Latest Software new

Latest Software

For B2 -
A Web Upgrade will automatically download the correct B2 or B2B version software.

If your B2 is on Wifi you can upgrade via the front panel controls using Settings->Web Upgrade. If not, transfer one of the following files onto a USB memory stick, plug into USB C on your B2 and use Settings->Maintenance->SW Upgrade.

If you have B2 version software use this file - b2.tar.gz
If you have B2B version software use this file - b2b.tar.gz

For BB1 -
If your BB1 is on WiFi you can upgrade using Main menu -> Settings & Tools -> Maintenance -> Web Upgrade. If not download this file - btubeV8.tar.gz - copy to a USB stick and plug into BB1 then select Settings & Tools -> Maintenance -> USB Upgrade

Do not 'unzip' the downloaded software file and make sure it is named as shown above - no additional characters or spaces.

If you see - "No Network" when you try to Web Upgrade try Settings->Retry Wifi and try again.

See the side bar (on the left) for more info on software versions.

28th November 2022

This release for BB1 extends the previous fix to work with the Brennan App
The fix only involved the web UI so the software version date will not change.

21st November 2022

This release for BB1 fixes the no sound on Youtube problem.
The fix only involved the web UI so the software version date will not change.

8th August 2022

This release for B2B includes the new random modes - random within artist and random within album.
This was previously released as experimental software.
Just enable random and play an artist on the web UI, app or front panel - ditto for album.

15th June 2022

This release is for all models
1) New podcast button on vTuner panel of web UI.. Podcasts can now be assigned to Presets
2) Fixed timeout on some radio stations that stopped after 10 seconds
The original B2 software now has all the recent improvements to B2B (except Spotify related functions - you need B2B to use Spotify).

23rd May 2022

This release is for BB1 and B2B
1) Play music on USB to Sonos speakers
2) Fuzzy matching in CD lookup
3) Save podcasts to presets (press and hold a number button on the remote) this is preliminary work.
4) Reverse Chronological ordering added to original web UI
5) VU and HDMI settings saved immediately
6) VU display synced with audio better
7) Support for Sonos on SD only B2B (you may need to select Use SD again).

29th April 2022

This release for BB1 has the Sleep and Mobile UI improvements below.
The Sleep function is in Settings & Tools.

28th April 2022

This release for B2B adds a sleep function that puts the B2 into standby after sixty minutes. You can find it at the end of the Settings menu. Press and hold stop to cancel.
The mobile web UI (v3m) has been updated to include support for Sonos speakers - tap on the Brennan logo to pick a speaker.

10th March 2022

This web upgrade for B2 and B2B prepares your B2 for use with the new App. It also includes all the recent changes in the experimental releases. Apple Superdrive (B2B only), more presets, improved CD playback through Sonos, variable duration record from radio.

2nd March 2022

The experimental software (left panel) now contains an option in Settings->Maintenance->Advanced to install a driver for the Apple Superdrive CD mechanism. Thanks to Struan for all the heavy lifting.
You can just plug the Apple Superdrive into a B2 USB port and use that instead of the internal CD mechanism.
Other changes in the experimental software include support for the next generation app - to be released in the new few weeks.

22nd October 2021

B2B now has a simple record from radio function.
Play the station on the local (wired) loudspeakers and press REC on the remote.
It will stop when you press stop or after one hour.
The recordings are labeled with the date and time and the radio station is the "artist" so they are easy to find in the web UI.

15th October 2021

This upgrade for b2 and b2b fixes a problem with the artist item menu in the v3 mobile UI.
It also includes some diagnostics for our internal use.

30th September 2021

This upgrade for b2b selects wired speakers when Forget Sonos selected.

20th September 2021

This upgrade is for B2s running the 'b2 xxxx' version software and has the recent b2b improvements.

17th September 2021

This upgrade for b2b fixes an occasional problem with the Musicbrainz server causing some CDs to be unrecognised and ejected. Also fixes erroneous duplicated album display on the web UI immediately after ripping. Thanks to Ian L. for his help with this.

7th September 2021

This upgrade for b2b quietens CD playback. Play track in the album menu now plays to chosen zone

2nd August 2021

This upgrade for B2B improves startup on Sonos CD play and adds ~ to list of characters that can be entered on the remote/rotary. You can find it after # or on the 1 button of the remote.

28th July 2021

This upgrade for B2B adds track names and album art to Sonos CD play. The art will show up on the web UI and the Sonos App - though not currently on the Brennan App.

20th July 2021

New feature for B2. Create a playlist called "Blacklist" and anything that appears in that list will not play during random play. You can specify tracks, albums or artists. This upgrade is only for B2B software - original B2 and BB1 to follow.

13th July 2021

Exciting experimental software that lets you play CDs through Sonos speakers.
Pick the zone, insert a CD, wait for it to read the contents and press play.
(Or if there is already a CD inserted press the CD button on the remote or use the CD menu.)
CDs are played losslessly.
Its under development so it doesn't display track names yet and the web UI doesn't know about it yet. You may encounter the odd UI wrinkle - let us know any issues.
As far as I know this is a world first - there is no other device that lets you "stream" CDs.
(Though to be fair Sonos sell the Sonos Port at £399 to stream any audio source - though I'm not sure if they use MP3).
Thanks to the Brennan owners who asked for this - I worked on it for a few days and decided it was impossible - then had a brainwave.

1st June 2021

Fix for occasional truncation of Youtubes on B2/B2B
Increase space for album names for large music collections
New dropdown Sonos speaker selection on web UI - click on Brennan

12th May 2021

This release is for BB1 and B2B - B2 will follow

Export / Import problem caused by mirror files fixed
B2B can now install a driver for USB Ethernet adaptors - so you can plug a B2 into Ethernet without opening the box. Settings->Maintenance->Advanced->Get Ethernet will install the driver. Turn the B2 off and plug in the USB Ethernet adaptor and the B2 will use Ethernet and/or Wifi
BB1 gets a JB7 Restore function for importing JB7 backups - in USB Functions

22nd March 2021

Several small improvements for BB1 and B2 including

BB1 USB DAC improvement
BB1 cosmetic changes
MP3 bitrate setting working
Youtube cache setting working
Format USB utility added to BB1 Advanced Menu
Spotify / Sonos displays better
Wifi not turned off during compression

9th March 2021

Please note - DLNA must be turned off for the Sonos feature to work - all versions.
This upgrade for BB1 lets you play music to Sonos speakers directly from the BB1 itself - no mobile phone or browser required. You can use the menus to select music or just press the buttons and it plays to the currently selected Sonos zone.

1st March 2021

This upgrade for BB1 and B2 includes 'Stereo Pairs' improvements and the front panel option for the B2 - BB1 to follow. And a couple of bug fixes since 25th.
The B2 now sorts Sonos zones alphabetically so it may be a good idea to click Scan Sonos on the web UI (Settings) and then reload the web UI - just once so everything is in sync.
The BB1 code includes a fix for DAC support.

25th February 2021

This file for B2B offline upgrade contains new Sonos features.

Pick a Sonos Zone from the front panel.
Play music/radio to Sonos Zones and adjust the volume without browser or mobile
Play different music in different zones at the same time.
One touch play music at random to your Sonos - just press next (like with the wired speakers)
Sonos stereo pairs now working - a great feature
Faster Sonos discovery
Fix for limited scrolling on web UI in the Android app.

