A new Plugin for the Music-Part! Is it possible? (1 Viewer)

[druid9]

I knew that Hwahrmann, and I did neglect to mention you were working on the "Find" function

I use MPTagthat extensively and find it a great tool, thanks for developing it.

 

[emphatic]

Mockup of artist view. Only a suggestion. I can do more mockups for other views if there's an interest.

Edit: Added albums view.
Edit2: Added album details view.
Edit3: Added sliding menu and change view.
Edit4: Added Now Playing mockup.

The albums view has a short description/review at the bottom, and the album details view shows the lyrics, although, this is up to the skinners to decide I guess. Or it could be setup in the plugin what the views would include, like MP TV-Series handles it at the moment.

Emph

 

[hwahrmann]

Well basically most of the information you show in the mockups are available alareyd in the product. it's a question of skinning and a bit of programming.

what are those numbers and icons behind the artist name, in the artist's view? Are those the number of albums for this artist?
I'm missing a "Now Playing" screen mockup. would beinterested, how you see that.

Also where to put the Visualisation overlay, if a song is playing? or should vis just run in fullscreen?

And the most importamt thing.
i myself am still on 4:3, so i would need a 4:3 mockup to get interested in doing this plugin.

 

[emphatic]

what are those numbers and icons behind the artist name, in the artist's view? Are those the number of albums for this artist?

They're just a remnant of the MP TV-Series screenshot I used as a base for the mockup. They have no functionality, sorry for the confusion.

I'm missing a "Now Playing" screen mockup. would beinterested, how you see that.

I haven't put any thought about how the "now playing" screen would be affected, I'll think about it and see if I can do one for that. Edit: I had a look at the "now playing" of Blue3Wide and the only things that would be nice to add to it are buttons for lyrics, album info or the name of the current playlist (if it's playing back a saved one).

Also where to put the Visualisation overlay, if a song is playing? or should vis just run in fullscreen?

These mockups only show what's possible (get rid of the whole "folder browsing" look from MyMusic and MyVideos, getting artist info etc. ) so making room for the overlay is up to the skinners. I'm only showing functionality. With skinners adding new functionality (like cul8er is doing for XFactor with all his customization options) perhaps some people doesnt even want the now playing overlays.

And the most importamt thing.
i myself am still on 4:3, so i would need a 4:3 mockup to get interested in doing this plugin.

Sorry, if I did have the time to make mockups for "antique" screen sizes, I would spend it on tagging my music properly instead.

Thanks for the interest in my mockups.
Emph

Added a "now playing" view to the post with the other mockups.

Emph

 

[dir]

I find it interesting that more than once in this thread, MP dev's voice the fact that there won't be any changes done to MP in the near future for the music section. Great, no problem. But it seems that they're trying to shut down discussion on this.

I don't see this thread as a request to the MP developers at all. I see it as a request for someone to create a plugin. The MP devs don't need to be involved at all. And if the discussion centres on areas that conflict or go away from how MP's music section works, great. Let it! MP Devs don't need concern themselves with this thead at all. The solution isn't going to come from there, it's going to come from a plugin author like fforde.

I find it strange that MP Devs seem so determined to argue against changes to the Music capabilities when they don't even need to get involved!

In all likelihood, discussions like this thread will motivate some user out there to create a plugin that does something new and creative. That's evolution. It's up to the rest of us to help continue discussion by expressing our own visions, issues, and ideas.

For me personally, I love the coverflow idea. All I want is to see my albums, select an album or track to listen to, or just select a 'mood' based on a seed album, artist, or song and let the software decide what songs to play. I'm not much into creating playlists (too much effort and I rarely use the same list twice, unless they can be randomized; I hate repetition!). The only other thing I want to do is queue up tracks/albums to play.

I love the mock-up screenshots.

I'm happy to use apps to tag my music as well as they can be tagged.

I'm a visual person, so I want to see the album cover, have a slick coverflow visual, and see other info on the album/artist/track.

