AmiPlexAmp is a native MUI 3.8 client for Plex Media Server, letting
you browse and play your audio library straight from an AmigaOS 3
machine. It connects to a Plex server on your local network, decodes
MP3 streams on the Amiga side with mpega.library and FLAC streams
with dr_flac, and outputs through either AHI or directly through the
SAGA HQ audio channel on Apollo Vampire V4.
AmiPlexAmp runs as an unrestricted 5-minute demo session out of the
box. Registered users (see Registration below) drop an
amiplexamp.key file into PROGDIR: or S: to unlock unrestricted use.
Features
- Plex authentication via the plex.tv/link PIN flow (no password
ever typed into AmigaOS). The auth token is persisted in
PROGDIR:AmiPlexAmp.config so you only do this once.
- Automatic discovery of your Plex server on the local network.
- Hierarchical library browsing: alphabetical filter -> artists ->
albums -> tracks. Cover art is fetched and displayed via datatypes
on AGA and via cybergraphics.library WritePixelArray for clean
24-bit rendering on RTG.
- Library search via the Plex /hubs/search API: type a query in the
search bar above the lists, hit Enter or Go, and the artists,
albums and tracks columns populate with the matching results from
across the entire library. Album and track entries show their
parent artist/album in search mode for context. Clear returns to
the normal alphabetical browse.
- Native MP3 and FLAC playback. MP3 sources are decoded with
mpega.library; FLAC sources are decoded with dr_flac (single-
header public-domain library by David Reid) and DirectStream'd
from Plex untouched for bit-perfect lossless playback. Format is
auto-detected from the track's source codec, with an optional
"Force MP3" toggle in the Settings menu if you want to fall back
to the MP3 transcoder for FLAC sources (e.g. to save bandwidth).
- Progressive streaming for both MP3 and FLAC: playback starts as
soon as ~200 KB are buffered, while the rest of the track keeps
downloading in the background. Lossless FLAC streams progressively
without waiting for the full file.
- Library cache: artists / albums / tracks lists are saved to
PROGDIR:AmiPlexAmp.cache and reloaded on subsequent launches.
- Window state persistence: position, size and compact/full mode
are remembered between sessions.
- Album queue with auto-advance to the next track.
- Pause / resume, live volume slider, previous / next track,
progress bar with elapsed / total time.
- Compact and full UI modes: hide the library browser to keep just
the now-playing transport visible. Width is restored when the
browser is shown again.
- Two audio backends, selectable from the Settings menu (see below).
- Status line showing the current state (connecting, decoding,
streaming, etc.).
- International character handling: accented latin-1 characters
(German, French, Spanish, Italian) are rendered natively. Latin
Extended-A characters (Polish, Czech, French oe ligature etc.)
are transliterated to their closest ASCII look-alike when the
system font lacks the glyph, so polish artists show as e.g.
"Ania Dabrowska" rather than "Ania D?browska".
Audio backends
The "AHI" backend (default) uses ahi.device CMD_WRITE with ahir_Link
chaining, which gives gapless double-buffering through the standard
AHI mixer. A dedicated producer task decodes audio frames asynchronously
into a queue while the decoder process consumes them and submits the
IORequest pair to ahi.device. Output quality depends on the AHI mode
configured in Prefs/AHI.
The "Arne" backend targets the SAGA HQ output channel of the Apollo
Vampire V4. SAGA HQ is a V4-only feature; Vampire V2 does not have
it and must use the AHI backend like classic Amigas. Arne writes
directly to the SAGA HQ channel 3 registers ($DFF430...) for 16-bit
stereo, with a double-buffer ping-pong pattern driven by the AUD3
hardware interrupt vector. SAGA HQ channels 0-3 share the standard
AUD0-3 IRQ vectors with classic Paula for backward-compat signaling,
which lets the decoder process sleep on a Signal until the chip
flips buffers -- no polling, sample-accurate. Decoding is synchronous
in this path: the codec is called between buffer flips inside the
decoder process. The result is the same pristine 16-bit DMA you get
from native SAGA tools like VaMP3, with no mixer in the path.
To switch backend, pick "AHI" or "Arne" from the Settings menu. The
choice is saved to PROGDIR:AmiPlexAmp.config and takes effect at the
next launch of AmiPlexAmp -- the backend is not hot-swappable
mid-session.
Settings
The Settings menu exposes options persisted to
PROGDIR:AmiPlexAmp.config across sessions:
Playback mode -- Stream (default) or Download.
