mediaCue v0.95b

• Introduction
• The Problem
• The Solution ... and how to Use it
• Screenshot
• Compatibiliy
• BETA ToDo
• Download and Installation
• Payment
• Details
• Feedback
• Contact
• Thanks

Introduction

The Problem

• In order for you to be able to identify and seek to any particular song within the mix, you would have to encode each song as a separate MP3 file. So what's the problem ? Well, if you are listening to the music using Winamp, you'd probably get a pause between the tracks, as Winamp switches between them. Playlist ordering can also be an issue, not to mention managing all those files.
  
  
• Alternatively, you can rip the entire CD as a single MP3; but then how do get to a particular track within the mix ? Not only would you have to remember the location of the track, but the slider is hardly precise enough for large files. Needless to say, you don't retain any information about the individual tracks, and you would probably have to manage this information outside Winamp.

The Solution ... and how to Use it

• Load up the desired media file Winamp. Bring up the mediaCue window in the playlist sidecar.
  (Click the long thin button with the arrow on it in the playlist window [it's called the poppler]. Click the title bar of the sidecar and choose mediaCue from the list of windows displayed there)
• In the mediaCue playlist window, right click and choose Add Track. Type in the details. The time fields are programmed for minutes, seconds and frames respectively. (There are 75 frames per second). Continue adding songs until all the songs in the album are added (or you are fed up... whichever comes first).
• Then just double click the song in the mediaCue playlist to have Winamp seek to that position. hooray !
• The Period (.) and Comma (,) keys can be used to go to the next and previous song respectively. (configurable)
• You can also set some attributes for the entire album by right clicking and choosing Properties.
• Now, you can export this playlist to a cue file. Simply right click and choose Export Cue Sheet. The file will be appropriately named and stored (see details section below) so that mediaCue will automatically find and load it up the next time.
• Import Cue Sheet allows you to specify an alternate cue file to load as the mediaCue playlist.
• You can now save this cue info within an MP3 audio file, eliminating the need for the extra cue file. Choose Save to MP3
• Remove from MP3 removes only the ID3v2 frame saved in the MP3 by the above command.
• If you want to Remove or Edit a track, just right click the appropriate track and choose the appropriate option.
• You can extract a single track from the MP3 into a separate MP3. Right click the track and choose Extract Into MP3.
• You can also split the entire MP3 into its component tracks based on the cue sheet. Right click the mediaCue window and choose split.
• The current track playing is marked with a solid rectangle border.

General
• Show Frame Time - Choose between a min:sec display vs. a min:sec:frame display.
• Search for cue sheet first - If you start playing an mp3, don't check the ID3v2 tag for the cuesheet frame without first checking for an external cue sheet.
• Jump to First Track - When the media file starts playing, automatically jump to the first track specified in the cuesheet.


Splitter
• Write ID3v2 - The newly created MP3s will have ID3v2.
• Force Xing header - Usually, only VBR MP3s possess a Xing header. You can however force even a CBR to be created with an accurate Xing header.
• File Format - Specifies how the component MP3 fils are to be named after splitting

Compatibility

BETA ToDo

• Press TAB to go to the next field in the dialog boxes.
• Both menus, the track menu and the mediaCue menu come up on right click ... you get the former if you right click on a song, and the latter if you right click elsewhere in the window ... sometimes you have to try several times before getting the right menu. Can you Suggest some alternate behavior ?
• General buffer checks have to be put in all over the place.
• Disable MP3 specific options in the menus when you aren't playing an MP3.
• The splitter currently simply stops if it encounters bad Synch within the MP3 - it will split upto the point with the bad Synch and no more. Make it more tolerant of this / make the behavior configurable.
• Give users the option of putting the mediaCue playlist in the poppler or in another window or integrate it into the normal playlist itself, if possible.
• Certain media files apparently have a "contents" section stored within them. If I get enough info on this, perhaps I can populate the cuesheet automatically, so that you don't have to add the tracks in yourself.
• Rewrite the documentation & this page as well. Include a text readme with the plugin instead of this html file.

Download and Installation

Payment

Details

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.

Contact

Thanks