Can we add another general section maybe at the bottom

[Mark Norville]

Hi Barry,

This general discussion is about things related to the forum. However, would it be possible to have a general general discussion board, so we can inject some life into the forum, e.g can talk about Adele being single again, or the weather.

I am not sure what the set up is here, but years ago, search engines used to pick up forum topics and add them to the search engines. If this still happens, then additional subject matter, may possibly, maybe lead to more natural traffic.

Plus it might get people more active on the forum. If this increases bandwidth, then would understand if not a good idea.

Regards

Mark

[berrywell]

Sadly, this idea doesn't appear to have much interest Mark, no one else has bothered to reply.

Thing is, from looking at the bottom of the forums, there does appear to be quite a few members still visiting, just no one seems to post anymore.
Even the recent skin I made, Retro v2 hasn't interested many people as it's only been downloaded half a dozen times (maybe too specialised?? or I've made too many available??).

I suppose the only thing is to start a thread & indicate in the title it's non Juke related & see if anyone else joins the discussion.

[Mark Norville]

Hi Tel,

See make a post and you get a reply. The new skin that you have done is specialised to be honest with you. I prefer modern, so old skool would not interest me.

Who knows if there were more posts, then it might get some interest, however, I am clutching at straws here.

If you made some youtube videos of your skins and posted on youtube with a link, that could work.

Regards

Mark

[berrywell]

Hey mark,

I'm going to reply and keep the conversation going, just to show that there is still life around here, even if it's not Juke related. 

I'm surprised there isn't more activity around here at the moment though with it being peak summer season, thought a jukebox would go down well at a BBQ evening etc.

[Mark Norville]

Good man,

If we talk a lot of shit it will bound to get others. What BBQ weather? Raining here, the worse Summer if you can call it that ever on record I think.

Oh God are we actually talking about the weather? We're doomed Mr Mannering.

I might have a tinker with my jukebox soon as I need to move the furniture around as my radiators need replacing so I might go through all of my computer equipment as I have mobo's lying around, memory, power supplies that I am not sure what is good or not.

If this place gets any worse, I might be forced to start watching game of thrones. I must be the only person in the World that has not watched it yet.

Regards

Mark

[berrywell]

If this place gets any worse, I might be forced to start watching game of thrones. I must be the only person in the World that has not watched it yet.

I'm pleased to announce I've not watched it and most probably wont either, from the trailers and my friends barrelling on about it I feel it's not my sort of thing, I'm usually doing other projects.

After writing my last post, the weather here has turned rather here too. so much for the BBQ weather. I'm surprised we all didn't get blown into the North Sea on Saturday, on the plus side I wasn't affected by National Grid's power outage on Friday evening, I was still able to enjoy an ice cold cider

Wonder if anyone else will eventually join in with this conversation? 

[Mark Norville]

Who needs those miserable sods, when the party is here already. The grockle is probably too busy changing nappies, so don't expect to see the boss.

Eventful day for me anyway, council want to replace the radiators, which is fun and games. I live in a studio flat, so it is move a desk, left, back, right, forwards and then left again if you want to move things.

My desk and bed are next to the radiator so I have moved my L shaped desk close to the kitchen, so away from the radiator, I will move the bed when I have notice that the work is starting, I am not sure where I am sleeping tonight, as i have scanners, monitors, boxes and God knows what else on the bed, and junk on the sofa as well.

On the decent booze tonight, so by the time they kick in and my sleeping tablet, shall make some room on the floor and crash out. Sadly had to move the TV and the cinema PC, so cannot watch anything tonight.

The only plus side, is that I am now next to the kitchen, so less to walk for another beer.

Happy days.

[Barcrest]

The reason it is dead over here is Spotify and all other streaming services. People just want an easy all in one solution where the don't need a big music collection locally. This has always been a bit of a niche area and it seems that has become an even smaller number of people. Maybe everyone that wanted a jukebox now has one.

[Cletus]

Ok, I'll bite!!! Its winter down here in Aus, but the only radiators I've ever replaced are situated in the front of my cars!!!! (and no help from the council either...).

To touch (no pun intended, but I'll run with it) on what Barry said about Spotify; I've been ruminating on this lately myself. For years n years I've been tapping away at a solid audio/video collection, first spending a lot of time making SK work as best as possible (i've still got a number of XP machines laying around), then finally seeing the light here. I always had some sort of portable jukebox around, and always had it at parties; people my age would really appreciate it. Always had one set up in the house, and it was on all week-end, whether we were cleaning, drinking or relaxing.

Now though, after all this time of getting a true portable set-up sorted, it spends most of its time in my shed (I have a big shed for playing in - 80' x 40') when I'm working in there. Since moving into a house that has multiple family areas, the jukebox is a bit harder to spread around, and I just ask Google to direct a you tube playlist onto the nearest TV....

In short, I feel like I've put a lot of effort into this over time, only to be overtaken by new technology... Maybe I am a dinosaur now, but I know that all these cyber-engines STILL cant put together a playlist as well as I can!!!! And I still run my Ipod in the car with all 15000 tracks, JUST IN CASE I have the burning need to listen to Jona Lewie tell me about his wartime experiences, because commercial radio NEVER plays that.

I feel for you Barry; I can only imagine how much effort you've put into this project over time, and I'm guessing that the people that are left in here are all birds of a feather - a bit of PC knowledge (or a career) collected over the years, that are patient enough to be able to sort through things, or tweak a bit to make it work - the catch 22 of a highly customisable toy is that you have to learn a bit before you play.

