SKG Jukebox Update. Limited Beta Test

[BadMouth]

Tried it without loading any albums and the dialogue boxes pop up fine.  Maybe having the collection on the network drive is screwing something up.
I'll copy the music to my laptop and try again when I get time.  It crashes when you click for the next page and no albums are loaded, but I wouldn't really consider that an issue.

[egosbar]

Hey guys. I just finished the track search feature, and I'm starting on the feature to add the current track to a playlist. I then have to port the changes to the Windows version and test them on the deployment machines. I also need to investigate the problems with the Linux install package. I am probably 2-3 weeks from a new update, which will probably be the last one for the limited beta test. I want to concentrate on building the website and getting it hosted, and getting a decent domain name. Here are some screenshots of the track search screen, and the new Options screen.

great work mate , search function looks great , and add current song to playlist will be awesome , have you worked on a faster scroll?
excellent cant wait for the next update

ego

[skepticalgeek]

One of my machines for deployment testing is a laptop running Win7, and it works fine. I've tried testing it using music on a network drive. It works but performance is not great, especially on a wireless network. If you have any kind of network hiccup while doing the initial directory search, it can just hang indefinitely. Got a 4 day weekend coming up here in the States, so hopefully will get a lot done. Cheers guys.

[egosbar]

Hey guys. I just finished the track search feature, and I'm starting on the feature to add the current track to a playlist. I then have to port the changes to the Windows version and test them on the deployment machines. I also need to investigate the problems with the Linux install package. I am probably 2-3 weeks from a new update, which will probably be the last one for the limited beta test. I want to concentrate on building the website and getting it hosted, and getting a decent domain name. Here are some screenshots of the track search screen, and the new Options screen.

just looking at the search picture you put up , as i said mate nice job , most people who search want to hear the song next so maybe the add to playlist button should be add to next playing
i know you can move it up in the tracklist options but if you can have both options on the search screen it would be better , add to tracklist and add to next playing

[s-petersen]

I was just wondering what kind of machine would run the Linux version,
Thanks
Scott

[egosbar]

skeptikal -      i think i remember reading that the program is open source , i know a computer programmer that said he would probably be able to make a version of skg with the buttons as an option and i wouldnt mind giving him a go at it if you have no problem with that

regards

ego

[skepticalgeek]

Hey guys, just a quick progress update. I finished the track search function, the add to playlist function, and put a new button on the key mapper part of the config screen, to view the current key mappings. I am in the process of porting the features to the Windows version, then updating the manual. I will be posting a new update, probably next weekend. This will be the last one, before I go public, though I will still welcome comments and requests.

ego, I'll post a zip file with the source code when i post the next update, and send you the link. s-peterson, I haven't had a chance to investigate the Linux issue, but I will ASAP. Later.

[RetroBorg]

This will be the last one, before I go public, though I will still welcome comments and requests.

Has anyone requested a random feature?

[egosbar]

This will be the last one, before I go public, though I will still welcome comments and requests.

Has anyone requested a random feature?

 my juke is in the paint shop so cant look but i thought it had one , just cant remember if not then it definitely needs on , i love to random the whole jukebox collection which is why a remote with skip is very handy

[skepticalgeek]

I never thought about a random feature, mostly because I'm one of those tightly wound guys who hates surprises, but it's an interesting idea. What were you guys thinking of, a feature that plays a random track if nothing has been played for a few minutes, or something that generates and plays a random list of x number of tracks?

[BadMouth]

What were you guys thinking of, a feature that plays a random track if nothing has been played for a few minutes, or something that generates and plays a random list of x number of tracks?

Well, let me tell you what my current jukebox software does (and why it sucks).

It has a feature where if nobody touches the jukebox for X period of time, it will automatically add X number of random songs to the queue.
The problem is that it has no concern for how many songs are already in the queue.  So if someone loads up the jukebox with 50 songs, people see there are already 50 songs in there and nobody adds any.  Since X amount of time passes, the jukebox adds another X songs to the queue.  X amount of time passes again and the jukebox adds more songs, so the queue keeps growing and is filled with stuff nobody wanted to hear.

