Recommended Posts

Hello,

 

I'm a new Dopamine user and I really like the player.

 

I have some questions about it though and how it handles album art.

 

It seems to pick up "folder.jpg" files fine when no album art is embedded in the files (how I like to manage my album art).


When it automatically downloads album art though, what source is it using and where is it storing them? Is it embedding the art into the file?

 

Also, what does "loving"/"hearting" a track do? How does this differ from giving it a rating? Do any of these properties alter the ID3 tags of the files?

 

Thank you!

On 1/20/2017 at 0:43 AM, Zagadka said:

I have those checked, but the program still shows in the taskbar while playing

Strange. Do you have more details about the steps you're performing while trying to get Dopamine in the tray? Which build are you using?

On 1/21/2017 at 11:42 PM, quaffle said:

Hello,

 

I'm a new Dopamine user and I really like the player.

 

I have some questions about it though and how it handles album art.

 

It seems to pick up "folder.jpg" files fine when no album art is embedded in the files (how I like to manage my album art).


When it automatically downloads album art though, what source is it using and where is it storing them? Is it embedding the art into the file?

 

Also, what does "loving"/"hearting" a track do? How does this differ from giving it a rating? Do any of these properties alter the ID3 tags of the files?

 

Thank you!

It's indeed programmed to pick up folder.jpg/png, cover.jpg/png, front.jpg/png when there is no embedded art. I plan to add customization options in the next version (1.3), so you can force it to look for any file name.

Automatic album art download is using Last.fm.

 

Loving track just marks them as loved. There is currently no way to automatically create playlists based on loved tracks. But version 1.3 will add that. Love is more useful if you use Last.fm. Once you log in to your last.fm account in Dopamine, loving a track sends a "love" request to Last.fm. That track will appear in you last.fm profile as being loved. Love/unlove is not stored into ID3 tags. It is just stored in the Dopamine database.

  • Like 2
On 1/22/2017 at 7:30 AM, Nick H. said:

I have a tiny request. Can you set it so that when Dopamine is in focus, the space bar is play/pause?

I had this request a lot. And tried to add it multiple times. I fail each time, because of the search field. Space is an allowed character in the search box, because you can search for multiple terms. It's hard to make a distinction between pressing space for play/pause or for searching. Both conflict with each other.

1 hour ago, Raphaël G. said:

I had this request a lot. And tried to add it multiple times. I fail each time, because of the search field. Space is an allowed character in the search box, because you can search for multiple terms. It's hard to make a distinction between pressing space for play/pause or for searching. Both conflict with each other.

i'm not sure if this would help with implementation but why not disallow pressing space as the 1st character in the search box?

There should be no reason to start with a space when searching so if there's nothing in the search box it could continue to the next possible action and play/pause

  • Like 2
2 hours ago, Raphaël G. said:

I had this request a lot. And tried to add it multiple times. I fail each time, because of the search field. Space is an allowed character in the search box, because you can search for multiple terms. It's hard to make a distinction between pressing space for play/pause or for searching. Both conflict with each other.

That's a shame. I love the work that you've done on this, it's truly amazing. I do have moments though where I automatically go to the space bar to stop the music, and I get a tad annoyed that it doesn't pause the track.

 

You've made this open source now, though? I don't pretend to have the knowledge of you guys, but maybe someone could find a way to make it work and then send you the coding? I don't plan on moving away from this as my default player, but that functionality would be great for me.

1 hour ago, Brandon H said:

i'm not sure if this would help with implementation but why not disallow pressing space as the 1st character in the search box?

There should be no reason to start with a space when searching so if there's nothing in the search box it could continue to the next possible action and play/pause

But what about when there's a space in between two words?

 

I know video players like MPC-HC use space to play/pause but do any other music players? I'm not disagreeing by the way as it would be handy some times as a quick way to pause.

3 minutes ago, dakn said:

But what about when there's a space in between two words?

 

I know video players like MPC-HC use space to play/pause but do any other music players? I'm not disagreeing by the way as it would be handy some times as a quick way to pause.

I find "space" it useful for video players. For audio players not so much. This is the link to the Dopamine work item: https://github.com/digimezzo/Dopamine/issues/142

From my research back then:

  • Winamp: doesn't react on space
  • Foobar2000: doesn't react on space
  • MusicBee: space automatically triggers a search
  • Groove: doesn't react on space

It's not the code which is the problem: I can handle code. It's coming up with workable logic which is. I give priority to the search box for now.

