A dunce in need...

[mikeyb]

Hi all,

First off, I know you've all heard it a million times but I'm so impressed with what I've seen of Girder so far. This is really the icing on the cake for me as I complete my multimedia centre :)

Before everyone flames me for not having looked anywhere, or knowing nothing, I have used the search function on the board and have tried downloading a number of files in an attempt to get to what I want to achieve. Unfortunately I haven't been able to piece everything together into any kind of working configuration :(

The principal thing I'd like my remote to do is to control WinAMP (2.81 - I refuse to use 3, it's bloatware and incredibly slow by comparison). I've had varying degrees of success with this but gave up when it came to using states. The play and stop buttons on the remote I'm using have identical codes and I couldn't get Girder to switch properly without double switching sometimes. I downloaded a file from the exported groups section (winamp_v2_x.gxr) but Girder refused to import it and the converter refused to convert it!

In an ideal world I'd love an export of someone who's managed to do the following:
- Create an OSD menu for use with DVD playback, starting Media Player, starting WinAMP, and starting some kind of browser for choosing specific directories in order to find video / audio files
- Create groups for control of the applications above (with OSD displays for commands - I've been unable to get an OSD display and a command to execute at the same time :() and allow enqueuing of folders from the browsing window

but I'd just settle for someone's export of a WinAMP group! :lol:

I know I'm a newbie asking a lot, but it's hard to start of with an application with sooo many different features!

Many thanks to anyone who can help out :)

-MikeyB

[SouthyPar]

Welcome.

First off - in Winamp, you don't really need to use "Stop", you could just use one button that will either trigger "Play" (if nothing is currently being played) or "Pause" (if Winamp is playing music). See this thread (http://www.girder.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=977).

I hate cluttering the forums with recommendations for my favorite software, but since you're new I thought I should recommend Zoom Player (http://www.inmatrix.com), which seems to be the media player of choice for most remote control users. It has both of your main requests (A file system navigation tool and OSD for every command you execute) built in. It should be easy to start controling ZoomPlayer with your remote since ZoomPlayer can automatically export a .GML file for you.

I hope this helps you get started.
Good luck.

[mikeyb]

Zoom Player is awesome!!! :D

Just one question tho, anyone know if it is possible to get gapless playback like in WinAMP? I haven't been able to find anything in the docs or on their forum :(

TIA

[SouthyPar]

Sorry, but I doubt it. ZoomPlayer only uses the codecs that WindowsMediaPlayer uses to decode media files, and so it doesn't have any of the cool features Winamp has (cross-fading\gapless playback\etc...). I personally use ZPlayer for Video only and stick with Winamp (with a frontend) for Audio.

[mikeyb]

Cheers for all your quick replies Southy :)

I did a forum search for these frontends you were talking about and I was unable to find any :(

Would it be possible for you to provide me with a link to the one you use? (your opinion is now highly rated after recommending Zoom ;)) Also, any chance of an export of the groups you're currently using for Zoom and WinAMP?

Many thanks in advance :)

[SouthyPar]

You're quite welcome.

As for Winamp export group, the ones on the Exported Groups page are fine, you just might have to download the converters and do both a Girder 3.0->Girder 3.1 and Girder 3.1->Girder 3.2 conversions, but I'm not exactly sure.

In ZoomPlayer, just go to Player Options->Keys and click the Export button, and you will magically have a "zplayer.gml" in your ZoomPlayer directory.

As for Winamp frontends, it really depands on your needs. I personally use and recommend the 4AM Music Console (www.overnighttech.com) [free], in conjuction with this little application (http://www.geocities.com/rondall_c/) which automatically grabs album covers from Buy.com and Walmart.com.

[mikeyb]

I've managed to get the Zoom Player export working (that's what I've been playing with for the last day :)) but as I said in my original post, I've been unable to get the WinAMP v2 exports to work, either directly or running them through the converter - I just get errors :(

Any ideas for this? Cheers

[SouthyPar]

This (http://www.girder.nl/download.php?Link=488) is the file you want (use winamp_girder32.gml). You don't need to use any convertors.

What problems exactly are you having? What errors show up in the Girder status bar?

Does this problem only occur when winamp is minimized to tray, or does it not work even when Winamp is the foreground window?

[mikeyb]

That's awesome, that group works a treat! :D

One more thing, dont s'pose you know of any frontends that dont require the installation on WMP9?? I'm allergic to that program!!

Many thanks again for all your help :)

[SouthyPar]

No good ones that I know of, but you could try and look around.
Anyways, the WMP9 dependancies in 4AM Music Console are supposed to be removed sometimes soon. You could just download it and never run or use it at all, like I do. Shouldn't cause any harm.