Ok, I'm starting to ramble - at the end of the day, I still try to sit down and play around with the Juke when I can - the joy of discovering a new album, opening Tag & Rename, getting the tags sorted properly, and cranking up the volume!!!! But wait - my 12 YO daughter now wanders into the shed and helps herself - she's currently discovering classics like Piano Man, American Pie and Buffalo Soldier - maybe there is hope for the next generation!!!!!!

[Barcrest]

I have recently been playing with amazon music as that is included with my prime membership and I can see why people would use that.

To be honest since I added the you tube downloader into e-touch I have never manually downloaded anything new to my own library. If I haven't got it locally it just gets pulled off you tube straight into E-touch.

The only real time i use my local library is when I am doing a disco in the pub.

[Mark Norville]

Disco at the pub my backside.

Grockles only play Shakin Stevens green door on continuous loop.

I've been to Brum mate, I know how crap it is, that is all why you come down to the West Country for some proper entertainment.

[Norman Marshall]

Hi Tel,

The new skin that you have done is specialised to be honest with you. I prefer modern, so old skool would not interest me.

 

I once made skins myself back in V5,6,7 and 8,  Then I hosted a Halloween party so my pc got put away and when it finally came out some 2.5 years later...it died.  But getting back to the quote above, when I made skins I made them to my own preference then I'd share them, I realise there not to everyone's liking but I shared them anyway, you cant please everyone all the time and knock out a cracking skin (unless your coffee that is ) who did some right blinders,, absolute genius that bloke. I live in Teesside Middlesbrough area but work in slough and surrounding areas now I've got a multi screen pc set up in my room I might start making skins again, I'm currently making a film for my darling wife who went to see Hugh Jackman in concert in Manchester (UK) this year, she took shit loads of photo's and videos and asked me to turn them into a film for her and the sister in-law, once that's done I've got a nice Wacom cintiq 27 inch drawing tablet that's going to be my next jukebox project using the carousel effect in etouch if its still in there, I asked Barry for it a while ago and when it got implemented I did naff all with it because when I tried to use it the effect dragged, I put it down to my graphics processor being shit, but now I have a 27 inch drawing tablet at my disposal it should be able to handle the swipe effect

Barry is kinda right when he says when he says online streaming is killing the home jukebox, when I'm in bed at me digs I listen to YouTube, but can you add to queue?. NO. I also have an echo dot at home in Teesside, can I add to a queue? Not so simple you need a computer, Spotify, you need a pc...so,  is the home jukebox really getting killed off??? I beg to differ, I love my juke and I love the software that's on it...Etouch. I think to keep Etouch up to date we need to think of the technology that's out there that we can implement with Etouch...

I have two ideas...


1st...We have the echo dot....."Alexa. Play Bon Jovi dead or alive". it play's.
How about we have "etouch add Bon Jovi dead or alive to queue".  it searches YouTube, downloads and adds the song to the queue or it could even search your library and add to the queue

2nd... We go holographic.. again the technology is out there but Barry needs to embrace it and make it his own.

just a couple of ideas to keep etouch alive... what do you think guys?

[Mark Norville]

Bloody hell, pass me the razors. Ok so after reading all that mackem crap forget the general bullsh*t thread lol

The problem with smart devices, shit audio. Ok if you can blue tooth onto audio device, but then you need lots of electric on then.

I want to re model my bedsit (studio flat to those posh fookers) I want it minimal to increase space, but I also want a pub feel to it. I already have an arcade cabinet that I need to build, but waiting for me to spend some money and buy artwork for the cabinet.

I will do it for my 50th infact that might be my goal, if I don't win the lottery then do the next best thing and sort out my place.

I want to buy this TV unit https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00U64KNHA?pf_rd_p=330fbd82-d4fe-42e5-9c16-d4b886747c64&pf_rd_r=CWMK4Q758H65DXDYBKQW so that I can put my pc's on the shelves and hide them from view. A dual smart home set up with alexa and google home with chrome cast.

Anyway enough waffling it is 3am and on my second stella (beer that is, women called stella are hard to find)

Regards

Mark

[Barcrest]

You can add to queue with you tube when casting to a t.v. I have done this myself. This has proved to suffice in a lot of situations. I posted up a new beta and have not heard anything back.

[Kahl]

Blokes - I wouldn't get to despondent

Probably more targeted

While waiting for a "Barry" to supply some info on another thread I have spent a bit of time over last couple of days looking at this version and some previous ones I found on the internet (Plus an early incarnation I found in my own computer which I had discarded as it didn't do music video.)

You are ahead of the game in some key areas particularly in the commercial space.

1. Second screen just works - goes straight to the second screen without issues and no setup (I am using one of the microsoft display adapters)
For people doing music video jukebox hire I imagine this would wonderful

2. It's connected - In conjunction with this it has customer feedback forms. They request a song - you put it on remotely - they put money in to play it
What business wouldn't like that. Better still connect it to the coin op counter, invoice the customer weekly, let them handle the cash. The fact that you don't need to go there very often (or at all if you can find an installer/repairer) means it is also highly scale-able.

3. Highly configurable - Not really an advantage over other software but you have all had a race to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear. Drunk people want easy not flash(I speak from personal experience). Interface needs to be as simple as "by artist" and "by song" with search function by either and really big onscreen buttons.The customers don't care about the interface - they care about the outcome. They don't search for albums and probably only play a few select songs from each. The big advantage digital jukeboxes have is you can just remove songs you don't play - it's a bit harder if you set up albums and one song is popular you have to leave the album.

4. Not subscription based.

My suggestion - tone down the skins (pretty is a fad / Function is forever), concentrate on secure remote interfacing.(Time saving for your commercial clients and through the feedback tool it will give satisfaction for their customers(they have been heard) hopefully driving return business to them and by extension to you)

At least set it up in your local areas to get enough money keep yourselves properly un-sober.
You should get some advantage out of a well made package.