Android Music Pump XBMC Remote

Music Pump XBMC Remote for Android 2.2+



Music Pump XBMC Remote on Android Market

Some time ago I started to modify my Android Music Pump DAAP Player to work with XBMC as a backend instead of a DAAP server. Here is the result ;-)

Screenshots of version 1.2
Video

It currently supports following features:

* Music:
- Browsing your xbmc library and playlists without having to turn on the tv
- Music files on xbmc can be played through xbmc or can be streamed to your android device. (Streaming with password protected xbmc only works on ICS)
- Sync/download music files (single files, albums, playlists, playqueue..). Downloaded files will be added to a local playlist so that they are available in your favorite music player
- Music Pump can be used as simple music player to play music files stored on your android device.
- Stream local music to xbmc
- Caching of music database for super fast access
- Filtering in every list
- Music rating support (only works with recent xbmc nightly builds)
- Start playlists in party mode on xbmc

* Video:
- Browse your Movie collection and play/resume the movie and the trailer on xbmc
- Browse your TV Shows and play/resume episodes on xbmc
- Show/Hide watched videos

* Files:
- Browse all files (music / video / files) and play/queue single files or directories. TIP: If you want to browse your music and videos using the directories defined in xbmc (Title, Year, Actors, Directors, Studios...) open the file manager in xbmc and add two new sources "musicdb://" and "videodb://".
- Add files and directories to favorites for faster access

* Addons:
- Browse through your music and video addons and play items on xbmc (doesn't work with all addons)
- Add addons to favorites for faster access

* Other features
- Select a video/music/picture from the file manager and play it on xbmc.
- Rescan music and video library
- Homescreen widget
- Lockscreen widget (ICS only)
- Headphone remote support (play/pause, next, previous). On headphone remotes with a single button, double click plays next song
- Optimized for phone and tablet layouts
- Virtual keyboard

If anyone is motivated to translate Music Pump XBMC Remote into their native language, feel free to create an account at http://www.getlocalization.com/musicpumpxbmcremote and start translating the strings

Setup instructions:
In XBMC go to System -> Settings -> Network
Enable the following settings:
- Allow control of XBMC via HTTP
- Allow programs of this system to control XBMC
- Allow programs on other systems to control XBMC

In order to see your music and video files you need to enable the library function within xbmc and scan your music and video files to the library.

Common problems:
- The app currently only works with XBMC 11 "Eden" (Windows/Linux/Mac) or newer => I have not tested older versions and they will not work properly since the json-rpc interface changed.
- If you cannot connect check that your firewall does not block incoming connections on port 8080 (http port) and 9090 ( for notifications)
- Playlists in xbmc must be in a special folder. See http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Playlists

Definitely looks very cool, I have been looking for something like this for a while! I just tried it, however, upon conneting to the xbmc server I get the following error: "The application Music Remote (process ch.berard.xbmcremotebeta) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again". After configuring a username and password for the http access in xbmc Music Pump asks for this upon connecting, and then fails with the beforementioned error when the username and password have been supplied. This leads me to believe that I have configured the app properly (correct ip, port etc.). Also I have made sure to allow the things mentioned in "Setup intructions".

Can you tell me how I can supply you with a log?

I'm btw running Android 2.3.5.

Probably your system is not configured correctly or you are using an older xbmc version. A couple of points you should check

- The app only works with XBMC Eden v11, json-rpc api v4. If you are using an older version you should upgrade
- To test if the json-rpc interface is configured correctly, open the url http://xbmcip:port/jsonrpc in a webbrowser. You should see the message "JSONRPC active and working". Otherwise another application may already use this port (sabnzbd uses port 8080 by default). => set a different port for the webinterface in xbmc and try again. It is possible that you connected to sabnzbd which requires authentication as well and thus you see the login prompt even if you connect to an invalid url.
- Port 9090 should not be in use by another application than xbmc because this is required to get notifications about playback start/stop/pause...

