Hello,

I had a question or "so" about the usage of CC v 2.2.6 in dealing with the "code snippets".  Yesterday I had the "Currently playing" (or Now playing) running and it was working for a little bit, and then it got stuck on 1 song until this morning.  However, I was watching the "recently played", which was working just fine.

Is there something that would cause the Now Playing to "get stuck"?

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Now I have read some posts about others that use Sam Broadcaster, in which I have been use Sam BC for the past 6 years, and was curious is there is a way for CC to interact with Sam in any way, mainly with how the config is setup and the now playing and requests.

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Speaking of Requests... I seen that there is a "request widget" that works with CC.  now I went and tried this out and (yes I did read about it first), It sends an email to the email address associated with the account, but How do you "put in" a song that was requested through CC Auto DJ?

So how does that actually work there?

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Is case you are wondering, Yes, this is the first time ive used Centova Cast (In which I am actually starting to like it, but it just seems to be missing a few flavors, that I'm pretty sure could make it even more better).  After running 6 years of my computer running 24/7 and going through 2 fried computers and 3 External Hard drives.  Its nice to be able to give my computer a break, by having its own Auto DJ running internally and not having to run Sam BC 24/7. 


Thank you for your time,
DJ Fire


(Oh I wanted to add 1 more thing).
In dealing with the Album Covers, how does CC actually read or find those?  (I know sam bc you can attach them and upload them using Amazon, but how does CC get them?  Do you have to upload them into the covers folder?  Or upload them in the media folder along with the music?

I think you got your information from Centova.com's v3 sales page, but it appears you are using v2 so I think that would answer many of your questions, I think this is the documentation you need http://www.centova.com/pages/castdocs/

Yesterday I had the "Currently playing" (or Now playing) running and it was working for a little bit, and then it got stuck on 1 song until this morning.  However, I was watching the "recently played", which was working just fine.

Is there something that would cause the Now Playing to "get stuck"?

For Centova v2 the widgets do not automatically refresh, however you can put them in a iframe and add a refresh tag


1. Create a html page and add your widget code, save as something like currently_playing.html -- add a meta refresh tag to the head,
ie <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="600">
2. add a iframe to your main web page and place it where you would like the widget to be displayed

ie.

<iframe src="currently_playing.html" name="current" width="260" height="63" frameborder="0" id="currently" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>


For Centova v3 it uses AJAX so they refresh automatically without having to refresh the entire web page

Now I have read some posts about others that use Sam Broadcaster, in which I have been use Sam BC for the past 6 years, and was curious is there is a way for CC to interact with Sam in any way, mainly with how the config is setup and the now playing and requests.

Yes, depending on which type of auto dj your using Sam works with any SHOUTcast or Icecast server.

For SHOUTcast using Centova v2 you just need to enter your server ip, port and password into Sam (under encoders), dis-able source in Centova and then connect via Sam. The currently playing track and whatever you have entered in your encoder settings (ie. stream title, url, genre, etc.) will also update,

For Icecast using Centova v2 you enter your server ip, port, password and the mountpoint which is by default /live --- no need to disable source it will automatically detect the live source and switch from auto dj to live automatically

For Centova v3 you use the DJ manager, switching from auto dj to live is seamless with SHOUTcastv2 and sc_trans auto dj

Speaking of Requests... I seen that there is a "request widget" that works with CC.  now I went and tried this out and (yes I did read about it first), It sends an email to the email address associated with the account, but How do you "put in" a song that was requested through CC Auto DJ?

So how does that actually work there?

Centova v2 only sends a email to notify the station owner, but the new Centova v3 is fully automated (one of my favorite features and a great selling tool), as long as the listener spells the title and artist correctly the auto dj will play it within whatever time you have entered in the config, I have tested this and it works well

In dealing with the Album Covers, how does CC actually read or find those?  (I know sam bc you can attach them and upload them using Amazon, but how does CC get them?  Do you have to upload them into the covers folder?  Or upload them in the media folder along with the music?

You basically have a choice, you can enable Amazon Integration where it pulls the image from the Amazon database, this will also display a "buy now" link, if the ADMIN has his/her Amazon Affiliate ID entered they get credit for any sales that come through the server, the station owner can also have the option of entering their Amazon ID.
If not then Centova will extract the image from the mp3 tag, it stores them in the users files, it will create and store them in a folder /_covers 

You just need to make sure you mp3 tags is correct, we recommend to our clients http://www.mp3tag.de/ - it's free and makes it easy to correct your tags, although there are paid versions that will automatically correct all your tags for you.

