HouseBot, WinAmp, & Album Art

[spike5884]

Pulled from this thread: Software Remote Help. Thought it deserved its own. I am not ScottBot, but I don't think he would mind me stepping in...

Scott

One other little query how do I change the winamp sample download to display albums etc in lieu (or as wel) of artist. Can it be made to display album art?
Thanks

In this post is what I came up with.

[PT]

Scott

Thanks for the sample.

I am having a few problems though can I ask for your assistance?

Easy stuff first.

I do not have these images

<File PATH="Meedio Red\HBR_CheckOff.png"/>

<File PATH="Meedio Black and Green\HBBaG_GroupVSmall.bmp"/>

relevance not sure?

In the config export file which element do I have to change and do I have then change the items in the playlist within the device?

Do I have change anything within the script file?

Also when loading the software remote/theme

It states unable to initialize button named [] prior to this it cannot find the Check Off.png



Any ideas/help would be great



Ok update I have just created meedio Black and green and copied a GroupVSmall from meedio red now I can see a panel within the theme ( but not remote).Also copied Check off png from elsewhere. Although the theme is complaining about initializing the [] button

[PT]

Further to earlier posting

I now have the remote working although it is a bit touch and go.



Scott/Spike



How can I change the default directory and playlists. Do I have to do this in the config export.xml file and then import it again?

A few ideas on what to change would be useful





Thanks

PT

[PT]

Here I go again

Spike/Scott



No worries I have managed to change all the settings and bits I require. Bit of trial and error .



Excellent work and thanks for the sample code.

PT

[spike5884]

PT,



The missing images problem you were having is one of the reason more people don't give out exports of their systems. After lots of tweaking, it is very difficult to get a "clean" export that will work for everyone.



Trial and error is how I learned a lot of stuff about HouseBot. The Help is also very good. Lots of examples and such. Info about using WinAmp and Playlist Manager devices are in the help file.

[PT]

Scott J



As previously stated I have the album art working fine . I have integrated it into the Wimamp sample and this is working fine.

I have 2 small problems which I am hoping you may be able to assist with .



I have files in my external playlists which plays internet radio stations. this sort of works apart from when the file is called for- the Album art folder defaults to folder.jpg. This then crashes the software remote.

So I am thinking can the script be modified to accept an entry such as File1=Http//64.26.34.4:80/stream/1011 or can it be made to always display a default Jpg file if no ther is found. i have tried putting the m3u file into a folder with a folder.jpg within it but the script would seem only to recognize MP3.



Your thoughts

[spike5884]

Glad to hear you got it working (for the most part). I think I understand what is happening, but I need a little bit more info.



What shows in the "Play Source" property of the WinAmp device when one of those Internet Radio Stations are playing?



Will have to see if I can track one down and play.

[spike5884]

PT,



I found a 'few' radio streams (http://www.live-radio.net/info.shtml#null). Been listening to a russian station. I hate when people come up with cool things like this. I think I got a short term solution. Will keep playing though. Would like to somehow get the information back from the station/song to display in housebot.



1. Place some sort of default folder.jpg in Meedio HouseBot's Script folder.

2. Open up the script and replace the code with this code:

Code: Select all

Dim strPlaySrc
Dim strPath
Dim intPos

strPlaySrc = GetPropertyValue("WinAmpController.Play Source")
'Get path from song
' D:\Music\Prince\Androgynous\14-7.mp3
intPos = InstrRev(strPlaySrc, "\")

strPath = "C:\Program Files\Meedio\Meedio HouseBot\Config\Scripts\folder.jpg"

If intPos > 0 Then
  strPath = Trim(Left(strPlaySrc, intPos)) & "folder.jpg"
End If

SetPropertyValue "WinAmpController.Album Art", Trim(strpath) 

[PT]

Scott J



Excellent this solves the problem.This solution will aslo help anyone else looking to implement your scheme and having the remote keep closing down.

For Radio stations look at http://www.shoutcast.com here you will anything to suit your tastes.

As you said it must be possible to retrieve information from the sites as when playing Winamp will show some info about what is playing.

ie if you try m1live.com this displays info in winamp.



Thanks for your help if you get any further let me know.



I have also purchased netremote which allows you to view albumart as a method choosing what to play.This only works with ce4.1 and above.OK for pcs etc.

