[slim] DSBridge - A simpler way to stream Spotify

[ted1001]

WOW! Impressive.

I just tried it on my Logitech Boombox. And it workes brilliantly!

So easy and... well, have no complaints!

[jofafrazze]

Thanks chp, works like a charm for me! I'm on Vista 32 bit.

[Labarum]

I must try it.

Spotify Premium for a subscription of £10 per month will allow
streaming at 320Kb/s OGG

That could be extremely good.

Will Premium be accessible via SB?

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/spotify-offering-cd-quality-streaming-609758
--
Labarum

Brian

Squeezebox 3 Classic and Virgin Cable Box
Beresford DAC TC-7510 MK6/4 - Quad 405-2 refurbished by 405man
Quart 980s Speakers
Boom in kitchen.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Labarum's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=19963
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=64590

[jeebers]

Brilliant! Works perfectly and is very easy to set up. This will keep
me very happy until an official plugin is available - thanks!

[dasjoen]

I thought I'd share the fruits of my labour here... I have written a
small drop-in wrapper utility that will allow you to stream among other
things Spotify (anything that uses the first DirectSound API basically)
as MP3 (with metadata).

This is really cool. Thanks for the hard work!

I don't seem to get any metadata, however. Which metadata is supposed
to be streamed?

[chp]

It streams the title of the main window in the application that it is
wrapping. If it's not working it means that either SqueezeCenter is
doing something differently (I did only test the metadata-support with
Winamp before releasing and don't have access to proper SB hardware
right now), or the primitive HTTP server is not parsing the header
properly.

I'm working on some improvements and I'll put this on the list to be
fixed.

[Padde]

Hello
This is just what i'am looking for. Tried it yeasterday but i cant get
it to work. I think the problem is that my hard drive is E:\ not C:\
Could this bee the problem?

Paul

[bernt]

Works very well. Thanks.

Does it trancode the stream to mp3?

Soundquality is not that good but I guess it have to do with that I
never had listen to Spotify on a real system before.

[danco]

It would be nice if someone could write a similar item for Linux and Mac
OS X.

[Veggen]

Working great, thanks.

Is there a way of controlling the bitrate used by lame?
Now it is transcoding to 160 kbps mp3 from 160 kbps ogg, which means it
is loosing resolution as ogg is more efficient than mp3. If possible I
would like to have maximum mp3 rate to minimize the quality impact.

[baz]

Thank you very much! Everyting working except metadata (I'm using
SqueezeCenter 7.3.2).

[chp]

Quick reply to questions:

I am extracting the path to the windows installation, so it "should"
work, but maybe loading it with a absolute path is not working well on
non-standard environments; I'll look into improving the logic.

Yes, I'm working on making most aspects configurable, so you will be
able to alter the bitrate of the stream itself; 160kbps was chosen as a
middlepoint between performance and sound quality. I'll probably up the
default quality to 192kbps as well for the next release.

[Padde]

Hello again
Here is what happens. I have placed the two dll's in E:\Program
Files\Spotify
Everything is ok when i start Spotify. But when i start to play a track
Spotify complains that "There is a problem with you sound card" and
nothing happens. The symbol in sys tray is red and if i hover the mouse
over it says
"D:Could not load C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DSOUND.DLL" If i removes the two
dll's in E:\Program Files\Spotify and restarts Spotify it works again
with the speakers connected to my PC.

Thanks in advance

[NikolajC]

Works here without a glitch. Very interesting work indeed thanks.

[baz]

Nope, can't get the metadata to work. Streamed to VLC and the music
works as expected but no metadata can be found.

I am using Vista 32-bit version.

Any ideas?

[baz]

Thanks for the new version with higher quality (192kbps).

I installed the new SW on a computer with Win XP but I still got the
problem with the metadata.

[Padde]

Super, many thanks.

[bernt]

Sounds better now. Thanks.

[Padde]

now i'am happy it works, thanks
Great work!

[Veggen]

New version working fine, thanks again.

If you have the time, please consider including flac lossless encoding
as an option in a future version. As the music has already been lossy
compressed once, a second time should be avoided imho.

[Ramage]

Tested using Winamp on host computer and played OK with metadata.

When connected to squeezecenter from another network PC although I get
good audio on a Duet receiver, there is no metadata.

Great application.

[chp]

New release time!

http://dsbridge.googlecode.com/files/dsbridge-20090702-bin.zip

Changes:

20090702:

- Improved how the metadata directive is parsed in the HTTP header
- Fixed race condition when HttpServer read encoded MP3 data

This should fix the metadata for SqueezeCenter, and also fixes an audio
distortion / crash issue that I have been seeing from time to time.