If this does not fix the connection problem you can extract the log from your device using a free tool from android market "Log Collector", "aLogcat", ... and send the log to androidmusicpump at gmail.com

It just crashes on me any time I try to connect running android 4.0.4 on a tablet

(2012-05-12 09:16)Millencolin007 Wrote:  Probably your system is not configured correctly or you are using an older xbmc version. A couple of points you should check

- The app only works with XBMC Eden v11, json-rpc api v4. If you are using an older version you should upgrade
- To test if the json-rpc interface is configured correctly, open the url http://xbmcip:port/jsonrpc in a webbrowser. You should see the message "JSONRPC active and working". Otherwise another application may already use this port (sabnzbd uses port 8080 by default). => set a different port for the webinterface in xbmc and try again. It is possible that you connected to sabnzbd which requires authentication as well and thus you see the login prompt even if you connect to an invalid url.
- Port 9090 should not be in use by another application than xbmc because this is required to get notifications about playback start/stop/pause...

If this does not fix the connection problem you can extract the log from your device using a free tool from android market "Log Collector", "aLogcat", ... and send the log to androidmusicpump at gmail.com

I just tried installing XBMC Eden on a different computer and I'm getting the same error when trying to connect.

An update is available from the android market. Thanks Fni0x for helping me locate the problem.

Amazing app, love it!

Working great on a 4.0.4 (CM9 based ROM) tablet.
Both Local and XBMC.

Congratulation!

Hello,
thought I'd register, given I'm new to XBMC, but keen to dive in and get involved (best I'm able to!)

The app is fantastic, and works great on Sony Tablet S (3.2.1)
I did get some FC's when I was setting up the server. I think it was because I was putting in my \\ServerName rather than IP - stopped once I changed it.

Visually stunning, and exactly what I was after to manage my music (being able to easily browse my music, add to the queue, then edit the queue on the fly - from the comfort of my sun-lounger with a beer in hand :oD
Plus, I think it's the only XBMC app out there which has been designed with tablets in mind.

Can't fault it - thank you for making this available to us.

Wondered what your medium-long term plans were for the app (if you had any). Any thoughts on adding movie/tv support? (currently using official app for this).
Few other ideas (sorry, hope they're not un-welcome): Saving playlist, initiate re-scan, filter by rating, edit rating

Top marks from me (and given in Play as well)

(2012-05-13 11:30)aldredd Wrote:  Hello,
thought I'd register, given I'm new to XBMC, but keen to dive in and get involved (best I'm able to!)

The app is fantastic, and works great on Sony Tablet S (3.2.1)
I did get some FC's when I was setting up the server. I think it was because I was putting in my \\ServerName rather than IP - stopped once I changed it.

Visually stunning, and exactly what I was after to manage my music (being able to easily browse my music, add to the queue, then edit the queue on the fly - from the comfort of my sun-lounger with a beer in hand :oD
Plus, I think it's the only XBMC app out there which has been designed with tablets in mind.

Can't fault it - thank you for making this available to us.

Wondered what your medium-long term plans were for the app (if you had any). Any thoughts on adding movie/tv support? (currently using official app for this).
Few other ideas (sorry, hope they're not un-welcome): Saving playlist, initiate re-scan, filter by rating, edit rating

Top marks from me (and given in Play as well)

Glad you like the app. You are right the app crashes when an invalid host is entered, I will fix that.

My future plans are not going into the direction of movie/tv support. I want to keep it music only. But I think the freezy from the xbmc team is already working on a new version for the official xbmc remote which will be optimized for tablets.

Things I may implement in the future are
- Streaming music files from an android device to xbmc
- Streaming music to another xbmc instance or to an airplay device (local lan or maybe even over internet). Would be nice to go to a friends place, connect back home, select some songs and play them on your friends xbmc or airplay device.

To your feature requests:
- Saving playlists from xbmc to the android device already works (long press the playlist and select "make offline available")
- Editing/Creating playlists on xbmc is as far as I know not possible using json-rpc.

- To initiate a re-scan you have to long-press on "Reconnect" on the home screen. Would probably be nice to have this feature more accessible. Also initiating a music library rescan on xbmc could be added

- I did not yet find a way to edit rating using json-rpc interface

This is a very nice utility to manage music. It's too bad you couldn't have used your skills to make the Official app's music section better. That app leaves a lot to be desired when using it for music.

Bugs/Notes:

- Smart Playlists that select a random number of songs always select the same songs even after clearing queue. Only a library refresh allows new 'random/tracks to appear.
- When disconnecting from server, the music stops playing. The music should keep playing regardless.
- No artist icons when available (the official XBMC uses artist icons if available)
- Sorting of Artists and Albums that start with 'The'. XBMC gives the option to 'ignore articles when sorting'.

Obviously, the main feature I'd like would be creating XBMC playlists to store on the server. That aside this is one very nice app. Keep up the great work.