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[RhinoBanga]

Due to popular demand AV is back.

It can be downloaded here:

http://www.zippy.eclipse.co.uk/av/av2.exe


And it's only 560k.


For those of you who don't know what it is it provides an "album-centric" view of your tracks where you can:

-  View albums by artist
-  View thumbnails of the album covers for a particular artist.
-  Double-clicking on an album will play the album from the beginning.
-  View the tracks for a particular album, and double-clicking on a track
    will load the album onto the playlist but start from the selected track.
-  View a complete breakdown of the tracks for all your artists complete
    with the track's associated image, lyrics, notes, etc.
-  Determine which artists/albums do not have album covers.
-  A "favourites collection" view that just shows the albums marked as favourites
-  A "new collection" view that just shows the albums marked as new
-  An "entire colection" view that just shows album artwork
-  An export facility
-  Define external directory searching for artwork (very fast)
-  Define custom thumbnail captions
-  Quickly search for an album via the artist name, album name or genre
 


Other features:

-  Multimedia keys support (Windows 2000/XP only)
-  Customizable hotkeys to get the currently playing track to the clipboard
-  Move "The" tot he end of an artist name
-  Allow the override of artist name, e.g. set "Mike Oldfield" to "Oldfield, Mike"
-  MJ Skinning support
-  Background image loading for efficiency
-  A user definable image size of artwork
-  Fully customizable balloon tips showing artwork, album and track information
-  Fully customizable tile view




Due to the work I've put into AV I am now making it shareware.   The beta is time limited and will expire on the 6th October 2002 ... no other feature is disabled.

The full version will cost $10 and I'll (hopefully) get the details of how to pay sorted out by the next beta.


Here are some screenshots of 2.0:

Overview Screen



Album Details




Tile View Configuration




Balloons Configuration




Hotkeys Configuration

[JohnC]

Forgive me if I am wrong, but, I think that you might be a Mike Oldfield Fan.    

Great work on the Plugin Rhino.    

[RhinoBanga]

LOL ... whatever gave you that impression?  

[PhatPhreddy]

Looks great Rhino...

I have to admit being a bit let down when you said you can'ed development... Even if v9 does all this and more... I like AV with 8 right now !!!

Downloading now...

[SBrandsborg aka Mouseman]

Nice and nice size to

~mouse

[Fastyves]

Yeap ! Welcome back AV2.

"Nice    and nice size to "

             And certainly worth the 10$ !!

Yves.

[dragyn]

Will you be doing it for v9 also?

I installed it not thinking (as usual) and now v9 won't load. Says:

Assertion Failed!

this->GetSafeHwnd()

Program: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\Media Jukebox.exe
File: C:\Development\C\AlbumView2\PaneMain.cpp
Line: 66


Then I get:

m_ptbrMain->GetSafeHwnd()
Program: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\Media Jukebox.exe
File: C:\Development\C\AlbumView2\PaneMain.cpp
Line: 113

Then this:

m_ptbrMain->GetSafeHwnd()
Program: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\Media Jukebox.exe
File: C:\Development\C\AlbumView2\PaneMain.cpp
Line: 191

then crash.

I don't have a c:\development directory, installed in the default one.

I would think v8 plugins would work for v9. This must be a MJ bug if v8 works. If for some reason they don't, will you be making an album view that uses v9 new features?

I think you should. I'll definately buy this if it will work in v9.

[RhinoBanga]

I don't have v9 installed but it doesn't surprise me one bit that it doesn't work under V9.

V9 is new and constantly changing and I'm sure plugin support is the last thing on J River's minds.

As far as a V9 port is concerned well I'll wait till the database has been finalised and Matt/Nikolay release some documentation for developers on the differences (if any).

[Quisp]

Hi Rhino,

PLEASE consider making this available for V9. If you read the feature set, it sounds like most of the features of AV2 are going to be included in v9, but at this point of the game AV2 is MUCH MUCH more eloquent, user friendly and visually friendly than the current build of MJ9. To be fair, it's still in alpha, but you seem to have solved a lot of interface issues that they are still struggling with.

[RhinoBanga]

I'll have a look at V9 tomorrow.

[JimH]

Rhino,
You might want to wait on V9.  The interface isn't ready.

Congratulations and thanks!

Jim

[NY40Male]

Okay I Need Help..Plugin Looks Great..But Does It Work When Connected Thru Media Server?...I Cant Get Anything To Display Even Tho It Says Everything Is Loaded..What Am I Doing Wrong As Usual

[Fastyves]

But Does It Work When Connected Thru Media Server?...

