Author Topic: IDEA: Shell extension to show total play time of media clips (Read 220428 times)

skwire · « **Reply #100 on:** December 11, 2010, 12:37 PM »

Website | Download v1.2.1 - 2010-12-11 ! The Enter keystroke no longer worked in the menus. (Thanks, M. Rule)

skwire · « **Reply #101 on:** December 28, 2010, 11:54 AM »

Website | Download v1.2.2 - 2010-12-28 ! Fixed toolbar glyph issue under Windows 7.

Curt · « **Reply #102 on:** December 28, 2010, 05:42 PM »

I stopped participating when I read about version 1.2.0:>> * PlayTime now only computes total time when done adding files to the list. This should speed up things when adding very large lists of files<<, because I *thought* this was the opposite of what I wanted from your project. Only now am I thinking that I might have misinterpreted the text, so I ask: If I add some files (to the new version), will the total playtime be shown after each file, or must I first click something / save the file, before it will display the total playtime?

My wish for the program was and is for the total playtime to be shown at all time, when I create a playlist. I don't add large playlists, only individual audio files.

skwire · « **Reply #103 on:** December 28, 2010, 05:53 PM »

so I ask: If I add some files (to the new version), will the total playtime be shown after each file, or must I first click something / save the file, before it will display the total playtime?
-Curt (December 28, 2010, 05:42 PM)

Yes. The change only really comes in play when you drop a huge list of files or if you choose a folder that has a lot of subfolders to recurse through. I suppose this needs some code explanation. In previous version, PlayTime would compute the total time EVERY time a file was added to the list. So, if you had chosen a folder that contained thousands of media files, the total time computation would run thousands of times and this would slow things down as the list got larger and larger. What PlayTime does now is finish adding files to the list and THEN runs the total time computation. This results in a HUGE increase in speed when loading a large list. There is no need to save or do anything. The only thing you miss is watching the total time increase WHILE it's loading files. Does that make sense?

Just give the new version a try, I don't think you'll notice much of a difference.

Curt · « **Reply #104 on:** December 28, 2010, 06:06 PM »

-working well.

Thank you!

Curt · « **Reply #105 on:** December 29, 2010, 10:38 AM »

hmm... using PlayTime, I converted a WPL playlist to M3U, and felt something was missing. I checked, and Yes, the playlist made by PlayTime is 2 hours shorter than the same list saved by WMP: 30 "rows" are missing!

In PlayTime I clicked > Select All > Save selected rows to playlist > Yes, I have selected 95 rows...
If I use PlayTime to open a WMP-created M3U version and save it as another M3u list, it is 125 rows (not 95), and all is well.

The original WPL list (from WMP):

Afspilningsliste1.zip (10.09 kB - downloaded 421 times.)

the resulting PlayTime .M3U list (95 rows):

PlayTimeList.zip (3.72 kB - downloaded 436 times.)

WMP's WPL saved as M3U:

WMPList.zip (5.41 kB - downloaded 462 times.)

WMP's M3U saved as M3U by PlayTime:

125.zip (4.75 kB - downloaded 443 times.)

Will you need me to check the missing files? To my memory they are normal MP3 files.

skwire · « **Reply #106 on:** December 29, 2010, 01:55 PM »

It's almost certainly a Unicode issue. You'll notice that the missing tracks are the ones with non-ASCII characters such as:

50 Stærke Danske Hits
Sinéad O'Connor
Samlade Sånger 1992 - 2003 (CD 1)
Björn Afzelius\Bästa

Curt · « **Reply #107 on:** December 29, 2010, 04:26 PM »

-of course. Now I know first hand why I must get a key for ehh... what's the name, "total"-something or similar ..., "watch the differences between two files" ...? I tried to do it manually, and clearly lost oversight and missed to see the obvious.

Edited:
Oh, there it was: Compare It! Is this the one to use? No "total"-something?

Edited again:
Oh... Ultra, not Total... "UltraCompare":-)

worstje · « **Reply #108 on:** December 30, 2010, 07:50 AM »

There's tons of those comparing tools. You'll probably have more luck finding freeware tools if you look for the word diff.

Curt · « **Reply #109 on:** December 30, 2010, 10:09 AM »

-thanks, worstje

In general I am tired of freeware programs. Far too often they are updated too seldom or never. If I have purchased a key for a program, I feel I am entitled to hunt down the author and make his life miserable, if the program doesn't work as expected. But how do you bully a freeware author? You can't!

Ath · « **Reply #110 on:** December 30, 2010, 10:33 AM »

@Curt Would WinDiff/WinMerge help you out?
They have been highly praised and are regularly updated. I'm a Compare It!/Synchronize It! registered user, so I don't use em...

