Current Status

12/23/2006 - Finalizing design before programming (unreleased).

The Beginning

In my old apartment I ran a second audio and video line out into my living room in order to play music in both locations. Very quickly I got tired of running into my bedroom to change the music so I created a web application to browse my collection and control what was playing (via Winamp). The idea was to get it working on any device with a web browser including a PDA.

The first version browsed directories on my computer in realtime which worked pretty well. It did exactly what I set out to create.

Features were added when I couldn't stand not having them. The next thing I wanted was to quickly run searches by artist, album, or song title and manage multiple playlists. This meant storing the collection in a database which also made browsing much faster. Ajax was added to get rid of page refreshes and page movement all together. By now it no longer worked on the PDA because of the heavy amount of Javascript used.

For the most part the player design stayed the same. I used icons from Winamp and the structure was very square and simple. It wasn't until I came across a Winamp skin called Spirit that I was really inspired to redesign my player. For about a month, in my spare time, I worked on the new design. I knew it would be a big change so I also put together a list of additional features to make sure they were included in the design. One of the bigger ones being video support.

This update will take several months to get it up and running again, and a few more to polish it off for public release.

Current Features

• Import files - Based on folder structure and file naming convention.
• Browse files
• Search by artist, album, song, and year
• Add file, album, or artist to playlist or overwrite current playlist
• Tracks player status, playlist, playlist position
• Play, pause, stop, next, prev player actions.
• Set player volume level
• View current playlist and click any song to change playlist position
• Manage song and album playlists
• Separate display showing what's playing and coming next. Scrolls around the screen to prevent burn-in.

New Features to Add

• Audio & Video Support
• Look & Feel CSS Driven
• Switch from Winamp to VLC - Because of the limited commands you can pass Winamp I had to use a third-party plugin which I don't want to have to include in the public release.
• Track & change player timeline position
• Rate Media - This will make it much easier for me to create playlists when I can filter on just the songs or albums I like.
• Rewrite Backend Scripts - Using a common framework it'll be easier for me or someone else to manage and port to other languages.
• Publicly Accessible - Pass code used to control/manage.
• Save Player/Browser Positions - In the new version they are two separate draggable widgets.
• Tag Songs - Base it on mood, what it reminds you of (being back in highschool), etc.
• Update File Importer - Pick up whether files have moved or been renamed.

Features to Add Before Release

• Stream Audio/Video - A separate pass code could be setup to be able to see/hear what's actually playing.
• Read Tags - Option to import files based on filename & folder structure or ID3 tags.