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This seems like a really great idea. I love MP, and think it's one of the best open-source projects I've ever seen! (Come to think of it, it's one of the best pieces of entertainment software I've seen, full stop!) But the one thing that lets it down is the music section.

I was thinking about all the suggestions I've read on here about plugins and coverart support, etc. and the difficulties involved in getting it all working properly. It occurred to me that most people who have music on their computers will already have some program to organize it installed and working. I, for one, use iTunes, and have all my music organized into folders by artist and album, and all sorted out in the iTunes database, which also keeps the ID3 tags up to date. Some people use foobar, some WMP, winamp, etc. There're a whole variety of programs out there and most use their own database format and organization method. What it seems we need here for MP is a plugin which knows how to read the databases for the most popular of the various programs out there (maybe limit to iTunes and WMP for the betas, for example), then presents it in a MP 10-ft friendly interface. It would know how to import all your playlists and smart playlists if you have them, and let you choose them with your remote, or whatever you use to control MP. e.g. In my case, it would read my iTunes database, and would therefore automatically know the paths to all the MP3/AAC/whatever files, along with artist, album info etc. It would have some way to show the album artwork from the database or the ID3 tag, or the folder.jpg.

This just seems like it would be much easier than developing a new way of doing things. Mimic the behaviour of whatever music program is currently installed on the user's system. I'm presuming that support would gradually build up for new music software as the plugin is developed, and people request compatibility for their particular program or filing system. I suppose the easiest way to do this would be to implement support for a kind of "script" to grab the details from whatever program is in use, so new scripts could be written for new programs as and when they're needed.

Am I making any sense here? lol

<blockquote data-quote="lloydsmart" data-source="post: 392725" data-attributes="member: 87046">This seems like a really great idea. I love MP, and think it's one of the best open-source projects I've ever seen! (Come to think of it, it's one of the best pieces of entertainment software I've seen, full stop!) But the one thing that lets it down is the music section.I was thinking about all the suggestions I've read on here about plugins and coverart support, etc. and the difficulties involved in getting it all working properly. It occurred to me that most people who have music on their computers will already have some program to organize it installed and working. I, for one, use iTunes, and have all my music organized into folders by artist and album, and all sorted out in the iTunes database, which also keeps the ID3 tags up to date. Some people use foobar, some WMP, winamp, etc. There're a whole variety of programs out there and most use their own database format and organization method. What it seems we need here for MP is a plugin which knows how to read the databases for the most popular of the various programs out there (maybe limit to iTunes and WMP for the betas, for example), then presents it in a MP 10-ft friendly interface. It would know how to import all your playlists and smart playlists if you have them, and let you choose them with your remote, or whatever you use to control MP. e.g. In my case, it would read my iTunes database, and would therefore automatically know the paths to all the MP3/AAC/whatever files, along with artist, album info etc. It would have some way to show the album artwork from the database or the ID3 tag, or the folder.jpg.This just seems like it would be much easier than developing a new way of doing things. Mimic the behaviour of whatever music program is currently installed on the user's system. I'm presuming that support would gradually build up for new music software as the plugin is developed, and people request compatibility for their particular program or filing system. I suppose the easiest way to do this would be to implement support for a kind of &quot;script&quot; to grab the details from whatever program is in use, so new scripts could be written for new programs as and when they're needed.Am I making any sense here? lol</blockquote>

[QUOTE="lloydsmart, post: 392725, member: 87046"] This seems like a really great idea. I love MP, and think it's one of the best open-source projects I've ever seen! (Come to think of it, it's one of the best pieces of entertainment software I've seen, full stop!) But the one thing that lets it down is the music section. I was thinking about all the suggestions I've read on here about plugins and coverart support, etc. and the difficulties involved in getting it all working properly. It occurred to me that most people who have music on their computers will already have some program to organize it installed and working. I, for one, use iTunes, and have all my music organized into folders by artist and album, and all sorted out in the iTunes database, which also keeps the ID3 tags up to date. Some people use foobar, some WMP, winamp, etc. There're a whole variety of programs out there and most use their own database format and organization method. What it seems we need here for MP is a plugin which knows how to read the databases for the most popular of the various programs out there (maybe limit to iTunes and WMP for the betas, for example), then presents it in a MP 10-ft friendly interface. It would know how to import all your playlists and smart playlists if you have them, and let you choose them with your remote, or whatever you use to control MP. e.g. In my case, it would read my iTunes database, and would therefore automatically know the paths to all the MP3/AAC/whatever files, along with artist, album info etc. It would have some way to show the album artwork from the database or the ID3 tag, or the folder.jpg. This just seems like it would be much easier than developing a new way of doing things. Mimic the behaviour of whatever music program is currently installed on the user's system. I'm presuming that support would gradually build up for new music software as the plugin is developed, and people request compatibility for their particular program or filing system. I suppose the easiest way to do this would be to implement support for a kind of "script" to grab the details from whatever program is in use, so new scripts could be written for new programs as and when they're needed. Am I making any sense here? lol [/QUOTE]