Search for software MAME jukebox with dual screen

[brunathaur]

Hello. I have a jukebox with software called "retrojukebox". This is a jukebox with buttons to go right left up and down and enter (no touchscreen). I would like the same thing but with a dual screen, 1 for choose the music video and the other screen to play it. Do you know if this a software with these functionnalities? Thanks

[Rebel Oz 69]

Hi brunathaur,

As luck would have it, I'm in the process of developing just such a Video Jukebox software package!

The software I'm writing will work with single or dual screen, handles a good variety of video and audio-only format files, and should run on any version of Windows from Windows 7 up (tested on Windows 7 and Windows 10 so far, with no problems). Also works quite happily with a touch screen (tested a couple of different ones).

I've given up my day job to develop this, so it won't be completely free, but I will be offering a 'demo' version which will allow people to try out the functionality (fully operational, but with a limit of 24 media items).

Here are a few screenshots I captured from within the program a couple of days ago. As you might notice, it's 'skinnable'; I've opted to build in (limited) support for DW Jukebox - style skins, so if you have one of those you currently use, you should be able to get up and running pretty quick here. If not, it'll be pretty easy to make a new skin to match your setup. I'm no graphic artist, so don't judge me TOO harshly here

   


If you're interested, let me know, as I will be setting up an extremely limited beta program very soon, with a view to releasing the software later this month.


Kindest regards,

[Dermbrian]

I'd be very interested in being a beta tester.  I've been a DWJukebox user for almost its entire history, and have made literally dozens of skins. 

If you have any way to have your program display a video of a jukebox platter performing the functions as the songs are selected and played, that sure would be a great feature.


Brian

[Rebel Oz 69]

G'day Brian,

Thanks for your interest, and yes, we are definitely on the same page there!

One of the driving motivators for me to take on this project is that I personally really want an interface that gives me that classic Wurlitzer 1015 feel, with the platter selection, the lift to the tone arm, but mostly, I want the twirlers and the bubbles!

Video skin backgrounds are most DEFINITELY not far down the track now, and my testing suggests that the CPU load required for that will barely raise a sweat on any PC less than 5 years old, and any machine able to run virtual pinball will be more than capable. Like everything else I've coded in so far, switching skins "on the fly" to change the video backdrop will be a cake walk, so that might be an easy way to achieve a more 'dynamic' look in the short term, while I code up the 'real deal'...


I reckon one of the skins I've been using for testing compatibility was one of your creations (PSVga) which has long been one of my favourites, and while I haven't yet got my "Pinny Juke (TM)" to the point where it truly does it justice, the core functionality is there. Today, I got the ticker-tape displays working for Track title / Artist name / Album name, which is (one more reason) why the screenshot below might look a little 'off', but it DOES play music videos on the second screen, so there's that... I'm also in the process of setting it up to use DW Juke's "DISPLAY5" (CD Artwork) settings to show video, for single screen setups. CD-Style skin support will come sometime later, but it's not really a massive priority at the moment, unless someone screams (and throws money! ) for it.


Everyone over 40 who I've spoken with about it says almost the same thing: "Can you make it show the record?", so yes, it's most certainly on the roadmap. The young folk are more impressed that if they have a group of friends over, they no longer have to fight about who gets to pick what is played on their collection of bluetooth speakers, and not being able to queue up the same track 20 times in a row is a real winner for them, so they're easily pleased, though I have a few features in the pipeline that will be sure to make even those young 'ns sit up and take notice...

So far, I've spent the majority of my development efforts establishing the basic "show me the cards, pick a song" style stuff, and while it ain't necessarily that pretty (yet), the touch / mouse interface works flawlessly (which was another driving factor, when I recently upgraded one of my old arcade PC's from XP to Windows 7, and lost touch control on DWJuke in the process), and I have a firm view of what the 'default' skin will eventually look like - and I promise I won't force everyone to listen to only Buddy Holly or The Shadows! 


I reckon I'll be ready to start looking at distributing the beta early next week, so as soon as it's ready for lift-off, I'll PM you, and we can work out the finer details from there.

Thanks again! 

[Dermbrian]

It all sounds super exciting, and I am really looking forward to seeing it in action.  I sure didn't expect the detailed reply, but thanks for taking the time to give the overview and some of your design philosophy.  Fruitbox for the Raspberry pie looks interesting, but it is great to see that a singles-based jukebox is on the horizon for Windows again, finally.  Micro windows PC's are dirt cheap and easy to build around.