1 hour ago, dakn said:

But what about when there's a space in between two words?

 

I know video players like MPC-HC use space to play/pause but do any other music players? I'm not disagreeing by the way as it would be handy some times as a quick way to pause.

yes my thought is just the 1st character would disallow the space but if there are already characters typed into the search then space would work as intended in the search box

 

edit: thought on my logic:

if Search = null

    Space = Play/Pause

else

    Space = Space

on paper it seems possible but what do you think @Raphaël G.?

 

3 minutes ago, Raphaël G. said:

I find "space" it useful for video players. For audio players not so much. This is the link to the Dopamine work item: https://github.com/digimezzo/Dopamine/issues/142

From my research back then:

  • Winamp: doesn't react on space
  • Foobar2000: doesn't react on space
  • MusicBee: space automatically triggers a search
  • Groove: doesn't react on space

It's not the code which is the problem: I can handle code. It's coming up with workable logic which is. I give priority to the search box for now.

Yeah I find most video players respond with space, but I have trained my brain to use my media keys on my keyboard which is much better and is supported by pretty much everything...

Other things...

 

First, the "song now playing" notification that lets you target which corner of the monitor doesn't work on dual monitor displays (to my knowledge)

 

Cross fading?

 

And still having the problem with the taskbar. It does minimize to the tray properly (ie, without the entry on the taskbar), but if the app is visably open in any mode, it pops back onto the taskbar.

1 hour ago, Zagadka said:

Other things...

 

First, the "song now playing" notification that lets you target which corner of the monitor doesn't work on dual monitor displays (to my knowledge)

 

Cross fading?

 

And still having the problem with the taskbar. It does minimize to the tray properly (ie, without the entry on the taskbar), but if the app is visably open in any mode, it pops back onto the taskbar.

Ohw, that's a known "issue". When removing the icon also when the window is visible, some breakage occurs. More of a windows limitation (if I remember correctly). I tried that once, but there appears a small window title at the bottom left of the screen when minimizing a second time. A bit like when minimizing in the old windows 3.1 days, like on this mock up. You tell windows not to use the task bar, so windows puts it on the desktop. I didn't find a solution back then and stopped looking.

 

 

 

mockup.png

On 1/23/2017 at 10:47 PM, Brandon H said:

yes my thought is just the 1st character would disallow the space but if there are already characters typed into the search then space would work as intended in the search box

 

edit: thought on my logic:


if Search = null

    Space = Play/Pause

else

    Space = Space

on paper it seems possible but what do you think @Raphaël G.?

 

OK, I decided to do it that way. That should make everyone happy. Details here: https://github.com/digimezzo/Dopamine/issues/142

  • Like 1

I've released a new preview. This is the change log:

 

2017-02-01: Dopamine 1.3 Build 884 (Preview)

 

- [Added] The keyboard space bar now toggles play and pause when there is no search being performed

- [Changed] 'Cloud' screen was renamed to 'Frequent'

- [Changed] Updated the Spanish translation

- [Changed] Updated the Russian translation

- [Changed] Updated the French translation

- [Fixed] Fixed an occasional crash which happened when automatically scrolling to the playing song

- [Fixed] Mini player windows are buggy in Windows 10 tablet mode

- [Fixed] Playback bug when queuing the same track multiple times by using 'Play next'

- [Fixed] A possible startup crash caused by the tray icon

- [Fixed] A conflict with the search box when changing the volume by pressing - or +

 

Download here

 

 

 

Your product has greatly progressed since preview build 145, and I very much appreciate your efforts.

 

I don't know when this problem appeared, but it was present in release build 1.2.862.4 and is in 1.3.884. The issue arises when you encounter a "collection" (i.e., sampler) CD where there are various contributing artists but the album name, artist -- in this case, Chip Davis -- and the embedded cover image is constant in each track/mp3 file. Instead of showing all tracks under one album, in numerical order, they are grouped into 'different' albums by their contributing artist(s). In the particular case (image attached) there are seven 'albums' displayed, each with two tracks (in numerical order), based upon the contributing artist's name. This is obviously a case of sorting based upon album artist vs. contributing artist.

 

Should there be a "Setting" which controls the order by which folder/album contents are grouped or have I missed a change in the way the ID3 tags should be defined?

Dopamine 1.3.884.jpg

2 hours ago, uninet said:

Your product has greatly progressed since preview build 145, and I very much appreciate your efforts.

