jukebox request

[mightypeniz]

G'day Tom,

This has probably been asked before (its the bane of anyone like me running MCE), I've no idea how much grief this is from a coding point of view, so excuse it if this is the 100th time you've heard it

Basically, I've amassed a massive-ish (~500gb) collection of mp3's (mainly live bootlegs and demos) over the years, and managing them with WMP's library (or even by ID3 tags) is too daunting for someone who holds down a full time job - even with the help of Tag & Rename

Have you considered adding another mode to the jukebox, which is based on file/folder structure? On my old mame cabinet, I used to run SK Jukebox - was simple, but it was perfect for my Mp3 collection: navigation based on folder structures.. eg:

D:\mp3\[Genre]\[Artist]\[Album]\[XX-SongName].MP3

Basically, once you've picked a genre, it just scrolls through the albums in alphabetic order - first by [Artist], then by [Album]..

A big pain-in-the-arse ask I know... just curious as to whether its been considered before, and whether its something that might find its way into the GameEx dev pipeline

Cheers,

Brett

PS: I should mention - in my desperation, I've been trying to use something like HID to be able to control SK Jukebox using my MCE remote. Fairly successful (still working out the best key/value assignments), but I'd love a more MCE/GameEx type look and feel if possible.

[nullus]

Hi Brett,

hopefuly I understood correctly what you mean... . If so I've a very similar wish I already posted HERE. Having a few hundred albums on you HD things start to get difficult and inconvenient with the existing sorting options.

[mightypeniz]

Yep, similar pains for sure, although I've not so much had problems with Id3 tags not working properly - my id3 tags are all over the place, so I don't want to rely upon them in the first place I'd been using folder structures to organise my mp3s for years, and its finally (as in, the last 2 years) biting me on the arse!

Cheers,

Brett

[oxbow]

I've installed first WMP9 then I've deleted WMPlayer.exe in the Windows/DLLCache & the programfiles folder.

Then I've installed Media Player Classic and renamed it as Wmplayer.exe and moved it in the WMP folder and it's works fine like WMP9 would work.. no more WMP9 for me as it seems to force updating itselves to version 10 somehow after a while

[mightypeniz]

hmm.. interesting approach. Is it WMP10 causing all this crap? (just trying to determine if its worth downgrading back to WMP9/MPClassic?

[oxbow]

hmm.. interesting approach. Is it WMP10 causing all this crap? (just trying to determine if its worth downgrading back to WMP9/MPClassic?

Well, this *could* screw up other programs that need WMP too, like media support for internet explorer etc. so for an arcade-envirment only you 'could' try, a backup first is not a luxe

.. but for a real jukebox feeling I mostly use SKJukebox

[mightypeniz]

Well, this *could* screw up other programs that need WMP too, like media support for internet explorer etc. so for an arcade-envirment only you 'could' try, a backup first is not a luxe

I can imagine... I'm not in a position to take an image backup of my HTPC, so I won't go down that path, just yet anyway....!

.. but for a real jukebox feeling I mostly use SKJukebox

heheh - me too (see the first post in this thread). My challenge at the moment, trying to work out the best key mapping so I can use my Media Center remote to control SKJukebox...

Cheers,

Brett

[Atari800]

I've installed first WMP9 then I've deleted WMPlayer.exe in the Windows/DLLCache & the programfiles folder.

Then I've installed Media Player Classic and renamed it as Wmplayer.exe and moved it in the WMP folder and it's works fine like WMP9 would work.. no more WMP9 for me as it seems to force updating itselves to version 10 somehow after a while

I tried this and it caused all types of grief

GAMEEX was complaining about DIRECTX stuff

It played some MPG - but the other formats just hung

I even installed KLITE codec pack and nothing

Even putting back the original WMPLAYER files it was still having problems

I had to reinstall video drivers and directx to get back to normal

Sounded like a good plan...but didnt work for me

[Tom Speirs]

Just wanted to add, have you guys tried using the Jukebox in file tag mode? this should take a long time first load, but subsequently be quicker than WMP.

To be clear if you use File Tag mode GameEx wont use WMP at all for scanning, and it does not use WMP to play audio anyway already.

GameEx does require WMP 9 or 10 to be installed though.

