Kodi addon for Roon

Hi all,

So, I’ve created a Roon add-on for Kodi. This will allow you to browse your Roon library from your big screen and/or show a fullscreen OSD of what is currently being played by the selected Roon zone.

Interested ? Well, here are the steps to install:

  1. Download and install the api proxy nodeJS module from https://github.com/marcelveldt/roon-extension-api-proxy
    Make sure it’s up and running (by default on port 3006) before you continue !

  2. Install my Kodi repository:
    https://github.com/marcelveldt/repository.marcelveldt/raw/master/repository.marcelveldt/repository.marcelveldt-1.0.1.zip

  3. Install the Roon add-on from my repo.

  4. Configure the host/port to the proxy you installed at step 1.

Features:

  • Collection browsing (basic details only!)
  • Zone control (start playback on zone X)
  • No playlist management (as that is not in the Roon api as far as I’m aware of)
  • Fullscreen OSD to show what’s playing on the selected zone.
  • Developed as true Kodi plugin, so your Kodi skin will apply the look and feel.

By using Kodi as starting point there’s a jump start in creating a Roon control app for the big screen.
It will by no means come near the usability of the native Roon apps but it will be some kind of workaround in the being.

Have fun with it !
If you run into any issues, please post them here.

11 Likes

No criticism here; to each his own. But you are asking for our opinions. Mine is that I do not want the big screen on for music. Too distracting. I already control music without getting off the couch with Roon on a tablet. Much more elegant method, IMO. Of course, I don’t care if the option is there as long as I can leave it dormant.

Thanks for replying and yes opinions is what I was after to decide wether there’s an interest of putting something together or maybe find out other ways to control Roon. You already give one good example… use a tablet.

Well, in fact most of the time I have the exact same opinion. When listening to music I just select tracks or a playlist on my phone and just sit down and enjoy the music. The TV must be off in that case, just music.

But in a few occasions I see benefit of using the TV as a control:

  1. My wife seems to feel that she must be using the TV for the playback selections. Almost every day I see that shiny Spotify app opened up just because that an easy to access button on the TV.

  2. Once in a while I sit down with friends listening to music. In such a case it could be great to see the selection/playlist on screen to make selections.

2 Likes

Could be interesting. There is already an extension available for that purpose: the Roon Web Controller. It is a great extension for basic controls and artwork display. The collection browsing, however, is a bit cumbersome. Maybe you could do something more user friendly with some of the Kodi code, which could also be beneficial for the existing extension. I‘m sure Mike would adopt some code into his extension to provide an improved experience for browsing through the library.

Oh yes, Kodi has a nice navigation structure which can be used to browse the data from your Roon server. I’ve already created the middleware to connect python to the Roon api (see my other forum post about home automation) so I was just thinking that I can simply use that same code for the Kodi addon. A framework for creating the browsing in the Kodi addon is also already there because of my previous addons I created for Kodi, like the squeezebox addon.

But off course if nobody sees any use case I’m not going to put effort in it and just buy my wife a tablet to control Roon :wink:

When you make this add-on I for sure would give it a try. I might even use it on my RPi instead of RAAT as Kodi has a Qobuz add-on, which I would like to use together with Roon.

OK, let’s wait for others if there’s enough interest. Good to know there is in fact interest.
BTW you shouldn’t give up on raat in that case. You will still need a playback endpoint which might as well be the roon bridge on that Pi. The Kodi addon would act as a Roon remote control only, no playback involved.

2 Likes

Yes! Would be very interested in this.

I would be interested. I currently Miracast from my android tablet to smart TV so that everyone in the house can easily see what’s playing, but of course there is no direct control. I’m hopelessly inadequate technically though, so a walk through for dummies would be appreciated if it gets up and running. Of course an Apple TV app for Roon remote (not endpoint) would be easier for the tech challenged, but one can dream…

I’m interested, one less interface, in fact my Kodi machine is do for a rebuild after Windows lost the ability to use hdmi out for audio. Long standing issue I understand.

I would also like to be able to experience the Roon interface on my OLED tv, I think that it would be an awesome idea!

Not me - I’d rather not have the GPU working when I listen to roon - headless with a tablet is my preference - much better for reading about the artist/recording anyway.

Yes! It would be a great thing to control roon via the big screen. But I wonder how to manage this.

I have an ropieeee connected to an AVR and I’ve an amazon fire tv with a kodi cclone also conneted to the AVR .

2 different input sources! The raspi delivers the audio. How ould I see the Kodi-screen?

With my AVR, If I switch to an audio-only input while watching one of the HDMI inputs, I still get the display but the sound from the audio input. Not sure if any AVR works that way.

Heads up: I started working on this. In fact it is indeed really easy.
The Roon API only provides very limited info so this addon will also be very limited. At least you can quickly browse and start playing something on a selected zone.

2 Likes

Would/could this work on ROCK?

Really interested in this. Kodi via a big-screen TV has been my primary method of selecting music for playback. If only you could go this for Roon and embed the Roon Bridge…

I’ll post the first version within a few minutes.
I won’t include the Roon bridge but off course you can decide to install the Roon bridge on the same machine if you want. Not sure though if that is a great idea regarding audio quality but I’ll leave that up to you.

OK, first version is up and running for a test drive !
I’ve updated the first post with the details. Have fun and thanks for testing.

Thanks, I will definitely check it out!