ANNOUNCE: Group Players

[slartibartfast]

I'm having deja vu moment. Didn't we discuss this before?

Although Group players plugin is excellent it doesn't quite cut it when using it for stereo pair of two Radios.
If I remember correctly it becomes too messy/confusing.. Like when you use hardware buttons..or player menu, you technically break group. Alternatively you could use both Radios as control only of Group player(rather then itself) but then I think presets don't work or even power button.. I cannot remember exactly, but I know I gave up this idea when trying to explain it all to my missus. She basically didn't want to know all intricacies. So I've settled for permanent sync instead which works great.... with exception when synced stereo pair is part of group

Sounds familiar .

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[philippe_44]

I'm having deja vu moment. Didn't we discuss this before?

Although Group players plugin is excellent it doesn't quite cut it when using it for stereo pair of two Radios.
If I remember correctly it becomes too messy/confusing.. Like when you use hardware buttons..or player menu, you technically break group. Alternatively you could use both Radios as control only of Group player(rather then itself) but then I think presets don't work or even power button.. I cannot remember exactly, but I know I gave up this idea when trying to explain it all to my missus. She basically didn't want to know all intricacies. So I've settled for permanent sync instead which works great.... with exception when synced stereo pair is part of group

Yes, the Group players is not made to replace permanently synchronized devices like stereo pairs. I have to disband the group at some time when paused/stopped and this is where the difficulty happens. Still, you can set a timer for group disbanding on pause which I think solves some (most?) of the issues.

[Jaca]

Yes, the Group players is not made to replace permanently synchronized devices like stereo pairs. I have to disband the group at some time when paused/stopped and this is where the difficulty happens. Still, you can set a timer for group disbanding on pause which I think solves some (most?) of the issues.

Don't think I understand how disbanding timer can help with issue I've mentioned Philippe. I'm assuming it's maybe something to do with syncing order or rather which player gets to be master... I haven't looked into code or not even sure have skills to understand it so it's pure guess

Just to clarify: I'm perfectly happy to keep both radios as stereo pair in ordinary sync but would like to be able to occasionally use this pair as part of some groups. Until now I assumed it works fine but just realised that powering off other group member also powers off this synced pair.. Surely that's not intentional designed behaviour? Thanks

[Paul Webster]

Is it the same as discussed early today?
https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...ynchronization

[Jaca]

Is it the same as discussed early today?
https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...ynchronization

Don't know, maybe it's related.. I was referring to sync pair in relation to group plugin.

Other post seem to discuss only ordinary sync behaviour.. How much group plugin relays on it I don't know.

[Paul Webster]

It has a description of the power off function ... does that match your experience?

It also has some source code.
So you could investigate further from there.
For example put some logging in that section in LMS to see if it is being called in your case.

[markiii]

never been a fan of the way LMS does synchronisation as its too fiddly to setup and tear down. I assume that's whats drove Phillippe to write this in the first place..

Just discovered this and its amazing how much better it makes day to day use. When coupled with material, it makes jivelite seem archaic.


One question though, Phillippe can you confirm what should happen if players in a group don;t support the same sample rates? will it default to the lowest common denomination like traditional LMS sync or can it cope with different sample rates per player?

[philippe_44]

never been a fan of the way LMS does synchronisation as its too fiddly to setup and tear down. I assume that's whats drove Phillippe to write this in the first place..

Just discovered this and its amazing how much better it makes day to day use. When coupled with material, it makes jivelite seem archaic.


One question though, Phillippe can you confirm what should happen if players in a group don;t support the same sample rates? will it default to the lowest common denomination like traditional LMS sync or can it cope with different sample rates per player?

Yes, it will default to common denominator. It's mainly a traditional Group created on-the-fly, with some parameters that can be specific to the "virtual" group player (for example limit bitrate for large groups do not apply when individual players are used) or possibility to set stereo pairs upon assembly.

[FredFredrickson]

Not sure if this is addressed elsewhere, it's hard to use this forum's search tool.

I set up a group and then set up an alarm on this group.

For some reason, when the alarm went off, both players changed their volume- one of them to 100%.

Is there a setting for this ? I would prefer either no change in volume, or a way to designate starting volume. It seems to ignore alarm volume setting on the group player itself.

[Redrum]

Not sure if this is addressed elsewhere, it's hard to use this forum's search tool.

I set up a group and then set up an alarm on this group.

For some reason, when the alarm went off, both players changed their volume- one of them to 100%.

Is there a setting for this ? I would prefer either no change in volume, or a way to designate starting volume. It seems to ignore alarm volume setting on the group player itself.

I have not tried this, so I am just guessing. I believe that each group behaves as a unique player, and has seperate setting associated with it. In server settings ->player, Alarm clock, there is a setting for alarm volume. In my pic below, I have a touch in the living room, receiver in the basement, and "Living and Basement" is my group for synched playing of both. I checked and each sb can have a separate volume setting different than this group setting.



But like I said, I have know knowledge that this works as I imagine, and have not tried it. Try it out and see if it's what you are looking for.
Jim