If you make an autoplay feature, please base it off the time the jukebox sits idle with an empty queue.

[egosbar]

Hey guys, just a quick progress update. I finished the track search function, the add to playlist function, and put a new button on the key mapper part of the config screen, to view the current key mappings. I am in the process of porting the features to the Windows version, then updating the manual. I will be posting a new update, probably next weekend. This will be the last one, before I go public, though I will still welcome comments and requests.

ego, I'll post a zip file with the source code when i post the next update, and send you the link. s-peterson, I haven't had a chance to investigate the Linux issue, but I will ASAP. Later.

thanks mate i appreciate it

[egosbar]

What were you guys thinking of, a feature that plays a random track if nothing has been played for a few minutes, or something that generates and plays a random list of x number of tracks?

Well, let me tell you what my current jukebox software does (and why it sucks).

It has a feature where if nobody touches the jukebox for X period of time, it will automatically add X number of random songs to the queue.
The problem is that it has no concern for how many songs are already in the queue.  So if someone loads up the jukebox with 50 songs, people see there are already 50 songs in there and nobody adds any.  Since X amount of time passes, the jukebox adds another X songs to the queue.  X amount of time passes again and the jukebox adds more songs, so the queue keeps growing and is filled with stuff nobody wanted to hear.

If you make an autoplay feature, please base it off the time the jukebox sits idle with an empty queue.

sk juke version 3 only adds one song when none are in que on random when that song finishes it adds another . this is all you need i think , and the option to obviously turn it off , the only problem with this feature is when you hear a song you dont like you have to get up and hit skip or delete song , major reason that some sort of remote with skip song and volume is needed in the future

skeptikal have you been able to speed up the scroll , an  option for fast med slow would be great , fast should be very fast just a flash like skjuke on fastest speed

[skepticalgeek]

Progress update guys. I know I promised an update this weekend, but real life has gotten in the way. I completely redid the onscreen keyboard, so it is an optional feature, and is much larger and easier to use. I also finished the random track feature. This is a configuration option which, if selected, will play a random song if the juke has been sitting idle for two minutes. I am now in the process of updating the user manual, my least favorite part of the process. Then I need to port everything to the Windows version, then I will need a couple of days for deployment testing. So the update will be next weekend, I promise. Thanks guys.

[RetroBorg]

Progress update guys. I know I promised an update this weekend, but real life has gotten in the way. I completely redid the onscreen keyboard, so it is an optional feature, and is much larger and easier to use. I also finished the random track feature. This is a configuration option which, if selected, will play a random song if the juke has been sitting idle for two minutes. I am now in the process of updating the user manual, my least favorite part of the process. Then I need to port everything to the Windows version, then I will need a couple of days for deployment testing. So the update will be next weekend, I promise. Thanks guys.

Sounds good.

[egosbar]

got my jukebox back it looks awesome although i took a couple of pics last night it doesnt do it justice , its metalic 2pac black paint and just glows , but in the pics it looks a little flat , this was done by my mate a pro spray painter  , ill take some more pics tomorrow and see if i can capture it better but im very happy

still its only 3 quarters done as i have to wire in the number buttons yet and also find a blue led jukebox sign anyone know where i can get a custom led light made

now just waiting for geek to post the update

skg to tell you the truth most people find out about the jukeboxes through trial and error , although the manual is awesome and youve done a great job i think the work your putting into it is too much
most of us can run computers and anything you need to know can be found by posting a question here , if you monitor this site along with the rest of us then its very easy to put people on the right path , id say dont worry too much about the manual and concentrate on the jukebox , the manual can always be updated later or as i said i can try to help on it if you want

[skepticalgeek]

Hey guys. Deployment testing almost done on the latest version. I'll post it tonight and e-mail you guys the link. Some of the improvements are:
    Track search feature with optional onscreen kyeboard. The onscreen keyboard is also available on the Add/Edit Custom list and Playlist screens.
    New feature to easily add the current track to any of your playlists.
    Track List screen in lower left now contains number and name of first two tracks in the list, rather than just numbers for the first 18.
    Option to play random track if sitting idle for 2 minutes.

