UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I've finally gotten the last bugs from the ukmp. It now supports all mp3:s (even those with covers). Also, new in this version is support for seeking.

Demonstration video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCIANUJ-ctg
Debian here: https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa...1/UKMP-1.0.deb
You need to have python installed.
If you don't have python, install from here:
http://pymaemo.garage.maemo.org/installation.html

I hope you enjoy it!

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Here is a screenshot:
http://bp0.blogger.com/_oSU7o6fFfUU/...400/Kuva+1.png

And I just updated the blog entry to include embedded video example:
http://konttoristhoughts.blogspot.com/

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I installed UKMP 1.0 today without any trouble, and it works fine. It is an improvement over the built in media player, but I have 2 comments.

1: The cover art download wasn't always accurate, which I could correct manually.
2. UKMP had trouble with doubleCDs. It lumps them as one CD, and sometimes drops some of the songs. When it keeps them all, it doesn't maintain the correct order (all of CD 1, followed by CD 2).

A lot of my music is Broadway musicals, ripped to mp3s by Windows Media Player.

Thanks,

Howard

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I'll try to get the doubleCD problem fixed for the next version. I suppose I can just use the cd number tag from the id3 tag, right?

As for the first problem, ukmp uses yahoo to get the covers and it's just not a perfect solution. Ok, many people have suggested amazon, but the counter argument is that amazon only has cds from mainstream artists and even then mostly only from the english speaking countries. So, in that sense, yahoo (or any other search engine) is more neutral.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

this player is great. thanks for the great work. i like the titling right below the album art. its amazing how readable small text is on this thing. much preferred to canola and its hierarchy.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Great to hear that you like it!
What do you think about the button choices? Should they be different? Or do you think this is close to ideal?

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Is it possible for UKMP to play ogg files (assuming that the ogg codecs are installed) ?
Thanks for you really nice work !

Fred

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I'd like just once for Maemo.org to be upright when I want to download something :)

*Edit* And of course the instant I post it comes back :)

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

By the way, I just noticed that the python 2.5 installer doesn't work on all devices without an extra repo. So, if you have trouble installing python, go here and install base repo first and then the actual python:
http://pymaemo.garage.maemo.org/installation.html

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Yes, it is possible in the future. But alas, not yet.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

i think the buttons follow the UI conventions already set forth. however, we could use a volume status bar and support volume ramping. is there a way to make the volume control affect the system volume not the app volume? and, of course, it would be nice to support a voice search to automatically display the album art which matches.:)

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I have been able to add ogg support now. I will combine it with some other new features as well and publish a new version next week. In the meanwhile, in case you have any ideas on how to improve it, I hope you guys / gals will let me know.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Well, since you asked .... A nice option for the player would be to display larger versions of the album covers (perhaps only 4 on the screen at one time, in a 2 x 2 grid). This would make it easier to use UKMP while driving.

Howard

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I agree, some form of scaling interface would be very nice. Also information on tracks playback i.e time. what would be really magic is lyrics from internet of track being played.

what is correct way to close player?
why white and black player interface via start up selection, rather than some user configuration option?

Good Work, great to see so many media player interfaces and developments for the Internet tablet devices! :)

PS I Found that player locked up first time it scanned media and needed to restart device. should i have ideally restarted after install of python and player proir to first use?

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

this is a great media player. i love the fact that i can see the album cover. i think better use of the dpad after you select the album would be nice but this could be just me. i think the up and down would be better used for browsing the current album since visually the songs are aligned that way instead of moving from one album to the next.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Current song playback time and position will be added quite soon, but I'm not completely certain if I should add clutter in the form of song duration in the songs list.

Correct way to close it is to press the fullscreen and use the close app button.

Black and white are used because it was quicker to do. The look is already themed and it will be possible to make your own look to the app in a near future version.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I have been hearing the same thing from other people as well, so maybe I'll do it soon.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I've just released ukmp 1.1.