Have a look at this thread, could answer your question

http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1032752557

Yves.

[rockstar]

Perhaps this is a stupid question, but I installed the plugin and created a database.  However, when go to the plugin, it only shows an Activity Log... and I don't see any artwork anywhere.  What am I doing wrong?

[Holden]

I have the same problem as Rockstar outlined just above. I'm missing some vital step and need some help.

Thanks if you have any suggestions.

Holden.

[RhinoBanga]

On the top right of the screen there is a "Go To" dropdown.

Click that.

[rockstar]

Now that you point that out, I see it in the pic in your post... however, it's not there in my MJ.  All I have is the icon size pulldown.

[rockstar]

Never mind... got it.  Thanks!

[nila]

Yo dude, It's looking V. NICE!!

Love the overview you threw in there.

Glad you finished it off. It's totally worth it.

Only other thing I gotta suggest:
A list box for: Sort By
I'd like the options:
- Album Name
- Artist Name / Album Name

[RhinoBanga]

Hi Nila,

Sorting of the Album Details screen is controlled by clicking on a column heading in report view.   This affects the icon and tile views also.

I will put in right-mouse support in both the Album Details and Overview screen to select the sort order but I'm not too sure how to implement dual column sorting.   I'll have a think.


By the way ... you checked out the credits screen in the about dialog  

[JohnC]

Hi Rhino

I don't know if this is a bug, or a problem with my setup.
If I choose an Album, then select Album Tracks in the middle lower window. Then double click on a song from that list to play, all of the Album view disappears as the song starts playing. I can get it all back immediately by clicking anywhere in the Left hand panes( Media Library window. Do you think this a problem with my computer? I can't remember it happening before with Album view, previous to this release.

Cheers

John C

[RhinoBanga]

I'll take a wild stab in the dark and say that you have MJ skinning enabled.

Try it without MJ skinning enabled ... if it works fine then its a bug with MJ.

[JohnC]

Hey Rhino. You are spot on with the diagnosis. I turned off skinning and it works fine. Sorry.

John C

[SBrandsborg aka Mouseman]

what about internal covers???

[RhinoBanga]

Internal images are supported.

If AV cannot find any external artwork it looks for artwork in the first track only and uses that if it exists.

[Quisp]

Scrolling.....

Is there any way that you could make the album cover scroll bar scroll vertically? Horizontal scrolling is very "unnatural". Maybe a preference?

BTW: Are you working on the skinning compatibility problem?

Thanks!

[Polonio]

Wooooooooooooow !!!

Looks and works great!!

Some time ago, I posted an article called "My perfect media player". Now, I realize I was thinking in MJ8 with AV2...

Thanks!

Just one little sugestion, you could include "<AlbumPath>\folder.jpg" as a second default folder to look for covert arts.

[pilzner]

Rhino,

Congrats on Version 2.  I am sorry to say that it is not working for me.  

I have created a data base.....however all I can see is the default image !!  The artwork is in the corect file....however I can not see any of the cover art!

What am I doing wrong.

-Pilzner

[Polonio]

Congrats on Version 2.  I am sorry to say that it is not working for me.  

I have created a data base.....however all I can see is the default image !!  The artwork is in the corect file....however I can not see any of the cover art!

What am I doing wrong.

The same thing happened to me. AV2 does not read the image tag MJ uses, it looks for the image in a directory you specify while creating the databse.

In my case, I added this directory to the list:

"<AlbumPath>\folder.jpg"

Then, it worked very very very well.

Hope, it helps.

[RhinoBanga]

Quisp

Is there any way that you could make the album cover scroll bar scroll vertically? Horizontal scrolling is very "unnatural". Maybe a preference?

I'll look into it.

BTW: Are you working on the skinning compatibility problem?

It's an MJ issue and not AV2 ... all I do when skinning is enabled is set the colours/fonts to match.

There was a posting in the developers forum about this but no-one from J River has responded.   I'll put another post in but the more people who do it the better the chance of a response.



Polonio

The same thing happened to me. AV2 does not read the image tag MJ uses, it looks for the image in a directory you specify while creating the databse.

Not quite right ... AV looks for artwork using these directories and when it cannot find artwork for an album it looks for an image contained within the albums first track.

Just one little sugestion, you could include "<AlbumPath>\folder.jpg" as a second default folder to look for covert arts.

I'll do that along with <AlbumPath>\*front*.jpg which should cater for a lot of people.

