girder, irserver, mp3 player architecture

[siwilson]

Shear,

Not sure why you are using the evation software, I would stay well clear. Girder does everything the Evation stuff does and more.

I assume you want to control winamp, well no poblem, just download one of the exported groups for Winamp, learn your IR codes and you're good to go.

To access a playlist directly by entering an albun number is no trivial thing. Your best bet would be to use the numbuilder function that is part of Girder 3.1. In fact you should move to 3.1 now. There was a thread on this 'select album by number' not so long ago. try a search for 'album' and 'numbuilder' and something should turn up.

[siwilson]

thanks for the quick reply siwilson....the numbuilder search yeilded quite a few good results.

your name sounds familiar...i think from avscience? i have been following the antec retrofit thread on avscience and am an antec owner who's been contemplating buying the matrix orbital.

Yep, that is me :) The MO display is nice, I have a 4 line by 20 chars basic unit. it works well. The software to drive it is nice, but it makes you want more all the time. I wish I had the knowhow to do this, but alas ideas are my thing, not coding.

i think the audiotron could be used a benchmark for which features we'd want to see in control and display, here is the pdf manual:
ftp://ftp.voyetra.com/pub/tbs/audiotro/atman_v2.exe

The Audiotron is really nice. I contemplated getting one myself, but the need for an amp and speakers makes it less useful to me personally. Now if somebody integrated the Audiotron into a portable boombox you would really have something.

- LCD time counters - elapsed/remaining - DVDSpy Winamp plugin does this
- display of artist, title, album, genre - DVDSpy plugin gives a combination of artist/title, but this is the weak point IMO
- remote navigation by artist, title, album, genre - If you can get Winamp to do it then Girder/LCD could do it also. Remember the display doesn't need to come form winamp, it could come from Girder as you pressed a key !
- remote navigation by A-Z in alphabet - Again, if Girder could send A-Z then it's doable

downside i see to the audiotron is:
- expensive
- single purpose
- physical
- no crossfading
- not extensible

No argument there

what i am wondering is exactly how much of this functionality has been replicated to date in girder with lcddriver/osdmenu? is there a particulary good thread here or over there?

There is a long thread over at AVS called "Best HTPC Case: LCD & VFD Displays", check it out. Lots of questions and not many answers though.

i had originally thought i needed the irserver because winamp/winamp plugin could not run simultaneous to girder. Does the winamp plugin provide ANY addtl functionality over girder 3.1? The plugin mentionds direct access to any song by number and any playlist by number.

The key thing is event management. Events are fed into Girder that manages them all and organizes what is to be displayed. This is neccessary because the LCDriver is one application at a time, so if Girder has it then nobody else can. Actually this is no bad thing, because any really involved disply stuff like flicking between different virtual displays would need this kind of single point of control.

When you say the Winamp Plugin, I assume you mean the one I referred to that works in conjunction with DVDSpy? I say that because there are a number of Winamp LCD plugins available. Check out the MO website and for that matter the LCDriver website that you can link to from MO. Anyway, the DVDSpy plugin makes certain events available to Girder that can be manipulated or displayed. The song number stuff looks like a task for numbuilder, but I would need to look at winamp and the winamp control group for girder to see better. Remember there are two parts to this. Girder controlling Winamp and the Girder or some other application displaying what winamp is doing. The two are not neccessarily linked, although it might be easier if both are done in Girder for the reasons I have already stated.

thinking of this now i agree irserver is moot because i dont think there will be a way to run winamp/winamp plugin at the same time as the irserver (just as i couldnt with girder).....as they both want the same com port.

Not sure what you mean here, but like I said, you don't need or want the Evation software when there id Girder around. The Evation stuff doesn't hold a candle to Girder.

i did convert everything over to 3.1 girder. the album numbuilder thing looks interesting...on quick look it appeared though that i'd have to possibly create a playlist for each album...not ideal.

Not sure about the need for multiple playlists thing. I haven't tried this, I just remember someone else talking about it.


Mike McMahon wrote the DVDSpy and LCD plugins which I am eternally greatful for, but the Winamp/MP3 stuff isn't his interest, so he wrote the winamp plugin and enhances it when people ask and he get's some spare time. Let's hope Mike gets really into Winamp :D

steve

[siwilson]

There are a couple of Winamp plugin that give winamp web control.