 

I don't know when this problem appeared, but it was present in release build 1.2.862.4 and is in 1.3.884. The issue arises when you encounter a "collection" (i.e., sampler) CD where there are various contributing artists but the album name, artist -- in this case, Chip Davis -- and the embedded cover image is constant in each track/mp3 file. Instead of showing all tracks under one album, in numerical order, they are grouped into 'different' albums by their contributing artist(s). In the particular case (image attached) there are seven 'albums' displayed, each with two tracks (in numerical order), based upon the contributing artist's name. This is obviously a case of sorting based upon album artist vs. contributing artist.

 

Should there be a "Setting" which controls the order by which folder/album contents are grouped or have I missed a change in the way the ID3 tags should be defined?

Dopamine 1.3.884.jpg

Dopamine ignores the track's folder when grouping by album. Tracks are grouped into albums when tag Album title and album artist is the same. So for compilation albums, make sure to have 1 common album artist, e.g.: "Various artists".

 

Note: when there is no album artist, Dopamine uses the track artist as album artist. 

 

More info in the FAQ under Why are some of my songs not grouped in one album?

 

 

20 hours ago, Zagadka said:

Just a general note, Avast threw a Win32:Evo-gen error on Dopamine auto updating (it hasn't done this on updates before)

Don't take this personally. The following rant is aimed at Avast and other anti virus junk: I stopped caring about anti virus reports. Reasons stated in the Dopamine F.A.Q. It contains a link to an interesting blog post which explains why Anti virus software is a pain for the small developer.

 

Edit: and indeed, from the Virus-total report, the 2 same crappy engines flag it as suspicious again:

 

 

 