But since you've already installed it has "logged" your settings so when I release the next version you should uninstall and it will use the new settings.

[nila]

Hey Rhino,
Just checked the credits.

Thanks

Love what you did with the credits although I do have to admit, I liked the whole Matrix style credit you had in there before. It was trippy

One other idea Rhino,
Should have thought of this one a LONG time ago.
It'll be esp. useful with v9 when 'imported date' is added to song fields. It's a shame they're all going to start when v9 is released as it means that all albums up to this point will be considered new.
Anyway, As well as Entire Library, Completed only, favourites etc,
How about one called: Singles that basically just showed everything that wasn't an album.
That way my whole library would be returned to it's 'Real' State whereby everything's either a new album I've got or it's some new song that's just come out that I really like (a single). Mixed with import date it'll be a perfect way to keep track of new songs as I get them and hear about them.
It should be pretty easy to implement I'd imagine and would give full access to 'all' songs from within MJ.

Also, could there be an option to automatically go to your 'playing now' list when an album is clicked.

Oh yeah, last point - I swear (for now anyway)
could we right click on the items in the tree to rate them etc instead of having to go to the details pane.

Thanks - LOVING the plugin

[RhinoBanga]

Quisp

Is there any way that you could make the album cover scroll bar scroll vertically? Horizontal scrolling is very "unnatural". Maybe a preference?

Done ... it will be in the next version.


Nila

Just checked the credits.

Thought you'd like it

How about one called: Singles

Doesn't really make sense ... how could you really tell if it was a single and not an album with one track?   For example Mike Oldfield's Amarok is one track that lasts 60 minutes.

Also, could there be an option to automatically go to your 'playing now' list when an album is clicked.

Do you mean clicked or double clicked when you play it?

could we right click on the items in the tree to rate them etc instead of having to go to the details pane.

It's on the todo list ... I'll try and get it done this lunchtime.

[Polonio]

Rhino

Not quite right ... AV looks for artwork using these directories and when it cannot find artwork for an album it looks for an image contained within the albums first track.

Why don't you also look at the cover art location filed included in the database? It could be pointing someplace different that the default one. Different files can even point to different folders.

In my case, all songs have the cover in the "<AlbumPath>/folder.jpg", and MJ shows me always the artwork. That was why I was surprised when AV2 didn't automatically detected the cover art location...

Anyway, it is a minor issue. It works great to me.  


POLONIO

[RhinoBanga]

Why don't you also look at the cover art location filed included in the database? It could be pointing someplace different that the default one. Different files can even point to different folders.

It does ... the default setting is:

<MJArtworkDir>\<Artist> - <Album>.jpg

Where <MJArtworkDir> is the MJ artwork directory ... and this value is picked up from the registry.

When you ran the wizard it will have told you what it would look at in the sample box ... what did this show?

[Quisp]

Quisp

Done ... it will be in the next version.

Thanks, Rhino!

While you are getting things done......

I'm not sure how integrated plug-ins can be with MJ and it may already be a feature that I've missed, but is there a way to get to an album or file's properties from within AV2?

[RhinoBanga]

You can see most of the information in the panes ... but as far as popping up the MJ properties dialog ... J River provide no facility to do this.

[nila]

Rhino - about the singles,
it'd be really simple really,
Anything that wasn't being shown right now in your plugin as an album would be a single. I didn't mean to try and work out what was a single and what wasn't, just basically anything that's not classed as an album = a single.

This basically: single = SELECT * FROM theWholeMjMusicLibrary NOT in TheAlbumViewMusicLibrary
anything that matches that is a single

It's just mock SQL code to show what I mean

[RhinoBanga]

That's the issue ... everything *is* in an album of some sorts, i.e. if it has an album name then it's classed as an album.   If the album name field is blank then it's placed in the "(Unassigned)" album list.

Also I could not assume that anything that was in the MJ database and not in the AV database was a single as you can subset the AV database (see step 2 of the db creation wizard).


What album name do you give your singles?

[Polonio]

Rhino

It does ... the default setting is:

<MJArtworkDir>\<Artist> - <Album>.jpg

Where <MJArtworkDir> is the MJ artwork directory ... and this value is picked up from the registry.

I mean the image file location contained inside each song. It has not to necesary match the MJ artwork directory.

Here is some code using the MJ COM object...

s = MJFile.GetImageFile(IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE)

This code will return the path of the image. In my case the image files are called "folder.jpg" and are located in each album folder. That information is contained inside each individual files

When you ran the wizard it will have told you what it would look at in the sample box ... what did this show?

