Peerless Player User Guide

1.1 First Things First

1. On the menu bar click on File and then Settings. This will take you to the Settings page where you can customise the app.
2. Under the Select Music Directory option, click on the Browse button and select the directory where your music is stored.
3. When you have finished adjusting the settings, see point 8 below for more details, click on the Save button at the top of the screen.
4. Please note that the app can only read music files from one directory. It is therefore recommended to keep all your downloaded music in one directory. This will aid syncing your music directory to external storage for your phone, car or yacht.
5. Once you have set your music directory, follow point 5 below to start adding your music to the database.

2.1 Finding Music

1. The main navigation menu for Peerless Player is along the top of the screen.
2. From the Home page you will see your recently added, recently played and most played albums. These selections can be expanded by clicking the button.
3. From the Artists page, click on an artist to display all albums by that artist. There is an A - Z menu at the top of the page to scroll quickly to your desired artist.
4. From the Albums page, click on an album to display the album and all the artists other albums. There is an A - Z menu at the top of the page to scroll quickly to your desired album.
5. From the Genre page, click on your desired Genre and all albums in that genre will be displayed. There is an A - Z menu at the top of the page to scroll quickly to your desired album.
6. From the Years page, click on your desired year and all albums released in that year will be displayed.
7. From the Songs page click on your desired song to highlight it an click on the Play button to play. There is an A - Z menu at the top of the page to scroll quickly to your desired song or an input box to filter the table to a desired filter term.
8. In the Search box type in your search query and click on the search button. Peerless Player will search through the database for all Artists, Albums and Songs matching your search criteria.
9. View all artist's songs by clicking the number of songs link on the artist's album page above the biography button.

2.2 Playing Music

1. The main controls for playing music are at the top left corner of the screen.
2. To play a track either double click on the track or click on the track to highlight it and click on the play button. Alternatively, select an album and click the play button. The album will start playing from track 1.
3. Skip to previous track Play/Stop track Pause track Skip to next track Shuffle tracks Mute player
4. While playing music you can use the rewind and fast forward buttons under the progress bar to skip through a track.
5. To seek to a certain point in a track, click on the progress bar displayed under the Now Playing album artwork.
6. All main controls and their associated keyboard shortcuts can be found in the main menu under Player.

3.1 Shuffle Music

1. To shuffle songs from the entire music library, from the Artists, Albums, Genres or Years page, click on the shuffle button.
2. To shuffle songs for either an artist, genre or year, select your desired artist, genre or year from the main menu and click on the shuffle button.
3. To shuffle a particular album, select the desired album and click on the shuffle button.
4. To shuffle a particular playlist, select the desired playlist from the Playlists page and click on the shuffle button.

3.2 Create Mood Music

1. From the Function menu on the left of the screen, click on the button next to Creat Mood Music to display the mood music drop down box. Select your desired mood and click on the Play button.
2. Peerless Player will create a random mix of all music by that mood in the music library.

3.3 Explore Sub Genres

1. From the Function menu on the left of the screen, click on the button next to Explore Sub Genres to display the genre music drop down box. Select your desired genre and click on the Show button.
2. Peerless Player will display all albums in the music library for that genre.

3.4 Queue Track

1. While playing music you can create an on the go playlist by using the Queue button in the Player Functions on the left of the screen.
2. Highlight the track you wish to queue to play after the current track and click on the Queue button.
3. The first track you queue will delete any current tracks queued to play.
4. You can keep adding tracks to the queue to create an on the go playlist.
5. To clear music queued up to play click on the Clear button in the Player Functions.
6. The player will stop playing muisic when the current track finishes playing.

3.5 Queue Album

1. To queue an album to play when the current queued music has finished playing, from the Display Album page click on the Queue button.
2. This function can also be used to quickly create a playlist of a number of selected albums.
3. Clear any queued music first by clicking on the Clear button in the Player Functions.
4. View the Queued playlist by clicking on Playlists on the main menu and click on the Q playlist.

3.6 Favourites

1. To tag a song as a favourite, from the track display click on the black heart image which will change the heart image to
2. Click again to deselect the track as a favourite.

3.7 View Album Artwork

1. To view a large image of the album artwork, click on the artwork image while displaying the album details.
2. If a back cover image is available, click on the large image displayed..
3. Click either the close X button or click anywhere outside the image.

4.1 View Playlists

1. To view your playlists, on the main navigation menu at the top of the screen, click on Playlists. This will display all your playlists in alphabetical order.
2. Peerless Player will automatically create playlists for all your favourites, your 50 new tracks, your Top 30 played songs and a Recommended playlist.
3. Click on the desired playlist to display it.

4.2 Create a Playlist

1. From the Function menu on the left of the screen, click on the button next to Player Functions. Click on the New button to open the Create a New Playlist function.
   
