Thread: New Frontend for Windows and Linux

UPDATES:
October 14, 2005

I felt bad about taking so long between releases, so here is version 0.06 WIP

• song title now smooth scrolls (with a bit of flicker)
• playlist generation works much better
• builds playlists for non-tagged/non mp3 files
• initial database build is faster
• theme updated for higher contrast
• startup screen
• bug fixes

Playlists for non-tagged/non mp3 files is really geared towards the way I lay out my directorys. For example, if the directory the file is in is:

g:\music\Clannad\Themes\song.mp3

Movin'Media will name the song 'song', the album 'Themes', and the artist 'Clannad'.

download
Windows: movinmedia-setup-0.06-WIP.exe
Linux : Not available

(and yes, source WILL be available)

* Please send me any bug reports, and feature suggestions. I'm using this in my vehicle now, and it does what I want so far. If you want something different, I'll need to know.

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July 27, 2005

Here is version 0.06

• bug fixes - there should be no more 'crashing' bugs left
• when browsing playlists, browsing an artist specific directory and going back now works correctly
• larger fonts in theme
• all screens and music list are now pre-loaded

Adding launchable applications:
the carpc.ini file needs to be edited:

[apps]
app1name=xterm
app1exe=/usr/bin/xterm

app3name= firefox
app3exe=firefox

download
Windows: movinmedia-setup-0.06.exe
Linux : movinmedia-setup-0.06.tar.gz

I see I forgot to upload the Linux version last time. I'll do better this time.

I'm on holidays. There will be no updates before I come back. Heres what I'm currently working on:

• Cleaning up source to make it available to all
• docs for creating skins
• install docs
• Mac version... should be really straight forward
• skip/repeat song buttons
• song shuffling
• (for the previous two items) I'm running out of screen real estate, anybody with skin creation experience want to lend a hand?
• If anyone wants to chuck a USB or serial GPS my way, I'll get moving on that.
• remembering stuff between shutdowns (I can't seem to hibernate my Linux box yet)

* Please send me any bug reports, and feature suggestions. I'm using this in my vehicle now, and it does what I want so far. If you want something different, I'll need to know.

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July 22, 2005

Here is version 0.05.

• better error checking
• themes now have a clock
• default theme more car friendly
• apps button added

• there are some apps in the carpc.ini file already
• you can have up to 200 apps
• apps may change from the ini file to the database in the future

Windows: movinmedia-setup-0.05.exe
Linux : Not available yet

The Linux version will be up this evening.

I'm going on holidays starting Wednesday July 28. There may be another update before then, but no promises. Heres what I'm currently working on:

• pre-initialize all screens (slower startup, faster runtime response)
• docs for creating skins
• install docs
• Mac version... should be really straight forward
• skip/repeat song buttons
• song shuffling
• (for the previous two items) I'm running out of screen real estate, anybody with skin creation experience want to lend a hand?
• If anyone wants to chuck a USB or serial GPS my way, I'll get moving on that.

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July 15, 2005

Correct Link..

Windows: Not available
Linux : Download Version 0.04

The Linux file is just a tar'd directory. Unzip and untar it, and running movinmedia. It has a ton of library dependencies, which I'm working on minimizing. A standard gnome/gtk2 install should work. Two of the oddballs may be libid3 and libsqlite (version 2)

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July 14, 2005

Version 0.04

We are pretty much feature complete for version 1.00, although some bugs remain. Version 2.00 will be some sort of GPS support.

• linux alpha blending now works (3)
• slight modification to text labels
• better looking resize (1)
• toggle buttons (2)
• font scaling (1)
• scrolls text that won't fit into a label

(1) The default skin is 800x600, but setting the resolution in the carpc.ini file will scale the skin and fonts to any size you want. Font scaling is okay, but may need hand tweaking in the screen.ini file.

(2) The front and rear music selection buttons indicate the current state.

(3) I'll be packaging up the linux version this weekend.

Bugs: After the initial start, when we build our database, Movin'Media hangs and crashes. The database is okay, so just restart Movin'Media and all is well.

Windows: bad link removed

I haven't had too much feedback on this, so I'm hoping for some this time around.

Current GPS Status: The default skin will show a GPS button. Clicking this button simply launches the application specified in carpc.ini

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July 11, 2005

All the old features, plus:

• full playlist (m3u) support
• playlist generation
• better conversion of mediacar skins
• new default skin (see screen shots)
• labels
• better list control

display bug: If you specify (in the ini file) your screen size to be exactly the same size as your background, the png alpha transparency fails. The new default skin is 800x600, but the ini files specifies the size as 800x599, in order to get a proper display.

The screen shots below have been updated to match the default skin.

** OOPS **
Just noticed with this, rear audio will not work. Rear video is fine. Argh!


Windows: Not available
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July 4, 2005

All the old features, plus:

• plays cd's front and back
• music: mp3, aac, ac3, wma, ogg, mp4
• video: whatever mplayer plays
• song and video lists are now skinned
• better conversion of mediacar skins (it's still not great)

If you have a skin you want converted, send it my way, and I'll see what I can do. No promises.

The Linux version should be available later this week.

The attached images are still the old ones.


Windows: Not available

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ORIGINAL
Hi,

I looked at some of the frontends available, and didn't find one that did exactly what I needed, so I wrote my own.

My specific need that wasn't covered, was that I needed to have 2 separate displays and 2 separate audio outputs. I wanted the front display and sound tied together, and the rear display and sound tied together. That way, I could listen to my tunes, while the kids in the back seat could listen to thier own tunes, or watch a video.

This program is written in C++ using wxWidgets as the base. In order to get cross-platform audio and video, I started using mplayer.

I'm not much of an artist, so my skin is pretty bad. I've attached some images for you to see.

I've written a convertor for MediaCar skins, but it's not great. I've also attached some images of that. I'm not sure I'll too much futher with the convertor, since it doesn't have all the functionality I need, and I had to hack someof the code to get it all working.

What works:
play music front and back
play video front and back
play dvd front and back
m3u playlist support

What doesn't work
gps
cd player

Currently works only with mp3s, but almost any video format.

Anyway, it's up here for your perusal. Let me know what you think. If anybody wants to make a nice skin for it, let me know!

Gerald