Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Audio/Jukebox/MP3 Forum => Topic started by: EddieArcadian on July 07, 2008, 08:58:56 pm
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Hello,
Can anyone point me to a currently maintained/supported jukebox that is very simple and elementary and that will automatically download the album art / images from the internet (or utilize the images that media player already found)?
Basically, I'm looking for a glorified version of Microsoft Media Player, or just a very small jukebox frontend/plugin for it.
Also, would be nice if not all my music is in artist/album/filename format, and it's smart enough to figure out artist/album info based off the filename and dashes ( - ) of the file.
Basically, something very easy to use, for the lazyman, where it's the smart one - not me.
I tried Uncle T's, and there's no way I'm updating all the images by hand. Maybe I'm missing an easy way... The other thing I didn't like about it was the playlist queue was ultra tiny (to see and scroll), but maybe that was the black/blue skin I used. It also didn't seem 100% intuitive to the average joe who visits me... nor did it properly label/display my artists when given a folder with a bunch of misc. files.
Thanks,
Eddie
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xbmc seems to work extraordinarily well for movies and tv shows, I think it does album art too. it cam run on an xbox, a pc, a mac, it's source code is available (I think).
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Not many software want to use a automatic coverart download feature in their software (includning mine), because there allready exists better thirdparty software doing that task, example this thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=81833.msg855470;boardseen#new
Hence I wont add this feature into my own software. I guess same reason is for many other jukebox authors as well.
In my software, you need have one Filename mask on folders, but it do can filter artists/albums names out. You can even try Explorer as lib as well.
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I think I'll take a look at xbmc, multi juke, sk, and freebox.
Space Fractal:
I took a look at that thread, and it seems all they talk about is creating skins for freebox. Am I missing something? Not much mention of software that will automatically download album cover art.
Also, I took a look at your multi juke site... if a user were to be in the "singles view", would they be able to sort/see each and every artist, and each and every song by that artist, or would it omit songs by that artist that were part of an entire album (album folder I imagine)?
Finally, The karoake feature looks neat. I imagine there's special files for that? Or does the software "mute" the vocal range/hertz of sound? I would imagine it'd still need the lyrics. Any good place for me to start looking for this type of info? I guess I can google it... not familiar with "CDG".
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Freebox will not work if you don't have the corret tags in your mp3 files. Cover art downloading MAY be coming in a future version but it isn't there right now. It's not even reached the beat testers yet. If you want software that will work based on your file structure alone with no tagging then freebox isn't for you. I am warning you to save you grief down the line.
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For singles:
Albums is not used at all, but it still need a correct File Mask, examle these:
mp3/Artists/Title.mp3
mp3/Artist - Title.mp3 (no folders)
mp3/Artsits/Album/Artists - Title.mp3 (but it actuelly do not use album).
You just make sure artists and titles is on the same place in your filemask structor. If you dosent have any real file mask, like above, you need tag them all as version id3v2.3 tags (DONT use id3v2.4, or it might crash MultiJuke).
I also highly recommered to have a good file mask, since you can mass tag them in that way, based on a File Mask. EVEN if you dosen't use albums.
Otherwice you can use Explorer Library. In that library system, it simply show them as you used MS Explorer to navigate your songs.....
For karoake:
These is a special cd's that have graphics on the audio cd as well, which used a subchannel to contain graphics data. These cd can been played in a regular cd players to play audio, but to show the graphics on the cd, you need a special cd karoake player, that can show the graphics to your television to show the lyric.
In typical Jukebox software, that graphics is ripped as a CDG file and need to been the same file as the music file itself, also it splitted into 2 files each song.
In MultiJuke, these 2 files can been zipped, because CDG files can been compressed very well, but freebox can support this format too, but not in zipped form.
More info what cdg is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD%2B
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Xlobby can be set to search for covers for CDs and DVDs. Then it provides a list for you to select from.
Do a search for Xblobby free
It's more for HTPCs, but you could use it in a Juke too.
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It's going to be a slow process trying out all these jukeboxes, but I hope to try one per day out.
I installed XBMC yesterday, and I was pretty impressed overall. It didn't seem optimal for touchscreen out of the box, but I'm sure they have skins with larger bars/buttons. It also downloaded almost all the artwork... but it grossly made a lot of mistakes, and used incorrect artwork from other artists... still, good enough. The main problem I have with this program is that it's not really a straight up jukebox - when browsing music, and selecting a song, the song plays immediately - the only way to "queue" music is to right click the song and then select queue... not good for your average patron who knows nothing about the program.
clanggedin: Does Xlobby queue the songs automatically when selected/played?
Any other options for straight up jukebox (that queues selected songs) and automatically downloads art? That's all I need, really!!!
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Why don't you use a seperate program to download the art, there are several of the m post up on here. That way you only need to focus on a jukebox looks and works how you want it without having to worry about if it downloads covers or not.
Here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=80454.msg844821#msg844821
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"Ejukebox" from Audiosoft.
I tried out the demo version of this application and as I remember it had automatic album cover retrieval. It is not free but it might be a solution.
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I found Jajuk advanced jukebox (it is free) from sourceforge.
I was playing with it around 10 mts and it seems good.
Any comments?? I think retrieves automatically or set by request the album art.
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The other thing I didn't like about it was the playlist queue was ultra tiny (to see and scroll), but maybe that was the black/blue skin I used.
If you thought the playlist in Uncle T's was too small you will find that jajuk one interesting. It is basically a media player with a lot of list boxes. It looks polished but i wouldn't really class it as a jukebox.
(http://jajuk.info/upload/thumb/4/40/1_4_files_perspective.jpg/800px-1_4_files_perspective.jpg)
http://jajuk.info/index.php/Main_Page
That's the link there.