PeasyMP3 - a Minimal Media Player

Audio editors, music players, video players, burning software, etc.
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rcrsn51
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PeasyMP3 - a Minimal Media Player

#1 Post by rcrsn51 »

Update: PeasyMP3 now has a system tray launcher that works over multiple desktops. Note that there are 32bit and 64bit packages below.

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PeasyMP3 was originally designed as an MP3 player. But it can now play a variety of media formats, including video and Internet streams.

PeasyMP3 works with folders of media files. Drag a folder into the input box or click the Folder Chooser button.

To open a single file in PeasyMP3, right-click on it and use Open With. Or see below. You can also use the right-click method to select a folder.

To make your own playlists, drag links from various media files into a new folder.

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If you like PeasyMP3, you can make it your default audio player.

a. Open the file /usr/local/bin/defaultaudioplayer
b. Change it to: exec peasymp3 "$@"
c. Now you can play an audio file by LEFT-clicking on it.

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PeasyMP3 v3.2 has a new startup feature.

a. Click the Favourites button. This creates the hidden folder /root/.peasymp3
b. Fill the folder with your favourite media files, links to files, or playlist files for your Internet radio stations.
c. Restart PeasyMP3. If this folder is detected, it is automatically loaded into the player.

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PeasyMP3 has several tools for playing Internet audio/video streams.

1. PeasyMP3 recognizes many PLS, M3U and ASX files. Just drop these files into a folder with your other media content. To play these files with a single click:

a. Right-click on a file
b. Select: Set Run Action
c. Enter the command: peasymp3 "$@"

2. If you have the URL for a stream, like:

Code: Select all

http://6693.live.streamtheworld.com:80/CBC_R1_TOR_H_SC
a. create a text file with a .url extension, like "CBC-Radio.url"
b. paste in the URL.
c. put the file in a folder with your other media files.

3. If you have the URL for a playlist file instead of the file itself, like:

Code: Select all

http://listen.radionomy.com/abacusfm-mozart-symphony.m3u
Create a .url file with the line

Code: Select all

-playlist http://listen.radionomy.com/abacusfm-mozart-symphony.m3u
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PeasyMP3 works as a video player for many formats, including DivX. The MPlayer keyboard controls for video are described here. Also see the Peasy DVD Player.

Note: In some versions of MPlayer, video playback can be choppy. Open the file /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf and add these lines at the end.

Code: Select all

cache = 8192
cache-min = 20
framedrop = true
--------------------------------

PeasyMP3 plays MIDI files through Timidity. See Page 3.

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PeasyMP3 includes an audio CD player. Look for it in the Multimedia menu. It reads the CD, generates a temporary "playlist" folder, loads it into PeasyMP3 and auto-starts playback.

Update: The CD player has a new "All Tracks" feature. The first entry in the playlist plays all the tracks on the disc consecutively. This reduces the gap time between tracks.

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Update: PeasyMP3 Carousel has been revamped. It accepts up to five folders of media content or entire directory trees. The five "trays" can be played in order or you can randomize the whole playlist. The Save function saves your tray selections. They will automatically load into the trays at the next session. The Carousel now appears in the Multimedia menu.

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rcrsn51
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#2 Post by rcrsn51 »

Update: In v2.8, the Stop button has been replaced by a true Pause function that works with all media types. Thank you to mcewanw for providing the examples of kill -STOP/CONT.

PeasyMP3 v2.8 includes a carousel applet that simulates a CD changer. Load it with up to six media folders and press Play.

[Edited 2014-06-08]

The PeasyMP3 Carousel has returned to its original version with no subfolders or randomization. If you want those features, use right-click-AutoPlay instead.

The Carousel no longer appears by default in the menus. If you want it, go to /usr/share/applications and open its .desktop file. Switch the value of the NoDisplay entry from true to false. Reboot.
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mcewanw
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#3 Post by mcewanw »

rcrsn51 wrote:Thank you to mcewanw for providing the examples of kill -STOP/CONT.
No problem. PAUSE and UNPAUSE functions from precord/pavrecord are GPL so you are free to use any code/ideas from there under the same license conditions! ;-)
github mcewanw

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rcrsn51
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#4 Post by rcrsn51 »

@greengeek: I have posted v2.9 that fixes the problem with overlapping Playlist windows.

However, the fix trades an obvious problem for a more obscure one - try leaving multiple Playlist windows open and exiting PeasyMP3. :wink:

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#5 Post by greengeek »

Thanks, I will give that a try.

