Jukebox Plugin

[brturn]

Thanks for all the comments.  I've just finished adding some features (don't have an MVP available yet, I'm working on that..).

Here's a quick file dump page for the newest version:
http://www.fractalscape.org/jukebox/index.html

This is what I've done so far, they should cover most of your requests:
- Displays album image for the currently playing track (default.jpg).
- First random selection does not occur until database is fully populated.
- Added menu highlight, changed highlight color to yellow.
- Cannot add the same track twice.
- Added selection dot to show which tracks are in the playlist.
- Removed unused config dialog box.

Added to my ToDo list:
- config: random selection of music on/off
- config: animation on/off
- Edit/save playlist
- Re-use database after loading

Other comments on your suggestions:
- Mobile Phone input; Jukebox supports T9 input, is this what you are referring to?  I do not believe the other mobile phone input technique is very good (hit 222, then wait, 'C' is input).  If you have thoughts on this, please share.

- Hauppauge remote: I will definitely be supporting the keys in an understandable and user-friendly manner.  I'll fix this as soon as I can get to an MVP.  I don't know why "F" and "R" are being entered for FF and Rew.... Sub?

- "Stop" and "Main Menu" buttons - I probably will not add these, the jukebox is designed for use at a party and I don't want to give people the option of screwing with it.  The owner or a savy user will find the controls easily enough.. (menu button, etc)

--Bryan

[sub]

ctrl-F/ctrl-R are sent to the application by the Hauppauge remote for FF/RW. You might want to make sure the control key is not pressed when interpretting keystrokes. ....Green (ctrl-G) Blue (ctrl-B) Pause (ctrl-Q) etc....

[brturn]

Ah.. good to know.

- Fixed FF/Rew inserting "F" and "R".. If someone with an MVP could confirm this fix..
- ID3 tag info used for display of current track info (more to come).
- Added config dialog with Animate and Random configs.

You can get Version 3 at http://www.fractalscape.org/jukebox/index.html.

Good night!
--Bryan

[MaBo]

This is VERY cool!

Installed version 1 yesterday and have used it all evening! Great! However, i did experience a few issues:
-Time in now playing is not working
-Strange behaviour when selecting <next> after a created playlist is done and new songs appended: now playing shows song preceding the currently playing one.
-Settings dialog asks for postcode etc. Bit overcopying?

Probably all solved in version three that I will install tonight...

Greetz,
MaBo

[jeffcora]

Hi Bryan,

Fast work, thanks for the improvements.

Can confirm that you've fixed the FF/Rew inserting "F" and "R" on the MVP.

I've also found that the plugin does almost work on the MVP. At the point it loads and tries to build the database, if you press Vol + or - continually (probably other keys as well), the database does build and you can go off and select tracks and they play. Just looks like it's the display part that's not working, i.e. showing the playlist, now playing etc.

On the album image side, would it be possible to also search for folder.jpg files as well as default.jpg. I use folder.jpg which I think is a recognised standard. I could easily rename all the files, but then they are not picked up in Media Player. Possibily you could display default.jpg if present, and then look for folder.jpg? If not I'll double up and have both files present.

Just to expand on my previous comment about the random track playing. I like this feature (although it great you can now turn it on and off), and don't mind it playing a track before even the database is built, it would just be nice to be able to specify the first track (in the config section) that starts playing as soon as the plugin is loaded, almost like a default random track if that makes sense. This would allow music to be played as soon as the plugin is started up, then you can start adding your own. Once the list has run out it then plays true random tracks and it's your own fault that if in the middle of a party something really embarrasing from your collection is played, and you have to explain that it isn't really your song! Does this make sense, drop it if you think it's a daft idea.

Understand the "Stop" and "Main Menu" buttons point.  

Great stuff, thanks

Rob

[jeffcora]

Bryan,

After a bit more playing around, found the following two issues with v3.

1. Adding a song - This seems to reset the playlist back to the beginning. Easiest way to see this is:

-Select a song to start playing, then select another.
-Skip forward to the 2nd song (or wait till the first one finishes).
-Add another song.

The Now Playing shows the first track even though the 2nd one is playing. The next track that will be played is the 2nd track rather than the 3rd as it thought it just played the first.

2. Stop key behaviour - When the stop key is pressed the playing stops and the 'Coming Up' is cleared, however the 'Now Playing' continues to show the album art or "None,<album name>,<trackname>" of the last track played.

When browsing through tracks again they are still marked as selected so can't be selected again. If a track is then selected it is played, but the Now Playing shows the first item in the previous list (probably related to the 1st problem?).

I think pressing play should stop the current playing, but keep all the settings, and pressing Play starts the list playing again (or preferably resumes back to the start of the last track playing). Exiting the plugin should also keep all the setting, and within the plugin a "Clear All" button to start all over again. It would be a shame to accidently press stop, and then have to add all your tracks again.

Rob

[nkh]

Thanks for quick update!

Quote[/b] ]- Displays album image for the currently playing track (default.jpg).

