Freebox Jukebox

The might be of use to someone making a skin so I uploaded them.

I just found a Flickr site for custom made ITunes Genre Icons that people are making, there are multiple images for almost every type of music, and looks to be ALOT of images. Here's the link http://www.flickr.com/groups/itunesgenres/pool/ (http://www.flickr.com/groups/itunesgenres/pool/)

(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2008/09/genreiconsitunes8.jpg)

Did I miss something here?

Why the genre icons and where do they go?

I havent really been payng attention to the forum other than the quick glance here and there due to my work schedule.

??? ??? ???

I checked out the flickr site, what the world is 'Math Rock'?

Fordman

The option to use icons for Genre's has been there for awhile but it wasn't working 100%. Barry has finally gotten the bugs out so you can use icons or text (like it is now) for your Genre's. It just needs to be configured in the skintool.

I shutter when you say skintool. I cant figure that out for nothing!

If there was one thing I really would like Barry to do is to make a more user friendly skintool.

Not complaining, I'll take what I can get!

Fordman

Fantastic, I really like the ones on that flikr site.

I changed the default skin to accept genre icons quickly, it looks good any chance of making this the default?

Big issue for me is fixing up my genres and getting the genre images.

Ok, been working on the Filter page awhile, how does this look? The only issues I see with this page is that the ALL ALBUMS isn't able to have an image associated with it and that if you go to the next page and something is not configured with an image, the boxes use the image from the previous page that was in that box. It might be nice to have a Generic Image for the All Albums and if a Genre doesn't have an image it also uses the Generic Image (Like how the Album Page works) Let me know what you think.

(http://www.iamkizer.net/freeboxjukebox/files/skins/V4skins/Updated%20Skins/New_Filter.JPG)

Very very nice. You're on top of it as allways.   :beer
Let me know when you have a skin with this and with the changes to the decades pages. I would like to use it as a template for the next skins.

copy the image not found into the genres folder and that will sort that issue out for you. Oh yeah it looks awesome BTW. The all albums bug i am aware of.

This is sweet and something I'm definitely going to use!

Brad

Yep, adding the ImageNotFound.jpg to the Genres folder worked, Thanks. I just wanted to get the "Ok" on how this looked before putting the work into the 1024x768 skin.

Coffee,

Can you make some Year icons for this? I tried using the years that are part of the skin, but they look bad that blown up, and might be nice to have Year icons that are as colorful as the genre icons, and can hen be used on any skin. Let me know thanks...

Hi Eist

QuoteCan you make some Year icons for this? I tried using the years that are part of the skin, but they look bad that blown up, and might be nice to have Year icons that are as colorful as the genre icons, and can hen be used on any skin.

Yes, I'll do it. I just need an idea of what you want.
My idea is to use square buttons with the genre icons in it. It will clean up the page and when you are creating a skin you simply have to add the standard genre buttons to your background.
For the year buttons or icons I was thinking of doing a set of year buttons for each genre. So if you select the "Pop" genre your year page buttons would have the same genre icon in the button. This is if it can be done. You will need a set of year buttons for each genre. I'll create some samples and post it.

Coffee

Coffee,

I don't have that much of an idea... Why don't you come up with some ideas and post them. Square year icons would be the best to fit in a frame or page if needed on any skin. A Year button for each Genre might be ALOT of buttons as I currently have 30 Genre's which would be buttons from 1950-2009 for each Genre. I would think a set of Year buttons for each set of years would be cool like a 50's background for the buttons 1950-1959 (http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:6kcHI8x-mTO5KM:http://www.parties4kids.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/HRR1PL8600.jpg) and maybe a Peace symbol as a background (http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:raL9FSaaJx5QMM:http://www.visualparadox.com/images/no-linking-allowed-main/peacesign800.jpg) for 1960-1969 and then like a Jimmy Hendrix (psychedelic) (http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:pTMLzY4uZDtF6M:http://tewsy.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/psychedelic.jpg) looking background for 1970-1979 and then maybe this as a background for 1980-1989 (http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:F_KmoGq3GBDC9M:http://www.housingworks.org/p/phpThumb/phpThumb.php%3Fsrc%3D/i/event/ilove80s.jpg%26w%3D426) that way all the year buttons can be used for any skin. Just some ideas, I'm sure you'll come up with something better. Thanks

Hi Eist

Do you have a list of the genre's we are going to use and maybe the collection of genre icons you think will work best with freebox? I like the stuff on the flickr site but I can't decide which ones. I want to start this a.s.a.p. but;
There are 3 ways we can approach this:
1- Use the same button as in the skin with text genre's on each button or,
2- I can start from scratch and create completely new genre images or,
3- Use genre icons such as the ones on the flickr website.