I've noticed that using v2.7 the tracks don't play in the order shown in the playlist. Seems that it plays the "loose" files in the parent directory first, then starts playing whatever is in the subfolders, even though everything in the playlist is in alphabetical order.

Is this intended?

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#6 Post by rcrsn51 »

greengeek wrote:I've noticed that using v2.7 the tracks don't play in the order shown in the playlist. Seems that it plays the "loose" files in the parent directory first, then starts playing whatever is in the subfolders, even though everything in the playlist is in alphabetical order.
Are you talking about using the program which generates the playlist of a directory tree? I have removed it in v2.9 because of issues with the order.

In v2.9 there is a new carousel program. Load it with a selection of folders and it will play in the order you want.

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#7 Post by greengeek »

OK, I have tried 2.9 and have the same situation. I think I misunderstood my symptom before, so I will try to explain:

I have a parent directory called Music and it contains various "loose" mp3 and flv files, and also a collection of subdirectories that contain ripped albums (one per artist).

If I drag the Music folder into the main Peasy window and click start it begins to play the "loose" files in alphabetical order (thats good).

Then, if I click playlist I can see that it lists ALL of the contents of the Music folder, in alphabetical order. When I first saw that playlist I figured it was going to work it's way through every track and every subdirectory but I was wrong. It stops after playing all of the "loose" tracks and does not look into the subdirectories.

So in that sense the playlist window is misleading when it displays the names of the subdirectories.

I have not used the carousel yet but I guess that is how I can select some of the subdirectories to be played.

EDIT: I've just tried carousel and it starts to play ok, but is there a way to force it to stop playing the current subdirectory and skip to the one on the next line down? Also - Aaaargh!!! I shut carousel down but it is still playing and I dont have a visible window onscreen. Ghost in the machine :-)
(I guess thats the slight bug to which you were referring?)

EDIT2: Well, that was interesting - I ended up with two songs playing over the top of each other (yes I have two ears but lack the brainpower to process the incoming double stereo...) but no way to kill the player. The cpu meter was showing close to 100%, yet htop showed only 2% used by aplay and nothing else apparently responsible for driving the cpu so hard. Tried to use pprocess to kill various audio related things but without success so had to shutdown via the menu. (Slacko53)

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rcrsn51
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#8 Post by rcrsn51 »

PeasyMP3 has never played files located in subfolders - it only plays the contents of the current folder. To play subfolders is beyond the scope of the program. The subfolders will appear in the playlist along with any other files in the directory, although the program does filter out some obvious non-AV file types. To also filter out subfolder entries would require additional code. I will give it some thought.

The point of the separate Playlist program was to generate a list from a directory tree as you are suggesting. But I found it to be unsatisfactory.

I have tried repeatedly and cannot get the Carousel program to leave a zombie process running. I will look at this.
I've just tried carousel and it starts to play ok, but is there a way to force it to stop playing the current subdirectory and skip to the one on the next line down?
Maybe. I will look at this.

Thanks for doing this testing.

Bill

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Tote
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#9 Post by Tote »

Hi there, I've been using PeasyMp3 v2.6 for a week or so in Dpup Wheezy without any issues.

Tried version2.9 in lina lite yesterday, had the same issues described above where the player won't play all the files in the folder. Admittedly, lina lite is a stripped down version so that might cause different behaviour, but I noticed I have a mixture of formats in the music file I was trying to play. Peasy would play only the .wav files each time and refuse to play any others.

Not looking for a solution, I'm happy using Peasy in Dpup, just thought I'd pass this on, might be relevant :D or not :?

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#10 Post by rcrsn51 »

Tote wrote:Tried version2.9 in lina lite yesterday, had the same issues described above where the player won't play all the files in the folder.
[Edit] PeasyMP3 needs:

- aplay to play wav's
- lame + aplay to play mp3's
- mplayer for other formats

Maybe they were stripped out of lina lite? You can check with

Code: Select all

which lame
which mplayer
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Mon 17 Jun 2013, 14:59, edited 2 times in total.

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#11 Post by rcrsn51 »

@greengeek: I have posted v3.0 above. It addresses several issues.

1. The playlist no longer shows directory entries, so there is no confusion about what PeasyMP3 is doing.

2. I found some ways of making the Carousel go off into limbo and hopefully have them fixed. Please test this.

3. The Carousel now has both Skip Track and Skip Disc buttons.

Bill

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#12 Post by Tote »

That's what it was in lina lite. Working now. Thank you.

