UZEAMP Player!

[uze6666]

Oookay. They're a lot of awesome stuff going up lately from you guys. As I couldn't keep up in rest, here's my latest idea on pushing the Uzebox envelope: the UZEAMP! Yeah, just like the good'ol Winamp but for the Uzebox! Thanks to Dave's finding a good SD library and tweaking it to the Uzebox, I had to produce something...the first SD card application for the Uzebox! Sure, it won't play MP3's (only WAV files) but still, I think it will amaze you for 8 bit, 15Khz mono!!!

A few notes about the current version:
-Plays raw or WAV files, binary 8bit unsigned mono file at 15734Hz (the NTSC line rate).
-There's some glitches at the start of songs
-Supports WAV file metadata extension for song name.
-Supports only SD/fat16. So no SDHC for the time beign. The current code is not 'fragmentation aware', meaning you must reformat your SD card before dumping a series of file on it. (I hope that will change shortly)
-With a pad, use the the 'Start' button to start/pause songs, and the left/right shoulder to fast-forward through the tunes (there's known bugs when the cursor is near the end or start of the song!).
-Support the SNES mouse (Although the cursor in 'Mouse mode' Is a bit buggy, thats a know issue)
-"Skins"!, With the mouse, press the "Skin" button to cycle through the available skins. With the Pad, use the X button.
-All WAV files must be in the root directory, no more that 12 files and no long filenames.




To get you started,I propose this great techno stuff (IMHO) , already converted (do "Save as"):
State of Trance #284: http://belogic.com/uzebox/files/ASOT284.wav
Astral Projection - Dancing Galaxy: http://belogic.com/uzebox/files/DANCINGG.wav
Hallucinogen - Orphic Trench: http://belogic.com/uzebox/files/Orphic.wav
Confusion- New Order: http://belogic.com/uzebox/files/Confusio.wav
Hey Boys, Hey Girls - Chemical Brothers: http://belogic.com/uzebox/files/HeyBoy.wav
And if you can't stand techno, I've kindly tough of you with a Led Zep classic:
http://belogic.com/uzebox/files/LEDZEP2.wav

Let me know how that works out for you (source code coming soon)!

Hope you like it,

Uze

[pragma]

Heh, now I can't wait to get home to try this out!

Edit: Any recommendations on SD cards, or are they all the same? I have yet to buy one.

[uze6666]

I've tried HP, Sandisk and Lexar. All are good for me. Though I hear Kingston and Sandisk are the best and usually most reliable brands out there. The only thing so far, the code does not support SDHC cards (i.e. cards>2G) and unfortunately, non-SDHC are getting rare these days. Also, be careful if you intend to use MicroSD. I have busted two so far by leaving them in the slot while flashing the 644' (a HP and another cheap brand). Note that technically they still work, but for some odd reason I can't rewrite anything on it. Perhaps it's only me, but I prefer to let you guys be aware. My regular SD seems immune to that so far.

One last thing, the HEX does not work on the emulator, since there is no SD emulation so far.

Uze

[pragma]

Thanks for the advice Uze. Is the lack of HD support due to just the construction of the current codebase, or is there some other logistic hurdle here?

[...] since there is no SD emulation so far.

So... many... things... to... hack...

/me head asplodes

[DaveyPocket]

Crap, I forgot to order an SD card socket! I'll have to do that soon!

[uze6666]

Is the lack of HD support due to just the construction of the current codebase, or is there some other logistic hurdle here?

I *believe* it's only software, though I won't know for sure until tested. I've read that SDHC are adressed by sector instead of bytes like the regular SD. Sectors may also be of varying size, not sure. I assume, I also need to access the card's config to know if it's a SD or SDHC.

Uze

[DavidEtherton]

One last thing, the HEX does not work on the emulator, since there is no SD emulation so far.

Any suggestions on how to handle this? On Win32 I know how to get sector-level access to a card, but I have no clue how to do it on other platforms. I presume people would rather use a physical card (or USB drive) rather than some sort of binary image of a card?

-Dave

[pragma]

One last thing, the HEX does not work on the emulator, since there is no SD emulation so far.

Any suggestions on how to handle this? On Win32 I know how to get sector-level access to a card, but I have no clue how to do it on other platforms. I presume people would rather use a physical card (or USB drive) rather than some sort of binary image of a card?

-Dave

$0.02: it would be vastly more convenient if we were able to specify a directory that represents the SDCard filesystem, and let the emulator dish up the block data to the running program as it sees fit. Alternately, a binary image would work well too; we just need a packing program to generate those images.

[uze6666]

$0.02: it would be vastly more convenient if we were able to specify a directory that represents the SDCard filesystem

Exactly what I was thinking. A folder would be very practical and the easiest to use IHMO. Would need to specify FAT16/32 and the type of card SD/SDHC. Though for the time being, SD+FAT16 if enough. We could agree on some minimum commands to support.

Uze

[pragma]

Okay, this worked awesome; my 1702 has never sounded so good. And what a playlist. Are you DJ-ing anytime soon?



Just a few small critiques, if I may:

- You're most certainly correct about it not being fragmentation aware, but that's hard to grasp when using the card in what seems an innocent way. I tried downloading the files directly from the forum on to the card and I guess they got fragged somehow. The program loaded, but no files were shown in the list.
- pressing 'up' on the controller keypad does nothing.
- I wasn't sure before, but now I am: the audio signal leaving the uzebox is kinda hot.

Anyway, I'm astonished that the SD card access is this fast. I suppose you could extend your music player app to function as a sampler too while you're at it.