This is a touch screen so it works for transport controls or just generally using Roon. But the album cover is significantly larger than it is in landscape mode. Monitors also just have a unique look in portrait mode since most people only see them that way in restaurants and airports.
I do wish that Roon would give us a better “now playing” screen with larger album art in landscape, and ideally it would include “next up.”
But this, it’s a good start. I have two of these up in my listening room, one on each side wall.
I’ve got a couple of “now playing” devices - RoPieeee and the 7" touch screen in one case, a small monitor with an Apple TV in another. I’ve been playing with the idea of building one around this new Web Controller extension: Roon Extension: Roon Web Controller v1.2.0 - #468 by nihil
I think I could drive a touchscreen with a Raspberry Pi running the built-in Chromium browser on Raspberry OS. In “kiosk” mode, the browser is full screen. Are you doing something similar to this?
I do wish it was easier to get one of these to work with a layout that’s readable from 10 feet. As it stands, the fonts are too small to be easily read.
Most people I work with that write code of any kind have one monitor that way to.
James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
4
Nothing fancy - just a Windows 10 machine. The touch support is pretty good and Roon’s interface is pretty good with it. That or Apple would be the only way to run the full Roon remote on a monitor like this. On Windows 10, you just hit F11 for full screen mode. Windows also has a kiosk mode but it’s a little complicated.
I’ve used the old web controller extension too - it also looks really good in portrait as the top half of the entire screen is the album cover, plus you have transport controls. I am interested in playing with the new web controller when I get some time.
I agree, Roon looks pretty good from 10 feet away but it’s not really meant for that with the small font. It would be great to get something that is totally meant for it - and I think it would be best in a separate window from the current interface so we’re not giving up hands on control. But I’m not sure if Roon’s architecture would ever allow for that.
I probably can’t get to this until April due to travel plans but what I really want to do is set up a table-top version of something like this based around a 12-14" touchscreen monitor. I want the computing device mounted to the back. The device should come on when the zone it displays starts playing and should turn off (sleep) when it stops.
I have a version of this working with a small non-touch monitor. It’s driven by an Apple TV running the TV:Remote app (which is a Roon app for Apple TV). The power on/off is accomplished with Home Assistant automations and a zigbee-based smart plug.
Apple TV can’t do touch. I think Raspberry Pi can, though, and it has a Chromium browser built into the OS. It’s actually even possible to launch the Chromium browser from Home Automation and to put it into kiosk mode (can do this with an SSH automation).
I’m still researching the parts, though. Getting the cabling right is challenging - hard to hide it.
Anyhow…If I ever pull this off, I’ll post about it.
I do think the best bet for a 10’ view is probably through the new web extension and asking the author/maintainer to add it as an option (or to just add custom views).
1 Like
Jim_F
(Remember - It's easier to Keep a Customer than to get a New One)
6
I have been considering a touchscreen and now playing display for my man cave/office setup. So may look to have it portrait instead of landscape. I like the new web ui thats available that would work well on a pi which I intend to use rather than a full PC. Although I may be able to run it off my macbook pro and Dell hub.
