Starting coding on Touchscreen jukebox. *release date?? & Art!!*

[nipsmg]

I've decided to change my focus a bit on my touchtunes clone/touchscreen jukebox.

I'm scrapping the requirements and design documents, and starting from scratch again.  I need ideas.  And if i'm able to implement this well enough, I will definitely release public versions:

Here's the basic idea:

I haven't seen what I consider to be a great implementation of a touchscreen jukebox. 
Here are my issues with the current touchscreen jukeboxes I've seen out there so far:

Disclaimer: These are my opinions, after looking at a decent amount of software out there. Please don't take offense, or respond with "But jukebox software x does this", etc.

• Mostly written in VB6 using windows controls.
• "fullscreen" mode is usually a maximized windows form with no control box/titlebar.
• Many do not utilize a database, making searching/sorting very slow
• Many use basic vb6 list loading procedures (listitems.add), which is very slow for large lists
• Little to no animation (since animating windows controls is not really fun/pretty)
• Not "commercial" looking
  

This lends itself to software that is "good enough for now"... until something better comes along.  I want to write that something better.

Here's my basic requirements for this software:

REAL fullscreen jukebox (Using DirectX or GDI).
No windows controls (except maybe for a separate configuraiton program, if that's the way I decide to go).
NO NEED FOR KEYBOARD.
Easy to use, clean, clear interface.
Search by artist, title, song, etc.
Display album art.
Screen saver.


What I'd like from people, if they wouldn't mind participating, is a list of features they'd like to see in a touchscreen jukebox.  Please feel free to submit things that are already in existing programs that you really like, and new features you haven't seen.

I'm trying to brainstorm here, submit ANYTHING, no matter how crazy or impossible you may think it is.. There are no bad ideas here..

Thanks again to anyone who would like to participate. 

--NipsMG

[SirPoonga]

Many do not utilize a database, making searching/sorting very slow

What are you thinking of using?
MSDE?  Jet/Access?

Planning on making it like a game then?  All event based with a program loop?  IE if Stepmania was turned into a jukebox program (because essentially it is).

I like TouchTunes except it doesn't show the song queue.
I would implement a song queue where the computer randomly keeps 5 songs in the queue but the user song's take priority.  That way something is always playing.  IE a party mode with a request line.  Should be easy, have two queues, one user, one computer.  If user is empty then use computer's.  But display on screen the order in which they are going to be played.

[Barry Barcrest]

It's like playing Street Fighter....

Here Comes A New Challenger! 

Good Luck and Have fun.

[Chris]

Disclaimer: These are my opinions, after looking at a decent amount of software out there. Please don't take offense, or respond with "But jukebox software x does this", etc.

If your reason for writing this is that existing jukeboxes don't do this, why do you then not want to know if your assumptions are untrue (which they mostly are)?

--Chris

[damono]

Personally i'd like it to be a video jukebox too. And a very nice looking interface

[mflint]

I think this a noble idea! The pcjukebox touch screen is about the best i have used to date. If you are going to do this it would be nice if you did it with out the program windows at all. It would be nice if it was written so you did not need any other program running in the background( Including DOS) because most people can't get video and sound working on that old stuff... Separate controls or options for volume control on screen or a differnet type of controller. And also something appealling to the eye would be a bonus. Thanks for letting me vent.

[Barry Barcrest]

I think this a noble idea! The pcjukebox touch screen is about the best i have used to date. If you are going to do this it would be nice if you did it with out the program windows at all. It would be nice if it was written so you did not need any other program running in the background( Including DOS) because most people can't get video and sound working on that old stuff... Separate controls or options for volume control on screen or a differnet type of controller. And also something appealling to the eye would be a bonus. Thanks for letting me vent.

No Windows or DOS.. That could not be done without coding an operating system that basically booted straight into a jukebox. If anyone did that i would take my hat off to em, personally i think if anyone could do that they wouldn't be wasting time coding a jukebox app. You could probably do something using a very cut down linx boot but even so it's a bit overkill and if you think people are having trouble getting sound and video working in dos then that would be a nightmare. Also the codecs for video and music would have to written like i said you would be basically coding an entire Operating System... 

