sncviewer plugin

[zelig]

i am so happy to say that i find a good and usefull plugin, at least for me!

but i meet a trouble that i don't know anything about programming, so i can't compile the program by myself.

so i don't konw how to deal with it, is there any .rock files already to be downloaded?

i like the plugin very much, so i don't want to drop it, is there anyone can help me?

i have a ipod mini 2g.

thank you very much.

[nohitter151]

You can download the .rock from my website.
http://stplatt.googlepages.com/

If the .rock doesn't work for you, let me know (you can contact me through the site), I'll send you the whole .zip directory via e-mail or something.

[the_spaniard]

Woa, this is a VERY interesting plugin!!!
Unfortunatley, i'm a noob here and I dont know how to patch, so I will ask if somebody could tell me where I could find an unofficial build for the iPod 5G with it intalled, or as zelig said, a page to download the .rock file (But obviously for my iPod model).

Thanks to (:@) for creating this extremely usefull plugin, which I think it should be included immediately on the official build.

[(:@)]

for all those who don't know how to compile and want to use/try it can find some precompiled .rock files here:
sncviewer.rock

If you can't find the .rock file for your player, you can pm me.

[polygonal]

This is quite a nice plugin. I'll probably like it enough that I will add this to my playback context menu or find a button for it in Wps.

There are a few things that bugged me though:
1. It does not seem to handle utf-8 text files properly. I have a properly encoded utf-8 txt file, and it refuses to recognize the german ss. And (consequently) the edited file was not saved properly as well.
2. The ipod scrolling is backward ;-) very non-intuitive. I guess a quick keymap change will solve this, but I'm just trying it out so haven't compile my own yet.
3. It "froze" on the yes-no "save change?" screen after a track change (if I changed something). It actually is not a freeze, though; a button press will unfreeze it, but the screen seems unresponsive (can't scroll to the "no" item, for example) that I at first thought it is a freeze.
4. Settings is not saved. I load translation files always, but I'll have to change the setting every time. Would be nice if settings are saved whenever it access the disk (when retrieving files, etc.)
5. Editing with translation files is problematic when there is empty lines (lines got eaten, and all kinds of weird things)
6. I much rather see a blank screen than the peakmeter when there is no lyric ;-)
7. I can't get album art to work. Is there a limit on the size?

Also it would be nice to read USLT from mp3 files. The other patch in flyspray is way out of date and I don't feel like fixing it (the patch contains a lots of nonsense, i.e. removing a empty lline, etc., and I'm not sure that I like the way it is implemented). Since this plugin already reads the synchronized lyric, it would be nice to extract the unsynchronized one and put that to the edit mode (save a temp txt file somewhere?).

[(:@)]

1. It does not seem to handle utf-8 text files properly. I have a properly encoded utf-8 txt file, and it refuses to recognize the german ss. And (consequently) the edited file was not saved properly as well.

have you tried to set the codepage to utf-8 (General Settings->Display->Default Codpage->Unicode (UTF-8)?

2. The ipod scrolling is backward ;-) very non-intuitive. I guess a quick keymap change will solve this, but I'm just trying it out so haven't compile my own yet.

Can you tell me what is backward:
a) volume srolling
b) up/down scrolling in the editor
c) both (a and b)
I've got this problem reported by someone else, but somehow I didn't understand him correctly and I thought it was alright.

3. It "froze" on the yes-no "save change?" screen after a track change (if I changed something). It actually is not a freeze, though; a button press will unfreeze it, but the screen seems unresponsive (can't scroll to the "no" item, for example) that I at first thought it is a freeze.

I assume you only have this problem if you use rewind or forward at the end of the song?
I sporadically got the problem using audio_ff_rew at the end of a song and I don't know how to fix it.

4. Settings is not saved. I load translation files always, but I'll have to change the setting every time. Would be nice if settings are saved whenever it access the disk (when retrieving files, etc.)

I will change it. I didn't expect someone else will ever use the loading of a translation file .

