Disappointing Upgrade

[PieterB]

I installed 4.9, and was utterly surprised. Up till now - I am using Subsonic for a long time - every upgrade was an improvement. This time it was not. Maybe under the hood something changed for the better, but the GUI was a mess. Even the new typeface did not improve the usability. The positioning and setup of the album art a downright disaster.

The nature of mankind is that we want to improve everything, all the time. Pimp cars, houses, improve tennis rackets - and sometimes those 'improvements' are just degrading a perfect object or tool. The only way out is reinventing an object, a tool, a piece of software.

It also did not address the invisibility of album art inside a folder if there's not a music file present with a .....

I reinstalled 4.8 within 5 minutes.

[alphawave7]

I voted YES! DLNA is HUGE for me. But here's the rundown of changes since 4.8:

4.9b1:

New: Added a DLNA/UPnP Media Server. This feature is experimental and might not work with all DLNA clients.
New: Added "Play next" option.
New: Updated Estonian translation, courtesy of Olav Mägi.
REST: Escape special characters in XML for getGenres.
REST: Added ignoredArticles to getIndexes.
Bugfix: Improved lyrics search.
Bugfix: Trim license key when registering.
Bugfix: Fix download file names with special characters.
Bugfix: Don't create a new player for each download.
Tech: Make Subsonic work on Tomcat 7.
Tech: Increased limit of internal database from 2 to 8 GB (fresh installs only).
Tech: Set MIME type for cover arts.
Security: Added CAPTCHA to password recovery page.

4.9b2

New: Use modern icons and fonts.
New: Added light icons for dark themes.
Bugfix: Proper support for album artist.
Bugfix: Remember DLNA settings when restarting server.
Bugfix: Play next/last popup menu was unreadable in some themes.
Bugfix: Created signed installer for Mac OS.
New: Added Estonian translation, courtesy of Olav Mägi.
REST: Created updateUser method.
REST: Added "starred" to "Directory" and "Artist" in xsd.

4.9b3

New: Modernized web interface. Nicer fonts, colors and layout. Larger album art.
New: Show thumbnails for "siebling" albums.
New: Generate automatic album art.
New: Replace Download button with Play next.
New: Use max gain 0 dB in jukebox mode to avoid distortion caused by clipping.
New: When playing a song, queue rest of album.
New: Added album lists "By decade" and "By genre".
New: Support playlists in DLNA.
New: DLNA now browses by folder, not tags.
New: Updated Dutch translation, courtesy of Toolman.
Bugfix: Fixed DLNA song duration and album art.
Bugfix: Newly added media was sometimes not picked up when scanning libraries.
Bugfix: Fixed font problem when using https.
Bugfix: Validate input in Settings > Internet TV/radio.
Bugfix: Honor "subsonic.host" system property when resolving local IP address.
Bugfix: Playlist management was broken on Tomcat 7.
Bugfix: Settings > Users was broken on Tomcat 7.
Bugfix: Settings > Personal was broken on Tomcat 7.
Bugfix: When clicking "Create new playlist", automatically expand list of playlists.
REST: Add year and genre to albums.
REST: Added "byYear" and "byGenre" to getAlbumList and getAlbumList2.
REST: Add "bookmarkPosition" to songs.
Performance: Fixed slow queries on large media collections (>100,000 files): get starred, get files in playlist, get genres.


4.9b4

New: Support playlist sharing on Facebook etc.
New: Added "Play next" button to playlist view.
New: Added "Play all" to starred songs.
New: Added "Save as playlist" to starred songs.
New: Show cover art for starred albums.
New: Show album/song count in genre list.
New: When playing a song from a playlist, queue other songs in that playlist.
New: When clicking the play icon for a song, add whole album to play queue.
New: Clicking on album thumb in "Now playing" now opens album page.
New: Cache generated album art.
Bugfix: Don't create zip file when downloading a single song.
Bugfix: Show cover art in the right order.
Bugfix: Hande genres names with special characters (e.g., "R&B").
Bugfix: Fixed character encoding problems in some translations.
Bugfix: Use locale-specific names for automatically created playlists.
REST: Added album/song count in getGenres.

4.9Final

ew: Rename "Download" to "Download all"
New: Rename "More actions..." to "Selected songs..."
New: When playing a song, queue only later songs (not earlier).
New: Added button for downloading single files in left frame.
New: Updated Japanese translation, courtesy of Kenji Maekawa.
Bugfix: Changing artist for files with ID3v1 tags was broken.
Bugfix: Play/add buttons for single files in left frame didn't work.
Bugfix: Thumbs in external player was sometimes missing.
Bugfix: Fixed layout bug in podcast page.
Bugfix: Trim podcast urls.


I'm thrilled Sindre continues to develop and bugfix SS, and appreciate those beta testers and translators that help along the way. There are still niggles and bugs to fix, so I anticipate 5.0 beta sooner than later. In the meantime, I'll enjoy my Subsonic library over my dlna clients thanks to 4.9.

[daneren2005]

It definitely did not do everything I wanted, but Subsonic 4.9 was a huge improvement over 4.8 just in terms of the API's he added that allow me to more things with the clients.

[PieterB]

As I thought - and I read some info before I posted - there might be quite a bit of improvement under the hood. My point, however, is that you can improve a lot of things under the hood, without destroying a wonderful GUI. There's no point of just making a visual statement, because you want to prove that something actually did happen.

[daneren2005]

As I thought - and I read some info before I posted - there might be quite a bit of improvement under the hood. My point, however, is that you can improve a lot of things under the hood, without destroying a wonderful GUI. There's no point of just making a visual statement, because you want to prove that something actually did happen.

