THC Jukebox

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:37 pm

I have created a Jukebox script for cataloging, organizing, and playing music using Housebot I would like to share with HB users. It has a few components, so I'm looking for someone interested in helping me test it and create simplified installation instructions. If you are interested, PM me.

dozinjp · Post by **dozinjp** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:22 am

Your jukebox look very nice, can you upload your script for test
Thks

Ethan

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 8:57 pm

I'm interested too. I'm currently using Jukebot, written by circe640/Jim McDougall. It uses the Winamp agent and, for me at least, is somewhat quirky and has limited functionality - won't/can't skip tracks, has a few issues with album selection. So I'd consider an alternative. Will be happy to test, document, etc.

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:15 pm

Steve and all,

I'm sure my Jukebox has a few bugs, too. There are a couple of external tools required, but it pretty much runs natively under HB. It uses Winamp plugin, as well, but I've been using it for over a year and I have to say it works very reliably in my setup. My Jukebox uses ID3V2 tags to catalog music not database lookups like CDDB or FreeDB. It catalogs them to SQLite database. All queries are done out of SQL. I have to thank Richard Naninck for turning me unto SQLite. It lends itself to this application.

The train derailed when my wife wanted me to fix a problem with my sprinklers that, of course, are automated through HB.

I don't want to dump this on all of you without streamlining the process a little. I'll depend upon you to help me further refine the process.

I get this done some time this week.

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:27 pm

Works for me! Let me/us know when you want another set of eyes. The Jukebot database is a manual (sort of) process utilizing an external app to build playlist files, and another app to maintain the database, point to cover art files, etc. That part works fine for me. I just have had some issues with the Winamp agent (or passing calls to it), that Jim could not duplicate... and does not consistently act up here. Just maybe 50% of the time. Anyway, let us know when yours is ready for 'prime time'. And of course, Thanks for sharing your work!

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 12:25 am

THC Jukebox is everything you need to make a full-blown Media Server using Housebot. Took me a while to build and test this. I've installed this sucessfully multiple times using the instructions embedded in the THC Jukebox.hbx -- THCJukebox.txt. Trust me on this. You have to read them to get this installed. Don't even try it without reading them. There are only 10 relatively easy steps. The double-click feature on lists in HB 3.0 made it all possible -- love that feature. You really need HB 3.0 to get full functionality out of HBX Jukebox.

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:43 pm

Ok, I've got HBv3.x running and have imported THCJukebox. I've followed the installation steps as far as I know. Several observations: First, almost all my music is in WMA format. I don't see any reason why THCJukebox won't work for WMAs provided the Songs.cmd file is changed to locate all WMAs. That seems to work in my simple test. Either way, the songs.tmp file contains the located files. But nothing is displayed on the theme list box(es). Frankly, at this point I'm not sure what I'm supposed to see or do. Looks like either the database is not being built or is not being successfully queried. How to test?

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:35 pm

Update: THC Jukebox is partially working now. Part of it is learning curve, part debugging install and music location and format issues. ID3 only appears to be fully functional with MP3 tags, so I will probably need to convert all my WMAs to MP3. But also, the double-click action in/on the Music Library List does not work, even though I added the control value back in per the instructions. I get an error referring to device ID 111 not existing. And its right - it doesnt. There are property IDs and values that point to it in HBDATA but nothing in the device table for 111. From the propertyvalueIRMap table entries, it looks like device 111 should be the winamp device. But my winamp device (music Player) is device 156. The properties associated with 111 start off with Alternate, Awaken, Clear, Exit... etc.). Clues anyone?

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 2:52 am

Steve,

You're right. It will only work with mp3's at the moment. I only us mp3's because they are not system specific and they have extensive tagging functionality. That way I can rip them again using a different format or higher quality as I wish. I currently use VBR with a birate of 192 and I have to say it sounds really good. People will argue this, but it is extremely close to CD quality. I use Media Monkey (FREE) for cataloging all of my music. I embed album art in the MP3 and Media Monkey can find and download album art. I take a lot of care of cataloging my music. I have over 5000 songs and they all have accurate ID3V2 info in them with embedded album covers.

About your error message. If the double-click actions are not working there is something wrong here.

Make sure the Music Library list control has the following settings:

Device = Jukebox
Property = Selected Name

Make sure the Song Queue list control has the following settings:

Device = Jukebox
Property = Jukebox Playing Song

This is a bug in 3.0 that the double-click properties don't transfer on the import/export. Make sure all of the buttons have properties assigned to them. I have been working on a new version with over 20 backgrounds, and I have fixed quite a few minor bugs. I will find a way to get this posted shortly. If you find a command line, or VB script routine that can read and output ID3 data for wma files send it my way and I will see if I can integrate it. I thought I saw a version I would have to compile on one of the development websites I have visited recently. I might be able to compile it with the MP3 version so it outputs the info the same way. Better yet, maybe someone knows of something (Open Source) that will do the trick. I'm just offering up the work I've done and hope others might find it useful.

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:54 am

Thanks - I got the double click's to work. I had previously changed the list control props according to your install instructions (7 & eight), but they got gone somehow. Added the prop values for the jukebot device to the two lists. I think my only remaining issue is that if the ID3 tag info in support of WMAs. I need to research that, as I'm relatively ignorant on how all that works. I also need to figure out support of album art. Getting there! This is great!!

Post by **ScottBot** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:36 am

incoronado wrote:...This is a bug in 3.0 that the double-click properties don't transfer on the import/export.

Yep it is. Should be fixed in the next maintenance release.

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:33 pm

Incoronado, are you working on any themes that are 800x600? I've got to fit all the THC Jukebox functionality on a panel (or panels) that will fit on an 800x600 background. I'm running 4 Fujitsu tablet PCs as software remotes. They are old tech and don't support 1024x768. I can scrunch everything down and maybe use some pop-up panels, but before I go there I figured I'd check to see if you had anything that would work.

incoronado · Post by **incoronado** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:10 pm

It wouldn't be too hard for you to do. You can use a free program like irfanview to scale all of the graphics down. Since all my graphics are based on 1024x768 touchscreen, which is a 4x3 aspect ratio, they will scale nicely. There is much less real estate so you would probably have to create multiple pages with a generic background, or create your own. All the components are there. I don't have enough time to do that right now and have many other things I would like to work on, but others can contribute and build upon what I've done. That's the wonder of of collaborative groups. It's the collective effort, not individual effort, that makes all the difference.

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:47 pm

Thanks - I wasn't suggesting that you do it - just thought you might have already done it. Yeah, I can certainly build my own - and thanks for the tip on irfanview and Media Monkey. I started playing with that this aft.

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:30 pm

Incoronado - a little feedback is deserved: THC Jukebox is GREAT! I've got it working as (I think) it should, and have created an 800x600 version panel for my dumber tablet PCs/SW remotes. Am in the process of re-ripping my library to convert to MP3. I found that to be much easier (and hopefully better audio quality) than to convert WMA to MP3. Thanks for the effort to develop it and to share it with the rest of us HB users.

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