Thanks to John H for assisting with Stereo Pairs.

14th February 2021

Youtube update to keep in step with changes at Youtube site.
Improvements to reduce SD card wear.
Stop play at end of CD - was restarting.

26th January 2021

Move JB7 Backup and Restore to their own submenu
Display Export instead of Backup as appropriate
Fix MP3 compression on B2 software.
Fix problem caused by back tick in file names and new compression mechanism
Fix play after standby problem caused by new compression mechanism
Improve Wifi restart after compression

20th January 2021

This upgrade fixes a minor problem with the volume control on the iPhone app when used with Sonos. You will need the latest app version 2.0.3 or later.
Also fixes a problem compressing files containing ampersands

11th January 2021

This upgrade for all models will allow the Brennan to work with the new 2nd Generation iPhone app to be launched later today - more here. The app can be found on the app store - search for 'martin brennan'.

In addition to support for the App it includes the following changes

You can now play radio stations to Sonos from the vTuner tab
The system will behave better if a Sonos speaker is turned off
The system will play tracks if paths contain ampersands
The first track will play sooner when a lot of music is queued to a speaker

9th December 2020

Recent Youtube fix extended to Firefox and Safari browsers
Bug fix in new MP3 encoder to handle special characters in some filenames

3rd December 2020

Sonos App and B2 web UI now show album art, radio logo and other details when playing through Sonos speakers.
Play Artist added to Sonos.
Sonos queue limit increased from 100 to 1000
New faster mp3 encoding on B2/BB1 - its still slow compared to a PC - but about 2x faster than previously.
Cover art now added during MP3 encoding.

26th November 2020

This release for all models fixes a recent change at Youtube.
DLNA was found to be incompatible with the recent Sonos function so turning on DLNA will now switch off Sonos and vice versa. If you use the Sonos feature please make sure DLNA is turned off - press Info in the remote. You can turn DLNA on and off in Settings->Maintenance.
Bluetooth and Wired speakers together has been fixed.
Work on Sonos is ongoing and I did not plan on a software release yet but you will find that Radio Presets now play through Sonos. This is not tested significantly so let us know of any stations that do not work.

2nd November 2020

This release fixes Playlist Export.

29th October 2020

This release for all models fixes the Youtube downloader after some changes on the Youtube site.
BB1 gets the new Sonos functionality.
The Sonos speaker limit was increased to ten. Sonos Boost devices are now hidden. Volume is updated on change of device and problems playing files with ampersands (&) and other troublesome characters have been fixed.

23rd October 2020

This release for B2 and B2B has a new Sonos capability. More here. Let us know what you think via the forum or email.

6th October 2020

This release for B2B versions of B2 has a fix for a problem caused by using Get Eq and some other minor fixes. Amazon track finder removed. Album art on web UI tidied.
To fix the problem caused by Get Eq just run Get Eq with this version.

21st July 2020

This release for B2 and BB1 fixes a problem with videos in playlists sometimes lost on reboot.

14th July 2020

Fix to playlist play order when starting from a item within the list.

8th July 2020

This version for B2 and B2B fixes the ID3 tags in the MP3 mirror files. ID3 tags vary a lot and the tags in our MP3 files are aimed at getting the best results with Sonos.
There is a new function in Settings->Maintenance to delete the MP3 mirror files. Tags are added during compression so you will have to delete the previously compressed MP3s if you want the new tags.
In future I will add a retag function to update tags with latest name and cover art.

1st July 2020

This version gives a better count of files left to compress in the new compression mode. (You will need to run Scan Disk just once for it to count previously mirrored tracks). Also removes a leftover temporary file - thanks to Peter for spotting that.

29th June 2020

This web upgrade for B2/B2B has the export memory fix and new compression mode mentioned on 26th.
The memory fix has been applied to import/restore.
Also fixed a problem when playlists contained the same track more than once.

26th June 2020

This offline upgrade is a fix for the out of memory problem on B2B backup/export identified by Peter. It will be rolled out as a web upgrade in the days ahead.
There is also a new compression mode that compresses music to FLAC and MP3. The MP3 files are hidden and don't play or get backed up but there is companion function "Export MP3s" in the Playlist Menu that will export the hidden MP3s to USB - this is useful for sending music quickly to an MP3 player or USB storage for playback in the car for example.
The compression function will convert WAVs and previously converted FLACs to hidden MP3s - but it is very very slow. What you end up with is a collection of FLACs and a hidden mirror copy of them as MP3s.

2nd June 2020

This update is to fix changes at Youtube.

24th/26th May 2020

This update adds the Librespot (Spotify) capability to B2 and BB1.
See this page for full details.

19th May 2020

This update for B2 fixes a problem with Youtube introduced on 11th May.
PS the software was updated again in the afternoon to fix a second related bug to do with Youtube cached files.

11th May 2020

This release includes the BB1 Bluetooth Out code released previously.
It has some minor bug fixes relating to Musicbrainz and Amazon lookup.
vTuner results works better but still limited to 1000.
Youtube playback on v3 UI has been fixed.

22nd April 2020

Updated the Bluetooth Out upgrade file below. The 17th April version sometimes did not present the upgrade bluetooth option in the Settings menu - it depended on your software history. If your Bluetooth out is working you don't need this. Follow the instructions below again to get today's code.

17th April 2020

This is an experimental release for BB1 owners. This file adds Bluetooth out to BB1.
Download the file to a USB stick and plug into your BB1
Settings->Maintenance->USB Upgrade will install the software and reboot
Settings->Upgrade Bluetooth will install new Bluetooth Output files and reboot
Then you can either control connection to Bluetooth Speakers using the web UI or the Bluetooth Out on the main TFT menu.
If you run into difficulties try Reset Bluetooth on the web UI or in the Maintenance menu.
Let us know how you get on.
There is a gotcha - the Raspberry Pi uses the same radio for Bluetooth and Wifi so Wifi will turn off while playing on Bluetooth - so you cannot use the web UI or internet radio while playing to Bluetooth devices. The web UI will come back to life when you pause.

6th April 2020

Fixes a change to Youtube over the weekend. Web UI change only - no date change.

30th March 2020

This fixes problems caused by changes to the Youtube website. This is just a quick change to the web UI so software date will show 23rd (or 18th on BB1).

25th March 2020

Experimental new track labeling mechanism on the desktop web UI - relabel previously loaded albums using track listings on Amazon.
BB1 backup
BB1 support for hidden SSID
BB1 Wifi Reset and Repair SD functions
B2 download of entire Freedb database for offline use.

9th March 2020

This release improves the styling of the original mobile web UI - mobile.html.
Playlists are now sorted alphabetically in the original desktop UI - original.html. And the number of items per playlist has been increased to 5,000 from 1,000.
The Musicbrainz discid is stored when a CD is ripped.

2nd March 2020

This release reduces the number of duplicate matches when ripping CDs with the musicbrainz database. It fixes a bug where some CDs would cause B2 to get in a loop.
BB1 now has a new main menu item to Rip CDs without the web UI - only appears if a CD loader and CD are present.

24th February 2020

This release fixes a problem with multi-CD sets and the new musicbrainz database.
You will now see all CDs in the set. On the web UI you can click on the selected album name to see the tracks and check they correspond to your CD.
Also fixed a problem with quotes in album names.

