AVSub V14 is out - 24/192, Chromecast, tweaks

[rich600]

Hi all,

AVSub V14 is now out.

V14 of AVSub adds support for Google Chromecast via in-app purchase.

AVSub will cast audio to all existing Chromecast devices, including HDMI based and Chromecast Audio. AVSub can even cast direct from your AVSub cache.

In addition, AVSub has the following tweaks:
* If you're using the Apple Camera Kit, AVSub now supports high resolution digital output up to 24bit/192 kHZ.
* You can now specify an alternative address for your server, which AVSub will try if it can't connect to the primary address. This is useful if you access your server with internal and external addresses.
* Options have been added to disable Podcast caching and disable blurred backgrounds.
* The upgrades and settings pages have been refreshed
* Battery improvements have been made
* The lock-screen pause issue has been fixed
* Invalid characters returned from Subsonic are now filtered out
* Long podcast names no longer scroll super-fast

Enjoy!
Rich

[theorego4]

My initial impressions of AVSub V14 -

- High resolution digital output doesn't work on my iPAD3 via the camera connection kit & HRT Microstreamer. 96k & 88.2k 24-bit are downsampled to 48k. The 48k might be an iPAD3 limitation via the 30-pin connector? Sounds like others are having better luck via the "Lightning" connector - see vigotone's posts. However, this is an improvement to iSub which downsamples all to 44.1k.
- Hi-resolution 96k and 88.2k files play flawlessly at 48k on AVSub without any stuttering (unlike iSub on my iPAD). This is a big plus!!
- Sound is exceptional via AVSub even without an EQ. According to the developer, EQ will be added to V15! iSub's EQ has proved very useful especially when listening via headphones.
- Large fonts throughout are helpful and album graphics "Now Playing" look great! However, fonts on "Now Playing" could have a smaller option and show longer playlists more completely.
- Higher level folders are showing random "album art" (unlike iSub). Have no idea why this is happening. Individual album folders do show the correct cover art. Clearing art cache doesn't appear to do much!
- AVsub crashes randomly. This sometimes happens when scrolling folders while listening to "Now Playing." Hopefully stability will be improved.
- As a long time user of iSUb, AVSub may be a viable potential replacement for audio streaming especially since it's under active development. My only real issue is stability via the iPAD3. This may or not be an issue with other iPAD models or iPhones.
- Many thanks to the developer Rich...Keep up the great work!

[mamema]

my initial impression of AvSub 14

- switching server addresses from internet fqdn to internal server ip doesn't work constantly, takes to long and is not faster than NOT changing adresses automatically but instead type in the addresses manually like in earlier versions

still the best subsonic client on iOS

[theorego4]

An update!!

- Upgraded Subsonic to version 5.3. All hi-resolution 96k, 88.2k & 48k files are now playing correctly via the HRT Microstreamer and IPAD3! This is awesome!!
- One bug is album playlists do not always play completely and stops at a particular track without advancing to the next one. Have to do so manually.
- Battery usage on my IPAD3 seems to have increased significantly playing hi-resolution audio. Be aware!
- Suggest increasing the cache limit to at least 2GB. 1GB limit is not much for hi-resolution audio.
- Random repeated album art at higher level folders still present. This art does not represent any of the albums in the folder. Individual album folders do show the correct cover art like before.
- Gapless playback was not working correctly but appears to have been fixed with the upgrade to Subsonic 5.3.
- Bad news is AVSub is still crashing periodically which is still the main concern.

Theo

[rich600]

Hi everybody,

thanks for your feedback. I'd like a bit more information to get to the bottom of these bugs.

Playlists needing manual advance:

• Whats the bitrate/frequency?
• Are you using CCK?
• Does this happen with specific tracks/can it be replicated?
• Are the tracks in the cache?
• Is the app in the foreground?

Random album art:

• Is it the art for another album or the default 2-colour Subsonic album art with text for album/artist?

Crashes in scrolling of folders:

• Are these really long folders? i.e. 100's of entries?
• Is it easy to replicate?
• Is it only when going fast or does it happen when going slow too?

Random crashes:

• What sort of scenarios?

For all problems, if an error is reported on restart, sending it to me will really help ! Send to issues@avsubapp.co.uk

Some info for you too.

• Higher res files will drain the battery more because of more processing required.
• If you're seeing random album art and it's the default album art from Subsonic, this is a Subsonic issue (not that I won't address it!). When showing art in lists, AVSub requests a 120*120 thumbnail. Sometimes Subsonic returns default 2-colour album/artist art and other time the proper art. This seems to be where original art is very large. I changed it to 150*150 in a test version and Subsonic started returning the actual art! I will change the code to use this larger size, although I do it begrudgingly because I implemented thumbnails to save cache space

Cheers for the feedback!
Rich

[theorego4]

Hi everybody,

thanks for your feedback. I'd like a bit more information to get to the bottom of these bugs.

Playlists needing manual advance:

• Whats the bitrate/frequency?
• Are you using CCK?
• Does this happen with specific tracks/can it be replicated?
• Are the tracks in the cache?
• Is the app in the foreground?

Random album art:

• Is it the art for another album or the default 2-colour Subsonic album art with text for album/artist?

Crashes in scrolling of folders:

• Are these really long folders? i.e. 100's of entries?
• Is it easy to replicate?
• Is it only when going fast or does it happen when going slow too?

Random crashes:

• What sort of scenarios?

For all problems, if an error is reported on restart, sending it to me will really help ! Send to issues@avsubapp.co.uk

Some info for you too.

