Plugin: Tag parser & media player for DRM Windows Media

[mikesm]

I'm curious given all the work that's been going on with developing plugins to MCE and WMP10 and WMP11, why Sage should have it's own media database at all? I'm not talking about PVR'd content, but for ripped DVD's and Music, have Sage API's redirect to the WMP database would seem to enable everyone to leverage all the WMP plugins, and not have to waste time reinventing the wheel.

It would also make it possible for folks to concentrate on GUI and usuability functions rather than having to spend all this effort screwing around to support music tags and formats that WMP already handles just fine, DRM and all.

Why isn't this the right thing to do? It's not like Sage is putting a lot of resources into being an WMP or media center competitor. This lets them concentrate on PVR functions as they have been in the past, but also give us a much more powerful media platform.

Thanks,
Mike

[dflachbart]

Hmm, I don't think the Linux Sage users would like this idea ...


Dirk

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Hmm, I don't think the Linux Sage users would like this idea ...


Dirk

The media capabilities of the the two versions are already completely different, as they already depend on windows specific features for audio playback in the windows version, and I think use mplayer in the linux version. Given such a wide discrepancy in features already, and the lack of WMA DRM support in Linux, I'm not sure that you lose a heck of a lot by going to the WMP database on windows. It's not like the OS media handling features are similar right now.

Also, if we end up with media features that are the lowest common demoninator between Linux and Windows, both sets of user communities will be made unhappy by this.

Also, this would allow Sage to simplify their efforts in realtime transcoders for extenders too.

Thanks,
Mike

[GKusnick]

I've uploaded a new version with a few new features:

1. You can now enable tag parsing separately from playback using the following property:

SageWMP/parser/file_types=.mp3,.wma

If this property is present, the tag parser will parse only the file types listed. If absent or empty, it will parse any file type for which the specified player is SageWMP.Player (as in previous versions).

2. By default, the tag parser uses only the WM/AlbumArtist tag as the Artist for each track. If you enable the following property, it will add all names in the Artist and Author tags as track artists as well (in addition to the AlbumArtist):

SageWMP/parser/all_artists=true

This can result in confusing behavior in the Sage music browser, so use this feature with care.

3. For STV developers, the SageWMP tag parser now optionally copies all tag info into the Sage media library, where you can get at it using some API functions I've exposed. For details, see the STV development section of the top post in this thread.

sleonard, let me know if that meets your needs.

[Narflex]

Nice work with the extra tag info Greg. When I first saw it I was like....how did he do that? Nicely integrated.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Great, didn't notice that the source is included in the download
I'll play around with it and let you know ...

Thanks,
Dirk

BTW, did you ever get this to work? Does it parse FLAC metadata properly, and enable you to use your FLAC library with Sage?

Thanks,
Mike

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by mikesm

BTW, did you ever get this to work? Does it parse FLAC metadata properly, and enable you to use your FLAC library with Sage?

Thanks,
Mike

Actually, I tried this last night, but nothing showed up in the Sage library. In the debug log I found output from the parser stating something like "FLAC not enabled, pass...". I did not have WMP enabled as the default player for the .flac extension, so I tried it again after changing this, but this time I could not get Sage to rescan the files, even with following all the procedures (remove directory, rescan, restart, etc.) I will try again tonight. If I can't get it to work, I'll post the debug logs here, maybe Greg will have an idea ...

Dirk

[dflachbart]

Ok, it took me over an hour (and a lot of nerves) to get Sage to rescan my library folder, this is *so* aggrevating ... Sometimes it works, and sometimes it simply doesnt, even when following the exact same steps. I really can't understand why we still have to battle such things (especially with version 5 just released). A button to rescan a folder should initiate an action right away, and not after 5, 10, or 15 minutes (if you are lucky) - I do not intend to *schedule* a rescan. Not to mention the need to remove the import directory first in order to get it working at all ...

Ok, rant off, now to the result: no more luck than yesterday ...

Here are some lines from the debug log, maybe Greg has an idea what is going wrong:

Tue 5/9 18:19:39.599 testFile=01 - Wild Billy.flac
Tue 5/9 18:19:39.630 SageWMP: SageWMP.Parser created.
Tue 5/9 18:19:39.631 SageWMP: SageWMP.Parser.extractMetadata("\\lauralein1\albums\22 Pistepirkko\Rumble City, LaLa Land\01 - Wild Billy.flac", "22 Pistepirkko/Rumble City, LaLa Land/")
Tue 5/9 18:19:39.632 SageWMP:   Media type flac is not enabled; pass.
Tue 5/9 18:19:39.634 VF GetFileDuration:\\lauralein1\albums\22 Pistepirkko\Rumble City, LaLa Land\01 - Wild Billy.flac
Tue 5/9 18:19:39.695 File is not a valid MPEG-2 PS file...using standard file duration detection
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.015 Duration is 172333 millis
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.365 Added:MediaFile[id=1043534 A[1043536,1043535,"22 Pistepirkko/Rumble City, LaLa Land/01 - Wild Billy",0@0320.17:23,2] host=mediapc encodedBy= \\lauralein1\albums\22 Pistepirkko\Rumble City, LaLa Land\01 - Wild Billy.flac, Seg0[Mon 3/20 17:23:23.667-Mon 3/20 17:26:16.000]]
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.379 New Library Video File MediaFile[id=1043534 A[1043536,1043535,"22 Pistepirkko/Rumble City, LaLa Land/01 - Wild Billy",0@0320.17:23,2] host=mediapc encodedBy= \\lauralein1\albums\22 Pistepirkko\Rumble City, LaLa Land\01 - Wild Billy.flac, Seg0[Mon 3/20 17:23:23.667-Mon 3/20 17:26:16.000]]
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.413 testFile=02 - Oo My Head.flac
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.427 SageWMP: SageWMP.Parser created.
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.428 SageWMP: SageWMP.Parser.extractMetadata("\\lauralein1\albums\22 Pistepirkko\Rumble City, LaLa Land\02 - Oo My Head.flac", "22 Pistepirkko/Rumble City, LaLa Land/")
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.429 SageWMP:   Media type flac is not enabled; pass.
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.429 VF GetFileDuration:\\lauralein1\albums\22 Pistepirkko\Rumble City, LaLa Land\02 - Oo My Head.flac
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.439 File is not a valid MPEG-2 PS file...using standard file duration detection
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.447 Duration is 296466 millis
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.477 Added:MediaFile[id=1043537 A[1043539,1043538,"22 Pistepirkko/Rumble City, LaLa Land/02 - Oo My Head",0@0320.17:22,4] host=mediapc encodedBy= \\lauralein1\albums\22 Pistepirkko\Rumble City, LaLa Land\02 - Oo My Head.flac, Seg0[Mon 3/20 17:22:58.534-Mon 3/20 17:27:55.000]]
Tue 5/9 18:19:40.481 New Library Video File MediaFile[id=1043537 A[1043539,1043538,"22 Pistepirkko/Rumble City, LaLa Land/02 - Oo My Head",0@0320.17:22,4] host=mediapc encodedBy= \\lauralein1\albums\22 Pistepirkko\Rumble City, LaLa Land\02 - Oo My Head.flac, Seg0[Mon 3/20 17:22:58.534-Mon 3/20 17:27:55.000]]

Dirk

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Tue 5/9 18:19:39.632 SageWMP:   Media type flac is not enabled; pass.

Looks like you haven't properly enabled SageWMP for FLAC file parsing. Could you post the following lines from your Sage.properties?

SageWMP/parser/file_types
media_player_plugin_class/flac
seeker/music_library_import_filename_extensions

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Looks like you haven't properly enabled SageWMP for FLAC file parsing. Could you post the following lines from your Sage.properties?

SageWMP/parser/file_types
media_player_plugin_class/flac
seeker/music_library_import_filename_extensions

SageWMP/parser/file_types=.mp3,.wma,.flac
seeker/music_library_import_filename_extensions=.mp3,.wav,.wma,.flac

I haven't set the media_player_plugin_class because I thought this is only necessary if I also want to *play* the files with WMP, but I only want to parse them. If the import works I would want to play the files with the winamp plugin. So is this property required for the import too ?

Dirk

[GKusnick]

No, it's not required. I just need to know what your properties look like in order to repro the bug.

Turns out I goofed in parsing the SageWMP/parser/file_types list. Try without dots and it should work better:

SageWMP/parser/file_types=mp3,wma,flac

Next version (whenever that happens) will handle the dots properly.

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

No, it's not required. I just need to know what your properties look like in order to repro the bug.

Turns out I goofed in parsing the SageWMP/parser/file_types list. Try without dots and it should work better:

SageWMP/parser/file_types=mp3,wma,flac

Next version (whenever that happens) will handle the dots properly.

Greg,

just tried it without the dots, but unfortunately no change, I get the same debug output ...


Dirk

[GKusnick]

Hmm. Worked for me when I tried it here (using dummy flac files; I don't have any real ones).

Dumb question time: did you exit Sage, stop the service, etc. while editing properties? Are you sure you're using v1.2 of the plugin?

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Hmm. Worked for me when I tried it here (using dummy flac files; I don't have any real ones).

Dumb question time: did you exit Sage, stop the service, etc. while editing properties? Are you sure you're using v1.2 of the plugin?

Yeah, I stopped the service before editing the properties file, and I am using V1.2 of the plugin. Maybe something not right in my WMP configuration ? For the FLAC support, I installed oggcodecs_0.71 and WMPTagSupportExtender.1.0 ...

I could email you a FLAC file if you want, but no need for you to go crazy with that, it's not a high priority for me to get this working...

Thanks,
Dirk

[GKusnick]

OK, now I'm confused. I guess I don't quite understand the file upload system here because that zip that's out there now is v1.0, not v1.2.

Unfortunately I didn't think to keep a backup of v1.2, and v1.3 is not quite ready for prime time yet, so it may be a little while before I can get a new version up there (assuming I can figure out how to do it right this time).

Sorry for the confusion.

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

OK, now I'm confused. I guess I don't quite understand the file upload system here because that zip that's out there now is v1.0, not v1.2.

Unfortunately I didn't think to keep a backup of v1.2, and v1.3 is not quite ready for prime time yet, so it may be a little while before I can get a new version up there (assuming I can figure out how to do it right this time).

Sorry for the confusion.

No problem, I can wait.
I think you have to be careful not to change anything else (description, etc) when you upload a new file, otherwise it won't replace the existing one ...


Thanks,

Dirk

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

OK, now I'm confused. I guess I don't quite understand the file upload system here because that zip that's out there now is v1.0, not v1.2.

Did you by chance change the title/description of the upload as well as try to upload a new file at the same time? The reason I ask is I could swear I saw a post specifing that you need to do them separately. Maybe upload the file first than change the description or title.

BobP.

[GKusnick]

Yeah, that's probably what I did. (Seems like the obvious thing to do unless you know better.)

[xlr8shun]

very interesting, any chance you could modify this to support video also? im trying to get sage video player to play ASX files (playlists) but no luck so far.

[GKusnick]

Getting WMP to render video in the Sage window is not a simple project. It may be possible, but it's not high on my priority list since I don't have a large collection of DRM video.

Doesn't Sage support ASX playlists natively? I'm pretty sure the default seeker/playlist_import_filename_extensions property includes .asx as an importable playlist type.