[mflint]

Nobody said it would be easy there Barcrest. Don't get so
upset. He asked for IDEAS, not demands. If a person had the knowledge they should apply it. As you can see there are people out there that can right a working program to  run a computer.
Gates did it so can other people.

[mflint]

Sorry about that the correct spelling for the word is write.

[mflint]

It can be done:
Mark's Sysinternals Blog
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Running Windows with No Services
A Windows service provides functionality to the operating system and user accounts regardless of whether anyone is logged into a system. Windows XP comes with around four dozen services enabled by default, including ones that many people consider superfluous like Remote Registry, Alerter, and SSDP Discovery (Universal Plug and Play). A question many Windows administrators commonly have is therefore, which services can I safely disable? What if I told you that for at least basic functionality like Web surfing and application execution, Windows doesn

[unclet]

Things I wished I added in my Jukebox but am now too lazy to add ...

1) In my software as well as many others you can jump to a section of album names or artist names by selectiing A->Z or 0-9.   Basically, if you enter "M" then you jump to all the albums or artists starting with the letter "M".  Problem is, since I have about 100 "M" albums and artists, then page flipping through the "M" selections still takes a bit of time.   To cut this time down significantly, it would be nice to be able to enter two letters (or more) to allow jumping to the "MA", "ME", "MR", etc... sections.  Does this make sense?   Hope I explained this well enough .....

2) Make it support videos as well.......

3) Allow for dual monitor support, this way the video can be playing in one monitor and the selection screen, with the song  queue, credits, etc.... will be displayed on the other monitor.   Or if you are simply playing a MP3 file (ie: not a video), then the lyrics can be displayed on the extra monitor.

4) I always thought scrolling lyrics would be nice.  Seems like based on the length of the song, how many lines are in the lyric file and how big the lyric display window is, then one could determine when to scroll the lyrics up line by line so the current line of the song can be visible at all times.   Of course this assumes the lyrics are proportionally distributed throughout the song .... which most songs have.   This could be done without making the owner of the software edit the lyric file with time partitions or any kind

5) Being skinnable is always nice .....

6) Allow some of the features to be "locked" so party guests can not come in and change my settings or be able to add/delete/clear the soing queue, etc....

This is probably as good start on neat stuff to add ........

Good luck

[nipsmg]

Disclaimer: These are my opinions, after looking at a decent amount of software out there. Please don't take offense, or respond with "But jukebox software x does this", etc.

If your reason for writing this is that existing jukeboxes don't do this, why do you then not want to know if your assumptions are untrue (which they mostly are)?

--Chris

What I meant, mostly was "I know it's VB but it doesn't LOOK VB to most people....", those kind of comments.  Like I said before, its my opinion based on my experience with about 5 or 6 jukebox applications. MANY (not all, which I've stated) of the fullscreen jukebox apps are vb6 apps, with a maximized form sans titlebar using graphical windows controls.  If my assumptions are really "mostly incorrect", please point me in the direction of a jukebox app with the features I'm looking for.  I'd seriously really appreciate it.

--NIpsMG

[nipsmg]

Many do not utilize a database, making searching/sorting very slow

What are you thinking of using?
MSDE?  Jet/Access?

Planning on making it like a game then?  All event based with a program loop?  IE if Stepmania was turned into a jukebox program (because essentially it is).

I like TouchTunes except it doesn't show the song queue.
I would implement a song queue where the computer randomly keeps 5 songs in the queue but the user song's take priority.  That way something is always playing.  IE a party mode with a request line.  Should be easy, have two queues, one user, one computer.  If user is empty then use computer's.  But display on screen the order in which they are going to be played.

SP:

As for the database, I'm not sure.
I hate hate hate Jet/Access w/ a passion, but it's portable and *could* do what I want.  I was leaning more towards MDSE.

Essentially, yeah, the program will have to have a "game loop". 

Thanks for the queue list suggestion.  I had planned on that in some form or another.  At the very least with an "Up next........." type of display.

Also, I already planned for the random computer queue.  Kind of like the "shuffle" feature on an ipod.  Hit "play" and the computer will randomly play songs (however, I'd like to prioritize songs based on number of plays/rating, much like the Ipod does.  I find that very useful.) 