• Higher res files will drain the battery more because of more processing required.
• If you're seeing random album art and it's the default album art from Subsonic, this is a Subsonic issue (not that I won't address it!). When showing art in lists, AVSub requests a 120*120 thumbnail. Sometimes Subsonic returns default 2-colour album/artist art and other time the proper art. This seems to be where original art is very large. I changed it to 150*150 in a test version and Subsonic started returning the actual art! I will change the code to use this larger size, although I do it begrudgingly because I implemented thumbnails to save cache space

Cheers for the feedback!
Rich

- Yes using CCK - 48/24-bit & 44.1/16-bit.
- Yes, has happened with specific playlists and can be replicated. So far only in 24/192 mode. Crashes happen when manually advancing to the next track.
- Tracks not in the cache initially.
- Yes, app is in the foreground.
- Album art is for a different album and is from a different folder. It is not the standard Subsonic art.
- Library is large with long folders and 100's of entries. Crash when scrolling happens randomly. Also, it happens not only in 24/192 mode but also in standard mode.

Thank you,

Theo

[manwithaplan]

Rich, I love that you have added native 24bit/192kHz streaming of FLAC files for instance, that is great. Can you think about adding support for DSD files as well? These are typically extension types .dsf and .dff and I have a folder full of them that I'd love to be able to stream. DSD was the format of the ill-fated SACD experiment by Sony and others in the early 2000's, but the format lives on as a popular high rez download format. In fact, to my ears, DSD files sound slightly better than 24bit/192kHz FLAC, all things being equal. Of course, the law of diminishing returns abides here to a great extent. Many of the new mobile DAC's support DSD, such as the Oppo HA-2 or the Mojo from Chord. But yeah, I have the content, want to stream. Thanks!

[rich600]

Hi,

whoa, that is a monster format!

Just added support - am testing now with some DSD64 test files. Hopefully find some larger files to test also.

It's playing the DSD64 test file fine though.

Would you be interested in beta testing?

Cheers
Rich

[manwithaplan]

Yes I would indeed! As long as it works with Subsonic server version 5.2.1 that is. I cannot upgrade to 5.3 of Subsonic because of various problems like the inability to properly issue sharing links with a custom, non-subsonic.org URL. Also breaks SSL for the same. But yes indeed, I would LOVE to try native DSD streaming with 5.2.1 and AVSub. PM me any details you have. Thanks again Rich, solid move!

[chasmo]

Does the Chromecast feature stream the audio directly from the phone, or does it trigger the Subsonic server to stream it?

[rich600]

Hi Chasmo,

If a file is in the cache, you can enable direct from iOS device streaming, but the recommended approach is to disable that option so that everything comes direct from the server itself.

If you stream direct from the cache, the app must be kept in the foreground.

Cheers
Rich

[chasmo]

That was very good news. I had a glimmer of hope that after 5 years of trial-end-error batch files that I finally had a method to stream replaygained audio to my home stereo using Chromecast Audio and AVSub.

I set up a new user called "Chromecast" and played a track so it would create the default player. Then I created a new transcoding pointing at a custom batch file and set up the Chromecast player to use ONLY that transcoding. I thought finally I'd be able to stream a playlist without having to dive for the volume knob every time the song changes.

However, it looks like I'm foiled again because when I play a track in AVSub via Chromecast, Subsonic ignores the player transcoder settings (as it does in Jukebox mode) and streams the file as-is directly to Chromecast. That doesn't seem like a good method for several reasons - another being that if you're connecting to Subsonic over an internet connection, you might not be able to support full FLAC files.

I really like Subsonic's UI and ease of use, but after 5 years of beating my head against a brick wall, I'm about ready to throw in the towel and seek out another server that has native replaygain support.

[rich600]

Hi

are you putting the chrome cast user details in the chrome cast section at the bottom of the avsub settings page? I don't see why Subsonic would skip the transcoder because it doesn't know its a chrome cast - its a very different scenario to Jukebox

Are you sure you've linked the transcoders to the Chromecast player in Subsonic?

Cheers
Rich

p.s - are you using replay gain FLAC files? If so, do yo want to beta test replay gain in AVSub?

[chasmo]

I don't see why Subsonic would skip the transcoder because it doesn't know its a chrome cast - its a very different scenario to Jukebox

That's exactly what I hoped when I ran out to Best Buy to pick up a Chromecast. But apparently it detects the player type. Here's what shows up in the log, unlike the transcoding string and transcoder output I usually see:

Code: Select all

[2016-02-10 17:13:51,186] INFO StreamController - Got HTTP range: 0-
[2016-02-10 17:13:51,187] INFO PlayQueueInputStream - chromecast listening to "The Suburbs\05 - Empty Room.flac"
[2016-02-10 17:16:49,412] INFO StreamController - Got HTTP range: 0-
[2016-02-10 17:16:49,412] INFO PlayQueueInputStream - chromecast listening to "The Taller You Are, The Shorter You Get\02 - The Big Picture.mp3"

Yep, I did create a user just for Chromecast and I entered that in AVSub. From the log, I can see that it's correctly using that user. That user has one player (microsub) and only one transcoding on that player. Subsonic ignores it. If I set the max bitrate to say, 32 kbps, it downsamples using a string that's not the one entered in the configuration.

Yes, I'd love to beta test the replaygain function in AVSub. I have about 50%/50% flac and mp3's.

[rich600]

Hi,

I PM'd you a message - not sure if you've got it?

Rich