Ego, thanks for the kind words about the manual. I figure this was a fairly ambitious project, so it deserved a decent manual. I did the best I could even though I'm not much of a documentation person.

[egosbar]

no problems mate , it definitely does deserve a manual but that can be done at a later date after the updates , cant wait for the new version i have my juke back from paint so im ready to have a party this weekend lol

my preference in the track list where you now have numbers and track,  when i used skjuke i only had the track name kept it simple and nice and you could see 5 or 6 tracks coming up , i dont think there is any need for the numbers at all as you have already selected the song (just my opinion though) , the rest sounds great

i think you did say you had the scroll sound as an option now?
have you been able to speed the scroll up?

looking forward to tonight after work

ego

[skepticalgeek]

Ok guys, here is the download link for the Windows version of the third beta.

http://www.mediafire.com/?34x8ox228k4ag5z

And here is the link for the zip file containing the Windows source code.

http://www.mediafire.com/?fv9cfboo7gr2sov

I made some tweaks to the layout so it looks better on screens with a 4:3 aspect ratio as well as widescreens. Tell me what you think.

skepticalgeek

[RetroBorg]

Downloading now.

[egosbar]

me too just got home

[egosbar]

skg ive had a play and here are my findings so far

firstly i would like to know how to best update it , i uninstalled the old version deleted it then copied all the new download but there is no set up option and the skjuke program icon wouldnt run, so i reinstalled the old version copied all the new version which i called skjukebox 3 and pasted into the old skjuke folder and it worked but it is now messy in there (double resource folders etc)and could be problems when looking for playlists etc and may be why im having a few bugs

on startup when i select the options in config for untick juke not connected to internet , untick play slide sound , tick play random song the jukebox remembers these settings on shut down and restart , it doesnt remember the tick large album collection i have to re tick this every time i start skg juke

view key mapping a great addition well done there as i map a lot to my buttons  

import my old playlists how do i do this?

add to playlist not working now (i tried to create a new playlist), i waited nearly three minutes to add a song and the juke just goes to not responding tried this 5 times now and it wont work , a shame as i wanted to test the add currnet playing song to playlist option,wondering if ive added the update to an old version and they are combining somehow,playlists sometimes take a very long time to pick mine are usually 3-400 songs , a problem i can see is when their is one song that has either been deleted somehow or move from the original file , i think this is whats happened to my old playlist it went into error mode , what needs to be done here is the program recognise that the path to a song has been moved or deleted and an option to delete from playlist so that the playlist is still going ot work , i have made a lot of lists over the years and there is nothing i hate more now lol

the numbers and song title in track list main screen is ugly , only the song title is needed here and then you can have probably the next five songs coming up

search feature is not finding all songs even though they are clearly showing , also is there a way to ignore puntuation in the search as when searching you really dont know the exact puntuation , if your only searching for letters it will be a better search , there are a few issues with this feature , when typing in the letters to search they dont show in the dialougue search bar this causes a problem when trying a new search (cant be done unless shut down search and redo) a new search option would be good or even better when the letters show in the dialouge bar when backspace and retype a new search can be started  but a great feature that just needs tickling up

a search for album option might be good in the future but lets get the track search working properly first

add current song to playlist needs to be in tracklist options

ok to cover some of the old ground

album scrolling still too slow - a option to have slow - very fast would be great similar to skjuke (set that on fastest and you will see what im after)

scroll bars on main four album view are useless and take away from the look when albums have long lists , when you try to scroll them using touch it just goes to full mode so may as well get rid of em

options to color code track names , album numbers , track list etc basically the ability to change any font size and color would be awesome , for instance my jukebox is black with blue leds etc so im after blue letters and numbers to look even better in my personal juke

i can see youve worked hard mate well done , i guess everytime you update and change things you create more problems to encounter i would love to know how to program but i bet its a headache , problem i see is the same as what happened to skjuke programmer he got sick of it , at least the source code here is avaliable so if that happens someone can take up the riens

your work as always is appreciated but this version still needs some attention

regards ego

[skepticalgeek]

I fixed the large album collections and the track search bug, and re-posted the setup file. The new link is:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1rc43ttc3436zhh

Sorry about that. Oversight.

