Headphones
For movies there is CouchPotato, for TV there is Sickbeard, I have searched for something for music for ages, but now… There is HEADPHONES.
UPDATE: Rembo10 has been doing a lot of updates to Headphones, and it’s coming out great, he has added updating features as well as improving the performance of the app, definitely time to check this one out!
Headphones is completely based on Python, much the same as CouchPotato and will run in similar fashion.
Requirements:
Start here with getting a Usenet Provider. Once you have that, all you need is a suitable PC/Mac to install the app! Proceed!
Headphones Installation
Windows Users :
- Make sure you have Python installed before continuing.
- Download Headphones from github
- Extract the rar
- Double click Headphones.py
- This will launch a browser window with the headphones GUI
- You might want to right click on Headphones.py and create a shortcut and drag that into your startup folder so it auto starts when you restart (C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup)
Mac Users (OSX 10.6 already have Python, if on 10.5 must download and install Python. If you are on 10.7 check out this post on upgrading HTPC to lion):
- Download Headphones from github
- Extract the rar
- Open a new terminal window (terminal is located in /Applications/Utilities)
- Type “cd” and drag the Headphones directory into your terminal window.
- Type “python headphones.py”
- A browser window will open with the Headphones GUI
- You may want to create an automator action to start Headphones at user login, to do so create a new automator action with the following text and drag that to your startup items within your System Preferences -> User pane
do shell script “python /Location-of-Headphones/headphones.py -d”
(Pro tip – If you have been following our guides, you can add this extra line into the Sickbeard startup script to start both at the same time)
Configuration
As mentioned earlier, this is still in early beta, but it is definitely functional. With that in mind, lets check out the Settings tab.
Web Interface
HTTP Host : localhost or 0.0.0.0
HTTP Port : 8181 is fine unless you already have something running on this port
HTTP Username/Password : These can be left blank unless you need to secure your Web UI
Download Settings
SABnzbd Host : Assuming SAB is running on your current machine, 0.0.0.0:8080
SABnzbd Username/Password : Enter your SAB username and password
SABnzbd API key : Get this from your SAB general tab
SABnzbd Category : music (unless you specified something totally different for your music category)
Music Download Directory : As of right now, this is not functional. Just specify in SAB where you want your music to go and you will be fine. Will update this guide as the app progresses.
Usenet Retention : Enter your Usenet providers retention here (If you still need a provider check out UsenetServer, they are my personal favorite. Great retention and amazing availability. Also check out our article on Usenet)
Search Providers
Select whatever search provider you currently subscribe and enter the necessary information. If following my guides you probably already subscribe to NZBMatrix.com as I highly recommend it, so check the appropriate box and enter the required fields.
Quality and Post Processing
Most of these aren’t fully functional yet, but please feel free to experiment and get back to the developer with any feedback you have.
One really cool thing I did find however, was that iTunes users can import their iTunes database and have it index all your artists and give you the option to download their albums without manually adding each artist. Unfortunately, this is not a media manager so it will not detect what albums you currently have (at least at the time of this posting).
To import your iTunes database
Now, Headphones is updated to a “magical” music detection system and all you have to do is specify the folder where your current media resides, and Headphones will do the rest!
Resources for Headphones:
I will do my best to answer any questions and help anyone, but a great place to post would be at their Github or on the SAB forums to get involved and help the developer grow this into a monster like Sickbeard. So far it seems pretty good.
Nice Content, good work! I have bookmarked for future reference!
Thanks Maddy, we appreciate it!
Hey thx for the guide. I have a question using the prog in windows
which programm do you use to open headphone.py? Cant open it in firefox or other browers. i´ve downloaded python but it just opened the file in a text editor.
Make sure you have python installed correctly, direct link here http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.2/python-2.7.2.msi after that is installed, when you double click headphones.py it will open a command window and then your default browser should open up with the Headphones GUI. Let me know if you still have problems after this.
Fantastic write-up, stick with it!
Nice app
I wonder if the dev is aware of the project?
An app combining the best of Headphones & Audio-Matic would be amazing
I believe he is, stay tuned for an audio-matic guide on the way too.
