Board Logo

eJukebox 4.55 Released
Audiosoft - 4-10-2007 at 11:04 PM

Here is the eJukebox 4.55!

v4.54 Updates:
-internal video player now shows up borderless over the now playing cover art
-you can now drop video files from explorer onto the eJukebox playlist to add them to the database.
-click the video to show the window border then you can move or resize it.
-go full screen by right clicking or double clicking the video when using Vista
-Internal video player now sizes correctly over now playing cover...even on eJukebox startup and after closing the video window
-now playing cover slide in-out animation now disabled when loading a video
-Resizing the cover/playlist will now resize the internal video to match the cover size and position
-video window now moves with eJukebox window
-right clicking the video no longer shows its window border only left click does
-songlist titlebar now displays "Searching..." when a search is being performed.

v4.55 Updates:
-added "Include Video (mpg, avi, wmv)" checkbox option to database update window to scan folders for video files and add them to the eJukebox database.
-Tools menu's "Add new music files" now shows dialog so you can check 'include video' option.
-fixed nocover.png transparency not working in v4.54
-EJ Skin updated
-various other tweaks

v4.55 Refresh (April 12th, 2007 5:32pm EDT)
-adds 'Video' menu item to Tools button so that you can list all your videos


To Upgrade to v4.55: Shutdown eJukebox and download and run THIS


mchawk - 4-11-2007 at 12:04 PM

Hallo audiosoft,

I just tested the new version.

Here's a little feedback:

Critical:
I got a CTD while playing a video and activating the fullscreen-mode (with resolution-change).

Video: Aspcet-Ratio
On screen-resolution 1024x786 everything works quite fine.
Above that, I got "coneheads" in the videos.
I can compensate this, when I minimize the cover-window.

Cover:
I use a transparency png-cocover-image.
In the new version it doesn't work right.
I think you set some sort of black cover-background.

Old:
http://www.hoffmanns-home.de/misc/nocoverscreen.jpg
New:
http://www.hoffmanns-home.de/misc/covernew.jpg

See the difference?

Beside this everything works quite well.

Greetings

mchawk


Dragon_slayer - 4-11-2007 at 04:33 PM

Great job Audiosoft, I’m surprised you were able work out these issues so quickly. The video playback option is now truly awesome!!

The only addition I’m now looking forward to in regards to the video playback, is the option to scan folders for videos.

I also have a minor quibble; I like to put the year the video was released in brackets next to the video title, however when adding a new video to the database it seems to ignore the brackets & anything between them.


Audiosoft - 4-11-2007 at 06:48 PM

mchawk,

Thanks for letting me know about the nocover.png losing transparency with 4.54. I have fixed that problem in v4.55. I am not sure how you are getting the coneheads because for me the video is preserving the aspect ratio. It should show black bars above and below the video.


Pirk - 4-12-2007 at 11:38 AM

Audiosoft,

It seems that I've already seen the latest parts of your EJ skin somewhere else? :D Your skin is a nice melting-pot!! ;)

Otherwise I still would need to add a few videos to my eJukebox..

Thanks for this update.


Audiosoft - 4-12-2007 at 07:44 PM

Pirk,

Ah you noticed! I really like the shape of your forward and back arrows so incorporated a modified version of it into EJ. Hope everyone likes it. BTW I also moved the songlist header image/bar down a couple pixels with v4.54 so the first row of pixels finally lines up with the artistlist scrollbutton and is in the same position as the albumlistbar when topped. So with v4.55 I modified the header images a bit for EJ and made it so the blue line fades left to black since it lines up good now.

Next I think a new background image is need for EJ when not tiling a cover image in the songlist background. Any help with that from anyone would be appreciated. The less time I spend on skins the more time I can spend on improving everything else and adding new features. Next I am going to add a 'Videos' link to the Tools button and maybe the homepage that will list all your videos in the songlist / carousel.


Audiosoft - 4-12-2007 at 08:40 PM

Thanks Pirk! That works pretty good with EJ after resizing it and making it a jpg. Think I will include it in the next update.


Pirk - 4-12-2007 at 08:58 PM

That's great Audiosoft! So maybe we will have some new features in eJukebox, sooner! :D like.. Several album covers in the Playlist, or a new Homepage? :)


Audiosoft - 4-12-2007 at 09:31 PM

Pirk,

Not sure how multiple covers in the playlist would look/work? The homepage is the next major improvement but I am still trying to figure what I want to do with it.


