Using a remote without seeing the device?

[ehart]

Hi Folks,

I don't have one of these devices yet. I use a programmable universal IR remote which doesn't have any sort of display.

The question is, is there a way to play (for example) "album #134" from a remote, without seeing the SB display?

The idea would be to press the "album key", then "1", "3", "4", then maybe another key.

Any ideas?

Cordially,

Eric Hart

[Mark Lanctot]

Hmm...well for the IR remote to work, the Squeezebox must be in your line of sight! :-) Unless you were thinking of something else like IR repeaters.

Any Wi-Fi device can control your Squeezebox without you seeing the SB display or even being in the same room for that matter. So any wireless laptop or PDA, something like a Nokia 770, the new Wi-Fi cellphones and the PSP.

[ehart]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, I have 8 of these remotes spread throughout the house using IR repeaters.

While the other remote methods you describe would be cool, I would really rather use my existing remotes.

The question remains -- is there some way to go straight to a specific album by an ID number, or do you always have to interactively browse (requiring a screen) to an album?

Cordially,

Eric

[azinck3]

See if the directplay plugin found on this page will work for you:
http://ultratrendy.com:31888/slim/

It seems to be exactly what you described, but I've never used it so I'm not sure just how well it will work for you (I can imagine that it might not work if you can't get your squeezeboxes to start in a state where the plugin is ready to accept input and play without first navigating the menus a bit). But you can always download slimserver and softsqueeze and try it all out for free before you buy.

[ehart]

That does look promising. I gather softsqueeze simulates the actual SB device? I'll look into giving it a try. Thanks.

[azinck3]

I gather softsqueeze simulates the actual SB device? I'll look into giving it a try. Thanks.

That's correct. And Softsqueeze is included with the installation of slimserver. To run it after you've installed slimserver, simply access your slimserver homepage and click the link for "softsqueeze" under the heading labeled "Help" in the left column.

The Slim community has Richard Titmuss to thank for that invaluable contribution.

[ehart]

Do you know if it's possible to assign the internal ID in some way? Or do you have to live with the system-generated one?

[azinck3]

Do you know if it's possible to assign the internal ID in some way? Or do you have to live with the system-generated one?

Judging from the description, I'd say the plugin is designed to use the system-generated one. But as I mentioned, I've never used this plugin so I really don't know. You're probably best off contacting its author for further details. In my experience, just about anything's *possible* with slimserver, and there's no reason that you couldn't add a field to the DB to track an arbitrary ID. It's just a matter of how dirty you're willing to get your hands as you dig into the code to make it work exactly how you want it.