Serial/Parallel connected VFD on a jukebox

[richms]

Im thinking of making a small monitorless jukebox (would RDP or connect a screen to mess with the tracks on it etc)

I would like a display on it that would show whats playing, and whats next. On my PC a few years ago (when neons and windows were the thing to do to a computer) I had a hitachi compatible LCD on the paralle port - there was a winamp plugin that would display track names etc on it. Was quite cool.

Looking for similar functionality in a windows based jukebox program.

I will most likly me making the machine on a mini-itx board with a USB numeric keypad connected to the PC, windows autologging in and the app running. The keypad would be used to select from about 8 playlists, with a next track button and stop/play/volume only. (needs to be old person proof)

Anything suitable off the shelf?

[MrD]

MPXPlay has LCD and playlist capapbilities.  You can try that one.  It's DOS but it will run in a dos window in win98.  If it's monitorless does it need to be in windows?

http://www.dunakanyar.net/~blues/mpxplay/mpxplay.htm

[richms]

yup, the windows part is not really avoidable, I would think going linux, but that would be learning to many things at once.

I need to be able to get to it via lan (over VPN on an ADSL connection) to add songs to it and thats not something I can really do on linux with my current knowledge.

The budget may have extended to a small touchscreen like you would have in a car, but not 100% sure yet. - In any case, DOS is not really an option due to drive space considerations too