[preview] iTunes2winAmp - for AveTunes and others

• Ever wanted to have the aveTunes desklet control WinAmp?
  
• Ever wanted my iTunes46 docklet control WinAmp?
  
• Did you ever think that iTunes is getting fatter each release? Stuttering at the most innocent things? Give WinAmp 5.03 a chance, then. And let all your iTunes widgets follow you.
  

It's here. A preview. Installation instructions included.

Since this taps at the COM level, all other remotes of Konfabulator, Kapsules etc. will also benefit from that. (AFAIK, DesktopX is already capable of controlling a wide range of media players.)

OK, not all the features are implemented and most badly missing is Album Art. iTunes itself cares only about Album Art that is embedded in the file.

What I got so far:

(Actual track of actual playlist only)

1. Title
   
2. Artist
   
3. Album
   
4. Stop
   
5. Pause
   
6. Next
   
7. Volume
   
8. Position/Length
   
9. Rating - can't test, needs to have media library installed
   

What is still to do:

1. Album Art
   
2. Switch Miniplayer (!)
   
3. Toggle Mute
   
4. Toggle Shuffle
   
5. Amp only returns current playlist->current track; tracks can't be browsed or accessed
   
6. Stability. Crashes aveTunes within 5 minutes depending on track.
   
7. Reliability. iTunes seems to distort ID3V2 info so that WinAmp can't read.
   

Wanna screenshot? look at the board.

Don't ask me for Foobar2000. Or QCD. Or Whatever.

#231693

:ninja: l'll test it. Thank you very much.

PD: By the way, is there a chance you can do the same for foobar? or mini monkey audio player x45. 78 beta build 5??

PD2: Just kidding of course! :cool:

#231697

thanks Herd, hope that will calm down those who always request avetunes for winamp :)

#231705

herd, you are by far my personal jesus for the day and at 12:25 in the morning, I am laughing hysterically at your read-me file

I think I"m going to wake someone up

#231718

Posts removed, member suspended.

Behave people! Don't swear, it is a public place and please do report bad posts :mad:

#231747

/sings:

Your own personal jesus

Someone to hear your prayers

Someone who cares

Your own personal jesus

Someone to hear your prayers

Someone who’s there

Reach out and touch herd

Reach out and touch herd...

#231768

@Chepillin:

It works without iTunes installed. Read the ReadMe again - from the point where you stopped reading. Chill. Yeah, Jah Rules.

@Others:

Thanks, people - I just observed that AveTunes 2.6 with this thing brings down AveDesk within a few minutes / seconds depending on the embedded mp3 track info - can anyone second that issue?

@Unbeliever

Chill.

#231777

ur becoming waaay too serious buddy

#231794

Small update has been uploaded.

• Album Art - kinda wacky - may flicker
  
• Rating 0-5
  
• Shuffle / Repeat modes
  

Seeing is believing:

@Stevie: is this gfx really 20 pixel too high

WINAMP 5.03

AveTunes featuring the fliptunes skin

iTunes46 docklet (see my sig)

Konfabulator miniTunes ~ the original

Kapsules iTunes widget - not shown here since at 100% CPU yet.

Download address is the same as in post #1.

There's a new ID3COM.DLL in the download. Please register it before running the containing fake iTunes.exe. Yes, it needs to be named iTunes.exe otherwise Konfabulator wouldn't recognize it.

Enjoy!

PS: Is there any WinAmp fan out there who'll try this?

#231916

So far so good. Ive got it running without having iTunes installed but the album art doesnt work. The part where you click on the "if there is no image associated with the mp3 use folder.jpg from the mp3s folder. no biggie though. but DAMN have i been waiting for this app. Good Job man! :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:

#232129

Sputnik widget for iTunes works great here! Thanks a lot!

#232131

So far so good. Ive got it running without having iTunes installed but the album art doesnt work. The part where you click on the "if there is no image associated with the mp3 use folder.jpg from the mp3s folder. no biggie though. but DAMN have i been waiting for this app. Good Job man!

