Cocktail Audio™ UK Support Forum

Hope I've posted in the correct place.
Since the last update I've had a problem with the display of "track playing" in the GUI. Everything works as far as playing the tracks/albums I want, whether selected direct from the x10 or from the GUI. But, whereas it used to work perfectly, the tracks playing section (top right corner) is now erratic to say the least.

Sometimes it shows completely the wrong information from the album/playlist I've playing and seems to freeze completely. That includes the drop down box and the scrolling information bar underneath it.

More often, it will show the tracks in the drop down box but the highlight will be on the track before the one playing or, if it's the first track off an album, on the second track. After that has played it will then go back to highlighting the track before the one actually playing.

In this event the scrolling bar will sometimes show the track highlighted or less often the actual track that is playing. When it shows the wrong track in the scrolling bar the times showing will be for the track that is showing not the actual track playing.

I've tried it on Chrome, IE, and Opera and it's the same in all of them. I've reinstalled the web interface all to no effect. Has anyone got any suggestions on how to resolve this please.

Hi PuzzledJohn

The old WebGUI, now called Webinterface [0.9.6.7b], seems to be still functioning much as before, apart from the glitch you have identified on the expanded multi-track display of the current and succeeding tracks . I think this is caused by a software problem with track identification on the WebGUI software rather than your browser, and we may just have to wait for a fix. At least the one-line display of the currently playing track seems to be still working correctly

Incidentally, the new Webinterface [0.9.8.2a preview] exhibits exactly the same problem.

Some other issues I have found with the new interface:

1. Some operating instructions would be nice. It is very irksome having to stumble about trying to find out how the various features work.

2. The database loads up displaying individual songs(tracks) apparently in the order in which they are stored on the HDD, and has to be manually resorted into the user's preferred layout. I prefer to see the music listed as Albums in Album Title order, and on the old WebGUI, I could sort the music as I wanted it, then bookmark the resulting weblink for future use.
I can't see how to do this on the new interface. Could we have this feature reinstated please? And please stabilise the database so that it remains in the order we have selected until we change it. My albums keep reverting to appearing in artist order.

3. It is a nice feature that all albums are listed in a single sequence and not split over several pages. The downside is that if you are using a wifi link, the listing can take a full minute or so to load completely.

4. I tried to update an album cover via the new interface, but couldn't save save the new cover properly, and had to revert to the old interface to finish the job.

Hi Billygruff,

Many thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm not very tech minded and so it's good to hear that it is not down to something obvious that I'm missing. As I can still play the albums I want the problem is not a major one so, as you suggest, I'll wait for an update to correct it.

I couldn't agree more about the need for up-to-date instructions.

Regards
PuzzledJohn

It is usually within the release notes of the firmware version that incorporated the changes.
Updating wouldn't make any sense - it is best to know the original notes & then find the newer features by checking the related firmware.
If you are new to the cocktail audio it might seem like the interface is different until you play around a bit ...

Thanks for the comment ajct. I do see your point but there does come a point when the original notes are so far out of date that it becomes almost impossible to wade through everything to find what you are looking for - especially if you're not that technically minded.

With respect, I think you have mistaken the issue here, which is that the new software contains some minor flaws, which should be fixed.

Apart from those already noted, the old webinterface is now displaying track durations wrongly at a multiple of 4 times the correct figure. For example a track shown as lasting 3.56 mins on the X10 and on the new webinterface appears on the original webinterface as playing for 15.44 mins. I don't know if the flaws were there with R1760, as I only updated my WebGUI after R1793 was installed, but I doubt if they can be fixed by playing about a bit.

I am sorry that you seem to think it OK that we need to faff about searching through old instructions for guidance. There is a lot of good info on the CA website, and here on the Forum (thanks btw, Admin!), but it is not properly indexed, and vital info can be easily missed by those of us who do not log on regularly.

I would prefer to see the Cocktail Audio support team ensuring that each upgrade is accompanied by proper operating instructions setting out each feature the system is supposed to provide, and how we make these work. That would make life much easier for those of us who regard the Cocktail Audio as primarily a music system rather than an opportunity to indulge in a computing hobby, but even more importantly, it would provide a Quality Checklist to help the software writers see that upgrades are working properly before they are released.

A far more cogent explanation, billygruff, of what I was trying to say.

I can also confirm this.
Is there any chance that the software team could quickly trace and fix this and issue a new release of the web interface. Perhaps just a move from revision b to revision c of the old interface.

Are the songs imported ripped on the device or imported?
Some progs can mess up the display time.
Do you have an image?
I have had this issue on a PC & some media players but not on the web-GUI or Cocktail Audio X10.

I am not sure how this helps, but here is a screenshot from the original [0.9.6.7b] Webinterface, linked to my X10 which has R1793 uploaded.
X10 is playing the first track of the album, and declaring its duration as 22.32 mins, instead of the true figure of 5.25 mins. The display of elapsed time is also about 4 x real time.

The faulty display on the the expanded trackplay window should also be apparent.

And none of my stored music comes from exotic sources! A few mp3 items copied from my iTunes library, but mostly ripped from CDs on the X10.