5. I much rather see a blank screen than the peakmeter when there is no lyric ;-)

I will add this to the setting, where you can turn it off.

6. I can't get album art to work. Is there a limit on the size?

yes, the buffer for the image is 65536 Bytes (~ 147 x 147 Pixel bmp color image).
If your image is larger it won't load the image.

Also it would be nice to read USLT from mp3 files. The other patch in flyspray is way out of date and I don't feel like fixing it (the patch contains a lots of nonsense, i.e. removing a empty lline, etc., and I'm not sure that I like the way it is implemented). Since this plugin already reads the synchronized lyric, it would be nice to extract the unsynchronized one and put that to the edit mode (save a temp txt file somewhere?).

I don't use that patch and somehow I don't have the motivation to extend the plugin to read USLT.

[mikeage]

2. The ipod scrolling is backward ;-) very non-intuitive. I guess a quick keymap change will solve this, but I'm just trying it out so haven't compile my own yet.

Can you tell me what is backward:
a) volume srolling
b) up/down scrolling in the editor
c) both (a and b)
I've got this problem reported by someone else, but somehow I didn't understand him correctly and I thought it was alright.

It was from me. Both are backwards.

Thanks!

[polygonal]

have you tried to set the codepage to utf-8 (General Settings->Display->Default Codpage->Unicode (UTF-8)?

I did, but that's after I already opened the txt file in the sncviewer and edited it (and corrupted it ;P). So maybe that's why it's not working. I'll try again with a proper file.

Can you tell me what is backward:
a) volume srolling
b) up/down scrolling in the editor
c) both (a and b)
I've got this problem reported by someone else, but somehow I didn't understand him correctly and I thought it was alright.

Both.

I assume you only have this problem if you use rewind or forward at the end of the song?
I sporadically got the problem using audio_ff_rew at the end of a song and I don't know how to fix it.

There is (I believe) a problem in the rockbox core with ff/rew at the end of a song. I guess that's part of the problem... But I got this behavior without forwarding - with a txt file, not a lrs file though.

I will change it. I didn't expect someone else will ever use the loading of a translation file .

The translation is a very handy functionality! I listen to a lots of lieder/operas and really don't know a word in German/Italian ;-)

On another note, would you consider the possibility to synchronize between the lyric and the translation file? There are some problems when editing when loading translation is on (I think mostly with blank lines - the highlight/scrolling is off in the edit mode, and some line got eaten when setting new time). Also when I start with a plain txt file, I can't synchronize the translation (beside manually adding the time stamp). Maybe when you save the txt file, check whether there is a .tr file with the same name and mark the corresponding lines?

I will add this to the setting, where you can turn it off.

Sounds great! Thanks.

yes, the buffer for the image is 65536 Bytes (~ 147 x 147 Pixel bmp color image).
If your image is larger it won't load the image.

Yup, I resized my image and now it works. Also - I haven't test it out, but I'm guessing that it will work like such - if album name contains illegal character like :, one of the scheme (path/<album>.bmp) for retrieving the image won't work. Can sncviewer replace the illegal character with something like _ so that I can name my image accordingly?

I don't use that patch and somehow I don't have the motivation to extend the plugin to read USLT.

That's alright. Maybe I'll look at your source and add it myself someday ;-)

While I'm playing around with it, I have some more suggestions:
1. Can you update the UI before doing the operation? For some reason the ipod has some button problems that sometime eats up button presses. For example, if I press rew once, I'll expect to go to the beginning of the song. But since the progress bar is not immediately updated while the track is seeking backward (only updated when the seeking is done), I really have no feedback to know whether my button press is received or not. The same with skipping tracks.

2. Can sncviewer functions as a viewer for txt, lrc, and snc files so that I can browse the filetree to find the appropriate file for the currently playing file? It's quite a pain the copy/paste/rename the lyric files on the player since the on screen keyboard is slow to use.