Untitled.png

  • Like 1

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Posts

    • It STILL has horrid theme support. Hard to look at for me. The white is too bright, and the black too dark. I'm using classic outlook for the Dark Grey theme. It's just right for me.
    • inb4 someone leaves the usual "what an unfortunate name" comment
    • Cuktech 10 Ultra charger review: big display, four ports, 110W total power by Taras Buria Cuktech recently announced a couple of Ultra-branded chargers, including a desktop 300W charger, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. For those who do need that much (or who do not want to spend that much on a charger), Cuktech also offers the 10 Ultra, a traditional wall charger with similar features. Four ports, a big display, and up to 110W of power output. After using it for a few weeks, here are my impressions. Disclaimer: Cuktech provided the review unit without any editorial input or pre-approval. Like the 30 Ultra, the 10 Ultra arrived in a box made of nice cardboard with quality print all over it. Inside, besides the charger, you will find a 240W 6A charger, which, this time, is fully braided. While Cuktech always bundles high-power cables with its chargers and power banks, they are usually regular and unassuming. This time, the cable is much nicer, matching the charger's $59.99 price tag. The charger itself measures 67 x 76 x 33 mm or 2.6 x 3.0 x 1.3 inches and weighs about 250 grams. Considering the charger has four ports and a big display, I would say the compact size is quite impressive, albeit a little hefty. The overall design is similar to other chargers from the manufacturer, minus the chrome Cuktech logo next to the four ports. The Cuktech 10 Ultra has retractable prongs for better portability. Its front side is covered with piano black plastic housing two elements: a capacitive button with backlight and a quite large display for various charging stats. Ports are downward-facing, and I have mixed feelings about such a design. It is not the most convenient when you frequently connect and disconnect cables. It makes you bend over to find the right port to connect, and it is a no-go with outlets mounted closer to the floor. On the bright side, design like this eliminates clutter and sagging, especially when using four cables at once. Plus, you get plenty of space for a big display. Ports include two high-speed USB Type-C ports, one Type-C for less demanding devices, and one classic USB Type-A. The first two ports deliver full 100W, while the third is capped at 45W. As for the Type-A port, its maximum output is 18W. In total, the charger delivers 110W of power, but in my testing, I managed to squeeze 117W when charging two power banks and a tablet. Quite impressive. Type-C1 Type-C2 Type-C3 Type-A Single-port 100W 100W 45W 18W Two ports 80W 20W - - Three ports 65W 20W 20W - Four ports 65W 20W 10W 10W The charger can detect handshake protocols and balance power across all four ports according to each device's needs. As such, power is not limited to the values in the table above. You can have two ports charging at 55W, three ports at 45W + 20W, and more. For some reason, Cuktech is not listing the supported protocols, but a quick test showed that it is compatible with PD3.0, PPS, QC5, DCP, and UFCS. When you connect a compatible device, the charger automatically detects its charging standard and displays it on the screen, for example, Apple 6A or Samsung 3A. Speaking of the screen. The main highlight of the 10 Ultra is its 1.57-inch display with a maximum brightness of 700 nits and 160-degree viewing angles. The display takes up most of the front, and it shows various charging-related information, including total output power, current temperature, power distribution across ports with watts, volts, and amps, a screensaver, and more. You can toggle between the different views by tapping the button, and holding it changes the screen orientation (portrait or horizontal, plus flipped) according to your socket position. The screen is very nice. It is sharp, vivid, and the fonts are easy to read. As for settings, you can change the following: Keep the screen on or off Lock the screen orientation (hold the button to change the screen orientation) Keep the USB Type-A port on Toggle power modes The charger has three power modes: AI: standard mode that automatically allocates power to each connected device. Power Priority: prioritizes power for high-demand devices, such as laptops or power banks. Balanced: splits power evenly across connected devices according to their needs I was skeptical at first, but after testing a few devices in different modes, I can see the benefit of these three modes. The most useful is power priority, which gives the first Type-C port more power. When I was charging a 100W power bank (port 1) alongside a 140W power bank (port 2), Power Priority split the total output about 75-30. Balanced mode, as the name suggests, splits the total output between the two ports more or less equally. As for AI mode, the charger uses its brain to detect which device needs more power. In my testing, it figured out that the 140W power needs a bit more juice. As I said, I expected this to be more of a gimmick, but the three built-in modes turned out quite useful. For example, you can prioritize your laptop while giving other ports a little less power, but still enough to charge at acceptable speeds. Unfortunately, unlike the 30 Ultra, this charger cannot display the battery level of the device being charged. This small feature turned out to be very useful when I was testing the 30 Ultra, as it allowed me to see my phone's battery level without picking it up. Like other Cuktech chargers I tested, the 10 Ultra one proved itself reliable and well-made. It uses Gallium nitride semiconductor technology to reduce the charger's size and improve efficiency. It is also better at dissipating heat, but I have to say that when charging two power banks at 117W total, the charger got hotter than what I would call comfortable (hold it for a few seconds, and you start feeling a burning sensation at your fingertips). However, the built-in thermal indicator remained below the temperature threshold, with the screen reassuring that the device operated at "High performance" (I tested it in a 21 °C / 69 °F room). Overall, the Cuktech 10 Ultra is a solid choice. If you need four ports and you like to nerd out on various stats, it is a very easy recommendation. It will take care of your laptop, phone, tablet, and power bank without breaking a sweat, plus the build, material, and cable quality are top-notch. The mode switcher is handy when charging different devices with different power needs, too. I cannot say a display is a must-have in a charger, especially when it makes you more conscious about where to plug it, but it is a neat addition if you have a socket at your table or bed level, so that you can actually use the display and its features. The more important fact is that despite its size and quality, the display does not make the charger that much more expensive than similarly powerful chargers from competitors. Plus, you can save 10% on the 10 Ultra with a promo code on Amazon. Buy Cuktech 10 Ultra charger - $53.99 on Amazon with a promo code As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • Last week I was investigating an issue with contacts and tried using the new Outlook. In the real (Classic) Outlook, you can easily go to any Outlook folder and present it in a Table View, then customize the columns to show/sort any field, which was exactly what I needed. But of course, the new Outlook doesn't have this feature at all. I gave up. Oh, and can we possibly stop claiming the new Outlook has PST support? What it really has is the ability to use the real Outlook in the background to pretend to have PST support. There is no PST support without the real Outlook installed.
    • Honestly just before Panos left it started to feel like MS just wasnt interested in them so they were being less innovative with them, and then when he DID leave for Amazon its kind of clear the direction is gone. It felt like Panos had both goals and drive, and a vision, but it felt like no matter what his title/department was the Surface devices never had the full interest of the rest of management and he was just pushing a bolder up a hill that MS was adding dirt to as he went.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Conversation Starter
      mobandz earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • Apprentice
      fernan99 went up a rank
      Apprentice
    • One Month Later
      nothanks earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      B2Proxy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      MadMung0 earned a badge
      One Year In
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      477
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      247
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      79
    4. 4
      FloatingFatMan
      76
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      60
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!