Edit: Theres also various software available to rename/create your ID tags based on folder/filename

[Will]

Just wanted to add, have you guys tried using the Jukebox in file tag mode? this should take a long time first load, but subsequently be quicker than WMP.

To be clear if you use File Tag mode GameEx wont use WMP at all for scanning, and it does not use WMP to play audio anyway already.

GameEx does require WMP 9 or 10 to be installed though.

Edit: Theres also various software available to rename/create your ID tags based on folder/filename

I have a pretty large collection as well, and I find tag navigation to be not really to my purposes. In a perfect world if I had all my tags correct, then it might be better. But even if my tags were perfect, the updating, checking, and display of the files is a little sluggish on my cabinet. As a simpler alternative, I'd would like to see the option to use file/folder navigation. I would think it would be fairly simple to have a root folder specified in the options and manage it like the "pictures" browser. Maybe on the right you have the option to recursively enqueue the file/folder or to open the file/folder. Since no meta-info is being parsed, there is no overhead other than folder listing. Maybe when you get down to a folder with mp3s it could read the tag info. And for the record, I am registering tomorrow

Will

[fattmarrell]

D:\mp3\[Genre]\[Artist]\[Album]\[XX-SongName].MP3

I've previously posted this in feature requests too. I think it would be a very nice ability.

-Matt

[nullus]

Same for me

[cracksloth]

i totally agree. the lack of mp3 folder navigation is my most missed feature since switching to gameex. i find organizing my mp3s using a file manager much easier than using a tag tool (particularly organizing by my own unique genre system). i would much rather have a speedy folder view that parses filenames/folders rather than tags. with folders, you always know which files have been sorted. with mp3 tags, you may never know that a file has been mistagged because the song just doesn't show up during relevant searches/filters. i know it has been requested before (even once by me... and i usually remain forum silent). users that are accustomed to the way other frontends manage mp3s may find this to be a real stumbling block. obviously, gameex makes up for this in other ways but even today i am still annoyed when i have to batch tag new mp3s when this was never required of me before.

[headkaze]

I even installed KLITE codec pack and nothing

You should uninstall all codec packs like klite and install ffdshow.

[xabib]

At the nd of the day, tagging mp3s is better. You can still organize them in folders, or whatever, but using tags is way better. Yeah, it may be a paing in the ass to set it up for the first time, but not that hard if you use a tool that autotags them using folder and file names.

[hansolo77]

Check out MusicBrinz for your retagging. It detects the ID's based on the TRM of the file. TRM is kinda like the fingerprint. It can automatically identify, rename, insert tags, and save to folder based entirely on use preference. I've used it for a couple years now and its great. If you have something it doesn't recognise automatically, you can browse the online library for the information (incase your TRM is corrupted or something). If your song isn't in their library, you can add a new CD to it really easily. It's all community based, so everything in their library has been submitted, confirmed, and correct. I highly recommend it!

http://musicbrainz.org/

[cracksloth]

you cannot unilaterally say that:

At the nd of the day, tagging mp3s is better

people are different and so are their needs. my needs would be better filled using a folder based approach. it is not that i don't understand how tags work or how to manipulate them. but according to my needs they are not only a redundancy but they are also extra work (not only for me but for others in my situation). like i said, i have my music organized by categories and subcategories which is something that tags do not allow (using custom genres is not enough). folder organization also has the benefit of speed and simplicity (a major benefit for some users).

in short, i realize that those like me usually cannot use gameex and are not found in this forum but please remember that not all sane people restrict themselves to tags exclusively. there are valid reasons for using a heirarchy and, unfortuantely, tags do not store heirarchal information.

for the record, my tags (to my knowledge) are in perfect order. so my feature request is not designed out of laziness. rather, i find heirarchies to be a more natural and specific way to organize my music.

[Will]

well I AM sort of lazy. It is much easier to name the folders of my 50,000 mp3s correctly than each file individually. I am getting there, but I'm not there yet. The main reason I think this is a good idea it the speed of it. Parsing a directory structure and then filenames is 1000 times quicker than examining mp3 tags which are part of the file. And gameex already has directory parsing built in for photos, and other items. Seems an easy option. Personally I'd rather have this than the TV feature--but thats just me