Full details here:
http://konttoristhoughts.blogspot.co...6/ukmp-11.html


Usually 1.0 versions need a quick 1.01 version. Quite surprisingly this was not the case for UKMP release. I didn't receive a single critical bug report. One seemingly annoying bug that was reported was that some people didn't have much luck with the album cover downloads. This has now been greatly improved for the 1.1 version. Yes. 1.1 is now ready for public consumption. Both, the accuracy of the cover images, as well as the quality of the images has been improved. New version also contains initial ogg support.

Go grab it while it's hot!

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

You didn't mention this in your release notes for UKMP 1.1, but the problem with my double CD albums is now fixed. Thanks !!

Howard

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

OK, konttori, I'm ready to give UKMP a test run. First, one question. I already have album art for all my collection, stored as folder.jpg files in each directory (one per CD). [Oops, that's my PC standard. On the N800 the files are renamed cover.jpg to appease Canola.] So I would prefer to have the app use my art instead of downloading its own. Is there an install option or naming convention I can use to accomplish this?

P.S. One more question. (I lied. ;-) Have you implemented gapless MP3 playback yet, and if not, is it still on the roadmap? Thanks!

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

howard:
Thanks for remembering to check that. I actually fixed the multi cd support immediately after you notified me of it. I just had forgotten about it. Great to hear that it works!

jpj:
UKMP still doesn't support using images in mp3 directories. What you can do, is let UKMP download images for you in mmc/covers and then just fix the ones it didn't figure out correctly.

Gapless playback seems to be out of reach for n800 and 770. I can try to minimize the gap between songs a bit, but it cannot probably be much less than 0.4 seconds. At the moment, the song change takes almost a second. Anyway, try it out and let me know how it works for you.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

HI Konttori,

I find the the cover art in 1.0 was more accurate than 1.1. I am sure that you will find people who like 1.1 better than 1.0.

I would like to suggest that someday you have a configuration file for such things as cover art, black or white version, etc.

Thanks for a great app.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

On some CDs, I noticed that the last 2-3 seconds of the songs are cut off. I only have the problem on some Broadway musicals. I don't know what's different about the music - all the CDs were ripped with Media Player. The built in N800 media player works fine. Unfortunately, the effect is very noticeable on some music.

Howard

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Noted as bug. I even know the reason, so there might indeed be a way to fix it as well.

Bug tracker here:
https://garage.maemo.org/tracker/ind...d=234&atid=945

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Hey, konttori, what's the license for this thing? I'd like to modify it and redistribute my changes, but I don't see a GPL license on the code.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Well, it's GPL. What kind of changes have you made? I might be interested in them as well.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

OK. I saw the GPL license on the garage page, but I think we need a license header on the source too for clarity.

I haven't changed anything yet, but I'm considering the following:

1.) Pull cover art from cover.jpg if it exists (like canola. I've got them already in the filesystem, so I might as well use them)

2.) place play/pause button above straight/random button and make larger

3.) maybe make album art clickable during playback for a fullscreen view of the cover

4.) larger fonts for individual mp3s in playback screen, perhaps with the same scrollable interface as the album screen.

5.) song playback bar showing where you are in the song

6.) ability to remember where you were in a song, for example when playing back an audio book. You can skip to some other music and come back to the audio book and pick up where you left off just by clicking play.

7.) Perhaps add a sort control for sorting albums by artist or album

8.) Ability to switch to ALSA and the a2dp device for playback through bluetooth stereo headsets

9.) Find a way to fix all the false clicks on the album view page. It thinks I've clicked during and after scrolling sometimes.

10.) Visual feedback when changing volume with hardware keys.

I'm sure more things could be thought of, but those are what comes to mind immediately. :)

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Might I please add my "YES!" vote especially for:


1.) Pull cover art from cover.jpg if it exists (like canola. I've got them already in the filesystem, so I might as well use them)

6.) ability to remember where you were in a song, for example when playing back an audio book. You can skip to some other music and come back to the audio book and pick up where you left off just by clicking play.

