SyncOptions

SyncOption in 'wait for next track' mode

Releases for SqueezeCenter 7 are available here.
Use SyncOptions-1.3.zip for SlimServer 6.5.x

Download and unpack in your Slimserver Plugins directory.
SqueezeCenter 7.3: you can use the repository URL https://tuxreborn.netlify.com/slim/slim7/repodata.xml in the web Extension Downloader interface instead of manually unzipping the plugin.

Note: SyncOptions for SlimServer 6.5.x requires you to apply a patch to your SlimServer source code, and, if you are running SlimServer on Windows, run the slimserver.pl script rather than slimserver.exe. The patch makes a small change to how SlimServer's web and remote control Synchronization options work so that SyncOptions can intercept sync requests and make sure they run at the appropriate time. The patch is the file "sync-65.diff" and is found in the ZIP file.

SqueezeCenter 7: SqueezeCenter 7 includes the small changes from sync-65.diff so that my SqueezeCenter 7 version of this plugin is a simple install for everyone. Thank you, Andy!

What SyncOptions does

SyncOptions gives you three new settings for synchronizing players:

Wait for next track to sync
Normally, if Player B syncs to Player A and Player A is already playing an album, the moment that you ask Player B to sync with Player A, both will start playing the song that Player A was already playing -- from the beginning! I normally would prefer that Player B wait until Player A starts its next song so that SlimServer doens't play any song over again. SyncOptions lets you configure SlimServer to do just that -- to wait until the current track is done to sync the players (if SlimServer is playing a local song; SyncOptions will let SlimServer sync immediately if you're playing Internet Radio). SyncOptions lets you set SlimServer to allow syncing to restart the track if the track has only recently begun to play, too.

When a player is waiting for a new song, SyncOptions displays a message on the screen and gives you the chance to force immediate syncing if that's what you want. So immediate syncs with the remote control require only one additional button press.

As of version 1.2, SyncOptions can do mid-song syncing. You can set this as your preference, or you can use the remote control to initiate a mid-song sync when the "Waiting for" screen (illustrated above) displays.
Unsync at power off
Normally, if Player A and Player B are synced, and someone turns off Player B, SlimServer keeps the two players synced. When Player B is turned on again, it will immediately re-sync with Player A. This usually means starting whatever song Player A was playing all over again. Whoever has Player B's remote can easily mess up Player A's music this way. SyncOptions lets you configure SlimServer to always remove each player from any sync groups when it's turned off, so you never have to worry that turning a player on might interfere with someone else's music.
Restoring playlist after unsyncing
Normally, syncing a player with one or more others means discarding your playlist. SyncOptions 7a11 and newer (for SqueezeCenter 7.x) gives you a new option -- to restore the old playlist when a player leaves a sync group. SyncOptions does this by automatically saving the playlist when a player "joins" a sync group, and restoring that playlist when the player leaves the sync group.

Known bugs

Changelog

----------------------------
revision 1.3
date: 2008/01/08
fix web pref bug (1.2 did not allow selecting mid-song for the wait pref)
----------------------------
revision 1.2
date: 2008/01/07
now supports mid-song sync; "wait" recognizes when someone manually skips track in the sync group
----------------------------
revision 1.1
date: 2008/01/05
Initial revision

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$Id: SyncOptions.html,v 1.11 2008/11/15 16:37:09 peterw Exp peterw $