[Ramage]

Post by chp
New release time!
http://dsbridge.googlecode.com/files/dsbridge-20090702-bin.zip
- Improved how the metadata directive is parsed in the HTTP header
- Fixed race condition when HttpServer read encoded MP3 data
This should fix the metadata for SqueezeCenter, and also fixes an audio
distortion / crash issue that I have been seeing from time to time.

Yeah, tried update and I now get metadata thro' squeezecenter.

Great work.

Cover art would be awesome tho'.

[chp]

First I wasn't sure how to do artwork, but after looking in the
SqueezeCenter source code I found that it actually supports passing a
StreamUrl directive to display artwork in the metadata stream, so it's
now on my todo list. :)

Basically what I'll do is let you configure a "window capture" and then
it'll do periodic snapshots and display whatever is in that area.

[baz]

Thanks for the new revision. Now the metadata works like a charm!

Great work chp! I really appreciate your nice work!

[Ramage]

Post by chp
First I wasn't sure how to do artwork, but after looking in the
SqueezeCenter source code I found that it actually supports passing a
StreamUrl directive to display artwork in the metadata stream, so it's
now on my todo list. :)
Basically what I'll do is let you configure a "window capture" and then
it'll do periodic snapshots and display whatever is in that area.

Look forward to seeing this.

Great work

[baz]

One improvment idea is to continue the work with the metadata. As it
looks today each played song is registered twice at Last.fm (if you are
using that service).

Example: Both
Peter Tosh – Legalize It
and
Spotify – Peter Tosh – Legalize It
are registered as two separate songs.

Perhaps the "Spotify"-text in the metadata can be parsed out?

[chp]

New release time!

http://dsbridge.googlecode.com/files/dsbridge-20090704-bin.zip

Changes:

- Metadata is now only sent when changed
- Improved error messages returned by HTTP server
- Added experimental support for streaming cover art
- Improved HTTP header parsing

Cover streaming seems to work, but sometimes (if you have scaled the
window for example) the cover might end distorted with other window
content.

*Baz*, yes, allowing you to strip content out of the window title is
something that is in the plans. I'll add some good defaults when adding
the configuration interface (which is up next).

[baz]

Once again, thanks for the new release.

I just wanted to give some positive feedback on the cover art function
-- it works excellent for me.

[Veggen]

Cover art not working for me, only getting a black square.
Rest of the metadata is OK.
Spotify 0.3.17(rev.49173), SC 7.3.3, XP, both IE and opera is the same.

[chp]

Do you minimize Spotify before checking the cover? I noticed that the
call I make actually cannot take snapshots of minimized windows. I have
a fix coming, but it'll be a lower priority.

The workaround for now is just not minimize the window (it can be
completely covered by other windows, just not minimized or in the
systray).

[Ramage]

I'm running spotify under Wine on Ubuntu 9.04, but cannot get DSBridge
to work.

I've put the DSBridge .dll and lame_enc.dll in the spotify directory
but cannot connect to the stream using SC. I've tried localhost and the
PC ip address.

Any ideas on how to get DSBridge to work in wine?

[Veggen]

Post by chp
Do you minimize Spotify before checking the cover?

No, the spotify window is fully open.

[Christian Fredrik]

I'm not an expert, but it seems to me that this streaming alternative
utilises the PC soundcards DA-converter. Therefore, the digital output
from SB will probably have severly reduced quality. Am I right?

[chp]

New release to fix some issues with minimized and hidden windows:

http://dsbridge.googlecode.com/files/dsbridge-20090705-bin.zip

Changes:

- Cover is no longer incorrectly offset if the window is not maximized
- Added some workarounds that will allow the cover to be extracted even
if the window is minimized or hidden (or both)

*Ramage*, I do not have any desktop linux-installations running
currently, but I can install one and take a look at why it is not
working.

*Veggen*, then I'm not sure why you are seeing that result (I see no
issues in either XP or W7). I have done some tweaks to the capturing
code in this new release, so you could try it and see if it helps.

*Christian Fredrik*, luckily you are mistaken :). My solution is pure
software and does not degrade the audio stream other than the
transcoding to MP3 - when I get FLAC encoding implemented (yes, it's
coming...) there will be no difference at all.

[Martin43]

This works great! :)
It seems like magic to me that just copying some files to the
Spotify-folder makes it work. :) I'm using it with a Squeezebox v3.

I would like to be able to select the encoding bitrate. Since I'm using
it at home on my LAN I would like to use 320kbit/s. It is easiliy
possible to hear the transcoding when using 192kbit/s.

Maybe a simple configuration text-file? There's no need for any fancy
GUI-features right now.

[Veggen]

Cover art now working, thanks!

Still some scaling/offset problems if using non standard size cover art
in spotify, but this nitpicking, I am happy.

