Announce: Headphone Switcher for Squeezebox Duet

[bluegaspode]

Did you realize that your Controller has a headphones socket ? But the sounds comes through the speaker though you plugged in Headphones ?
Actually this is a know bug (http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=10073) which didn't get fixed for quite some time now.
So I decided to write a small applet, which would make me able to switch headphones manually via a menu:



Please note:

• this applet is tested and working with a 7.3 to 7.5 firmware
• this applet will install a new menu-item 'headphone switch' on the 'extras'-menu, which leads to the submenu you can see in the screenshot. If you don't see the extras-menu, you need to turn it on under 'settings->menu'
• this applet switches to headphone in the moment the menu-item is used. There is no built-in protection against any changes that the controller is doing. So if you remove headphones and insert them again then the controller was in charge and might override the setting from the applet. Same could happen when switching music-libraries, turning the controller on/off whatever ... I just don't know.
  You then have to go back to the menu to switch again.
  BEWARE: going to bed with headphones turned on and your wife sleeping beside you maybe isn't a good idea as long as you didn't test for sideeffects. I don't know if and under what circumstances the controller decides to switch back to speakers

Hope that you will have more fun with this applet.

If you like this work maybe take a short second to donate to third party developers who try to bring you joy in their free time.
Use the following link if you want to send a small 'thank you' via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/websc...=ZXNEJ4HRZ3YNY (PayPal collects about 0.50USD from your donation)


By the way: If you face the issue, that headphones aren't switching automatically, before you use this applet, PLEASE take the time, create a bugzilla account and vote for the bug !
I think it also makes sense to leave a comment there.

7.3.x install instructions
==========================

• open WebUI of SqueezeboxServer, there open settings.
• go to the 'Advanced'-Tab, select 'Extension Downloader'
• under 'Additional Repositories' add 'http://www.stagessound.de/bluegaspode.xml' and apply. It looks as if nothing changed, but the fun part now is at the controller
• take your controller, select 'Settings->Advanced->Applet Installer', there you will find the 'Headphone Switcher'.
• select it and start the install, your controller will restart and you will find the applet under 'extras'-menu

7.4.x + 7.5.x install instructions
==========================

• actually you have to do the same steps as in 7.3, but menus on SqueezeboxServer and Controller have changed a bit:
• Again on SqueezeboxServer go the the settings, this time to the tab 'Plugins'. At the lower end you will find 'Additional repositories' where you can add the URL from above.
• On the Controller the menu-structure for installing applets changed a bit as well. Again go to 'Settings->Advanced->Applet Installer', select the Headphone-Switcher and then select the option 'Install'.
  No go one menu up where you will find a button 'Install/Remove 1/0', if you press it, all selected applets will be downloaded and installed. Your Controller then restarts.
• On the 7.4 firmware the 'Extras' menu doesn't show by default. You have to activate it under 'Settings->Home Menu'.

Tips for better playback
==========================
If you are not satisfied with the playback of your controller (pops, crackles) the following tips might help:

• Try to turn of the 'Now Playing' Screensafer while playing music (you can configure this under the screensafers setting). This screen draws some computational power which should be better used for playback
• Try to use low-bitrate mp3 first (192kB/s). You might also try to have your server automatically transcode the music on the fly to lower bitrates (if it sends streams to the Controller only of course). Go to the Settings-Screen on the Web-UI, choose the Controller and than audio -> there you'll find appropiate settings.

ChangeHistory:
===============
28.08.2009: first version
30.08.2009: added danish (thanks to Kuben72) + german translations.
30.08.2009: added instructions for running under 7.4
31.08.2009: full feature set under 7.4 (>r7335), automatic detection of 7.3/7.4 firmware
01.09.2009: install from SqueezeCenter, no manual upload to SBC anymore
30.09.2009: updated 7.4 install instructions
01.10.2009: fixed unaligned popup-texts on 7.4
01.10.2009: created new option 'Improve Audio Playback' for 7.4.0-users, see http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...814#post464814 for details

[gharris999]

Bravo! I'll give this a try!

