Playlist Preview feature

[h_zuro]

Hi
Is there a feature available where I can load a playlist which has may be 250 songs for example and preview the first 30 seconds of all the tracks without having to manually clicking through one at a time?. So the program plays 30 seconds of the first track , then the next one and so on.

One of the versions of Windows Media Player has this feature available ( don't know which one) and same with a version of Winamp( don't know which one either) .

Thanks for the QCD player. It works and sounds better than other ones I've used and I'm not a techie.

thanks
bye.

[Young Twig]

Not that I'm aware of... :(

[Hanzo]

That's a nice suggestion man... but the wording should be changed... not playlist preview. Something like "playlist sample mode" cuz your are only listening to music samples. And there should be a hot key for this... or a button in the skin.

[drewkeller]

i'm pretty sure this has been requested before but i don't think there is currently a way to do it (unless you want to consider writing a script)
i thought the QCD timer plugin might be able to handle it, but nope

[drewkeller]

here is a quick and dirty script to do it. create a new text file in the QCD folder and double click to open it in notepad and then copy and paste the text below. then close the file (save it) and rename it to tracksample.vbs
when you run it, it will ask you to input the sample time (defaults to 30 seconds) and then it will start going through QCD's playlist.

unfortunately you'll have to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and end the wscript.exe process to stop the script. (anyone know how else to stop it?)


Option Explicit
Dim Delay, Title, Text

Delay = 30
Title = "QCD track sampler"
Text = "This will play a sample of each track for a certain " & _
"length of time." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"Input the time in seconds below." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and end the wscript.exe process to " & _
"stop the script."

Delay = Inputbox (Text, Title, Delay)

if Delay = "" Then
WScript.Quit
End IF

Do
WScript.Sleep(Delay * 1000)
CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run("QCDPlayer.exe /trkfwd")
Loop

[Tokelil]

Why not make it as a QCD plugin instead? Maybe put an option in the QCD menu with something like: "Preview mode" or "playlist sample mode" as Hanzo surgested.

[Hanzo]

Why not make it as a QCD plugin instead? Maybe put an option in the QCD menu with something like: "Preview mode" or "playlist sample mode" as Hanzo surgested.
Yeah... a plugin is the best solution. Maybe Tokelill can take care. I see he created the blogging plugin in a few days or something. I wish I can code that way.

"Sample Mode" sounds cool huh? :cool:

[h_zuro]

Yeah... a plugin is the best solution. Maybe Tokelill can take care. I see he created the blogging plugin in a few days or something. I wish I can code that way.

"Sample Mode" sounds cool huh? :cool:

So cool to see you guys jumping on this and creating something so quickly.
Thanks Drew for the script. It works, and with the plugin it'll be even better i guess. My suggstion is a sub menu option under "playback" menu or a main menu item with the user having the option to put in whatever duration he/she wants just like in the script.

Thanks Drew , Hanzo and the gang. Can't wait for the real deal.
bye.

[Tokelil]

Sorry I havent replied but I have been away from the internet for some days here in the christmas.

I have worked a few hours on the plugin, but since I like to do things as little different every time to learn more it takes a little time. I think I'll finish it in a week or so.

The menu item to toggle preview on/off will be in the plugin menu since I think that is where Paul would like plugins to put menu items.

[Tokelil]

Okay took me longer than expected...

Anyway here is an alpha version of the plugin I'd like to get some feedback on. Anything else that should be added to it?

(Unzip to the QCD plugins folder. I cant upload exe files so I cant upload it to the forum when packed in the installer. :()

(Deleted attachment. Please download from QCDs plug-in section)

[h_zuro]

Not sure what i'm doing wrong here. I extracted the dll to the plugins folder and it's there but cant find the plugin under the plugin menu.
Thanks

Okay took me longer than expected...
Anyway here is an alpha version of the plugin I'd like to get some feedback on. Anything else that should be added to it?

(Unzip to the QCD plugins folder. I cant upload exe files so I cant upload it to the forum when packed in the installer. :()

[Tokelil]

Have you clicked Load new plugins under preferences -> Plug-ins. Tried clicking Flush Name Cache?

