Neon Boombox users guide

NeonDev · 03-26-2008, 05:02 PM

this thread is intended to be a dumping ground for information regarding how to use Neon Boombox. Any questions regarding how to do something in Neon Boombox should be posted here for anybody to answer.

As a start Im going to attempt to list all the key bindings for the application as they stand in this yet to be released build. (they are largely the same as the current release 6)

understand that when I say focus it means what has the neon blue "ring" around it. focus starts on the dial and it there is a module at the bottom position that button is given focus.

Main application:

up/down - rotates the main screen dial left and right. (for those of you that don't know this can also be dragged around by dragging anywhere between the clock and the outer edge of the trench containing the buttons AS OF RELEASE 6B).

if the color change slider in the options is focused this will scrub that. in the future if the volume control is focused it will turn the volume up/down

tab - switches focus between controls. from the dial to the options button to the power button and back to the dial

spacebar - triggers the focused control. on power and options button this will open bezels with different options in them which can also be focused using the tab key. if the dial is in focus the module at its 6oclock position is launched.

x - triggers a bezel close if any are open. otherwise triggers the power button.

o - triggers the options bezel if no other bezels are open

Music Module:

up/down - if a list is focused will move the highlight indicator up/down scrolling the list if necessary.

if the track position scrubber is focused will scrub back/forward

if the volume control is focused will adjust the volume up/down

any-other time will jump the focus to the controls at the bottom (either the playlist/artist/song/whatever filters or the play/pause back forward visualizer etc) and cycle through them

tab - switches focus to the next control group. from home to the bottom controls to options and back to the home button (throw the track scrubber in there for the now playing screen)

if in the options will cycle through the different options.

spacebar - will trigger the focused control. if a list is in focus it will drill to the next level (sorry no binding for a "double click" for playing an entire artist/album/playlist yet)

x - triggers a bezel close if in one. otherwise triggers the home button.

o - triggers the options bezel

whew i think thats everything...

NeonDev · 05-14-2008, 11:28 PM

now that release 9 has support for 3rd party visualizers it is time to teach the interested how to craft them.

NBB visualizers are nothing more that a quartz composition. you will need apples free Quartz Composer application found on you leopard install DVD.

As of version 1.1 NBB now uses apples iTunes visualizer protocol. when creating a new document in quartz composer choose the "music visualizer" option and work from there; its as simple as that.

If you are new to Quartz Composer i suggest downloading "iVisualize" and making a simple port or two of those visualizers. If you create any visualizers and want me to bundle them I sure can do that, but I only want to include real visualizers in the application, nothing that is "faked".

Apples itunes visualizers are located in /system/library/compositions/
you may install them in the music module and use them with NBB. note that they don't seem to work exactly as they do in itunes. I suspect apple has a different idea of what "spectrum" and "peak" are... but most of them work well enough. jelly is pretty cool

you may install your visualizers in:
"Neon Boombox.app/Contents/Resources/Modules/PXMusicModule.module/Visualizers/"

I am working on a "quick install" method for visualizers similar to the install method for modules themselves. will likely use drag and drop from finder.

NeonDev · 05-17-2008, 07:12 PM

Main Application:

these bindings only apply to the main screen at this time. options/power bezel are uncontrollable with the apple remote. will be addressed in a future release

up/down - equivalent to tab. cycle between the dial the options button, the power, button, and of course the dial. only unidirectional at this time.

left/right - rotate the dial left/right. user can hold for continual rotation

play - toggle focused control. equivalent to the space bar.

menu - toggles the power bezel tho the apple remote does not currently control the bezel.

Music/Video Modules

the following apply only while on the library browser screen

up/down - equivalent to the up/down keys. scrolls tables and adjusts "scrollable" controls when they are in focus. user can hold for continuous action. the volume controller is now scrollable

right/left - equivalent to tab. change focus to the next control. unidirectional at this time.

play - toggle selected control. equivalent to space bar.

hold play - launch the visualizer (music module only).

menu - exit the module.

the following apply to the "now playing" screen as well as the visualizer/full screen movie views

up/down - controls the volume.

right/left - forward/back.

play/pause - play/pause

menu - back to previous scree.

hold menu - exits the module.

NeonDev · 06-21-2008, 02:20 PM

Here are some helpful tips and tricks:

1.using Apples "Property List Editor" available on your Leopard install disc, you can edit the ~/Library/Prefrences/com.Project-X.NeonBoombox.plist file to edit some preferences that aren't editable any other way.

the only "hidden" preference as of right no is called "dateFormat" which controls the date formatting for the main clock. here is a guide to help you all customize it how you see fit.

More "hidden" prefs will likely come to pass in the future.

2. (this tip is for 1.0 and later) you may hold down on the dial for 2 seconds (without dragging) to toggle button arrangeability.

BTW I have updated the above documentation as well.

3. adding avi and other types of movies to iTunes for playback in NBB WITHOUT converting them. this requires quicktime pro.

4. adding scrollers to the NBB table views. example uses music module, but this is doable with any table
you will need to install apples interface builder application from the Leopard install DVD.
perform a "show package contents" on NBB and navigate to the desired module.
once again perform a "show package contents" on the module
open the .nib file in the module resources directory inside interface builder
assuming you are editing the music module
find the "Window (Browser)" in the column view for the nib
navigate down to "window background"->"scroll view"->"custom view"
once there you will see 3 additional "scroll view (table view)"s
select one and hit apple+shift+i to bring up the inspector
tick the box that says "show vertical scroller" (the one for automatically hide scrollers too if you want)
repeat for all desired tables

MACR56S · 07-31-2008, 04:31 AM

OK how about a newbe that has never realy worked with a mac before and bairly knows his way around the main programs. Programing is out of the question for me. I'm a graphic designer so I can make cool pages in AI but forget making them work.