As far as updating goes, just uninstall the old version and install the new version. You Config files will not be removed, since they were not part of the intial installation, so they will be picked up by the new version. Since your directory is so messed up though, I recommend blowing it out and starting over. Backup the following files, and restore them to the C:\SKG_Jukebox\resources directory.
Config.txt
Lists.xml
Playlists.xml
CustomKeys.xml

I may tweak the number of songs and other information in the track list section of the main screen. I went with two songs, because 3 really long song titles will overflow that text label.

Scrolling speed is still an issue. I can't seem to make it faster, and still make it smooth. I may include an option to disable the animation at some point.

I tested the Add to Playlist feature earlier today, and it works fine. Could you elaborate on what the issue is?

Looking at the scroll bar issue. Not sure how to do that dynamically in code.

Thanks for the feedback.

Patrick

[egosbar]

I fixed the large album collections and the track search bug, and re-posted the setup file. The new link is:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1rc43ttc3436zhh

Sorry about that. Oversight.

As far as updating goes, just uninstall the old version and install the new version. You Config files will not be removed, since they were not part of the intial installation, so they will be picked up by the new version. Since your directory is so messed up though, I recommend blowing it out and starting over. Backup the following files, and restore them to the C:\SKG_Jukebox\resources directory.
Config.txt
Lists.xml
Playlists.xml
CustomKeys.xml

I may tweak the number of songs and other information in the track list section of the main screen. I went with two songs, because 3 really long song titles will overflow that text label.

Scrolling speed is still an issue. I can't seem to make it faster, and still make it smooth. I may include an option to disable the animation at some point.

I tested the Add to Playlist feature earlier today, and it works fine. Could you elaborate on what the issue is?

Looking at the scroll bar issue. Not sure how to do that dynamically in code.

Thanks for the feedback.

Patrick

no problems mate

the add to playlist just isnt working but it could be a problem with the folders combined , i will uninstall , delete  , and save the specified folders and start again , ill let you know tomorrow how it goes

ego

[egosbar]

hey skeptikal

got the new version working

juke now remembers large album collection and all other settings checked or unchecked   well done

the add to playlist works fine from the add from the current playing song  (awesome feature glad i asked you about this one)but when trying to build a playlist from the config screen it wont add a song using the arrow button just like version one , maybe it might have something to do with using large album collection (not sure just guessing)

had some minor scrolling issues which forced me to shut down and reboot , what will happen if you de activate animation

the search feature only finds songs that are specifically tagged , im guessing by the juke software ive added a pic here for you to see , a lot of my albums have track numbers , i think the juke also adds track numbers and it ends up as below, I might be back to media monkey to retag )

as you can see the top two albums have wierd track numbers and the search feature wont find them unless you use the numbers , the bottom two it finds no problems , not sure on this one id love it if the juke renumbered all my tracks automatically as i hate the look of them , but maybe your search feature can be programmed to ignore numbers and puntuation when searching , so you could still type in 48 crash say and it will pick it up just on the words crash not 48, great feature and will be awesome when its working to full potential although a little slow when you first hit the button 3 or 4 seconds be great if it was instant ( i know mate sorry im knitpicking here  )

idea for the bottom track list on four album view , id make the font a little smaller and also make it white so it matches the album and song info in white opposite it , at the moment with the red colored track list title, the red song titles lose a little , make them white and they will pop also the numbers in the track list take up room if you get rid of them and make the font a little smaller you could possibly see 5-8 songs like skjuke next in line , make the song only use one line and if its title is too long let it only use  as many of the first letters as one line allows , even in a long song title you can still get the jist of the title and what song it is skjuke does this or even better have the song auto scroll across that might look neat if its a long one

would love to get the add to playlist in config screen up and running as im dying to make a long playlist , this worked fine in last version even with large collection

update on my griffin features now , turn right left = volume , press in and right = next song press in and left = clear list  and my two new additions   press in short = options screen (saves typing 0000) and press in long = add current playing song to playlist  , ill have to take a video of it in action soon and post it

great efford dude , im proud to be a small part of its development keep up the great work

oh an afterthought when adding current song to playlist screen , is there any way you can have a name checked all the time , as i use the juke the most id love my name to be checked all the time and if my wife or kids want to build there lists they can check their box , and the check box might need to be bigger for touch screens as its a little fiddly