Glad to hear flac support is coming so that transcoding issues will be
avoided.

Great work!

[Peter314]

I just tried this: it works brilliantly and is much easier than earlier
workarounds. Metadata and cover art are all displaying nicely.

Many thanks!

Peter

[pddf1]

This works great. You da man

keep up the good work

[chp]

New release (second one today):

http://dsbridge.googlecode.com/files/dsbridge-20090705_2-bin.zip

Changes:

- Added configuration file support
- Added title prefix stripping

*Martin43*, you read my mind :). I have tested 320kbps by tweaking the
configuration file and it works great. I am however leaving it at
192kbps per default, but it's an easy change.

*baz*, title prefix stripping has been added.

Remember to copy the configuration file alongside the DLL now!
Otherwise among other things cover art support will be disabled, since I
now default it to off.

[baz]

Thanks again *cph*! The title prefix stripping is working great (thanks
for adding that feature!!).


*The DSBridge is the best piece of SW I have seen for a long time!!!*

[pddf1]

Hi,

i've run into a problem with zone alarm security suite (ZA). When ZA is
disabled DSBridge works fine with Spotify, but when running, the
connection with squeeze center times out, and the system tray icon shows
idle (blue).

I have given SC and Spotify full program permission in the program
control panel.

i have also followed the logitech advice on 'configuring ZoneAlarm
Internet Security 2008 so Squeezebox can connect to PC':

http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/logitech_en_amr.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=8565&p_created=1213807954


Any help much appreciated as DSBridge plus spotify is fantastic!

Thanks

[Veggen]

I have tested 320kbps by tweaking the configuration file and it works
great. I am however leaving it at 192kbps per default, but it's an easy
change.

Can I suggest using 320 as default?
Surely anyone running a SB setup has network capacity easily capable of
that.
Is there any reason why 192 would be a better choice?

Of course looking forward to having flac as an option eventually.

[Martin43]

Post by Veggen
Can I suggest using 320 as default?
Surely anyone running a SB setup has network capacity easily capable of
that.
Is there any reason why 192 would be a better choice?
Of course looking forward to having flac as an option eventually.

As long as everyone can choose which bitrate to use, the default
doesn't matter much.

[Martin43]

Having used DSBridge now for a couple of hours I can conclude that it
works great!

Some observations:
My Squeezebox shows two values for the streaming buffer. The first
value seems to be how many seconds that the Squeezebox has buffered
itself, and the second value seems to be the size of the buffer in
DSBridge.

When I change track or skip within a track the second value increases
by about 1,8 seconds until it is up to 10 seconds in total. The first
value very slowly increases to (to infinity?). If I pause Spotify the
first value goes to zero (in real time), then the second value decreases
to zero. If I hit play before it reaches zero the sound continous as if
nothing happened, but the buffer levels are now lower than before.

The audio delay seems to be the sum of both values. After a long time
the values can be 20/10 seconds. If I change track then, it takes 30
seconds before I hear the change (unless I pause playback for 28 seconds
first, then the delay is down to two seconds).

Would it be possible to include a setting for buffersize in the
.ini-file?
And why does it "jump" 1,8 seconds when I change track? Some "initial
buffering" when Spotify starts to send data?

If the buffer size can't be reduced, maybe DSBridge can pause Spotify
automatically every now and then to lower the buffer levels. This could
be done by simulating the keyboard key "APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE".
This works also when Spotify is minimized or not in focus.

I'm using 320kbit/s now and the sound is quite enjoyable!

[chp]

*Martin43*, yes, I am aware of the building delay that occurs during
use, it's one of the top issues to fix right now. The two values you
describe sound useful, where can I find them in SC?

For the cause, there might be data written that is not actually played
in the source client, thus offsetting the stream. By more closely
monitoring API calls I have a hunch that it can be solved.

[Martin43]

I'm using a plugin called "Music Information Screen" which replaces the
default screensaver with a screen where you can customize everything
that is shown on the display.
Under Squeezeserver-Settings-User Interface I have defined a format
"PLAYLIST (X_Y) KBPS EXT BUFFER".
Under Squeezeserver-Settings-"My playername"-Music Information Screen I
then select this format string to appear in the top left on the
Squeezescreen.

When I listen to my own music it shows file format, bitrate and buffer
in %.
When streaming it shows buffer in seconds x / y seconds as described
above.


+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
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[stefanolo]

Post by Martin43
I'm using a plugin called "Music Information Screen" which replaces the
default screensaver with a screen where you can customize everything
that is shown on the display.
Under Squeezeserver-Settings-User Interface I have defined a format
"PLAYLIST (X_Y) KBPS EXT BUFFER".
Under Squeezeserver-Settings-"My playername"-Music Information Screen I
then select this format string to appear in the top left on the
Squeezescreen.
When I listen to my own music it shows file format, bitrate and buffer
in %.
When streaming it shows buffer in seconds x / y seconds as described
above.