2. In the Playlist Name input box, type in a name for your playlist.
3. To add a song to the playlist, click on a track to highlight it and click on the Add button to add the track to the playlist. The song will appear at the end of the list in the playlist scroll box.
4. To remove a song from the playlist, highlight the song in the playlist scroll box and click on the Delete button to remove the song from the playlist.
5. To move a song up in the play order of the playlist, highlight the song in the playlist scroll box and click on the Up button to move the song one position up in the playlist order.
6. To move a song down in the play order of the playlist, highlight the song in the playlist scroll box and click on the Down button to move the song one position down in the playlist order.
7. To save the playlist to the database, click on the Save button, or to close without saving click on the Close button.

4.3 Edit a Playlist

1. To edit a playlist, click on the desired playlist to display it and click on the Edit button next to the playlist. This will display the Edit playlist function.
2. To add a song to the playlist, click on a track to highlight it and click on the Add button to add the track to the playlist. The song will appear at the end of the list in the playlist scroll box.
3. To remove a song from the playlist, highlight the song in the playlist scroll box and click on the Delete button to remove the song from the playlist.
4. To move a song up in the play order of the playlist, highlight the song in the playlist scroll box and click on the Up button to move the song one position up in the playlist order.
5. To move a song down in the play order of the playlist, highlight the song in the playlist scroll box and click on the Down button to move the song one position down in the playlist order.
6. To save the updated playlist to the database, click on the Save button, or to close without saving changes, click on the Close button.

4.4 Export a Playlist

1. A playlist can be exported as an .m3u file in the directory format /music/artist/album/track.
2. Display the desired playlist and click on the Export button.
3. THe playlist file will be saved in a playlists folder in your selected root music directory.
4. When syncing an external directory you will see an option to sync your exported playlists.

4.5 View Exported Playlists

1. From the Playlists menu click on View Exported Playlists.
2. The View Exported Playlists page is displayed, showing your exported playlists in your music directory.
3. To delete an exported playlist you can either select the checkbox on the title bar next to Playlist Name to select all playlists or click each individual checkbox for each playlist you want to delete.
4. Click on the Delete button to delete the selected exported playlists from your music directory.
5. Please note this function will not delete the playlist from the database, only the exported .m3u file in your music directory.

4.6 Delete a Playlist

1. To delete a playlist, first select the desired playlist to be deleted and click on the Delete button.
2. You will be then prompted to confirm if you want to permanently delete this playlist.
3. Please note this will not delete the exported playlist file from your music directory if you previously exported it.

4.7 Smart Playlist

1. Peerless Player can create a Smart Playlist of 20 songs based on a seed track.
2. Select a song you wish to base a playlist on and in the Player Functions on the left of the screen, click on the Smart button.
3. Peerless Player will display the Smart Playlist. Either select a track and click on the play button or the shuffle button to play the playlist.

5.1 How to Add Music

1. Add a ripped CD or music download to your Music directory with music files in .mp3 .m4a .flac or (.wav not recommended) format. If the artist is new to your music collection, add the artist folder containing the album folder or if the artist already exists, add the album folder to the existing artist folder in your music directory.
2. To get the metadata from the Musicbrainz and Spotify server, the app sends a query using the directory name for the artist and album folder. If these names are incorrect it is likely that no metadata will be found on the Musicbrainz or Spotify server.
3. The track names for the album are taken from the individual audio file names. If these file names are incorrect you will have incorrect track names in your database.
4. Under the Music Library click on the Add New Music button or on the menu bar click on File - Add New Music to Database.
5. The Add New Music to Database page displays a list of all the music found in your Music directory, which has not yet been added to the database.
6. Select from the radio buttons whether you are importing an album or a single. This helps in finding the correct metadata on the servers. From the list of albums found, select the album which you want to add to the database and click on the Import button.
7. The album details, artwork and meta data for each track is displayed. Text boxes greyed out can not be edited. Required fields are Artist Name, Album Name, Release Date and Genre.
8. A summary of the meta data results found is displayed in the Metadata Results.
9. Selecting Genre. A list of Genres Found is displayed in the Metadata Results. Select a Genre from the drop down selection box. Optional: Select a Genre 2 from the dropdown box or type in a genre. Optional: Select a Genre 3 from the dropdown box or type in a genre. These will automatically update for each track.
10. The more accurate and consistent the metadata is for the album, the better the various algorithms will work.
11. If all the metadata looks correct click on the Import button.
12. The selected album will now be added to the database and you will see it in the Home page under your Recently Added Albums.