8.) Ability to switch to ALSA and the a2dp device for playback through bluetooth stereo headsets


Not to say some of the others are not important but these three would top my list.
.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Also, I noticed that MediaCenter isn't actually in SVN (SCM) anywhere on the garage page. It would be handy to place it under version control.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Where does UKMP store its configs? I want to do clean install. It just doesnt start anymore when i upgraded to 1.1.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

@trevarthan: I've been considering most of the ideas you have. I will be implementing them slowly. Although, I am curious why would you want to have the play/pause button larger. I intended the rocker middle button to be the primary play/pause button (thus the button on screen is merely for displaying status)

I will be implementing the #1 part for the next release. I've wanted to do #5 and #10 for a long time, just haven't thought it's really that important. #9 is definitely high up in my to-do list. I will try to release on Wednesday.

#6 cannot be really implemented without a current song view. I Won't be doing that for quite some time. It would be interesting though. Or maybe I could do that for songs that are over 15 minutes long. Hmm.. I'll consider it for a soonish release.

I take it that #4 is out of the interest for drivers. Tuomas Kuosmanen has been asking for the same feature.



GPL clause has been added to the source.
Source is in the repository.
Browse here: https://garage.maemo.org/plugins/scm...php/?root=ukmp
or checkout with: svn checkout https://garage.maemo.org/svn/ukmp


@jmk:
ukmp doesn't have any configs at all yet. You can just uninstall it and re-install. Also, remember to check that you have python installed on your device.

If it's still not opening, open xterm and run /usr/bin/MediaCenter.
You should be able to see on the command line what seems to be the problem. Please let me know what it was, as I'm very eager to try to keep the application as stable as possible.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I just realized that if there is a corrupt cover file, that might cause some problems starting ukmp. In that case, delete your cover files in the installation. Also, if the sound system is jammed somehow, or your MMC card is in read-only mode, you may need to restart your n800.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I don't think it has a config. Everything is hard coded. It stores cover images in
/media/mmc1/covers if it can. Run `MediaCenter` from an xterm and post the message
it gives when it dies (all of it). Chances are that it's a unicode issue with your id3 tags.
Python is quirky about that.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

konttori,

Great app, thanks!

One question ... playing ogg files, the music stops at the end of each track, rather than continuing onto the next track in the list.

Is that expected behaviour at this stage of development?

Cheers,

Mike.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

It's what I call a missing feature ;)
I don't have oggs myself, so testing of ogg support has been so far done by a single file, thus I didn't notice such a problem. I'll fix it to Wednesdays release 1.2.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

I'm sure we could fix that, if it would help.

Good news. Cheers!

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

As promised, it's Wednesday and UKMP 1.2 is out.
Have a look at the blog entry on 1.2 launch.
http://konttoristhoughts.blogspot.co...6/ukmp-12.html

1.2 version includes Party (or queue) mode. Also supports cover.jpg files in mp3 folders. Will skip any folders titled: Maps. This improves living besides maemo mapper. Accidental clicks in cover view are handled a bit better.

Unfortunately, OGG play next song automatically functionality didn't cut it to the release. Maybe the next one then.

Also, I couldn't include the deletion functionality yet, as I haven't figured out a nice way to do it. As anybody can guess, deleting involves one line of code in pretty much every language, so it's not that it's hard. Also this is up for the next release if possible. I'll be

UKMP 1.2 Video clip demonstration.
 

Here's a short video clip :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRouxTBWmrg

http://bp3.blogger.com/_oSU7o6fFfUU/...reenshot05.png

See more on the blog post.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

Hmmm.... looks like 1.2 reads my cover.jpg files into memory, then attempts to resize them and write them out to /media/mmc1/covers/. Unfortunately it isn't writing my cover.jpg's as proper jpeg format files, therefore it can't read them and I can't open them in Gimp on my desktop PC.

In addition, I didn't receive an email notification for your post yesterday, although I'm subscribed to this thread as "instant email notification" and I've received notifications before. Odd.

Re: UKMP 1.0 released!
 

...i also can't see my cover.jpg's (I can see only a CD symbol).
But the N800 picture viewer is able to open the "new" cover files!