(Im going to bed now so I wont be able to help before tomorrow if that didn't help...)

[greatfujimori]

I found the plug-in under the "General" menu and enabled the plug-in... now the question is how do I get it to start playing in Sample Mode? :confused:

[acozz]

I think he said he put it under the plugin menu. It depends which skin you're using where it is (or if it has it at all). You can always get it from the main menu though under Plugins.

[greatfujimori]

I think he said he put it under the plugin menu. It depends which skin you're using where it is (or if it has it at all). You can always get it from the main menu though under Plugins.
It's not in the plugin menu, but that's not really my problem. I can enable the plug-in easily, I just can't figure out how to make it start playing previews of songs. I.e. I can check the checkbox next to it, but that just doesn't really seem to do anything.

[acozz]

I just downloaded it to see where it is. View the attachments. Select the sample mode then press play...it should switch songs after the first 15 seconds or so of each song.

[Tokelil]

h_zuro: What version of Windows do you use? Version of QCD? weird thatt it wont load...

The playtime, fadetime etc. can be set if you click configure in the preferences -> Plug-ins -> General menu.

[Hanzo]

I'll test it later today when I get back home...

Don't worry, Hanzo is here to help the developer.:D

[h_zuro]

h_zuro: What version of Windows do you use? Version of QCD? weird thatt it wont load...

The playtime, fadetime etc. can be set if you click configure in the preferences -> Plug-ins -> General menu.

Latest version of QCD. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the player then tried installing the plugin. Didn't work

Thanks

[Tokelil]

Don't worry, Hanzo is here to help the developer.Hehe nice... I'll go get drunk while I wait then! :D

[Tokelil]

Latest version of QCD. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the player then tried installing the plugin. Didn't work

Thanks
What version of Windows? What language?

The plugin shouldn't need any other dlls so Im not sure whats wrong. I'll have to make debug version for you to test tomorrow to get some info on whats going wrong. (I hope you dont mind...)

[greatfujimori]

So when I installed it and loaded it without restarting QCD, it at least let me enable the plug-in (although I couldn't get it to play in sample mode). Then, when I restarted (and I just tried reinstalling / restarting again), I get "QCD Plug-in Error."

See the attached screenshot.

[h_zuro]

What version of Windows? What language?

The plugin shouldn't need any other dlls so Im not sure whats wrong. I'll have to make debug version for you to test tomorrow to get some info on whats going wrong. (I hope you dont mind...)

Thanks for the help. No problem waiting. I've attached the error messages etc.

Thank You

[Tokelil]

greatfujimori and h_zuro what versions of Windows are you guys using. (greatfujimori looks like XP and h_zuro like 98... right?)

[h_zuro]

greatfujimori and h_zuro what versions of Windows are you guys using. (greatfujimori looks like XP and h_zuro like 98... right?)

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195] English

[greatfujimori]

greatfujimori and h_zuro what versions of Windows are you guys using. (greatfujimori looks like XP and h_zuro like 98... right?)
I've got XP.

[Tokelil]

Hmm I kind of hoped you got Win 95 so I could blaim Microsoft!!! :D ;) Im running Win XP with b68 my self so it's kind of funny that it fu**s up for you.

[acozz]

It worked fine for me on WinXP.

[h_zuro]

Why not make it as a QCD plugin instead? Maybe put an option in the QCD menu with something like: "Preview mode" or "playlist sample mode" as Hanzo surgested.

The real use for me with the SAMPLE MODE plugin is below. Hope it's not too late.

When the Playlist Preview( sample mode) plugin is ready I can sample the playlist ( maybe 500 songs long or whatever ) .Usually the first 15/30/45/60 seconds of listening will tell me wheather i wanna keep the song in the list or delete it. So i'm listening through with the intention of editing the playlist and I can use the up/down arrow keys to highlight the last track/the one above it or whatever and hit the DELETE button and it's physically deleted.

Thanks everybody. Hope this makes sense.