Audiosoft - 4-12-2007 at 09:35 PM

OK. I have updated v4.55 and refreshed the v4.55 downloads so that eJukebox will now show a 'Videos' item on the Tools menu so you can list all your videos.
So if you have v4.55 and the 'Videos' item is not showing up on the Tools menu please re-download and install the v4.55 upgrade if you want that feature.


Pirk - 4-12-2007 at 09:51 PM

Quote:
Message original : Audiosoft
Pirk,

Not sure how multiple covers in the playlist would look/work?


I think multiple covers in the playlist could work in order to have several "up next" songs with a Next button when in autoplaymode.. I mean like the current up next area, but increased tenfold!
When in playlist mode: just a image for each album (the first album's song in the list). Easy! :cool:

Quote:
The homepage is the next major improvement but I am still trying to figure what I want to do with it.

OK, it's a pleasure to hear that.. I'm sure you will be inspired! ;)


Audiosoft - 4-12-2007 at 09:54 PM

so you are saying have it show really tiny images next to the songname in the playlist?
How would the autoplay picks be layed out?


Pirk - 4-12-2007 at 09:59 PM

Good idea, bigger images would be welcome!

Each pick/image would have its own button to skip it, possibly..


Audiosoft - 4-12-2007 at 10:04 PM

i am confused...where are bigger images going to fit?
So you are saying it should replace the time with the cover art when in playlist mode?


Pirk - 4-12-2007 at 10:08 PM

The list is scrollable (well currently it's pages..), so I think that would always fit! Just remember the Junk's mock-up..

Maybe the additional images could appear on the left side, replacing the small "play" icon. The time must remain, otherwise Demnos will kill me!!! :D


Dyno Don - 4-13-2007 at 01:22 PM

As a long time Video jukebox owner here are my impressions solely from a Video perspective. The "add videos" option is welcome. For me there will be quite some work though. The videos are not all named in the "Artist-Title" convention eJ uses. Some are just "IMAX Shuttle Launch" which sorts as a "I" artist. But it does add them all! Playback seems good too, although getting it to continue playing while I try to move it across to the second monitor hasn't worked yet. Maybe a hardware issue. I will try it later on the real Video Jukebox machine. I am playing with another machine now. If I mess up the Video database, I am sunk. With videos spread out over 4 hard drives any one of them dying will kill the whole thing too. I also have quite a few "Compilations" already set in eJ. Any new rebuild will lose all that work. Too bad Videos don't have "Tags"! But this is still a great improvement and a great deal of fun to play with.

Thanks, Audiosoft.

Don


Dragon_slayer - 4-13-2007 at 04:18 PM

Would it be possible to set the video to play full screen by default in the now playing cover art window, regardless of what the album cover size has been set as? The reason I ask is that I like to play the videos as large as possible, whereas I prefer my album art to be a bit smaller. You could still have the option of resizing the video.


mchawk - 4-13-2007 at 06:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Audiosoft
I am not sure how you are getting the coneheads because for me the video is preserving the aspect ratio. It should show black bars above and below the video.


Sure you have a 4:3-picture? It's not to see on first view. Let me demonstrate it. Yesterday I recorded some videos from hit24. Here is the video in ejukebox:
http://www.hoffmanns-home.de/misc/videoejukebox.jpg

And now the video in WMP11:
http://www.hoffmanns-home.de/misc/videoshouldbe.jpg

See the difference?
The videodisplay in eJukebox is square.
In the normal-WMP is 4:3. They way it should be displayed.

I'll tried it as DivX-avi (4:3 - 1:1 pixel) and the original via Hauppauge WinPVR-card redorded mpeg2-stream (4:3 - 12:11 pixel) and theres no difference.
These are normal PAL-Parameters for video.


Audiosoft - 4-13-2007 at 07:18 PM

mchawk,

What happens when you size the windows media player program window to be the same shape as the eJukebox video window/cover? Does the windows media player program preserve the aspect ratio or do you get the coneheads effect if you stretch the full WMP program window a certain way?


Pirk - 4-13-2007 at 07:28 PM

Congrats for your avatar, mchawk!


mchawk - 4-13-2007 at 07:33 PM

audiosoft,

yes, i can.

There a 2 ways I get the correct aspect-ratio:

1. Using a screen-resolution of max. 1024x786. In this case the covers and the videos are very small and displayed correct. I use a screen-resolution of 1152x864 because I get bigger (and better :)) covers.

