What's new in StarPlayr 3.1.1
Jul 22, 2011
- Uses the localhost to get its artist/song data via HTTP through Mac OS X's personal web sharing. GTracker's host requires personal web sharing to be turned on.
New in StarPlayr 3.1.0 (Mar 8, 2011)
- Fixed Sirius Canada.
- Tested: Sirius USA, Sirius Canada and new SiriusXM Online accounts.
- Supports all Sirius Subscriber based accounts.
- This does not include support for XMRO.
New in StarPlayr 3.0.9 (Feb 15, 2011)
New in StarPlayr 3.0.8 (Feb 18, 2010)
- Fixed problem with Recordings Folder not being created for new users.
- Addresses Crash problem in 64bit, recompiled for 32bit only.
New in StarPlayr 3.0.7 (Feb 17, 2010)
- Addresses Crash problem in 64bit, recompiled for 32bit only.
New in StarPlayr 3.0.5 (Dec 22, 2009)
- Addresses Crash problem during Growl Notifications.
- Legacy Select Row Preference: This should remain on for 10.5 users, 10.6 users can this on/off. Default is on.
- We are trying to keep StarPlayr compliant with Apple's depreciated code changes.
- Minor UI tweak when AutoPlay is off during application launch.
New in StarPlayr 3.0.4 (Dec 21, 2009)
- If a connection is lost, after a 10 second countdown, 3.0.4 will attempt to regain the connection.
- Improvement made to the recording engine.
- When a recording is active, StarPlayr's Radio screen will turn to a Rose color.
- This should make it more obvious when recording is in session (especially in Leopard).
- StarPlayr uses the latest 64-bit Mplayer binary from the Mplayer Extended project.
- 3.96 LAME remains 32bit which we compiled a few years ago. 64-bit LAME v3.98 was recently tested and with our settings, noise was encountered in the mp3 file. I decided to stick with the 32bit 3.96 version which has worked extremely well on 32bit and 64bit systems.
- Fixed many User Interface bugs with volume, play/pause and the channel popup button.
- Added Growl Support back in.
- Includes a backup tracker. If the main tracker goes down, StarPlayr will use the backup in a degraded 30sec delay mode. When the main tracker resurfaces, 3.0.4 will revert back to it at full speed (10sec delay).
- To conserve bandwidth usage, during a Silent Recording or when using StarPlayr in the background, the tracker network access is automatically throttled. Silent Encoding throttles to 30 sec. Running StarPlayr in the background throttles from 10 to 12 seconds.
- Also increased bandwidth main tracker by 667% percent. This month we ran out of bandwidth and had to upgrade to a new server. Our tracking server provides artist, song and channel list for all StarPlayr 3.x clients.
- Recording scripts have been updated for 3.0.4 (Rudolph). If you modified or created your own scripts, please change the StarPlayr App ID number in your scripts for "Red" to "Rudolph". We currently do not have an official HowTo for the recording scripts, but it is possible to use them with iCal, or iDo Script Scheduler. Note: iCal does not manage the system sleep. Either turn sleep off in System Preferences, or schedule wake/startup when in Energy Saver's System Preferences.
- Scheduled recordings are in the works.
- Recordings are initially stored in /Users/your_username/Music/StarPlayr3/Recordings/*
- By default they are copied to iTunes. If you wish to remove the redundant MP3 files, please see StarPlayr's preferences and check: Remove BackUp ~/Music/StarPlayr3/...
- If there is a problem copying a recording to iTunes, the mp3 file, should remain in /Users/your_username/Music/StarPlayr3/Recordings/* and can be dragged manually to iTunes if needed.
New in StarPlayr 3.0.2 (Dec 14, 2009)
- Fixes a problem when recording and the Startup Hard drive or DMG contains a space.
New in StarPlayr 3.0 Build 19 Beta (Nov 23, 2009)
- Works with Leopard 10.5 and Snow Leopard 10.6
New in StarPlayr 2.1.1 Test (Jul 12, 2008)
- This is a test version to tell us some more info when StarPlayr2 cannot connect Sirius via the Login button. It will show what the error Message in the Alert. We have not been able to reproduce this error. We need user's help who are having problems track down this problem.
- This version also uses Nicemac.com for the tracker bandwidth. We'd like to see how it performs for this test version. This version was compiled on 10.5.4, but does not guarantee anything is fixed with the Login or connection issues with Mac OS X 10.5.4.
