[sdsalsero]

I'm tasked with the music for my office's upcoming after-tax-season party (we're an acct firm and VERY busy right now). I have a lot of CDs ripped to my office computer's HD and would like to set it up as a self-service MP3 jukebox for the party. I suppose I could use the Winamp and/or RealOne s/w that's already on here (right-click desired song, select Add To Playlist) but I'm looking for something simpler.


A) Can anyone recommend an easy MP3 jukebox s/w, i.e., something where 1st-time users could walk-up, browse the folders/songs, and double-click each desired song to add it to the playlist?


B) Is there a way to change the default double-click action for Winamp or Realone, i.e., so that it will Add To Playlist instead of Play (erasing existing playlist)?

 

[novatel]

This may or may not be appropriate for your situation, but it is worth a look. I have catalogued over 7000 songs using Netjuke and it is awesome. It has an auto mode where it will recuresively add all music in a path to the database reading from the id3 tags.

http://netjuke.sourceforge.net/


David Nowakowski

 

[Mastiff]

You've got the perfect answer a few clicks away, here, J. River's Media Center 9. It even has a party mode that helps a bit. And you can specify if you want double clicks to mean add to play list, play and so on. And the cataloging systems are second to none. It even has something called "Hairstyle mode" which is a very simplified control system that my mother could learn...given a week or so. Which means that anybody not totally technically retarded would use about 15 seconds.

And then there's Glissando, a front end written in Macromedia Flash so you can control it from any pc on the network. And NetRemote, but with that you need a CCF that's simple to use. The options are pretty limitless.

 

[sdsalsero]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! Unfortunately, I've not had much luck with either program.

- Netjuke seems like too much work to setup, at least for my limited purposes

- Media Center looked ideal but it doesn't seem to work? I can use it "normally" to select MP3s but party mode didn't simplify the interface at all (it just locks the Options screen) while the Hairstyle mode still has too many options *AND* kept exiting back to the regular interface whenever I double-clicked a song. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Krynos]

Try Music Match Jukebox.


I find it very easy to use and browse the library, even with over 10,000 tracks. And the auto-DJ is great too as long as your tracks are tagged well.


- Rick

 

[Mastiff]

I'm no expert on Hairstyle, but I don't think you should double click. I think you use enter. Anyway, the final (and maybe best option for you) is the NetRemote/MC, since you can make it exactly as easy or complicated as you want to with an hour or so work (CCF, if you have ever messed around with Prontos, you alreayd know how to do this so it will take a lot less time).

 

[poolguy]

 Wincue for Winamp 2.x, simple double-click to add to playlist.


Sean

 

[elvislives]

I would try out myHTPC as a front end to the collection. Use either the embedded WMP9 or the Winamp plug-in to play back the mp3's and it should work well. Pretty easy to set up the menu for the collection, and people could browse by album covers as well as titles.


Brian

 

[emlee]

Try www.overnighttech.com and download Music Console. It rocks.

 

[efi_k]

 http://www.muzicman.com


I'm using it now for about 2 years and cataloging 311 albums and 4193 tracks...


Some may not like the very not-windows looks of it - but this is what I like best and it looks very good on my standard def TV !

 

[RDaneel]

emlee - I just downloaded 4AM Music Console beta 1.2 after checking it out - looks awesome - and I can't even get it to lead on my machine. I ran the setup and changed the values to reflect my system (and didn't even have it search my music directories), but no go. It accesses the hard disk for a while, then a get a system chime, then it sits there. It isn't "Not Responding", but in reality it is....


Oh well - looks a like it will be a great product...


RDaneel

 

[SouthyPar]

If you "didn't even have it search [your] music directories", that might be exactly the problem. Point it towards where your music is stored and see if that solves the problem.


Anyways, 4AM now puts a startup.txt file in its main folder, which should help you figure out where it gets stuck. If you can't seem to work it out, post on the OvernightTech Support forum and we'll try and help.

 

[OvernightTech]

Hi RDaneel,


Thanks for trying out the software, hopefully I can point out a few things that may help.