@ Martin43!

Really like the info on your SB-screen. Where did you get the plugin? I
like it and would like to have it.

@chp

Thank you very much for your work. A wonderful little tool you have
created. A question: Where do I set the bitrate? Is it in the Spotify
preferences? I would like to have the highest possible/320 bps.

/s

[Martin43]

Post by stefanolo
@ Martin43!
Really like the info on your SB-screen. Where did you get the plugin? I
like it and would like to have it.
@chp
Thank you very much for your work. A wonderful little tool you have
created. A question: Where do I set the bitrate? Is it in the Spotify
preferences? I would like to have the highest possible/320 bps.
/s

If you like it you should see how it looks like when playing your local
music and all tags work. :)

http://www.herger.net/slim-plugins/detail.php?nr=446

[stefanolo]

Post by Martin43
If you like it you should see how it looks like when playing your local
music and all tags work. :)
http://www.herger.net/slim-plugins/detail.php?nr=446

Thanks for all your help Martin43! It took me little while to navigate
the inner universe of my SqueezeCenter but when I finally got it, it
turned out perfectly. Really nice plugin!

/s

[TCM]

Well, now I'm up and running to. Just bought me a premium Spotify
subscription and downloaded DSBridge. It took me less then 5 minutes to
get started - excellent. And no "double entries" :).


Hej alla från Faktiskt :-D

[Gazjam]

You can stream it directly to your ipod as well I found.
Just create a shortcut for HTTP://"(your IP Address)":8124

Very cool feature, very handy.
I'm listening to Spotify and currently posting from my ITouch, - in the
bath!

[baz]

Post by TCM
Well, now I'm up and running to. Just bought me a premium Spotify
subscription and downloaded DSBridge. It took me less then 5 minutes to
get started - excellent. And no "double entries" :).
Hej alla från Faktiskt :-D

The DSBridge has resulted in that I have bought a premium Spotify
subscription as well (320 kb/s > 160 kb/s).

[avbryt]

Hi again!

I have had problems installing squeezecenter, but now its running
and Vagskal made a great job making even me understand!!!

However, when trying to play it keeps connecting and eventually buffers
but it takes a verrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyy llllooooooooong time, and theres no
music.

Spotify stuff: The tray is green

Squeezecenter: I can only make it work by clicking squeezecenter.exe in
the programs location not anywhere else. I have tried to use both
localhost adress and my ip adress. The first doesnt work at all.

CHP is a hero!! I just want this to get going!!

Anybody out there that have any ideas??

regards Pierre

[avbryt]

Hurrah!!!!

I think Im gonna get myself a beer folks,
have a nice day and thanks for this splendid thing.

Pierre

[Ramage]

Post by chp
*Ramage*, I do not have any desktop linux-installations running
currently, but I can install one and take a look at why it is not
working.

Thanks - no rush tho'

[Ramage]

Running the latest version on a windows box and it works well.

This is a great piece of software, and getting better by the day.

[coppo23]

Hi - this is brilliant - thanks! I have tried it with multiple clients -
eg winamp on a pc and transporter. One works - the other locks up. This
isn't my main intended use - but syncing is.

If I try syncing all players - it mostly works - but you get gaps -
occasionally 5-10 seconds long. Is that a known issue? - anything I can
tweak to inprove it?

(I am using 320k - the network is all wired and all players (except
SB1) perform network test flawlessly at the highest bit rate.)

(whs - transporter, duet x2, temporarily disconnected SB1)

[vasik]

Thanks, works like a charm!!! Have one question - how can I point the
Duet to the IP from controller? I'm able to point it to the IP adress
from PC, but didn't find a possiblity to point it there from
controller... Thanks

[coppo23]

I just added a favourite with url http://192.168.0.30:8124/ Just
substitute your spotify PC address.

Cheers

Coppo

[vasik]

That's the trick...:-) Thanks!

[stumble]

Hi,

I have followed the instructions without success. The systray icon is
always blue.

I obtained my IP address from my ISP and entered it as instructed.

On the squeezecentre the timer plays for a few seconds and then goes
back to 00. On the controller it says "Connect Timed Out"

Can anyone help with this final section

Thanks

S

[chp]

*coppo23*, no, currently only one client is supported, and due to the
way the HTTP server currently schedules traffic (= it doesn't) the first
client will starve all others. I also have not tested syncing players.

*stefanolo*, edit dsbridge.ini and change MP3BitRate from 192 to 320.