 

For Centova v2 the widgets do not automatically refresh, however you can put them in a iframe and add a refresh tag


1. Create a html page and add your widget code, save as something like currently_playing.html -- add a meta refresh tag to the head,
ie <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="600">
2. add a iframe to your main web page and place it where you would like the widget to be displayed

ie.

<iframe src="currently_playing.html" name="current" width="260" height="63" frameborder="0" id="currently" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>


For Centova v3 it uses AJAX so they refresh automatically without having to refresh the entire web page

Yes, I do have it set on a page that uses a refresh, however, after "just now" remembering, It was a JS code that sets it self with Sam BC, and uses the songs timer as the refresh...

(lol duh moment).. I will have to add in meta refresh for now, until 3 comes out of beta...

Yes, depending on which type of auto dj your using Sam works with any SHOUTcast or Icecast server.

For SHOUTcast using Centova v2 you just need to enter your server ip, port and password into Sam (under encoders), dis-able source in Centova and then connect via Sam. The currently playing track and whatever you have entered in your encoder settings (ie. stream title, url, genre, etc.) will also update,

For Icecast using Centova v2 you enter your server ip, port, password and the mountpoint which is by default /live --- no need to disable source it will automatically detect the live source and switch from auto dj to live automatically

For Centova v3 you use the DJ manager, switching from auto dj to live is seamless with SHOUTcastv2 and sc_trans auto dj

Yeah, I was getting to the point to where CC would use the Sam BC database to pull songs or song info and what not but not have SAM BC running.. (So basically, using the songs off of your computer like SAM BC does, and not have to upload a poo load of songs for CC Auto DJ) But I think that would be getting into something where CC will never work out correctly like that..  I do know about setups and what not for the auto DJ.

(Im just new to CC's setup type, and icecast... before I started using CC, I ran my own SHOUTcast streams (v1) from my server.  (I dont like v2 as much)

Centova v2 only sends a email to notify the station owner, but the new Centova v3 is fully automated (one of my favorite features and a great selling tool), as long as the listener spells the title and artist correctly the auto dj will play it within whatever time you have entered in the config, I have tested this and it works well

Yes, I know it sends an email.  That was what I was referring to.  It sends you the email after the request form is filled out, but how do you play the song? (via the CC Auto DJ)

Also sounds as if V3's requests are much better.  But its missing 1 piece of vital information there... Which is what actual songs are in the Auto DJ list.  If it could read a database or create a list (sort of how Sam BC does)  that would make requests on CC Auto DJ, 100% better.

You basically have a choice, you can enable Amazon Integration where it pulls the image from the Amazon database, this will also display a "buy now" link, if the ADMIN has his/her Amazon Affiliate ID entered they get credit for any sales that come through the server, the station owner can also have the option of entering their Amazon ID.
If not then Centova will extract the image from the mp3 tag, it stores them in the users files, it will create and store them in a folder /_covers 

Yeah, I use Winamp to tag my music, it has an "auto tag" feature, but I don't think grabs any images.  I will have to look into using the Amazon affiliate ID, and see how that works out.

(Sam BC uses a directory on your webspace where you can "grab" the image from Amazon, but then use Sam BC to upload to a specific folder set in Sam BC (like /pictures/ for example) and it reads it from there.)


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Thank you for all the great information and the reply.  Lots of work ahead of me -_-
 

So I added in my Amazon Affiliate ID in the part where it was needed.. However.. Its not pulling anything from amazon at all...  Its still showing the images in the /ondemand/_covers/ directory.

I have stopped / restarted / Turned off/ Turned on.   And its not changing anything.

Is there something I missing maybe?

According to our developers, Amazon made some dramatic changes to their API a while back and that broke v2.2's Amazon integration.  v3.0 implements their new API.

Meanwhile I'm afraid Amazon integration is nonfunctional in v2.2.

Centovacast v3.0 not only fixes this Amazon integration problem, but also introduces support for a number of other online stores as well.  We don't have a firm ETA on v3.0 yet but I can tell you that it is already in testing and will be released as soon as it is deemed stable by our testing group.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience that this issue may have caused you.