19th February 2020

This release improves the styling on the v3m web UI - used by the iPhone App. This fixes the volume control on iPhone 6 (Safari 11)
Also fixed a problem with Video Import on BB1 - thanks Mark B for help.

12th February 2020

This release switches the CD lookup from freedb.org to musicbrainz.org
(Freedb.org is shutting down at the end of March)
Album art (where available at musicbrainz) is now fetched automatically and is now also fetched when the rip is done from the front panel.
If you have the offline database installed in your B2 it will also show all the matches found there - though that database has no art.
This release also fixes a problem with OLED scrolling on B2B software and a bug compressing files containing "." on BB1 - thanks to AJ

29th January 2020

1) Import video files (mov and mp4) from USB on BB1 - through the Browse USB menu
2) Rename videos - three dots in search results
3) Fix truncation of Youtubes on B2

9th January 2020

This release fixes problems with Sonos on BB1 and recent B2s (with B2B Software). You will need to Stop NAS then Start NAS to apply the fix.
The DLNA function is now switchable - you can find the switch in the Maintenance menu. You should keep it turned off if you don't plan to use it - it can use up a bit of CPU power. The DLNA configuration has been changed to expose the music folder on B2/BB1. This remains an experimental feature. Thanks to Stephen B for his contributions.
You can now see the on/off status of NAS and DLNA in stats.

31st December 2019

This release is available for web upgrade on BB1 and B2 and has fixes for Youtube playback problems arising from recent changes to their website.
It also includes changes in the 24th December release.
Please report any difficulties on the forum- thanks
Happy New Year for 2020!
Martin

24th December 2019

This release is for USB upgrade only - download this file and follow instructions at top of page.
There is a new function Stop DLNA in Settings->Maintenance->Advanced to help determine if DLNA is interfering with NAS.
There are a few minor improvements to v3m - volume control, height and random button.
There is a fix to problems caused by quotes in Youtube titles.
You can now set which of four web interfaces is the default for the device you are on - settings panel of web UI

18th November 2019

Added playlist import and export to bb1
Added volume slider and improved presentation generally on v3m
Fixed no scroll in vTuner panel on mobile
Eliminated occasional album art flicker on mobile
Improve mute/unmute functionality on mobile

29th October 2019

Fixed B2 sometimes not being visible to Mobile App

24th October 2019

bb1 & b2 further work on V3 web UI. There is now a mobile variant called v3m.html.
bb1 added MAC address to stats - for fixing IPaddress in router

11th October 2019

bb1 added support for Roksan DAC. Corrected "success" message if wifi password was wrong.
b2 - added a new web UI for you to look at - type 192.168.0.4/v3.html (using your IP address) to see it. Its somewhere between concept car and work in progress - let me know your thoughts and any problems on the forum. Only the desktop view is really working.

1st October 2019

Latest software available for web upgrade on B2 and bb1.
Improves button sizes and presentation on mobile UI.
Includes September 25th cover art fix.

25th September 2019

This file can be used for USB upgrade and will fix the missing covert art - thanks to John H for the fix.
This file can be used to create a new SD that has an entirely new Bluetooth section which fixes Bluetooth Out incompatibilities - and allows B2 to play through bb1. Instructions for creating an SD card are on this page - but use the file above instead. You will need to unzip after downloading.

27th August 2019

Fixed bug in Bulk Upload causing it to terminate prematurely on occasions.

21st August 2019

Fixed handling of cover art in some (third party) MP3 metadata.

14th August 2019

Fix bug in USB import introduced on 12th August.

12th August 2019

Fix mobile UI - showing half a screen after latest update to Chrome. Thanks to Steve P for sending me the fix.

7th August 2019

Update Youtube after changes to their website.

4th July 2019

Reorganised Settings and Maintenance Menus - see Menu System Tab on left.
Bigger better logos for radio stations. This will only take effect on new vTuner fetches - so you will need to reset your presets to benefit. Fixed Samsung Galaxy artist scroll and behaviour returning to all artists in mobile UI.

27th June 2019

Update to Youtube software to track changes at Google.

26th April 2019

This release addresses a few minor issues raised on the Forum.
1) Playlists that won't delete
2) Abrupt end to last track in Classical Mode
3) Youtube limit increased from 200 to 1000
4) Don't compress 24 bit WAV files

16th April 2019

Updated Amazon Get Art to track changes at Amazon.

20th March 2019

This release fixes a few problems
1) Occasional stopping at the end of a track - not playing the next
2) Not starting web upload on first attempt
3) Mobile UI now implements guest mode

11th March 2019

Playlist selection now scrolls on mobile UI. Classical mode made more conspicuous.
Added an experimental Settings->Maintenance->Get DLNA. For the moment this is only for tech savvy owners who would like to experiment with DLNA. This function installs minidlna - Google for documentation. You will at least need to modify the configuration file /etc/minidlna.conf. Share your findings on the forum and I'll incorporate anything useful into a future release for general use.

1st March 2019

Added a ten channel graphics equaliser.
After doing web upgrade you need to use
Settings->Maintenance->Get EQ
to install the new operating system components.
I'm not a great fan of tone controls but I was pleasantly surprised by this new function. With small adjustments you can compensate for room acoustics, speaker performance and also create a kind of "loudness" control - that compensates for our ear's different frequency response at different sound levels.
Click on the crotchet button where on the web UI to see the equaliser. You can disable the equaliser and I recommend starting by clicking the flat button to reset the controls.
Martin

12th February 2019

Fixed All Artists scroll mechanism. Added diagnostics for SD mode switch.

5th February 2019

Added a switch so you can have either the original or the new mobile UI at the base IP address of your B2. Go to the settings panel on either UI to select. It uses a browser cookie so if you select mobile on your phone it won't switch the view on your laptop. You can override the choice by visiting 192.168.02/mobile.html or 192.168.0.2/original.html (substitute your B2s IP address).
Increased volume step and removed some space for smaller phones on mobile UI.

29th January 2019

Added Bluetooth panel to new Mobile UI. Added Album art to Artists Browse panel.

14th January 2019

Added an option to show bigger album art on original web UI. Check the bigPicture box in the debug panel.
Fixed the 200 artist limit in the mobile UI.

7th January 2019

This release has a far more complete mobile phone UI as well as the changes in the previous two offline releases.
The mobule UI is independant of the original UI and for now is accessed at 192.168.0.8/mobile.html (substitute your B2 IP address). There is also a fix to an occasional infrequent internet radio dropout that occurs in some environements - thank you Bob.
Please let me have your feedback on the mobile UI via the forum. I'm pretty pleased with it so far and I still have a bunch of ideas to incorporate but it will help to hear about any compatibility issues and your thoughts.
Martin

21st December 2018

Seasons greetings! This release is for testers and others who want to take a look at the new Mobile Web UI that I am working on. Its still very primitive - I haven't paid much attention to colours and styling and many of the functions have not been wired up yet but the basic structure is there. I'm hoping that the left right swipe will be a more natural way of using the UI on a phone.
The new UI coexists with the old - you just need to use a different URL. In my case 192.168.0.2/mobile.html - substitute your IP address.