2. I can manually toss the video-screen to from sqaure to another aspectratio near 4:3.
In this case I see parts of the cover behind the video, the aspect-ratio is also not exact and I must rezise it evertime I start eJukebox.

I hope this helps a little. I'll go on trying and search the web about WMP and aspect-ratio. On doom9.org theres a hint, that WMP cannot adapt the pixelratio...

Maybe this is a NTSC/PAL-Problem. They have different pixel-ratios for 4:3-display-ratio... Not even speaking of 16:9.... Hmmm......

@pirk:
Thanks... Just a little self-portrait. ;)


Audiosoft - 4-13-2007 at 07:40 PM

Maybe there is something different about the video files you are using? All my videos are showing up over the cover with black bars above and below when the aspect is not 4:3 which is what it should do.

If you right click the video in eJukebox and select Full Screen the aspect works fine because your screen is 4:3... right?

Play the video from the screenshot in the actual windows media player program and then stretch the window around....do you ever see the conehead effect?


Anyone else having a problem with video aspect ratio?


mchawk - 4-13-2007 at 08:17 PM

O boy! I got the solution:
It's a problem with the graphiccard-driver.... and I solved it. Yahoooooo! ;)

O.K. I got a Nvidia Geforce7800 GS and use the Nvidia-standard-driver (version: 93.71)
In the driver-panel there's a video-overlay-setting dialog.
In this dialog I theres a slider choosing between the settings "Vk" an "Vg". Whatever this means...?

If I choose "Vg" everything is A-OK with the aspect ratio in eJukebox.

Problem solved. Red Alert canceled. ;)

BTW: Even with the setting on "Vk" the videos in the WMP-Programm works with all kinds windows-stretching and in fullscreen very fine with the correct aspect-ratio.
I don't question - I'll be happy that the new setting worked.


Audiosoft - 4-13-2007 at 08:24 PM

mchawk, ah the video card driver...now it makes sense. Glad you found the solution!


mchawk - 4-13-2007 at 08:28 PM

audiosoft, yes.
But we should keep this in mind.
Perhaps there are some other Nvidia-graphiccards out there with "Vk" as default-setting.....


Dyno Don - 4-14-2007 at 12:59 AM

I have a Geforce 7900 and it doesn't have that setting. But I want to move the video over to the right hand monitor of my two monitor setup. There is a setting for "Full Screen Video" If I enable that to "auto select" it gives me both the video on the right at full screen, and the album cover window too.
The video on the right comes in at all sizes. I need a check box like winamp had that says "force aspect ratio" with that off it always fills the screen. In Media player now, with the TV set th HDTV 720P, the videos take up as much space as their native resolution. If the video is 320X240 it takes up just a portion, where one at 720 fills it up. Anyone know of a setting to keep Media player from forcing the resolution of the file and let is fill the screen?

Thanks!

Don


ollielaroo - 4-14-2007 at 10:16 AM

Excuse me, May I interrupt..

I've just downloaded 4.55. (I uninstalled 4.53). Everytime I try to run 'Jukebox_v4.55_Setup.exe' I get a pop-up box telling me this

"An error was encountered while preparing for extraction. Please contact your software provider for help"

I downloaded the install file again but still the same. (I can send a screenshot if u like)

Anyone else out there experience this?


ollielaroo - 4-14-2007 at 10:21 AM

OK OK It's alright now!

Don't know why it was doing that...


mchawk - 4-14-2007 at 01:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Dyno Don
I have a Geforce 7900 and it doesn't have that setting.

Yes you have. ;)

You have to disable the new nVidia-control-panel and use the classical view.

The Forceware-Driver are all the same for Geforce.

But in the meantime I'm not sure, that this setting ist my problem. After I wrote my posting yesterday the "coneheads were back". Regardless, the setting in the driver.

As it were too late I shut down my PC.
After a restart today afternoon is everthing OK again.
At the moment I'm out of ideas....

Quote:

The video on the right comes in at all sizes. I need a check box like winamp had that says "force aspect ratio" with that off it always fills the screen. In Media player now, with the TV


This checkbox doesn't exist in WMP. As far I checked the Internet there is no solution.

Concerning Videos there are many variables:

Video-resolution
Video-aspect-ratio
Pixel-aspect-ratio (Think of DVD anamorph-video)

A DivX-Video should have a pixel-ratio of 1:1 and a physikal 4:3 or 16:9 video-resolution.