Now there's a ID3com.dll in the latest zip; executing a:

%windir%system32regsvr32 <extraction location>id3com.dll

will be needed to access album art that is embedded within the mp3 (as iTunes does).

There's no automatic download or so; you'll need to tag or mass tag your tracks to get album art, or, as you said, rely on AveTunes's folder.jpg feature.

This folder.jpg lookup does not work at the moment, because I can't tell aveTunes the track file name atm, will soon be implemented. (iTunes is picky about if it is playing a FileOrCD vs. URLTrack, while WinAmp is a simpleton in comparizon)

Finally I am now cacheing the current track info and album art so that the CPU usage drops to zero except when a new track is played. The kapsules iTunes widget is still misbehaving by 100% CPU peak every second for a 10th of a second so you have been warned.

Stay tuned for the next update. If that one is finished, FooBar2000 shall be next - Foobar users: Which plugin would you tolerate? foo_remote or foo_controlserver?

#232165

foo_remote

#232167

foo_remote

but do bother to read the thread and see that foo remote IS COMING!

patience my friend, patience

#232171

in respect of your work on [fear]Platinum i won`t be as bad as i could/should be.

but do bother to read the thread and see that foo remote IS COMING!

patience my friend, patience

Khm... Herd has just asked: "Which plugin would you tolerate? foo_remote or foo_controlserver?"

read the whole thread first

#232179

First off, really excellent work - much prefer winamp to itunes!

I have a coupla irregularities when using itunes2winamp but not sure if they are just not yet implemented features so just reporting on what's working and what's not at the moment:

- starting up says itunes not loaded, double-clicking a button on avetunes then starts up itunes window (top left) and winamp successfully but buttons don't start playing. I have to click play on winamp to get it going, after that I can use the avetunes skin to control winamp.

- double-click on volume, play/pause, and next track all work but previous track won't work, neither will progress bar (not sure if implemented in the skin though)

- neither drag and drop nor open dialog will play an mp3. The playlist has to be preloaded in winamp first before it can be navigated.

- album art not appearing (strongly suspect I have no mp3s with album art embedded)

Like others have mentioned elsewhere, I also see no 'library' entry in the context menu, but that may be normal without itunes installed?

I'm using avetunes itunesdesklet 260, avedesk 1.1, winamp 5.03. have registered id3com.dll as per your instructions in the thread and itunes.exe /regserver. itunes has not previously been installed on the system.

jay

#232274

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW...............Herd!!! This is too good to be true but I have a question or two. Does this app have to be installed in my iTunes folder or not? Do I have to be running Avedesk, Desktop X, or Konfabulator in order to use this wonderful application you have come up with? Your help is MUCH appreciated as I am a huge fan of Winamp compared to iTunes which is not so common it seems like these days.

Thanks much,

Nate Dogg

#232277

@natedogg, as I understand it iTunes2winAmp simply intercepts and redirects commands normally sent from other remotes to Itunes so that they are sent to Winamp (and feedback in reverse). So you need to be running some program with a remote that controls iTunes, whether that's from AveDesk or Konfabulator or whatever is not important.

If you don't want to use those programs then you can always use a stylish winamp skin?

I don't have iTunes installed so no, it doesn't have to be installed in the iTunes folder.

jay

#232284

First off, really excellent work - much prefer winamp to itunes!

I have a coupla irregularities when using itunes2winamp but not sure if they are just not yet implemented features so just reporting on what's working and what's not at the moment:

- starting up says itunes not loaded, double-clicking a button on avetunes then starts up itunes window (top left) and winamp successfully but buttons don't start playing. I have to click play on winamp to get it going, after that I can use the avetunes skin to control winamp.