*stumble*, your ISP ip is probably not the one you need (if you are
using a router you will have a private IP that is correct). Run 'cmd',
and then 'ipconfig' in the window that appears. The IPv4 listed for your
primary connection should be the one you use when constructing the URL.

[stefanolo]

@ chp: Thanks! You see, I'm an absolute idiot when it comes to
"programming". Is there anywhere els I can see what the bitrate is when
I'm playing? Squeezecentre?

/s

[stumble]

Thanks CP - I worked it out (the hard way) but delighted with the
result.

S

[Laz]

I thought I'd share the fruits of my labour here... I have written a
small drop-in wrapper utility that will allow you to stream among other
things Spotify (anything that uses the first DirectSound API basically)
as MP3 (with metadata).

chp,

I suspect this is dumb question, but should it be possible for me to
use this as a wrapper for iTunes? (Not as silly as it sounds - I want to
stream audio from iTunes movies to another location - I use the SB
normally when I'm listening to my own library).

Anyway, I have done the obvious and dropped the dsbridge and the lame
dlls in the directory. The red error icon comes up briefly and then
disappears altogether when iTunes comes up.

Could you let me know if:

a) What I'm trying to do should be feasible?
b) Any suggestions as to changes I could make to get the system
working?

Cheers,

Laz

[Gurkburk]

Thanks chp, this looks really promising, but I can't get the Squeezebox
to play the music from my Spotify computer, it only says buffering.

I have put the files in the spotify dir, restarted spotify, add a new
favorite in Squeezecenter http://192.168.0.183:8124/ which is my
computer ip that runs spotify. The little green DSBridge icon in systray
are green.

Tried to disable Windows firewall but no success.
I'm running Win7 RC1 on my computer and Squeezecenter on Windows Home
Server.

[chp]

*Laz*, I did look into iTunes right now, and it seems that it happens
because the networking is not initialized when I need it to be. However,
I tried adding a configurable delay to when the HTTP server is
initializing, and that did the trick and I got music streaming. One
issue I noticed is that iTunes is controlling the volume in software, so
I'll go ahead and add an option to mute the source when someone is
connected.

This will go into the next release.

*Gurkburk*, if the icon is green it means it is connected. Does the
icon turn green before you connect with SC? It does sound like data is
not flowing to that client, I do not support more than one client at
this time. I have had this running on W7 RC1 successfully.

[Gurkburk]

chp: The icon turns green after I press play on the Squeezebox.
Then it just says "buffering" and it keeps going like that for like a
minute to buffer 100% then it just restart buffering from 0%.
Can any firewall on the Squeezecenter server have anything to with
this?

[chp]

New release time!

http://dsbridge.googlecode.com/files/dsbridge-20090707-bin.zip

Changes:

- Now loads configuration from the module path, not current directory
- HTTP server can now both delay creation (to allow for the hosting
application
to initialize) and initialize networking on its own
- Added support to mute the source while streaming
- Encoder now rate-limits reading data from the input buffer to prevent
read-
ahead and drifting
- RingBuffer can now discard data from the tail
- added some re-parsing of dashes

This release contains corrections that should improve the drifting; it
does cut off a tiny bit of sound when it stops playing, but I'm working
on that.

It also does some fixes for iTunes support - this does require the new
dsbridge.ini or it will not work. Also the status icon will not be
visible.

Also, I switched the bitrate to 320kbps per default for both Spotify
and iTunes (still 192kbps if not configured), and it will mute the sound
when you start streaming (so you don't have to mute the application
itself). If you do not like this behaviour, change MuteWhileStreaming to
0 for the application that you are using. All of this is in
dsbridge.ini.

[chp]

*Laz*, the new release will work with iTunes, just make sure to drop
everything in the bin/ folder into the iTunes directory. Do note that if
your music is not 44.1kHz stereo, there will be issues.

*Gurkburk*, I'm talking about streaming client, so for example if you
connect Winamp AND SqueezeCenter, only one will get data.

[Gurkburk]

chp, OK Now I understand, I have noticed that the Squeezebox can fetch
the metadata, but still buffering. Any ideas what it could be?

[Laz]

Post by chp
*Laz*, the new release will work with iTunes, just make sure to drop
everything in the bin/ folder into the iTunes directory. Do note that if
your music is not 44.1kHz stereo, there will be issues.

Hi chp,

Thanks for the update and my apologies for the delay in my reply - I
suspect I'm on the opposite side of the world to you.

Things are looking better now but not quite there. I now get the blue
icon for about half a second before it vanishes again (faster than I get
my mouse down for a hover over).

I suspect my problem is that my copy of iTunes takes a very long time
to fire up - of the order 3 to 10 seconds (I keep my library files on a
network drive and thanks to Apples monolithic approach, I'm loading
about 20 MB across the network). Is there any chance you can make the
delay a configuration variable in the ini file so that I can experiment
with this a bit further.