One is wwwinamp and the other is webamp. Neither requires a web server as it is built in to the plugin.

There is also the Shoutcasp plugin that adds web control to the shoutcast server part of winamp. It's actually quite nice.

Might be worth a look.

[shear]

hi
i am currently using girder 3.025 to control powerdvd and ati-tv. all works great. thanks ron.

i want to add the ability to play MP3s. a few questions:

1) when i installed the mp3 plugin located here:
http://www.evation.com/software/winamp.html it says the COM port is in use. True enough, its in use with Girder. So is the only way to get both to work is to switch to the Infrared Kit from Evation? I downloaded the Infrared kit from: http://www.evation.com/software/infraredkit.html and managed to get it working with Winamp, however how does this interfact to Girder? I see no Girder plugin in the IRServer Plugin list, and the interface is not as descriptive nor flexible as Girder itself. So I would prefer to not use this server if i dont have to.

2) I would like direct Album access by Album number. Alternatively, if I could settle for direct access to song number, which is more or less the same thing just larger more inconvenient direct entry numbers.

I would also like direct access to multiple playlists, as well as "song shuffle" and "album shuffle". Is this all doable? I am not tied to winamp, I can use the best tool for the job if thats a different player, but I need my PowerDVD and ATI to continue working.

Also is the best bet to buy another IRMAN? This seems kludgy...
Thanks

[shear]

thanks for the quick reply siwilson....the numbuilder search yeilded quite a few good results.

your name sounds familiar...i think from avscience? i have been following the antec retrofit thread on avscience and am an antec owner who's been contemplating buying the matrix orbital.

i think the audiotron could be used a benchmark for which features we'd want to see in control and display, here is the pdf manual:
ftp://ftp.voyetra.com/pub/tbs/audiotro/atman_v2.exe

- LCD time counters - elapsed/remaining
- display of artist, title, album, genre
- remote navigation by artist, title, album, genre
- remote navigation by A-Z in alphabet

downside i see to the audiotron is:
- expensive
- single purpose
- physical
- no crossfading
- not extensible

what i am wondering is exactly how much of this functionality has been replicated to date in girder with lcddriver/osdmenu? is there a particulary good thread here or over there?

i had originally thought i needed the irserver because winamp/winamp plugin could not run simultaneous to girder. Does the winamp plugin provide ANY addtl functionality over girder 3.1? The plugin mentionds direct access to any song by number and any playlist by number.

thinking of this now i agree irserver is moot because i dont think there will be a way to run winamp/winamp plugin at the same time as the irserver (just as i couldnt with girder).....as they both want the same com port.

i did convert everything over to 3.1 girder. the album numbuilder thing looks interesting...on quick look it appeared though that i'd have to possibly create a playlist for each album...not ideal.
steve

[shear]

thanks for the links...
its all kinda mind numbing.... there are dozens of ways to do it and none optimal. makes me want to buy the the audiotron and stop thinking about it.

these couple look nice as far as what they show you on the lcd.

http://www.uic.lcd.de.vu/
http://www.markuszehnder.ch/projects/lcdplugin/index.html

i am going to try to do 3 things next:
- get a simple remote control worker with girder
- put up a small web server to get a web interface to winamp going.
- use my audrey to surf and control.

is there a good message board to ask some questions on winamp?
i'd like to know if there is any provision to do:
- Album Shuffle" (not shuffle all songs, just albums)

then it would be nice to hit next on remote and get the next random album. i used to be able to do this on my old mac with soundjam.

i'm gonna resist buying the audiotron for a little bit...see what havoc i can create...
s

[shear]

oh, btw, heres some other links you may find useful...


- http://webplay.sourceforge.net/ (LAME can dynamically step down the bitrate for streaming!)
- http://www.mp3organiser.com/mp3organiser/screenshots.asp (nice, with lyrics)
- http://davedina.apestaart.org/
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/streamsicle/
- http://gjukebox.sourceforge.net/
- http://www.emiror.com/Jukebox/jukebox.html
- http://www.markuszehnder.ch/projects/etpc/index.html
- http://zapmedia.com/products/zapstation.html