When I return at night, the player has shut it self down (set up by me to protect the display),
To protect the display from uneven phosphor burn, you only need to leave it on a non-static visual mode with a moving visual. For example, Funnelweb in "Info:Transient" mode. No need to shut it down completely.
Protecting the disk drives from running too much would be a noble goal, though.
however sending a request to start playing something via the web interface fails to wake the player.
Good question, I don't know if the web interface has any way of knowing whether the player is awake or asleep. But if it can detect this, it does sound like a good feature addition.
Note that in the web interface, the buttons on the front panel are active. So if you click on one of those player buttons on the screen, it will wake the player. So it's only one additional click as it stands right now.
Secondly, there is currently no way to browse back up the playlist tree when looking at the currently playing display. For example, I connect to the player and it shows me that "Tool - Undertow" is currently playing. I want to be able to go up one level and start/enqueue another Tool album. Does that make sense?
You need to clarify what you're asking for. Do you mean....
1) In the web interface, I click on "Playlists", then on my "Tool" playlist, then on my "Lateralus" playlist, then on the song "Schism". At this point, there is no link on the screen that will take me easily back to "Lateralus" or "Tool". I would either have to use the browser's "Back" button, or I would have to start from the playlist tree again. What you want is a link back up to "Lateralus" on this screen.
2) In the "Now Playing" box, it says "Tool - Schism". I am not in the playlists screen at all. What you want is a way for it to find the "Tool - Lateralus" playlist based on that information.
#1 is pretty easily do-able, I think.
#2 is nearly impossible unless everyone on the planet agrees to make artist/album playlists in exactly the same way. See, once a tune is playing, the player doesn't bother to keep track of what playlist it came from. The tune could be in a dozen playlists, only one (or none) of which might be an artist/album playlist. Maybe the tune came from your "hard rocking favorites" playlist or from your "I had a bad day at work" playlist, or your "really cool bass guitar licks" playlist (damn I love the bass guitar at the beginning of that song). See the problem?