Jukebox feature (1 Viewer)

[Grayda]

I'm off to a party tonight, and am taking my HTPC for music and movies. I'd like to hide the box in a cabinet or something, just leaving a keyboard out for people to enter their song choice via the search box. However the problem I see, is that when people pick a song, it will be "Played Now" rather than queued. Add to playlist doesn't really help much, as it's not easy to use for everyone. Also I'm wondering about people just ditching the songs altogether and messing with my videos and stuff. I know there is a pincode feature for that, but honestly, setting that up for everything would take time, and wouldn't prevent people from hitting escape or whatever.

What I suggest, is a feature for the major categories (ie. My Pictures, My Radio, My TV etc.) that lets you lock keyboard input asides from standard input (ie. arrow keys, enter, A-Z), and to escape, you have to enter a pincode.

I know I'd use both features on a regular basis. What about everyone else?

 

[takingover]

I like the idea of having to enter a pincode to exit MP!

 

[JulianBuss]

I use my computer and my music archive for parties, too. But Iwould never ever let all the guests search and enque music on their own. I prefer being responsible for the sound alone.

And if you really want to let others decide which music to play, I suggest to use other software than a media center... I know I searched the web some time ago for such software, and I found several useful tools (plugins for winamp and such stuff).

I'll try to write an article about that topic in mediacenterblog.eu this weekend

 

[mzemina]

I use my computer and my music archive for parties, too. But Iwould never ever let all the guests search and enque music on their own. I prefer being responsible for the sound alone.

And if you really want to let others decide which music to play, I suggest to use other software than a media center... I know I searched the web some time ago for such software, and I found several useful tools (plugins for winamp and such stuff).

I'll try to write an article about that topic in mediacenterblog.eu this weekend

Please let us know when you have published this article.

 

[JulianBuss]

my article is finished and published at http://www.mediacenterblog.eu/web/juliusbuss/blog.nsf/dx/how-to-use-your-music-to-drive-a-party.htm

 

[MrSensitive]

Julian,

nice writeup...

I'm doing some DJ'ing on private parties sometimes, I like to play several different genres. (but mostly dance music, this goes from disco to salsa to pop to techno ... bot not a lot of rock..)

I was using software called VirtuelDJ for a while, but now i bought one of those hercules DJ consoles.. great value at 120€ and it includes a special copy of VirtualDJ that interfaces with the console..

it has a very powerful search engine, an automatic BPM counter.
the hardware has faders, filters and scratch pads.. and tempo control that does not alter the pitch....all in all a very complete solution for the home and garden DJ...the autoDJ feature works incredibly well, matching BMP before fading to the aother track (you must pay attention to your playlist, make sure all songs are about the same tempo..-)

anyway, just wanted to let you know about this..(I wanted to post a comment in your blog, but it did'nt load..)

 

[JulianBuss]

thanks for the info; article is updated

 

[overture]

This sounds like a really good idea!

 

[Marcusb]

In response to the first post, I guess the best option in the short term is to make a backup of your mediaportal.cfg as set up for normal usage, then modify MP by removing all shares that you dont want people getting into and disabling all the other plugins that you want people to stay out of. This way you only need to swap over the cfg files to change from one setuo to another. I know this isn't an ideal solution, but should work fine for the odd occasion.

Also, you could make a modified MyMusic screen, with no way to exit and only the relevant buttons showing. Just swap the xml file over whenever you want to activate it.

 

[DGMurdockIII]

I think media portal is the best for this