Thread: What features are you looking for in the ideal car player software?

Make sure your player has these basic features: LCD support, Keypad support, IRman support, low cpu usage.
And preferably runs under an OS that doesn't require proper shutdown.

What I love in MP3 software is a command that will automatically find all of the MP3s on any given drive and catalog them all in a searchable database.. also, GPL it and distribute the source code freely, and make sure you have a full EQ.

1) If all you mp3s are stored in folders under artist names with perhaps subfolders of albums by that artist then it seems to me critical to be able to jump to the songs of a particular artist/album with a few keystrokes of a keypad or remote WITHOUT referring to a playlist printed on paper or memorizing the track numbers. Kinda tricky but necessary for choosing 1 song of 4000 while driving and trying not to bump into anything!

2) Support for visualisation plugins to provide some eye candy on the colour LCD that everyone dreams of

3) Support for VBR encoded tracks!

4) Basically just create winamp 4 linux .... that would just about do the trick...

Something that will auto play mp3 and audio cds when they are put into a cdrom drive.

Ability to Shuffle for all tracks in the entire paylist, of the current genre, of the current artist and of the current album.

AND the ability to run in Dos/Linux (something with a fast boot time, and no shutdown problems).

Originally Posted by dannie

I'm currently developing player software that runs under Linux and was curious what features others are looking for in the ideal player software for the car.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I'll have a current feature list and web site up soon.

I actually was going to get started on mine. I planned on writing a decent frontend to use xmms/mplayer using the framebuffer and a linuxbios.org bios for an epia-m. I was, however, taking it a step further and making it a distro (with optimized kernel and builds) for epia based boards as soon as I get a hold of a few different models (eden, mii nehemia, i have a m-10000 nehemia already). I was also going to write out a gps program that would actually be meant for use on a touchscreen.

I doing this, I was hoping to create a fanbase such that as of frodo or media car, but I always like taking things a steo further. I think it would be nice to create a system on chip distro (that obviously was upgradeable) and could have a nice headunit type of input. I don't think that will be possible with out getting the resources that apline/clarion/your favorite hu manufacturer have, but it would be fun to try

I actually was going to start today as I have gotten my epia back from my house and can start tinkering around with it. I don't play well with others, but if you need any tips or help, you can always ask

steve

Hey Steve, this post is from 1999.

Never mind, just support the idea, its cool...

Originally Posted by frodobaggins

Hey Steve, this post is from 1999.

The noob actually used the !!