The other possibility is that I'm not set up for 44.1kHz output - am I
correct in assuming that I need to do this in the Quicktime Control
panel? I currently have all of my sound devices set to 44.1kHz 16 bit
stereo.

I also have a quick suggestion for an interface option in the future. I
really like the ability to mute the local output - it would be even more
awesome if you could add a click on the icon option to select between
three options of: Play local (pass through?), Stream, Play local and
Stream.

Finally, I presume you aware that this code is likely to give Apple
corporate types heartburn - they do so like their Bonjour solution with
tie in to iTunes and Airport Express.

Thanks again for the good work.

Laz

[avbryt]

Just got an invitation yesterday for Spotify and finds this when
googling
for possible solutions to get the sound to my squeezebox/speakers!!!

Ok, Im an technical idiot; do I need squeezecenter when using this? I
have mp3tunes so I dont use it these days...

So I need to make the IP number of my computer a favourite on my
squeezebox?

Thanks for answers!

[Gazjam]

Hi, Im late to the DSBRIDGE show, tried installing it and i havent a
clue what im doing to be honest!

Sorry, but could someone break it down so a 4 year old could
understand?

I'm running Spotify with a Squeezebox 3 and Ipeng.


Thanks very much.

[baz]

Post by Gazjam
Hi, Im late to the DSBRIDGE show, tried installing it and i havent a
clue what im doing to be honest!
Sorry, but could someone break it down so a 4 year old could
understand?
I'm running Spotify with a Squeezebox 3 and Ipeng.
Thanks very much.

Hi!

Have you followed the instruction in the second post in this thread?
Have you installed lame_enc.dll?

[vagskal]

Post by Gazjam
Hi, Im late to the DSBRIDGE show, tried installing it and i havent a
clue what im doing to be honest!
Sorry, but could someone break it down so a 4 year old could
understand?
I'm running Spotify with a Squeezebox 3 and Ipeng.

It is quite simple on Windows:

1. Close Spotify (right click on the Spotify tray icon and select
Exit).

2. Find your Spotify folder (where spotify.exe is). It is usually under
C:/Program/Spotify/.

3. Download DSBridge from
http://dsbridge.googlecode.com/files/dsbridge-20090707-bin.zip. Put the
files "DSound.dll" and "dsbridge.ini" in your Spotify folder.

4. Find on the Internet the file "lame_enc.dll", preferably v. 3.98.2
(hint: http://www.free-codecs.com/Lame_Encoder_download.htm). Put the
file "lame_enc.dll" in your Spotify folder.

5. Start Spotify and play something. You will notice a new tray icon.

6. Go to your web browser and open SqueezeCenter (you will need a
computer running SqueezeCenter to use DSBridge, I think). Go to
Favourites and choose Edit. Choose New Favourite and type a name for the
favourite (i.e. Spotify). If you are running Spotify on the same PC as
SqueezeCenter: Type "http://localhost:8124/" as the url for your new
favourite. - If you are running SqueezeCenter and Spotify on separate
machines on a local network, you will have to find the IP address (on
your local network, something like 192.168.....) of the machine running
Spotify and type that instead of "localhost".

7. "Play" the new Spotify favourite, via the web interface or iPeng,
and whatever is playing on Spotify will play on your SB3.

Good luck!

[kidstypike]

Still having problems with buffering. All seems fine for the first
track, showing 0.0/2.5 on the Boom display, immediately it changes to
the next track, the right hand value climbs to 10.0, then the left-hand
value climbs to 78.6 (never higher), at this point it starts to skip.
All latest DSBridge files installed. Cover art & metadata perfect.

Any pointers?

kidstypike


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[stub1234]

Post by vagskal
1. Close Spotify (right click on the Spotify tray icon and select
Exit).
2. Find your Spotify folder (where spotify.exe is). It is usually under
C:/Program/Spotify/.
3. Download DSBridge from
http://dsbridge.googlecode.com/files/dsbridge-20090707-bin.zip. Put the
files "DSound.dll" and "dsbridge.ini" in your Spotify folder.
4. Find on the Internet the file "lame_enc.dll", preferably v. 3.98.2
(hint: http://www.free-codecs.com/Lame_Encoder_download.htm). Put the
file "lame_enc.dll" in your Spotify folder.
5. Start Spotify and play something. You will notice a new tray icon.
6. Go to your web browser and open SqueezeCenter (you will need a
computer running SqueezeCenter to use DSBridge, I think). Go to
Favourites and choose Edit. Choose New Favourite and type a name for the
favourite (i.e. Spotify). If you are running Spotify on the same PC as
SqueezeCenter: Type "http://localhost:8124/" as the url for your new
favourite. - If you are running SqueezeCenter and Spotify on separate
machines on a local network, you will have to find the IP address (on
your local network, something like 192.168.....) of the machine running
Spotify and type that instead of "localhost".
7. "Play" the new Spotify favourite, via the web interface or iPeng,
and whatever is playing on Spotify will play on your SB3.
Good luck!