I had asked previoulsyin the forum whether if it was possible to change the method of looking for music.Genre album or whole album ( would it be possible to have a button activated script which then played one level up from song chosen from album ie it then played the whole album. I know you can do this from command line but this is a little messy when using touchpanels. Your thoughts?

Once again thanks for the help so far

[spike5884]

I had asked previoulsyin the forum whether if it was possible to change the method of looking for music.Genre album or whole album ( would it be possible to have a button activated script which then played one level up from song chosen from album ie it then played the whole album. I know you can do this from command line but this is a little messy when using touchpanels. Your thoughts?
Once again thanks for the help so far

PT,

That is a tall order. :shock: Off the top of my head, it would take a good combination of scripts, tasks, and remote interaction. Maybe someone has already done it. I will play over the next few days and see what is possible.

[PT]

ScottJ

Thanks for looking at this.I appreciate your efforts.

I might be being a bit stupid but I was thinking that it may be possible to call up different id's from Winamp to look at the way the structure was created. ie changing id to say 48 (or something) I did have a list somewhere of the id codes for winamp but I cannot seem to find at the moment.

This would allow a different drop down list



Name="WinAmp Instance" PValue="" Persist="Yes" Prompt="0" SVC="No" Type="0" Value="1"/>

<Property Com="" Default="0" Desc="Play File Name" Dynamic="No" ID="136"



say change id to138( or whatever it should be in the list) and this would be albums.

need to find that list again to see what is available



on the script front what about this.

At the mo if the winamp sample is used there is a command line which you can type in a file name or you can choose from list.Whan using the list the name of the file is displayed in the command line box.

eg H:\music\MadonnaGreatest Hits\vogue

if you delete vogue and then hit enter it plays the whole album.

So what about a seperate task scrpit that could select file name delete back to previous backslash and then play. this could be then run from a button. Not very elegant but a start ??

What do you think. Regards PT

[PT]

Scott J



Have you had any luck with any of the above?. Were you able to get the Shoutcast stream info displayed in housebot?

Did they guy in the winamp forum come back to you about your account?



Regards

PT

[spike5884]

I have made little progress. Haven't felt like playing with this stuff too much of late. I have been working on it off and on though. I did find a way to get the info on Internet Stations, but it requires a special plugin to winamp and some coding. Will keep plugging away.



I gave up hearing anything from the WinAmp forum people. Makes no sense why they won't contact me to get it working.

[PT]

Hi ScottJ



I had a little thought on how to play Albums today.It works but is a little crude.

I have inserted a m3u file for each album(well 2 I have played with) into the artist directory.This can then play the album.

My thoughts are to possibly make an album directory with a copy of album art in each file.

Database use is needed here I think

PT

[PT]

Scott



Further to our previous notes I have now adapted your scripts to be able to play Albums and also display the art.

I have managed to have a combination of 3 scripts with tasks to achieve this.

However I was wondering if you could offer some advice on one item.

I have added 2 new values to the swinampcontroller, AlbumPlay and Album Playing.

I have a task which checks the play Source (as yours did) and then activates a scipt which will basically run and then leave only the last three characters of the Play source and then put this into Album Play.

This has a task which if this =mp3 will then run your album art script.



Next I have a button on a remote which then runs the script below

Dim strPlaySrc

Dim strPath

Dim intPos









'Play album

strPlaySrc = GetPropertyValue("sWinAmpController-1-1.Play Source")



intPos = InstrRev(strPlaySrc, "\")



strPath = "C:\Program Files\Meedio\Meedio HouseBot\Config\Scripts"



If intPos > 0 Then

strPath = Trim(Left(strPlaySrc,intpos-1))

End If





SetPropertyValue "sWinAmpController-1-1.Play Source", Trim(strpath)





SetPropertyValue "sWinAmpController-1-1.Album Art", Trim(strpath)&"\folder.jpg"





SetPropertyValue "sWinAmpController-1-1.AlbumPlaying", "Yes"



Now the advice help.

If this button is pushed twice it just moves the directory playing up one level. Is there a script line which would check the status of AlbumPlaying and then if this = Yes then just stop ?

I could do this with a task I guess but it seems messy.

Oh I have also found a winamp dll which I can get the actuall current song title( including correct Internet radio streams) via a simple script straight into Housebot

If you have any ideas I would appreciate it