Thursday, August 16, 2007

UKMP 1.6 is out

I've finally come back from the summer vacation and I've had the time to look into UKMP again for a while.

Well, many new thing have happened since the last version.

1. Exit button
2. Maemoscrobbler integration (scrobbles to last fm)
3. Automatic thumbnail images from video files
4. Currently playing -screen
5. Progress bar
6. Touch to seek functionality in the progress bar
7. Full M4A support, including cover image from the m4a files
8. Larger video thumbnails

Here are two screenshots to illustrate a bit:



All right, a bit deeper explanation on each one.
1. Exit button.

Just click to exit. You can also press back-button and keep it pressed for about two secs to exit.

2. Maemoscrobbler integration

Maemoscrobbler is an excellet program made by disq. Install maemo scrobbler, insert your login details to last fm in the control panel application and from that on, whenever you have net connection, ukmp will scrobble your music to your last-fm account.

3. Automatic thumbnail images from video files

UKMP uses mplayer to retrieve the thumb images from the video files that you have on your device. It will take the first frame and use that. If you have an idea on how to get an image from seeking 30 secs into the video, let me know.

On the down side, this feature needs the latest version of mplayer, so please update your mplayer. It's great to do that anyway, as the latest mplayer version is at least 30 % faster than previous one. Well, that's my subjective impression anyway.

4. Currently playing screen

This is the first iteration of the screen. The most important thing about is the progress bar. I will also add a bookmark feature to this screen in the future.

REMEMBER that you can use back-button to switch between the views at all times.

5. Progress bar
A pretty cool looking progress bar that shows the time played, song length and your position on the bar.

6. Touch to seek functionality in the progress bar
You can just click on any place in the bar to seek to that location. Pretty basic stuff, but worth mentioning IMHO. So many people listen to long songs / audio books.

7. Full m4a support
If you have converted most of your music to m4a format, then you'll really like this one. Pasi Keränen has done a wonderful job of integrating m4a support to ukmp. It is even able to read the images from the audio files. However, if you happen to have such files, bear in mind that saving and converting them will take quite long time, so your first startup might be a long one. Thumbnails will be saved as smaller images so it won't take THAT long in the future.

However, this also means that you have to have Pythin imaging library installed. Which sadly only comes in the latest python version. So, that's a requirement now as well.

8. Larger video thumbnails

I noticed that the thumbnails were a bit too small still, so I modified the thumbnails to be a bit larger (from 125 pixels wide to 143 pixels wide)


Summa summarum:
A great update, but you'll have to update to latest python version. If you have python 2.4, you need to unistall it first. To do that, you have to uninstall all python applications and then uninstall python 2.4. Sucks. Yeah. I know. I hope you all have python 2.5. If you have python 2.5. Just go to application manager to update.

The light theme is not quite ready yet, so I didn't include the desktop file to it. You can test it out from xterm with command:
ukmp altskin


You can download the latest version of UKMP and UKTUBE from here:
http://maemo.org/downloads/product/ukmp

and remember that you need to have python and mplayer installed. If you don't have them, install them first from here:
Python
mplayer

I will be in Iceland from Friday to Wednesday, so I won't be able to respond to questions during that time.

EDIT:
If you need ogg support, you can install ogg to your device from here:
http://ogg.garage.maemo.org/ogg-support.install

I've also updated the ukmp to 1.61 after fixing some bugs.

Seems like it's semi stable now. So, have a great weekend!

20 comments:

  1. Anonymous09:38

    I'm getting an error when I run the new version:

    /usr/bin/MediaCenter.py:23: RuntimeWarning: import cdrom: No module named cdrom
    import pygame, os
    /usr/bin/MediaCenter.py:23: RuntimeWarning: import joystick: No module named joystick
    import pygame, os
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/ukmp", line 22, in module
    import MediaCenter
    File "/usr/bin/MediaCenter.py", line 89, in module
    import PIL
    ImportError: No module named PIL

    I don't know what PIL is, but I think that's the only fatal error.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:24

    i think the .deb still id itself as 1.52 in the application manager.

    ReplyDelete
  3. mzanrew:
    Can you try this version. It *may* fix the issue you.

    https://garage.maemo.org/frs/download.php/1956/UKMP-1.61-test.deb

    Also, it should contain correct version number as anonymous noted.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous06:52

    Yeah! In the new version works the kinetic scrolling for me. Very, very nice. Now is a great program for me. Thanks for it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10:04

    I tried 1.61. Same thing happened:

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/ukmp", line 22, in module
    import MediaCenter
    File "/usr/bin/MediaCenter.py", line 88, in module
    from PyAtom import *
    File "/usr/bin/PyAtom.py", line 25, in module
    from PIL import Image
    ImportError: No module named PIL

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous02:38

    Hi, great app!
    Is there a way to exclude certain folders from scanning tho? I got some audio book files on my N800 and it's a lil irretating when using random mode and one of those comes up.

