Sonos vs. Logitech - What do you think

Post by **Viper1970** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:36 am

Francois,
I'm currently using the standard Touch interface, it is on my list somewhere to create something with HsTouch. Regarding the Beta I see your point, have been there too, that's why i decided, like many others on this forum, a while ago to run my HS virtual (VMware ESXi). Which gives me the simple possibillity to backup my complete HS set-up machine. So before I upgrade my HS i assure myself that i got a copy of my working HS VM, in any case the upgrade fails or becomes instable i trash the upgrade HS VM and start up the previous HS VM.

Post by **Francois** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:57 am

With the standard HSTouch interface, are you refering to the one mentioned in this http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.ph ... 233&page=1 thread?

About VM, I am running Hyper-V for quite some time now but still, undo or not, before reverting to the old version in most cases you spend days trying to fix stuff that does not work before getting so frustrated and gicing up (at least i DO

)

Francois

Post by **Rene** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 11:02 am

@Francois: yes it is that interface. I modified it to my own likings. Tonight I will post a screenshot.

Rene.

Post by **petermdevries** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:57 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by rklootwijk
 When using Squeezebox Server you can use a soft player like softsqueeze or squeezeplayer, that runs on any Windows, Linux or OSX system. I do not have any squeezebox hardware but use only the software. I run squeezeplayer on my OSX Mac Mini that is also running Plex and is connected to my audio and tv system. An indeed I integrated the touch web interface into my own touch domotica interface (non HSTouch).
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I am also experimenting with Squeezebox Server, HSTouch and SoftSqueeze. Works fine, but the only problem I have with SoftSqeeze is that when my computer resumes from standby, SoftSqueeze doesn't resume it's connection to Squeezebox Server. So I always have to power on/off SoftSqueeze before I can control it from HSTouch/SqueezeBox server. Do you have this problem as well?

Post by **Rene** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:43 pm

I use Squeezeplayer now instead of Software. However I experienced the same problem with both in the past. Currently it is working fine. Squeezeplayer crashes on OSX from time to time, on Windows it looks pretty stable.

Rene.

Post by **Rene** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 1:04 am

As promised some screenshots of the Squeezeboxserver web interface integrated into my touchscreen interface.

Rene.

Post by **Snelvuur** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:24 am

nice, can you also easily select which player?

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Post by **Rene** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 11:03 am

Yes it is really easy to switch players. In the upper right there is a selection box (see screenshot).

Rene.

Post by **Francois** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 1:46 pm

Hey Rene,

looks a lot touch friendlier than the standard one, nice job!

Would you mind explaining a little how you made the changes (in "jip and Janneke" talk) or even mind sharing your layout?

Francois

Post by **Rene** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 1:56 pm

Most of the layout is just the from the Touch skin. I only set the size of the screen to a fixed size to fit nicely in my interface, changed some pictures because the contrast of my touchscreen sucks and light grey items on white background disappear. Most if it can be down messing around with the slimserver.css stylesheet.

Rene.

Post by **Alexander** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:46 pm

Rene,

What kind of systems are you using to produce the sound. Amp's/speaker(systems) ?

Alexander

Post by **Rene** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:38 pm

In the living room I am using a mac mini running Squeezeplay. It is connected to a Yamaha amp and I use Accoustic Energy speakers. In the office I am just using my workstation and the speakers and amp of my Dell monitor;-)

Rene.

Post by **Francois** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:27 pm

"only set the size of the screen to a fixed size to fit .....can be down messing around with the slimserver.css stylesheet."

Rene,

Not being a HTML/CSS guru I have no idea where to start (says the infra guy

). Would you mind sharing some details or examples of the changes you did to the style sheet?

Francois

Post by **Rene** » Sat Oct 03, 2009 4:17 pm

Send me a mail and will attach the complete skin directory in th reply.

Rene.

Post by **Francois** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:23 pm

Bought my first SqueezeBox Classic on saturday (thanks for all the advice!), installed a virtual (Hyper-V) SqueezeServer and the SqueezeBox plugin in Homeseer and have been playing around for the last couple of days. My first impressions, the good, the bad and the ugly:

The Good:
- Setup is a breeze, everything (except wireless, see "the bad") works out-of-the box
- Controlling the box with the remote is simple and straight forward, even with a large music collection (200 Gb+) its still snappy and fast
- Internat radio works, just like RSS feeds and all other basic functions
- Squeeze plug-ins are great, there is a wide variety of plug-ins available that can be installed from the Squeeze web interface (eg. RSS readers, Alarm clock, etc.)
- Everything can be customized (add/remove menu items, screen savers, etc.) there is a lot of tweaking
- The Homeseer plug works like a charm, for every squeezebox a couple of devices are created, and by means of device buttons or device actions all squeeze boxes can be controlled from the network and status changes can trigger other homeseer events.
- Controlling devices and events from the squeeze box is easy and fully customizable to your own needs.
- It's an open source initiative, lots of development going on, I wonder what's next

The Bad
- The homeseer plugin is still "under development", sometimes it does not work as expected. I have seen two problem: squeezebox devices are no longer connected to the device they should control, some of the devices dissappaer (I am missing "the number of songs")
- It open source, not everything is well documented, easy to find or no longer maintained, even finding the SqueezeCenter software can be challenging
- Documentation for the Homeseer Plug is also under development, it is missing essential basics that sometimes makes you pull hairs..
- Could not get wireless to work, looks like it does not like the encryption. Still under investigation
- Squeezebox devices work with values instead of status, this makes it hard to trigger (no "changed to ON" or "Changed to off"; needs a workaround)

The Ugly
- The screen saver option included in the HS plugin can work with the WeatherXML plugin, this is a bitch that does not work as it should and is poorly documented. In addition the HS SqueezeBox plugin documentation does not even name it as a prereq and does not discuss essential configuration.

Francois