Xion 1.0 build 121 Beta Release

[logokas]

Xion produces an error message when started up by opening a sound file, and the last file played no longer exists ( e.g. was played from an external drive ).

Reproduce: Play a file, shut Xion, erase or move file last played, start player by playing a new song, error message is displayed but the new file chosen plays nonetheless.

EDIT: Another awkward bug. Crossfade forces last played song to play and crossfade into new song on startup. Reproduce with same steps, but do not remove last played file.

[davydm]

Thanks so much for implementing "Esc to close the playlist". I really appreciate it.

Though I prefer a more minimal skin (I use One More Time), the new default skin is way nice. Looks really good. The bar version is quite wide -- but I have it on a rather large monitor, so it didn't look out of place.

My only request is a little Quick Search love: focus the quick search entry when the playlist is brought to the fore so that you could, from the keyboard only, show the playlist, filter to get (near) the track you want, use arrow keys (up / down) to refine the search (say I only have one metallica album, it would be nice to just type "metallica", and arrow-key to the track I want), and press enter to play. I would also dearly love an option to clear the Quick Search when hiding the playlist. All of this could be set up as options in the config, since I'm sure that the current behaviour works fine for a lot of people.

I understand the point of the current Quick Search behaviour but personally, I use the playlist like the "jump to" box on other (imo inferior in other respects) players. I also understand that the current behaviour is to focus the list of songs and move to songs as you type -- but that means that I have to type out an artist before I can do a quick jump to a song I know by name. Also it would be well neat if arrow up and down keypresses when the Quick Search is focussed change the selected item in the playlist instead of moving the caret in the search box -- I see that enter already starts playing the selected item in the list (or first item if nothing is selected).

Another little request: you've enabled a hue setting in the default player (nice one!) -- I would love to see something similar to apply a hue as well as contrast / brightness for the entire skin -- every skin if possible. This way, when I find a skin which has been well-designed (pleasing to the eye) -- like the default skin -- but which is too bright for my tastes -- like the default skin (: -- I could just alter the hue and brightness of the skin to my tastes. Winamp did this in ver 5 and it was one of the few features that I appreciated in ver 5 (not that "because winamp did it" is any reason to do something -- I'm just pointing out an example (: )

I've also just noticed something odd -- the Quick Search wasn't finding matches for songs that I actually have in the playlist? I was looking for the "Cynic Paradise" album by Pain. Typing "pain" brought back nothing -- typing "cynic" brings back the correct list though. Please let me know if there's something I can do to help debug this.

Once again though, thanks for the good work and an excellent player.

[OfficerMike07]

Xion produces an error message when started up by opening a sound file, and the last file played no longer exists ( e.g. was played from an external drive ).

Reproduce: Play a file, shut Xion, erase or move file last played, start player by playing a new song, error message is displayed but the new file chosen plays nonetheless.

EDIT: Another awkward bug. Crossfade forces last played song to play and crossfade into new song on startup. Reproduce with same steps, but do not remove last played file.

I mentioned this in 119... ideally Xion should dismiss the crossfader on startup and turn it on (if enabled) after a few seconds.

[Keith Logan]

Well I notice that the folks at this site love talking skins but in general that is the last thing on my mind. The sound quality of Xion compared to any other player I have yet encountered (including those like it using bass) has always impressed me. Others have improved recently but sill not come close to the official release of Xion playing, mp3, ogg wav or wma. Only Timidity, the excellent midi player comes close playing c3m, it, mod and xm files. The amazing thing is that this latest release raises the bar yet again. Files of old recordings, even those before the invention of the microphone take on a lease of life hitherto undreamed of with vocal inflections realized for the first time. Thank you Cliff, however you manage it, it is very much appreciated.

Now concerning skins, the new default is beautiful. The bar version is functional. I like having all the controls available. It could be trimmed very slightly I suppose by removing the already mentioned start button, add to that the mode change button. That could be incorporated (in both skins) into the logo as a button, or as some others do by double clicking the skin anywhere.

Keith, the happy chappy

[Cliff Cawley]

Well I notice that the folks at this site love talking skins but in general that is the last thing on my mind. The sound quality of Xion compared to any other player I have yet encountered (including those like it using bass) has always impressed me. Others have improved recently but sill not come close to the official release of Xion playing, mp3, ogg wav or wma. Only Timidity, the excellent midi player comes close playing c3m, it, mod and xm files. The amazing thing is that this latest release raises the bar yet again. Files of old recordings, even those before the invention of the microphone take on a lease of life hitherto undreamed of with vocal inflections realized for the first time. Thank you Cliff, however you manage it, it is very much appreciated.

No worries, glad you're enjoying it! Thanks for taking the time to let me know, its always great to hear feedback!

Cliff

[Cliff Cawley]

Aww nuts. This beta won't even start for me. I haven't seen anyone else complain about this so i'm sure i must have accidentally done something to the dll file it mentions... maybe?


anyways, here are all the details it reported:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BEX
Application Name: Xion.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.121
Application Timestamp: 4aae69ca
Fault Module Name: MSVCR80.dll
Fault Module Version: 8.0.50727.4016
Fault Module Timestamp: 49cc5361
Exception Offset: 00008aa0
Exception Code: c000000d
Exception Data: 00000000
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: de8a
Additional Information 2: 4fa040a16f35e6e675984ea54b302855
Additional Information 3: 2d07
Additional Information 4: 5225acc6c0f4892c1259e47037015b14

Did you get my message with a link to a test version?

