CoverFlow + RR = Coverjuke

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Originally Posted by l1nk

Many thanks! In the meantime I made some changes to the skin and reverted to the previous visual style version (the one based on skinbedder help, but no more skinbedder thanks to your work on scripts!).

I'm testing to reach a good result but still have the initial delay on loading coverjuke. It takes about 10 seconds to load and position in the right way. Don't know if there's something wrong or simply depends on my carputer (atom 330 based Intel D945GCLF2 motherboard). Please take a look to this video (made with my logitech quickcam connected to my other computer):

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06Redbl_dQQ[/media]

Are these delays and flickering (don't know if it's the right term!) normal during loading coverjuke?

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I can't be exactly sure when answering this question, but I would have to say that it's probably the speed of your system. What you can do to speed things up is run coverjuke when you start roadrunner. The embedder will look to see if it is open then grab it and embed it. This will allow time for it to open and load your album covers before you can navigate to the coverjuke screen, which will make embedding nearly instant.

Does that make sense? And the "flickering" is normal when embedding. The script actually grabs coverjuke, then minimizes it, makes some calculations on where to put the window, then maximizes it again. It has to do all these things after coverjuke has started though. I will look into trying to make it flicker less by hiding the window until it is maximized. Maybe V1.3 in the future.

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Originally Posted by kimnach

i am having a bit of a problem here, and not yet being very familiar with skinning, i'm sure it's an obvious problem. coverjuke (and cover.exe) are in the default path.

my carputer still sits here in my basement and i occassionally tinker with it. i recently found coverjuke and gave it (v1.2) a go tonight. it works standalone--pretty neat--and i will just use the default skin in dfx4.

using skineditor (0.71), i thought the easy mod would to just change the main menu "music" button (B02 to execute the command "coverjuke").

coverjuke does launch, but all i get is a bordered window with the default coverjuke controls and my windows desktop showing through. skintool indicates that on pressing the button the embedder executes ("LOAD;coverjuke.skin;!AutoIT v3 Gui;C:\Program Files\RideRunner\Plugins\CJ Embedder V1.2.exe;CJ Embedder"). what have i obviously missed?

thanks much.

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Kimnach,
Do you see the application "coverjuke" start, as shown in the video above? Or do you just see the coverjuke embedder application start?

Also, do you have "CJ_DirPath" defined in your skin.ini?

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Originally Posted by ws6vert

I can't be exactly sure when answering this question, but I would have to say that it's probably the speed of your system. What you can do to speed things up is run coverjuke when you start roadrunner. The embedder will look to see if it is open then grab it and embed it. This will allow time for it to open and load your album covers before you can navigate to the coverjuke screen, which will make embedding nearly instant.

Does that make sense? And the "flickering" is normal when embedding. The script actually grabs coverjuke, then minimizes it, makes some calculations on where to put the window, then maximizes it again. It has to do all these things after coverjuke has started though. I will look into trying to make it flicker less by hiding the window until it is maximized. Maybe V1.3 in the future.

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I'll try your suggestion tonight. Looking forward for your PM on elite skin. Thanks alot :hippie:

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Originally Posted by kimnach

coverjuke does launch, but all i get is a bordered window with the default coverjuke controls and my windows desktop showing through. skintool indicates that on pressing the button the embedder executes ("LOAD;coverjuke.skin;!AutoIT v3 Gui;C:\Program Files\RideRunner\Plugins\CJ Embedder V1.2.exe;CJ Embedder"). what have i obviously missed?

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That is the exact issue I'm having. Kimnach, I think you're confusing the loading of the coverjuke skin and the loading of the coverjuke program. The controls you're seeing are in the skin, which is loading. I would bet that if you go to task manager you will not see coverjuke.exe as a running process, which means the program itself is not loading.

I too have used all the default locations.

Edit: I now have Coverjuke loading. Here's what worked for me:

1. Installed the current version of RideRunner, including the dll files that come with the current download;
2. Uninstalled Coverjuke 1.53 using add/remove programs;
3. Removed every reference to "coverjuke" and "coverflow" from the registry; and
4. Reinstalled Coverjuke 1.53.

I wish I knew which of those actions did the trick, but I now have it loading on two computers. I'm having a couple of issues, including 100% CPU load (100% on a P4, 2.2 GHZ, with 1 GB Ram. The Athlon XP 2800+ 2.08 GHZ with 1 GB RAM runs at 20%. WTF? Is there that much difference between the two chips?), non-working scroll bar and inability to flip albums to see songs or to play albums. I'll see if I can sort those issues out.