[Tokelil]

Please try this file:
(Link removed. Please download from QCDs plug-in section)

And show me the content of preview.log that should be in the QCD main folder.

(Nothing has changed so it'll crash the player, but the log hopefully shows me where it crashes.)

[Hanzo]

Please try this file:
http://www.netpsych.dk/misc/qcd/QCDSampleMode.zip

And show me the content of preview.log that should be in the QCD main folder.

(Nothing has changed so it'll crash the player, but the log hopefully shows me where it crashes.)
Hey Tokelil... I can't get it to work. I disabled all the plugins except of the sample mode and mp3 input.

Also tried to disable crossfading in the sample plugin. I'm using the default settings. It does not crash on my XP machine thou. I restarted the player several times, but no luck. It also seems to mess up with the Load Playlist function. Since I installed the DLL in the plugin folder, all the playlists I had on "my playlists" folder aren't loading, even when I have the folder set right on Preferences.

If there is some nice way to have the plugin work that I haven't figured out, can you let me know?

I hope that helps... :D

[Hanzo]

More data on this little problem...

I try to load M3U playlist, and now it seems that QCD can't load them. I open the playlist file fine on WMP so it's not the playlist that is damaged. When I open the playlist on QCD it only shows the playlist filename in the playlist and it shows it as blocked.

Attached how it looks...

[Tokelil]

Okay this is getting odd. Im not doing anything fancy so I dont get why it wouldn't work if it loads. I have tested with the 3 standard output plugins playing .ogg and mp3 files with no problems. I have no idea on why it should change anything where to the load playlist function. You are using B68 right?

You did enable it under the right click -> Plug-ins popup menu, right?

[Tokelil]

BTW does the playlist thing work again when you disable the sample plugin? (And possibly restarting QCD...)

[Hanzo]

Hmm... let me try with B68...

Now I can't even save playlists... but I guess you wrote it for B68... so I'll install B68 and try again... hang on...

[h_zuro]

Please try this file:
http://www.netpsych.dk/misc/qcd/QCDSampleMode.zip

And show me the content of preview.log that should be in the QCD main folder.

(Nothing has changed so it'll crash the player, but the log hopefully shows me where it crashes.)

Same result , see the preview log.

01/11/04 09:07:49: Init 1
01/11/04 09:07:49: Init 2
01/11/04 09:07:49: Init 3
01/11/04 09:07:49: Init 4
01/11/04 09:07:49: Init 5
01/11/04 09:07:49: Init 6
01/11/04 09:07:49: Init 7
Thank You.

[Hanzo]

Ok... got B68, but still can't get it to work...

Any ideas?

[Tokelil]

It is written with the old 4.11 PDK so it shouldn't need the dev builds. I only tested it on B68 though...

I really really dont get the add/save playlist problem! :( The problem is only there when the plugin is loaded right?

h_zuro : Thanx for the log.

[Tokelil]

h_suro please try downloading this file again:
(Link removed. Please download from QCDs plug-in section)

I believe it crashes when loading it settings from the plugins.ini file, so I have disabled that. (So it wont load and save to ini file it that file.)

[Hanzo]

It is written with the old 4.11 PDK so it shouldn't need the dev builds. I only tested it on B68 though...

I really really dont get the add/save playlist problem! :( The problem is only there when the plugin is loaded right?

h_zuro : Thanx for the log.
Yep,,, but it dissapeared when I installed B68..
I think it was because I unclicked the playlist service from Gracenote or something...

[Tokelil]

Yep,,, but it dissapeared when I installed B68..
I think it was because I unclicked the playlist service from Gracenote or something...
Okay, but it still doesn't do anything?

[h_zuro]

h_suro please try downloading this file again:
http://www.netpsych.dk/misc/qcd/QCDSampleMode.zip

I believe it crashes when loading it settings from the plugins.ini file, so I have disabled that. (So it wont load and save to ini file it that file.)

