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.

 

[bird]

I didn't participate in the Plex Beta, but someone else did (@hoohoohoo maybe?). He had the same issue with not showing the album cover. Until it did... I think a simple reload/restart did the trick(?).

Can't remember if I came around to add a Plex icon as the identifier though...
Edit: No I didn't Next stop: Plex testing since it is out of beta.

As far as I know you don't have to be a Beta tester to use the feature. I think it's just in the beta stage and accessible to everyone.

I keep pressing post reply too soon...

Here's something you can do now:
Add /debug to the wiim-now-playing url.
On the debug page you will find the Metadata section with the raw data the WiiM is spitting out.
Under that you can find the 'Album Art URI' extracted.
Check to see if that url is valid, e.g. copy paste it to a new browser tab and see if you do get the artwork.

Thanks! Will try that after work. But it's gonna be a rough ride to implement it into my code since I don't really have any coding skills.

 

[bird]

Okay I open the Album Art URI and I get a high risk and security warning right away. I proceeded and the cover comes up. I then opened the now playing screen again and suddenly the cover is there.
Maybe you have to verify that you want to open the unsecure connection once and then the browser can connect to it. I just hope the browser does remember that.
I added a case "plex" under getSourceIdent and linked it to the .png and now the source icon is correct.

 

[cvdlinden]

I will try to get my Plex server up and running again. Last time my NAS didn't really like that so I removed it not much later.

 

[cvdlinden]

I think I found the issue with Plex. The Album Art is provided over https://, but the server certificate doesn't get recognized and/or is deemed invalid. Unless you specifically tell it to ignore it, which is what you did by verifying (clicking on) the unsecure connection.

My Plex Media Server is running on a local NAS, which doesn't have any certificate to serve over https://. And I'm not investing in installing certificates on it.
I'll probably try and cook something up to check for https:// and replace with http://, which doesn't complain in my browser.

On a side note: I shouldn't have let PMS index my entire music collection... it takes ages to scan everything.

 

[cvdlinden]

Just did a new release which should work with a Plex Media Server.
However, I found in some cases the Album Art is still blocked. If so, try and load the client directly via the ip-address.
Hint: You can find the 'servername.local' and ip-address via the Settings.

For your convenience: https://github.com/cvdlinden/wiim-now-playing

 

[bird]

Amazing, thanks!
What do you mean by loading the client directly via the ip-adress? Can you load it in another way apart vom localhost?

 

[cvdlinden]

Sure you can, there are three ways:

1. The computer or machine where wiim-now-playing runs can be reached through http://localhost, if you are working on that same machine.
2. Obviously your network will assign this computer a local ip-address (starting either with something like 10.0.0.x or 192.169.0.x). So you can use http://192.168.0.x to get to it from another machine. Say a browser app on your tv.
   Note: the ip-address isn't fixed so if for instance you reboot your isp modem/router, things may get reassigned. And you have to look it up again.
3. But the same computer can also be reached by its name e.g. http://hostname.local, where hostname is the name you gave to the computer. Which is a lot easier to remember than the specific ip-address of the machine, which may change over time. (Look up mDNS if you want to know more)

The Plex album art apparently only works when using localhost or the ip-address, and fails using the computername.

You can find your current ip and hostname via the Settings icon (in the latest versions).

 

[bird]

Alright, then I guess I already use the correct way. Thanks!

 

[LesE]

Just did a new release which should work with a Plex Media Server.
However, I found in some cases the Album Art is still blocked. If so, try and load the client directly via the ip-address.
Hint: You can find the 'servername.local' and ip-address via the Settings.

For your convenience: https://github.com/cvdlinden/wiim-now-playing

I recently installed Plex on my RPi3 and ran into the same problem of missing album art. Interestingly, using Plex's DLNA server did not experience this same problem. So, I applied your update and Plex is now working perfectly with wiim-now-playing.

Thanks again @cvdlinden

 

[cvdlinden]

For anyone that missed the announcement: "Something Big is Coming to WiiM Home"
Currently only Apple TV ready. https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/something-big-is-coming-to-wiim-home.6790/

 

[LesE]

After a few failed attempts, I finally managed to get WiiM Now Playing on my Samsung TV without having to cast from a tablet.

