Database Voice suggestion

[Alucryd]

Hi all,

This may have been suggested before, but it would be great to have some voice in the imho most used menu of RockBox. I don't know how other people sort their libraries, but mine is like this:

Code: [Select]

%album artist%/%album%/%track%. %title% Every directory has a _dirname.talk inside.
 
I can think of two ways to implement this:

• the first would be an option to tell RockBox the tree structure of the library, in my case %album artist%/%album%, and associate the _dirname.talk inside those directories to %album artist% and %album% tags used in the database.
• the second would be the creation of additional voice files inside the %album% directory, like _albumartist.talk, _album.talk, and so on. Making extensive use of symlinks pointing to _dirname.talk files would also help reducing space usage, or building a folder containing all talk files inside .rockbox, and pointing to them.

What do you think?

[bluebrother]

This may have been suggested before, but it would be great to have some voice in the imho most used menu of RockBox.

For me the Database is the least used "menu" in Rockbox

I don't know how other people sort their libraries, but mine is like this:

Code: [Select]

%album artist%/%album%/%track%. %title% Every directory has a _dirname.talk inside.

If you have a proper file structure why don't you use the file browser?

The main problem is that people using the Database tend to not have their music organized that neatly, which means your attempt would fail for them. People having their music organized in folders don't loose much if they simply use the folder structure instead. So in the end I don't see much benefit from trying to get additional voice information from the filesystem by assuming some "proper" structure.

One thing I can imagine that actually could work would be to have a special talkfile folder (like /.talkfiles) and generate a talkfile for each track artist and title, using the artist / title as filename. Then Rockbox could try to find a talkfile for each entry in the Database when displaying it. However, this also means that an extended talkfile generation tool is necessary -- it not only needs to read filenames in the folder structure but also parse the metadata of the files found. While this is certainly doable it's work someone need to do

Making extensive use of symlinks pointing to _dirname.talk files would also help reducing space usage, or building a folder containing all talk files inside .rockbox, and pointing to them.

FAT does not support symlinks, so this is not possible.

[Alucryd]

If you have a proper file structure why don't you use the file browser?

The thing is, I usually listen to all songs from a particular album artist, or even a whole genre, with a big shuffle, which (I think) is not possible with the file browser.

The main problem is that people using the Database tend to not have their music organized that neatly, which means your attempt would fail for them. People having their music organized in folders don't loose much if they simply use the folder structure instead. So in the end I don't see much benefit from trying to get additional voice information from the filesystem by assuming some "proper" structure.

One thing I can imagine that actually could work would be to have a special talkfile folder (like /.talkfiles) and generate a talkfile for each track artist and title, using the artist / title as filename. Then Rockbox could try to find a talkfile for each entry in the Database when displaying it. However, this also means that an extended talkfile generation tool is necessary -- it not only needs to read filenames in the folder structure but also parse the metadata of the files found. While this is certainly doable it's work someone need to do

Yes, I agree with you. Well, until someone decides to tackle this, I'll make do with the current implementation. Not that I'm unhappy with it, on the contrary, it's already great enough to leave my clip zip deep in my pocket!

FAT does not support symlinks, so this is not possible.

Of course, silly me^^ Thx for the quick answer and keep up the good work!

[torne]

The thing is, I usually listen to all songs from a particular album artist, or even a whole genre, with a big shuffle, which (I think) is not possible with the file browser.

All songs by an artist is easy in that structure: just long press select on the artist folder and hit "insert shuffle" to insert them in a random order into the playlist.

Genres you can't do from the file browser unless you organise your files by genre, though, indeed.

[Alucryd]

Oh nice, thx for the tip!

[cachondo]

Hi,

I haven't been using Rockbox long so forgive me for sticking my nose in. I tend to use files rather than database, because with a structure and talk files I can hear what I'm playing.

If I understand the outstanding issue correctly, you want to have a playlist of all your device's content of a particular genre, regardless of where it is stored in the file system. E.g. All "classical", "country" - whatever.

My current flow when adding new content to my own player is paste new stuff, then run a tool to generate new _dirname.talks and file.talk files. Currently, my file.talk files just speak the names of the files, but I see no reason I couldn't change that and get them to speak info from the ID3 tags of the files instead.

With that in mind, Is there a reason Rockbox can't play a playlist generated on the computer, rather than by itself? Could a third step, after adding content and generating speech, be to generate a collection of genre-specific playlists?

So, you might end up with playlists/country.m3u, playlists/classical.m3u, the list goes on.  I don't know what format of playlist Rockbox uses, m3u was an example.

My point is, if you're looping through all the tracks on your player to generate audio clips to speak them anyway, you might just as well be able to produce playlists by genre using a similar technique.

[wodz]

What makes you think rockbox can't play playlists generated on PC? m3u is supported. I used to use this for multi CD albums - you set in ripping program to create separate m3us for individual CDs as well as integrated one with all tracks and you are set.