So I'm looking for some basic needs. Music (that's a no brainer) video, can't seem to view anything more than and Mpeg4. GPS would be cool but I have a Nuvi already. Recording Video from cameras around the car is one of my main focuses.

Anything you can do to help this Newbe get started? I'm puting the mac in my MINI this weekend so I would like to at least get my movies to play on there.

Is there a way to make Boombox play direct for Divx or Quicktime?

NeonDev · 07-31-2008, 10:24 AM

NBB can play anything that is playable in quicktime player except protected movies bought from the iTunes store. There are several downloadable codecs for quicktime that will play divx and that should allow you to watch DivX in NBB. just google it.

a note about using your nav program... most people seem to like using spaces to switch between NBB and their nav programs.

MACR56S · 07-31-2008, 12:09 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by NeonDev

NBB can play anything that is playable in quicktime player except protected movies bought from the iTunes store. There are several downloadable codecs for quicktime that will play divx and that should allow you to watch DivX in NBB. just google it.

a note about using your nav program... most people seem to like using spaces to switch between NBB and their nav programs.

I have all that and the movies play fine in QT but they still won't load in Itunes. so when I open Boombox I only get the stuff that has loaded in itunes.

Is there some way to set the Movie button to play from the QT favorites?

NeonDev · 07-31-2008, 12:51 PM

Quote:

I have all that and the movies play fine in QT but they still won't load in Itunes. so when I open Boombox I only get the stuff that has loaded in itunes.

oh man that is weak! i thought iTunes would add anything that QT could play for some reason...

Quote:

Is there some way to set the Movie button to play from the QT favorites?

not at this time tho later versions will likely add new video sources now that i see iTunes won't add non ipod compatible videos...

one thing you could do to get them to show up is to manually edit the iTunes.xml file and add the videos to it yourself, but eachtime you open and quit itunes that file is rewritten so that wouldn't work if you are using itunes on your mini for anything besides the initial library setup...

it probably won't be that hard for me to just add movies from the movies folder to the NBB movie library but they would all be categorized as movies and have not tag info.

MACR56S · 08-01-2008, 12:03 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by NeonDev

oh man that is weak! i thought iTunes would add anything that QT could play for some reason...

not at this time tho later versions will likely add new video sources now that i see iTunes won't add non ipod compatible videos...

one thing you could do to get them to show up is to manually edit the iTunes.xml file and add the videos to it yourself, but eachtime you open and quit itunes that file is rewritten so that wouldn't work if you are using itunes on your mini for anything besides the initial library setup...

it probably won't be that hard for me to just add movies from the movies folder to the NBB movie library but they would all be categorized as movies and have not tag info.

What would be cool is if we can pic what folder we want to play from. Like a Portable HD

NeonDev · 08-01-2008, 01:01 AM

the best hope for that in the short term would be a setting in the preference file that you could edit to the desired folder. I just don't have time to focus on that right now, there are alot of things ahead on the priority list at the moment.

It will be at least a couple of weeks before I can even do that so in the meantime everyone is stuck either converting movies or using the QT Pro workaround mentioned by golfguy

sorry

MACR56S · 08-01-2008, 04:59 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by NeonDev

the best hope for that in the short term would be a setting in the preference file that you could edit to the desired folder. I just don't have time to focus on that right now, there are alot of things ahead on the priority list at the moment.

It will be at least a couple of weeks before I can even do that so in the meantime everyone is stuck either converting movies or using the QT Pro workaround mentioned by golfguy

sorry

Thnaks. I just purchased QT Pro so I'm going that rought. I posted on the suggestions thread about changing the front end skinn too.

NeonDev · 08-18-2008, 11:19 AM

updated the NBB tips
updated the visualizer creation guide

NeonDev · 09-09-2008, 06:18 PM

Starting in the most recent BETA of 1.1 NBB supports theme presets that will eventually be only a small part of a much larger theming/skinning mechanism.

in 1.1 final you will be able to quick install themes like you can do with modules now (by double clicking them or dropping them on Neon Boombox). Until then you will have to manually manage them by "showing package contents" on NBB and navigating to contents/skins. in that folder are several .skin bundles that for now appear as folders but in the final build you will have to do a "show package contents" on these as well.

right now the NBB skinning engine only supports themes so the only file in the skin bundle that matters will be the .theme file which is really just an XML file.

please note that I have hard coded a limit on the number of skins NBB will load. I don't think anybody will need more than 7 themes to choose from, and screen real estate is very limited and when skins support more than themes it will take a significant chunk of memory.

the theme file will support many things in the future but for now it supports only these properties:

name - self explanatory
interfaceHueValue - correlates to the hue value set in the app prefrences
interfaceBrightnessValue - same as above
interfaceContrastValue - same as above
interfaceSaturationValue - same as above
interfaceFontColor - same as above only encompasses all the color channels (and one day an alpha value). it is a strin in this format: {%R,%G,%B}
when i say percentage i mean a float between 0.0 and 1.0. so a value of {1.0,1.0,1.0} is equal to white

I am posing an example .skin bundle that you can use as a template for creating your own themes. If you come up with anything good I'd be happy to include it in the NBB distribution.

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