v1.7.8 + tvOS 1.0 — Playback Engine Overhaul, CarPlay Favorites, and the Apple TV Player

Two apps in one release: iOS v1.7.8 (build 34) and the first Apple TV release, tvOS 1.0 (build 21). Both submitted to App Store review. The headline is a top-to-bottom playback-core audit — 24 fixes across threading, connection recovery, protocol fidelity, and gapless precision — shared by both platforms.

Playback engine reliability

• Playback no longer stops unexpectedly between tracks in long playlists; brief network hiccups no longer cut a track short or skip ahead early
• Silent decoder-creation failures now report STMn to the server so it advances instead of freezing in a zombie "playing at 0:00" state (two-round fix: report the failure, then un-suppress it from a stale manualStop flag)
• Mid-decode error paths report to the server instead of dying silently — unstable connections (VPN, weak cellular) recover automatically
• Jiffies u32 wraparound crash fixed (~50 days of device uptime made the app unusable until reboot)
• STAT/STMu protocol fidelity, buffer-fullness reporting, and decode-loop threading hardened across the audit

Recovery & backgrounding

• App-open silent-recovery blip root-caused and fixed: a double-triggered recovery was unmuting mid-restore (diagnosed via the new on-device diagnostic log)
• Opening the phone app during live CarPlay playback no longer interrupts audio or jumps back a few seconds
• App-open recovery skips entirely when audio is actively playing
• Position recovery is correct immediately on reopen — no more jumping display for a few seconds
• Player rejoins its LMS sync group automatically after app relaunch

Multi-room sync

• Sync with hardware Squeezeboxes and squeezelite stays tightly aligned throughout playback, across track changes and skip-to-next
• Server-side synclog reports LyrPlay within ±5 ms of a hardware player continuously

CarPlay

• Favorites with album art and recursive folder browsing; folders-first ordering survives while-driving list truncation
• Star/unstar the current track from Now Playing
• "Keep Playing" button starts Don't Stop The Music from the current track (when enabled on the server)
• Favorites with a custom icon URL now show their icon instead of the radio-antenna placeholder (#92)
• Template-stack overflow crash when browsing deeper than five screens fixed; Now Playing no longer bounces back to home

Radio & lock screen

• Lock screen / Control Center update title and artwork when a radio track changes (Radio Paradise, iHeart, etc.)
• Radio artwork no longer re-downloads every 15 s — fixes visible artwork flicker (most noticeable on tvOS) and the crossfade between same-album consecutive tracks

tvOS 1.0 — new Apple TV app

• Native SwiftUI interface for the Siri Remote: home shelves, favorites with folders, search, albums/artists/playlists browsing
• Full-screen Now Playing with ambient blurred backdrop, repeat/shuffle, and an audio visualizer with multiple presets
• Full SlimProto player — joins LMS sync groups alongside hardware Squeezeboxes
• Shares the audited playback core, gapless engine, and native FLAC/Opus decoding with iOS

Other

• Copy Diagnostic Log button (Settings → Advanced & About) — one tap to export an on-device log for bug reports; it root-caused four field bugs during this release cycle
• Optional: hardware volume buttons control other LMS players while LyrPlay is idle (off by default)
• Fresh installs default to FLAC / lossless
• Manual server selection no longer overwritten by automatic failover; single transient blips no longer bounce to the backup server
• Balance setting on the server no longer lowers overall volume
• External web links from browse menus open in an in-app browser instead of switching to Safari
• Measured wire bitrate shown in stream info