I've been checking out the release version of 5.1.1 on a PC and have noticed it seems to run very well. I've an idea how PV might helps us get started on custom versions without the pain of compiling full documentation (see end) but this version looks extremely promising so far!
Discovery time:
First the good points; the discovery seems excellent compared to 5.0. With 5.0, you always have to start, close, and then restart the control point before it sees the media server. With 5.1, I started it and Twonky appeared immediately; that's a fabulous improvement over 5.0.68.
Database build time
I've only tried 5.1.1 on a PC with a handful of albums, but the database build time is massively swifter; again, a fantastic step forwards and well done PV!
5.1.1 Control points missing
I tried pinning an existing Twonky tree view to a control point, but all I can see in the menu is my own PC's MAC address. I had 2 iPaq PDA (control points) and 2 Linn DS's running but none showed up in the list (just my PC with Twonky running on it). The Twonky config page suggests that you can select a tree for a media receiver; does this mean that you can’t select a tree for a separate control point? Is the assumption that the control point is always built into the media renderer?
5.1.1 Custom Tree Experiments:
I've tried many things to make a custom tree work, but it seems I am missing a vital piece of information somewhere. I’ve stopped it crashing (with a custom tree only) but it simply won’t show any of the containers. I can’t help feeling that I’m very near to getting it going (maybe shortcuts to the new tree containers) but I need a hint from PV on how to make it fly.
Suggestion for PV:
Full documentation takes ages to produce, check and ratify (I know, I've written a few), but a single container example music tree (say an alpha-grouped albumartist one; that's the major thing that's currently missing) and maybe one sentence on how to pick its container up (if that’s even necessary) would hopefully only take somebody from PV about 30 minutes to post; that would likely be enough to get us all going.
Anything at all (just an informal hint) would help us to reverse engineer fuller solutions for the forum users, as at the moment, we are simply stabbing in the dark.
Bri
NB I think it would be worth including the albumartist into any future view-definitions tree. If we had that, and info on how to alphagroup using the 'shortcut' views, we'd be well on the way without needing additional custom xml code!