27th November 2018

Experimental Software release for USB upgrade only. This version restores the seek functionality. Seek now works on MP3 in addition to FLAC and WAV. (It looks like m4a files will not be possible). There are few minor changes elsewhere. Playlist selection is tidier. I removed the disk scan on startup - it was making the B2 a bit unresponsive on startup.
Copy this file to a USB stick, plug into USB C and use Settings->Maintennance-> SW Upgrade.
[You can use a web upgrade to go back if you just want to try it out]

13th November 2018 - Further Update

The original release today had a problem that affected some displays. This has been rectified.
If your B2 was affected by the earlier release you can fix it by upgrading "blind". Turn the B2 off and on. Give it a moment to get started - ignore the display. Push the knob. Turn clockwise five clicks to "Settings" (though you won't see it). Push the knob. Turn the knob 13 clicks to "Web Upgrade". Push the knob. It should restart properly. Its fiddly so worth trying again if it doesnt work first time.
Apologies for the inconvenience. It worked on the four machines I tested here. Thanks to the forum members who reported this so promptly and helped with the fix. Martin

13th November 2018

New Bulk Upload function on Upload tab of Web UI.
This function allowed me to transfer my entire iTunes and Amazon MP3 collections to a B2 in one operation - without needing a USB drive as a go between. Basically you select a folder and the function finds all music and album art held in that folder and any subfolders. Its not lightning quick but its convenient. You can cancel half way through and if you restart it will skip any that it already uploaded. It will stop when the B2 is full.
The new feature exploits new browser capabilities so may not be available in all browsers - I tested on Chrome and Firefox. There appear to be some differences in implementation and Chrome seems to be a bit overzealous in hiding folder names - in the name of security - so you may find some albums under Unknown - the Web UI will tell you if that happens.
I increased the album limit to 11,000 albums for Keith A. The limits are now 11,000 albums, 6,000 artists, 170,000 tracks.
There is now a behind the scenes disk space monitor that runs on power up. It can take five minutes on a big disk but the disk space figure in info should now be more accurate.

8th October 2018

Improvements to Web UI - tidier dialog boxes, new simpler delete playlist on web UI

2nd October 2018

Last upgrade now available through web upgrade. Plus transport buttons on mobile and iPad landscape mode improved. Improvements to prevent duplicate search results.

25th September

Experimental Software release for USB upgrade only. This version disbles the seek functionality for test purposes. It also has significant changes to the web UI to make it simpler for new owners and better for mobile.
Copy this file to a USB stick, plug into USB C and use Settings->Maintennance-> SW Upgrade.
[You can use a web upgrade to go back if you just want to try it out]

18th September

Added Standby in main menu and Compress Now to maintenaance menu.
Improved the CD panel on the Web UI especially for mobile.

4th September 2018

Added an alternative MP3 encoding bitrate. It was fixed at 128k. Now you can also encode at 256k.
Fixed a problem that occurred when next (or prev) hit repeatedly and quickly.
The seek bar has been removed for MP3s while I try and figure out out to handle variable bit rate (VBR) MP3s.

29th August 2018

I combined the new Import Playlists functionality into the old Load Playlists function - this function will now try /playlists and then if that doesn't exist /b2Export/playlists.
Modified Delete Backup to delete JB7 style "hardfi" backup and also B2 style "B2Export" backups.
Moved some temporary files to reduce SD card wear.

22nd August 2018

Added an Import Playlists function to Playlists Menu. This loads playlists saved with Export. The reason that I do not load the playlists with Import is that you might for example want to Import music from a relative's B2 but not overwrite your playlists with theirs. This new mechanism lets you backup and restore playlists flexibly.

Track listing and playback order is now entirely alphabetic. There was a hybrid scheme before that used a track order number if present and the order on the disk if not. This led to problems if there was a mix or duplicate track order numbers. The new simpler scheme will honour the track order number but won't be upset by duplicates or mixtures of numbered and not numbered tracks.

Now stop NAS automatically before attempting to format HDD.

Refresh USB Panel when USB plugged/unplugged

18th August 2018

Updated Musicbrainz album art fetch to work with recent Musicbrainz website changes.
Fix track display when two tracks share same number.
Hide seek slider if browser window is too small (was overlapping playlist panel).

30th July 2018

The software release below (software dated 10th July) is now available through web upgrade.

11th July 2018

Extended seek to WAV and MP3 - MP3 is work in progress but I have been asked for the WAV function so its an offline upgrade - file here.
Speedup exit from compression.
Fix permanent display of "Saving" if Screensaver = 16
Fix crash after Artist delete while playing/displaying that artist.
Fix bug in FLAC seek code can cause tracks not to start.
Added Favicon

27th June 2018

This release is available through web upgrade and contains the FLAC seek function trialed on 13th.

Cleanup in Maintenance has been extended to delete "._XX" files - sometimes found in iTunes libaries. Use Scan Disk after Cleanup.
Experimental work on Podcasts - type word "podcast" into the Search box. You will probably need a url that ends in mp3 let me know through the forum if you have Podcast urls that are different or don't work. I'll find a better place in the Web UI for it later.

13th June 2018

New seek function - there is now a progress bar on the web UI while playing FLAC files. Drag the button and release to jump to that part of the track.
This function involved a significant rewrite so at the moment it is only being made available as an offline upgrade - download this file and follow instructions at the top of this page. Let me have feedback on the forum or email.
Martin
(PS if you run into problems just do a web upgrade and it will take you back)

11th May 2018

New - much simpler - find album art function. There are two new buttons when you click on the dots next to an album name. These search either Musicbrainz or Amazon for cover art. Click on an image to load it.
Fixed a problem - sometimes freezing if you click prev/next rapidly while playing internet radio - many thanks to Tony for isolating this problem and helping with the debug.

1st May 2018

Improved behaviour with mobile web UI. Small changes to now playing panel.

27th April 2018

Fixed Code 11 and Code 12 problems. Basically these messages just said that the B2 had run out of space for more USB music - but they locked the B2 - now it ignores any further USB music. I increased the USB limit to 2000 albums for now.

6th April 2018

Fixed an overflow caused by large album art images. This could cause the B2 to freeze or misbehave after displaying on Web UI.

27th March 2018

Turn off playlists when album is played - it was returning to playlist after first track
Fix Web UI Now Playing graph on iPhone
Clear USB search results when USB removed.

20th March 2018

Fixed alignment of date when screensaver is on. Added screensaver 16 - turns off the clock display in standby.

19th March 2018

Extended support for music on USB. Search will now find and play music on the USB drive - currently limited to first 1000 albums. Web UI now has a USB panel - like file explorer - that lets you see whats on the USB drive. This will pave the way for improved handling of music on USB - like importing specific albums or folders.
B2 scans any USB drive when first plugged in - you will see the green light flashing. You can stop the scan by holding stop if you dont intend to play from USB.

5th March

OLED screensaver. Settings->Maintenance->Screensaver. It will default to on. Dims the display and moves the clock around in Standby.
Improved Web UI for "phablet" sized displays.

23rd February

Couple of fixes to cope with stations with no logos.

22nd February

Added radio station icons/images - you will need to reprogram your presets from vTuner to get the images - then they show when that station is played.
Added a tagging function for FLAC files that will allow Sonos to show the correct names and any cover art. Its very new so test on one album from the album menu first. Then if thats OK you can tag the whole disk using Settings->Maintenance->Tag Music. It will be slow the first time then after that it only changes files that have been renamed or new art. You will need to update the Sonos Library after tagging.
Increase memory limits 10,000 albums - more storage for Classical
New Youtube cache improvements.