A bit small, but it looks nice  

Quote[/b] ]- Added menu highlight, changed highlight color to yellow.
- Cannot add the same track twice.
- Added selection dot to show which tracks are in the playlist.

Looks and works nicely!

Quote[/b] ] Mobile Phone input; Jukebox supports T9 input, is this what you are referring to?  I do not believe the other mobile phone input technique is very good (hit 222, then wait, 'C' is input).  If you have thoughts on this, please share.

Ah, sorry, I hadn't noticed it actualy worked as a filter, I only saw the numbers turn up and assumed it was doing something strange    But, it works perfect (except it's a bit confusing to see numbers if you don't know it tanslate them to t9). One thing I'd like is a delete button that removes only the last button press, and a key to make a space so you can search for two words (if you're not sure about the exact name of a song or if there's strange letters in the name (&*æøå'´` and so on)).

Quote[/b] ]- "Stop" and "Main Menu" buttons - I probably will not add these, the jukebox is designed for use at a party and I don't want to give people the option of screwing with it.  The owner or a savy user will find the controls easily enough.. (menu button, etc)

If I press the Stop button it erases the playlist, I guess it's not supposed to do that? (I'm using the silver hauppauge remote with the PVR350). I don't know if you got this, but it would be nice to be able to use the FF and REW buttons to skip in the songs (maybe 5 sec forwards and backwards).

Also.. when in random mode, it would be nice to be able to press forward and have it select a new random song. Another thing I noticed is that the song information from the first radom played song sticks even when the jukebox goes on to it's next random song.

*update* I just noticed that I can skip to a new random track by pressing Stop  

*update part 2* Another thing that I forgot.. Since you can skip backwards in the playlist, it would be nice to be able to see the last or last two played tracks.

[brturn]

Great comments, let me see if I can sort out some responses:

Display Issues:

Please note that if you are using Jukebox on MVP, there are display issues (does not update, etc). If you are reporting a display issue, please specify if it occurs on the PC version also. Both Sub & I are looking into these issues (it appears to be caused by a missing timer tick on the MVP version).

Playlist Issues:

I am not currently controlling the playlist, this is done by the GB-PVR kernel. So if FF/Rew, Stop/Pause/Play, etc.. are not working as expected, it may be something we can ask Sub to fix. If not, I can take over playlist and music controls, but it would only work if Jukebox was running.. this is the reason I would prefer to let Sub handle it.

nkh,
- Album image has to be a bit small to avoid using up all the real-estate. 3 lines was my first-guess, though it'd be easy to change later. How would you suggest arranging the current playlist area?
- Delete button.. hmm. My remote has one, I guess I'll have to pick a key from the MVP remote for that. Suggestions?
- Previous tracks list.. not a bad idea, let me ponder that a bit.

jeffcora,
- Most of these appear to be playlist issues. I'll ask Sub to take a look at them.
- "folder.jpg", no prob, that's easy.
- Specify the first track; I would like to stay true to the Jukebox model, so the options are random or not-random. A good compromise is your suggesion of "don't select random until after the first song is played", I may add this as an option.

MaBo,
- Hmm.. the <next> thing might be my issue. I'll test this when I get an MVP from my coworker.

Thanks for the great feedback!
--Bryan

[nkh]

Quote[/b] ]- Album image has to be a bit small to avoid using up all the real-estate.  3 lines was my first-guess, though it'd be easy to change later.  How would you suggest arranging the current playlist area?

If you show it at the right of the id3 info you'll get 4 lines for the picture. Maybe the progressbar could be a bit shorter, then there'll be 5 lines for the picture.

But it's not a big problem so you can move it down the todo list if you want to  

Quote[/b] ]- Delete button.. hmm.  My remote has one, I guess I'll have to pick a key from the MVP remote for that.  Suggestions?

You could use the red button, it's right under the number keys on the Hauppauge remote. And maybe use "0" as seperation between the search words if you're gonna implement that

Quote[/b] ]- Previous tracks list.. not a bad idea, let me ponder that a bit.

Nice maybe the "Comming Up" could be "Playlist" with the last or two last songs in grey, the current song in green and the rest in white or something.

One thing I discovred as a problem is that the names/titles doesn't scroll. I have made a couple of screenshots (this is a cd single with some remixes of one song, so the first part of the filename is the same for all songs, but since you can't see the last part they all look like the same file ):

jukebox1.jpg and jukebox2.jpg

Maybe you could scrool the filename when it's highlighted? Maybe just highlight it, wait 2-3 seconds, then jump to the next part of the file name and so on? I don't know how it should be done in the playlist, maybe just dedicate half the screen to artist name and half to song name? So it in this case would write "Brother Brow.. - Under The Wat.." or something like that?

Also, it seams like you only use ID3v1 tags, ID3v2 supports longer titles.

[sub]

If you do implement any text scrolling, you'd want it to be configurable. It'll probably be too slow and clunky on the MVP.