A PAL-DVD has a pixel-ratio of 16:11 for an 16:9-video.
NTFS has another pixel-ratio for videos - not to mention the different frame-per-second-settings.

And one fact I found ist, that WMP does not use the pixel-ratio - like winamp, PowerDVD or WinDVD,... do.

Normally WMP is the last program I use to display videos.

Quote:

just a portion, where one at 720 fills it up. Anyone know of a setting to keep Media player from forcing the resolution of the file and let is fill the screen?


There is no setting.

If you want to use 2 Monitors: Use winamp.

mchawk


Dyno Don - 4-14-2007 at 04:03 PM

For now I guess you are right. But the feature to add videos automatically will be great...once I rename a few. The Video Jukebox has not had it's DB rebuilt ever..and it has to be almost two years old now. We live on borrowed time.. :)

Don


Dyno Don - 4-15-2007 at 06:47 PM

I am using the classic panel. I don't like the old one. I can make the video appear in both the album cover space and the other monitor, but at whatever reso it is captured at. :( An old VCD at 320x240 sits up in the corner. But winamp still works, but it is so finicky with codecs. Not everything that plays in WMP will play in winamp.

Don


rllercstr7 - 4-16-2007 at 07:23 PM

Just out of curiosity where do you guys get your videos from? Nice feature Audiosoft!


mchawk - 4-16-2007 at 08:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by rllercstr7
Just out of curiosity where do you guys get your videos from? Nice feature Audiosoft!


You wonna know? ;)

Preperation:
* Get a PVR-Card as WinPVR250/350 from Hauppauge. It has an mpeg2-coding-chip on board - you can capture analog in DVD-quality up to 12 Mbit/sec.

* Get a good musicTV-Station (I like Hit24)

Optional to save HD-Space:
* Get a DivX/XviD-Codec and a Program like TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 with DivX Authoring

Now record the music-videos with the pvr-card from the musicTV-station.
Cut and recode the videos in DivX/XviD/mpeg4 with your video-tool.

For private use this is in germany legal.
Please check your local copyright-law.


rllercstr7 - 4-16-2007 at 11:36 PM

Thanks mchawk, I actually do have one of thoose cards but just discovered a really great alternative called replay AV 8. This program take a stream from most any internet site and record a whole video in about 45 seconds. I have been usin cmt.com because they have a bunch of country videos I like. You should really give it a try, its quite neat.
Also is it possible to add support for the video format ".asf" Audiosoft? This is the file type every recording I have is in and while I could convert each file to MPEG it would be rather time consuming. One feature that might be nice for this new video feature is to have an option such as: If MP3 and Video with the same filename exist in the database, always play the video in autoplay modes. I know some people really like to play a whole album through and that would be rather disturbing, but I think if it an option people can choose what they like best. Thanks!


Audiosoft - 4-16-2007 at 11:49 PM

Ah thanks rllercstr7...I forgot about .ASF!
I will make sure to add .ASF support for the next update.

That autoplay idea is good too...though I am not sure how many people will name the video file and the music file the same in eJukebox. But I will add the option anyway since I like the idea plus maybe an option to exclude all videos from autoplay or maybe exclude all the videos with the word "Movie" in the artist or title instead.


rllercstr7 - 4-17-2007 at 12:05 AM

Thats great to hear Audiosoft! Thanks a ton :D


rllercstr7 - 4-20-2007 at 01:06 AM

Audiosoft is there any way to make Winamp the primary player for music and WMP primary for video. I REALLY like the way you have the borderless video window automatically position itself over the Now Playing area with WMP. It looks awsome and sharp, but I just cannot find the good plug-ins for WMP like the ones avaliable for Winamp. I have also had better experience with video compatibility and WMP as someone else also mentioned. Winamp seems to want to freeze up the video and be really jerky. In any manner this feature is great and bringing a whole new dimension to eJukebox. Great job! :D


SimonC - 4-20-2007 at 05:20 PM

Hi

I'm a new user, having only recently registered E- Jukebox.

I love the latest update with the video features.
However, I really don't like using WMP.

I am using winamp with an auto full screen plugin for videos and I find that this works beautifully.

My major request for videos would just simply be to support as many codecs as possible due to the time involved in converting from un-supported codecs such as .mp4 & .mov.

Keep up the great work please Audiosoft .


