc.
Just looking for something simple (like the material skin for LMS) and preferably a simple app for Android & fire tv.

 

[vdp]

This is a work in progress, based on a post from bird in this thread (page-4#post-92784), which in turn is work he did himself based on a post from hoohoohoo (page-2#post-77243), who has referred to my (Raspberry Pi) solution.

Shortish summary:
I wanted a small touchscreen device on my desk while working from home. With immediate controls over pause/play. Whenever I got a call I didn't want to grab my phone to open up the WiiM app to pause and resume after. And I wanted to see at a glance what was playing if anything caught my ears. I'm often wandering through playlists I didn't curate...

Apparently there is a want for displaying the what's playing on a TV. Not really my use case, but this is the result of the efforts to do so. Mind you, it is still being worked on... so keep posted.

Anyway, if you are technically inclined, you can grab the current version here: https://github.com/cvdlinden/wiim-now-playing
Warning: things may get out of your comfort zone. How-to guides are and will be provided there as well.
(If you are really daring you can follow the development branch. Which may break stuff, temporarily.)

I must mention that all was heavily inspired by the WiiM app itself, work done previously by https://github.com/chrishuangcf/wiim-mini-ui and the GUI of Volumio (https://volumio.com/). Which was my previous audio setup before the WiiM Amp.

Nice! Would it auto adapt it the TV (or big tablet like screen) is mounted vertically?

Album art taking up the full width on top with details underneath?

 

[cvdlinden]

No it doesn't. It only does that on phone screens, because those are primarily held vertically.

And phones have a sensor to know which orientation it is rotated. TV's normally don't have such a feature.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

No it doesn't. It only does that on phone screens, because those are primarily held vertically.

And phones have a sensor to know which orientation it is rotated. TV's normally don't have such a feature.

Despite it being an oft-requested feature.

 

[E7X7]

I'll venture to ask. Perhaps some of the developers have a «Spotify carthing device». «Plays Now» would be an excellent adaptation. Now it is possible because the device is completely hacked and discontinued.

 

[cvdlinden]

Despite it being an oft-requested feature.

Well then, there you go...

Since I do not have any means to stick a tv vertically to the wall, I'm stuck to simulation in Chrome. If a screen is in portrait mode, it will try and retain that portrait layout. Previews in Chrome however aren't a substitute for the real thing. So let me know how it fares once I release the new version.

Note: The orientation of the screen is handled by the operating system showing the output to the screen. I don't think a tv is capable by itself to know it is in portrait, so you'll need a device to connect to the tv, like a Raspberry Pi.

Edit: I can't recommend turning your display in portrait mode, when it is still physically in landscape.

 

[cvdlinden]

The new release, with TV mode, is up on Github: https://github.com/cvdlinden/wiim-now-playing


Surely there will be things that could've been done better. I'll save them for the next one. I'm done staring at code for now.
Have fun running it on whatever you've set up!

Note: If you are upgrading through Git. Please do an 'npm install' after the 'git pull', and do a reboot to make sure everything is good to go.

 

[LesE]

The new release, with TV mode, is up on Github: https://github.com/cvdlinden/wiim-now-playing
View attachment 16395

Surely there will be things that could've been done better. I'll save them for the next one. I'm done staring at code for now.
Have fun running it on whatever you've set up!

Note: If you are upgrading through Git. Please do an 'npm install' after the 'git pull', and do a reboot to make sure everything is good to go.

This is truly impressive! Kudos to you.

I must admit that I have zero knowledge of Linux but your instructions for the RPi installation were very clear although I did mess up a few times. I currently have a headless RPi 3B that I use as a NAS and DLNA server running Open Media Vault which I used to host your wiim-now-playing server. Since OMV uses port 80, I used port 8000 for the wiim-now-playing server.

Connecting from a PC or Android browser works perfectly. Unfortunately, my Samsung TV using their native web browser didn't work as well. So unless I'm doing something wrong, I may have to try sideloading Chrome or perhaps use a firestick.

Here is the PC display:



and the same with the Samsung TV browser:



Many thanks for this tremendous effort.

 

[cvdlinden]

You're welcome!

The native Sony browser also doesn't want to play nice. Apparently Samsung neither.
My Sony TV is Android TV based and by way of the Google Play Store I installed TV Bro and BrowseHere. Both of them do work properly.

Not sure whether your Samsung is Android TV based as well. If so, give one of those browsers a try. Unfortunately, Android TV doesn't really have an official Chrome browser App.

 

[LesE]

Not sure whether your Samsung is Android TV based as well. If so, give one of those browsers a try. Unfortunately, Android TV doesn't really have an official Chrome browser App.

Unfortunately, Samsung uses the Tizen OS which is Linux based and I'm finding out that side loading apps isn't possible either.

Perhaps a Firestick will be an option. Since my RPi is close to my TV, I may try a direct connection with HDMI using your Kiosk mode instructions.

 

[cvdlinden]

If you already have an Amazon Firestick I would try that first. If not, there are also other Android TV sticks available for not that much money. I haven't personally tested that. Although I wouldn't invest in the really cheap no-name sticks.

 

[castalla]

The Silk browser on Fire stick is less than adequate - no way to stop the whole kaboodle going to a blank screen after there's no cursor movement. You may also find getting rid of the clumsy Silk address bar is difficult.