18th February

Fixes bug in last release

16th February

Fix Youtube for Internet Explorer and Safari
Fix random in playlists
Display cover art from imported MP3s (from their ID3 tags)
Fixed Presets and Playlists panels on mobile (eg iPhone6)
Highly experimental extensions to Youtube capability - switch on in the Web UI settings panel.

Cache Youtube music as it plays
Find cached Youtubes in Search (you need to hide everything else at the moment - disable Artists, Albums, Tracks and Radio)
Put Youtubes in Playlists
Show "cover art" when playing cached Youtubes

7th February

Quick fix for Youtube website change - will only work on Chrome and Edge. Web change only software version will show 2nd Feb.

2nd February

Playlist corruption fix. Artists in playlists were corrupted if you renamed an artist to the same name as an already existing artist name - effectively merging them.
Thanks to Chris for his patience and help and thanks to forum members for a few key observations.

30th January

This is the first software release driven by feedback and ideas posted on the forum - thanks keep it coming,

Playlist filter reinstated - search results only show matches in the selected playlist.
Play buttons in playlist panel - lets you play the playlist from any item.
Menu buttons in playlist - lets you reorder and delete playlist items if you don't have drag and drop.
Guest mode track order fixed.
Force desktop in settings - may help with some "phablets" - more to follow

23rd January

Improved Youtube fix - for Safari and Internet Explorer.

19th January

Fixed Youtube - following by website change by Google.

3rd January

Include album art in Import. Refresh Web UI when playlist cleared.

11th December

Minor stuff. Improved Wifi switching. Don't display channels in Youtube Search results. Aux mode - main menu replaced so new owners don't get stuck in Aux Mode. Remove invalid Network Down message.

4th December 2017

Tags added during compression so Sonos can sort by Artist and Album. (In 2018 I will add a function to tag previously compressed files). Web UI now stops B2 going into Standby.

29th November 2017

Added experimental tone control - next to transport buttons on web UI - you will need to adjust the volume to compensate at the moment.
Improved internet radio radio behaviour with poor internet connections - you need to turn on Settings->Maintenance->Prefill - NB it will delay startup while it buffers.

22nd November 2017

Presets menu in vTuner web UI - helps setting presets on touch devices.
Added delete to Youtube history - so you can just keep what you liked most.

17th November 2017

vTuner seem to have some missing entries for main BBC Radio Stations - this release includes a temporary fix - if you have lost a BBC preset try finding the station in the vTuner geographic panel and reprogram the preset.

10th November 2017

Created a Youtube tab in the main Web UI and added search. Added images to search and history. This feature is experimental/under development let me know of any problems or good ideas.

25th October 2017

I added history to the Youtube function below so you can quickly replay favourite tunes on Youtube - more to come.

9th October 2017

I've added a fun new experimental feature. I was on holiday recently and a piece of music came to mind (Procol Harum) and I played it using Youtube on my laptop - its was a bit tinny on the laptop of course but I realised what a treasure trove of music Youtube has become.

When I got back I created this simple function that will take a Youtube URL and play it on the B2 - so you get nice loud sound.

Just type "youtube" into the search window and this box will magically appear. Paste the Youtube URL into the box and click start.

Its very crude - for instance on some videos there is a lengthy pause at the start - but I wanted to get some feedback. There are some obvious things to do next - like keeping a history or adding the Youtubes to playlists. Let me know what you think.

5th October 2017

Upload album art by clicking (in addition to drag and drop and paste) on little icon in album panel. Added "=" to letters for Wifi passwords. Improved handling of OK and Back on remote control during password entry. Removed track file extension in playlist panel.

4th October 2017

New improved internet radio is now available through web upgrade. Fixed a bug with Preset drag and drop on Firefox.

29th August

Added % and + to characters on rotary for Wifi passwords

23rd August

I have improved the behaviour of internet radio when the internet connection is intermittent. This was a significant rewrite of that part of the code so its not for general release yet. Download this file and follow the instructions at the top for offline/USB upgrade. You can always go back with a web upgrade. Let me know via the feedback form if there are any stations causing problems or other issues. Thanks to Andrew W for help testing. Martin

7th July

Added menus to Artist and Album panels to make the UI more uniform and help folk who are systematically organising their music. Added a Cleanup function in Maintenance - removes empty artists and albums.

4th July 2017

Fixed problem with recording length. Add CD Reset to Maintenance Menu

29th June 2017

Keep search results fixed after rename. Clear album art when playing radio.

21st June 2017

Allow & in search. Keep search results fixed after Art upload.

8th June 2017

Quicker Wifi start up after compression.

4th June 2017

Turns off Wifi while compressing.

18th April 2017

Fixed file truncation in Web Upload - thanks to Chris G for tracking this down.
Reload Guest Mode Playlist on power up.

13th April 2017

Added Photo Viewer see here
Fixed problem with standby on 64G models.

5th April 2017

Guest Mode added.

Guest Mode prevents you from making changes to the B2. So you can allow friends and children to use the B2 without fear that they will delete your music or rename something. In Guest Mode you can play CDs but not load them to disk.

You can optionally select a playlist and the B2 will only allow acces to the music in that playlist. So for instance if you have some music for your kids then they will only hear their music. Guest mode also make it easier to partition different music for different family members. Once Guest mode is selected - search will only show music from the selected playlist.

Guest mode is best turned on using the web UI under the settings (cog) menu.
You can also turn it on with Settings->Maintenance->Guest Mode in which case any playlist currently playing will be locked in.

Thanks to Vince and others for this idea. Let me know if there are any loose ends or side effects. Martin

10th March 2017

Redesign of the way the Web UI works with screen readers for blind B2 owners. This is just the start - many thanks to Paul H for his help.

More margin around menu button (three dots) in search results on mobile so its not so fiddly to rename and add to playlist.

Single tap/click to rename tracks in album window - better for touch devices. Thanks to Brian H for this.

4th March 2017

I modified the function of the Bluetooth button. Now if there is no phone or tablet connected this button will toggle the Bluetooth connection to a Bluetooth speaker. Basically its a quick way of reconnecting Bluetooth speakers without going through the menu.

3rd March 2017

1) You can now get audio out on HDMI - for high end AV receivers and TVs with soundbars. Enable through Settings panel on Web UI.

2) You can now control Bluetooth a bit more easily through the Web UI. Allows you to optionally play music simultaneously through wired and Bluetooth Speakers.

3) I have improved support for multimedia keys on USB keyboards like this inexpensive wireless Rii i8. You can control the volume, search, play and stop etc.

4) Support for Daylight Saving Time in New Zealand (GMT + 13) - sorry American Samoa.

5) New Jack Sense mode keeps power amp on to prevent thumps when used with SubWoofers.

28th February 2017

Further work on Bluetooth Web Panel. Added # to remote and rotary for Wifi passwords.

27th February 2017

Started work on Bluetooth Web panel on Web UI makes it a bit clearer. Further improvements to Bluetooth.

21st February 2017

Better support for multimedia keyboards - you can adjust volume and play/pause from a USB keyboard. Further work on TV UI. Improvements to Bluetooth - pairing an already paired speaker. Bug fixed in web debug window.