Here's so far some of the specific features I'm thinking of:

• Shuffle feature (prioritized by number of plays/ratings)
• Song Ratings
• Video Display by song (if video exists on system)
• Favorites list. (stored by user. Accessible by pincode (maybe))
• Automatic album art retrieval
• Display list by genre/artist/album
• Built in web-server (for remote control via WIFI PDA or desktop) **later revision**
• Skinnable
• "Lockable" administrative functions (probably by pin code) (thanks unclet)

This is the short list for now.

One program that does a lot of this (and the source of the idea for the built in web server control) is XBMC (for xbox)... which I belive has exists for PC as a HTPC application with some of these features, but I'm doing this for 2 reasons.  I want to tailor this to my liking.  And I also need the practice w/ C#. (I mostly code in VB.NET, I'm switching to C#, starting w/ this application).

[Barry Barcrest]

Disclaimer: These are my opinions, after looking at a decent amount of software out there. Please don't take offense, or respond with "But jukebox software x does this", etc.

If your reason for writing this is that existing jukeboxes don't do this, why do you then not want to know if your assumptions are untrue (which they mostly are)?

--Chris

What I meant, mostly was "I know it's VB but it doesn't LOOK VB to most people....", those kind of comments.

[unclet]

One more suggestion:

How about shuffle/random play within a certain genre only ..... in case my wife would like to here Country songs only

[SirPoonga]

Many do not utilize a database, making searching/sorting very slow

This is also not true. Both my application and the pc jukebox use databases. Searching using my app on my P700 is alsmost instant with 16000+ songs. Searching is even faster in the pc jukebox.

He siad many, does two count as many?  I'm not sure about the others but his point was made that he wants to use a database instead of a flat file

Many use basic vb6 list loading procedures (listitems.add), which is very slow for large lists

list.additem is not slow, like i said before my searches are almost instant on an old P700 with 256mb ram. I still don't image in it to be much slower on P500 and once you are getting down that end most things will not work to well.

Actually, using the list control to store and use data is painfully slow.  Much faster to store in something like an ArrayList (form .NET) or other redimensional array.  Then update however the list is going to be displayed using the array.  Especially when sorting is involved.

I know what doesn't exist which would be REALLY cool, a jukebox software completely written in SDL so it could be cross platform

Actually, thinking about the animation statement, that is not true.  There is animation in real jukeboxes, it is just done so well you don't realize it.  There isn't much for animation when just idling, but when moving around and selecting stuff there's alot of little animations which are used to que you on your actions.
A good example is stepmania.  Not sure if you have ever used it, but you can think of it as a jukebox program, but when you play a song steps go across the screen
When you select stuff there's a bunch of animations, just look at the skin files.  You don't notice it because they are meant to give feedback on the action you just took so you are expecting something to happen.  For example, I remember a spot where you arrow down in a menu and when the next item is selected it slightly expands then contracts.  It's the little things like that that make the software appear polished.

Kinda like a mouse rollover on a webpage, people may not realize it happened because they expected some type of feedback that their action took place.

But I agree with nipsmg's generalizations for the most part.  For free jukebox software many use standard windows controls without changing the look of the control.  Now with Visual Studio 6.0 it is tougher to do this than with .NET.  For example, not to pick on you unclet, but look at the screenshots for unclet's.  I love all the features but the look, since it uses alot of standard windows controls without changing the look of the control, looks like an old win 3.1 application that is in fullscreen mode.

My goal is to find something that looks like it was designed for an embedded OS.  Nipsmg knows this, he's been reading my ToughTunes thread   I'm in search for an antique radio.  The old wooden standup type.  I am going to embed a touch screen in it somehow, depending on the style of the radio I find.  Hopefully I find one like this one that was at a hotel, it had a turntable draw that pulled out.  I'd put the tough screen in that so nothing modern is on the outside.

And that's why when I saw TouchTunes I thought it was almost the perfect software.  The major thing it lacks is knowing what's next and how many songs are in the queue.

I've found pay software that is pretty good.  But I am more fond of supporting open source projects if I can find one.

The features I'd want in a jukebox.
Think TouchTunes...
Select Artist, then albumn screen comes up with cover art, select albumn, song list for that albumn (for mp3s that exists in that albumn) is available for selection.
Artist is selected by the right side "scroll" control.  Wither use up/down arrow, or drag form A, to B, to C like TouchTunes does.
Be able to display queue info, either a what's next always on screen someplace and/or a dedicated screen that shows the queue.
The double queue idea I post earlier for computer random.  This could be an option that can be turned on and off.
Does not look anyway like a windows app, menaing does not have standard windows componants displayed so that they look like standard windows componants.