Stream: playback starts as soon as the prebuffer is filled
(~200 KB, ~5 seconds at typical MP3 rates); the rest of the
track keeps downloading in the background. Time-to-first-sound
is just a couple of seconds, for MP3 and FLAC alike.
Download: AmiPlexAmp fetches the full file to a temporary file
before starting playback. More robust on slow connections, but
latency to first sound is the time it takes to download the
whole track.
Audio output -- AHI (default) or Arne (Vampire V4 only).
Force MP3 -- when enabled, FLAC tracks are also routed through
the MP3 transcoder. Saves bandwidth, sacrifices quality. Off
by default.
Minimize GUI on play -- collapses the window to its compact form
when playback starts, restores it on stop. Off by default.
Library cache -- enabled by default. The artist / album / track
lists are saved to PROGDIR:AmiPlexAmp.cache after the first
successful fetch and reloaded on subsequent launches. A
1000-artist library that takes 20 seconds to fetch loads in
under a second from cache. Cleared by "Deauthorize server"
from the Project menu. Use "Refresh" from the same menu to
force a re-fetch if your library has changed.
The configuration file is plain key=value text in PROGDIR: which you
can inspect, edit or delete by hand. AmiPlexAmp creates it on first
run; if it's missing, defaults apply.
Recommended hardware
68030 minimum (MP3 may stutter, FLAC requires more), 68040 or 68060
comfortable, Apollo Vampire (68080) excellent. 8 MB Fast RAM minimum.
RTG screen for the best cover art experience (any colour depth >=
16-bit). On Vampire V4 the Arne backend is recommended for the
cleanest audio path (V4 only; Vampire V2 uses AHI like classic
machines).
Installation
Unpack the archive anywhere on your system, then run AmiPlexAmp from
its drawer. On first launch you are prompted to authenticate via
plex.tv/link -- the app gives you a 4-character code and a URL, you
visit the URL on any browser (phone, PC, whatever), enter the code,
and the auth token is captured automatically. No further interaction
needed for subsequent sessions.
If you have multiple Plex servers reachable from your network, the
first one found is used. Future versions may add a server picker.
Important: your system clock must be set correctly. AmiPlexAmp
connects to plex.tv over HTTPS, which validates the server's SSL
certificate against the current date. If your RTC battery is dead or
the clock has never been set, validation fails and the app shows a
"Clock not set" requester at startup. Use Prefs/Time to set the
correct date and time, then restart AmiPlexAmp. This is not specific
to AmiPlexAmp -- any HTTPS client on Amiga has the same requirement.
Registration
Out of the box AmiPlexAmp runs as a 5-minute demo: a requester pops
up at the end of the session and the application exits cleanly. The
window title shows "(unregistered)" so you always know the state.
To remove the time limit, become a supporter of the Apollo Vampire
community at:
https://apollo-vampire-lair.com
Supporters receive an amiplexamp.key file. Drop it into PROGDIR:
(alongside the AmiPlexAmp executable) or into S:; both work and
PROGDIR: takes precedence. On the next launch the title bar loses
the "(unregistered)" tag, the About box shows the registered name,
and the 5-minute timer is off.
Known limitations
- No seeking inside a track. Play, pause, next, previous only.
- Single-thread HTTP. While a track is downloading, only Prev,
Next, Stop and Quit are responsive; everything else applies
once the download is done.
- No iconify yet.
- Single Plex server: the first reachable one is selected.
- Polish / Czech / Eastern European characters are transliterated
to ASCII rather than rendered as their actual glyph, because
ISO-8859-1 (the AmigaOS classic codeset) doesn't include those
code points.
Credits
- Plex Media Server team for the well-documented HTTP API.
- mpega.library by Stephane Tavenard for native MP3 decoding.
- dr_flac by David Reid for single-header public-domain FLAC
decoding (github.com/mackron/dr_libs).
- AmiSSL by Jens Maus and contributors for TLS.
- MUI by Stefan Stuntz for the GUI framework.
- Apollo Team for the SAGA HQ documentation and the Vampire boards.
License
AmiPlexAmp is closed-source freeware. The binary distribution is
free to download, install and evaluate via a built-in 5-minute demo
session. Unrestricted use is unlocked via a license key file
available to supporters of the Apollo Vampire community at
https://apollo-vampire-lair.com (see Registration above).
Redistribution of the unmodified archive itself is permitted and
encouraged. Redistribution of license key files is not.
AmiPlexAmp links against or bundles mpega.library, dr_flac, AmiSSL
and MUI - each retaining its own license.
Contact
Bug reports and feedback:
Renaud Schweingruber <renaud.schweingruber@protonmail.com>
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