    ReplyDelete
  7. When I click on a song, the application exits.
    Any clues?

    I am using OGG-files, and have installed the support for them.

    /gunnar

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous08:01

    Those with error ”ImportError: No module named PIL” should install python2.5-imaging.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous05:38

    Really cool and nice app, but one problem. It doesn't seem to be able to finc .aac encoded files (ripped with iTunes, using aac encoding). Is it supported ?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Urho Konttori

    I've meant to tell you in previous post what an amazing job I think you have done with this program. It is the single best piece of eye-candy on my 770, and the one program that gives me the most joy.

    However, I and it appears now others are having a problem with it crashing when trying to pay .ogg files, even with ogg support installed. Also, may I suggest tha the delete file mode be moved in the gui or that a confirm dialogue be added to prevent it from causing trouble. I have lost a few mp3s from the accidental use of that button. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous02:29

    I'm also having troubles with UKMP recognizing or playing AAC/M4a files. If the extension is M4A they are ignored, if it's AAC they are recognised but not playable. I've tried with itunes store (drm free) m4a, my own ripped m4a, and this weekend i'll try a few other ripped aacs to see if it's perhaps an itunes encoder problem.

    Great app apart from that!

    ReplyDelete
  12. terence:
    Do you have 770 or n800? If 770, do you have hacker edition or the normal one?

    For other people, I'll try to test ogg playback again.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous16:06

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/uktube", line 562, in accessYoutube
    getYouTube(self.entry.get_text(), False, True, True)
    File "/usr/bin/uktube", line 299, in getYouTube
    video_data = perform_request(video_url_real)
    File "/usr/bin/uktube", line 104, in perform_request
    response = urllib2.urlopen(request)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/urllib2.py", line 121, in urlopen
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/urllib2.py", line 372, in open
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/urllib2.py", line 1020, in do_request_
    urllib2.URLError: urlopen error no host given


    Any idea what causes this?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous23:05

    Ogg is defnitely broken. The following is with Ogg support installed:

    Exploding
    ['-', 'Spring;', 'Allegro']
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/ukmp", line 28, in module
    if __name__ == '__main__': main()
    File "/usr/bin/ukmp", line 26, in main
    MediaCenter.main()
    File "/usr/bin/MediaCenter.py", line 3123, in main
    all.update()
    File "debian/python2.5-pygame/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pygame/sprite.py", line 303, in update
    File "/usr/bin/MediaCenter.py", line 1206, in update
    songlister.playSong(self.positionindex)
    File "/usr/bin/MediaCenter.py", line 896, in playSong
    self.playFile(filename)
    File "/usr/bin/MediaCenter.py", line 979, in playFile
    self.createGSTOGGPlayer()
    File "/usr/bin/MediaCenter.py", line 480, in createGSTOGGPlayer
    self.player = gst.parse_launch( "gnomevfssrc name=source ! oggdemux name=demuxer ! ivorbisdec name=decoder ! dsppcmsink name=sink" )
    gobject.GError: no element "oggdemux"

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous08:28

    i got the following error using n770. any idea how to resolve them?

    btw how can i uninstall ukmp since i cant access via application mmanager?


    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/ukmp", line 22, in 'module'
    import MediaCenter
    File "/usr/bin/MediaCenter.py", line 23, in 'module'
    import pygame, os
    File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/PIL/__init__.py", line 75, in 'module'

    ImportError: /usr/lib/libX11.so.6: undefined symbol: XkbGetNa

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous22:25

    Concerninb aac/m4p problem, I have N800 with latest OS upgrade.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous12:39

    Hey :) Firstly, I'm very glad you're writing this app, I am getting to like it a lot now. I'm not having any problems running it, or playing ogg files like any of the others on this page. I'm not boasting, just saying that it is possible ;)

    I have a couple of feature requests though, not sure if here's the best place to air them. Firstly, I have to say that I like the ui of the default media player. It's very simple, and easy to use with a finger. I'm really looking for a DAP replacement in this app. I appreciate the extra functionality, but I'd also like the option, maybe a simplified ui, to use on the go. Basically, I'd like the option to lay it out in a way that was easier to use wih less clicks on screen.

    Leading on from this, is there any plan to have an Artist/Album heirarchy layout as well? Would be very nice, especially if I don't know what the cover of a particular album looks like.

    Thirdly, apart from the "now playing" screen, there's no indication of which track is playing, or even how to get back to the "now playing" screen. There doesn't seem to be anything happening at the bottom of the screen a lot of the time, so is it possible to have the current playing track appear there, whatever screen one is in? Then I could tap on that and get back to the "now playing" bit.

    Not criticisms by any means, but simply suggestions and requests :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Great suggestions and I will keep them in mind. If you read my latest post, you will notice that I have been thinking about the easier finger usability as well as dropping of the now playing screen.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I also can not get M4A files to be recognised. These are also from iTunes. What M4A support does UKMP gave? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
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