[bcab] Re: Speak on: What a pity!

Hi Dave

I am glad it now works OK for you.

As to your other suggestions...

In the RadioTime, the collection is of streams for the same station so for
example if you play BBC you get two streams WMA and REAL.  Sometimes you
will find that one stream does not work very well for some reason (internet
traffic, problem with the source) so you can switch between streams (same
content Up and Down arrow). As far as I am aware no other player has this
facility and this takes advantage of the dynamic performance tuning by which
RadioTime presents the reference to the stations.

If you look at the Radio entry in the VI Services application, you will find
ACB Radio.  There the collection is the various stations (different in
content) offerings of ACB radio which work a bit like you suggest.

One thing that many people sometimes miss is that that say if you are in the
library, you can navigate quickly with the first letter of the alphabet so
for 'My preset' in Radio Time:

Press tab to go to the Library. Press Right and then the letter m you are on
the presets.  Then press the first letter of the station you want to play.
Not immediate but pretty efficient.

The other thing about this version is that I addressed some of your previous
comments (some months ago) about Podcasts:

For Podcast files:
You can simply include the folder where your podcast catcher puts the files
(in exactly the same way as you include folders for music) and then use the
SpeakOn player with its superior ability to skip within files stored on your
computer and the ability to come back to where you left off (even if you
went to listen to another podcast and came back to it later).

With regards to podcasts streamming.
You  will know that all the BBC, public radio and many other thousands of
podcasts feeds - not as many as on iTunes but iTunes only puts there podcast
for a fee so you will find in SpeakOn some others, which will last somebody
a life time.
You will also know that you can add any of these to your favourites to
easily find them when you want.
Menu > File > Add to favourites

Anyway you can now put a URL of a podcast which is not found in the SpeakOn
library into the equivalent of an Edit box (no need to edit a text file
anymore).  Similaarly you can copy the URL from the library to put into a
download catcher of your choice or if you prefer into another player.

You can still not navigate in a stream; most people don't care but I agree
that this will be useful perhaps in the next version.  One thing to keep in
mind is that most servers do not support streamming of MP3 from a particular
point in the file (BBC listen again is different in that it is in the Real
format which supports this).
So what these players are effectively doing is downloading the podcast which
is kept in a buffer - not pure streamming but you may argue who cares, it is
useful.

So Rome was not built in a day; still plenty to do.

Regards
Isaac
      
   

-----Original Message-----
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Dave Taylor
Sent: 31 January 2009 10:17
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Re: Speak on: What a pity!

Isaac,

That's why I didn't find it, you have to press enter on a folder! I'm sorry,
I think I may well have to give it 10 out of 10 in that case! After what
you've just said, I can see my CD's never seeing the light of day again once
they are digitised! 
Does
It would be even stronger if you could do the same thing from an individual
track, and if it worked from internet directories too, so you could go
straight from one preset to the next in Radio Time, for instance that way
too!
-----Original Message-----
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Isaac Porat
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 7:31 AM
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Re: Speak on: What a pity!

Hi Dave

Oh 9.5 that's not bad I hope I got that when I was learning English <smile>

You can do all these things as follows:

If you play a playlist (file extensions such as '.m3u' 'pls' and 'wpl' just
press the Up and Down arrow keys to go to a next or previous track.
(Press the Right and Left arrows will take you between navigation units so
you can skip also 5 Minutes, 1 minute 15 seconds and 5 seconds - the same
applies to all files audio or text stored on your computer such as podcasts
or plain text Depending on the media it will remember where you left off and
you can make as many bookmarks as you like (this is disabled deliberately in
Music as people told me that they want to always go back to the top of their
playlist - you can shuffle, sort  the tracks, disable speech see under the
'Play' sub-menu.    
The same principle (navigating the collection )applies to all collections;
article in a newspapers, podcasts episodes in a feed, Daisy books etc.

You don't have to have playlists to listen to your music anymore.  When you
navigate the SpeakOn library in the Music category you will hear 'playable'
directory.  Just press Enter on it; all the tracks under this folder
(directory) and sub folders are grouped automatically into a temporary
playlist (which you can save later if you wish).  Simply move between tracks
using the Up and Down arrow keys - simple I think.

The tracks (or any item in the collection) will advance automatically when
one item finishes (track in the case of music).

So everything you raised is there;  did I addressed your comments?
Will you give SpeakOn now 10 out of 10?

Regards
Isaac






 

-----Original Message-----
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Dave Taylor
Sent: 30 January 2009 21:12
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Speak on: What a pity!

Hi, well, I must say, I give this about 9.5 out of 10! The pity is I can't
quite give it 10 out of 10. There still isn't a single keystroke I can find
for next track, previous track, etc, and you still can't get it to
automatically play the next thing in your collection! The same principle
would be brilliant throught the program, not just in media centre! Seems
like an easy thing to implement too! Still, at least I can use it to play
music again now, I just think I'll stick to Itunes for now!

Well done on the update though

Cheers
Dave


To find out more about BCAB and the benefits that membership can bring,
please visit our website:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/

To manage your subscription to the BCAB mailing list, please visit our
website:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/mailing-list.html

To discuss matters relating to the mailing list, please email
bcab-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

To find out more about BCAB and the benefits that membership can bring,
please visit our website:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/

To manage your subscription to the BCAB mailing list, please visit our
website:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/mailing-list.html

To discuss matters relating to the mailing list, please email
bcab-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

To find out more about BCAB and the benefits that membership can bring,
please visit our website:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/

To manage your subscription to the BCAB mailing list, please visit our
website:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/mailing-list.html

To discuss matters relating to the mailing list, please email
bcab-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

To find out more about BCAB and the benefits that membership can bring, please 
visit our website:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/

To manage your subscription to the BCAB mailing list, please visit our website:
http://www.bcab.org.uk/mailing-list.html

To discuss matters relating to the mailing list, please email 
bcab-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Other related posts: