Program to control DMP-A6 from Windows Desktop (Version 2, free, inofficial DIY)

Do you use the streamer at your PC work place. If yes, this program will make interaction much smoother.

The remote control program was created out of the necessity to control the music playing right from the PC desktop. For this purpose, a program is practical that runs on Windows, takes up as little space on the screen as possible, and can easily be pushed into the background. It is an in-official third party tool!

The program is not intended to be a control panel, but simply to provide the necessary functions needed to listen to music and switch between the internal player of the streamer or use it as DAC for the PC.

The program contains buttons for
last track/play-pause/next track
volume down/mute/volume up
USB DAC input/internal player/Shut down

The remote control can also read out the actual track name of the track which is currently playing. This only works when playing local music.

You have the option to add the filename of the track which currently playing to a M3U playlist. That is simply a list of file paths. Such a list can be used to play a list of songs in a certain order. Many playing devices and programs support such lists.

When saving a list, we included a function to adjust the M3U file for different destination. You can easily change the start of each filename (i.e. "/storage/AAD4A377D4A399FB/") to use a different path or just "/".

Intro Video:

This is freeware - please use at your own risk. Please note that it was tested with DMP A6 only.

This is the offical download page: https://www.fotoarray.com/freetools.html

 

Sidenote: This controller was created as Windows EXE and not HTML/JS based because this provides with additional possibilities: Access API without having to worry about JavaScript cross-origin protection. Act on Windows shut-down message. Minimize the program into the info area and most important - make the window really small and optionally stay-on-top.

The playlists may not work with different character sets. Please note that it is using an API which was not officially published for the DMP A6. Sadly the M3U cannot be used directly on the DMP A6 - yet.

Playing a certain track does not work (with firmware 1.2.50) when the screen is off. To help, the controller program includes a button marked with a circle which will toggle the display.

 

MusicRemote Version 2:

Simply click on the "folder" button to open a view on the SMB Server. The directory of the track which is currently selected will be displayed. Using the button "<<" you can navigate one level up.
Double click or click on "Play" to start that track - directly on the streamer!



The remote can do a lot more - please clikc on [*] to see the menu.

 

Nice freeware, thanks!
I have started to code one in HTML/JS but with CORS limitations, I gave up the development for the moment...

Just 2 suggestions:
- Why not displaying current track informations (http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:9529/ZidooMusicControl/v2/getState) on the main interface?
- It would be nice if we can change icons(position/img) to customize display! There are a lot of free ones on https://www.svgrepo.com/vectors/music/.

 

Thanks for your comment. HTML+JS is nice, but apart from CORS (the upload page also suffers from it, as I found out) the EXE has a very nice ability: It can send the shutdown command when windows closes. So you can finish your work and the streamer goes to sleep as well. (Activated under "Extra"). Further more this new version also uses threading to minimize lockups when streamer is not online.
Also: The program will not close but hide when you press "X" - and is readily available after click on info icon. (But also when you start EXE again - it detects this)

1) In the current version you can display the current track when you drag the mouse over the O button.
There is a "masteredition" which also displays the information in an extra area which switches automatically when the streamer selects the next track. I find it a bit distracting on my desktop, but If there is popular demand, I can make this feature public.

2) I can make it possible in a future edition to load a custom background PNG from a local path. That would be easy to do.

The best feature - imo - is the ability to open the internal SMB window. Did you try? I do not have to touch the streamer anymore.

It is important to log into SMB with Explorer first and set and save the password.

 

A very hard to find easter egg, sure!


For SMB, sorry, I didn't understand how it works: If I double click on a MP3 file (or click on Play button), nothing happened.

Also If I double click on "This computer", nothing happened.

 

If the streamer does not play when you select a track, it is possible that the screen of the streamer is switched off. This appears to be a bug in the DMP 6 Firmware.
As work-around there is the little button with O in the upper right corner. Click on it and the screen is enabled. Often the track will be played then, if not, click "play" again. I hope this bug will be fixed in next version of the firmware. I also wait for M3U support.

You can use 2 different browsers for SMB - the Explorer and the internal browser.

As Alternative you can use the "Explorer" (Menu "Selected Music Browser/Open SMB in Explorer")

Now you should be able to open your server view with one click. If you double click, that file will be played on the computer, not on the streamer.

But you can use Drag&Drop to drag a track to the controler window. It should then play on the streamer. (If internal playing is switched on and screen a well).

The internal browser is opened at the position of the currently played track. You can go up with "<<" until "Your PC" - but then you are stuck. The browser is not designed to work here. since it will only browse directories, not devices. Click ">>" to go back where you were and you can browse the directories on your streamer. (The latest version has been updated to prevent leaving the SMB path.)

 

Do you dislike the icons on the main Window?

In this case you can change the attached PNG file and put your copy at the same location of the MusicRemote.exe.

Does anybody use the playlist feature?
If yes, how do you use it?

 

Why don't you just install the Android emulator and install the official app there? You'll have everything that you need and then you'll be all set...

 

Not every system are compatible...

 

1. The emulator takes considerable time to start. It has also much more memory and CPU consumption than that little program.
2. The controler program can react on the windows event "system shutdown" and react on this to switch off the streamer
3. The controller program window is as small as possible.
4. The controller window has the feature "stay on top" - so it can sit over all windows if you need that
5. My program can be used to create M3U playlists. When you listen to music during work, just press a button to add a track to a selected list. The M3U can be used on a different player which is using the same folder structure - in my case the shangling M1s. Hopefully in future the M3U can be used on the A6, too. Already now, you can double click on any item in the playlist window to start that respective track. (it will not cue the complete list since there is no API for this)
6. You can browse the directories easily, just one click and you are on the folder structure exactly where you are playing right now.
7. The controller can be used to switch between USB DAC and internal player with one click from it's main screen. When you connected the A6 to your PC this is very practical, since Windows will change the output automatically to the A6 in that case (and back when you switch to internal player).
8. When you click on "X" the program hides in the info area of the task bar - from there it can be activated again.
→ The program has been designed to not to get in your way while working with the PC.

 

Thank you, so it has additional functionalities which don't exist using the official controller app. I'll try it for myself then. Thank you for your work!

 

Hi Monkey, first of all congrats for your work.
I downloaded the software package, entered the DMP's IP address and could get access to my Samba /SSD library.
Nevertheless I have a big issue as the mini controller as shown in post#9 is not displayed properly : I only have the first top line and a big crossed circle !
In dragging the mouse, I can see the various options (only when moving the mouse).
Another thing, I wasn't able to Drag and Drop a song to a queue, is that how it's supposed to work ?
Thanks for your comments,
Phil

 

I have pretty much the same problem, I see big crossed circle taking up most of the space. The top row icons are working.

 

Exactly same here
Did you manage to open a play queue and add files without creating a playlist?

 

It apparently saved the wrong scaling in its setup. Please click right and select the scaling of, say 50% from Menu User Interface/Size.

The Drag&Drop support is a left over from Version 1 - in Version 2 it should be able to play a song with "Play" in the internal server view or double click in the server view or in the play list.
Obviously you need to use the internal SMB server view, and not the explorer.

If you have a password for the SMB server please open the server in Explorer first, enter the password and from then on it should log in automatically.

You cannot cue a song. The API of the streamer does not work this way.

You can only start playing a song and this only works when the screen of the A6 is displayed.
So sometimes you need to click the button with the O to wake the screen up and then playing usually starts.

To add a song to a playlist usen the second button in top row. You need to create a play list first. Click right to open the context menu to list all play lists (M3U files) and select the file to be used for adding, or to add a new file. You can also use the button "Add" in the internal SMB browser. You cannot use Drag&Drop to add songs to a playlist.

 

The new version 2.3 can now (officially) display the current track.
This is activated in the menu under 'Play'

 

Hi Monkey,
I can now see the full remote screen : I had to push it to 125% or 150% to get it right; at 125% I still have a kind of overlap between commands (pause/next/remote)
I will test soon!
Thanks!