I think a Forum would be sweet also Emulator setup maybe for XBMC?
Thanks Brandon, we are actually working on a forum which is not yet ready to deploy. Also, we have a post coming out about emulation setup as well! Stay tuned
Hey Brandon, check http://www.Totalhtpc.com/forum/ we are up and running!
Using default port 8081 the same as sickbeard is a bit annoying, you are the new kid in town, would 8082 kill you?
Default port for Headphones is 8181, not 8081 hehe.
Is there a way to get this to work using a blackhole like sickbeard
This setup guide does show you how to setup headphones to interact with SAB, let me know if you need further help. 🙂
Hi
Seems Transmission is already using 8181 on my ReadyNAS. In Headphones, I changed the HTTP portion to 8182, but typing : 8181 into a browser still brings up Headphones, and thus continues to block Transmission.
Is there another location where I should change the port?
Thanks for your time.
Silly question but, did you restart Headphones? Also, how are you starting headphones? Via a script or terminal command? Make sure the command you are running isn’t specifying to start it on 8181. If neither of those are successful, check in the directory of your headphones for config.ini and manually edit that to be something else and restart headphones once again.
Thanks for that. I did manage to find the config file, but changing that didn’t make a difference. After poking around, seems the culprit is some startup script that was added by the package creator (that is, the package for the ReadyNAS), so i’ll try my luck at getting Transmission on another port.
Anyway, Headphones is up and running. I like the interface and it shows a lot of promise. One feature I look forward to is some kind of auto format converter (e.g., from flac to m4a).
Will torrent support be added, as Couch Potato has?
Not sure! If I had to guess, probably not due to the public availability of music torrents is far less than usenet. Since for older, more obscure music you really need to be on a private tracker. But anything is possible I suppose! You should check out Rembo’s github and post a comment on there!
headphones sucks (now), srs. why the fuck would you base this shit on muscibranz? they blocked you, and i feel like i’m the only other one complaining about this. thanks anyways. takes forever now.
I agree with you to a certain extent. This is a problem with the database and the author of the code. I believe at some point it could be corrected… He appears to be greedy, you can subscribe to his database for a nominal fee… Or he can work with MusicBrainz to get it working correct, but if he is going to profit why would he do that?
So pay the man 10 bucks and use his server. Fast and fantastic.
This is true too.. But the point being is that this can work without the extra $.
It’s funny that you think he’s greedy.
I installed the latest python and tried all my browsers, still nothing.
Windows 7 – Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera… nothing
Everything’s up to date
What address are you trying to connect to? What error are you getting?
Twenty bucks says you’re running Python 3. Uninstall it and install Python 2 (2.7 works for me). You would think they would include that critical bit of info in the instructions.
Thanks Mike West, that worked for me 🙂
Same Here
same here. you’d think…
Is there a way that you can add a post processing option so that the folders will be ./Artist/Album (Year)/Files? That way I can keep my music collection nice and organize and for the music I will continue to download than it will make it a lot easier on me? Thanks for whatever help you can give.
in the headphones settings you can tweak these.
hi guys used all your guides so far to setup couchpotato and sick beard (using newsbin pro with blackhole method) works a treat
but once i install headphones i cannot access it what is the standard interface adress once i run the .py file i get a dos box flash up on my screan for about a second then it dissappears, any thoughts, keep up the amazing guides
unpack first!!! in a different folder. i had the same problem.
rightmouse click. unpack all….
Could you update the guide to clarify that Python 2.6 or 2.7 is required? That would’ve saved me an hour or so.
Apps like this need to support torrents. Most people don’t want to pay for a UseNet account. Perhaps it’s time you had this interface with torrent trackers and clients?
I’m struggling to keep Headphones alcove after closing terminal. I’ve followed the guide on Github, but still Headphones closes after closing terminal.
If anyone could help me, it would be most appreciated
Hi,
For those who are interested, i’am working on an app for windows similar to headphones, It is currently in beta and u can grab it here: http://www.lovely-tunes.com
for some reason after I fill out the settings and click on save they suddenly disappear! please help