On Nov 2, 2009, at 23:00, David McPaul <dlmcpaul@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
2009/11/3 Alex Suraci <i.am@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:As it is, the current MediaPlayer seems ideal for opening up the odd media file (which is fine; I wouldn't want an MP3 someone sends me toopen up with what I use to manage my entire library and interrupt whatis currently playing), not for managing and maintaining a persistent library. In that sense, I would expect the following of a media library application:1. A more modern and native-looking user interface; along the lines ofSonata in terms of UI elements. (http://sonata.berlios.de/screenshots.html)2. Shuffle/repeat controls, enqueuing, maintaining multiple playlists. 3. Some form of a music library, possibly with folder that it monitorsfor new content. MediaPlayer doesn't seem to work at all for maintaining one big playlist to emulate a library; every attempt I have made at dragging my entire Music folder into the playlist has led it to lock up (or maybe it's just taking too long). In Linux, I use MPD which maintains my entire library with a source directory where it can update the contents of the library from(usually with "mpc update", but ideally this would be automatic). Withthat, I have a primary playlist which I fill with my entire library and usually leave on shuffle. I use multiple clients to control mpd; currently ncmpcpp (a terminal UI), and I have mpc mapped for someglobal multimedia hotkeys (e.g. Right Ctrl + Home "mpc pause"). Sonatais also an MPD client. This setup works very well, and I think a sort of multimedia kit that acts like MPD could work very well on Haiku.This sounds to me like you really want a media library application which I see as a different thing to a media player. You should already be able to use BFS attributes to index/manage your media collection. Perhaps MediaPlayer could playback from a BFS query.
That's what haiku does for everything else. I see no reason to change that. Although, for consideration, thumbnail the music files with the album art.
Anyway, MediaPlayer does what it says it does, plays media. It is likely to be extended so it can play from any source (file, dvd, network) but I think it should be limited to play a single file or a selection of files NOT manage a media library. Considering your above usage is mainly musical you could perhaps write an app that uses the media kit to do what you want.On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 8:57 PM, David McPaul <dlmcpaul@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:2009/11/3 Alex Suraci <i.am@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 6:30 PM, Patrick Kelly <kameo76890@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:I was talking about improving the default media player itself.As am I. Just with a different method - replacing it. Coming to Haikufrom any other OS, the default media player is extremely dated andprimitive. A default media player should be much better than that in2009. There isn't much point in sticking so close to how theseapplications were on BeOS; operating systems and software in generalhave gone very far since then.What do you feel is missing in the MediaPlayer?-- Cheers David