Coffee

Coffee,

The issue with Genre's is that everybody has different ways of using their Genre's, like me, I use 70's Pop, 70's Rock. 80's Pop, 80's Rock, where some people may just put all 70's, 80's Pop under Pop, and 70's, 80's Rock under Rock. I would just let people get their own icons for each of their Genre's from the Flickr site, I got all of mine yesterday (you can see some of them on the screenshot above) I would just focus on doing the year buttons, as that will be used for everybody. I don't know what you think about the different background ideas for each set of years (1950-1959, 1960-1969, 1970-1979) but that might be an idea to go with. Let me know. If you want to come up with additional Genre buttons, that would be cool too, but may be more work as there are some pretty good ones on Flickr already.

I have a massive task ahead of me where i need to fix up 1000's of genres to try and get it down to around 30 genres. What my plan is so far is to leave the genre if it has a sensible one and only add genres to albums missing a genre. If a genre only has 1 album in it then i will rename the genre in that album to something sutible that has more albums in it but it's another massive task i am not sure i have time for.

Also something that struck me yesterday after i mocked up the genre screen were these 2 ideas....

Ideas:
1/ Have a different backdrop or even layout for GENRES, ARTISTS and YEARS.

2/ Have the option to set the filter screen to be the default screen when using the back buttons rather than the album screen.

Changes/Additions:
1/ Add a spin on this button to the genre screen which might be usefull if you have a lot of genres and could be used for an attract mode if you have the genre screen as the default screen.

These are just some thoughts i wanted to get out there.

I just posted the links for the two Default skins that have been updated with the new Filter page with images on the 5.00.22 Beta Final Release page. I also have a link to a folder of all of the current Genre Images I have. Let me know how they look/work out

I tried the new skin and it seems to have a problem with overlapping images if you have more than can be shown on the screen at one time.  I have a screenshot if you want me to E-Mail it to you.

Yes if you could just post a pic that would be good. Are you talking about in the Genre section?

Check your PM.s

Cary,

I got your email with the image. I can't reproduce what you are seeing. I loaded it on my laptop too and it is working fine with both skins. Make sure you are running 5.0.22 Beta Final Release. And you may want to try a reinstall as it looks like a file has gotten corrupted, maybe try redownloading the new skins too. Let me know if it is still shoing up after that. Thanks

will they be a easy user way round for the likes of me
and to make lighter work i don't mind changing my genres
from say classic rock to rock or folk rock to folk to try and
match what ever is defaulted to or will you have to have
skinning skills

John,

You won't have to do anything other than generate your Genre's in the config while generating your Music database. When it's done open you Genres folder (in the E-Touch directory) and see what your .cvr files are named (ie. Rock.cvr, Folk.cvr) the .cvr's will be whatever your current Genre names are. Then all you need to do is find the image you like for each Genre, and name the .jpg the same name as the .cvr (ie. Rock.jpg, Folk.jpg) and put the .jpg files in the Genres folder with the .cvr's and the .jpg will show up in the Genre Filter with the image, so no skinning needed. I can't imagine there being a "Standard" Genre naming in E-Touch as everyone tags their Genre's a little different. All that is needed is renaming an image to the Genre (.cvr). Hope that helps.

great eist1 everything's not so scary anymore
that sounds cool :tommy

Quote from: Barcrest on October 15, 2009, 04:24:00 PM
2/ Have the option to set the filter screen to be the default screen when using the back buttons rather than the album screen.

Barry,

This is exactly the question I was about to post, I was in a bar the other day that had a digital jukebox and it had this exact setup where the genre screen was teh default, and where you could then go into an artist search via another screen.

