First stage of research for a Jukebox

[dprush83]

I would like to make a small jukebox for my game room, but do not really know anything about the process.  I'm not sure what kind of software/speakers/et cetera that I need, is there a thread or site that is recommended that has plans through the entire process? 

Thanks!

[BobA]

Mountain has produced one of the best looking jukeboxes around.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=79817.0

If you want a smaller wall mount check on any threads about the mameroom jukebox.

If you want even smaller look at any threads where just the touchscreen is mounted on the wall and everything else is hidden.

I would have provided other links but I think searching and reading will provide you with a wealth of knowledge as all the info does not exist in one place.  Your first stage will not produce all the answers.

[Barry Barcrest]

The firs choice you need to make is what interface you are going to go for... Touchscreen or Buttons. Then based on that decision you need to check out compatible software. Some works well with touchscreen and others are suited to using buttons. Once you have made that decision you can then thing of a ca design.

[Fordman]

Some more questions you need to know the answer to before you decide:

Do you want just music? Video? Karaoke?

What is your hardware going to be? (motherboard, memory, sound card, video card, sound system). I have found that if your only going to do music, just about any PIII system with 256mb ram will work. If your going to do music and video, then you need to step up the video card to at least 64mb ram video card and 512mb of memory. Make sure your system can use Windows Media Player 11 as most if not all jukebox software uses WMP 11 for its architecture.

How flashy do you want it to be? Lights? Flashing Lumin Disks? Use of a BetaBright?

How much time do you want to invest? ie: will the wife or girlfriend get mad  if you spend too much time with this project?

How much $$$$ are you willing to invest? ie: will the wife or girlfriend get mad  if you spend too much money on this project?

How much of your personal investment will you be willing to make into this project?

What ever time and money you put down on paper, add 25% more. Just for tweaking and the off chance you mess something up!

Lots of great and not so great ideas on the BYOAC forums. Some are big and bulky and some are smaller and have manuverability (ie: able to put it in where your wife or girlfriend wants it VS where you think it should be) (see the trend with my statements?  )

After you answer all the questions from previous posts and this one, then you will have a more clear understanding why they were asked!

Hope this helps!

Fordman

[dprush83]

Thanks for the fast responses guys, great questions and the link to Mountain's thread was great.  I guess where I'm lost is I can't find any pre-set plans (I am barely functional with any sort of construction).  Also there doesn't appear to be a clear cut leading software (is there)?  I don't particularly have a preference with buttons or touch screen, size isn't too big of an issue, and like most I'd like to keep the cost down.  Any ideas? 

[BobA]

The only plans for sale are the wall mount juke from mameroom

http://www.mameroom.com/ProductDetail.asp?ID=VMJPLANS

[Fordman]

As far as software goes, I'll recomend E-Touch.  You can play various types of audio files, videos and karaoke!

I use it and love it! 

You can download a trial version at http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90390.0.

It's always updated with three updates within the past 3 weeks alone.

If you have an issue, the creator seems to be able to walk you through your issue. If there is a bug or special request for a function, he listens and researches your idea to see if it is plausable and trys to get a responce from the E-Touch users for their input about the idea.

E-Touch is for touch screens but you can use a mouse or buttons too.

I also recommend a touchscreen. You can find them on eBay for about $100 (US) dollars including shipping. But to the UK or Europe, I believe the shipping is a bit more. The touchscreens seem to be coming more and more common as the older photo kiosks are getting updated.

Thanks for the time and hope my plug for E-Touch helps you decide! 

Fordman

[mccoy178]

I will second the use of ETouch.  Barry has made a fantastic software.

[BobA]

E touch is my top of the list favourite.   I have used SKjuke and VMJ previously.

[Sparky2323]

Try E-Touch. It's very good software.

[Dermbrian]

There's something that keeps drawing me back to WinCab (dwjukebox).  I particularly like using that software if I build a subset of my audio library, limiting it to the 'hits' (or my favorite songs) instead of every album, every song.  It's fun to walk up to the 'jukebox', look and see what's randomly on its first screen of songs today, and decide what songs are worthy of my imaginary quarter.

I use SKJukebox a lot if I want access to all my albums.

I am just about to pre-order a Shuttle X50 pc.  Once I get that with its touchscreen, I'm pretty sure I'll buy E-Touch.  But that doesn't mean I won't also contribute, finally, to WinCab.

Each of those programs is incredible.  To have three such programs available to those of us that have this interest, and really nothing even remotely as good on the shelves at Best Buy and similar stores, is a really amazing.

Brian

[Barry Barcrest]

Feel i should state i am the authour of E-Touch formally Freebox as i had posted earlier. Just incase anyone thinks there was some sort of bias to my post. Thanks to all the users who gave me a mention too.

[urbecrisch]

dprush83, any idea of what you want to do about your jukebox project?  If you have access behind a wall you can be up and running with a juke in a few days after you get your monitor of course and you have a spare pc lying around.  You want a stand alone or something you can hook up to an existing stereo system?

[dprush83]

dprush83, any idea of what you want to do about your jukebox project?  If you have access behind a wall you can be up and running with a juke in a few days after you get your monitor of course and you have a spare pc lying around.  You want a stand alone or something you can hook up to an existing stereo system?

You know I'm really not sure, I didn't really think about the wall thing--I think that could work, but where would I access the computer?  I'm not sure how that would work.  I've seen the finished product in various threads and think it looks nice, though.