- If you run into problems, please post screenshots of the error and be prepared for further instruction to help track down this gremlin. Thank you for your cooperation and continued Support and most of all, your patience.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.18.3t (Jun 20, 2008)
- New tracker provided by GeeksToolBox and DogStarRadio.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.18.3s (Jun 16, 2008)
- Fixed Space Bar issue. It was broken in 2.0.18.3.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.18.3 (Jun 10, 2008)
- DogStarRadio provides the artist and song data to StarPlayr2. This version of StarPlayr contains an update required by DogStarRadio designed to save DogStarRadio extra bandwidth fees.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.18.2 (Jun 5, 2008)
- Fixed CPU Usage issue, average CPU percentage is now 1-3% along with periodic spike to read in that artist and song data. Mplayer's average CPU percentage is 4.4%. It will be much higher when buffering the stream and the fill level is more than .01%, but it will level out to around the 4-5% range when sound starts playing. If you have a fast internet connection and are not uploading files, the fastest way to buffer the stream is to use a cache fill level of 0%. To save memory use a reasonable cache size of 32 MB or less. If you experience pausing or stuttering, for the live stream try increasing the fill level % and press Save Cache to update until the pausing or stuttering clears up. Do not use a very large fill % along with a very large cache. Large caches help pause for a longer period of time and will buffer very quickly with a fill percentage of 0 to .01.
- More efficient Stream, Sound and Recording monitors use less CPU space.
- URL Access Scripting is used for Artist and Song Tracker info. If using a proxy, URL Access Scripting uses the http:// proxy in network preferences.
- cURL is used to download Stream URLs and downloads Album Art. If using a proxy, our cURL uses the environment MacOSX http_proxy variable as described in our Proxy Firewall HowTo from NiceMac.com's Tips and Tricks Section. Your mileage will vary with proxys. NiceMac LLC offers limited proxy support using Authoxy or SquidMan and our Proxy How To guide on NiceMac.com, Tips and Tricks section.
- Min button sets volume to 0.
- Max Volume button sets volume to 25 (Mplayer's default Maximum volume without distortion).
- Added incremental Volume - / buttons to the Live Stream. These are replaced by the Jump buttons when Instant Replay (an experimental streaming preference) is on.
- Changed Channel/StarCast Jump buttons to inverted T formation. Matches cursor key layout.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.18.1 (Jun 2, 2008)
- Sound/Stream monitor now works again with Instant Replay.
- If Starplayr detects a lost connection in the stream, it will automatically count down from 10 seconds and reconnect. We plan on expanding this feature and have StarPlayr save the buffer and have a way to playback saved buffers just incase the user was away from their desk and let StarPlayr pause for a long time they would not lose what they were pausing.
- In the mean time, if you really need to "save" something, simply use the record button save it to iTunes or your iPhone. Press record a second time when you are finished recording. For automated recordings use the 2.0 iCal StarCast recording scripts and iCal or iDo script scheduler.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.18 (May 31, 2008)
- StarPlayr no longer crashes when it is disconnected from the Internet.
- Improved stability with StarPlayr's Sound and Recording Monitors.
- Moved navigational buttons back to a Star or X pattern.
- Added quick keys to nav. buttons
New in StarPlayr 2.0.17 Nightly Build (May 29, 2008)
- Playback code optimizations
- Using a cache fill of .01% to 0%, should result if very fast channel switching.
- Fixed bug if switching channels too fast causes StarPlayr2 to lockup.
- This build should allow you to switch from station to station very quickly; Channel up and down (arrows keys) seem to work much better. Let me know how this does.
- Fixed problem with Presets not loading the channel data all the way from build 2.0.16.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.16 (May 29, 2008)
- Removed URL Access Scripting uses only cURL.
- Optimized tuning for USA accounts.
- Tested and compiled on 10.5.3
New in StarPlayr 2.0.11 (May 26, 2008)
- Removed mp3lib dependency from the PowerPC mplayer (sp2mplayr for 2.0.11). Tested on G4. We still need confirmation on G5.
- Sound and Recording monitors now work correctly when the artist and song Tracker is off.
- For those who are wondering, the iCal scripts have not changed since version 2.0. If you already have them installed, they are still current.
- The tracker is still down. Set the tracker to the off position (lower left) and set the presets to view logos (also lower left) and StarPlayr should run fine without it. We may have to start looking into either own tracker or find a secondary tracker source.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.9 (May 19, 2008)
- Fixed ghost icon bug. This operation loads the tracker info in the foreground again. All other tracking stuff is on a 10 second timer, or a 30 second timer if StarPlayr is not the front application.
- Remembering Volume controls should work better. Dealing with Mplayer not remembering the volume is a fun task to deal with. The sacrifice is load times will take 1 extra second. StarPlayr buffers the stream, checks if playback is ready. Then it sends the new volume to Mplayer, there is a delay for it to process the request. We have to let it process then start the playback.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.8 (May 19, 2008)
- Smaller Interface takes up less screen Real Estate.