3. Properly capitalized and named (i.e. Time offset" instead of "time offset", "Repeat 1 On/Off" instead of "@1" ) menu item will be much more professional looking ;-)

4. Add scrolling to title/next?

5. The ipod keymap probably needs some rework to be more intuitive and be more in a line with other plugins. For example, the long press menu or select+menu should be used to exit the plugin instead of the rather obscure long press play/pause. I'll probably look into this more.


EDIT: for 1) As I understand, the plugins have the UI thread, and playback is handled by a separate thread, so I don't understand the UI lag... When a song finishes and the next one starts, the progress bar stops at 3 sec before the end and starts again at 3 sec after the next song begins. So is that 6 sec delay time used to find/retrieve lyric? I wonder if a plugin can use a background thread.

[(:@)]

fixed problems 2,4,5

On another note, would you consider the possibility to synchronize between the lyric and the translation file? There are some problems when editing when loading translation is on (I think mostly with blank lines - the highlight/scrolling is off in the edit mode, and some line got eaten when setting new time). Also when I start with a plain txt file, I can't synchronize the translation (beside manually adding the time stamp). Maybe when you save the txt file, check whether there is a .tr file with the same name and mark the corresponding lines?

fixed (don't have much time to test it, maybe it's still buggy)

I haven't test it out, but I'm guessing that it will work like such - if album name contains illegal character like :, one of the scheme (path/.bmp) for retrieving the image won't work. Can sncviewer replace the illegal character with something like _ so that I can name my image accordingly?

fixed: replace /,\,?,: with _

1. Can you update the UI before doing the operation? For some reason the ipod has some button problems that sometime eats up button presses. For example, if I press rew once, I'll expect to go to the beginning of the song. But since the progress bar is not immediately updated while the track is seeking backward (only updated when the seeking is done), I really have no feedback to know whether my button press is received or not. The same with skipping tracks.

go to the beginning of the song: update the time and the timebar
previous/next track: ?

2. Can sncviewer functions as a viewer for txt, lrc, and snc files so that I can browse the filetree to find the appropriate file for the currently playing file? It's quite a pain the copy/paste/rename the lyric files on the player since the on screen keyboard is slow to use.

I don't like the idea of implementing a filebrowser in the plugin and I also don't think anyone would want to search through the filetree for the lyrics everytime.

3. Properly capitalized and named (i.e. Time offset" instead of "time offset", "Repeat 1 On/Off" instead of "@1" ) menu item will be much more professional looking ;-)

You can changed it if you like.

4. Add scrolling to title/next?

It's not possible for the current implementation to use the scrolling function from the api.
I don't think it's worth the time to change the implementation.

5. The ipod keymap probably needs some rework to be more intuitive and be more in a line with other plugins. For example, the long press menu or select+menu should be used to exit the plugin instead of the rather obscure long press play/pause. I'll probably look into this more.

I don't own a ipod. I just assign the functions to the available buttons. It's always better if an owner of the target assigns the buttons.
I have disabled the a-b function on targets, which don't have enough buttons (e.g. ipod). Maybe you good solution to enable it.

[polygonal]

fixed: replace /,\,?,: with _

How about " | < > and * ? Those are also illegal in FAT32.

go to the beginning of the song: update the time and the timebar
previous/next track: ?

For previous/next, the screen is not updated until the track change is completed - and there is even a small gap (on my ipod at least) between the tracke is changed and updating of the UI.

I don't like the idea of implementing a filebrowser in the plugin and I also don't think anyone would want to search through the filetree for the lyrics everytime.

My idea is to have the plugin listed in the "open with..." list when you do context menu in filetree on txt files, etc. The plugin can then check the parameter passed to it and copy that file and rename that file to the directory and the name of the now-playing file. Implementing a filebrowser inside the plugin is of course unnecessary and redundant. I played around the source yesterday for a bit and implemented what I wanted (partly shamelessly stealing a copying function from onplay.c ;-). I'm not sure if you will be interested in it, but I found it helpful because I have a folder of lyrics/translations that are common to all my music (i.e. I can have two different sopranos singing the same lieder, which of course have the same text).

You can changed it if you like.

