Release BlindPlayer, Another Kind of Audio Player


ekianjo

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神戸市、日本 (Japan)
http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=blindplayer

Just made this little audio player application for Pandora. The idea is to be able to use it on the go without having to open up the Pandora to check the screen in order to switch songs and more stuff.

The only time when you actually need the screen is for the first step where you have to select a music file in a folder full of other audio files.
Then, as it starts playing the audio file, you can close your Pandora (make sure it does not go in low power mode) and control playback with the following:

LEFT SHOULDER button:
It acts as a function selector. Every time you press it, it cycles between the following functions.
Pause / Next / Previous / Lock / Quit
As you cycle through them, you can hear a voice over the music track playing to indicate which function is selected at the moment.

RIGHT SHOULDER button acts as an action button.
It will activate the function selected by the left shoulder button.

For example, if you select "Pause" with the left shoulder button, and press the right shoulder button, it will pause playback.
If you select "Next" with the left shoulder button, and press the right shoulder button after that, it will jump to next track. And so on.
The only exception is "Lock" which will basically prevent any accidental right shoulder button click and ensure the playback continues until you remove the lock.
 
Awesome! This has been something I've always thought we should have. Will install as as soon as I am home.
 
Nice one.

Here a control suggestion:

As a kid I used my Nintendo DS as my Musicplayer.

With Moonshell player.

It was made for shoulder button control.

I found it pretty intuitive.

It covers everything an audioplayer needs and is made for gamepad only control.

X/Y: Configure Volume
A: Open File
B: Return to Previous
SELECT: Launch Tabs
START: System Menu
L+X/Y: Configure Brightness
L+A/B: Previous/Next Song
L+R+A: Play all tracks in SD Card
L+Left: Show MP3 Controls
L+Up: Pause
L+R: Pause
L+Down: Toggle Playback Mode
L Double Tap: Previous Track
L Double Tap then Hold: Seek Backward 1%
L Triple Tap: Pause
R+Left or Right: Seek Back/Forward by 1%
R+Up or Down: Seek Back/Forward by 5%
R+A: Play all Tracks in Folder
R Triple Tap: Standby Mode
R Double Tap+Hold: Seek Forward 1%
R Double Tap: Next Track

https://gbatemp.net/threads/moonshell-2-faq-guide-and-index.163493/
 
My mobile phone uses another technique with even one head set button and no voice:


One click - play/pause


two clicks - next


three clicks - previous


click + hold button - louder


two clicks + hold button - less louder


Maybe this would be an idea for you?


Furthermore I don't see the point in exiting the application in blind mode.
 
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My mobile phone uses another technique with even one head set button and no voice:


One click - play/pause


two clicks - next


three clicks - previous


click + hold button - louder


two clicks + hold button - less louder


Maybe this would be an idea for you?


Furthermore I don't see the point in exiting the application in blind mode.
Sure, I have thought about a single button function as well, but since we have two shoulders I find it more practical to use both. I don't like the idea of triple clicks too much either, especially for previous function :p

Exiting the application is actually useful since it makes sure that the player completely stops and does not restart by mistake. I also plan to include an option to shut down the Pandora from the application, without having to open it to do that as well. 
 
Works very well. I like the simplicity and the controls worked great for me. How does the sound output work? I'd love to be able to try this with my bluetooth speaker.
 
Works very well. I like the simplicity and the controls worked great for me. How does the sound output work? I'd love to be able to try this with my bluetooth speaker.
Thanks for trying it (psst, please rate and comment on the repo too :D )

It uses mplayer, so I am guessing this is going through the standard audio interface. If you can configure your Pandora to output to bluetooth it should work fine as well. (if your question is about how to get bluetooth output, you need to check previous threads on that subject).
 
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Works very well. I like the simplicity and the controls worked great for me. How does the sound output work? I'd love to be able to try this with my bluetooth speaker.
Thanks for trying it (psst, please rate and comment on the repo too :D )

It uses mplayer, so I am guessing this is going through the standard audio interface. If you can configure your Pandora to output to bluetooth it should work fine as well. (if your question is about how to get bluetooth output, you need to check previous threads on that subject).
I maybe need to try another one of the asound.conf files floating around. I use my current setup with Deadbeef, and accidentally just found out that Boson-X works great with Bluetooth audio.

