334 lines
10 KiB
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334 lines
10 KiB
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************************
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MPD client compatability
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************************
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This is a list of MPD clients we either know works well with Mopidy, or that we
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know won't work well. For a more exhaustive list of MPD clients, see
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http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients.
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Console clients
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===============
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mpc
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---
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A command line client. Version 0.14 had some issues with Mopidy (see
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:issue:`5`), but 0.16 seems to work nicely.
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ncmpc
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-----
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A console client. Works with Mopidy 0.6 and upwards. Uses the ``idle`` MPD
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command, but in a resource inefficient way.
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ncmpcpp
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-------
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A console client that generally works well with Mopidy, and is regularly used
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by Mopidy developers.
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Search only works in two of the three search modes:
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- "Match if tag contains search phrase (regexes supported)" -- Does not work.
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The client tries to fetch all known metadata and do the search client side.
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- "Match if tag contains searched phrase (no regexes)" -- Works.
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- "Match only if both values are the same" -- Works.
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Graphical clients
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=================
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GMPC
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----
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`GMPC <http://gmpc.wikia.com>`_ is a graphical MPD client (GTK+) which works
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well with Mopidy, and is regularly used by Mopidy developers.
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GMPC may sometimes requests a lot of meta data of related albums, artists, etc.
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This takes more time with Mopidy, which needs to query Spotify for the data,
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than with a normal MPD server, which has a local cache of meta data. Thus, GMPC
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may sometimes feel frozen, but usually you just need to give it a bit of slack
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before it will catch up.
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Sonata
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------
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`Sonata <http://sonata.berlios.de/>`_ is a graphical MPD client (GTK+).
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It generally works well with Mopidy, except for search.
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When you search in Sonata, it only sends the first to letters of the search
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query to Mopidy, and then does the rest of the filtering itself on the client
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side. Since Spotify has a collection of millions of tracks and they only return
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the first 100 hits for any search query, searching for two-letter combinations
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seldom returns any useful results. See :issue:`1` and the matching `Sonata
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bug`_ for details.
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.. _Sonata bug: http://developer.berlios.de/feature/?func=detailfeature&feature_id=5038&group_id=7323
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Theremin
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--------
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`Theremin <http://theremin.sigterm.eu/>`_ is a graphical MPD client for OS X.
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It generally works well with Mopidy.
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.. _android_mpd_clients:
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Android clients
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===============
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We've tested all four MPD clients we could find for Android with Mopidy 0.7.3 on
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a Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.1.1, using the following test procedure:
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#. Connect to Mopidy
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#. Search for ``foo``, with search type "any" if it can be selected
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#. Add "The Pretender" from the search results to the current playlist
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#. Start playback
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#. Pause and resume playback
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#. Adjust volume
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#. Find a playlist and append it to the current playlist
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#. Skip to next track
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#. Skip to previous track
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#. Select the last track from the current playlist
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#. Turn on repeat mode
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#. Seek to 10 seconds or so before the end of the track
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#. Wait for the end of the track and confirm that playback continues at the
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start of the playlist
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#. Turn off repeat mode
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#. Turn on random mode
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#. Skip to next track and confirm that it random mode works
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#. Turn off random mode
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#. Stop playback
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#. Check if the app got support for single mode and consume mode
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#. Kill Mopidy and confirm that the app handles it without crashing
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We found that all four apps crashed on Android 4.1.1.
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Combining what we managed to find before the apps crashed with our experience
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from an older version of this review, using Android 2.1, we can say that:
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- PMix can be ignored, because it is unmaintained and its fork MPDroid is
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better on all fronts.
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- Droid MPD Client was to buggy to get an impression from. Unclear if the bugs
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are due to the app or that it hasn't been updated for Android 4.x.
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- BitMPC is in our experience feature complete, but ugly.
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- MPDroid, now that search is in place, is probably feature complete as well,
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and looks nicer than BitMPC.
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In conclusion: MPD clients on Android 4.x is a sad affair. If you want to try
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anyway, try BitMPC and MPDroid.
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BitMPC
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------
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Test date:
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2012-09-12
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Tested version:
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1.0.0 (released 2010-04-12)
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Downloads:
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5,000+
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Rating:
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3.7 stars from about 100 ratings
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- The user interface lacks some finishing touches. E.g. you can't enter a
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hostname for the server. Only IPv4 addresses are allowed.
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- When we last tested the same version of BitMPC using Android 2.1:
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- All features exercised in the test procedure worked.
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- BitMPC lacked support for single mode and consume mode.
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- BitMPC crashed if Mopidy was killed or crashed.
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- When we tried to test using Android 4.1.1, BitMPC started and connected to
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Mopidy without problems, but the app crashed as soon as fire off our search,
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and continued to crash on startup after that.
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In conclusion, BitMPC is usable if you got an older Android phone and don't
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care about looks. For newer Android versions, BitMPC will probably not work as
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it hasn't been maintained for 2.5 years.
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Droid MPD Client
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----------------
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Test date:
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2012-09-12
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Tested version:
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1.4.0 (released 2011-12-20)
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Downloads:
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10,000+
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Rating:
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4.2 stars from 400+ ratings
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- No intutive way to ask the app to connect to the server after adding the
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server hostname to the settings.