Hi, thanks for the instructions above - very clear for some with my
limitations!

however, i have a problem, when i press play on my duet controller it
says connecting, the blue tray turns green for a second or 2 and then
goes back to blue and the controller says connection timed out.

can anyone help? (i have limited ability when it comes to these
things!)

Thanks

[Gazjam]

Post by vagskal
1. Close Spotify (right click on the Spotify tray icon and select
Exit).
2. Find your Spotify folder (where spotify.exe is). It is usually under
C:/Program/Spotify/.
3. Download DSBridge from
http://dsbridge.googlecode.com/files/dsbridge-20090707-bin.zip. Put the
files "DSound.dll" and "dsbridge.ini" in your Spotify folder.
4. Find on the Internet the file "lame_enc.dll", preferably v. 3.98.2
(hint: http://www.free-codecs.com/Lame_Encoder_download.htm). Put the
file "lame_enc.dll" in your Spotify folder.
5. Start Spotify and play something. You will notice a new tray icon.
6. Go to your web browser and open SqueezeCenter (you will need a
computer running SqueezeCenter to use DSBridge, I think). Go to
Favourites and choose Edit. Choose New Favourite and type a name for the
favourite (i.e. Spotify). If you are running Spotify on the same PC as
SqueezeCenter: Type "http://localhost:8124/" as the url for your new
favourite. - If you are running SqueezeCenter and Spotify on separate
machines on a local network, you will have to find the IP address (on
your local network, something like 192.168.....) of the machine running
Spotify and type that instead of "localhost".
7. "Play" the new Spotify favourite, via the web interface or iPeng,
and whatever is playing on Spotify will play on your SB3.
Good luck!

Thankyou SO much, that did the trick!

Only thing I had to do was change "localhost" to my SpotifyPC's Ip
Address and I was hearing music - great!

What a great contribution to the Squeezebox community - I salute you
Sir!

[lazpete]

chp, thx for this app! Suddenly i got use for my wifes netbook :)

[stumble]

Hi CHP

Any plans to support windows media player 11?


Ta

S

[chp]

*Gurkburk*, if it manages to fetch metadata it means that something is
reading at least, because that data is posted every 45kB in the stream.
Do you get cover art as well? That is posted on the next run after
posting the title.

Other than that I don't have any ideas. :(

[chp]

*stumble*, no plans currently, no. I have not looked at what they are
doing, but I would imagine it's slightly more complex than the luck I
had with iTunes working basically out of the box.

[stumble]

Post by chp
*stumble*, no plans currently, no. I have not looked at what they are
doing, but I would imagine it's slightly more complex than the luck I
had with iTunes working basically out of the box.

CHP - no worries - spotify is doing quite nicely thanks to you. i
noticed i-tunes support and hoped WMP was something as easy.

S

[Gurkburk]

Many thanks chp! :)
Now it works great, and for you others that are running Squeezecenter
7.4 for WHS, it doensn't work with this app, just installed 7.3.3 and
everything are running fine.

[baz]

Hi chp!

Great stuff! FYI, I liked the function that mutes the sound when you
start streaming (and I liked even more that you have made various
functions configurable).

[AlchemyToo]

Great stuff.

Simple, and just works.

Thanks.

[stumble]

Post by baz
Hi chp!
Great stuff! FYI, I liked the function that mutes the sound when you
start streaming (and I liked even more that you have made various
functions configurable).

Hi CHP - how do I configure the functions?

[chp]

*stumble*, dsbridge.ini is a textfile with a list of options that can be
changed. Open it in notepad and take a look. The format is as follows:

[executable name]
option=value

So for example if you want to change the MP3 encoding bitrate for
Spotify, you do this:

[SPOTIFY.EXE]
MP3BitRate=256

Which would configure it to encode with 256kbps quality. The file in
the bin-package contains sensible defaults for both Spotify and iTunes.

[baz]

Hi cph!

I noticed that the info regarding played songs are transmitted twice to
last.fm after upgrading to the 090707-build (one from SC and one from
Spotify?).

One solution is of cause to disable the "scrobbling to
last.fm"-function in Spotify manually but I prefer not to do that. Any
suggestions on what to do?

[baz]

Post by baz
Hi cph!
I noticed that the info regarding played songs are transmitted twice to
last.fm after upgrading to the 090707-build (one from SC and one from
Spotify?).
One solution is of cause to disable the "scrobbling to
last.fm"-function in Spotify manually but I prefer not to do that. Any
suggestions on what to do?

