Howto: Some little tips with your Beep-Media-Player.

[JoeyrS]

This howto shows some application of the plugin bmp-songchange, a port of the old xmms songchange plugin.

Lets go.
Open a terminal session and enter:

wget http://joeyrs.altervista.org/bmp-songchange_0.0.1-2_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i bmp-songchange_0.0.1-2_i386.deb


(I've made that package because there is no an official version. That one works fine in Ubuntu and Debian.)
Now the Beep-Media-Player Songchange plugin is installed on our ubuntu, lets configure it.
- Run beep-media-player and select Preferences -> Plugins -> General
- Click in "Song Change 0.0.1" CheckBox (Activate it)
- Click Preferences.

In Song change Command Box type:
echo "Current Song: %s" >~/.bmp/songchange.dat
(This outputs the title of your current song in a file.)

In Playlist end Command Box type:
echo "" >~/.bmp/songchange.dat
(This clear the file if the playlist ends.)

You can optionally include these strings:
%F frequency (in hertz)
%c number of channels
%f filename (full path)
%l length (in milliseconds)
%n name
%r rate (in bits per second)
%s name (an alias for %n)
%t playlist position (%02d)

From now you'll have the title of the current song in a file (~/.bmp/songchange.dat); how we can use it?

XChat:
Want to print in a channel the title of your current song? It's very simple, just type in your current xchat window:
/exec -o cat ~/.bmp/songchange.dat

You can simplify that command in two modes:
- Adding a button in the userlist panel:
Type in your current xchat window:
/addbutton SongChange exec -o cat ~/.bmp/songchange.dat
- Making an alias:
Select Menu -> Settings -> Advanced -> Replace Menu
Add a new alias typing in name box: song and in command box:
exec -o cat ~/.bmp/songchange.dat
Click on Save Button.
Now you can show your song typing: /song

XOSD:
XOSD is a simple library to display shaped text on your X display, like a TV on-screen display. You can use it for displaying the title of the current song. Install it by typing: apt-get install xosd-bin or using synaptic.
After the install we can display the song title by using osd_cat command.
Using XOSD (Example):
osd_cat -f"-adobe-helvetica-bold-*-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-*" -s1 -pbottom -o-40 -cgreen -d5 ~/.bmp/songchange.dat

Making automatic the OSD SongChange:
Let's return to Beep-Media-Player Preferences and modify:
echo "Current Song: %s" >~/.bmp/songchange.dat to:

echo "Current Song: %s" >~/.bmp/songchange.dat && osd_cat -f"-adobe-helvetica-bold-*-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-*" -d5 ~/.bmp/songchange.dat
From now osd_cat displays your current song title every time the song changes,
you can refer at http://ldots.org/xosd-guide/index.html for personalizing your OSD Title.
Here is an example of OSD SongChange: http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/4619/xosd7sl.png

You can use both of these tips together.
That's all. Hope this are useful, any comment would be appreciated.

[MrRoboto]

nice trick.. thanks!

[Sam]

Thank you for this good tip ! :razz:

[JoeyrS]

Another Tip:
Want to show the lenght of your current song in minutes and seconds?
I wrote down this simple bash script, it converts from millisec to Minutes:Seconds


#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -eq 1 ] ; then
Lenght="$(echo "scale=2; ($1/1000)/60" | bc)"
Point=`expr index "$Lenght" .`
Minutes=`expr substr $Lenght 1 $(( $Point - 1 ))`
Seconds="$(echo "scale=2; (${Lenght:2}/100)*60" | bc)"
Point=`expr index "$Seconds" .`
Seconds=`expr substr $Seconds 1 $(( $Point - 1 ))`
if [ ${#Minutes} = 1 ] ; then Minutes=0$Minutes ; fi
if [ ${#Seconds} = 1 ] ; then Seconds=0$Seconds ; fi
echo $Minutes:$Seconds
fi


Copy and paste in a new file (for ex. "converter") , save and make it executable by typing: chmod +x converter.

Than back to beep-media-player's preferences and add to echo: $(/path/to/your/file/converter %l)

The script read the lenght in milliseconds and outputs in [mm:ss]

The final command are like this: (with XOSD)

echo "* Now Listening: « %s» [$(/home/joeyrs/converter %l)]" >~/.bmp/songchange.txt && osd_cat -f"-adobe-helvetica-bold-*-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-*" -s1 -pbottom -o-40 -cgreen -d5 .bmp/songchange.dat


Hope this are helpful :)

[maruchan]

This is a pretty cool tip. However, a few questions:

-my OSD shows at the top left, where there's a lot of stuff already - how can I change that?
-how can I change the font size?
-how can I change the font color from red?
-how can I enable the drop shadow?

Thanks!

[JoeyrS]

This is a pretty cool tip. However, a few questions:

-my OSD shows at the top left, where there's a lot of stuff already - how can I change that?
-how can I change the font size?
-how can I change the font color from red?
-how can I enable the drop shadow?

Thanks!

For the position you can use these opt on osd_cat:
-A <left/right/center>
-p <top/middle/bottom>
-o (This is the offset, use with positive or negative integers)

Changing Font Size:
You have two ways for changing the font size:
1) Using a tool like gtkfontsel (sudo apt-get install gtkfontsel) and choosing your own font type and size;

2) In my example
osd_cat -f"-adobe-helvetica-bold-*-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
You have to change only the number "20". (Check if the size you're choosing is avaible for the current font, else you will get an error from osd_cat like: "ABORT: Requested font not found").

Changing the font color:
Changing the font color is very simple, you can use the option:

-c <color>

The default color is red but you can choose your favourite color (white, cyan, blue, green and much more).

Enabling shadow offset
Simply using:

-s <offset>

Ex. osd_cat -s 2 and it will give you the shadow effect.

All opts in one string:

osd_cat -A center -p bottom -o -40 -f"-adobe-helvetica-bold-*-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-*" -c green -s 2


Thanks!
You're welcome :)

[maruchan]

Awesome. Thanks for the help.

[Mr. Electric Wizard]

Sounds pretty cool, can somebody please post a screenshot of this OSD?

[JoeyrS]

HERE (http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/4619/xosd7sl.png) There is an example of XOSD + SoundChange Plugin.

(Look at the bottom left of the image).

[Feanor]

Very good job JoeyrS! ;-)

[fng]

great tip
thnx!

[dziubek]

bmp-songchange_0.0.1-2_i386.deb

In Song change Command Box type:
echo "Current Song: %s" >~/.bmp/songchange.dat
(This outputs the title of your current song in a file.)

You can optionally include these strings:
%F frequency (in hertz)
%c number of channels
%f filename (full path)
%l length (in milliseconds)
%n name
%r rate (in bits per second)
%s name (an alias for %n)
%t playlist position (%02d)

echo "%s" > /home/romek/.musiq

211.113.235.71:8422

](*,)

[kaamos]

~$ osd_cat -f"-adobe-helvetica-bold-*-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-*" -s1 -pbottom -o-40 -cgreen -d5 ~/.bmp/songchange.dat
Error initializing osd: Default font not found
~$


any ideas?