I came across Tuneshine (https://www.tuneshine.rocks) the other day and instantly wanted one, but it is locked to using only some services. It has last.fm integration, but I find their album art to be lacking for non-English music. My scrobbles are about 30% blank images.
Anyone know of a way to create something similar that would feed Roon album art or is there a way to setup a Pi with a mini-display (even a standard HDMI one) that would display only the album art? I’ve seen there are several remotes or display projects but didn’t see one that was this specific.
It’s a fun little device. I had some issues with Wi-Fi but the owner was cool and was super responsive. New firmwares over the past few months have made them a perfect experience.
The only thing that sucks is that you are relying on last.fm album art, but the developer was aiming to work on native Roon integration this year last time I talked with him. If you buy one just prod him to let him know there are more people using Roon and Tuneshines together.
These look pretty cool. So you’re scrobbling Roon to last.fm and then pointing your Tuneshine(s) to that one scrobbled account? It sounds like that’s what you’re doing but it also sounds like the hit rate for images isn’t great and you can’t have per-zone displays (unless you set up unique Roon profiles and last.fm accounts). Is that right? Thanks!
Yep, that is 100% correct. I would say the hit rate for images is great for English music. Probably near 100%. I listen to a lot of Japanese and Korean music and it is closer to 70% there.
This looks indeed tempting. Maybe a bit pricey with shipping and taxes to Europe but looks like an interesting gadget. Since it does not have an on/off button, I was contemplating a smart plug and an automation in Home Assistant to fire up the display when Roon starts playing. Hmm.
It’s the dumbest thing I have bought, but I love it. It’s super fun and just adds this intangible thing when you look over and see some of your favorite album art rendered lo-fi.
I guess that is the way to look at it. Just curious, do you leave the display on 24/7 and is it displaying anything when no music is playing? Or do you pull the plug when not in use?
24/7. The power draw is very low. Even with a image displaying it is like 2w.
When no music is playing you have a bunch of options. It can show a picture from your photo library, blank, a gradient or a few other things, so that would negate the need for a smart plug if you just set it to blank.
Based on @WWLAladdinSane’s comments, you may not need this but, if you want to go this route, I have this working in HA for other smart displays. I turn a plug on when a zone starts playing. When a zone stops playing, I set a timer to turn the plug off in 30 secs. The “start playing” script clears the timer. It’s two automations and a script. Easy to set up.
I’m using Google Chromcast (3rd Gen) devices. These are discontinued but still available from Amazon in the US.
In one location, I have a small HDMI capable monitor. In the other, a 24" TV. The Chromecasts are easily concealed. The monitor is powered by a smart outlet that I toggle on and off as described. The TV runs Google TV so is hackable to enable Android Debug Bridge. That’s what I did. I use the same scripts for the TV but they’re tweaked to wake it from sleep/put it to sleep using ADB. ou mentioned you’re in Europe, so I don’t know if this applies. Here, in the US, Best Buy carries Insignia brand TVs which they sell for very low prices because they run Amazon’s “FireTV” OS and I believe Amazon subsidizes them. That’s the TV I have - I never see the Amazon UI because of how I use it.
More info if you want it. The Tuneshine sounds to have good alternatives to power on/off, but this approach can work if you want to set it up for Tuneshine or something else.
Many thanks for taking the time to explain your setup. I will look into the Chomecast + TV option. Currently, I am using a Fire TV tablet purely as a Roon remote and „now playing“ display but it needs to be powered on/off manually. Not sure if it is possible to automate this similar to your setup.
You’d have to explore. If it’s fully powered down, I don’t think my approach can wake it. Those tablets do support ADB but it may only work over USB (versus the TV which exposes it over IP).
Here’s a link that you might look at. Tons of YouTube videos, too.
Home Assistant has an Android Debug Bridge integration you’d need to install, too.
In case anyone is interested, I have now installed the Fully Kiosk app on the Fire tablet and with two automations linked to the Roon media player the screen is now automatically turned on when music starts playing and turned off when the media player is idle (to be precise the automations are linked to activities in the integration for the Unfolded Circle remote control, but this is a different story).
