Hi Michael,
We much appreciate your participation here. It's been difficult to locate much information online with regards to the product although it's been around for a while now.
Just for us to get a better picture on the division of scope can you clarify what parts are autonomics responsibility and which are Nuvo's? The Music Port hardware box has Nuvo's name on it, but is it all Nuvo?
I have 3 issue at the moment. One is likely a hardware issue, but i'll mention it anyway.
Issue 1:
When the musicport is connected via serial and NuvoNet to the Nuvo E6G the Radio Tuners (T2FXG) connected via NuvoNet start power cyling. Even when not in use they will not turn of and every 5 minutes or so they will turn off but come right back on. This is obiously a power consumption issue as well as a strain on relays the switch them on and off. I've called this into Nuvo and they have it 'noted' but don't have an apparent fix. When i disconnect the serial cable between the Music Port and the E6G this behaviour stops, but that obviously hinders functionality. To ensure it was my server causing this i disconnected the serial cable between the server and the Music Port and the behvariour continued.
Issue 2:
The other issue is with regard to playlists. I run my configuration with the Autonomics software and my music library on a server in the basement and use the Music Port Client GUI and Nuvo Keypads to browse tracks, etc. The problem i run into is the creation of playlists. Initially with iTunes the problem was also having new tracks (which i download from a PC in the kitchen and save onto a network share on the server) appear in the Music Port since iTunes doesnt actually monitor any folders. For this and other reasons I decided to ditch itunes alltogether and now have all my music in MP3 format (iTunes non DRM M4A format did work, but was still a bit flaky).
Windows Media Player (my server runs WMP11) does a nice job of monitoring folders and automatically adding them. From any Nuvo keypad a 'Rescan Media' will do the trick and the new songs show up. It appears however that i need to keep an instance of WMP11 open on the server in order for this to work. Can you clarify how your software runs the players in the background and how new songs woudl make it into the 'library'?
The Music Port Client GUI has a 'Queue' function, but does not have functions that allow the creation of playlists, this is pretty disapointing in my opinion. In any case on my kitchen PC i run Windows Media Player as well and have it pointed to the server music library share so it uses the same 'base'. I can create playlists on my kitchen PC this way which i then save to the music share on the server. When doing this WMP11 which monitors the folders pick this up automatically. Strangely enough the playlist never shows up in the Music Port, not even after a media rescan. HOWEVER, if i locally (log into the server and use that instance of WMP11) create the playlist then that playlist gets picked up by music port and shows up in the Nuvo Keypads and the Music Port Client GUI.
I know that these locally create playlists are stored in a diferent location on the server (i think under my documents or documents and settings) where the playlists that i created on the kitchen PC are saved in the music share on the server. WMP11 when running locally on the server (i.e. my launching it) doesnt seem to care either way and will show and play them, but they are treated differently by the Autonomics software.
Anyway to get this process runnign a bit smoother? I agree that if i had the Autonomics software running on the kitchen PC then the problem wouldnt really occur, but i think my configuration is somewhat typical for how users that have a bit more advancaed Entertainment and Automation configurations would want it set up.
Issue 3:
This issue is pretty minor since the workaround is quite easy, but i though i'd mention it anyway.
For some reason a user must be logged onto the machine in order for the process to work. If no user is logged in the Nuvo Keypads will show either 'No source connect' , 'No instance found' or something along those lines.
To deal with this I found some registry edits that automatically log a user in. This however is not ideal from a security point of view for a server.
It seems to me that the Autonomics software is ideal for running entirely as a system service. Many portions of it are already services, and i just cant figure out which pieces are not or what i have to do to make this work without the registry editing (which is is very simply so don't let anybody be scared by that part).
And last but not least is the open question about the support for streaming internet radio / Pandora. Is this coming and will it work with Nuvo? On the Autonomics forums it is mentioned, but in relation to a 'Mirage' product.
Hopefully any repsonse to the above questions will be read by others with the same issues and may actually reduce the volume of support you need to provide.
I've been told this thread comes up pretty high in the list of results when Googling 'Music Port'.