[tcutting]

Thanks!

Great work on the applet!
The "automatic" headphone switching worked for me once or twice, but usually didn't. I voted for the bug quite some time ago. At one point I modified the settings to force the output to the headphone, but I like having the audio feedback on the speaker, so I reversed the change. Your applet is a nice solution. Hopefully you can figure out how to get it to work under V7.4 by the time I'm ready to switch version!
Thanks!
PS- I'm listening to some Stevie Ray Vaughan on headphones through my controller as I write this!

[Kuben72]

Yes, this is a great little applet.
I took the liberty of adding localisation so it would speak danish to me.

EDIT: And now I just realised that the english I have added is different that yours. Sorry I will change it back

[Kuben72]

And now with the originally English translation

[bluegaspode]

Cool!

I added german as well and reverted all log-messages to english.
The current version is uploaded to the wiki.

[Muele]

Great, thanks.
I will definately install this when I find the time for it. I already voted for the bug. Actually this was the bug that made me create a bugzilla-account.

I made change to the controller described elsewhere in the forums, but to be able to switch back to the speaker for the system-sounds is great.
Is there a way for you to monitor how many times the applet is installed? Just to get some indication how many suffers enough from this problem to do the effort og installing you applet.

[bluegaspode]

Is there a way for you to monitor how many times the applet is installed?

No - in the wiki there doesn't seem to be a download-count.

[Kuben72]

If anyone knows how-to we should get this applet under some sort of version control so we can make sure that we don't overwrite each others changes.

Funny how such a small piece of software can make your life a bit easier.

[Zn0rt]

Yes!

THANK YOU FOR THIS APP!!!!

Well, this is open source doing what it does best. I will not say much about my thoughts as to why Logitech can't get this working (yes, its a Beta feature... and it has been a beat feature for oh soooo long), so this is where open source picks up the slack of the manufacturer.

-Z

[bluegaspode]

How to: run under 7.4

[edit: you won't need this steps anymore starting with FW7335, also popup-issue is solved]

For anyone interested in running under 7.4:

There is a currently a bug in FW 7330, which prevents the applet from running (https://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=13776).

As long as this isn't fixed, follow these steps:

- upload applet as usual
- download /usr/share/jive/jive/utils/log.lua
- find a line starting with 'local log' in this file
- insert a '=' so that it looks like 'local log = splog:logger("squeezeplay")'
- enable menu 'extras' under 'settings->main menu'

Currently the popups 'Turning Headphones On' etc. don't appear like in 7.3.3 (they changed the UI) but its working nevertheless.

[callesoroe]

Does this Applet make the headphonejack active, also when playing from SB???
Because then it would solve my problem, with listening to Internet radio through Squeezenetwork. That function is not available anymore, when I am using The Controller as a player.

[bluegaspode]

Does this Applet make the headphonejack active, also when playing from SB???
Because then it would solve my problem, with listening to Internet radio through Squeezenetwork. That function is not available anymore, when I am using The Controller as a player.

Um - I'm currently listening to internet-radio via SN and my wife is lying beside me sleeping and not complaining, so I guess this counts as a 'yes'

The applet should route all audio-output to the headphone jack.

[bluegaspode]

I just fixed all issues under 7.4 FW. Now all popups turn up in the new UI-style and I really like it
7.3 style of course unaffected, applet automatically detects firmware version.

Also this night a 7.4 firmware-bug was solved (hey this was fast!), so the applet will run out of the box now - no more extra tweaking needed.

Latest version uploaded to the wiki as always.

[Muele]

Great work

I installed this yesterday (7.3.4) It works brilliantly. My only grief is the tedious manual installation.

Thank you, Logitech erhm... I mean bluegaspode for making my controller work as a player as well.

Is this applet an embarrassment to Logitech? Yes, they are busy rolling out new devices and probably under a huge economical pressure making resources sparse. But still...