- More responsive UI when switching channels.
- Added two more presets for a total of 20 user programmable presets.
- Artist and Song info is downloaded in the background.
- Minor bug fixes.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.7 (May 17, 2008)
- Added user login instructions and a couple HowTo's in the read me file that occupancies StarPlayr on the disk image.
- minor cosmetic fixes
- Better organized user options/preferences.
- Cache options for Live Streaming allows user to optimize cache levels to fix their connection better or to add longer pause options.
- More error checking for improved stability.
- Sound Monitor will not start checking until 15 seconds into the stream.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.6 (May 16, 2008)
- Added Cache options to live streaming. For slow connections try using 256k with a 100% cache fill level. For longer Pause use a 128000k cache, with a small cache fill level like 0%. Many combinations can be used to optimize your connection and playback quality. If using a super large cache do not use a large cache level. For smaller caches 32k through 1024k, you can use larger fill amounts from 10% to 100%. Larger caches 2048 and over should use smaller fill amounts of 10% and below. If you are have lots of skipping try adjusting this settings. We tried to make it as flexible as possible for any type of internet connection.
- Added more error checking for better player stability.
- Reorganize Options area. Areas that go together flow better. Float on Top and Transparency can now be accessed from the Mini view.
- Other improvements.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.5 (May 14, 2008)
- Fixed freeze if user double clicks the Instant Replay checkbox.
- Adjusted player code to fix clicky unresponsiveness (this is was a random occurrence in previous versions)
- Added Float on Top option
- Added Window Transparency slider option
- Album Art displays 2x faster
New in StarPlayr 2.0.4 (May 13, 2008)
- Update: Tweaked the Bitrate Monitor for the Instant Replay option. Fixed the volume controls for the Live Stream (Instant Replay off). Fixed Tooltips for the Options. Added a few more instructions to the options area.
- Renamed sp2mplayer to sp2mplayr and sp2lame to sp2mp3lib to prevent a conflict with StarPlayr177 or other Mac Based players that use Mplayer or LAME. Tweaked the new player code for the live streaming. Added a 6 second delay when StarPlayr should start checking for a failure in the stream. Fixed the sound Monitor. StarPlayr should be able to detect a lost stream when playing. It's not instantaneous, but I have been able to get it to work several times in a row.
- Live Stream buffer is set to 8 MB. It will start playing when it reaches .01% full. If you like to pause a long time turn on instant replay, it can pause as long as it can hold a connection. I may add some options to control the live buffer cache size and when it should start playing in the near feature. For this release we are trying to limit options. The average user gets confused if we add too many unexplained options.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.3 (May 12, 2008)
- Fixed Bitrate Monitor. Entered version in the Apple Design Awards.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.0 Alpha 4.3 (May 7, 2008)
- We added a setting called Rain Delay. This preference option is used to determine when StarPlayr2 should attempt to start playing the instant replay buffer. It can be changed from 1 second up to 10 seconds. The default is currently set to 3 even though the tooltip is 2.
New in StarPlayr 2.0.0 Alpha 4 (Apr 21, 2008)
- Amazon Localization for US (.com), Canada, UK, France, Germany and Japan, with Affiliate Links crediting StarPlayr2.
- Built in credits to Sirius.com. Amazon, Music Brainz, Leo's Lyrics, Lyric Wiki, MP3 LAME, Mplayer, and Nicemac.com.
- At the login page, Added Trial Links and Sirius' Web Player Login to help troubleshoot problems with user accounts.
- Fancier Presets with ghosted backgrounds or the classic channel logos.
- Added RemoveMP3 option after sending the file to iTunes.
- Latest UI design by Goodtime
- Persistent Recording Monitor
New in StarPlayr 2.0.0 Alpha 3 R2 (Apr 15, 2008)
- Faster Tuning on USA accounts. We got it down to 4 seconds. (5 seconds for CA accounts).
- Special StarMP3 Bitrate for Talk Radio shows now works! You can use separate bitrates for 48k and 128k streams for the MP3 file.
- Optimized some more code.
- PDT display does not update during a tune, instead it displays "Loading Stream..." It updates when the stream starts playing.
- UI should have snappier than previous alphas. Changing the stream's Bitrate on the player, re-tunes.
- Adding a 24MB cache to the Instant Replay stream. It was set 32k in previous alphas.
- Fixed a bug for the starcast recordings. Sometimes it would record the wrong station.
New in StarPlayr 1.0 Build 177 (Feb 19, 2008)
- Manual StarMP3 conversion called StarMP3 Trooper
- New iCal scripts v.07. No More GUI scripting.