Other possible features.  Automatically look for new songs upon load up.  I'd rather have that happen than use an admin tool to create records.  I know this can be done, stepmania does a really good job at it.

For free software I either find something that has the features I want but doesn't look "embedded" or it looks "embedded" but doesn't have the features

So, how would I describe the look I am going after?  This is wher eI think DirectX or SDL would be perfect.  Think stepmania or dragon king with touchscreen if that could ever happen.  Basically the software has to handle "buttons" or where the mouse can click.  I assume mouse as I assume touchscreen is a mouse event?  Unless you can skin a standard windows componant I would make the thing completely out of DirectX or SDL.  Like I mentioned before, progam it like a game.  Event driven, program loop goes through the event queue and does appropiate actions.

[nipsmg]

Sirpoonga hit the nail right on the head.  Thanks SP.

Barcrest: I was very careful to make sure to state that these were general opinions and obvservations about some of the software available out there today.  I took pains not to mention any specific applications.  I was not singling anyone out, and I was not at all trying to "rubbish" anyone's work.

However, I do feel a need to respond to some of your points.

Mostly written in VB6 using windows controls.

True a few are written in VB mine included but there is little use of windows controls. As far as i know the pc jukebox doesn't use any now.

I'm sorry, but you are incorrect on this point.  The controls are not STANDARD windows controls, they are CUSTOM windows controls, yet still windows controls.  They still respond to the same windows events, on a windows form.  The rounded graphical buttons you have on your app are actually some of the nicer ones I've seen, they don't LOOK like windows controls like some others do, but to a software developer, it's blatantly obvious that they are all windows controls.

This is not necessarily a bad thing for 99.9% of people.  I am however in the .1% of people who would like to change this.

"fullscreen" mode is usually a maximized windows form with no control box/titlebar.

You say this like it's a bad thing, if everything is hidden away from the user then there shouldn't a problem how you go about getting full screen.

Again, to me (my opinion) this could be a bad thing. This is not a true "fullscreen" mode.  This is merely a maximized form. Sure you can use a form and make it topmost, but it doesn't accomplish the same thing that a fullscreen application running in DX or GDI+ that actually use a real fullscreen mode and draw directly to it does.  For this reason, to a developer, it still "feels" and "acts" like a windows application.  I intend to try to get away from this.  Again, this is MY preference, I'm not putting down your work.

Many do not utilize a database, making searching/sorting very slow

This is also not true. Both my application and the pc jukebox use databases. Searching using my app on my P700 is alsmost instant with 16000+ songs. Searching is even faster in the pc jukebox.

SirPoonga already handled this response.

Many use basic vb6 list loading procedures (listitems.add), which is very slow for large lists

list.additem is not slow, like i said before my searches are almost instant on an old P700 with 256mb ram. I still don't image in it to be much slower on P500 and once you are getting down that end most things will not work to well.

list.additem is very very very slow for large quantaties.
There is tons of data to back this up, google it.

Little to no animation (since animating windows controls is not really fun/pretty)[li]Not "commercial" looking

Well there is very little if any animation in the comercial boxes here in the UK, the pc jukebox does have animation. I have not worked on getting animation in yet as my software is still ALPHA and that is low on the scale but i can assure you animation in visual basic is not as bad as you make out...

I know you didn't want the thred to go this way and i really hope you do make a go of your jukebox, i just don't think it's in good taste to rubbish other peoples work most of which you have not even downloaded and tried. The proof is in the pudding so to speak and the software that is out there already for people to download and use can be judged by all hjowever until you release something i like many others will not pass judgment on your work. Without trying something you cannot pass an opinion.

Again,  SirPoonga pretty well handled this too.  I'm talking about SUBTLE animation.  I'm talking about transitions between screens.  I'm talking about text fading in/out.  I'm talking about some of the emphasis that is put on text by duplicating the text layer, and pulsing it with a large alpha value. 

I'm not talking about spinning cubes and crazy 3d effects, I think some people do know exactly what I'm going for here.