 

[emphatic]

I find it interesting that more than once in this thread, MP dev's voice the fact that there won't be any changes done to MP in the near future for the music section. Great, no problem. But it seems that they're trying to shut down discussion on this.

Let me guess, You don't like to spend hours tagging your music either?


If someone rather quickly writes a plugin that way better does what the built in MyMusic does now, then some people are bound to think that they will critisized for not doing something about it earlier. I don't know.

More and more, skin developers get tired of the limits set by the Skin Engine, and implement new ways of doing stuff with plugins. So I can't (and won't quietly try to) understand why such an integral part of the software has to be set in stone, just because the people "responsible" (I'm not saying someone is "guilty" of anything) has perfect music collections without any tracks not in albums, home made compilations, etc.

Perhaps if I instead of making mockups take screenshots of MediaPortal's MyMusic and point out where the eyesore's are, because I don't think some people understand the differences as they ARE subtle, but when you start to think about them, very much in your face.

Emph

 

[tourettes]

More and more, skin developers get tired of the limits set by the Skin Engine, and implement new ways of doing stuff with plugins. So I can't (and won't quietly try to) understand why such an integral part of the software has to be set in stone, just because the people "responsible" (I'm not saying someone is "guilty" of anything) has perfect music collections without any tracks not in albums, home made compilations, etc.

Something that still manages to amaze me. As you might already understand that the metadata must come from somewhere, either from file names in the possible 3rd party music plugin or from the standard ID3 tags from the files itself, you are ought to provide the data somehow (either using the tagger to insert the tags almost automatically for the most if the time, or manually my windows explorer by renaming the files). I cant simply see no other reason that stupidity (sorry, I really don't see any other valid reason) to take the route that takes more effort and is not as robust as the other one.

But human nature is something I have always thought is a little bit strange

...and what comes into those tracks not in albums leave the album as blank or set "unknown". And to home made collection(s) you can use playlists (yes, that what playlists are invented for). Even the playlists are universal (many applications support the same formats).

 

[tourettes]

What comes to the 3rd party music plugin, I see no reason why someone shoudn't implement such. There are lot of missing features in the included one. Just I would like to propose that no one is trying to reinvent the wheel and start to use something as stupid as file names as the source for metadata for music files when there is a good, more robust & standard way to handle it.

Just think following use cases (top of my head)

• AC/DC <-- / is not a valid file name char
• 01. Metallica - ...And Justice for All - The Frayed Ends of Sanity <-- what is the band, album and track? The order can be quite different when you download the file from a different source so it is impossible to detect it automatically (and you will have to rename all the files to match the specific notation, which would require much less work when done with tagger as it would just use the song order in that case to be able to detect the whole CD content of the internet)
• Apulanta - 07 - Aivan kuin kaikki muutkin - 007 <-- is 007 track name or the 07?
• Therapy? - Pleasure Death <-- again ? is not a valid char in filenames
• : is quite common char used in sing titles, and it is not allowed in filenames

So, using filenames as the metadata source places some restrictions (that artists doesn't have when naming their art) and also it requires actually more work to rename the files as it is impossible to write heuristic code that would be fool proof when it comes to detecting the metadata from the filenames.

 

[emphatic]

Something that still manages to amaze me. As you might already understand that the metadata must come from somewhere, either from file names in the possible 3rd party music plugin or from the standard ID3 tags from the files itself, you are ought to provide the data somehow (either using the tagger to insert the tags almost automatically for the most if the time, or manually my windows explorer by renaming the files). I cant simply see no other reason that stupidity (sorry, I really don't see any other valid reason) to take the route that takes more effort and is not as robust as the other one.

But human nature is something I have always thought is a little bit strange

Did you read my suggestion about using ID3 tags first (main data->internet lookup comparison source) and then move on to file/folder names for a second, "deep search" (this should give more hits than just ignoring the tag-less files, right?)?

It's better to be ignorant than to be arrogant, as the former can be remedied with education. But in this case, perhaps the latter can be helped by thoroughly reading the suggestions, however stupid they may appear at first.