Initially, I attempted to run chromium in kiosk mode on my RPi 3B but it unfortunately trashed my OMV installation. Since I did create an image of my SD card beforehand, there was no harm done. I did make a couple of attempts to create a native Tizen app but I was unsuccessful. I finally gave in and setup a separate RPi with Chromium in kiosk mode which pretty much gives me what I was looking for. Aside from a few hiccups, the installation went smoothly. I have it set to never time out so I only need to switch to the HDMI input and the album art is there. I may also try Firefox just for fun.

Thanks again @cvdlinden .

 

[cvdlinden]

After a few failed attempts, I finally managed to get WiiM Now Playing on my Samsung TV without having to cast from a tablet.

Initially, I attempted to run chromium in kiosk mode on my RPi 3B but it unfortunately trashed my OMV installation. Since I did create an image of my SD card beforehand, there was no harm done. I did make a couple of attempts to create a native Tizen app but I was unsuccessful. I finally gave in and setup a separate RPi with Chromium in kiosk mode which pretty much gives me what I was looking for. Aside from a few hiccups, the installation went smoothly. I have it set to never time out so I only need to switch to the HDMI input and the album art is there. I may also try Firefox just for fun.

Thanks again @cvdlinden .

View attachment 19920

Two questions:
1. Is your TV a 4K or a HD (1080p) display?
2. Have you pulled the latest release of WiiM Now Playing?

Why I'm asking is because your text looks a bit small. The latest release is a bit more friendly for large displays i.e. enlarged fonts so the Artist and Song title are more readable from a distance.

If you've installed through Git you can do a 'git pull' and do an 'npm install' afterwards, then restart your Pi ('sudo reboot').
If installed through a zip file, then download the latest release and unzip over the install. Please do an 'npm install' to update any packages and a reboot would do it good.

If you're happy with this font size, feel free to ignore me

 

[LesE]

1. Is your TV a 4K or a HD (1080p) display?

It's a 75" 4K display (Samsung 75Q70R).

2. Have you pulled the latest release of WiiM Now Playing?

The last update that I applied fixed the Plex issue. That was back on March 23rd. Has there been an update since then?

Why I'm asking is because your text looks a bit small. The latest release is a bit more friendly for large displays i.e. enlarged fonts so the Artist and Song title are more readable from a distance.

Yes, the text is a little small and I thought that it might be browser related thus the interest in possibly trying Firefox.

I did use git for the original installation and I followed your instructions to apply the update which resolved the Plex issue. I can certainly repeat the process if there has been a later update within the past month.

 

[cvdlinden]

Then you should've gotten the latest release. That one was from 3 weeks ago, which seems about right.
You could do a 'git fetch' and then a 'git status' to see if you're up to date. If it states that you're behind you can always do a 'git pull'.

I haven't tried to connect an RPi directly through HDMI to a 4K display. To be continued...

 

[LesE]

You could do a 'git fetch' and the a 'git status' to see if you're up to date. If it states that you're behind you can always do a 'git pull'.

It appears that git fetch is failing for some reason. I don't recall experiencing this issue previously. I recently transferred my OMV system to a new RPi and the network settings may have gotten messed up in the process.

omv@raspberrypi:~ $ cd wiim-now-playing/
omv@raspberrypi:~/wiim-now-playing $ git fetch
fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/cvdlinden/wiim-now-playing.git/': Could not resolve host: github.com
omv@raspberrypi:~/wiim-now-playing $ git status
On branch main
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/main'.

Changes not staged for commit:
(use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
(use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
modified: server/index.js

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
omv@raspberrypi:~/wiim-now-playing $

 

[LesE]

@cvdlinden , Yes, my network settings were messed up. I think I'm good now (no errors). Does this status indicate that an update is required?

omv@raspberrypi:~/wiim-now-playing $ git fetch
omv@raspberrypi:~/wiim-now-playing $ git status
On branch main
Your branch is behind 'origin/main' by 12 commits, and can be fast-forwarded.
(use "git pull" to update your local branch)

Changes not staged for commit:
(use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
(use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
modified: server/index.js

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")