Again, I'm going to stress this.  My comments were made IN GENERAL about much of the software available.  PLEASE DO NOT TAKE ANY OF THIS PERSONALLY.  I am not putting down anyone's work.  Both the MP3 Jukebox and the PC Jukebox are much more mature than my project, and have come a very long way, and do way more than mine does at the moment.  PLEASE go download them and try them.  When mine's done, try mine.  If you like someone else's better, please feel free to use it.

I'm in no way, shape, or form, a "guru" of all things jukebox.  I have my preferences.  I'm building a jukebox around my preferences, and asking for suggestions.  That is all.

--NipsMG

[SirPoonga]

heh, you posted right after I editted.  Make sure you read my thread again

[Barry Barcrest]

Fair enough, i just thought you were being a little short sighted with your observations however i do see where you are coming from. If either of you are interested i just posted up a new version of my software that has got transition effects when browsing the album covers. I can add this to transition between all screens should i wish, i really would like it if you guys could give me some feedback on it. To be honest it has got almost everything SirPoonga has asked for apart from the fact it sits on wondows and has got windows controls...

I didn't bother hiding them in the options screen because no user will see that, i really just need to tidy up the player buttons and the volume slider. As for the listbox, yes i agree it may not be the fastest but if a P700 can scoot through 16000+ enteries almost instantly that is quick enough for me. I could have set up an array i agree but i was being lazy when i set it up and to be honest it worked well enough.

Take it easy guys, look forward to seeing how you get on.


EDIT:

Again, to me (my opinion) this could be a bad thing. This is not a true "fullscreen" mode.

[Chris]

If my assumptions are really "mostly incorrect", please point me in the direction of a jukebox app with the features I'm looking for.  I'd seriously really appreciate it.

Okay, here we go.  Is anyone suprised that I'm about to point out WinCab? 

[li]Mostly written in VB6 using windows controls.[/li]

WinCab is written in C.  It doesn't use a single Windows control.

[li]"fullscreen" mode is usually a maximized windows form with no control box/titlebar.[/li]

"fullscreen" mode is DirectX-based in whatever resolution your video card supports.

[li]Many do not utilize a database, making searching/sorting very slow [/li]

Well, you have me here.  WinCab simulates a mechanical jukebox, so there are no sorting/search functions.  Version 4 will implement filters and sorting, and I will either use my own indexes or move to TinySQL to support those.

[li]Many use basic vb6 list loading procedures (listitems.add), which is very slow for large lists[/li]

Again, no VB here.

[li]Little to no animation (since animating windows controls is not really fun/pretty)[/li]

The version I released a couple of days ago does have a "slide" page change animation.  In addition, you can map buttons or images on the screen to react to jukebox events.

[li]Not "commercial" looking

Everything about WinCab is skinnable, down to what elements appear on the screen and where they're located, so it is as professional as one cares to make it look.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm no artist, so the default skins may not look too professional.  See http://webpages.charter.net/celamantia/jukebox/gallery.html for screenshots of the default skins.

Here's my basic requirements for this software:

REAL fullscreen jukebox (Using DirectX or GDI).

Check.

No windows controls (except maybe for a separate configuraiton program, if that's the way I decide to go).

Check.

NO NEED FOR KEYBOARD.

Check.  (Keyboard, gamepad, and mouse/touchscreen entry are all supported, although touchscreen support requires XP or DOS.)

Easy to use, clean, clear interface.

The interface is dependent on the skin, but I'll credit myself with a Check here.

Search by artist, title, song, etc.

Bzzt.  I lose here.

Display album art.

Check.

Screen saver.

Check.


--Chris

[nipsmg]

Chris:

Nice.
You're absolutely right on all of your points.  About your software.  It does do a lot of what I want, just not with the specific interface I want.  And its not written in VB.

My basic post was about what *many* of the jukeboxes out there are like, and what I'm specifically looking to develop.   I was careful not to make a sweeping generalization by saying "All of the jukeboxes out there".  I used words like "Many", and "Some", and "Certain" instead of "All".

Yours does have some of the features I like.  However, not one has all of them, which is why I'm writing my own.  Thanks for pointing it out tho, yours is one of the few free (for non-commercial use) jukebox software packages out there that aren't just forms applications.