I notice that your images show artists in alphabetical order.  Have you got 'random' working?  And if you do move forward on the CD-style skin support, I hope that you can incorporate a randomization, too.  When you have a collection in the thousands of albums and tens of thousands of singles, it's great to let the jukebox create a 'fresh view' of part of your collection.  Even Fruitbox doesn't do randomized albums, but DWJukebox does.  Neither does any other jukebox software/media player that I'm aware of.  Real life electromechanical jukeboxes we rarely, if ever, in alphabetical order in their presentation of music.

Seriously, I'm glad you're tackling it.

Brian

[Rebel Oz 69]

Hi Brian,

I haven't tackled the full randomisation of the media list as yet, but right from the beginning, I've had the option available to either sort it (by artist, album, or track title), or not. Unsorted, we just read in the SongPaths in the order they're specified in jukebox.ini, and don't apply any further manipulation, which may or may not resemble a dog's breakfast...



I can't remember ever walking up to a Jukebox and thinking, "Wow, someone went to the effort of sorting this out!", but then, I also can't remember every walking up to a Jukebox and thinking, "Wow, there must be 12495 songs in this thing!"

I will (once the dust settles) add the capability to 'shuffle' the sorting, to either random singles (ie, dual tracks by same artist), or album. I am also giving thought to a proper 'singles' mode, where if a second track by the same artist isn't available for inclusion, we'll just leave the second spot on a dual-title strip empty, instead of cramming in the next track by a different artist. That, however, is more complex than you might think...

[Rebel Oz 69]

Ok, well, I had a few spare minutes, so I gave that dogs breakfast a bit of a stir...

The result is, if "SongSort = Random", we'll now shuffle up the track list. This results in a completely different track order layout every time you start 'er up.

[Dermbrian]

Way to go!   Seriously.   It really can seem much more of a true experience in walking into the bar and seeing what is on the jukebox, even when you own all the tracks.

I'm glad you were able to add that functionality.

[Rebel Oz 69]

Thanks mate, glad you like it, but seriously, that was the 'low hanging fruit'; easy pickings, and literally only a few minutes work.

Much harder will be album or artist randomisation (ie, all songs by a particular artist grouped together, but randomly sort the collection by artist name). I have a few ideas on the chalk board about how I plan to tackle that, but it won't be today, and it probably won't be quick at system startup time...

[uptown47]

Did you ever release this software? I've just stumbled on this via a google search for some video jukebox software and it looks brilliant. Thanks.

[Rebel Oz 69]

Hi uptown47,

No, I never released the public beta, as I encountered some limitations in the programming language which was a show stopper.

The good news though, is that I haven't given up, I'm in the process of porting over the code base to a different language (one which will allow me to run a native Android/iPhone 'control panel' app to manage song selection/addition), so it's still alive, just VERY behind schedule!

[uptown47]

Great to hear it's still alive and kicking. What are you writing it in? If you need an alpha tester then I'm your man.

Excited to hear you're planning a mobile app too. I've been researching some current offerings like Touch Jams and Videobox etc. None of them really tick all the boxes for what I would want.

Are you full steam ahead on the project now or are you still trying to pick up the pieces?

[Rebel Oz 69]

I've opted to port the code base to Flutter, as it gives me a stable foundation for the multi-platform features I'd like to (eventually) add, while also solving some of the performance requirement issues.

I'm still resolving the multitude of re-base issues, but progress is being made...

Ultimately, what I always wanted is a video jukebox that supports various multi-screen configurations (with touch support thrown in), with nice 'eye-candy' animation (ie, page flips for track cards, loading & unloading a 'platter' from the virtual record player, etc.), but it's evolved to also wanting to be able to have a 'DJ' mode - whereby I can use a mobile app to add/reorder/remove items to/from the playlist (and also have non-admins view the upcoming playlist / add tracks), and possibly add karaoke support in the dim distant future.

Obviously, not everyone will want/need the same things I do, so I'm focusing on getting the core functionality operational and stable as the priority for the moment, but also keeping in mind the changes to enable the additional features I envisage, so it's ready to bolt those things on down the track (pun intended!)