...and what comes into those tracks not in albums leave the album as blank or set "unknown". And to home made collection(s) you can use playlists (yes, that what playlists are invented for). Even the playlists are universal (many applications support the same formats).

Yes, I'm aware of the playlists, but I just failed to mention that as a possible solution.

What comes to the 3rd party music plugin, I see no reason why someone shoudn't implement such. There are lot of missing features in the included one.

Great!

Just I would like to propose that no one is trying to reinvent the wheel and start to use something as stupid as file names as the source for metadata for music files when there is a good, more robust & standard way to handle it.

"Stupid" is a very relative term and should not be used so generally. It offends more than it help you make a point. Although it's lacking compared to ID3 tags, it could complete the picture when all else fails. Just make sure that the importer's filters are "not stupid". If you've tried the Moving Pictures importer, you'll see how incredibly smart it is by just handling file names.

Just think following use cases (top of my head)

• AC/DC <-- / is not a valid file name char
• 01. Metallica - ...And Justice for All - The Frayed Ends of Sanity <-- what is the band, album and track? The order can be quite different when you download the file from a different source so it is impossible to detect it automatically (and you will have to rename all the files to match the specific notation, which would require much less work when done with tagger as it would just use the song order in that case to be able to detect the whole CD content of the internet)
• Apulanta - 07 - Aivan kuin kaikki muutkin - 007 <-- is 007 track name or the 07?
• Therapy? - Pleasure Death <-- again ? is not a valid char in filenames
• : is quite common char used in sing titles, and it is not allowed in filenames

So, using filenames as the metadata source places some restrictions (that artists doesn't have when naming their art) and also it requires actually more work to rename the files as it is impossible to write heuristic code that would be fool proof when it comes to detecting the metadata from the filenames.

When the importer comes across something that it just can't single out, it'll ask you, just like MP TV-Series does. It should also ask you when multiple hits are found on artists. But of course, a more complex search could also look at album titles to narrow this down.

DJ Fast Eddie (Electronic/House)
Fast Eddie (Blues)

Also, I suggested earlier (in case you didn't read that in full) to display "pretty names", so that band thumbs for AC/DC can be saved using a compatible name "ac-dc-fanart_01.jp" while being displayed as AC/DC in the GUI. Also, the plugin can "learn" what to expect when you add more AC/DC albums, so only the first where the folder/files are named AC-DC will pop up a prompt for the user.

Emph

So, I spent a couple of hours now "fixing" my ID3-tags (TagRunner) and then rescanned everything in MediaPortal's configuration.

When I chose Artists view from the database in MediaPortal, I got a couple of items looking like this:

Kool & The Gang
Kool & the Gang
Kool And The Gang
Kool And the Gang

Cleary, ID3-tagging is far from perfect, as the human error is built in here as well. I'd like to have these automatically grouped as Kool & The Gang (since the data downloaded from the Internet clearly had differences). As the plugin will ask you upon import if "Kool And the Gang" should be presented as "Kool & The Gang", this won't be a problem.

Also, "branching" would be a nice feature. Say one of your artists has made collaborations with others, then this could be treated the same way MP TV-Series handles "Specials". And the "branching" would be customizable, so that you can easily find them without having to use the global search. Say you're browsing "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds" and you will find a button called "Featuring..." or "with..." and when you click that, you'll get "Nick Cave with Kylie Minogue". And when you're browsing "Kylie Minogue", you'll get the same set of buttons (should the branching albums be in your database).

Emph

 

[datja]

Since I couldn't find this thread until someone pointed me to it, I started a thread in the same vein at the TVSeries part. My wish/dream is a TVSeries-like "Artistplayer" plugin, which probably should be based on folder structure (Artistname/Albumname/Songname.mp3).

If you're interested in our little talk, please join:

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/my-tvseries-162/suggestion-dream-artistplayer-my-tvseries-oid-plugin-music-71697/