[skepticalgeek]

Ego,

Are you saying that the Add/Edit Playlist screen is not working? I tested it yesterday, and it seems to be fine, though I accidentally overwrote the recent change I made to make it faster. That's the danger of having two code bases, one for Linux and one for Windows. Usually, when I fix a bug or make an improvement, I do it in one version, then copy and paste it to the other. In this case, I copied and pasted in the wrong direction. Oops. I re-fixed it yesterday, and it will be in the public version, once I get the website up.

The track search glitch you are noticing, and the weird track numbers are related. As you may recall, I added a fix recently to automatically add track numbers if they were not part of the file name. The way the feature works is, it looks for the following pattern for the first five characters of a track name--2 digit track number, space, hyphen, space. "01 - " for example. I can't just use 2 digit and space, because some songs may actually have a 2 digit number as the start of the song title, like Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover". When I assemble the list of track names for the search function, I strip these 5 characters out, if part of the file name, so I am only using the track name. In the case of your Celine Dion album, you have single digit track numbers for tracks 1-9, so it is throwing off the logic, which expects double digit or nothing. The reason double digit track numbers are preferable, is that when you sort the tracks alphabetically, to display them on the main screen, they will appear in the correct order. Alphabetically, 11, comes before 2, but 02 comes before 11. I hope I ma making sense. SOmetimes it is hard to explain things without slipping into progremmerese.

I might work on the search feature between now and public release. Writing a search that just matches the first n letters of a track name is easier. Writing an intelligent search is harder.

Ego, you might want to try to map some feature of your Griffin to the Space key, so you can pause and unpause.

Has anyone else tried the new version, like Retroborg or BadMouth?

Later,

SKG

[egosbar]

no the add edit playlist works but when i try to add a song it doesnt , i can make a playlist but cant add songs from the config screen only the add current song to playlist , when you go back to the last version to make the add faster im sure it will work fine

im out of buttons for the griffen powermate , i only have six options im just working through what are the best ones to suit me

at the moment pause isnt really something i use , i have a remote for the amp i just turn it down if i need to

as far as the track numbers go i think ill have to use media monkey to retag my albums without track numbers , i have a lot and not something i really wanted to do as although the re tag software is good it always messed up some of the albums which need to be manually fixed , are you saying thats what ill need to do in order for my tracks to have the right track numbers

i havent tried the search using puntuation does it ignore puntuation? With large collections an intelligent search is probably the way to go , but after i re tag ill have another play and see

the version is great mate , loving the add current song and being able to see the key mapping  , still having scrolling issues , works ok sometimes but inevitibly it starts to play up , all my covers are between 500-1000 kb so that shouldnt be the problem i dont think , if you add an option to disable scroll animation will the arrow right or left then be pretty much instant? if so then that would be a great option

how about having a main name in the add current song to playlist as a default is that easy to do if so it would be great , i think the main thing is to cut down on button or touch button options so that when a task is needed then you only have to press or touch minimal buttons  , for instance i think when you hit the search button then the keyboard and the list should come up as one , you still have the option to type using the keyboard even when the onscreen one is up that will cut one button movement out , i think a lot of users will be using the onscreen keyboard over a normal keyboard

i think as you do the juke software is ready to go public ( it will be great to hear other opinions) in my view this is potentially the best software out there

one thing that will turn a lot of users off is if they have to re tag their music into  artist\album\track , a lot of collections use artist-album\track
which skg doesnt pick up , hope this is an easy fix so we can get as many users as possible , its a great piece of work mate

regards

ego

[RetroBorg]

Has anyone else tried the new version, like Retroborg or BadMouth?

Sorry Patrick, I've been really busy lately and haven't had much of chance, I'm having a quick look now.