Would love to see this as an option.

Quote from: Barcrest on October 15, 2009, 04:24:00 PM

1/ Have a different backdrop or even layout for GENRES, ARTISTS and YEARS.

I love this idea!

Brad

Quote from: Cary_B on October 15, 2009, 06:38:13 PM
I tried the new skin and it seems to have a problem with overlapping images if you have more than can be shown on the screen at one time.  I have a screenshot if you want me to E-Mail it to you.

I believe I am having the same issue:

(http://www.ppcomponents.com/etouch/filter1.jpg)

(http://www.ppcomponents.com/etouch/filter2.jpg)

(http://www.ppcomponents.com/etouch/filter3.jpg)


Any thoughts?

Fordman

Yes, I think I know what you are getting at, I have the same issue that I mentioned to Barry, what is happening is that if one of the frames doesn't have an image in it, it is still using the image from the previous page. That's not a skin issue, that's something to do with how E-Touch is currently working. Hopefully Barry will take a look at it. Let me know if that is what is happening. As long as the Genre has an image associated with it, it shows up fine. So on the last page, if you only have 2 Genres, those show up fine but the other boxes will be filled with the images from the previous page right? This looks to be an app issue, I will see if I can reproduce it on my side, but everything is working fine with mine. Looks like it may have something to do with the length of the name As both of you are having issues with long names like Now That's What I call... and it looks like it is only happening in the Arist sevtion, let me know because I have just been trying the Genre portion.

Note: I just installed this on my home jukebox (Completely deleted the E-Touch folder in Program Files) installed the latest E-Touch 5.00.22 Beta Final Released, re-generated my library and copied the updated default skins into the skins folder, copied my Genre images into the Genres folder and ran E-Touch. It is working fine for me (other than the covers copying to the next page if images aren't there, which Barry needs to look at) but I can't get the text to show up out of place. I have 37000 albums some with long names and they are showing up fine (Filtering by Genre or Artist). Can you try and delete the E-Touch folder and do a fresh install and see if that changes things? As This wouldn't be a skin issue anyway, but I'm sure Barry would like to know what may be causing this if is is an issue.

You will not have the issue with the images not being replaced with a blank if you have the imagenotfound.jpg in your genres folder. I thought i mentioned this in an earlier post?

Quote from: eist1 on October 15, 2009, 03:31:39 PM
Coffee,

The issue with Genre's is that everybody has different ways of using their Genre's, like me, I use 70's Pop, 70's Rock. 80's Pop, 80's Rock, where some people may just put all 70's, 80's Pop under Pop, and 70's, 80's Rock under Rock. I would just let people get their own icons for each of their Genre's from the Flickr site, I got all of mine yesterday (you can see some of them on the screenshot above) I would just focus on doing the year buttons, as that will be used for everybody. I don't know what you think about the different background ideas for each set of years (1950-1959, 1960-1969, 1970-1979) but that might be an idea to go with. Let me know. If you want to come up with additional Genre buttons, that would be cool too, but may be more work as there are some pretty good ones on Flickr already.

Hi Eist

I now have a clearer picture of how all the genre stuff works. I never used the filter or genre option but I've clearly missed a lot.
So, as I understand it, you need year buttons say from 1970, 1971, 1973, .......1979 etc. for each decade but each decade need to have a different background image in the square button or do you need one button saying 1970-1979?
What size do you have in mind for these buttons in terms of pixels?
I have even more work now to get all my tags sorted. :D ;D

Coffee

Quote from: coffee on October 16, 2009, 11:03:07 AM
I have even more work now to get all my tags sorted. :D ;D

Coffee

Tell me about, 70% of mine are missing year or genre and i have been slowly going through sorting them. Good thing is i cn go into a genre and see what albums are there and use that as a reference fo what i need to fix up it will be a long job though taking up more time i don't have LOL.

Quote from: Barcrest on October 16, 2009, 11:33:09 AM

Quote from: coffee on October 16, 2009, 11:03:07 AM
I have even more work now to get all my tags sorted. :D ;D

Coffee

Tell me about, 70% of mine are missing year or genre and i have been slowly going through sorting them. Good thing is i cn go into a genre and see what albums are there and use that as a reference fo what i need to fix up it will be a long job though taking up more time i don't have LOL.