Hi again!

The "problem" listed above disappeared after restarting Spotify :-D

[vagskal]

Post by baz
Hi cph!
I noticed that the info regarding played songs are transmitted twice to
last.fm after upgrading to the 090707-build (one from SC and one from
Spotify?).
One solution is of cause to disable the "scrobbling to
last.fm"-function in Spotify manually but I prefer not to do that. Any
suggestions on what to do?

1. I have the same symptom (double entries on Last.fm), and a restart
of Spotify did not cure it.

2. The album artwork size and crop are not perfect yet, see attached
image from iPeng. I tried to change the values in the .ini file, but did
not understand how I should do. (The image shows the display with the
default values.)

3. Sometimes the advertisements are played so fast that they are
intelligible (perhaps because they are not 44.1kHz?). I know that the
fix for this is to upgrade to Spotify premium, but I just wanted to let
you know because the fast playback of the advertisements is even more
annoying than hearing them at normal speed.

4. I think the stream from Spotify for non premium users is around
160kbps. Are there any benefits in sound quality with a higher bitrate
than that set in DSBridge, where the default now is 320kbps?

BTW: Thanks for a very useful and simple utility! Great job!


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[Martin43]

Post by vagskal
3. Sometimes the advertisements are played so fast that they are
intelligible (perhaps because they are not 44.1kHz?). I know that the
fix for this is to upgrade to Spotify premium, but I just wanted to let
you know because the fast playback of the advertisements is even more
annoying than hearing them at normal speed.
4. I think the stream from Spotify for non premium users is around
160kbps. Are there any benefits in sound quality with a higher bitrate
than that set in DSBridge, where the default now is 320kbps?
BTW: Thanks for a very useful and simple utility! Great job!

3. This is perfect, since the music is interrupted for HALF THE TIME!
:)

4. YES! Decoding the 160kbps ogg-stream from Spotify and then encode it
using 160kps mp3 makes the sound quality worse. Both because transoding
from lossless to lossless loses even more quality by the conversion
itself, and because 160kbps ogg is better than 160kpbs mp3. After
decompression, you should transfer it as "lossless" as possible. And
320kpbs mp3 is "almost" lossless.

[vagskal]

3. This is perfect, since the music is interrupted for HALF THE TIME! :)
4. YES! Decoding the 160kbps ogg-stream from Spotify and then encode it
using 160kps mp3 makes the sound quality worse. Both because transoding
from lossless to lossless loses even more quality by the conversion
itself, and because 160kbps ogg is better than 160kpbs mp3. After
decompression, you should transfer it as "lossless" as possible. And
320kpbs mp3 is "almost" lossless.

3. I am afraid not, the time for interruption of the playback of the
music seems to be the same because what is gained in time by the fast
playback of the advertisement is replaced by silence (which you really
need since the fast playback that occurs sometimes is really
disturbing...). I think I will have to upgrade.

4. Thanks for the explanation!

[Martin43]

Post by vagskal
3. I am afraid not, the time for interruption of the playback of the
music seems to be the same because the time that is gained by the fast
playback of the advertisement is replaced by silence (which you really
need since the fast playback that occurs sometimes is really
disturbing...). I think I will have to upgrade.
4. Thanks for the explanation!

3. Ah! I'm just trying out the new version which doesn't have the
problem with the buffer growing larger. This was actually a feature in
the sense that the buffer could then be used to play the commercial
twice as fast without any interruption of the music! :)
So after a commercial spot my buffer decreased with 5-15 seconds, but
no interruption of playback.

[kidstypike]

Post by vagskal
2. The album artwork size and crop are not perfect yet, see attached
image from iPeng. I tried to change the values in the .ini file, but did
not understand how I should do. (The image shows the display with the
default values.)

Make the left-hand pane wider in Spotify! (trial and error).

kidstypike

[vagskal]

Post by kidstypike
Make the left-hand pane wider in Spotify! (trial and error).

Thank you! I did not even know that I could resize the windows in
Spotify, but I succeeded to find the right size at once. (Much easier
than trying to adjust the defaults in the .ini file, whatever purpose
they may serve.)

[baz]

1. I have the same symptom (double entries on Last.fm), and a restart of
Spotify did not cure it.

Unfortunately I have the same problem again. The behavior of the
"dubble entries" is however nondeterministic, some of the songs are
showing up twice, some are just entered once.

FYI, I did not have this problem with earlier versions of DSBridge.

[vagskal]

Unfortunately I have the same problem again. The behavior of the "dubble
entries" is however nondeterministic, some of the songs are showing up
twice, some are just entered once.

I, however, constantly get double entries in Last.fm.