It says: "C:\Archivos de programa\J River\Media Jukebox\Data\Cover Art\Mike Oldfiel - Ommadown.jpg"

But, as I said, that information is also located in the "Ommadown.mp3" file. And, eventually, it can point to a different folder.


I must insist. In my case, I have not trouble, it is working fine to me. But I think if you look for the image using

s = MJFile.GetImageFile(IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE)

It will always work to everyone who has his files correctly tagged. If it works under MJ, AV2 will always show the image artwork correctly.

[RhinoBanga]

Here's what I said earlier ...

Not quite right ... AV looks for artwork using these directories and when it cannot find artwork for an album it looks for an image contained within the albums first track.

And here's the code it uses when that situation occurs ...

                                   //  Try checking the image
                                   AlbumView::MYW2A(      pAlbum->m_strThumbnailFilename,
                                                                 pTrack->m_pMJFile->GetImageFile( IMAGEFILE_IN_FILE ) );


I don't use IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE as I need to know if the track actually does have artwork ... which *_IN_DATABASE can't tell you.

[Polonio]

I don't use IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE as I need to know if the track actually does have artwork ...

I do not want to be annoying. So here is my point, and whatever you will decide is great to me.

AV could look for artwork in three different ways. If first way fails, it could look second way. If this also fails, AV could try last way. If it also fails, the album do not have artwork.

Here are the three ways I can think to:

1. Look for artwork using those directories
2. Look for an image contained within the albums first track.
3. Look for the imagefile in database for the albums first track.


If GetImageFile(IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE)
still return cero length string (or null, or whatever), then that album do not have artwork.

The point about this idea is that if MJ displays an artwork for an album, AV2 will also display it does not matter what.

Thanks for your attention.

POLONIO

[nila]

I call most my singles: Random Songs
For the DB Creation wizard though I set a min of 5 songs to make it an album, therefore there would be quite a few songs that have album names but aren't shown in AV.
But having something that gives a list of all these songs that are subset would be useful.
It would mean that we could use the wizard to make an ablum collection, but then still have access to all our other songs from within av that we didn't want classed as albums


Also, now that the db for v9 is finalised, you think your gonna make it v9 compatible?

[RhinoBanga]

Polonio,

Just for you I've put in IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE support ... but note that the album's image filename is stored in the AV2 database so if you go and change the location of the image after building your AV database it won't pick up the changes.

[RhinoBanga]

I call most my singles: Also, now that the db for v9 is finalised, you think your gonna make it v9 compatible?

Depends on how much of AV like functionality J River implement.

[Polonio]

Just for you I've put in IMAGEFILE_IN_DATABASE support ... but note that the album's image filename is stored in the AV2 database so if you go and change the location of the image after building your AV database it won't pick up the changes.

Wow, thanks a lot. I think this way everyone will see the cover art without any manual input intervention.

About the sincronization problem, I guess same thing will happen if someone renames an album or an artist. It seems periodic rescaning is needed.

Congratulation for your product. It is great.

POLONIO

[Marty3d]

Rhino,
I can't thank you enough for AV! It rocks!

A question though: I went through it and noticed that the album "Northern Star" by Mel C was actually set as Various Artists/Northern Star. When I looked into it I saw that AV2 put together two albums, first the one with Mel C and Groove Armada's album "Northern Star". Is there any way to avoid such misunderstanding? Both albums are in different folders named "Melanie C - Northern Star" and "Groove Armada - Northern Star (1998)"

Suggestions?

[RhinoBanga]

An album gets put under various artists if the artist name tag in the tracks are different.

Check that.   If that's not the issue then zip up and email me your Mediafiles.JMD file (from the Data folder in your MJ installation folder).   The addy is jamie@jdnet.co.uk

[Marty3d]

The tags are different of course. I wouldn't for the world mix up Mel C with Groove Armada

Here's an example (taken from my head, I don't remember the titles correctly):
Artist: Melanie C
Album: Northern Star
Track#: 04
Title: Come on

...and on the other side...

Artist: Groove Armada
Album: Northern Star
Track#: 04
Title: Next to Willies

So, the songs up to 11 or 12 even have the same track#! Then AV shouldn't be confused to put it in the same album, would it? And, to make another difference between the two albums, they have different cover art...

[RhinoBanga]

Looks like I missed a chunk of code when I moved the code from VB to C++


Duplicate album processing will be in the next release.

[Marty3d]

Thanks a bunch Rhino!