Tried that, got the same exact results. (error loading, then closed the player)
Something funny happened: I restarted the player with playlist(250 songs), clicked the play button, the playlist scrolled from 1 to 250 in 5 seconds; like it's playing samples but not really, and the plugin is not loaded. more diagnosis.... Then I cleared the playlist and loaded just one track from the folder( no playlsit) clicked play and the song won't play.The playback progress bar jus moved and it went back to the start position in a second.

Then I shut down the player, restarted the player and now the playlist (loaded again) is playing .

Thank You

[Tokelil]

Hmm damn. I'll have to think a little to find the problem I guess... Funny that it works on some systems and not others. :(

[Hanzo]

The only thing I haven't tried is to reboot the computer. I'm in the middle of a big download at this moment. When it finishes, I'll check it out some more...

The plugin doesn't work at all. It's checked and everything. Restarted QCD several times. I'm using B68 and XP Pro too. Tried with WaveOut just to check but no luck. Currently, MP3 Input, WaveOut, Playlist Plugin and the SampleMode Plugin are the only things checked in.

Are there any settings in QCD I should mess with??

[acozz]

All I did was install the plugin, check Sample mode in the plugin menu and it worked. It also loaded a few times with no problems. Something is up. Is this plugin made with .NET?

[Tokelil]

Is this plugin made with .NET?No... not even MFC so it shouldn't need anything.

Hanzo : Please try this:
(Link removed. Please download from QCDs plug-in section)

and PM me the content of preview.log

[Young Twig]

Works for me... WinXP b68. Although, I believe it only restored volume to 94% after fadeout.

[Tokelil]

Works for me... WinXP b68. Although, I believe it only restored volume to 94% after fadeout.I restores volume to what ever it was when the plugin was loaded. (I'll change that to when it is enabled instead...)

[Hanzo]

All right Tokelil... I stepped out to get dinner and pick up my girlfriend. :D The download finished. I installed the other version you posted and rebooted my computer. Now it works like a charm.

EXCELLENT JOB MAN !!! :D :cool:

Now a couple of suggestions... If you could define where in the song you wanna sample, would be good. You know some songs you don't recognize after several seconds. So it would be great if you could define something like the period you wanna sample in the track... do you get my point?

[acozz]

All right Tokelil... I stepped out to get dinner and pick up my girlfriend. :D The download finished. I installed the other version you posted and rebooted my computer. Now it works like a charm.

EXCELLENT JOB MAN !!! :D :cool:

Now a couple of suggestions... If you could define where in the song you wanna sample, would be good. You know some songs you don't recognize after several seconds. So it would be great if you could define something like the period you wanna sample in the track... do you get my point?

What's funny is that I don't think he changed anything except debug info. Could be wrong though.

[Hanzo]

What's funny is that I don't think he changed anything except debug info. Could be wrong though.
I think it was the reboot... when I tried the first time the computer had run for over 2 days and QCD did not stop playing and had crashed before... so... it might be just the reboot.

[Tokelil]

acozz is right. You shouldn't use the file from the _dbg version since that one will create a rather large log. If the other on works use that instead.

I'll implement your idea on range when I figure out why it wont load for some...

[Tokelil]

Okay I have updated it with range support as Hanzo surgested. Theoretically there should be less chance of it crashing too, so those with crash on start please try it out. (If it still doesn't work I'll have to have my friends try it out and hope one of them has the same problem. :confused: They are all using Danish Win XP though.)

Get it here:
(Link removed. Please download from QCDs plug-in section)

[greatfujimori]

Works beautifully now - it's great! A few issues - it would be kinda nice if the ends of songs faded all the way out (i.e. volume going to 0), and it would be nice if the volume is adjustable and the plug-in returns to the new adjusted volume level.

[Tokelil]

it would be kinda nice if the ends of songs faded all the way out (i.e. volume going to 0), Under Configuration for the plugin you can set it to fade to 0. (Set fadeout volume to 0%)

and it would be nice if the volume is adjustable and the plug-in returns to the new adjusted volume level.Okay should be fixed in next build.

