Premise If I could code...

[samgreco]

So, I am in the process of converting ALL of my audio files to an iTunes library. I don't really like iTunes, but I have an iPhone and my wife will probably be getting one soon too. So we need to manage stuff with those in mind.

Seems like having a driver for Premise that reads the iTunes database would be perfect. Something that would understand Playlists and such. As it stands now, Premise will read the .M4A files, but ONLY the file names. No Tags. Ugly.

Am I dreaming? Or is it possible?

 

[georgejm]

Sam,

I have 22 Gigs of music (MP3's) stored on a media server that is accessed by both Premise, Windows Media (on multiple computers) and iTunes (on multiple computers) . Premise works just fine with a UNC path pointing to the media server. iTunes will need a drive mapped to a share. The trick is to never buy copy-protected music and always use the MP3 format. You also don't want to let iTunes copy "imported" music into it's own directory on a local computer's file system.

I'll upload a little ditty I wrote that lets you synchronize iTunes playlists with Premise. As long as you have Premise and iTunes pointing to exactly the same file share, you can create playlists in iTunes (or use the Genius function -- I like that alot), and the equivalent play list will be created in Premise. My tool isn't very well tested. I whipped it together just to move a few playlists over. So, no warranties....

-John

 

[samgreco]

The trick is to never buy copy-protected music and always use the MP3 format. You also don't want to let iTunes copy "imported" music into it's own directory on a local computer's file system.

And therein lies the problem. I am trying to use lossless encoding. I had been using Windows WMA, but iTunes will never play nice with that. So I switched to Apple Lossless for most of the stuff. I have some MP3. And absolutely NO copy protected stuff. I am an audio engineer (occasionally ) so I tend to be a stickler for audio quality.

I'll upload a little ditty I wrote that lets you synchronize iTunes playlists with Premise. As long as you have Premise and iTunes pointing to exactly the same file share, you can create playlists in iTunes (or use the Genius function -- I like that alot), and the equivalent play list will be created in Premise. My tool isn't very well tested. I whipped it together just to move a few playlists over. So, no warranties....

Now that would be cool. Then I could easily create genre based lists and I would love to try Genius lists.

 

[georgejm]

Well, I guess my ears aren't that good anymore. Too many Rush concerts

 

[chucklyons]

Glad to hear from John in VA!!!

I'd like to try that gem of yours, as well....btw, Insteon, still rock solid!

 

[samgreco]

Well, I guess my ears aren't that good anymore. Too many Rush concerts

And mine may not be that good anymore either. But I can't let anyone in on that now....

 

[chucklyons]

huh?

 

[samgreco]

huh?

Just kidding. My ears are still pretty good.

 

[georgejm]

I'd like to try that gem of yours, as well....btw, Insteon, still rock solid!

Glad to hear it!!! I wish Smarthome would update their SDM software to run on 64 bit. I recently had to upgrade my premise server (now 64 bit under Windows 2008 R2), but SDM wont' run. I have to run it on a separate 32-bit machine.

 

[georgejm]

Well, I guess my ears aren't that good anymore. Too many Rush concerts

And mine may not be that good anymore either. But I can't let anyone in on that now....

I just noticed your signature. Good for you!!! I love seeing people do things they have a passion for.


As for your original question, I suppose one could use the iTunes scripting interface to "import" the iTunes media library into a Premise Media library. You would then need to create an iTunes renderer class that would again utilize the iTunes scripting interface to make iTunes play a particular track. That's essentially the architecture of my UPnP AV control point.

The other alternative would be to use Bonjour (Apple's answer to UPnP). The problem there is finding physical devices that render media via Bonjour.

 

[samgreco]

The reality is that I am content in just pointing Premise to the directory and having it find all of the files. As long as I have it organized in a way that it makes sense to Premise, it all works. The only drawback I've found is that Premise can't read the tags or playlists. But hopefully your "little ditty" will solve that. Can't wait to give it a try.

As for my record company. It really is just a labor of love. It started because of a girl my wife went to school with that turned out to have lots of raw talent. A great and prolific songwriter and a pretty good singer. I spent 7 years mentoring her and finally recorded her first album. That's the one on Green Dot Records. We are about to go into the studio again to start their second. Hopefully it'll do better than the first. I still have 900 CDs in stock (my basement warehouse ). But we're on iTunes and Amazon digital, so who knows. But right now it's all word of mouth.

Thanks as always John!

 

[Waynedb]

I'd like to try that gem of yours, as well....btw, Insteon, still rock solid!

Glad to hear it!!! I wish Smarthome would update their SDM software to run on 64 bit. I recently had to upgrade my premise server (now 64 bit under Windows 2008 R2), but SDM wont' run. I have to run it on a separate 32-bit machine.

I thought Smarthome gave up on the SDM software when they brought out the PLM, I see they are combining RF and powerline on the newest PLM.
I have an access point plugged into the PLC and I also have them plugged into my lamp modules, I guess Smarthome is combining them for us now.

I keep putting off replacing the rest of my Insteon stuff for RadioRA and now RA2 is out.

 

[georgejm]

I thought Smarthome gave up on the SDM software when they brought out the PLM, I see they are combining RF and powerline on the newest PLM.
I have an access point plugged into the PLC and I also have them plugged into my lamp modules, I guess Smarthome is combining them for us now.

I had heard about support for the SDM being dropped, but they are still selling the PLC. Unfortunately, they stranded us early adopters...

 

[chucklyons]

Thats unfortunate. Also unfortunate that they don't speak to the change in support, or that PLM is replacing PLC. In any event, I haven't had any major problem with the SDM, or John's module - things work as they should. I only use insteon for outlets, appliances and the like (maybe motion, some day). For Lights I use RadioRa. I prob wouldnt have used Insteon if it wasn't for the ability to control locally, which I always thought was a bad design on the X-10 side of things....

...John, please PM me when you post that non-SDM version