[oznetradio]

A category screen would be good, with the ability to easily add or delete categories. Came across this one (look at the images at the bottom of the page).

http://discojuke.tripod.com/id1.html

I think it can be used with a button interface or on a touchscreen.

[nipsmg]

A category screen would be good, with the ability to easily add or delete categories. Came across this one (look at the images at the bottom of the page).

http://discojuke.tripod.com/id1.html

I think it can be used with a button interface or on a touchscreen.

Thanks oznetradio.. 
I had originally intended to just use the ID3v2 tags for categories (i.e. genres), but user definable categories is a possibility (which is, in reality, basically a larger custom playlist.)


Also, as a general note:

I'D LIKE TO GET THIS THREAD BACK ON TRACK PLEASE!!!

I was making a general observation. That's all.  Yes there are exceptions to almost every point I made.  Everyone please calm down and realize I'm not attacking anyone here.  I didn't mean to say anything in a derrogatory fashion, and if I did, sorry.  now... i'm going to summarize my first statement to make it easier for everyone:

Does Anyone have any really cool new ideas for a new touchscreen jukebox software project I'm starting?

[oznetradio]

As I am not savvy with programming, I can only speak from a user point of view.

I really liked the GUI and design that you used in your first posts (remember the rough mock-up that you did in photo shop? http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=9023.0).

Although I have never used TouchTunes, I like the look of it and your mock-up design captures it wonderfully, and it looks modern.

I would love the ability to also play video. To me, this is more important than having the album details, but if they both could be incorporated it would be a bonus.

The reason I suggested categories in my previous post is that sometimes people can't think of artists to start searching for and need to be "prompted".

Will this be for touchscreen only, or will it have the ability to be controlled by a button interface if preferred?

[nipsmg]

Thanks for the compliments.

The interface mockup you saw in my previous thread was just that, a mockup. 

It was a very very rough interpretation of what i'm looking to do, and I've changed my ideas a bit since then.  However, I plan on making the interface as skinnable as possible, so it can be tailored to your liking.

As far as the touchscreen/computer interface.

I'm sure there are more complex issues I'll be looking at , but the major difference between a touchscreen/computer application is: No mouse pointer.   That's easy enough to turn on/off.  Of course touchscreen interfaces have to be designed with a users finger in mind as the touch device, so the buttons will be larger.  This could be annoying to use with a mouse, but i'm sure i"ll have an option to turn a pointer on.

[Chris]

I'm sure there are more complex issues I'll be looking at , but the major difference between a touchscreen/computer application is: No mouse pointer.

[nipsmg]

True, I didn't think about that..
That's depending on the control though, of course.

I don't want a virtual keyboard to repeat the key when it's held down, yet I want a button used to scroll to repeat, or anything you hold down and drag (i.e. scrollbar indicator).


That's easily taken care of by continually checking the buttonstate in the main program loop, and making sure that all interface object implement a base interface like "IScreenControl" that has some kind of property "repeatable".

Actually, you'd need 3 types to cover what I was talking about.
1: Touching the control causes a single button press (Down/Up).  To repeat you have to   
      touch it again.
2: Touching the control causes repeated button presses (down/up/down/up) until
     released.  This allows for scrolling a scrollbar using the arrows.
3: Touching the control causes it to remain in a DOWN state, and allows dragging/etx (for   
     dragging the scrollbar indicator up/down (or left/right, depending on orientation).


I haven't quite gotten that far yet.  I plan on doing the interface/class designs for the new jukebox implementation sometime this week.

Anything else I should think about Chris?

[Chris]

Anything else I should think about Chris?

No, that was the biggest issue I ran into other than reading the touchscreen position itself.  The DirectInput mouse and the GDI mouse may behave differently; a touchscreen doesn't return mickeys.  This is why my touchscreen code works on XP but not 2000; I had made the assumption that it would read like any other mouse which wasn't true.

For my repeats, I just make all buttons repeat.  Like the PC keyboard, it takes a little longer for the button to start repeating than to keep repeating, and I use the same repeat mechanism for input from the touchscreen, keyboard, or gamepads so everything is consistent.  If a user doesn't want a button to repeat, he can choose not to hold it down.    I don't have any "drag" controls in my jukebox by design; in my mind, anything you can drag feels too much like a computer and not enough like a jukebox (but again, I'm going for "mechanical jukebox", not "computerized jukebox").

