Is it possible to see whether the current song is playing from the metadata?

[MCJack123]

I would like to display some song information on a display only if a song is currently playing; otherwise it shows a clock. Is it possible to see if a song is playing? If so, which metadata code do I check?

[mikebrady]

You might find some information in the README.md file for the sample metadata reader.

I'd suggest:

• pbeg -- play stream begin. No arguments
• pend -- play stream end. No arguments
• pfls -- play stream flush. No arguments
• prsm -- play stream resume. No arguments

... you might have to experiment.

[MCJack123]

I ended up using the prsm code to detect paused/playing state, but it seems like sometimes shairport-sync sends prsm even if the song is being paused. Another thing is that prsm is send after mden, which required me to change the script to return on prsm instead of mden. My script sometimes sends out the metadata even though I paused the song because of this. It's not too big of a deal as it only appears for a split second, but this may need to be investigated.

[mikebrady]

That's interesting. Shairport Sync is somewhat at the mercy of whatever comes from the audio source. In the upcoming update (see the development branch), Shairport Sync introduces an "active mode" which smooths out the transitions a bit. It has two new metadata codes -- abeg and aend. Not sure it's what you want, but maybe worth a look.

[OneBobone]

I spent a lot of time on this recently and tested with many sources. My recommendation is to trigger on the status code corecaps complemented with pbeg and pend. Also to avoid unnecessary pause/play when songs change, I make sure to only execute when Duration>0, but to use the duration = 0 to latch play on the next coreastm

Hmm, not a very good explanation... I could append some code?

Case "corecaps" 'application status. Maybe 0-3: loading, playing, paused or stopped
            Select Case Asc(Data)
                Case 1
                    'hs.writelog("Airplay Status", "Playing")
                    If hs.GetVar("ApDuration") > 0 Then
                        Call Play()
                    Else
                        hs.SaveVar("ApLatch", True) 'handle Duration readiness
                    End If
                Case 2
                    'hs.writelog("Airplay Status", "Paused")
                    Call Pause()
            End Select
            Exit Sub

        Case "coreastm" ' SongTime
            If hs.GetVar("ApLatch") = True Then Call Play() 'handle Duration readiness
            Exit Sub

    Case "ssncpbeg" 'play stream begins
        If hs.GetVar("ApStatus") = "Paused" Then Call Play() 'fix bug
        Exit Sub

    Case "ssncpend" 'playstream ends
        If hs.GetVar("ApStatus") = "Playing" Then Call Pause() 'fix bug
        Exit Sub

`

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