mserv_irman - control mserv mp3 jukebox program via infra-red remote controls.
mserv_irman [-v] [-c conf]
mserv is an mp3 jukebox who's features include allowing people to rate songs so it can pick tracks appropriate to who is currently connected.
mserv_irman extends this to remote controls using irman receivers from evation.com to control one or more mserv jukeboxes.
It will automatically connect to the mserv to ensure a user's ratings are active when they use their remote control.
If running NetBSD or pkgsrc on another system, install pkgsrc/audio/mserv_irman, otherwise follow the (brief) install notes in the README.
It is recommended you configure mserv first, then the irman, and finally mserv_irman to hook them together.
There are various other options when setting up mserv, this is intended to provide a 'quick setup' route.
If you have not installed from pkgsrc ensure you have installed irman_name (modified test_name from libirman - see README).
Now you are ready to configure in each remote. Repeat the following for each remote.
bind <remotename>-<keyname> <rx_number>
Where <remotename> is the (user specified) name of the remote control unit which can contain alphanumeric and '-' characters, <keyname> is a key from the recognised list (see RECOGNISED KEYS below).
A sample section for a Hauppauge WinTV PVR would be:
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-tv 55a000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-ch+ 575000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-radio 559000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-vol- 544000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-fullscreen 57b000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-vol+ 545000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-mute 558000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-ch- 574000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-source 577000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-1 554000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-2 557000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-3 556000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-4 551000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-5 550000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-6 553000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-7 552000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-8 55d000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-9 55c000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-pause 54b000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-repeat 555000000000
bind hauppauge-wintvpvr-next 573000000000
If you wish to map more than one button on a given control to the same feature you should append '.n' to the second and subsequent buttons. Eg 'vol+' 'vol+.2' 'vol+.3' etc.
Finally you need ${SYSCONFDIR}/mserv_irman.conf. It contains four sections:
An (optional) general section which permits you to tune overall configuration.
[general]
### Ignore any repeated key for this number of seconds
# default_debounce = 0.5
### If an owner is idle for the nyumber of seconds, disconnect them
# idle_timeout = 3600
### Insert this many favourite tracks
# favourite_inserts = 5
### Check sockets, plus check owner idle. Should not need to change.
# flush_timeout = 60
### Optional percentage increase/decrease for volume control
# volume_down = 10
# volume_up = 10
An (optional) irman section which links irman receivers to mserv servers. mserv_irman can handle multiple irman receivers and multiple mserv servers. The system will default to a single irman on the default serial port linked to an mserv on the default port on the current machine (localhost:4444).
### List of <command to recieve irman data> = <host:port of mserv>
### Leave empty to default to 'irman_name' and 'localhost:4444'
[irman]
A list of valid 'owners', each user and pass values from mserv.
### Add list of owners here, in the form '<mservuser> = <mservpass>'
[owners]
A list of valid remotes, linking each remote to a user. A given user can have more than one remote.
### Add your remotes here, in the form '<remotename> = <mservuser>'
[remotes]
Each section can be overridden on a per host basis by adding _`hostname -s` to the section key - for example [irman_iris]
vol-, vol+ Volume down and up
mute Volume to 10%
play Play music
pause/10 Pause or resume - also any unrecognised key
stop Stop playing (and disconnect from mserv)
next/fwd/ch+ Skip current track
prev/rew/ch- Put previous track on queue, then skip current track
repeat Put current track back onto queue to play again
recall Put previous track on the queue to play again
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Rate track 1=AWFUL 2=BAD 3=NEUTRAL 4=GOOD 5=SUPERB
6 Add five unrated tracks to the queue (*1)
7 Add five tracks from current album (*2)
8 Add five tracks from current artist (*2)
9 Add five random SUPERB tracks to queue (*3)
0/reset/power/cancel/clear Clear queue
(*1) Will try to queue tracks that no-one connected has rated, and
fall back to the current user.
(*2) Tracks rated AWFUL/BAD/NEUTRAL will not be picked, will try to
queue UNRATED/UNHEARD tracks before SUPERB/GOOD.
(*3) Will try to queue tracks that have not been rated BAD/AWFUL by
other connected users first.
This is a more advanced section for those who wish to run multiple mserv servers (One each for the office, bedroom, and bathroom maybe?)
Assuming you want to share user passwords and track ratings between more than one simultaneous mserv sessions.
mkdir .mserv2
ln -sf ../.mserv/acl .mserv2/acl
ln -sf ../.mserv/trackinfo .mserv2/trackinfo
ln -sf ../.mserv/webacl .mserv2/webacl
cp ../.mserv/config .mserv2/config
mserv -r .mserv2 -p 4445 &
mserv will automatically merge in any ratings update so it is safe to rate the same song via different mserv servers. It will however have issues merging in new users, so when adding a user shut down all but one mserv, create the user on that mserv, then start up the other mservs.
Update the [irman] section in mserv_irman.conf to list each irman and its destination mserv. If you are running an mserv on a remote system you may want to setup the appropriate ssh keys and have an entry something like:
ssh -1 shim 'pkill irman_name ; irman_name' = shim:4444
Where to begin... here are a few of my favourites: