Question Booksonic on Docker | Android client ?

[Telos]

I started using the Booksonic Docker from linuxserver.io, and was curious if we have experience w/Android clients. I know the developer has an app ($3 USD), but I was curious whether there are better alternatives. Anyone?

 

[fredbert]

Sorry, no.

I keep all my audiobooks (no DRM) on NAS shared folder, and accessible in Audio Station (though that doesn't support bookmarking). On iOS I just download them as needed using Files interface (to DS file or other app) from within ‎BookPlayer

I had to try lots of apps before finding one that wasn't tied to a library. Otherwise Audible's player can play non-DRM audiobook files it finds in the iOS Books app, can the Android version?

 

[fredbert]

VLC on Android supports chapters in M4B files (chapterised AAC/M4A/MP4) though not saving position within a chapter. I keep this on my work phone for the unlikely occasion that I won't have my iPhone with me and want to play a downloaded audiobook, or other media.

 

[Telos]

Audible's player can play non-DRM audiobook files it finds in the iOS Books app, can the Android version?

IDK. I was hoping to skip Audible.

I purchased the Booksonic Android app (cost me $1 w/Google promotion). Setting up the network connection was frustrating ... and I'm only looking at LAN for now. Finally got that to work, but the app is wonky. Several freezes, and too many "play" buttons, one of which seemingly takes me back to the beginning.

No clear download option... although I suspect "permanent cache" is that... in contrast to "cache" which I assume loses the "permanent" feature.

I tried bookmaking, but can't find my bookmarks.

Maybe Plex will do better, but I believe it is using my VLC installation.

 

[Rusty]

I can recommend Plex for any media consumption but I haven’t tested it with audio books.

 

[fredbert]

Plex with iOS app plays M4B (I create chapterised M4A in Mac app Fission and rename the extension) but doesn't seem to recognise chapter marks nor remember playback position. That's my very quick test.

Audible app needs an account to login to it, which I think any Amazon account will do (I have very old Audible accounts, pre-Amazon ownership). But you don't have to subscribe to their Listener programme if you just want to play your own files that it finds in the local Music/Books apps.

 

[Popeen]

Booksonic developer here,

Booksonic should be compatible with any app that uses the Subsonic API, you will however loose out on book specific features like descriptions etc so I wouldn't really recommend it.

There is a fork of the Booksonic app available on the Play Store as well that's called Audiosonic but it hasn't been updated since june 2018 and is missing some critical fixes for newer versions of android so expect it to be a bit crashy.

With that said on to the Booksonic app, I totally agree with you that it can be quite unintuitive for new users and my main focus at the moment is fixing that so reading posts like yours is super helpful. I released a new beta earlier today and some of the changes in ít was after reading your comments

I purchased the Booksonic Android app (cost me $1 w/Google promotion). Setting up the network connection was frustrating ... and I'm only looking at LAN for now

One of the things addressed in the beta I released a few days ago is a better login screen so would love to know what it was you found frustrating about the setup so I can try and make it even better before release.

Several freezes, and too many "play" buttons, one of which seemingly takes me back to the beginning.

The freezes are a bit odd, that shouldn't happen, if it happens for you again please send me a log file and I'll see what might be the problem. As for the play buttons. There is no play button that takes you back to the beginning but if you select a track it will start to play that track from the beginning even if there is a bookmark available for the track, this will be fixed. You are right that there are to many play buttons and that they can be confusing, the new beta should make this a whole lot simpler.

No clear download option... although I suspect "permanent cache" is that... in contrast to "cache" which I assume loses the "permanent" feature.

Correct however in the new beta cache has been renamed to download and there is only one type (the none permanent one)
The way it worked before is that there was two types of cache, cache and permanent cache. In your settings menu you can set how much space the app is allowed to use for storing books. Then when you cache books it will fill up that space and when it reaches the set limit it will start to remove the oldest files to make room for new ones. Files that where permanently cached would never be automatically deleted this way.

I tried bookmaking, but can't find my bookmarks.

Your bookmarks are available in the drawer (left menu) but you need to enable that in the drawer menu under settings. In the new beta this has been changed so it is enabled by default.

 

[Telos]

Your bookmarks are available in the drawer (left menu) but you need to enable that in the drawer menu under settings. In the new beta this has been changed so it is enabled by default.

I installed the beta copy. The interface is much improved, though the extra play buttons are still present throughout. For example...

FWIW, the pulldown controls in dark mode (I am using Android 10) has a minor visibility issue.

The stability issues I had now seem related to a specific mp3. It exhibited a number of issues:

• It would not retain or update bookmarks
• When holding the forward button, it would advance from 1 minute to about 5 minutes, only to return to 1 minute and continue that cycle.
• When I tried to move the play point ahead, it would snap back to the beginning

I've reencoded/uploaded that book and will try again (preliminary tests with an alternate book were quite good).

I don't believe you can advance by chapter with mp3... is that correct...as I don't see a chapter list.

Thank you for your response. I'll post later on server setup with the android app, but I believe I have that settled.

 

[Popeen]

I installed the beta copy. The interface is much improved, though the extra play buttons are still present throughout. For example...

Hmm, the top right one should be removed, good catch. The play icon on the cover is for starting to play that book (if a bookmark is present it will start from that) while the play button at the bottom is for what you are currently listening to. That said I have some other ideas I am experimenting with and the big play button on the cover will probably end up being removed as well in a later beta.

FWIW, the pulldown controls in dark mode (I am using Android 10) has a minor visibility issue.

Good catch, I'll look in to this.

The stability issues I had now seem related to a specific mp3. It exhibited a number of issues:

• It would not retain or update bookmarks
• When holding the forward button, it would advance from 1 minute to about 5 minutes, only to return to 1 minute and continue that cycle.
• When I tried to move the play point ahead, it would snap back to the beginning

I've reencoded/uploaded that book and will try again (preliminary tests with an alternate book were quite good).

That's really interesting. If you have any files left that has this issue, would you mind sending me a sample file at [email protected] and I'll see if I can find a fix for it.

I don't believe you can advance by chapter with mp3... is that correct...as I don't see a chapter list.

Correct, mp3 doesn't have this. Personally I usually just split the file at 15 minutes intervals but I know a lot of people like to split every chapter into their own file.

 

[Telos]

Some questions about the Android server setup... let's start with the input screen...

What is the reason for the Local network address and SSID? I'm guessing it restricts the app's wifi connection to a specific network ? instead of accessing the server (domain) address when connected to wifi. Is that correct?

If so that might explain a bookmarking issue I had. Recently I was listening to an audiobook while on "data", and periodically updating the bookmark. When I arrived at a location offering wifi, I connected to the wifi AP, and continuted listening (the book had previously been downladed). When I attenpted to update the bookmark, I got several "bookmark failed" notifications. Curiously, I turned off wifi, leaving my device with a "data" connection, and bookmarking worked as expected. Is this a normal result? If so, why?

 

[Popeen]

No not really, what it does is when it detects that you are on that network it will use the local address instead so you don't have to go over the internet when you are on the same network. If you connect to another wi-fi network it will use the regular server address.

It is worth mentioning thou that a while ago Android started treating wi-fi information as location data so for this feature to work you need to give booksonic location permission. At the moment the app will never ask for that permission (coming in future update) so for now you will need to do that manually from your phones settings menu. If this has not been done the app will always use the regular server address.

You will indeed get a bookmark failed message if you are not able to connect to the server so it sounds like for some reason you were not able to do that from the wi-fi network. If this is a place you visit often try creating a bookmark next time you are there and when it fails send me a log file and I'll see if I can see what the problem is.

 

[Telos]

That's helpful. After several days of heavy use, I'm largely satisfied with this app.

One thing I would like to see is that the bookmarks would be permanently cached on the local device. If I lose data connection or am in a situation requiring airplane mode, bookmarks are unavailable, nor can I store bookmarks.

 

[one-eyed-king]

I can recommend Plex for any media consumption but I haven’t tested it with audio books.

Audio books are the only kind of media not beeing supported good:
- current track of an album is not stored
- current position in the track is not stored
- i am not even sure if books are supported

Basicly a nightmare, if you consider that audio books easily can have more than 100 individual files with almost identical names. Impossible to pickup your audio book where you left it.

For every other media type: fully agree with Rusty!

 

[Rusty]

Audio books are the only kind of media not beeing supported good:
- current track of an album is not stored
- current position in the track is not stored
- i am not even sure if books are supported

Basicly a nightmare, if you consider that audio books easily can have more than 100 individual files with almost identical names. Impossible to pickup your audio book where you left it.

For every other media type: fully agree with Rusty!

Figured as much. Guess Plex team would broadcast it by now if something like that is possible.

 

[one-eyed-king]

indeed

 

[fredbert]

Playing with Plex t'other day and noticed that there's an advanced Music library setting "Store track progress". I have an Audiobooks library and had this selected before when testing and it didn't seem to remember position on the Plex iOS app.

Have now retested, scrubbing a book forward a bit, and the current position does get remembered. Playing another book and coming back to the first will offer the saved position.

All my audiobooks are chapterised AAC, mostly single files (<20hrs) or otherwise two or three parts (depending on book length).

 

[one-eyed-king]

Amazing news. How could I miss this feature?! (One explenation might be that those libraries exist with the same settings since ages.)

Maybe my experience is limited to the old Samsung for Smarthub client. Will definitly give it a retry
Thanks @fredbert!

 

[Telos]

Playing with Plex t'other day and noticed that there's an advanced Music library setting "Store track progress".

Created a new "Audiobooks" library. I'll check this out.

The first thing I noticed is that stored track progress is synced across all devices.

 

[fredbert]

I have Plex Pass so that I can manage my family users. I haven't checked but I'd expect that play position is per managed user too, and each user has position across devices.

 

[one-eyed-king]

Damit, I already gave up on audiobooks with Plex because I came to the conclusion that playback position are not remembered ... and now it becomes clear that my client have been the problem all along.

The Plex for Samsung Smarthub client neither stores the playback position, nor picks up the playback position stored by another client - heck, it does not even provide "on deck" for audio libraries. When it commes to audiobooks, the experience with the Android client (7.24.0.13560 used on ATV) is not any different (though when it commes to video playback: compared to the Smarthub client there is micro stuttering, the colors are less powerfull ,the number of supported codecs is restricted and there is no support for 3D MVC Videos, though 3D HSBS can be enabled manualy on the TV )

So far PlexWeb is the only client I use that can actualy remembers the playback position

Are other users of the Android client experiencing the same?