Dragon_slayer - 4-20-2007 at 10:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by rllercstr7
Audiosoft is there any way to make Winamp the primary player for music and WMP primary for video. I REALLY like the way you have the borderless video window automatically position itself over the Now Playing area with WMP. It looks awsome and sharp, but I just cannot find the good plug-ins for WMP like the ones avaliable for Winamp. I have also had better experience with video compatibility and WMP as someone else also mentioned. Winamp seems to want to freeze up the video and be really jerky. In any manner this feature is great and bringing a whole new dimension to eJukebox. Great job! :D


Volume Logic is a great is great plug-in that works with both.Only problem is that it doesn’t work when WMP is played internally in the ejukebox, hopefully an issue Audiosoft will be able to work out in the future.


Dragon_slayer - 4-20-2007 at 11:32 PM

Audiosoft is there any chance of the issue of the ejukebox not displaying dates in brackets being fixed. For example when labeling music videos I label them like this: Beatles, The – Strawberry Fields Forever (1967), however, the only way I can get it to display dates is to label them like this: Beatles, The – 1967 - Strawberry Fields Forever. If you can’t fix the issue with the brackets can you tell me, so I can go about re-labeling my videos? Thanks.


Audiosoft - 4-21-2007 at 03:05 AM

Dragon_slayer,

No problem. I have updated eJukebox for the next version so that the Year will now be imported from (####) in the filepath/filename.


rllercstr7 - 4-24-2007 at 06:34 PM

Is eJukebox going to be able to read the tags for the different types of video Audiosoft? I converted one of my asf files to wmv to try things out and noticed it didn't read the album name or anything from the tag. I used Tag & Rename to write the information. Also anything on my previous post about using wmp for video and winamp for music playback? Thanks! I look forward to seeing the next version :D


Pirk - 4-24-2007 at 08:22 PM

Quote:
Message original : Audiosoft
...I have updated eJukebox for the next version so that the Year will now be imported from (####) in the filepath/filename.


Audiosoft, you mean that for a non-mp3 album folder named "Album (Year)", the Year tag will be imported in eJukebox? That's great! So the full tag less method will be:

Album (Year)/Track# - Artist - Title.xxx

I'm right?

Could you add a option which SHOWS the Album Year in brackets -MP3s or NOT- in all eJukebox lists (songlist, carousel, albumlist and nowplaying)? Which means that for MP3 files, the year would be picked from the id3 tag, or from the album folder name??
i.e.: "Paris by night (1988)", instead of just the album name "Paris by night".
And this option would also SORT albums by their album year. But maybe it's precisely what you have made for the next version?

Well, if you add a such option I will have tons of work.. because until now I name all my albums: "Year - Album", but I think that would worth it!

Thanks.


Well_Jaggy - 4-25-2007 at 01:27 PM

Please don't pick the year up from the MP3 File name!!! or at least make it a selectable option.

Would be fine for non MP3 files though


Audiosoft - 4-25-2007 at 07:52 PM

Quote:

So the full tag less method will be:
Album (Year)/Track# - Artist - Title.xxx
I'm right?

That is right. However Track# - Artist - Title (Year).xxx will also work.

Quote:

Could you add a option which SHOWS the Album Year in brackets -MP3s or NOT- in all eJukebox lists (songlist, albumlist and nowplaying)?

That is possible but will take some time to implement

Quote:

Please don't pick the year up from the MP3 File name!!! or at least make it a selectable option.

Would be fine for non MP3 files though

It will only attempt to find the year in the filepath/name when the mp3 does not have a year in the tag.


Pirk - 4-25-2007 at 08:24 PM

OK Audiosoft. I'm greatly interested by the option that will show the album years in brackets after the album names. That will avoid me to tamper with all the album names.. So I'll wait patiently you implement that!

Thanks a lot for your work on eJukebox.


Well_Jaggy - 4-26-2007 at 09:26 PM

Thanks Audiosoft, good to clear that up. :D


Dragon_slayer - 4-26-2007 at 11:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Audiosoft
Dragon_slayer,

No problem. I have updated eJukebox for the next version so that the Year will now be imported from (####) in the filepath/filename.


Awesome, thanks Audiosoft!! :D


Dragon_slayer - 4-26-2007 at 11:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Pirk
OK Audiosoft. I'm greatly interested by the option that will show the album years in brackets after the album names. That will avoid me to tamper with all the album names.. So I'll wait patiently you implement that!

Thanks a lot for your work on eJukebox.


Good idea Pirk, I would also like to see this implemented.