Gmu 0.3.3 Released!

[wejp]

I have released Gmu 0.3.3!

Changes since the last version include:

* Support for cover artwork embedded into MP3 ID3v2 tags
* Cover loader: Added new wildcard '$' that matches the filename of the current track (without its extension)
* Added two new actions to support Links-alike controls: FileBrowserDirUp and FileBrowserChDir
(a sample keymap file is included (keymap_links-alike.conf), stick left/right is used to change directories)
* Bug fix: Some MP3 files caused Gmu to freeze/crash or did not play at all or at the wrong speed

Website: http://wejp.k.vu/projects/gmu/

 

[Goemon4]

awsome, thanks for the fixes (dling now)

 

[QuasaR]

Great player! Thanks for the fixes & the coverart thinggy! I really love this player!

 

[PSyMastR]

Thanks for the release

 

[Cheezer]

Thanks for the update! I like the interface of this player.

I have a feature request for your consideration. Would it be possible for your player to maybe save a "flag" file on the sd card while playing an mp3 every minute, so if I just turn off my gp2x and then turn it on again I can keep playing the mp3/ogg file where I left off (to the nearest minute of course)? I listen to podcasts which are often an hour or so in length and so I usually have to turn off my gp2x in the middle and then I have to remember where I left off and fast-forward to that point the next time I turn it on.

If this isn't a feature you want for gmu or if it's not feasible, then thanks anyway.

 

[prairiefire]

Awesome wejp! Can't wait to try this out. One thing I find I do is accidentally delete files from the playlist and then when I want to add them again, they're out of order. Do you plan on adding a sorting feature to the playlist?

I'm also wondering how useful it is to have the left and right joystick positions used for panning through a song title. almost all of my songs (and the ones you use in your screenshots as an example) you can understand what song you're looking for. I find that with a long playlist, it might be more useful to use the left and right joystick positions as a page up/page down feature instead.

anyways, these are minor things, and ultimately this is by far my favourite player for the GP2X. cheers!

 

[starpause]

first ... thanks MUCH for the update wejp! gmu keeps getting better and better, which gives me ideas on how to make it even better again

would it be possible to display the cover image for the currently playing file in the Playlist screen as well?

i could see the "display cover" setting being put in the .conf file rather than being a in-application toggle. for example

CoverArtworkLarge=yes
CoverArtworkInFileInfoScreen=no
CoverArtworkInPlaylistScreen=yes

would stretch the cover artwork and display it behind the playlist, but not behind the file info.

this would clean up the on-screen controls/options within the application and allow the application to be more configurable.

also, i haven't noticed a large slow down due to cover images, but if such a slow down exists maybe priority should be given to playing back sound, and only look for, load, and display the cover image after a file is playing.

 

[wejp]

Thanks for the update! I like the interface of this player.

I have a feature request for your consideration. Would it be possible for your player to maybe save a "flag" file on the sd card while playing an mp3 every minute, so if I just turn off my gp2x and then turn it on again I can keep playing the mp3/ogg file where I left off (to the nearest minute of course)? I listen to podcasts which are often an hour or so in length and so I usually have to turn off my gp2x in the middle and then I have to remember where I left off and fast-forward to that point the next time I turn it on.

If this isn't a feature you want for gmu or if it's not feasible, then thanks anyway.

I will probably add something like in the future, but i can't tell you yet when that will be ready.

Awesome wejp! Can't wait to try this out. One thing I find I do is accidentally delete files from the playlist and then when I want to add them again, they're out of order. Do you plan on adding a sorting feature to the playlist?

I haven't thought about that before, but it shouldn't be too difficult to add.
BTW, if you have removed a file accidentally from the playlist and want to re-add it at the same position again, you can actually do that. Just move the cursor in the playlist to the item before the removed one and switch to the file browser and add the file with Stick click + B instead of just B (when you have left the controls at the default settings). That will insert the file at the position after the selected playlist item.

I'm also wondering how useful it is to have the left and right joystick positions used for panning through a song title. almost all of my songs (and the ones you use in your screenshots as an example) you can understand what song you're looking for. I find that with a long playlist, it might be more useful to use the left and right joystick positions as a page up/page down feature instead.

anyways, these are minor things, and ultimately this is by far my favourite player for the GP2X. cheers!

I implemented the left/right scrolling thing when I was using a larger font for the default skin so there were fewer characters visible. Now with the smaller font this feature is less needed.
I think the page up/down feature is really a nice thing to have, so I will probably add that, but the user will still be able to choose what he wants to use his buttons for. Some people might prefer the horizontal scrolling.

first ... thanks MUCH for the update wejp! gmu keeps getting better and better, which gives me ideas on how to make it even better again

would it be possible to display the cover image for the currently playing file in the Playlist screen as well?

i could see the "display cover" setting being put in the .conf file rather than being a in-application toggle. for example

CoverArtworkLarge=yes
CoverArtworkInFileInfoScreen=no
CoverArtworkInPlaylistScreen=yes

would stretch the cover artwork and display it behind the playlist, but not behind the file info.

this would clean up the on-screen controls/options within the application and allow the application to be more configurable.

