AVSub guides
To get you listening
Connecting to a server
Cache usage
Music folder selection
Subsonic setup
Chromecast transcoding setup
Sync tracks to Apple Watch
Connecting AVSub to your licensed Subsonic server take just four steps
When you launch AVSub without a configured server, you will see this screen. An error message will be displayed asking you to check your server details.
Tap the Settings icon to move to the server configuration screen.
This is where you tell AVSub about your Subsonic server, providing the address, username and password. Consider creating a user just for AVSub.
You can also provide a secondary address for the same server, which AVSub will try if it can't connect to the primary address.
Once the server details are entered, tap the Connect button to save the details. You can clear the form with the Reset button or cancel with a tap of the back arrow.
Tapping Connect will automatically return you to the main screen. AVSub will then validate your settings and all options should be enabled. If an error is displayed, AVSub has failed to connect to your server - check the settings and try again.
If you've got more than one top-level music folder defined in Subsonic, AVSub allows you to browse them individually or all together.
When you first select Media Index from the main screen you will be presented with this screen. By default All Media is selected, which is all of your media combined together.
Tapping the folders button will show the list of folders in Subsonic. Selecting a folder will reload the index from the folder chosen and hide the Music Folder selection options. Your selected folder will be saved as your default folder and the folders name will be displayed at the top of the screen.
You can also select the media type of the folder. By default, Audio will be selected but you can also select Movies or TV. See enhanced movie information for more details.
You can toggle between letters and an actual list of directories/artists by tapping the List/Letters button.
AVSub can cache your music locally either as you play or by downloading directly. You can easily manage whats in the cache too, using familiar gestures.
Cache reading, writing and size is controlled from the Settings section. If cache writing is enabled, then tracks will be cached as you play them. You can also download directly without playing, which is much quicker. See below.
You can setup caching so that the oldest items (i.e the tracks played the least) are automatically deleted to make space for new items.
When browsing your music, a left-to-right swipe on an album or track will reveal a download icon. Press it to download straight into the cache at maximum speed.
AVSub will not recursively download the contents of folders, but only what's directly in the folder selected. The only exception to this is when a folder contains a single folder - AVSub will automatically look in the sub folder (e.g where you have an artist folder with a single album folder inside).
AVSub always checks if it has a cached version of a song before it plays it (as long as Cache Reading is enabled). So, even if you're not browsing the cache, if you have a cached version, this is where it will be played from.
You can browse the cache directly by selecting the Cache section from the main screen. You do not need to be connected to a network to play using this method as everything you need is stored on your phone.
You can manage the contents of the cache from within the Cache section. Simply swiping right-to-left on a track or album will show a delete button.
Note that deleting from the cache does not delete the album art. This is to ensure smoother browsing of directories. You can clear all cached album art from the Settings.
You can completely clear the cache in the Settings section.
You can also clear other cached data such as Last.FM data, art or movie data.
AVSub plays from a queue that you can add tracks to anywhere in the application. You can also view the queue and re-order or delete tracks from it. It even works in Jukebox mode!
If you want to add a track or album to the queue, simply browse to it then swipe from left to right on the track to reveal the add options. You can either add-next or add-end.
If you're in the album view, you can add the whole album by swiping on the Album Information row at the top.
To view the queue, swipe-down on the header text, or long-press on the now-playing icon.
First display the queue as detailed above. You can change the current track by just selecting one from the list. To change the queue there are two modes - move and delete.
In move mode, press and drag the icon at the right of the row to change the position of a track.
In delete mode swipe from right to left to reveal a delete button. You can toggle the mode by pressing the icon in the top-right of the Now-Playing Queue screen.
To get the smoothest Chromecast video experience, you'll need to setup a new transcoder in Subsonic to ensure everything it converted to a format the cast device can play. Just follow the guide below and you'll be streaming in no time.
In Subsonic, navigate to Settings > Users and create a new user just for Chromecast. Make sure that this user has access to all the folders you'd like to cast media from. Click the image to enlarge.
In Subsonic, navigate to Settings > Transcoding and create a new transcoder with the following settings. Click the image to enlarge.
Name: Chromecast
Convert from: avi mpg mpeg mp4 m4v mkv mov wmv ogv divx m2ts
Convert to: x264
Step 1: ffmpeg -ss %o -i %s -c:v libx264 -preset superfast -b:v %bk -c:a aac -strict -2 -f matroska -threads 0 -
Untick Enable this transcoding for all existing and new players then click Save.
In AVSub, navigate to the settings and scroll to the bottom to show the Chromecast/FireTV settings.
Enter the username and password for the user you created in step 1.
In AVSub, connect to your Chromecast from the main menu and play some media. This can be an audio track or a video (probably won't work yet). We're doing this just to register the new user as a player in Subsonic.
In Subsonic, navigate to the Settings > Players.
In the Select player drop-down menu, there should be an entry called microSub[<the username you created in step 1>]. Select it.
At the bottom of the window is a section called Active transcodings. Ensure that Chromecast is ticked, then click Save.
AVSub is now setup to use a specific user with Chromecast and Subsonic will automatically transcode any video to a cast-friendly format.
The following guide shows you how to sync a Subsonic playlist to Apple Watch.
This is essential to be able to access the sync screen in the AVSub phone app.
Only go to this screen when AVSub is active on your watch (see step 1).
As long as AVSub was open on your watch when you went to the Playlist screen, the watch icon will be present. Tap the watch icon.
The phone is now ready to sync the playlist. Ensure that the AVSub app is still open on your watch. Note you can see sync tips by tapping the Sync Tips button.
Ensure that the AVSub app is still open on your watch. Tap the Start Sync button. The phone will communicate with the watch to determine what it needs to do, then it will begin the sync process.
Once the sync process has started, the AVSub watch app does not need to be active on your watch.
Tip - once the process has started, disable Bluetooth on your iPhone (from Settings) for a faster transfer. This only works if Apple Watch and iPhone are on the same 2.4GHz WiFi network.
As tracks arrive on the watch you will see your playlist updated.
Tracks need to transcode, then be sent to the watch. This is done in parallel on the phone to speed up the process.
The process can be cancelled and run again at another point and it will continue where it left off.
When the process is complete, the Cancel Sync button will become the Finish button. Tap this to return to the Playlists screen.
The sync process can be slow. See the Sync Tips for speed-up tips. It can be made to go very fast.
From the AVSub watch app, select the playlist then either tap the play or shuffle icons to start playback. Your phone is not needed.
Playlists can also be deleted on the watch from this screen by tapping the trash icon.
AVSub streams your music from a Subsonic server - a free, multi-platform music streaming server.
For downloads, installation guides and other documentation, please visit the Subsonic webiste - http://subsonic.org