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Originally Posted by kbreeden

That is the exact issue I'm having. Kimnach, I think you're confusing the loading of the coverjuke skin and the loading of the coverjuke program. The controls you're seeing are in the skin, which is loading. I would bet that if you go to task manager you will not see coverjuke.exe as a running process, which means the program itself is not loading.

I too have used all the default locations.

Edit: I now have Coverjuke loading. Here's what worked for me:

1. Installed the current version of RideRunner, including the dll files that come with the current download;
2. Uninstalled Coverjuke 1.53 using add/remove programs;
3. Removed every reference to "coverjuke" and "coverflow" from the registry; and
4. Reinstalled Coverjuke 1.53.

I wish I knew which of those actions did the trick, but I now have it loading on two computers. I'm having a couple of issues, including 100% CPU load (100% on a P4, 2.2 GHZ, with 1 GB Ram. The Athlon XP 2800+ 2.08 GHZ with 1 GB RAM runs at 20%. WTF? Is there that much difference between the two chips?), non-working scroll bar and inability to flip albums to see songs or to play albums. I'll see if I can sort those issues out.

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-I'm not sure what the issue was either. My script will load coverjuke if you set the "CJ_dirPath" variable correctly in your skin.ini. This is the only way my script knows where to look to execute the coverjuke.exe. There should be no "coverflow" in your registry as a result of my script.

-As for 100% CPU, that must be your system, because mine has used a maximum of about 14% on my centrino laptop.

-If you read the first post you will know that the issue with the scrollbar is a known bug that I do not have control over.

-As for flipping the albums to see the songs or the ability to play the album when clicked will depend on your "COVERJUKEACTION" variable, which you also should have defined in your skin.ini, as well as if you set up coverjuke's path to external player as "cover.exe"

-Quick question, are you running a full version of XP or is this a partial "n-lited" version?

i'm like ws6vert, i have this in my skin works great , cpu about 9% - 11%, i have a popup that displays the Playlist of selected album, to which you can select just the 1 track or all. i get a little flicker when the popup goes away but thats due to the popup effect i have in place.

-Quick question, are you running a full version of XP or is this a partial "n-lited" version?[/QUOTE]

ws6vert, i was thinking about this today....i have a minimized xp install (used n-lite) and also tweeked my system by turning off a number of "uneccessary" services. this may be the root of my problem.

anyone have any idea which services are absolutely needed? i'll try a "hit an miss" approach otherwise.

btw: yes, only the skin is loading for me. coverjuke does not start, according to taskman.

greg

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Originally Posted by kimnach

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-Quick question, are you running a full version of XP or is this a partial "n-lited" version?

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ws6vert, i was thinking about this today....i have a minimized xp install (used n-lite) and also tweeked my system by turning off a number of "uneccessary" services. this may be the root of my problem.

anyone have any idea which services are absolutely needed? i'll try a "hit an miss" approach otherwise.

btw: yes, only the skin is loading for me. coverjuke does not start, according to taskman.

greg

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Is "CJ Embedder V1.2.exe" starting? You should be able to verify this in task manager. If it is not, then thats where we need to start troubleshooting.

If this is true, is RR grabbing the CJ Embedder window or is it just sitting on top of RR?

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Originally Posted by ws6vert

There should be no "coverflow" in your registry as a result of my script.

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There was an earlier coverflow plugin that some of us were using. I found a couple of references to it in my registry. I don't know if that was the issue, but anyone who used the coverflow plugin from a year or two ago who is having issues with Coverjuke may want to clean the registry.

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Originally Posted by ws6vert

-As for 100% CPU, that must be your system, because mine has used a maximum of about 14% on my centrino laptop.

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Yes, I'm sure it's my system; I just don't know why. It's good to know that it's not eating up major resources on others' systems.

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Originally Posted by ws6vert

If you read the first post you will know that the issue with the scrollbar is a known bug that I do not have control over.

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Sorry. I meant to say in my earlier post that I hadn't yet gotten a chance to go back through the thread to see if any of my issues had been mentioned.

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Originally Posted by ws6vert

As for flipping the albums to see the songs or the ability to play the album when clicked will depend on your "COVERJUKEACTION" variable, which you also should have defined in your skin.ini, as well as if you set up coverjuke's path to external player as "cover.exe"

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Okay, I'll play with that.

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Originally Posted by ws6vert

Quick question, are you running a full version of XP or is this a partial "n-lited" version?

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Full XP.

ws6vert et al, i re-installed a full copy of windows (as opposed to the minimal install that i created with n-lite) and coverjuke works! whether it was an errantly set service, a missing component, or something else, a full copy of windows is now my starting point. i'll tweek from here.

now, i'd like to see coverjuke stay within the limits of dfx4's album/list view window, but that's for another time.....

thanks again for you efforts!
greg