Dude, I've never used the "search by" functions. I have to tell you that it is so cool.

Coffee,

Every year would need it's own image from 1950-2012 (just like what is in the skin image folder). Here is something I was thinking about for year decade

(http://www.iamkizer.net/freeboxjukebox/files/skins/V4skins/Updated%20Skins/1968-1971.JPG)

Obviously with some better text, but I just wanted to show an example. Those images are 170x170, so they could be used in the Filter section and could be blown up more or shrunk and still look good. Let me know what you think, I'm sure you will come up with something pretty cool.

Barry,

Having the ImageNotFound.jpg in the Genre folder works for Genre's that don't have an image, but if you page through all of your Genre's and on the last page if you only have 2 Genre's the 2 will show the correct image, but the other 22 boxes will have the image from the previous page in them (should be blank boxes). The boxes are not showing as empty.

Hi Eist

Here is the first samples of what I have in mind. I tried to create something to match most skins.

Coffee

Coffee,

Yes really cool...Can there be a black outline around the numbers? It may make the numbers look better. But I think it is definetely what would look nice. Others may have some input.

I can also give the numbers a black shadow and make the background lighter.

Yes, that looks better... Thanks for working on it. Can these also be made without the gray border around it? That way they can be dropped into a skin that already has a border.

Look good dude.

Here's a sample without the border.

Damn that icon looks fantastic. Hardest part i think wil be finding images for the background of each on. Don't forget coffee these images are going to be JPG not GIF so they cannot have transparency. It might work better if the cornes are quared off.

Hi Barry

(http://www.ppcomponents.com/etouch/filter3.jpg)
See the overlaping text at the sides. It seems like a skintool bug.
In the skintool you can set the genre images to 24 but 28 show up in the skintool. Then if you start up freebox you have 28 text lines but only 24 images. That is what is causing the problem.
Another bug I see is when you select "filter by genre artist year" everything is fine when you select "by genre" but if you after that select by artist or year , the genre images stays in the screen. I don't know if it is me or a bug.

Coffee

OK , to solve the genre issue I increased the number of genres from 24 to 28.

That is odd because if you see the image i posted up when i first hacked the default skin i was able to restrict them and didn't get the bug. I have already fixed the bug where images don't dissappear or clear as they should so that switch from the genres to artist or years will also be fixed. I will make a new beta tomorrow however i still have a couple of bugs i want to fix so it depends on what i can get done tomorrow.

Can you tell me how you are getting the extra text lines on the filter screen? I have been using the updated skin on my jukebox at home, my PC and my laptop and everything is working properly. But on all of them I completely deleted E-Touch and did a fresh install of 5.0.22 Beta Final and regenerated the library, and all of them are working properly. Let me know if you are using a fresh install or not. Would be nice to try and reproduce that. Thanks

Hi Eist

I don't have a fresh install but I am using 5.0.22 Beta final. I'll do a fresh install and see if it is fine.

Coffee

Hi Eist

Here are the genre year buttons. They are sized at 109 x 95 pixels, the same size as in the skintool. It was difficult to get the right background but if you can get any better plaese pass them on and I'll make same more sets. I think it would be best to have at least 5 sets for users to choose from. ???

(http://www.coinplaysa.com/images/FreeboxGenreYears.jpg)
Download:
http://www.coinplaysa.com/skins/FreeboxGenreYears.rar

Coffee

Those look pretty good, here are some images I just found for each year. I think it might look better with the full year written (1971, 1972.1973...) but buttons with both types can be done. Here are the images I found. Others may want to take a look and see if they can come up with some images too

1950's

(http://z.about.com/d/travelwithkids/1/5/Q/D/turksdiner.jpg)

1960's

(http://www.dreamstime.com/retro-sixties-60s-or-seventies-70s-background-thumb2154874.jpg)

1970's

(http://www.gigaweb.com/files/productsimages/BS_P/24347.jpg)

1980's

(http://www.ffordeffiesta.com/Images/ilove80s.jpg)

1990's

(http://www.vh1.com/sitewide/promoimages/logos/az-project/i_love_the_90s_281x211.jpg)

2000's

(http://sbukophile.typepad.com/sbukophile/images/2007/04/11/00s.jpg)

2010's

(http://www.gigmasters.com/images/musicians/32592i.jpg)

Looking awsome.