Curt · « **Reply #111 on:** December 30, 2010, 12:12 PM »

I tested both UltraCompare and WinMerge, but removed them again because I didn't like their interfaces. I am not a coder and have absolutely very little to use this kind of programs for, so it is important to my IT illiterate brains that any "diff"-program above all is easy to use, and (only then) not too expensive. WinMerge is of course cheap (free) but the window is a little "weird", making it a slow process to read each line.

Remember that we are talking about two different type of files, M3U and WPL. The first song in the playlist will do fine as an example of the problem. In M3U it looks like this:

D:\Musik reserve\Plain White T's\-no album-\00 Rhythm Of Love - Plain White T's - .mp3

but in the WPL the same song is like this:

<media src="D:\Musik reserve\Plain White T's\-no album-\00 Rhythm Of Love - Plain White T's - .mp3" tid="{7FC85ED8-E4C7-43E5-9C6D-D03A51C7A432}"/>

-so you see, any diff program will *almost* show more differences than similarities!

I expect to maybe get a key for Compare It! if/when it gets on discounted offer
- but I have of course not yet made any final decisions. It is not urgent ;-)

skwire · « **Reply #112 on:** January 27, 2012, 12:19 PM »

Website | Download v1.2.3 - 2012-01-27 + Added Unicode path support. * Updated to v0.7.53.0 of MediaInfo.dll. ! Windows 2000 and below no longer supported (due to added Unicode support). ! Removed Text-To-Speech option until I can figure out how to make it work with this Unicode version. Apologies.

Curt · « **Reply #113 on:** January 27, 2012, 03:35 PM »

-on my copy "Add Files" doesn't add any files; it will open Explorer, but the added file or files does not show up in PlayTime. The rest of the program is fine.

skwire · « **Reply #114 on:** January 27, 2012, 03:54 PM »

Crap...fixed. Thank you. BTW, Curt, see if those Unicode playists you had trouble with before work now.

Website | Download v1.2.4 - 2012-01-27 ! The "Add files" functionality was broken by the last build. (Thanks, Curt)

Curt · « **Reply #115 on:** January 27, 2012, 04:06 PM »

-oh, another error! It will not add a single playlist *file* but gladly a *folder* with playlists. But the Unicode situation is fine.

Curt · « **Reply #116 on:** January 27, 2012, 04:16 PM »

Edited:
the problem is with .wpl only. It will only show a single track from the playlist.

M3U is okay.

skwire · « **Reply #117 on:** January 27, 2012, 04:29 PM »

Please try this build and thanks for your patience. =]

Website | Download v1.2.5 - 2012-01-27 ! WPL parser was broken. (Thanks, Curt)

Curt · « **Reply #118 on:** January 27, 2012, 04:35 PM »

Thank you!

TT1 · « **Reply #119 on:** January 29, 2012, 09:55 AM »

PlayList is yet another great app. Any way these three options could be considered?...

1) Add an option to NOT recurse subdirectories (just do a single folder)

2) Add an 'Abort' button (kill a long listing)

3) As a way to process only playable media files... add an 'extension list' for file types to be included in the test. Alternatively, a list of extensions to exclude. Perhaps the list could just be hand-edited to the ini file. I know that one could use the option to not list files with 00:00 time, but why 'read' .exe and .txt or even .jpg files, for instance (consider the folder with 10 movie files and 2,000 'other' files). Also, some 'broken' media files display 00:000, and I don't want to skip those.

Thanks.

skwire · « **Reply #120 on:** January 30, 2012, 10:39 PM »

PlayList is yet another great app. Any way these three options could be considered?...
-TT1 (January 29, 2012, 09:55 AM)

Here you go:

Website | Download v1.2.6 - 2012-01-30 + Added a "Cancel Scan" button to the toolbar. (Thanks, Wayne) + Pressing the Escape key will now cancel a scan as well. + Added checkbox setting to toggle recursive scanning of folders. (Thanks, Wayne) + Under the "Extra" menu, you can now configure which audio and video extensions that PlayTime will scan. (Thanks, Wayne) * Moved the "Clear list" button to the toolbar.

TT1 · « **Reply #121 on:** January 31, 2012, 08:30 AM »

Thanks for adding the additional options. It makes the app even more useful.

For some reason the mp3 and wav files are not being seen in the folder I specified, but if I add those extensions to the front of the list then they are. I didn't check to see if other extensions are affected. Perhaps the list is too long?

skwire · « **Reply #122 on:** January 31, 2012, 08:49 AM »

Hmmm...I just tested it and it works for me no matter where the extension is in the list. I'll change that code up to use a different method that may work better for you.

skwire · « **Reply #123 on:** January 31, 2012, 09:05 AM »

Delete your config.ini first and then give this build a try, please: PlayTime v1.2.6.2

TT1 · « **Reply #124 on:** January 31, 2012, 10:11 AM »

Still doesn't work .. doesn't see ANY of the audio files. Started it without an ini file. WinXP-sp1 (in case that matters). Also, I just noticed that the Cancel button, doesn't.