VJ3 future features

[Ted_Striker]

Cyberpunk, you have added so many features at peoples request I was just hoping you could let us in on your future plans a bit.  A few threads down there was mention of the possibility of dual monitors.  Is this indeed in developement?  Is this a priority for you?  I ask because I am currently designing my juke cabinet.  If 2 monitors are definately going to be a reality then I want to design my cabinet around 2 monitors.  If not I will design around 1.  I would just hate to make it hold 2 monitors and never have that materialize.  It would look dorky with 2 monitors and only 1 functional.  On the flip side I would hate to go with 1 monitor and have this new wonderful feature and be unable to take advantage of it.

A little info on your future plans of your software please.  And hey even a "its done you fools.. no more features" would be fine.  

Great program and thankyou.

[VMJ Team]

OK.  I know it appears that I've been keeping everyone in the dark and made promises that haven't happened yet....Here's the story:  Many changes will be taking place....look for a more "professional" looking version of the software (There is a very good chance it will be hitting the stores shortly)...There will be a few different versions of the software (PC users, which will still have all of the great features as the current version, a touch-screen version-which will be trimmed down a bit and focus primarily on touch screen compatibiltiy, and a commercial version-this one will be sold within a complete jukebox unit and available to Jukebox vendors)....

The "ideas" (nothing written in stone) for the software are to add ripping and FREEDB access...bascially drop in a CD and it will grab track info, album covers, and rip to mp3 automatically.  Dual monitor support for XP...for lyrics, videos, advertisements, etc....

...pretty much everything I was hopefull about adding, will eventually make it into the software.  I just had to put everything on hold for a little while...but I plan on attacking all of the little issues and requests starting next week.

As always, keep checking the www.mameroom.com website for details.

[Ted_Striker]

Wonderful.  Thanks for the update.  My Jukebox will definately get 2 monitors now.

With the new versions of the program do you anticipate changing the licensing scheme.  Will current users need to choose a version or will we be able to run either?  I would assume that the commercial license be more expensive as people could make money with it (but us hobbyists wouldn't have much use for the commercial version anyway)

[thegadgey]

Some ideas:
When VJ is playing mabe have it change the covers displayed every few mins or maybe change to the cover for the song playing if there was no activity for a min or so .

Some kind of easy access from A-Z , Maybe a pop up from a A-Z selection button .

A log of tracks that cause VJ to crash or stop so the track can be removed or fixed.

Genre/Year  selection from the ID3 tag information.

Popular tracks reporting , tracks played / time played so statistics can
 be analyzed maybe even sent by email to a given address.


Just some thoughts )


Oh and don't forget cdg compatible like winamp !! save me making 50meg mpg files for each track!!

[crismoore]

I would like to have the ability to customize how many thumbnail albums appear on one screenful. I think I can get 40 albums on one screen and still have pretty decent looking images.

It gets pretty tedious to flip through page after page in my relatively small collection of 400 albums.

[thegadgey]

Hi Cyber , noticed something last night , don't know if this has been disscussed before. When I play an mpg track the picture is juddery but if  I play it with media player in full screen mode there is no judder.
I would have thought if media player woks fine then vj should as it's using the same engine. I have also tried running VJ and playing the mpg with mplayer at the same time and works fine. Seems like VJ is causing the problem?

[VMJ Team]

The problem lies with the Windows Media Player control...it is an OCX file that mimicks much of the features of the actual WMP...unfortunately, it hasn't been updated in quite some time...I'm replacing this control with a more sophisticated one to eliminate the problems...I'm still shopping for the ultimate control...one that has EQ, visualizations, and loaded will other features....if anyone knows of one, I'm still shopping....this weekend, I'm hoping to get my dual monitor card so I can work on the dual monitor support for lyrics, video, and hopefully soon...CDG support (kareoke)...

[DJ Gary-N]

Just adding my 2 cents, On VJ maybe as an idea how about a main screen that allows you to select view.
maybe like:
01 View songs by Artist
02 View songs by Song Title
03 View Album Covers

01 would just alphabitize all the artists, the song titles with the 5 digit entry code.

02 Same thing but by song title.

03 would take you the the album cover screen that we all know and love.

Just a thought. Whatever you go with in the end, I'm sure it will be great.

[crismoore]

This could be accomplished with a command line argument so that you could kick off VJ from different icons with different start-up options.

I would like to see options for sorting, selecting the music library and kick off in random mode.

This could work really well with one of the htPC menu type apps.

[wee beastie]

Cyberpunk,

Is there any way to have an option that will allow VJ to launch a program when VJ is closed?  This way, when I close VJ it can launch my mame frontend (as my mame frontend already has this option, and it launches VJ when I close the frontend).  I think this would be the best option to have in a jukebox program.  That way a user can easily toggle back and forth between the two programs seamlessly.  If this isn't already available, can you consider it a feature request (although, I may be the only person that wants this option, so it may be moot).  If you add this feature, though, I will definitely buy/register your product.

Thanks for you consideration,
nick

[VMJ Team]

All of these are great features that I will add to a future release.  I'll be on vacation today (3/26) through april 2, so don't plan on any new updates until after then...unless I get really bored or it's a rainy day...but I think my wife will honestly stab me in the heart if I break out my laptop while on vacation!

[planetjay]

So you are taking it.......  

[aj6500]

I've only been using VJ for about a week, but it only took 10 minutes on a demo before I was sending money to replace my jukebox7 program.  J7 is nice, but not usable for large music libraries.  

Those are some great ideas listed above, especially the all encompassing rip/id/cover idea.  My god what a time saver that would be.  I hope I never again have to rip an entire collection of cd's at once.  I've been using cdex, which rips and collect cbbd info.  It helps, but I still have to tag edit through a different program, and then hunt for cover files.  (Anyone got a cover for "The Beavis and Butthead Experience"?)

A graphic EQ, or scope style type visualization would be great.

How about an attract mode that can be limited to 1, or only selected directories?  I'm downloading music videos, and I think every 5 minutes having a video pop up rather than a random song would be nice.

How about being able to link 1 song/file to more than 1 directory?  Again for music videos, you could have 1 actual video folder, but still have the video listed under the album title the video is from.

I saw someone mention splitting the album covers at the center and sliding out instead of over, so for every page there are 2 new listings instead of one moving over and still being visible.  This seems like a good idea for larger collections.

How about having the album covers rotate/shift when it's not being used so it will act as it's own screen saver.

Also, what is "judder"?

thanks

[filenabber]

(Anyone got a cover for "The Beavis and Butthead Experience"?)

Here's the biggest one I could find:
http://tinyurl.com/8lhz

Google is your friend. Specifically, Google Images - http://images.google.com

brian

[Fat-Johnny]

(Anyone got a cover for "The Beavis and Butthead Experience"?)

C