Xion Community

So far I've used WMP11, iTunes (barely), Mediamonkey and am a current foobar user. Winamp was too bloaded for me and I wanted something more extensible (which explains why I love firefox). While foobar is extensible and lightweight, it's GUI has some left to be desired. That's where Xion (and maybe Songbird) may fill in the gap. Since Xion is still new, I'm missing some features that could get me to switch over full time. But that's what components are for! I''m no programmer, but maybe I can offer a few references to look at for ideas.

A not so simple media library/playlist viewer, like the iTunes panel viewers.
This is what I liked most about iTunes, but the component is even better in foobar, it allows multiple user defined panels.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ind ... opic=42849
I also like foobar's columns UI display, both combined look very nice. My foobar currently like
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b373/ ... July26.png
One thing I haven't seen in other players is the artist/album "strip" I have there, but I'm being picky.
I also like WMP11's album stack view.

DSP components
Foobar allows for DSP chains, which I like very much. but the Xion EQ is already making my muasic sound as good or not better. Particularly I like convolver
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ind ... opic=10611
foobar .9 version
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/index.html

I aso found a foobar component that can load multiple winamp DSPs within foobar, maybe it can help some.
http://pelit.koillismaa.fi/plugins/dsp.php#149

Lyric viewing/downloading
I don't even know if there is a need for a viewing component, that may just be able to be handled by the skin. As for grabbing lyrics from a database, I suggest freedb.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ind ... opic=36598

watch folders
self explainitory

replaygain scanning/reading support
http://www.replaygain.org/

now playing tooltip
see http://www.maroonspoon.com/foo_prettypop/

mass tag writing/get info from web
These are two things I love about foobar and mediamonkey, I'm a neat freak). Mediamonkey will fill in missing Id3 data (including album art) from Amazon. Mas editing is good for new rips as well.

Device synchronization
Ipod has iTunes, but Mediamonkey can sync with nearly any device under the sun. Xion could be next. Foobar's Ipod component can be found here
http://music.morbo.org/wiki/dop:start

That's all I can think of for now. Looks great so far, keep it up!

I use winamp mostly because I have a good number of personal applications developed that uses it's engine through the Acitve Winamp control.

I mainly use TCL, VB.Net, C#, etc to write mini applications that use that control.

The reason for my posting is to say that with all of the media applcations I've used, I've always written my own playlist, song info, etc applcation for them through some type of programming interface they provide.

iTunes has a great SDK and control component. Winamp has a few controls that can be used but I stuck with Active Winamp because it's constantly updated. And I use the idTag control for idtag programming.

I think though, with Xion, once an SDK is available and maybe some type of control there will be people (myself included) who would create librarian, playlist, and others.

I just don't know how the theming engine would interact with something like that though. Not even sure if extending the interface api to support 3rd party addins would be doable. Would be nice though.

Some type of Vis api stuff would be great for creating 3rd party Visuals for the player window would be another thing to look forward to.

Hi skyhopper88,

Welcome to the Xion Community!

That is an extremely exhaustive list of components there!

They all sound very doable, in fact some of them I already have plans to make.

I am working towards releasing a sample Xion Component within the next couple of weeks and after that I hope to work on some of your Component ideas.

Nightbreed Wrote:Some type of Vis api stuff would be great for creating 3rd party Visuals for the player window would be another thing to look forward to.

I plan on releasing the vis code that is used for the one that is included with Xion by default. From there users will be able to expand it in many ways.

Cliff

hy there... fisrt of all i thing the skinning engine is just great...love it! eve though some sking eats up a little to much system resources..
the first thing i saw that xion is missing was the playlist... damn it sucks...
another thing was the players low priority to the song it playes...messing around with skins made the song stop a bit...
i've tried a lot of players... and i want a fast, not to much res consuming and a pretty good looking player...but aint that what we're all looking???
in the present i play my music with either winamp[using the classic skins] and foobar...
other player just disspointed me all... and then i found xion.. damn good looking.. small and effective!!
hope it will improve as time goes by... my just dont make it to full of crapy and useless components.. like winamp did... who needs to burn your audio files with winamp..or who need to play a video with wiinamp??? i dont! and there are more useless features that winamp has...dont want to see xion turning like that!! good like with the project!!!
and skyhopper88...use black box for win.. i recommend u bbLean... damn that explorer looks ugly!!!!