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#13 Post by greengeek »

Excellent - Peasy Carousel is fantastic. I tried loading a folder of one artists mp3s to line 1, then a folder of music videos to line 2, then another artists mp3 to line 3, and it was able to work through them all. Skip track and skip disc work great.

Peasy MP3 is good now - the playlist is almost perfect - the only issue was that it displayed the title of the xhippo script I had added to my Music folder (I guess that the script has no suffix, so how to exclude it from displaying in the playlist I wonder??)

If I was to suggest other features it would be these:

1) A "randomise" or "shuffle" feature would be great. EDIT: Maybe this can be done with the addition of button that triggers a repeating sequence of simulated "skip disc x 1, skip track x 1" button depressions?

2) When playing via Carousel I tried removing one disc directory (currently non-playing) and replacing it with a different one, and it showed in the playlist ok but Carousel did not play it and kept going back to playing the original choice that I had now removed from the list. If it was possible to modify a not-currently-playing disc choice that would be a really handy feature.
Last edited by greengeek on Tue 18 Jun 2013, 09:10, edited 1 time in total.

jplt

#14 Post by jplt »

Great thanks excellent player (mp3 or videos too )

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#15 Post by rcrsn51 »

@greengeek: Excellent. Thank you for testing this.
playlist is almost perfect - the only issue was that it displayed the title of the xhippo script I had added to my Music folder (I guess that the script has no suffix, so how to exclude it from displaying in the playlist I wonder??)
It's not possible to exclude it. Also, some fIles with other non-A/V extensions like .abw, .odt will also appear in the playlist. Trying to filter out all of them would require major changes.
A "randomise" or "shuffle" feature would be great. EDIT: Maybe this can be done with the addition of button that triggers a repeating sequence of simulated "skip disc x 1, skip track x 1" button depressions?
I am nervous about doing this because it might re-introduce the problem of phantom music left playing. I'll think about it.
When playing via Carousel I tried removing one disc directory (currently non-playing) and replacing it with a different one, and it showed in the playlist ok but Carousel did not play it and kept going back to playing the original choice that I had now removed from the list. If it was possible to modify a not-currently-playing disc choice that would be a really handy feature.
Once you press Play, you cannot change the playlist on the fly and the Play button is disabled. Again, I had to do this to prevent the phantom music situation. I will look at this again.

Bill

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#16 Post by rcrsn51 »

@greengeek: I have looked at your last two suggestions about the Carousel and they really aren't feasible without major changes.

However, I have added a pop-up message when you press Play a second time that explains the limitation.

V3.1 is posted above.

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#17 Post by greengeek »

Excellent - 3.1 is working well. I like the idea of the message clarifying that the playlist cannot be modified on the fly.

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#18 Post by greengeek »

Actually - while using Carousel I've had another idea - would it be difficult to rearrange the Carousel window so that instead of being relatively square, it was a long and thin rectangle that could sit underneath the video window?

That way it would be possible to click "next track" and "next disc" without the carousel window having to pop into the foreground over the top of the video.

(ie: one row of 3 title windows at far left, a second row of 3 title windows in the middle, and the control buttons regrouped toward the right).

If not, no matter - it's great as is.

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#19 Post by rcrsn51 »

@greengeek:

1. I have put the line of Carousel control buttons in a separate window that takes up less screen space.

2. I have added a Random feature to the Carousel.

See v3.4 above.

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#20 Post by greengeek »

Peasy Carousel v3.2 has good functionality now. I can use it very happily like this:

Couple of comments:

Normal mode:
I like this "ribbon style" control - I can tuck it at lower right, below the video window and step through as I want without having windows overlay each other.
If using "Next Disc" to step through everything there is sometimes an unexpected delay as it switches from the last disc back to the first disc. Not a major but momentarily makes you think something has stopped (which it hasn't). This seems to be something to do with switching from an flv video window back to an audio window - but strangely it seems to be more noticeable sometimes than others. (Maybe something to do with my Mplayer??)

Random Mode:
Very useful addition. Note: select random before clicking start.
One notable issue: if you click "Next Track" everything works as expected but if you click the "Next Disc" button it usually steps back to a specific previously played song - even if that is already playing. (although this behave slightly differently depending on whether or not you have just used "Skip Track"). It's hard to quantify exactly what is happening here. I guess Its really not intended for the user to fiddle with things when it's in random mode, but the ability to skip away from a disc that you've heard enough of would be handy.

Overall, very good and useful.

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