I guess I also felt that most of the visual changes were improvements. I feel that 4.9 looks nicers then 4.8 did, though there were some things that weren't done entirely right. The only major regression in my opinion is the irritating play song adding everything after it to the playlist. So far I've heard not a single person have anything but hatred for it, so I'm not sure why Sindre is refusing to go back on this.

[alphawave7]

The only major regression in my opinion is the irritating play song adding everything after it to the playlist. So far I've heard not a single person have anything but hatred for it, so I'm not sure why Sindre is refusing to go back on this.

Because 'Play Last' solves it? If the idea is to play a track without a playlist being generated..unless I'm totally missing something, which is entirely possible.
On my Chromebook I've been using Jamstash a lot, and use DSub/Ultrasonic/Subsonic remotely and play single tracks without any special cha cha on everything.

[jimbo715]

I guess I also felt that most of the visual changes were improvements. I feel that 4.9 looks nicers then 4.8 did, though there were some things that weren't done entirely right. The only major regression in my opinion is the irritating play song adding everything after it to the playlist. So far I've heard not a single person have anything but hatred for it, so I'm not sure why Sindre is refusing to go back on this.

I agree that the look and feel is for the better in 4.9. Feature request to make that album queuing feature 'toggable'? eh eh?

[PieterB]

I'll give another try on a separate machine, a fresh install....

[loyalnucksfan]

I'm a noob on forums so I apolgoize if this isn't the right page, but I'm going crazy.

On my one machine, there is NO play buttons at all.. On my server, there is.

What am I missing? Why is it there is only a play next/play last. Add to playlist but doesn't auto play.

Am I thank new to life? <-- May be yes.

[loyalnucksfan]

I'm a noob on forums so I apologize if this isn't the right page, but I'm going crazy.

On my one machine, there is NO play buttons at all.. On my server, there is.

What am I missing? Why is it there is only a play next/play last. Add to playlist but doesn't auto play.

Am I thank new to life? <-- May be yes.

**Ignore, I had a previous account that wouldn't show the "play" button. I removed the account, created a new one and presto... the play button appeared.

Lucky me.

[Vproduct]

In version 4.8 it was possible to download 1 click all albums of the performer. Why deleted from downloading a of an album cover? Why at downloading this folder isn't created in archive... Return to 4.8! Why in right.jsp at a clique on an album sends to this album, instead of increases the picture? If I want to see an album, I press the song (performer), but not an album cover!

[ootuoyetahi]

When Subsonic first came out was thrilled! Finally a way to stream MY music to my devices no matter where I was. Each release did seem to get better and better however it really never did (and still hasnt) maxed its potential. At this point, unless there are MASSIVE improvements and enhancements, Subsonic is really dying a slow death. With other programs out there like Plex and XBMC, there isnt much of a place for Subsonic. Both PLEX and XBMC really do everything Subsonic does 100000s of times better.

[PieterB]

With other programs out there like Plex and XBMC, there isnt much of a place for Subsonic. Both PLEX and XBMC really do everything Subsonic does 100000s of times better.

Unless I am completely wrong - not having used both programs, the great thing about Subsonic, apart from the simple and straight forward GUI, is that no listener needs to install anything. A working IP address and a browser is all you need. Both Plex and XBMC seemingly need to be installed on every device and in every location.

Transcoding is another great thing: while I can still play high end lossless music files locally, streaming is - in my case - downsampled to 192 kbps, making it possible to have a lot of streams to the outside world simultaneously without any hiccups or delays. I stick with good ol' Subsonic - still 4.8......

[alphawave7]

With other programs out there like Plex and XBMC, there isnt much of a place for Subsonic. Both PLEX and XBMC really do everything Subsonic does 100000s of times better.

Unless I am completely wrong - not having used both programs, the great thing about Subsonic, apart from the simple and straight forward GUI, is that no listener needs to install anything. A working IP address and a browser is all you need. Both Plex and XBMC seemingly need to be installed on every device and in every location.

Transcoding is another great thing: while I can still play high end lossless music files locally, streaming is - in my case - downsampled to 192 kbps, making it possible to have a lot of streams to the outside world simultaneously without any hiccups or delays. I stick with good ol' Subsonic - still 4.8......

I HAVE used both and they both suck for music.. no where near the simplicity and intuitiveness of Sub. I think Plex does vid better than Sub, but I'm not much of a video person lan-wise as I prefer putting my stuff on YouTube and cloud storage for ubiquity. Far more 'collective' and finicky about music. I think xbmc is nearly unusable for anything but stealing content, which it does well.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[alphawave7]

With other programs out there like Plex and XBMC, there isnt much of a place for Subsonic. Both PLEX and XBMC really do everything Subsonic does 100000s of times better.

Unless I am completely wrong - not having used both programs, the great thing about Subsonic, apart from the simple and straight forward GUI, is that no listener needs to install anything. A working IP address and a browser is all you need. Both Plex and XBMC seemingly need to be installed on every device and in every location.

Transcoding is another great thing: while I can still play high end lossless music files locally, streaming is - in my case - downsampled to 192 kbps, making it possible to have a lot of streams to the outside world simultaneously without any hiccups or delays. I stick with good ol' Subsonic - still 4.8......

I HAVE used both and they both suck for music.. no where near the simplicity and intuitiveness of Sub. I think Plex does vid better than Sub, but I'm not much of a video person lan-wise as I prefer putting my stuff on YouTube and cloud storage for ubiquity. Far more 'collective' and finicky about music. I think xbmc is nearly unusable for anything but stealing content, which it does well.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk