Announce: Material Skin

[the_arm]

Hi! I'm not sure if this belongs in the Material Skin thread or a thread for Music and Artist Information, but here goes. Recently I've been having an issue which I don't think has existed forever (I'd think I would have noticed) where the Material seems to be displaying album art generated from Music and Artist Information inconsistently. It's true if I use the android app or if I just navigate to the LMS material page on my mobile phone.
Specifically:
* on albums where I haven't yet gotten around to adding album art and Music and Artist Information plugin magically takes care of it for me
* On I CAN see album art on a computer browser (both in queue and when clicking to make the player big) AND using the Material android app on a tablet (sideloaded onto two different Kindle Fires, specifically) on the "Playing" and Queue Tab
* I do NOT see album art on a mobile phone either from the material android APP nor from a browser (Samsung Internet or Chrome) on the "Playing" Tab
* But, the art DOES show up on the "Queue" tab though in tiny thumbnail format.

Nothing obvious stood out to me when looking at the settings within the material app nor the Music and Artist Information plugin...and it's weird to me that it is working on larger android screens but not the smaller one.

Is there some kind of cache I should be clearing? I tried clearing the app cache on the android app, but that didn't help.

I could solve this by finally finding the time to put album art in place - been procrastinating on that project for ages :-)

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

[Shozzer]

Ha! I forget things at the best of times!

I was pleased to see your edit. I use both SB Player and SqueezePlayer, and under your original suggestion this would have meant that both would start automatically. I didn't think it fair to start suggesting additional menu options. Since, however, you have suggested it then yes please... The ability to open either app from within Material would be a great feature.

Thanks again.

Steve

To be honest, I forgot! However, I've just added an option to auto-start a local player when the APK is started. Currently SB Player, SqueezePlayer, and Squeezelite (via Termux) are supported. Can't test SqueezePlayer as I have not purchased it, but it should work. As for Squeezelite this starts, but I'm unsure how to stop it! So, starting Material APK again starts a new instance, etc.

I'm also unsure if auto-start or a button to manually start is the best way.

[Edit] Actually I'm going to expand on this. There will be a settings to set which app to use for local player, whether to auto-start, add a menu entry to start, and an option to stop Squeezelite

[cpd73]

Ha! I forget things at the best of times!

I was pleased to see your edit. I use both SB Player and SqueezePlayer, and under your original suggestion this would have meant that both would start automatically. I didn't think it fair to start suggesting additional menu options. Since, however, you have suggested it then yes please... The ability to open either app from within Material would be a great feature.

Thanks again.

Steve

Most of the code is now done - and currently Squeezelite (via Termux) is the most integrated. However, you should be able to start SB Player and SqueezePlayer automatically or via a menu item. (Menu item currently requires dev version of MaterialSkin (in its 3.1 branch).

If you PM me your email address I could send you a dev build of the APK and skin for you to try with SqueezePlayer.

[carldickson]

Android Wear OS

Hi,

How difficult would it be for you to integrate the media options on Android OS Watches like the Galaxy? For play, pause etc.

Thanks

also I would be interested in testing version 3.1 for auto loading Squeezeplayer. Cant PM you as im new here.

[cpd73]

How difficult would it be for you to integrate the media options on Android OS Watches like the Galaxy? For play, pause etc.

To be honest, no idea! But if you mean in the APK, then I don't think android allows this - as the APK itself has no media streams, as its not playing sound itself.

also I would be interested in testing version 3.1 for auto loading Squeezeplayer. Cant PM you as im new here.

Don't like posting my email address to forums - but you can find it in all the source files (see https://github.com/CDrummond/lms-mat...msmaterial/app) Send me an email and I'll reply with the dev versions. Please note, these are very early releases, as I am still developing this.

[Shozzer]

To integrate with a Galaxy watch you can open Material in the watch web browser - the result is small but can be resized and is actually quite usable - even with my fat fingers! It does, however, take a few seconds to load into the browser. Failing that, if you have SqueezeControl then that integrates with the watch.

Steve

Hi,

How difficult would it be for you to integrate the media options on Android OS Watches like the Galaxy? For play, pause etc.

Thanks

also I would be interested in testing version 3.1 for auto loading Squeezeplayer. Cant PM you as im new here.

[carldickson]

To integrate with a Galaxy watch you can open Material in the watch web browser - the result is small but can be resized and is actually quite usable - even with my fat fingers! It does, however, take a few seconds to load into the browser. Failing that, if you have SqueezeControl then that integrates with the watch.

Steve

I found squeezecontrol drained my battery, and one else get this?

[RobbH]

I found squeezecontrol drained my battery, and one else get this?

Just for what it's worth, Squeezer also can activate the media controls on a Wear OS watch. Leaving it on will have some impact on the battery, but I don't know if it would qualify as draining the battery.

[ucw]

All Artists > 25.000

Hi all,

I've tried searching this thread, have run through the files in the plugin folder for Material Skin but I can't seem to find a setting or string where I can get my 'All Artist'-view to show more than 25.000. I have around 25.750 and I miss some artists at the end of the alphabet.

Please advice on getting 'All Artists' to show more than 25.000 - or at least 26.000 ... It's probably very easy but I really can't find it...

Happy holidays - and thank you...

To Mr. Drummond (@cpd73) - what an effort and what a useful "skin". Thank you so much!

Best regards
Ulrik

[cpd73]

I've tried searching this thread, have run through the files in the plugin folder for Material Skin but I can't seem to find a setting or string where I can get my 'All Artist'-view to show more than 25.000. I have around 25.750 and I miss some artists at the end of the alphabet.

Material will only fetch 25k items. Handling even this many, let alone more, in one list just seems mad. This implies roughly 1k items per letter. To me, that is just not practical - especially on a phone. I can increase the limit, its just a constant chosen at random, but a 25k list of items is excessive.

[ucw]

Material will only fetch 25k items. Handling even this many, let alone more, in one list just seems mad. This implies roughly 1k items per letter. To me, that is just not practical - especially on a phone. I can increase the limit, its just a constant chosen at random, but a 25k list of items is excessive.

And it makes sense of course. I've already startet making sure that I'll get my 'composers' and artists from compilations alligned but it will indeed take some time, a work in progress. Those compilations have a lot of contributing artists (and composers). Some where the Ü is set as an U on the same artist from the original rip. If the number could be somewhat increased it would end 2022 on a high note.

And again thank you for all the effort and a more than useful skin - will keep my LMS eco system running for years...

Best regards
Ulrik

[knorst]

Hi,
first of all, thank you for this stunning skin! It's fantastic!

Just a small issue, I just realized, that it is not possible to fast forward by moving the knob when streaming long music files from SoundCloud...
Anyone experiencing the same problem?

[cpd73]

Just a small issue, I just realized, that it is not possible to fast forward by moving the knob when streaming long music files from SoundCloud...

Don't use SoundCloud - but I assume you mean the song progress bar (as there is no knob). If this does not work I suspect its an issue with the SoundCloud plugin.

[knorst]

Don't use SoundCloud - but I assume you mean the song progress bar (as there is no knob). If this does not work I suspect its an issue with the SoundCloud plugin.

exactly, the progress bar. When I switch to squeezer-App it works, but not, when I use with material skin...but it's not a big deal, as I can switch to the squeezer-App on the fly, whereas I prefer Material skin ;-)

[simoh]

How do I play a radio URL with Material? With the default skin, I have 'Tune In URL' in the radio menu. With material, I can't see this.
Simon.