Hello guys,
For some time now I have been searching for a desktop app and a mobile companion (not necessarily by the same makers) that allows me to:
1. To be able to stream (more like announce it would be) the entire desktop library on the mobile device
2. Use 10-star (or point) ratings, in both desktop and mobile (and mobile synching with desktop of course, desktop being the main library)
3. Scrobble to Last.FM both in desktop and mobile
4. Being able to use FLAC files on both (on mobile it could be transcoding and that's perfectly fine)
5. The mobile "companion" working on iOS
6. Synching of playcount and last_played of mobile on desktop (so, something like a "radio station at home" solution is a no-go).
Maybe some of you already have something like this up?
I use iTunes on Mac, and sync to the mobile, but then I run out of space and always have to not only encode (FLAC-> MP3) but select what to sync and so on. Plus iTunes only works with 5-star ratings, and although it works on a LAN pretty well I don't know if it can be used across the internet (some people at some point I think have used hamachi but I haven't tried).
I was able to use foobar last night via Wineskin (windows wrapper for OS X), and it works quite well, and Im sure it can support "N-star" ratings via components (was an avid user of foobar back in my windows days), but then Im not aware of ways to stream foobar (in know there is a upnp component) in a way that I can "remotely" play my library (which basically means, update playcount, last_played, and even ratings, on mobile app and synching that in real time with the library at home). Of course it plays FLAC like a charm, but then there is just that part of the "how to control the library over the internet".
I tried PLEX but not only it won't stream currently to free subscribers FLAC (which seems ridiculous. I mean, they can make it commercial and have people pay for it, but the sole idea of subscribing to something to play FLAC files... but I don't wanna get into any argument with fellow developers, sorry if you feel offended), and you can't rate things on the mobile app (which I feel like I just gave away $5 bucks just to try it and delete, but that's another story). The mobile app, tho', can play a remote iTunes library but of course, there is no playcount, no ratings, and so on.
I haven't tried XBMC but AFAIK there is a mobile app that works only for jailbroken devices, so that's another no-go.
I tried Songbird but the so called "media server" it has bundled never worked for me (and from their support forums, seems like other people are in the same train). Can't comment on the mobile app.
Thanks for your time.
Do you know about Subsonic (http://www.subsonic.org/pages/features.jsp)?
Thnak you, I did see it once last year, but didn't remember.
Oughtta give it a try, but from the looks of it, no 10-point rating system is available.
I guess I'm just part of a weird breed of humans who obsess about ratings and play counts
You can enable half-star rating in iTunes, which will effectively give you a 10-point scale (I'm not sure whether the option is visible from the iTunes preference pane, but otherwise you can access it with Secrets (http://secrets.blacktree.com/)). Apart from that, unfortunately I can't help you.
Thanks Jplus.
I did enable half-star ratings on iTunes, but unfortunately, the crippled iOS won't support them (which is not surprising).