This should be possible, although it needs some modifications to the current cover viewer code. But there is one problem left where I don't know how to solve it best. When scaling the cover to fit the screen's width most covers won't fit in (unless their height matches the available height on the screen). So I would have to crop the image to make it fit. In the track info screen the user is able to scroll up and down to view the whole image, but that would not be possible in the other screens as the stick is used for scrolling through the lists.

also, i haven't noticed a large slow down due to cover images, but if such a slow down exists maybe priority should be given to playing back sound, and only look for, load, and display the cover image after a file is playing.

Moving the cover loading code out of the main thread might help to make Gmu more responsive while loading large cover images. But I would still recommend to avoid using huge cover images because they do not only slow down loading but also require much memory when loaded. It is not the filesize that is the main problem here, but the dimensions of the image. If you have a scan of a cd cover with a resolution of 3000 x 2000 pixels this would need more than 17 MB in memory and some more when resizing the image. Using cover images with smaller resolutions for example cover images used by Amazon, the slow down should be much less.
But I will try running that stuff in its own thread, it could actually help.

 

[starpause]

Thanks for the update! I like the interface of this player.

I have a feature request for your consideration. Would it be possible for your player to maybe save a "flag" file on the sd card while playing an mp3 every minute, so if I just turn off my gp2x and then turn it on again I

I will probably add something like in the future, but i can't tell you yet when that will be ready.

something like this could be cool if it was streamlined, so the user didn't have to choose to start playback from the flagged position (as opposed to start with the current file playback behavior).

i see two ways to make it streamlined ... when gmu started it could resume playback from the last position it saved itself at. OR if the user chose to play back a file with the flagged position in it, then gmu would resume from that position. otherwise, the flag gets ignored and set again.

rememberPlaybackPosition could be another option to toggle off and on via the .conf (if people didn't want to waste SD writes on it) and maybe playFromRememberedPositionOnBoot could toggle what to do with the flag.

would it be possible to display the cover image for the currently playing file in the Playlist screen as well?

i could see the "display cover" setting being put in the .conf file rather than being a in-application toggle. for example

CoverArtworkLarge=yes
CoverArtworkInFileInfoScreen=no
CoverArtworkInPlaylistScreen=yes

This should be possible, although it needs some modifications to the current cover viewer code. But there is one problem left where I don't know how to solve it best. When scaling the cover to fit the screen's width most covers won't fit in (unless their height matches the available height on the screen). So I would have to crop the image to make it fit. In the track info screen the user is able to scroll up and down to view the whole image, but that would not be possible in the other screens as the stick is used for scrolling through the lists.

maybe this isn't a problem--users are only able to vertically position the cover via the file-info screen, and have to live with their choice on the playlist screen

alternately, in the playlist screen left and right could be used for cover positioning OR paging OR horizontal scrolling of text. keymap.conf is a beautiful thing h34r:

also--very good to know that it's the dimensions, not the file size or resolution, that matters when resizing images for use with gmu! i did covers up for my podcast covering netaudio that are all less than 320 wide (except the latest one, fKED up!).

thanks again! keep gmu awesome! not only the best music player on gp2x, best interface for a PMP i've ever seen!

 

[prairiefire]

Thanks wejp, the previous problem I had with certain songs not playing has since gone away with the release of v3.3! Thanks for the tip about inserting files back in their previous playlist order.

keymap.conf is a beautiful thing h34r:

Yes. I think the power of this app is strongly rooted in the ability to customize. So many people (like me ) have great demands on how we want our music player to work and wejp has found a nice smooth way of accomodating us.

thanks again! keep gmu awesome! not only the best music player on gp2x, best interface for a PMP i've ever seen!

absolutely.

 

[starpause]

one more suggestion:

make the cursor/highlight in the playlist screen follow what track is being played. if this isn't desirable behavior for everyone, it could be another line in .conf.

i want this feature so that file deleting is easier as i sift through all of the netaudio released each week. a lot gets deleted and moving up and down through a large playlist to find the file currently playing, just to delete it, is a lot of button mashing!

 

[prairiefire]

one more suggestion:

make the cursor/highlight in the playlist screen follow what track is being played. if this isn't desirable behavior for everyone, it could be another line in .conf.

i want this feature so that file deleting is easier as i sift through all of the netaudio released each week. a lot gets deleted and moving up and down through a large playlist to find the file currently playing, just to delete it, is a lot of button mashing!

great suggestion. i think this would be very useful as an option in the configuration file. the current setting is nice when you have a song you're ready to cue after you're listening to the current one, and you don't want to lose that 'selected' next track.

 

[wejp]

one more suggestion:

make the cursor/highlight in the playlist screen follow what track is being played. if this isn't desirable behavior for everyone, it could be another line in .conf.

i want this feature so that file deleting is easier as i sift through all of the netaudio released each week. a lot gets deleted and moving up and down through a large playlist to find the file currently playing, just to delete it, is a lot of button mashing!

great suggestion. i think this would be very useful as an option in the configuration file. the current setting is nice when you have a song you're ready to cue after you're listening to the current one, and you don't want to lose that 'selected' next track.

Yes, I think this could be useful in some situations. I'll probably implement that as suggested with a config file option to enable/disable it.

As for the cover artwork on the other screens, using the same position as selected on the track info screen seems to be nice solution. I think I'll do it this way, when I add that feature.