Still have same problem as before with song names in album list, e.g. The Doors - L.A. Woman shows up just as L

Speed of animation nowhere as near as good as Sk Jukebox.

I still have trouble creating a playlist, I find no matter what, I get album I never selected, even when I get rid of them and save they are still there and it's always the same albums, also a little slow responding after pressing edit button.

I have the numbering issue with all the albums that 100 or more songs in the list.

Just as I was writing, program crashed without song even playing.

I will hopefully get a better chance to have a much more thorough look Monday I hope.

Cheers.

Phil

[s-petersen]

 I Tried it on XP MCE, It works Great,a few small problems,it crashed a couple of times when I pressed a letter key and button(s key) when there were no songs under that category,the installer expects a .doc for the manual (I renamed the link to a HTML)works now.The mce remote works for most functions,(except prev,next track)on my wish list.If You want the error report I will send it to you.You've done a great job,Thank You.
Scott

[matty_g_8]

Hey tried your program the other day and i must say it is very impressive!...once you manage to get it to scroll albums faster it will be awsome. A couple of requests i would have would be to have the option to switch off the numbers buttons to select and album number as with most jukebox collections they are quiet large and i for one will never remember what the album number is. Maybe you could swap the buttons to allow for the search button, play/pause button and next button to appear on the front. Keep uo the good work!!

[s-petersen]

 I found something that seems to always crash the program,if you have a current playlist(the one that starts playing at start-up) and add albums to the directory, the program will not start(crash,error report)until you delete the tracklist from the resource directory....so I said to the doctor,"It hurts when I do this", he said "Then don't do that"...
Thanks,
Scott

[s-petersen]

Hi,
I found another thing that crashes the program,if you try to get cover art and the internet isn't available it will crash.
I am kind of layed off until the 4th,so I have had alot of time to play.
Thanks,
Scott

[egosbar]

Hi,
I found another thing that crashes the program,if you try to get cover art and the internet isn't available it will crash.
I am kind of layed off until the 4th,so I have had alot of time to play.
Thanks,
Scott

if you select the no internet option on the start up screen then that should stop that

[s-petersen]

I understand that,but my internet was temporally down,just that it caused a crash,instead of reporting no internet,I'm trying things out ,so I can help
skepticalgeek to polish the program.
Thanks,
Scott

[egosbar]

I understand that,but my internet was temporally down,just that it caused a crash,instead of reporting no internet,I'm trying things out ,so I can help
skepticalgeek to polish the program.
Thanks,
Scott

no problems , didnt think about that if your internet is down , i personally dont use the internet on my jukebox , i prefer to have it as virus free as i can

[s-petersen]

I tried it on 98me,for the heck of it,nope (a small light weight system for a seeburg consolett,networked to the music. Via epia-m 1000)worth a try
createProcess failed code 31,the QTCORED4.dll file is linked to missing export KERNEL32.DLL SetFilePointerEx I would have been surprised if it worked.
Thanks,
Scott

[skepticalgeek]

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Been out of town visiting relatives for the holidays. Super busy. Thanks for the reports. Didn't think about someone adding albums to the collection and screwing with the temporary playlist. That feature was put in to address the problem of stopping and restarting the juke, and having it remember what was queued. Also didtn't think to try it on anything earlier than XP. Sorry it didn't work. Still working on some of the outstanding issues, but mostly want to get a website up and running. Later.

[Hippie459MN]

Thanks for this. I will be trying this and see how it works vs my old version of SKJukebox. Again, Thank you. 

[BadMouth]

Has anyone else tried the new version, like Retroborg or BadMouth?

Sorry, I haven't found time yet.  I took my laptop with me to my parents for the holidays and did a lot of maintenance to my music collection so I could test it when I got back.  Unfortuneatley, I've been extremely ill since getting back (and now I'm still sick and behind at work).  It will probably be next week before I can give it some serious attention.

[egosbar]

ive had a fair bit of time trying to use skg now and it seems the scrolling is now slow enough to be a pain , the scrolling is the major thing that needs addressing , its a great program but the scrolling issue forces me to still use skjuke

hope you all had a great xmas new year and skeptikal i hope you continue to improve this project during this year

ego