Hi Eist

I got the images so I'll create a new set with with years in full numbers.

Coffee

OK, here are another 2 sets.

(http://www.coinplaysa.com/images/GenreYears2-3.jpg)

Download:
Set number 2
http://www.coinplaysa.com/skins/FreeboxGenreYears2.rar
Set number3
http://www.coinplaysa.com/skins/FreeboxGenreYears3.rar

Have fun. ;D
Coffee

Damn I didn't get as much time to work on everything as I wanted last night. I grabbed the updated skins and i have those but i still need to pull the extra fanart down and the genre icons and now these icons. For the artists it might be a good idea to batch process the fan art images down to a smaller size.

Don't suppose anyone has a decent all_albums.jpg

How about this:

(http://www.iamkizer.net/freeboxjukebox/files/skins/V4skins/Updated%20Skins/all_albums.jpg)

yeah if coffee could add "All" or "All Albums" text over the front of it that would work fine.

The Text will say All Albums below it....

Hi

I will add the all albums JPG this weekend. Meanwhile you can just add it to your folder from below.

Coffee

Looking good as always guys.

Quote from: coffee on October 20, 2009, 05:53:27 AM
OK, here are another 2 sets.

(http://www.coinplaysa.com/images/GenreYears2-3.jpg)

Download:
Set number 2
http://www.coinplaysa.com/skins/FreeboxGenreYears2.rar
Set number3
http://www.coinplaysa.com/skins/FreeboxGenreYears3.rar

I think if you use this modded pic for the background of the '90's in Years2 it'll look better.

(http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3843/ilovethe90s281x211.jpg)

Hi BUZZY-Pilot

Supply me with a complete set of backgrounds(50's-10's) you like and a sample of how you want the end product to look like and I'll create set number 4.      ;)

Coffee

Coffee,

I think bz was just sending an updated image for the 90's background for Years2 as the 90's text is cutoff is the current one.

I have some years going back pre 1950 i don't know if i should just retag those. All the tagging involved in getting all this right has been a bit of nightmare but it looks really good which is what has motivated me.

I was wondering if anyone wanted any changed doing in the genre area while it is all being finalised. Shall i add an animated GIF to the screen so the text that says filter can be animated like the make a selection gif? It will be fairly easy to add and will make the screen look a little more vibrant.

Wow what music do you have from the 40's? Maybe a single button that says "Pre-1950" would be good then anything could fall into that. But then your tags would need to say Pre-1950 (would lose the actual year of the track). It doesn't look like the current .gif images are in the .psd files from squirrley, so if he is still around on the board, maybe he could create an animated .gif for the Filter screen.

Some war songs are tagged as 40's that i have. As for more animated GIFs there isn't much point me adding them if can't get any created so I suppose I will hold off on that. Looks like i can get the setup updated tonight with the latest skins and support files and make a beta to check the new set up works. We should be good to go then with the only issue outstanding being that decades/charts issue with the years appearing that i also hope to fix tonight.

Quote from: eist1 on October 21, 2009, 01:41:10 PM
Coffee,

I think bz was just sending an updated image for the 90's background for Years2 as the 90's text is cutoff is the current one.

Yes I know. It is just that I thought maybe he has something els cause it seems we are limited when it comes to the background images.
The ideal for me would be to get an image for the most important thing that happened in a specific year and use that as the background. For example use an image of the twin towers for the background for 2001 etc.

Coffee

Quote from: coffee on October 21, 2009, 03:25:02 PM

Quote from: eist1 on October 21, 2009, 01:41:10 PM
Coffee,

I think bz was just sending an updated image for the 90's background for Years2 as the 90's text is cutoff is the current one.

