[preview] iTunes 4 For Windows Media Player 9

As a died-in-the-wool user of Windows Media Player, I was unhappy with the lack of any iTunes 4 skins, so I made my own...

First, to get you all to wait just a little longer, I'll mention everyone who's contributed in some way, and their role:

Me (Stevie BM, if you hadn't noticed) - all XML and JScript, with some art
Binary - art director and chief tester
b0se - Key tester, skinning affiliate (more on this shortly) and image hosting
Taha - accuracy testing
Timan - tester/radio support whinger
Deadzombie - tester
Mikey P (someone I work with) - tester

And now, the compulsory "inspirations and influences":

Apple Computer, of course
Connor's stellar iTunes 3 WMP skin
Duckie/Spidercrab's QCD skin
Max Rudberg's smoothstripes

N.B. - I have received permission to release my skin from all of these, save Max (all the e-mails are being returned) and Apple (well, duh!).

Ok, now the screenies and features:

Features:

Fully resizable - the main window, the left pane and the browse pane can all be independantly resized
Album art support - all music that has album art shown in WMP full mode will get the same in this skin automatically
Now Playing/All Music/All Video/CD/DVD/Playlist quick access from the source pane
Genre/Artist/Album filtering in the browse pane
Radio support, of sorts (Tim, are you gonna test this?)
Resizable video/visualisations
Equalizer (not done yet)
2 miniplayer modes (not done yet)
2 versions - "Steve's Cut" and "True OSX" versions

Resized window, showing only the current playlist:

Resized window, showing source pane, album art, browse pane and current playlist:

Resized window, showing only the visualisation:

Resized window, showing only the current playlist:

N.B.: Whilst I don't show playing a DVD movie (or any other video), it does work fine, I just couldn't get a screenie to work

Ok, now I've got you all drooling (or perhaps not!), all that's left to say is that it'll be released sometime in the next week or so... I'm aiming for this Monday, but it all depends

Let me know what you think

#54562

very nice, keep up the great work.

#54569

Man, can't wait for this one to be unleashed !!!!!

FatAxl :own:

#54570

i cant wait for the release!!! :rolleyes:

i've never seen such a good WMP skin!

maybe that will make me switch to skinned WMP instead of full mode

#54574

Very nice skin man ! :own:

#54580

now that's sweet... and its wmp so no additional software =P

#54583

that looks pretty damn GOOD !! cant wait

#54587

Very nice. I can't wait until its out!

#54588

great looking skin i cant wait (Y)

#54595

Outstanding work, Bro. Count me in on the long list of those waiting for the download!

#54596

I read more and post very 'lil here as I'm an admin on another tech site but had to reply cause d00d that looks absolutely awesome. Only thing better will be the upcoming port by Apple cause this one looks to have the most functionality so far. Can't wait (Y)

#54597

I was thinking about adding ripping/burning support at a later date, but it's a hell of a lot of work to get it to work (and even more to get it to work well)... JScript is such a nice language, honest :rant:

#54599

Originally posted by Stevie BM@Sep 10 2003, 04:25 PM
I was thinking about adding ripping/burning support at a later date, but it's a hell of a lot of work to get it to work (and even more to get it to work well)... JScript is such a nice language, honest :rant:

heh that was quick

Sounds good man, take yer time

#54600

Originally posted by |JuiceZ|@Sep 10 2003, 10:26 PM
heh that was quick

Sounds good man, take yer time

I never said I was, I said I was thinking about it

The problem is that JScript makes it really hard to use external applications well, so I'm limited in what I can and can't do, and you simply can't use WMP's in-built ripping functionality, and MS aren't planning on adding it anywhen soon (I've had lots of chats with people working on Windows Media team in doing this)...

I may do it, but before I do that, I've got other things I want to do...

Tutorials on TwistedCPU, for example, and a .Net/DX9 based dock (for my own interest, more than anything else, and no, I don't want beta testers, and no, I don't want advice on features)...

#54604

That looks cool! Nice layout too! (Y)

#54607

Awesome work!

Release an beta version please...

I can´t wait! :own:

#54612

wow! looks like i'll start using wmp again soon :lol:

#54613

I'm sorry, but I'm not releasing a beta version.

I prefer to keep my cards close to my chest, so to speak. I've got a very good team of people testing the skin, all coming from different angles at it, and I'm updating them with new versions on an almost hourly basis (when I'm working on it, which is every evening). If I had any more people helping with testing, it would become a nightmare to manage. Also, the people I have as my testers are testers for good reasons...

In short, I implicitly trust everyone who I named as having contributed to it's development. Without those people, this skin wouldn't be happening. No offense to anyone, but I'd rather keep to a tight team of people I know and trust than a large group of people who I don't know at all and all of whom are bombarding me with issues (or what they think are issues).

That said, if people have a strong case for why they should be on my testing team (and "I wanna be l33t" isn't a reason), then I'll hear them out.

I don't want to spoil my skin by giving out unfinished code and having people judge it based on that.

#54615

i think that its great someones doing a wmp skin but i have to say that i hate it when someone writes about something that they are going to release. First of all i like die a couple of times before the release date and another thing is if you push off the release date or never release it. THat really bums me out. I really hope that you do release it but waiting for such a wonderful app is too hard for me. I would have rather not known about it until the release date.

BTW i hope it comes out good, because i really am dying to get my hands on it now.

Edit: what doe I33t mean anyway, people keep spamming me with im's telling me i'm not I33t.

#54617

Originally posted by Flarex@Sep 10 2003, 11:03 PM
i think that its great someones doing a wmp skin but i have to say that i hate it when someone writes about something that they are going to release. First of all i like die a couple of times before the release date and another thing is if you push off the release date or never release it. THat really bums me out. I really hope that you do release it but waiting for such a wonderful app is too hard for me. I would have rather not known about it until the release date.

BTW i hope it comes out good, because i really am dying to get my hands on it now.

When I said I intended to release this in the next week or so, I really meant it...

I'm aiming for Monday night, but at the absolute latest it'll be a week on Friday.

I promise.

#54618

Will the eq be functional?

Also will the graphic eq display at the top be functional?

I have been scouring the internet for something like this.

Everything i found has strenghts and weeknesses.

#54619

Originally posted by cgathe52@Sep 10 2003, 11:06 PM
Will the eq be functional?

Also will the graphic eq display at the top be functional?

I have been scouring the internet for something like this.

The EQ will be a direct implementation of WMP's in-built EQ. The only thing it won't do is gain adjustments.

As for the graphic eq display, that's working at the moment, but I've got some work to do to make it dynamically resize, so I thought it best not to show it

Everything i found has strenghts and weeknesses.

That's true of everything, ever, though

#54622

:woot: Awesome. Simple as that.

#54645

lovely!

Props to the accuracy tester.

Oh wait.. that's me.

#54657

Cool, how can i get that anyway.

#54660