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[Steve4810]

I've got a way cool mount for my laptop in my truck. Thing is, I'm left-handed so I'm not very good at using the touchpad with my right hand.

Also, peering down at the screen for more than a half a second while careening down the freeway is, to say the least, dicey.

So, is there a skin that lets you play/pause last/next and maybe one or two other controls VIA the Function Keys?? ?

Alt/Ctl + P/L/N while driving is too tough for me.

[nila]

Steve - what you want is just a full screen program with like 6 buttons on it that are HUGE so you can control that REALLY easily.

I could probably make a stand alone program pretty easily that'd pass the commands to MC.

What functions would you want it to have?
Then also - what buttons do you want for each function?

I'll play with it and see what I can do (wont be a plugin - will just be a stand alone app that talks to MC)

[RhinoBanga]

Why not just use the hotkeys facility of standard Windows shortcuts to send commands like:

C:\WINNT\system32\mjextman.exe /Command Pause


Remember tho that the shortcuts must be on your desktop or in your start menu for the keys to get registered.

[nila]

I bow to the superior knowledge!!

I'd forgotten about that feature - never really used it.

In case your not sure what he means Steve - u create a shortcut like normal (in either of the places he said) - then you right click on it - chose properties, Shortcut - Shortcut Key option there

It works great - I just tried it!

[Bartabedian]

Also, peering down at the screen for more than a half a second while careening down the freeway is, to say the least, dicey.

Oh, that was you?!  

[Steve4810]

Quote from: Steve4810 on November 26, 2003, 04:26:26 PM
Also, peering down at the screen for more than a half a second while careening down the freeway is, to say the least, dicey.

 Oh, that was you?!

Yeah, well my cat's fatter than yours

[Steve4810]

Nila, I like the huge button idea to go with the f-key solution. It is MJ though not MC.  Does that make it harder?

My dream list of functions would be play/pause last/next and some kind of "show playlists" then arrow up or down to pick then a key to add all and I guess I'd need a button to clear "playing now" (not asking much huh?)

Rhino Banga, That's what I thought but couldn't remember how to get it done!! I was trying to find a freeware download to do it.

I'll try it later today.

BTW anybody know about the laws concerning wearing headphones while driving in the left half of the country(CA to IL)?

[nila]

The buttons would be easy - all it'd be would be a BIG set of buttons that call basically what Rhino said - it'd take 5 mins to make.

The problem with playlists thou is you'd have to look to see them.

Rhino - u having much luck with your speaking yet for ur plugin??

If we could add some voice to this it'd make this guy ALOT safer so he didn't have to look down.

[Steve4810]

If we could add some voice to this it'd make this guy ALOT safer so he didn't have to look down.

Actually, the prime reason for the laptop is navagation which DOES have voice control and response (Delorme Street Atlas USA 2003) using Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine 4.0 (English).

Here's a link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7d13964c-06fd-4bf9-b49c-814faa6a86ea&displaylang=en

(looks like you have to copy to the clipboard cause in preview half the link isn't active)

[nila]

Rhino's already looking into text to speech and speech to text for PlayingNow.

Depending on how far he got with this he might be able to contribute a bit towards giving u some sound.

[Steve4810]

DID IT!

"C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mjextman.exe /PLAY TREEPATH=Playlists\Top Hits"  Works fine.

I think I will make playlists with names like this: F1-Dianna Krall, F2-60s Rock, etc.

I'll save f8 thru f12 for clearplaylist, play, pause, next and last. I'll put colored dots or other shaped labels on them as I have done for map commands. Seeing a red dot is way easier than a key label of F10.

RhinoBanga rules!! Thanks so much.

Nila, I'd still like big buttons too. Maybe to mirror the f-key setup?

Voice would be nice to have when it comes along. I haven't used it for mapping but if I had two apps that used voice command, I'd go to the trouble to at least try it.

[Steve4810]

OK, I LIED

The command above works but it puts the whole media library in playing now.  I can't seem to specify any real playlist name.

HELP!!

Somebody must know the right syntax.

[nila]

Ok,

How many buttons do you want? I'll make them user configurable (I think!!!)


Look at your screen - divide it up and decide what would be a SAFE number of buttons to fit on there.

[Steve4810]

Nila,

If you really want to do this, I think nine buttons 300 x 200 a piece would be about right.  If the buttons resize by screen definition, then these sizes are for 1024X768 which is the only res I use.


If they are to be user definable, I would use at least 3 for play lists. If not could you set the last 3 for PL-1, PL-2 and PL-3 playlists? That way before a day in the truck I could rename any 3 lists to coincide with these or maybe have 3 lists with those names and drag the contents of other playlists into them (kind of like setting radio station buttons depending on what city your in).

The other buttons seem like they sould be:

Stop, play/pause, last, next, remove currently playing.

Course you most likely have a better grasp of MJ and a lot more experience using it so if you have better ideas, I'd love to hear them.

BTW, will the trouble with command line operation I'm having now carry over to this project?

Could MJ8 be too buggy to do any of this?

[antolod]

BTW anybody know about the laws concerning wearing headphones while driving in the left half of the country(CA to IL)?

AFIK, it is not legal to wear headphones that cover both ears while driving in most states.  Strange actually, since it is not against the law to drive deaf.


Listening to: Lifeless Dead by Mad Season from Above on Media Center V10.0.13

[nila]

Hey Steve,

Sorry, I COMPLETELY forgot about this.

U still after it?

[Steve4810]

It would be nice to have but if making it would *AT ALL* be a chore, don't bother.  But if you like doing this kind of project, I'd be happy to be your beta tester.  I've got to believe someone else would like to have a feature like this. It would be good for touch screen control too.

I'm a little worried about the sometimes flaky performance of MJ. Did you see my posts regarding the command line thing not working right? Does this happen to a lot of people? Other than this bug, the program has worked pretty well for me.


Steve

[nila]

There are a lot of areas in MC that aren't quite perfect or that are a wee bit broken. I guess that's just one of them.

Usually there's a work around for it somehow

I'll see how much free time I get and if I can throw something like this together if I get a chance.