10th February 2017

Display Bluetooth MAC address to help switch between identical Bluetooth speakers.
Further work on working with screen readers.
Further work on TV output (switch to TV Off in logging to see)
Fix recently introduced bug in Aux In - thanks Ed.

8th February 2017

Bluetooth now full duplex - which is a fancy way of saying you can play your tablet into B2 at the same time as B2 driving Bluetooth speakers. Oddly this makes Bluetooth a bit simpler because you don't have to select whether B2 is input mode or output mode. Support for difficult speakers like Taotronics is now built in so no special mode for that. Some experimental Bluetooth menu items have been removed. Plannning to allow optional Bluetooth+Wired at the same time.

Album art is now displayed in now playing box - and you can paste images into the album panel heading. So lets say you have an album by Van Morrison with no image. You could find the album on Amazon say - copy it - right click on image and select Copy Image - then click on the Album Heading on the B2 web UI and press CTRL-V to paste. That image will be displayed when you play the album. You could use your own photos - it doesnt have to be the official artwork. Use small images.

I fixed a bug in NAS SD that could USB problems (freezing) - USB is used for hard disk and network and CD so not just related to external USB devices.

27th January 2017

Extended settings panel - segue, & compression - more to come
Started work on album art upload - drag jpg images from your desktop to Album panel.
Some work on Vtuner panel for screen readers.
Remove logging to TV in preparation for TV UI - Settings -> Maintenance -> Logging

20th January 2017

Bit of Spring Cleaning

1) Added a new Export function to USB menu - use this if you don't need JB7 compatibility - you must use this above a few thousand albums or you won't be able to use all the space on your USB backup disk. Use Import to get music back.
2) Working on a new settings and status panel on the web UI - when finished it will let you control a lot more from the Web UI.
3) Added a debug window to the web UI - not very exciting but its the first step in freeing up the TV for a UI / album art etc.
4) Mount second partition on USB drives if required - some drives appear to be formatted that way.
5) Fixed bug in rotary encoder when you go past Z
6) Tidied CD panel selection on Web UI
7) Fixed bug in selecting from vTuner Search results
8) Use HDD now switches off Aux IN - in case you cant find the remote
9) Corrected progress in playlist export
10) Fixed cancel in album upload
11) Deleted Artist now doesn't re-appear after scan disk.

6th January 2017

Stopped LED flashing in response to other IR remote controls.

29th December

Added a temporary memory usage report to TV (press X key) - for Chris A - working on increasing track limits.

11th December

Added an experimental fix for Bluetooth hanging with some speakers.

Settings->Maintenance->Bluetooth Fix to turn off and on

Thanks to Howard for help with this deep rooted Raspberry Pi problem. This paves the way for a simplification of Bluetooth.

8th December

Removed the test causing "No Network" in Web Upgrade with some Wifi routers after 24th November. If you cannot upgrade with the Web Upgrade - follow instructions for USB upgrade above.

6th December

Fixed date for western timezones - thanks to Jim in Anchorage

5th December

I've improved the Web UI for blind users with screen readers. I'll do some more work in the months ahead. Let me have your feedback.

New experimental tagging function (only of interest to Sonos and other music players that use NAS) Settings->Maintenance->Tag Music. This adds ID3 or FLAC tags to tracks so that Sonos etc knows the artist and album from the track. Its slow because it has to rewrite all the music file so you wouldn't do it unless you needed.

28th November

Fixed support for hidden Wifi networks

24th November

Added support for NAS (Sonos). See NAS and Sonos tab on left.

20th October 2016

Added a Playlist to USB function so you can write selected tracks etc to a USB device. Its at Playlist Menu->Export Playlist.

Reduced delay on audio out - aux in and buttons will be less laggy.

Fixed drag & drop problem (playlist dustbin and now playing) on internet explorer. Thanks again to Keith for helping isolate this.

Thanks to Pat for his blog on how to create an icon on iPhone.

19th October 2016

Fixed problem caused by delete Artist on Playlists containing tracks by that artist. Also updated Playlist lengths after deletion. [The bug caused affected tracks to mutate to tracks from the next album so Playlists would appear to have random tracks - thanks again Chris in Iowa].

17th October 2016

Add to playlist on Web UI now adds to end of playlist - not the start. Fixed a problem caused by very very long artist name on CD ripping. (I think it included all the soloists, the woodwind section and some of the audience).

14th October

Fixed a typo in web UI on last release caused problem listing Artist - apologies for delay in fixing - touring Africa (Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe) - mind blowing, highly recommended.

19th September

Improved handset/tablet UI - back button, bigger entries in main dropdown, automatic switch to artists and album panels when clicked in Search - thanks to Philip for the suggestions. Also Classical mode is now ignored when playling playlists.

16th September

Fixed playlist drag and drop.

8th September

Its your lucky day Ricky. Added the date to the standby display. Classical mode turned off when you hit next in standby - to play everything at random.

6th September

VU Meter now works for Aux In - you need to switch to Aux then enable VU Meter in Settings->Maintenance. Useful for setting recording level.

Fixed "Rip Incomplete" message caused by bonus video tracks on some CDs.

2nd September

Fixed erroneous Network Down message when playing Internet Radio with Ethernet (as opposed to Wifi). Removed snippet of sound on changing stations.

1st September

Classical Play Mode added. Stops play at end of current album so you don't have a heart attack when Metallica follows Mahler. Use Settings->Classical Mode to turn on and off for now - I'll add it to Web UI later.

Fixed Free Space function in Maintenance to work with SD models.

24th August

Improved Internet Explorer compatibility - though Chrome is still recommended because it is faster and much more popular - so any bugs get spotted and ironed out sooner.

23rd August

Web rename now allows accented characters to be used. Accented characters displayed correctly in small text on B2 front panel. (Large text was OK).

19th August

New developmental UI is now the default - so just type B2 IP address as before. Added random on/off to web UI. Fixed refresh after rename on Internet Explorer. Let me know of any other IE problems - though Chrome is recommended on grounds of speed and popularity.

17th August

Added Settings->Maintenance->Zone Minutes for B2 owner in Sri Lanka (and any other timezones not a whole number of hours from GMT). NB Set minutes before setting hours with Settings->Timezone.

16th August

Added rename to new handset UI. Improved presentation. Fixed infinite scroll.

15th August

Increased number of playlists to 50. Removed playlists in info display. Fixed a problem with playlists when music deleted. Also if you want to experiment there is developmental new UI at 192.168.0.2/handset.html (substitute your IP address). Allows you to delete from Web UI. Better use of space. Will be better for touch - no need to drag and drop or double click. More to come. Feedback welcome as usual.

5th August

Added Playlist Save and Load functions to the Playlists menu. These save and load all the playlists to text files in the /playlists folder on a disk/memory in USB C.

You could use this to backup Playlists that have taken a long time to build or even to manually create and edit playlists using a text editor.

Added a line to info page two showing playlist usage

3rd August

Added a VU Meter style display. Use Settings->Maintenance->VU Meter to turn it on and off.

Fixed problem with deletions and new playlists. Thanks to Chris in Iowa for bringing this to my attention.

1st August

Bluetooth input fixed after experimental Bluetooth mode introduced.

31st July

Problems with ripping caused by recent new code fixed.

27th July

Disconnecting Bluetooth automatically switches sound back to wired speakers

22nd July

Tracks in album in playlist now play in correct order. Overflow on very long CDDB names fixed. New Bluetooth mode cleared when not in use. New function added to Y key - lets you restart the program - a bit like turning off and on but quicker and easier than unplugging.