Most programs will either crash (like DraStic) or will pipe through to the internal speakers (like mplayer and your app).

Maybe there is a flag I can add to the mplayer call to make it work...
 
Most programs will either crash (like DraStic) or will pipe through to the internal speakers (like mplayer and your app).
I'd recommend using another asound.conf file, since there is nothing specific in the mplayer I call to make it output on the internal speakers.
Will do. Up until now I don't think any of the asound.conf or asound.rc files I have tried have worked with mplayer, but I haven't spent enough time on it yet to give up. I think ED posted one that I have been meaning to try out. (I also would love A2DP control and mic input on the Pandora/Pyra, but I know that those are another beast altogether unfortunately.)
 
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Working nice in SZ, thank you. But since I mostly use Slackware it would be nice if it works here too

(which it doesn't). Maybe you can check this. Thanks.
 
Most programs will either crash (like DraStic) or will pipe through to the internal speakers (like mplayer and your app).
I'd recommend using another asound.conf file, since there is nothing specific in the mplayer I call to make it output on the internal speakers.
Will do. Up until now I don't think any of the asound.conf or asound.rc files I have tried have worked with mplayer, but I haven't spent enough time on it yet to give up. I think ED posted one that I have been meaning to try out. (I also would love A2DP control and mic input on the Pandora/Pyra, but I know that those are another beast altogether unfortunately.)
Let me know your progress on the bluetooth side because I'm definitely interested to make it work as well with my bluetooth speakers (i have not spent much time on getting them to work either, and I wonder if the new firmware changed anything about that).
 
Working nice in SZ, thank you. But since I mostly use Slackware it would be nice if it works here too

(which it doesn't). Maybe you can check this. Thanks.
There's nothing SZ specific in the application I wrote so it should work in Slackware as well - but it could be that Slackware has some issues with PNDs recently ? I remember seeing some messages in that line from Linux-Swat some time ago...  Can you let me know what error message you get when you try to execute it ? (tmp/pnd_out_blindplayer contents?)

Another solution is, when I post the code on github I will have some install instructions there and you can then use it just like you would on any Linux distro (which Slackware is). 

EDIT: one thing that MAY be missing in the requirements in Slackware is pygame. I think it's not installed by default in Slackware - once you install it it may be the the piece missing to make my application work. 
 
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Thats a nice idea, great people still try to use what the Pandora specifically has to offer.

But why isn't this located in the software section ?
 
Thanks for the tip with pygame. After installing i get till selection of titles and then a black window but no shoulder button working so no sound.

Here is the outfile :

=======================================================================================
PND             : /media/64GB/pandora/menu/Blindplayer.pnd
PND_FSTYPE      : Squashfs
APPDATADIR      : /media/64GB/pandora/appdata/blindplayer
APPDD_FSTYPE    : vfat
PND_CPUSPEED    : <unset>
EXENAME         : run.sh
ARGUMENTS       : <unset>
=======================================================================================
[ START ]--- Mount the PND ----------
Mounting : mount -t squashfs -o ro "/dev/loop0" "/mnt/utmp/blindplayer"
Mounting the Union FS : mount -t aufs -o exec,noplink,dirs="/media/64GB/pandora/appdata/blindplayer=rw+nolwh":"/mnt/pnd/blindplayer=rr" none "/mnt/utmp/blindplayer"
[sUCCESS]--- Mount the PND ----------
[ START ]--- Starting the application ( run.sh  ) ----------

(zenity:3588): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:102:18: Not using units is deprecated. Assuming 'px'.

(zenity:3588): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: gtk.css:102:20: Not using units is deprecated. Assuming 'px'.
 

After updating SZ to 1.70 the app is no longer starting. Will check later for outfile.

Correction : error found, forgot to install codec pack after fullflash - all working  :)  thanks
 
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