mediaCue v0.95b

by Brian Fernandes

Looking for XMMS mp3cue ? Click here

Introduction

mediaCue adds cue file support to Winamp 3. Cue files store information (Artist, Title, Time) describing smaller tracks within a large audio file. mediaCue allows you to easily manipulate these cue files; and more importantly, it presents you with a separate playlist composed from the cue information which you can use to easily navigate to any of the smaller tracks in the audio file, just like a normal playlist. You can also save this cue information within an ID3v2 tag (if the audio file is an mp3), eliminating the need for an external cue file.
mediaCue also has an integrated mp3 splitter, capable of splitting both CBR and VBR mp3s.


mediaCue is the logical successor to the popular Winamp 2 plugin, mp3cue by Jon Dee. I decided to rechristen my Winamp 3 plugin mediaCue in the light of WA 3 no longer being only an audio player; the actual plugin concept by itself is applicable to all types of media.

The Problem

If you wanted to rip / encode a mix CD or if you downloaded a large song, you basically had 2 options. Let's talk about a video. Say you want to watch your favorite scene in the movie. So what ? ... You've gotta remember, "Ooh, Arnie says something real funny at 36 minutes and 23 seconds ..." ? And then what ? Seek to 36:23 with the position slider ? Neither is that going to be easy to remember (Arnie says funny stuff all the time in all his movies) nor is it going to be easy to seek accurately and fast using the slider.

The Solution ... and how to Use it

The solution is this plugin ... you were expecting maybe the Easter Bunny ?

Configurable Options (Winamp 3 Preferences Window)

Compatibility

My XMMS Plugin (XMMS mp3cue)
This goes without saying, mediaCue and mp3cue are totally compatible. For the actual file manipulation, I've even used the same code.

Jon Dee's Winamp 2 Plugin
Cue sheets created by the Winamp 2 plugin can be read by mediaCue and vice versa.
The same goes for MP3 support as well. Save to MP3 in mediaCue and the Winamp 2 plugin will pick it up ... and vice versa *sigh*.

External Cue Sheet Editors
You can create cue sheets using external Cue Sheet Editors, or by hand and the plugin should handle them properly, as long as standard cue sheet conventions are followed. Some Audio CD rippers such as Exact Audio Copy create the cue sheet for you, but I haven't personally tried that out.

Other Formats
mediaCue can be used for all types of media files, as long as Winamp 3 is capable of seeking within them. hooray !

BETA ToDo

Download and Installation

Here's the installer. mediaCue v0.95b An uninstaller and a readme page will be created in the Winamp 3 folder. Restart Winamp and the plugin window should show up in the playlist sidecar. Can't get any simpler than that now, can it ?
mediaCue is quite useless without the poppler plugin becuase the sidecar has minimal functionality without this plugin - and mediaCue appears in the playlist sidecar. It will work, but you probably won't be too happy. Download Poppler Replacement 2 here It's a very minimal albeit useful plugin. (Thanks Plague).

Payment

mediaCue is freeware.Give some money to your favorite charity and help your fellow man. And tell me about it.

Details

If your audio file has a 3 letter extension (.mp3, .ogg, .wav ...), then the cue sheet for that file will have the same name, but the extension will be changed to "cue".
e.g. Audio File: myfile.mp3 Cue Sheet: myfile.cue
In any other case, (more or less than 3 letters in the extension) the file will be given an additional extension viz. "cue".
e.g. Audio File: myfile.mpeg Cue Sheet: myfile.mpeg.cue

When exporting cue files from mediaCue, it will automatically supply an appropriate name. If you stick to the supplied name, mediaCue will find the cue sheet automatically when the file is next loaded. Alternatively, you can specify any file you want when importing a cue sheet for the current song, but then that would have to be done manually each time.

Feedback

As this is a BETA release I really would appreciate it if you guys could check everything out ... from cue sheet parsing to ID3v2 integration and MP3 splitting for all kinds of MP3s etc. Do look at the BETA ToDo section; I would really appreciate any suggestions and bug reports. If there is a problem with the plugin, include as much detail as you feel relavent.
I'm usually a paranoid tester. You probably wouldn't believe some of the scenarios I'd test. But then again, it's possible that I missed something (oops). The plus point here is that I've re-verified my code while coding this plugin - that's because while coding my XMMS plugin, I documented the program instead of programming the document ...

Non standard cue sheets can cause the plugin to behave "inappropriately"; I suggest creating a cue sheet using the plugin or an editor. The "by hand" method is error prone, and using the plugin is simple enough, isn't it ?

I would really really appreciate any suggestions or bug reports from you. A few words of appreciation would go a very long way too. If you want to volunteer to test out new versions of the plugin, drop me a line. The only reason why the release gets delayed is because I have to test the plugin myself ... and I usually keep putting it off for later. Believe me, testing the mp3 support is no frickin joke.

Contact

Email: brianv@phreaker.net
MSN: infernalproteus at hotmail dot com
Y!: infernalproteus
ICQ: 96722990

Other Sites:
XMMS mp3cue
ProteanArt
Photoshop Plugins
Brian's Assembly Graphics Site

Thanks

First of all - Jon Dee, for writing the original plugin and taking the time to explain all the details of his plugin, ID3 tags and Trance in general.
His plugin is here

Nullsoft - For Winamp, Wasabi and their amazing free Installer - NSIS.

The guys on the Winamp 3 Developer forum very helpful esp. WHEREamI, Tuatara, Russ and Plague - and you, my BETA testers as well :). Thanks.

Last modified: Thu Nov 13 09:53:28 India Standard Time 2003
https://brianvictor.tripod.com/mediacue.htm