Cliff

[Cliff Cawley]

Thanks so much for implementing "Esc to close the playlist". I really appreciate it.

No worries, thanks for all the suggestions you sent through!

I understand the point of the current Quick Search behaviour but personally, I use the playlist like the "jump to" box on other (imo inferior in other respects) players. I also understand that the current behaviour is to focus the list of songs and move to songs as you type -- but that means that I have to type out an artist before I can do a quick jump to a song I know by name. Also it would be well neat if arrow up and down keypresses when the Quick Search is focussed change the selected item in the playlist instead of moving the caret in the search box -- I see that enter already starts playing the selected item in the list (or first item if nothing is selected).

You can now use the up/down arrows to move through the list, instead of through the text box. Will be available in build 122

Another little request: you've enabled a hue setting in the default player (nice one!) -- I would love to see something similar to apply a hue as well as contrast / brightness for the entire skin -- every skin if possible. This way, when I find a skin which has been well-designed (pleasing to the eye) -- like the default skin -- but which is too bright for my tastes -- like the default skin (: -- I could just alter the hue and brightness of the skin to my tastes. Winamp did this in ver 5 and it was one of the few features that I appreciated in ver 5 (not that "because winamp did it" is any reason to do something -- I'm just pointing out an example (: )

Sure, this is on the TODO list and will come in a future version

I've also just noticed something odd -- the Quick Search wasn't finding matches for songs that I actually have in the playlist? I was looking for the "Cynic Paradise" album by Pain. Typing "pain" brought back nothing -- typing "cynic" brings back the correct list though. Please let me know if there's something I can do to help debug this.

Ah! This is because the match only searches the Display text and the filename. I'll look at improving that to search all tags as well!

Once again though, thanks for the good work and an excellent player.

Cheers! Thanks for the great comments and suggestions!

Cliff

[vprimachenko]

Hi at all, hi Cliff
First issue - after installing an update xion will start up with admin rights. Now Drag and Drop dont work (as dafault in post XP os, you cant drag a file from a standart priviledges window to an adminwindow)
Second one - nevermind which skin i select (i only use skins with a playlist psd) after i close xion and start it again the playlsit reverts to default skin (btw awesome work Lance). I just deleted all Xion settings.dat - donesnt help, deinstalled xion, deleted all settings with the uninstaller- reinstaleld - problem still there
i thought even its is a bug in my skins, renamend it to xsf (im in design now so i use zip) renamend the playlist psd to "playlist" "Playlist" "PLAYLIST" but nothing helps
Thanks a lot for the MultimediaButtons support - but Vol+ Vol- Mute and ShowMediaplayer are not implimented yet?
Greets vp

[Cliff Cawley]

First issue - after installing an update xion will start up with admin rights. Now Drag and Drop dont work (as dafault in post XP os, you cant drag a file from a standart priviledges window to an adminwindow)

Hmm, the installer should be launching Xion with Standard privilege. I'll have to check out what's happening. Which OS are you using?

Second one - nevermind which skin i select (i only use skins with a playlist psd) after i close xion and start it again the playlsit reverts to default skin (btw awesome work Lance). I just deleted all Xion settings.dat - donesnt help, deinstalled xion, deleted all settings with the uninstaller- reinstaleld - problem still there
i thought even its is a bug in my skins, renamend it to xsf (im in design now so i use zip) renamend the playlist psd to "playlist" "Playlist" "PLAYLIST" but nothing helps

Yes, this isn't your fault, there was a bug in build 121 that caused problems when saving and sometimes wouldn't save settings correctly.

Thanks a lot for the MultimediaButtons support - but Vol+ Vol- Mute and ShowMediaplayer are not implimented yet?

Vol+/Vol- are just handled by the system. Otherwise if Xion handles them, you'll never be able to control the system volume without closing Xion.

Show Media Player, is this a Microsoft keyboard? If so you may need to associate Audio CDs for this to work properly. Also depends which OS you have. If you have Vista/7 you'll need to go into the settings to tell it you want to use Xion.

Cliff

[Deathy]

The FN fonctions of the keyboard of my laptop doesn't work no more!

[dragoon]

The FN fonctions of the keyboard of my laptop doesn't work no more!

Have you tried resetting them in the config menu? Things may have been borked in an update process. Mine work just fine so far, and I was complaining the most when Cliff changed it so you were FORCED to use combinations!

Also, Xion in my shameless XfireStatus app! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUTPsy7gPWU

[Cliff Cawley]

I've had some more reports that the multimedia keys on keyboards just stop working with build 121

I think I'm going to scrap the Window hook and try something else again. It seems it works for some people, but not others, and I can't win

[djinn2]

Maybe you could keep the existing system as an option Cliff, and write a plugin to work with multimedia keyboards?

[Cliff Cawley]

I've had some more reports that the multimedia keys on keyboards just stop working with build 121

I think I'm going to scrap the Window hook and try something else again. It seems it works for some people, but not others, and I can't win

OK! Never mind, I think I've finally solved it!

I went with another route and it seems to be working better than both the other methods I was using!

See how it goes for build 122!

Cliff

[Venom]

Hello Cliff....pleaaaaase do a thing so that the track name from Xion can show up in Yahoo Messenger!!!!!!!
Thank youuu!!