21st July

Added @, < and > on the rotary - mainly for Wifi passwords - avoid using special characters in track names etc.

20th July

Added a new experimental Bluetooth mode to fix problem speakers that played too quickly - like Taotronics. Use Settings->Bluetooth I/O->Bluetooth T2. This new mode will switch off the Wifi (which should be plugged into USB A) while music is playing to help with the problem.

Fixed a problem with the Web UI causing rename to get slower and slower at every attempt if you press enter instead of OK button.

24th June

Fixed handling of long playlist names - NB there is a 30 character limit. Fixed handling of large playlists. NB only first 1000 items displayed - inifinite scrolling to come. Added a delete backup utility to Maintenance menu to allow you to make a fresh backup without having to delete the old on on a PC. Fixed problems caused by trying to attach an NTFS drive to USB

8th June

Fixed a bug in web upload that affected 0.4% of files. Thanks to Pete F. for help in isolating this.

7th June

I have dramatically extended playlists and what you can do with them - more here.

10th May

I updated the Windows B2 Finder App to reflect the new Web UI home page.
(Update 2018 - the B2 Finder App is no longer available)

5th May

Now attaches to open wifi networks - just leave the password empty - or clear it if you have already tried a password. More space for album names - only matters if you have loaded more than 5,000 albums - yes there are B2 owners who have.

4th May

Bluetooth Output added. You can now play your B2 into Bluetooth speakers or headphones.

There are two new menu items

Settings->Bluetooth IO. This changes the direction of the Bluetooth. You only really need this to switch back to using Bluetooth as an input.
Settings->Scan Bluetooth. This puts Bluetooth into output mode and searches for Bluetooth speakers or headphones and lets you select one (pairing) for sending music to. You usually have to press a button on the Bluetooth device to make it discoverable. Once pairing is complete the B2 will remember the choice and try and connect again when it is turned on again.

In output mode the Bluetooth button on the B2 remote control can be used to tell B2 to reconnect to the speakers. You might need to press this if the speakers were turned off. On some manufacturers you need to press the Bluetooth button on the speakers then on the B2 remote after they have been turned off.

You can run scan again any time. It will remember your last choice.

Find the sequence that works for you and let me know. If you have any difficulty with a particular brand of speaker let me know and we'll try and fix it.

At the moment Bluetooth is either input or output - it is possible to do both at the same time - but its a bit confusing. But let me know if that's something you would use.

Martin

28th April

You can now drag an artist into playlists. This is the start of a comprehensive rethink and enlargement of what playlists can do. In the weeks ahead I will allow playlists to be combined, named and searched. Effectively allowing you to partition your music into subsets - that might reflect different moods, occasions or CDs belonging to different family members. Let me know what you'd like with the feedback form. Martin

25th April

Support for accented characters from online CD lookup. Capitalisation change of album names fixed. Resizing of Web UI panels to fill browser height. Old test.html page removed - and 4th April improvements re-instated.

11th April

I have restored the 23rd March version. It appears that 4th April version had problems in the web UI for some. Web upgrade will take you back from 4th April to 23rd March. The improvements to the Chrome extension are independent of the B2.

Update 15th April - it seems possible that some owners had bookmarked the test web page as it was called and that gave rise to the problem.

4th April

Significant rewrite of the chrome extension - now v0.50. The original - based on open source - stuttered on slower computers and/or busy networks. I have rewritten the core and it is far better. I anticipate a little more work at the B2 end to accomodate sample rate differences that can cause hiccups over a longer timeframe.

B2 now displays the title of the tab - so if you play Spotify for instance you see the track playing on B2.

Added a disk standby function to stop the hard disk in standby.

23rd March

Added Free Space to Maintenance Menu to force a recalculation of disk space. Allowed special characters like & in rename on web. Fixed problem with infinite scroll when window resized or tablet rotated. Fixed pitch shift and stuttering with Chrome extension on some PCs - you should upgrade the Chrome extension to latest v0.9.

18th March

Album to album now follows alphabetical ordering (if enabled) which means you can precede the album name with a sequence number like this

101 album x
102 album y
103 album z

and the play order will do what you want regardless of the order in which albums were loaded. Thanks to Tim for his help with this.

Fixed snippet of sound on changing source from radio to hard disk. Fixed playlist item delete - the trash can - on web UI - broken when rearranged for handset use.

17th March

Chrome Extension improvements. You need to upgrade your extension to version 0.6 as well as upgrade the B2. Was mono now stereo. Audio breakup on slower PCs fixed or much improved.

16th March

Artist delete added - on Artist Menu on front panel. Fixed add current track to playlist on long press mechanism (broken when radio presets added).

15th March

B2 now remembers the last track you were playing when you restart. Fixed a recently introduced problem in web UI track listing.

2nd March

Increased capacity to 9000 albums. Increased the Web Search results limit to infinite. Added play button for playlists (for touch devices with no drag and drop). Album art lookup made optional to speedup ripping.

29th February

The latest B2 software release allows you to play music from a Chrome web browser through your B2 using your home network.

You need to add this extension on the Google Web Store to your Chrome Browser. Then just click on the little letter "J" at the top right and the popup will let you direct whatever is playing to your B2.

What it means is you could listen to music from Spotify or Youtube or just a sample track on Amazon and redirect it to your B2 for great sound.

Its brand new so let me know what you think. I will probably extend the capabilities once I have used it for a bit. I have it in mind to send music to multiple B2s in other rooms but let me know what you would like.

Martin

25th February

Increased the number of search results from 100 to 500 on the Web UI. I will make this infinite when time permits. Many of you are using the Search window for general browsing as opposed to searching for specific items - so 100 wasn't nearly enough.

19th February

New Web UI. I've made the B2 home page responsive so the same page should work on desktop and smartphone browsers. I've added some more buttons to make things better for touch devices - I will be adding more functionality in the weeks ahead. Please let me know what works, what doesn't work and what you would like to see. If you want to use the old web UI - direct your browser to 192.168.0.2/old.html - using your IP address not mine.

18th February

USB import of Albums and Artists with accented characters partially fixed - they are now loaded though the accented characters are blanked. Removed duplicate Recordings folders on SD only B2s. Fixed return to HDD mode after Get Recordings.

17th February

Added Load bd2b from USB to Maintenance. Fixed problem saving playlists on SD models.

27th January

Swapped left and right on headphone/line out. Fixed a problem with renaming where only capitalisation is changed. Fixed problem adding album to playlist from Search.

26th January

Added 38,000 radio stations with new vTuner and radio presets panels on web UI - see the Internet Radio section at left. Fixed a problem adding albums to Playlists - thanks Ian.

20th January

Added support for accented characters on the Web UI. Fixed a side effect of yesterdays seamless work on Internet Radio.

19th January

Seamless track to track transition for WAV and FLAC files. When segue is turned off these now play EXACTLY as would a CD player - particularly important for opera, live performances and where one track continues into the next. I tested with Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. On the CD the first two tracks have 2,962,344 and 7,476,420 samples respectively. When played back either as WAV or FLAC with segue turned off The number of samples played back are 2,962,344 and 7,476,420 samples and the music is seamless and breathtaking.