I did capitalize them as I wanted ;-). I'm just suggesting the idea to you (and secretly for my benefit of not having to sync with your source everytime you changes it). It's probably really an issue of personal preference, but I like consistency when the rest of rockbox is properly capitalized.

It's not possible for the current implementation to use the scrolling function from the api.
I don't think it's worth the time to change the implementation.

I'm not familiar with the plugin LCD api, so I'll trust you on this ;P Though this would be nice feature for super-long titles.

I don't own a ipod. I just assign the functions to the available buttons. It's always better if an owner of the target assigns the buttons.
I have disabled the a-b function on targets, which don't have enough buttons (e.g. ipod). Maybe you good solution to enable it.

I'll look into it next week when I have my physics and math problem sets done. The plugin keymap looks quite different from the core, so I'll have to look at it a bit more.

On another note, the backlight does not seem to behave as expected when there is power from USB. Instead of staying on when I ask it to, it turns off after the timeout defined in setting.

I have to say again that this is a wonderful plugin!

[(:@)]

How about " | < > and * ? Those are also illegal in FAT32.

added

For previous/next, the screen is not updated until the track change is completed - and there is even a small gap (on my ipod at least) between the tracke is changed and updating of the UI.

Yes, I know. With "previous/next track: ?" I meant: I don't know a good solution to update the UI.

... I'm not sure if you will be interested in it, but I found it helpful because I have a folder of lyrics/translations that are common to all my music (i.e. I can have two different sopranos singing the same lieder, which of course have the same text).

any improvements are welcome. I think I won't ever use it, but someone else may find it useful too.

I did capitalize them as I wanted ;-). I'm just suggesting the idea to you (and secretly for my benefit of not having to sync with your source everytime you changes it). It's probably really an issue of personal preference, but I like consistency when the rest of rockbox is properly capitalized.

There is a point in consistency. I hope I have all of them capitalized.

I'll look into it next week when I have my physics and math problem sets done. The plugin keymap looks quite different from the core, so I'll have to look at it a bit more.

no hurry

On another note, the backlight does not seem to behave as expected when there is power from USB. Instead of staying on when I ask it to, it turns off after the timeout defined in setting.

fixed (use functions in helper.c)

[rangi_chip]

I am very interested in this plugin... awesome work so far!

Um... just a question, most of my mp3s have the lyrics embeded in the 'USLT' tag field (UNSYNCEDLYRICS).
Is there any chance of adding support for this field?? I have over 1100 with lyrics in them.
Also, is there a limit to the amount of characters that can be displayed total?

[(:@)]

I am very interested in this plugin... awesome work so far!

Um... just a question, most of my mp3s have the lyrics embeded in the 'USLT' tag field (UNSYNCEDLYRICS).
Is there any chance of adding support for this field?? I have over 1100 with lyrics in them.

There's a patch for this (#2999). It seems like it is out of date and the programmer is waiting for Metadata On Buffer. Now that MOB is in svn, but I don't know if he is still interested in doing it.

Edit:
USLT support added. It's maybe not the best way to view USLT with the sncviewer.

Also, is there a limit to the amount of characters that can be displayed total?

There is a limit, but I can not tell you the exact maximum amount of characters. It depends on some factors (encoding, screen width, font).
The maximum characters per line is 511, but it also depends on your screen width. A line will be wrapped if it exceeds the screen width. The maximum of wrapped lines are 7. You can have at most 299 lines of lyrics.
 

[rangi_chip]

Thank you very much.
I am keen to try this patch out, but I don't know how to:

Install it into RB. Could you please tell me what to do? When I click the .patch link, it's just a whole heap of text. What do I do with this.

And how do I activate the viewer? Just back up to the plugins menu and select it from there?

Sorry, I'm new to RB.

[AlexP]

This is off topic for this thread, but briefly:

The patch alters the source code for rockbox.  You need to set up a build environment, download the source code, patch the source with the patch, then compile the source code to get the build you put on the player.

Have a look at the SimpleGuideToCompiling wiki page.