--Chris
 

--Chris

[nipsmg]

Gotcha.

I'm emulating the "touchtunes" type of jukebox, which actually has a scrollbar from A to Z.  You can click, or you can hold and drag the letter indicator up and down, which is nice.

(you can also click in the scroll area and jump to that spot, which I plan to implement).

This is a bit more difficult than I had thought, and I've never written my own non windows-based controls before, so writing the event subsystem should be fun    It's a learning experience, and a chance to learn a new language.

I write vb.net professionally for corporate apps, but know very little C#.  I'm writing this entirely in C# (they're so close, there's no reason to not be able to do it).

Here goes nothing.

[nipsmg]

Well, I've come up with a possible name, and created a logo/title for it.

This image should give an impression of the visual style I'm going for with most of the controls in the original skin.  They may be a bit more "cartoony" and less glassy in the final product, but it's a hint at what I'm looking to do.

Introducing... PowerPlay Media Jukebox




If anyone has any comments/suggestions/criticisms, please feel free to unleash them on me. Thanks.

[NinjaEpisode]

Ok, time for me to chime in on this.

I have several main issues with every program I've tried thus far.

Background 2080 Full Albums, 3540+ Artists, 27500+ Titles

1.)

[nipsmg]

YAY.. that's all I can say.

Thanks for the informative and opinonated reply.

1) Well, basically, the way this is going to work is:

    During the scan, the program will rip out any art in the MP3 file's ID3v2 tag artwork and save it id3xx.jpg in that directory.  It will also scan for ANY IMAGE WHATSOEVER in the album directory and will associate it with that album.

   There will be some ability to "change album art" where you'll be able to see all of the art that was detected for that album, OR will be able to browse to / select an image.

2)
    Not to worry on this one.  A correctly structured, normalized, and properly indexed database will allow for VERY FAST searches/selections.  MDSE is more than capable of handling this.

3) 
    That's the ultimate goal.  This is going to be more of a "computeized" looking interface, (it's supposed to lok graphical), but all buttons will operate like and be animated like real buttons.  When touched, they will depress and pop back.  That's a big sticking point for me, the VISUAL quality.

4)
    Done.  There is no other way I plan on doing this.

5)
    Done.  No question.

6)
    I will have an option to do the following:
        Scan by folder structure (select various options here)
        Scan by MP3 Name (select various options here)
        Use ID3 Information.

    The first release will probably ONLY use ID3 Information, so I hope everyone's MP3's are properly tagged.  If not, go get TAG & RENAME and fix them!!


Thanks, I think I'm getting sweet on the name too, it might be permanent.
--NipsMG

[nipsmg]

Here's the database diagram for the database that I'll be using to power this.

Note: the datbase will basically only be used to hold artist/song/genre/artwork/video info for fast searching.  Skins, layouts, and options will most likely be kept in XML or INI files.


http://www.gerety.net/Jukebox/DatabaseDiagram.htm


For those of you that can follow.... Have I missed anything?  Am I forgetting anything?

Thanks.

--NipsMG

[unclet]

Will you be able to offer an option to sort by either Artist Name or Album Title?

Based on your linkages in your diagram, I was not sure if this would be possible ..... of course I am not a database person though 

[Chris]

You may want to store Track Length as well.  My random-play routines ignore tracks over a definable length to avoid randomly playing long mixes.

[nipsmg]

Unclet:

Yeah you could still sort by Artist Name or Album Title.

You can sort by any of the fields you see in the diagram.  The links are only what associates one table with another.

--NipsMG

[nipsmg]

Here's some more artwork for an idea of what the controls in the initial skin will look like:





**EDIT**
Note: the image was sized and looks choppy, the original artwork has smooth edges.

[NinjaEpisode]

Thumbs up dude!  In my worst Paris Hilton impression: "That's Hot"

Thought of another requirement:

-- The jukebox should have the ability to scan network drives.  I've had a couple where this was not possible.

[nipsmg]

Interesting..


UNC Paths?  Or mapped network drives?

I don't know how easy it would be to allow the entire network to be browsed to allow for scanning, but I can look into it.  Mapped drives are easy enough.

--NipsMG

[NinjaEpisode]

I would think UNC would be overkill, but it should be looked at.

Mapped drive is a definite.