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- To find the search functionality, you have to select the menu,
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then "Playlist manager", then the search tab. I do not understand why search
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is hidden inside "Playlist manager".
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- The tabs "Artists" and "Albums" did not contain anything, and did not cause
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any requests.
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- The tab "Folders" showed a spinner and said "Updating data..." but did not
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send any requests.
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- Searching for "foo" did nothing. No request was sent to the server.
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- Once, I managed to get a list of stored playlists in the "Search" tab, but I
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never managed to reproduce this. Opening the stored playlists doesn't work,
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because Mopidy haven't implemented ``lsinfo "Playlist name"`` (see
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:issue:`193`).
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- Droid MPD client does not support single mode or consume mode.
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- Not able to complete the test procedure, due to the above problems.
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In conclusion, not a client we can recommend.
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MPDroid
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-------
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Test date:
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2012-09-12
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Tested version:
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0.7 (released 2011-06-19)
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Downloads:
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10,000+
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Rating:
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4.5 stars from ~500 ratings
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- MPDroid started out as a fork of PMix.
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- First of all, MPDroid's user interface looks nice.
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- Last time we tested MPDroid (v0.6.9), we couldn't find any search
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functionality. Now we found it, and it worked.
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- Last time we tested MPDroid (v0.6.9) everything in the test procedure worked
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out flawlessly.
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- Like all other Android clients, MPDroid does not support single mode or
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consume mode.
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- When Mopidy is killed, MPDroid handles it gracefully and asks if you want to
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try to reconnect.
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- When using Android 4.1.1, MPDroid crashes here and there, e.g. when having an
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empty current playlist and pressing play.
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Disregarding Android 4.x problems, MPDroid is a good MPD client.
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PMix
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----
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Test date:
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2012-09-12
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Tested version:
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0.4.0 (released 2010-03-06)
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Downloads:
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10,000+
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Rating:
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3.8 stars from >200 ratings
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- Using Android 4.1.1, PMix, which haven't been updated for 2.5 years, crashes
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as soon as it connects to Mopidy.
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- Last time we tested the same version of PMix using Android 2.1, we found
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that:
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- PMix does not support search.
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- I could not find stored playlists.
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- Other than that, I was able to complete the test procedure.
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- PMix crashed once during testing.
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- PMix handled the killing of Mopidy just as nicely as MPDroid.
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- It does not support single mode or consume mode.
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All in all, PMix works but can do less than MPDroid. Use MPDroid instead.
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.. _ios_mpd_clients:
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iOS clients
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===========
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MPod
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----
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Test date:
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2011-01-19
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Tested version:
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1.5.1
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The `MPoD <http://www.katoemba.net/makesnosenseatall/mpod/>`_ iPhone/iPod Touch
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app can be installed from the `iTunes Store
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<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mpod/id285063020>`_.
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Users have reported varying success in using MPoD together with Mopidy. Thus,
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we've tested a fresh install of MPoD 1.5.1 with Mopidy as of revision e7ed28d
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(pre-0.3) on an iPod Touch 3rd generation. The following are our findings:
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- **Works:** Playback control generally works, including stop, play, pause,
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previous, next, repeat, random, seek, and volume control.
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- **Bug:** Search does not work, neither in the artist, album, or song
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tabs. Mopidy gets no requests at all from MPoD when executing searches. Seems
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like MPoD only searches in local cache, even if "Use local cache" is turned
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off in MPoD's settings. Until this is fixed by the MPoD developer, MPoD will
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be much less useful with Mopidy.
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- **Bug:** When adding another playlist to the current playlist in MPoD,
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the currently playing track restarts at the beginning. I do not currently
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know enough about this bug, because I'm not sure if MPoD was in the "add to
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active playlist" or "replace active playlist" mode when I tested it. I only
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later learned what that button was for. Anyway, what I experienced was:
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#. I play a track
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#. I select a new playlist
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#. MPoD reconnects to Mopidy for unknown reason
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#. MPoD issues MPD command ``load "a playlist name"``
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#. MPoD issues MPD command ``play "-1"``
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#. MPoD issues MPD command ``playlistinfo "-1"``
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#. I hear that the currently playing tracks restarts playback
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- **Tips:** MPoD seems to cache stored playlists, but they won't work if the
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server hasn't loaded stored playlists from e.g. Spotify yet. A trick to force
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refetching of playlists from Mopidy is to add a new empty playlist in MPoD.
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- **Wishlist:** Modifying the current playlists is not supported by MPoD it
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seems.
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- **Wishlist:** MPoD supports playback of Last.fm radio streams through the MPD
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server. Mopidy does not currently support this, but there is a wishlist bug
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at :issue:`38`.
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- **Wishlist:** MPoD supports autodetection/-configuration of MPD servers
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through the use of Bonjour. Mopidy does not currently support this, but there
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is a wishlist bug at :issue:`39`.
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MPaD
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----
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The `MPaD <http://www.katoemba.net/makesnosenseatall/mpad/>`_ iPad app works
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with Mopidy. A complete review may appear here in the future.
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