- double-click on volume, play/pause, and next track all work but previous track won't work, neither will progress bar (not sure if implemented in the skin though)

- neither drag and drop nor open dialog will play an mp3. The playlist has to be preloaded in winamp first before it can be navigated.

- album art not appearing (strongly suspect I have no mp3s with album art embedded)

Like others have mentioned elsewhere, I also see no 'library' entry in the context menu, but that may be normal without itunes installed?

I'm using avetunes itunesdesklet 260, avedesk 1.1, winamp 5.03. have registered id3com.dll as per your instructions in the thread and itunes.exe /regserver. itunes has not previously been installed on the system.

jay

- iTunes offers Backtrack() PreviousTrack() - now both do the same. Progress bar is handed over to WinAmp correctly but it doesn't react. Gotta contact the authors.

- There is no manipulation (coimng from drag & drop) implemented at the moment, neither for playing mp3/m3u etc, nor for album art.

- The playlists context menu gave me a tough time. Now you can switch to all your playlists given you installed the fat version with the "media library". Enqueueing 3000+ items isn't as fast as from within the media library, but it is now done undisturbingly multithreaded. Your only "source" is not what iTunes calls "Library" but "WinAmp"!

Thanks for the feedback - it's always welcome!

@natedogg

As said in the readme, this thing doesn't need to be installed in a specific folder - its just easier to test and switch back to the original iTunes, if you rename the original and put this one in, then rename back when you're dissatisfied. Those who never had iTunes on their comps can "install" anywhere they wish. My goal is to support any "iTunes remote" available. So far, I only know of AveDesk, ObjectDock, Konfabulator and Kapsules remotes that use the iTunes COM SDK. I guess that Samurize talks to its iTunes plugin so that won't work. Maybe there is a winamp plugin already so that isn't a problem. DesktopX is said to support winamp natively, dunno.

I'll upload tomorrow a version that fixes all things said since my last post in this thread with the screenshot...

#232286

Thanks a lot for your patience Herd in helping me with my questions! I realize it can get tiring on here when you develop a popular application and people ask question after question without ever even glancing at the "READ-ME". I think that I am clear on this iTunes2WinAmp app so I am going to give it a try.

Thanks again,

Nate Dogg

#232287

Oh and I forgot - the small "iTunes" window that you see is a temporary solution - some controllers don't believe that iTunes is running if they can't find a Window that is titled iTunes and has a windowclass of iTunes. This thing will soon get "ownership" of WinAmps main window, so that some iTunes hiders will hide WinAmp too and a "Quit iTunes" command will take WinAmp down too. Of course it will loose that border and won't apear at the taskbar ~ so far there are no adjustable properties yet.

#232292

Herd, chalk my vote up for foo_remote as well.

Can't wait for foobar implementation!

Herd, is there a way to donate to you personally? I think I just might sometime this week (when I can get the fleet account behaving...grr...)

#232306

Herd, chalk my vote up for foo_remote as well.

Can't wait for foobar implementation!

Herd, is there a way to donate to you personally? I think I just might sometime this week (when I can get the fleet account behaving...grr...)

I wish I knew where I lost my PayPal button - I'll add it to my sig when I find it again. It ain't urgent I am still on a positive balance. Donate to the in my name, if you feel the urge

PS:

Small update - folder.jpg, backtrack, playlists, cached current track, new readme - download see first post.

#232317

Herd, THANX!!! Working well (Including Album Art and progress bars) with XP Home, WinAMP 5.06 (Latest), AveDesk 1.1, and iTunes Docklet 4.6.

I posted before I saw your update - FYI Album Art working using your .DLL w/ Art embedded in the MP3

#232320

Herd - great fixes - they work well :-) Now have cover art (embedded or folder.jpg), previous track and playlists from the context menu. Can't jump to a new position on the progress bar though yet - not sure if dpg meant that. Readme works too

Like you mentioned you sometimes have to kick-start winamp into playing, sometimes after changing a playlist, sometimes not. I like it!

jay

#232454