Build 354 - Displays Feedback

@hifi_swlon & @CrystalGipsy - I wonder what the use case for a browser based remote actually would be if there’s a native UI available for a platform. If not, it might be worth a try to run the apk in Chrome if Chrome is available on that platform (and one doesn’t mind using Chrome - no idea if Chromium would work too).

The metadata license for the Allmusic stuff most likely forbids to provide easy extraction so a browser based interface would always be a limited experience compared to the native UI.

Give credit where it’s due:

I just hooked up a second screen to my roon core and output to a web display. First time I actually used the web display for more than a few seconds on my desktop. WOW, it looks really good, and then the scrolling lyrics! Very cool!

HOWEVER, yes, there appears to be an image scaling problem with the artist image in the web display. It cuts off the top of the image quite often.

UPDATE: So I have this matrix HDMI switcher like they use in sports bars to show different games on different screens (my ideal man cave is a combo of the bridge of the starship Enterprise with the comfort of an Amsterdam coffeeshop). 4 screens hooked up to that.

So now…I have artist image/album image/lyrics up on 4 places in the man cave. And can still have the main Roon control on the touch screen monitor.

Browser display makes for really nice eye candy. Just need to stop chopping off the artist’s heads!

I want to home icon & full screen display, on iOS

add the following to the head tag

apple-mobile-web-app-capable
apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style
apple-touch-icon
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The non-Ultra Chromecasts have a rather weak CPU and GPU and we were unable to get the full version of the display code working without instability for release. We’re working on optimizations for a future release that should improve performance across all devices and get the Chromecast 1/2 much closer to everything else in terms of visual effects and performance, but it currently looks like we’ll still have to tone it down a little for these devices.

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different approaches as for cropping images -you’ll never find right pic for both cases

The Roon Labs team are working on this cropping/positioning issue. See:

After some days with it … it becomes pretty boring.

I asked my self if it’s me being wrong or the old records stored I was going through the vinyls. Since they did it in a way I was attracted by the front cover art not the artist pics or the backcovers.
Since so wasting next to 75% of the display area to show a static artist pictures which remains unchanged if you for example enqueued all tites from Fleetwood Mac to listen to them in randomn order gets boring after the 3td title.
Since all what happens (besides lyrics) is a change in the lower section where microscopic alike dimensioned cover art does chance from time to time.

So … nice idea … .well implemented but I’d love an option to swap album art with artist art so that one get’s more from it.

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It is what it is, a great start and useful if you have a group of friends listening. They don’t have to keep asking who such and such an artist is, they can see for themselves. That will be my use case for this.

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2 posts were split to a new topic: Web display not working properly

Yea, I really like it. An ‘artist’ picture so I can see who am I listening to. And album art big enough to enjoy it. It’s not perfect yet, but I enjoy it every day.

As a beginning it is great, and looks nice. I would like to see a larger font on the album titles and play time, super tiny on a 75" display.The ability to display multiple pictures for artists or cdArt. Just having the ability to show the extra images in the album directory like it presently does would be great. But overall a really good beginning.

Totally agree with the most recent comments. Static, generic artist pics are needlessly occupying he majority of the screen space. Make the album covers and text bigger please. Much bigger.

For albums, it would be best to show album track number, i.e. 2 of 8, 3 of 8, and so on.

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Also an Up Next to show the next track that will play.

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Agreed that it would be nice to have changing photos of the artist in the background. JRiver does it and it’s nice.

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Yes, for sure, that was the first thing I noticed that I’d like to see. My take is that Roon’s design aesthetic leans more to the minimalist side (to the extent possible given all it does) but not everyone has that sensibility. I’ve been suggesting for a while that more user configuration options to fit the minimalists and the dashboard lovers both would be nice.

JRiver, Foobar offer skins and other configuration options. I understand Roon would prefer to be very usable to those who are not computer techies. That is a tough balance.

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Can you extend this feature to understand TV remote - for next, previous, stop/play? That would be fantastic!

I do like the display feature, I haven’t had time to switch my current setup but I will definitely be doing it soon.

Right now I’m using a old Mac Mini connected via HDMI to my TV using the Roon App in full screen mode, the things I miss from that is the track format / resolution and what’s coming up next.

But outside of that nice to have, the new option is great. Keep up the awesome work guys!

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Like some others above, it’s hard not to make a comparison with JRiver. I’ve hardly used JRiver since I started with Roon over a year ago, and I don’t miss it at all (apart from the odd function I go back to it for).

However, if you want to know where this Displays function could/should probably be heading, check out JRiver’s Theatre View to do a similar thing. Really slick, using transitioning artist-related photos in the background. Somehow, they accomplish it without making the screen too busy, but it shows really interesting, and constantly changing, views across the artists’ histories. I don’t think it would interfere with Roon’s minimalist aesthetic.

I can’t recall whether lyrics are involved, and it is done within the app itself, so no doubt a different set of technical challenges involved.

The current Roon Displays is a good start, but there’s a way to go.

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Dear Roon team,

Great feature. Please consider making the lyrics size adjustable by user.

It might be too small for smaller displays as I think mentioned already. And in my case with a 4 meter film screen the lyrics are too big, they become too dominant that’s why I leave them off at the moment.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers
NOA

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After testing the Displays feature (after getting help on this forum :+1:) I realize I would prefer to have a layout designed for smaller screens. When I display it on my TV it´s fine, but when I´m using my iPad, with the Display function on, standing on my HiFi rack it is quite small and difficult to read.

That´s my feedback. Keep on making Roon awesome!

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