(original thread) My Lyrics Plugin

[mackey]

My Lyrics is a windows plugin for fetching and displaying the lyric of the current played music file in MediaPortal. All versions up to 0.2 is to be consider betas and will accordingly not be flawless or complete, but yet stable.

See the thread about: My Lyrics Plugin for information on the latest release.

Best regards

[homez99]

Thank you very much, this is what I was looking to see integrated as I always have arguments with my friends over the lyrics. I will be following this plugin very closely and good luck in development.

[mzemina]

Yes indeed, this plugin sounds (ok, ok ... it looks) very interesting!

[James]

Hi Mackey,

I know a few people were waiting for this plugin. My wife will be happy I have a few suggestion for improvement.

Originally Posted by mackey

Issues to consider:
- The lyrics engine currently requires the tag information to be flawless and identical to a lyric at one of the supported lyricssites. Future versions should contain a less restrictive criteria.
- The lyric engine requires that Google have a catched copy of the lyric from one of these sites. Future versions should contain a less restrictive criteria.
- Saving and loading lyrics into a database.
- Support for more lyricssites in multiple and/or different languages.
- Support for more skins.
- Language support.

Firstly you can upload your plug (and source) to the MP file area. So you don't need to use megadownload.

Instead of saving lyrics into a database why not use the MP3 tags?

Why use google at all and not just search directly at the supported lyrics sites? A suggestion here might be to use the code already in the SVN. They is a library of the parsing code used by WebEPG. This will enable site template files, which the users can create themselves. You could search a configured list of these. I'd be happy to help you with this just PM me.

I agree with you that this plugin should be in MyMusic and not on the main menu. So that lyrics can be downloaded like cover art.

Looking forward to see your progress on this

/James

[mackey]

Thanks for all your kind comments.

Originally Posted by James

Firstly you can upload your plug (and source) to the MP file area. So you don't need to use megadownload.

Nice! the plugin has just been uploaded. The source code will be included in the next release.

Originally Posted by James

Instead of saving lyrics into a database why not use the MP3 tags?

A great suggestion, that I also considered a couple of days ago. Or rather, I hoped it was possible to include the lyric in the MP music database side by side by other song tag info, but unfortunately the 'Song' class and the music database itself does not hold a field for the lyric to be saved. Perhaps it would be possible to include this field among others in the near future. However it might take a lot of work for already hardworking contributers as Frodo or Steve V, so it might be a better solution to write directly to the original tag of the music file (as you suggests), into a new database or write lyrics to text files. Hopefully the right solution will turn up in the end.

Originally Posted by James

Why use google at all and not just search directly at the supported lyrics sites? A suggestion here might be to use the code already in the SVN. They is a library of the parsing code used by WebEPG. This will enable site template files, which the users can create themselves. You could search a configured list of these. I'd be happy to help you with this just PM me.

This plugin is my first look at html parsing and the use of the google ws looked like the best (and only) way to begin the search for lyrics. As a parsing newbee I still cannot see any other alternative, but hopefully you guys know a couple of tricks. Also the lyrics engine is developed completely clear from MP. That is to the lyric engine I have developed a traditional MS Windows form (mainly for batch, test and debugging) and a MP-frontend, which is the one that is included.
But the reference to the parsing code used by WebEPG indeed sounds intereresting, and I will surely take a look at it. I may have a couple of questions due to my lack of knowledge in this field. Any help, suggestion and pointer will be appriciated. :-)

[jabnet]

I've tried the plugin and it worked fine!
It's NECESSARY to integrate it in My music... ('now playing' screen is the best option).

I think if lyrics can be stored, lyric's ID3 tag will be the best place.

Go on with the idea, it's awesome how it works!
bye

[James]

Originally Posted by mackey

But the reference to the parsing code used by WebEPG indeed sounds intereresting, and I will surely take a look at it. I may have a couple of questions due to my lack of knowledge in this field. Any help, suggestion and pointer will be appriciated. :-)

I'm happy to answer any questions you have and can also help with demo code if required. Jump on IRC some time.

[idioteque]

Hi I love the plugin and it works great.

A few tips I would like to add:

* Intergration with playing now is a must
* Perhaps a database with lyrics instead of the idtags is an idea
* querry lyrics like finding coverart, so scan the whole mp3 list and store them in the data base instaed op a lookup everytime
* The playing should not stop pause or hold, if lyrics are looked up, now forinsance there is a 2-5 sec gap between songs
* buffer lyrics ahead, search for the next lyric while the first one is already playing.

In all a very cool plugin

[fathead]

Try and contact SteveV as he is doing lots and lots of work on mymusic. You may be able to get this roped in with that & have lyrics freely accessible whilst playing an album etc. In my opinion it would be nice to have an option in my music to display the lyrics as an alternative to a visualisation. :wink:

Great work on the plugin.

[mackey]

Hi, thanks again for the great and useful suggestions for the future work. Just let them keep rolling! ;-)

Originally Posted by fathead

Try and contact SteveV as he is doing lots and lots of work on mymusic. You may be able to get this roped in with that & have lyrics freely accessible whilst playing an album etc. In my opinion it would be nice to have an option in my music to display the lyrics as an alternative to a visualisation.

you are both so right. Next to robustness and realibility in the lyrics catching, the integration of lyrics in 'My Music' is my main focus at the moment. I have wrote SteveV to get his advice and "permission" to make the neccessary changes. When he replies and (hopefully) gives his "go!" I'll start on the integration. The basic idea is natural to create an alternative to 'Now playing'.

Originally Posted by idioteque2

* Perhaps a database with lyrics instead of the idtags is an idea

I do think I'll head in the db-direction, but nothing has been decided yet. In the moment I believe that a basic xml-document will be the best solution.

Originally Posted by idioteque2

* querry lyrics like finding coverart, so scan the whole mp3 list and store them in the data base instaed op a lookup everytime.

This feature is actually already incorporated into the lyrics engine, but not yet used by 'My Lyrics'. This feature will eventually be implementated, but not before the lyrics database has been created and implementated with dynamic load and save events.

Originally Posted by idioteque2

* The playing should not stop pause or hold, if lyrics are looked up, now forinsance there is a 2-5 sec gap between songs

I believe these gaps only exists when you skip tracks rather quickly. If not, please pm me, and I may reprioritize it, if it's really annoying. It is an thread-aborting issue that I will fix, when I get the time.

I have just uploaded version 0.02 that contains some string manuplation so a title with a featured artist is much more likely to be found. As well as a fix for a bug that didn't allow lyrics with only one word in the first line to be shown. The source is included as well.