[Hanzo]

Okay I have updated it with range support as Hanzo surgested. Theoretically there should be less chance of it crashing too, so those with crash on start please try it out. (If it still doesn't work I'll have to have my friends try it out and hope one of them has the same problem. :confused: They are all using Danish Win XP though.)

Get it here:
http://www.netpsych.dk/misc/qcd/QCDSampleMode.zip
I'll give it a try later today, dude... you're the man... :D

[Tokelil]

Okay fixed so it returns to the volume level that was before it started fadeout.

(Link removed. Please download from QCDs plug-in section)

[Tokelil]

Okay the plugin is pretty much where I want it to be so this will probably be the last update unless someone has some good ideas for it:

http://www.netpsych.dk/misc/qcd/QCDSampleMode.zip

(I hope this release fixes it for h_suro too. Turned out to be a divide by zero error because his volume was at 50% and the default volume fadeout volume was set to 50%)

[Hanzo]

Well dude... you're the man right now.

The plugin works really great and the range is just what I was looking for. I really appreciate the work you've done on this one because it's gonna help me for a project I'm taking with a radio station here in Panama, same station that might someday open a 100% Panamanian shoutcast station.

:cool:

[h_zuro]

Okay the plugin is pretty much where I want it to be so this will probably be the last update unless someone has some good ideas for it:

http://www.netpsych.dk/misc/qcd/QCDSampleMode.zip

(I hope this release fixes it for h_suro too. Turned out to be a divide by zero error because his volume was at 50% and the default volume fadeout volume was set to 50%)

Thanks a lot Tokelil,
I was able to load and the program works great. Thanks for all the work that was put in into this. Another reason to like QCD.
Thanks everybody for the suggestions , input and interest. Now let me sample my songs playlists :)

[h_zuro]

Thanks a lot Tokelil,
I was able to load and the program works great. Thanks for all the work that was put in into this. Another reason to like QCD.
Thanks everybody for the suggestions , input and interest. Now let me sample my songs playlists :)

Don't know if this idea has much traction or it makes sense::

" While in the playlist sample mode you have the ability to delete/edit the playlist by selecting a track using the UP/DOWN arrow keys, hit the delete button/keyboard short cut and the track is removed from the playlist/physically removed"

Thanks

[Tokelil]

Don't know if this idea has much traction or it makes sense::

" While in the playlist sample mode you have the ability to delete/edit the playlist by selecting a track using the UP/DOWN arrow keys, hit the delete button/keyboard short cut and the track is removed from the playlist/physically removed"

Thanks
Just to be sure on what you mean.
You want it so when you press a key combination (e.g. CTRL+ALT+D) then the song you are listening to are physically deleted, right?

[h_zuro]

Just to be sure on what you mean.
You want it so when you press a key combination (e.g. CTRL+ALT+D) then the song you are listening to are physically deleted, right?

No, basically the ability to highlight a track in the playlist using the UP/Down arrow key and able to delete the highlighted/selected track from the playlist/or if possible physically delete it by hitting the DELETE button.Shouldn't matter if a song is playing or not.

Also the ability to play the selected/highlighted track by hitting the RETURN key ( so basically once I highlight the track I could either Delete it or I could Play it).

Also, is there a way to control the scroll buttons (scroll through the playlist) using the keyboard instead of the mouse?

Currently I have to use the MOUSE to select a track and play/delete it unless there is a way exists to use the keyboard for that.
I don't see HOTKEYS plugin having an option for this.

Thanks Much.

[acozz]

I think that would be a better Feature Request for the player itself. When I read this, I thought there was no way this wasn't already possible, but you're right! Seems like keyboard control of the playlist should be added if you ask me.

[Tokelil]

I havent had a look at this so I dont know if it is possible to implement to the plugin, but as Acoss said this is really more a feature request for the player itself! Adding it to a plugin would be a hack in my oppinion. Try posting it in the feature request forum. (Im not sure Paul is still watching this thread. :) )

[Tokelil]

I just uploaded the plugin to the plugin section, but no new features so no need to download again if you already got the latest version. (Only changes is a version bump to v1.0 and some info in the About dialog to make J44xm happy ;) )