- Free unlocked AppleScripts
- Robust StarCasts
- Improved Volume Controls
- Paws with paw print (StarPlayr's version of Pause)
- Mute with M icon.
- Huge cache options via preferences (who says size does not matter?)
- Runs and looks virtually the same in Tiger 10.4. and Leopard 10.5.
- Presets have Lock and Unlocked icon.
- Bitrate gauge
- Faster loading. It plays the stream as fast as Mplayer can make the connection.
- Almost Real-time artist and song data
- Close the window option hides Starplayr (Thank you VM)
- Zoom Option improvements (Thanks Beta Testers)
- More reliable iTunes syncing with Bookmarkable & Skip Shuffle preferences.
New in StarPlayr 1.0 Build 176.6.5 (Feb 8, 2008)
- Updated Bitrate Monitor: GUI, URL, and Sirius Internet Radio stream bitrate in kilobytes.
- On Quit: Starplayr checks if Recordings or StarMP3 tasks are running. It will no longer allow an accidental quit which can mess up a recording.
- Red X button is finally here. It will hide StarPlayr instead of closing the window. Special thanks to VM for this tip.
New in StarPlayr 1.0 Build 176.6.1 (Feb 5, 2008)
- New recording code. This should work much better that all previous versions of StarPlayr.
- Added Yellow Caution Light to Record button. It will not respond to clicks when it is Yellow. The StarCast/Record button will turn yellow when: a new recording request is being processed when it loses connection and attempts to restart the session as a pt2 recording.
- Preset code has been optimized. Channel preset tuning should be greatly improved.
New in StarPlayr 1.0 Build 176.5 (Feb 4, 2008)
- There are some minor tweaks. The channel code has been optimized again, USA users still might benefit from this version.
New in StarPlayr 1.0 Build 176.2 (Jan 29, 2008)
New in StarPlayr 1.0 Build 176.1 (Jan 29, 2008)
- Added iPod/iPhone Auto-Sync
- StarPlayr now remembers window size and position
- UI Starts up cleaner
- Fixed Channel Dock borders in Leopard.
New in StarPlayr 1.0b17.6 (Jan 23, 2008)
- Added two new error messages when the the playback fails due to a cookie/login failure or when the internet connection fails. This should help assist users whose logins/cookies go bad.
New in StarPlayr 1.0b17.3 (Jan 21, 2008)
- Login error codes, converted to English, show up in the Status bar.
- Addresses an issue with periods or dashes in the user's password not being recognized correctly.
New in StarPlayr 1.0b17.2 (Jan 18, 2008)
- Correctly remembers last channel played at launch.
- Unified UI design. Prefs & Login now match the Player.
- New Auto-Play preferences, see tooltips for details
New in StarPlayr 1.0b17.1 (Jan 17, 2008)
- Added some more feedback during the login process.
New in StarPlayr 1.0b17 (Jan 14, 2008)
- Recordings ptX continations have a max of 26 times. If this point is reached, the user is notified with an error. This is to prevent StarPlayr from trying endlessly to restore a stream that has been set to record.
- Minor fixes to the recording code. If recordings become unresponsive in StarPlayr (due to a networking or unknown issue), it should correct itself after a click or two on the green button.
- New icon. The Sirius dog is back rocking out on the black sun. It's been updated for Leopard. It has more contrast than my old SM1 version. Added some finishing touches too. This is my best icon to date.
- Main Player UI is cleaner. This UI should be better and less confusing for most human beings.
- Paul Stanley, desktop icon, is gone. RIP Paul icon. It has been replaced with a really cool guitar.
New in StarPlayr 1.0b15 (Jan 11, 2008)
- b15 fixed b14's recording downfalls (If StarPlayr loses the Stream, it will save the current recording as pt1, then continue the next as a pt2.)
- StarCast/Recording button ignores accidental clicks! StarPlayr is starting to get some music brainz.
- StarCast/Recording button turns Green when Recording is ON. Stop and Go light idea by MacStuff
- Adding Round Robin Tracker Server as T1 tracker, provided by DogStar and affiliates.
- Cleaned up tracker display code on launch.
- Artist and Song data displays in the Title Bar.. this will come in handy when different views in StarPlayr are utilized.
- Optimized more Graphics.
New in StarPlayr 1.0b11 (Jan 4, 2008)
- Record status is now below the record button.
- Genre/Channel popup menus are more obvious.
- Flipped the Channel Up and Down /- buttons. They are correct.
- Improved video response when changing a channel via the Presets.
- Optimized the progress spinning indicator code.
- Recording Continuation (Pt #) counter is set to max of 26 times.
- StarMP3 gauge resets when pressing record.