Yes I know. It is just that I thought maybe he has something els cause it seems we are limited when it comes to the background images.
The ideal for me would be to get an image for the most important thing that happened in a specific year and use that as the background. For example use an image of the twin towers for the background for 2001 etc.

Coffee

Twin towers for 2001 might be a bit bad taste. I like the genreic images we have now however i do think you are right in that each year would look better with it's own icon. However maybe we could have 10 generic icon back drops for each year?

Ideally it would have been nice to have the buttons in the default skins converted to GIF so they are properly transparent. It's only obvious when using fan art but it really does detract when that is being used... I think the issue eist had was because they have a glow around them.

QuoteI think the issue eist had was because they have a glow around them.

Yes that will be the problem. I will gladly redo the standard skins but I have some issues with the quality of the buttons used with the standard skins, no offense. I would like to redo the buttons and maybe post a few examples so users can vote which ones they like best if that is OK with you. I would also like to do at least 5 colours.
It was the idea to redo them this week but I have to get all my tags sorted to use the genre functions. It seems it will take me at least 2 weeks. I will however release an update of the RusticCoffee skin this week with all the changes you guys made.

Coffee

Coffee,

You can go ahead and edit/change anything you want in the Default skins... I have just been working off of the original psd's from squirrley. Buttons with a carbon fiber look would be pretty cool, as that kinda looks like what you are using. If you could make them .gif's with transparent backgrounds that would even be better, as I have not had the time to go through and try and update each button. Just creating new ones would probably be easier. Especially now that I am starting to use the Fan Art. The new skin you created is very nice... Let me know if you need anything.

Hi Eist

As you propably would have figured out by now I'm having trouble with the animated images. I just can't do them. If there is anybody who can help with them the new standard skins wouldn't be a problem.
We need 4 of them, MakeSelection.gif, now playing.gif, searching.gif and the new one Barry wants to add, filter.gif.
As soon as I have a few button samples I will start a new threat. Then we just need a lot of input from the E-Touch users to choose the right ones.

Coffee

Coffee,

squirrley did the last .gifs so hopefully we'll hear from him, as he may be able to do them or give some tips how to do them in Photoshop. I'm trying to IM him now.

Quote from: eist1 on October 21, 2009, 06:44:37 PM
Coffee,

squirrley did the last .gifs so hopefully we'll hear from him, as he may be able to do them or give some tips how to do them in Photoshop. I'm trying to IM him now.

Cool. Thanks Bro.

Quote from: coffee on October 21, 2009, 07:46:06 PM
I did some buttons and I'll start a new threat

Freudian slip ?

;D

 :-[

Man some how I missed this thread. Wow is all I can say. Looks like i need to install a more up to date build and start playing with some of these slicker options. ;)

I did build a new machine for my juke an all that.  :chad

Like usual I'm glad to host any packs that you guys want me to.

I think its time to create a little mini website for downloads hahahaha

This is a pretty cool new addition to the juke. To be honest i think the next changes will be more cosmetic.

Does anyone have a good Rap & Hip Hop icon?  I don't have a lot of Rap or a lot of Hip Hip so I want to combine the two.  All I can find is Rap alone and Hip Hop alone.

OK forget good, does anyone have a Rap & Hip-Hop icon?

I have these two:

(http://www.ppcomponents.com/etouch/90's%20Rap.jpg)

Not sure if this one will work for you:

(http://www.ppcomponents.com/etouch/rap.jpg)

Fordman

I have the second one for Rap and I have one for Hip-Hop.  What I am looking for is to combine both and have one icon that says Rap & Hip-Hip.

OK I ended up making my own and thought I would share it.  Keep in mind that I have no artistic ability at all.  I also made one for my decades collection.  These are the CD's that are based on a decade of music like Pure 80's, or best of the 70's, etc.  Enjoy.

If anybody is interested in a program to create animated gifs I think i've found the simplest one there is...it's called 'MS Gif Animator' and allows you to load frame by frame. Did a test image using powerpoint to output 4 gif files then batched them together perfectly! It's free to download too...

How do you go about getting these to show? I did download a few packs and did a swap of the files.

Put them in the genres folder. If you have matching genres (Filenames must match to the CVR and JPG) they will then show up under the filter.