1) You need it to point a proper directory. Now here is the definition of what 4am Music Console defines as a "proper" directory: It is a directory which has subdirectories, and it is in these subdirectories that there are music files. So if you have your music stored in the c:\\\\\\\\ format, then you will want to set the startup directory for 4am as: c:\\\\, because then the subdirectories in this folder will contain the music files.


2) Make sure that you have both, Windows Media Player 9, and the latest version of Macromedia Flashplayer.


3) When first starting the program make sure in the setup program: [ ] Start program with last used directory, is NOT checked.


4) Some users have had problems when trying to start the program using a sorting method other than folder sorting. By default 4am Music Console has the setup programs default sort as "Sort By Artist", you may want to try it with "Sort By Folder".


Hope that helps, if you still have problems feel free to post the issue here or at the OvernightTech.com boards.


Thanks,


Bhavin

 

[RDaneel]

Thanks for the tips. Once I really started playing with the options, I was able to get it to work. I was having the same "5" errors some users reported when trying to resort the album list by Artist, for example.


However, those problems aside, it is an awesome piece of software. I will defaintely be using it once I put together my HTPC. I love the 16x9 support, it will be perfect with a Sammy DLP. I'll have to play around with the visualization options.


Also, you might want to consider pointing people to the Gotcha Covered software that has been mentioned on the forum recently. It was a perfect way to do batch downloading of album covers. It took a little fiddling, but it got about 90% of the covers for my 250+ albums in a few seconds.


Pretty cool guys - thanks for the software! I will be first in line to buy when it goes to final,

RDaneel

 

[Mad Chemist]

I agree regarding the 4am Music Console. I was using Apejukebox but development seemed to stop so I switched to Media Jukebox. The Hairstyle thing looks great and I try it out every now and then to see how its coming buts its not quite what I was after. However, I'm currently using 4am and I love it. Definitly recommended.

 

[sdsalsero]

Thanks for all these suggestions! None of these, however, seem to have a simple "party" mode. The Media Center s/w is the closest but it doesn't seem to work (as I said earlier).


I tried WinCue, too, but didn't see how it allowed double-clicking to queue songs. Instead, it just seemed to add an indexed search function.

 

[Doright]

Hello,


I'm also having problems loading and running this program.


Keep getting the same error.

"Error accessing desired directory"


when I go to startup text document I see this:

Starting 4am Music Console

settings.ini: Read... Complete

SKIN -> skin.ini: Read... Complete

SKIN -> fonts.ini: Read... Complete

SKIN -> settings.ini: Read... Complete

LOAD -> flash load... Complete

LOAD -> Resizing and Positioning... Complete

LOAD -> Visibility Settings... Complete

LOAD -> Scaling Display... Complete

LOAD -> Loading Background Image... Complete

LOAD -> Skin Images Loading... Complete

LOAD -> Color Settings Load... Complete

ERROR: LOAD -> Loading startup directory


I've tried EVERYTHING MENTIONED HERE to try to get this program to load.

I noticed that it had D:\\ winamp" as my music player path.

I tried changing this to the path to Windows Media Player.


I've been trying for 2 hours. What am I missing?

Can you guys fix these bugs?

Can you guys fix these bugs?

 

[RDaneel]

Not to state the obvious, but... if the Playlist Window of Winamp is the active window, you can use the L key to browse and add tracks to the list... telling people to hit L isn't that bad, you know? You can always minimize the player and make the playlist huge to discourage people from adding tracks to the player, which deletes the playlist... I know this is a sloppy and decidely un-elegant way of doing it...


RDaneel

 

[OvernightTech]

Hi Doright,


1) You need it to point a proper directory. Now here is the definition of what 4am Music Console defines as a "proper" directory: It is a directory which has subdirectories, and it is in these subdirectories that there are music files. So if you have your music stored in the c:\\\\\\\\ format, then you will want to set the startup directory for 4am as: c:\\\\, because then the subdirectories in this folder will contain the music files


2) When first starting the program make sure in the setup program: [ ] Start program with last used directory, is NOT checked.


Bhavin

 

[sdsalsero]

RDaneel, I tried using the L key but it still does Play rather than Enqueue when you double-click a song.