6.1 How to Edit Music

1. To edit an album in the database, display the album and click on the Edit button next to the album artwork.
2. This will display the Edit Music Database page, displaying a form with all the metadata stored in the database for the selected album.
3. Any of the fields in the form can be amended manually, except the ones highlighted in grey (exception for filenames, see the warning notice on the form).
4. Click on the Get button to update the track and album metadata. Click on the Artwork button to update the album artwork and search for back cover artwork.
5. You can also manually add album artwork, by clicking on the album image and browsing to an image file and then clicking the Select File button. It is recommended that images are a minimum of 450 pixels square.
6. A summary of the meta data results found is displayed in the Metadata Results.
7. To save any changes to the database click on the Save button or click on the Cancel button to cancel any changes made and return to the Home page.

7.1 How to Delete Music

1. To delete an album from the database, display the album and click on the Edit button next to the album artwork.
2. This will display the Edit Music Database page, displaying a form with all the metadata stored in the database for the selected album.
3. Next to the album artwork click on the Delete button to delete the album.
4. A confirmation pop up box will display asking you to confirm if you want to delete the album.
5. Click on the OK button to confirm the deletion.
6. The album will be removed from the database and if the artist has no other albums in the database, the artist will be deleted too.

8.1 Personalise Your Player

1. From the File menu, click on Settings, to display the App Settings page. From here you can change the below settings.
2. App Name
3. Music Directory
4. Album art size
5. Album art shape
6. App colour scheme
7. Zoom level of Peerless Player
8. Turn on/off track notifications

9.1 Sync Your Music

1. Insert your SD card/USB drive and from the File menu or Player Functions click on Sync External Directory.
2. From the browse window select the folder on the SD card which has your external music directory you wish to sync and click on Select Folder button.
3. The Sync Directory page is displayed showing a list of albums which are in your database and not on the SD card.
4. You can either select the checkbox on the title bar next to Artist to select all albums or click each individual checkbox for each album you want to sync to the SD card.
5. Click on the Sync button to sync all selected albums to the SD card.
6. WARNING: It may take some time to write all the files to the SD card if you have selected a lot of albums.
7. Once you have clicked on the Sync button, the App will return to the Home page. The sync process will complete once the cover art appears on the home page.

10.1 Artist Biography

1. An artists biography can be displayed from the artist's album page.
2. To display an artist's biography click on the Biography button.
3. A summary of the artists biography is displayed together with an image of the artist, if found, which can be clicked on to enlarge. To read more, click on the down arrow at the end of the text to display the complete biography text.
4. A list of links to the artist's social media pages and other music sites is displayed at the bottom of the page.

10.2 Artist Discography

1. An artists discography can be displayed from the artists album page.
2. To display an artist's discography click on the Discography button.
3. The list is limited to 100 albums, with studio released albums at the top of the list but does not include EP and Single releases.
4. A new album which has not yet been released will be highlighted in the table.
5. Click on an album name to open samples from Napster for studio albums or a Google search for the album in your default browser.

10.3 Artist Recommendations

Music recommendations can be listened to in full on the Spotify web player with a free Spotify account by clicking through on the displayed album.

1. Recommendations based on an artist can be displayed from the artists album page.
2. To display artist recommendations, click on the Recommends button.
3. A list of up to 12 recommended albums is displayed.
4. Click on an album/single to open the album/single in Spotify web player in your default browser.

10.4 Artist Links

1. At the bottom of both the artist's biography and discography page are links to the artist's social media accounts and other music sites.
2. Click on a link and it will open the webpage in your default browser.

10.5 Album Information

1. To find out more information about an album, from the display album page, click on the Info button.
2. A summary with background and critical reviews of the album is displayed.

10.6 New Music Releases

New Music Releases can be listened to in full on the Spotify web player with a free Spotify account by clicking through on the displayed album.

1. To see the latest popular new music releases, from the Player menu or Player Functions, click on the Show New releases button.
2. A list of the latest popular albums and singles to be released is displayed. This can be filtered using the radio buttons to show albums or singles and your artists or new artists.
3. Click on an album/single to open the album/single in Spotify web player in your default browser.

11.1 General Information

1. For information about Peerless-Pi-Player and how to build and install, please refer to this page on the Peerless Player website: Peerless-Pi-Player
2. All actions to control the Pi-Player can be found on the top menu bar and selected from the drop down box, so there is no need to access the Raspberry Pi directly.

11.2 Menu Options

1. Pi-Player Settings. Update your Raspberry Pi credentials; IP address on your network, user name and password.
2. Open Pi-Player. Click to open the Pi-Player in a full screen Chromium browser on your remote screen.
3. Re-Send Track data. Click if you need to resend data from Peerless player to the Pi-Player. For example if you open Pi-Player while a song is playing, it will not update until the next song is played.
4. Check Network Connection. Click to check your network connection to your Raspberry Pi. Any error messages while trying to coneect will be displayed for your information.
5. Close Pi-Player. Click to close the Pi-Player.
6. Reboot Raspberry-Pi. Click if for any reason you need to reboot the Raspberry Pi.
7. Shutdown Raspberry-Pi. Click to shutdown the Raspberry Pi when you have finished playing music.