FYI MP3 encodes in "frames" of 1152 samples and effectively pads the track to fill a whole number of frames. This results in a discontinuity for this kind of music. You don't hear the discontinuity if segue is on or if there is silence between the tracks. Thanks to Ricky for his help with this.

15th January

Added support for accented characters to be displayed on the OLED. Added a Repair HDD function in Maintenance - see Troubleshooting for instructions.

13th January

Streamlined the switch to and from Aux In - B2 now restarts automatically with the reduced USB speed for crackle free Aux In. Remember you still need to use Settings->Get Recordings when you switch back to HDD - to transfer any recordings from SD card to HDD. Also if Aux In is selected B2 will start in play mode - convenient if you are using B2 as an amp for your TV. The UI asks you to confirm when you switch - just press the source twice.

12th January

Removed illegal characters like '/' when you rename from front panel. This typically caused display to skip through renamed music. Thanks to Ian for helping me find this.

11th January

Added a brightness control for the OLED display. Settings->Brightness.

5th January

Added support for hidden Wifi networks. Use Settings->Hidden Wifi to set up SSID if your network name is not broadcast.

22nd December

Fixed problem with percentage signs in album rename on web UI.

9th December

Web upload music - now works with alphabetical sorting

8th December

Web UI - playlist item count updated when you delete or add to a playlist. Artist window now doesn't scroll back to top when you click on an item. Import from USB now ignores hidden files created by iTunes on Mac.

6th December

Alphabetical ordering made switchable. Use Settings->Sorting. Short Segue option added to Settings->Segue.

5th December

Headphone jack sense made switchable - defaults to disable amp when jack plugged into line out. Use Settings->Jack Sense to switch if you want to use line out at the same time as loudspeakers.

4th December

Alpha sorted the albums within an artist - in the Artist panel and on front panel. Fixed some side effects of alphabetic sorting.

3rd December

Changes to Recording from Aux In. Now records to SD card. Use function Settings->Get Recordings when you switch back to High Speed USB for normal listening. See the Q&A section for more background.

2nd December

Added alphabetic ordering of Artists and Album names

1st December

Fixed interference from LG TV remote control. Allowed longer to double press when selecting playlist by number.

30th November

Jack plug in Line Out no longer mutes speakers - so you can use line out to drive a second amplifier in parallel - for listening in another room for instance.

6th November

Added retry on web upload music function. Better display of long artist and album names - now displays up to 150 characters and scrolls faster if long.

5th November

Web Upgrade with Ethernet fixed. Web Upgrade now reboots automatically. Allow & in Artist name on Upload Music

4th November

Copy SD Music function fixed for previously blank SDs. CD Play order fixed - was stuck on random. Web UI volume slider now responds to main volume knob.

29th October

Added Format USB A function for hard disks with higher current consumption. Filtered illegal characters from web rename. Internet Radio channel pick now picks one of ten preset channels - use Find Station or web UI to search all stations then press and hold number key to assign a preset.

27th October

Fixed bug introduced on 13th - resets when rip album name select should display "Album nnn" if CD is not recognised or you want your own name.

13th October

Improvements to web music upload for big uploads & shows file count progress.

9th October

Minor bug fix - problems when two albums had the same name.

8th October

Added SD Card duplication and music transfer functions to Maintenance menu
(They were in a factory menu before).

6th October

Exciting new music upload facility added to Web UI - see the Youtube.

2nd October

Tightened up the rename functions so you cannot inadvertently rename an album to one that already exists - and overwrite it by mistake. Artist rename will however allow you to merge two sets of albums under different artists and will remove duplicate albums.

1st October

Fixed error in yesterday's release

30th September

Play buttons added to Web Interface search results so that iPad and Andoid tablet owners (and other touch based browsers) can at least play music.

NB Drag and drop is difficult on touch based browsers because they drag the whole web page around.

Further developments in this area to follow.

29th September

Album limit increased to 6,000
Database write to disk made a lot faster
Track number display during playback bug fixed

28th September

Instant Radio - press Back during standby and B2 plays last radio station.
Greater control over track ordering - edit track number on web or from front panel.
[A track number is now pre-pended to all tracks during Restore from JB7 backup].
Wifi MAC address displayed on info screen for static IP allocation on problem Wifi routers.

23rd September

Reduced delay on Aux In

22nd September

Fixed bug in offline album lookup - only recognised 60% of CDs
Added Find Station function to main menu - search and play the 750+ internet radio stations - similar to track search.
Added radio presets - press and hold a number key on the remote while radio is playing to assign the radio station to that key. Select radio and press a number key to play that station thereafter.

8th September

Added $ sign to characters - for network password etc.

7th September

Added facility to disable compression. Fixed problem with web rename track. NB You must wait until B2 has written its track names to disk after a change before removing power. Press and hold stop key on front panel to make sure.

2nd September

Added Graphical display and rudimentary CD Ripping control to Web UI.

i

27th August

Added 750+ UK Radio Stations. Find them through the Web UI initially. Drag to Now Playing panel to play that station.

13th August

Fixed problem with Internet Explorer drag and drop. Added simple volume control and experimental album art - to give you an idea where the Web UI is heading.

The new Web UI is intended for laptop/destop and larger tablet browsers and was tested mainly with Chrome so expect problems initially on other browsers.

I will tune the Web UI for mobile phones later.

11th August

Added an experimental new Web UI featuring

Instant search for Artists, Albums and Tracks
Drag and drop albums or tracks to build playlists.
Drag and drop into Now Playing to play.
Double click Artists, Albums and Tracks to rename.
Click on Artists and Albums to drill down.

Click on the New Ui button on the B2 web ui.

Let me know what you think - this will eventually become the main web ui.

28th July

Added two Artist rename functions.
One in the Album menu to rename the artist for that album.
Second in the Artist menu to globally rename an artist.

27th July

Fixed first track not random on Playlists when Random is on.
Fixed deleted album re-appearing after scan disk

24th July

Added time to end of track and track number.
Fixed rip bug introducd on 9th.
Fixed bug in Playlist next track.

9th July

Added USB keyboard support and timezone setting for international use.

Fixed a bug in Album Delete that caused tracks to be skipped - until Scan Disk was run.

3rd July

The latest software was released 3rd July - this has several minor bug fixes - including operation with legacy (WEP) Wifi routers and a problem with rename.

It also has a new Album List function in Settings->Maintenance and the web Find function now has links to an album page showing tracks for each album. Work on the web UI is ongoing.

Experimental

You can find very recent improvements in this file for USB upgrade (for B2B). Use this if you have been in communication with us or know about it from the forum. You can revert to the current released software by doing a normal web upgrade.
Experimental BB1 software here

Checking the software version

You can check which version software your B2 is currently running by pressing INFO on the remote control twice or clicking the COG tab on the web UI. You'll see either B2B xxxx or B2 xxxx (where xxxx is the date).

For the BB1, use the front control to navigate to the Settings & Tools menu and select Stats or click the COG tab on the web UI.

B2 vs B2B software

B2B version software offers the following enhancements over B2.

Bluetooth - improved pairing with Bluetooth devices.
Spotify - adds Librespot software to enable streaming Spotify (Premium account required) to the B2.
USB-Ethernet support - adds a USB driver for USB-Ethernet adaptors.
Record from Internet Radio function.
Support for the Apple Superdrive

BB1 is already running B2B version software.