'screensaver' playing view mode for HTPC plasma/lcd displays

[silasje1]

Look at XBMC it is very good software they maybe have some good background/music in background mode

remove some things and it will look nice



something like this is very cool too

[Greb]

+1. Absolutelly.

By the way, with regard to the background, I think there's two interesting things:

- Why not giving the chance to use the artist visualizer as background?

- Why not giving the chance to select the background? There's a lot of great backgrounds out there. Some examples:

http://www.displayblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Ommwriter.jpg
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/171/f/8/Walk_alone_by_Chris_Lamprianidis.jpg
http://wallpaperswide.com/raining_2-wallpapers.html
http://www.websbook.com/sc/upimg/allimg/090605/192071.jpg
http://img03.blogcu.com/images/s/a/f/safakk1/gunebakan_1238958749.jpg

The layout by Rotem is just amazing. If you let select the background and the font colour (black fonts for clear backgrounds, white font for dark backgrounds) it would be perfect!

[Steven]

i have implemented this as a plugin. A screen saver is activated in place of the windows screen saver (you need to activate the windows screen saver in the windows control panel if you have it disabled), but only if MusicBee is playing a track and is the foreground window, otherwise the default windows screensaver activates.
The screen saver can also be activated via a hotkey set in the Hotkey preferences: "View: Activate Screen Saver"

1. first you need to be using version 2 of musicbee - see this topic if you havent already installed it:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=5709.0

2. you need to replace musicbee.exe with this updated version:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

3. then unzip this in the Plugins folder where musicbee is installed
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2/ScreenSaver.zip

you should end up with something like:
c:\program files\musicbee\musicbee.exe
c:\program files\musicbee\plugins\mb_ScreenSaverPlugin.dll
c:\program files\musicbee\plugins\mb_ScreenSaverPlugin.dll.config
c:\program files\musicbee\plugins\ScreenSaver.Background.jpg
c:\program files\musicbee\plugins\ScreenSaver.Settings.xml



anyone who wants to modify the default screen saver can easily do so:
- replace the background image "ScreenSaver.Background.jpg" in the Plugins folder (the image should fit your screen size but will be resized to fit)
- edit the screen saver layout file "ScreenSaver.Settings.xml" in the Plugins folder: fields, colours, fonts and field positions. There is no validation on the file, so keep a copy of the original in case you mess up but its quite easy

I can set up a Screen Saver topic in the customisations section if people do modify the screensaver and want to share the results

[Rotem K.]

That's amazing, thanks Steven!

[fossii]

Hi Steven,

thanks for the great plugin;
A Question: Do you know, why the letters are so big on my system? Is it possible to custiomize them?
My resolution is 1920 x 1080!

[Steven]

i have reuploaded an updated version that hopefully should account for localisation issues with numbers in the settings file:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2/ScreenSaver.zip

new readers, see the full install instructions 2 posts up

[fossii]

thanks, now it looks wonderfull 

[paq]

Very good job! I love how you can customize it!

Is it possible to make the list of upcoming tracks work also when shuffle is enabled? Right now, with shuffle on, it prints this for me:

Code

Upcoming tracks will be chosen at random]
]
]

Also, is there a reason why its not in the View-menu?

[Steven]

Is it possible to make the list of upcoming tracks work also when shuffle is enabled? Right now, with shuffle on, it prints this for me:

Also, is there a reason why its not in the View-menu?

in random mode a track is chosen right at the last moment so the upcoming ones are not known. I see i need to make sure the extra ] doesnt show
i can add it to the view menu

[Greb]

One remark: the 'party mode' (locked screen mode) disables the screensaver. It would be interesting to allow the screensaver in case this plugin is enabled.

(BTW, great improvement!  )

[Steven]

updated version:

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2/ScreenSaver.zip

new readers, see the full install instructions 5 posts up

- text positions are no longer scaled to the screen size ie. they are all absolute positions now (it was causing some unanticpated problems), so this might mean anyone who has customised their screen saver will need to account for that
- the default screen saver layout has been changed (the original is named "ScreenSaver.Settings.xml.orig" in the zip file but make sure you copy your existing "ScreenSaver.Settings.xml" file if its been changed
- a new element to include a spectrum visualiser (included with the new default)
- adds the command "Activate Screen Saver" to the View menu
- fixes some bugs

[VX]

Some bugs:
click 'Disable' button in the screen saver plugin preferences - MB is closed (the same with the previous version of the plugin).

I've installed some extra screen savers for MB shared by Greb on the forum, but I can't switch between them (only the default one is used). The 'Configure' button in the preferences displays some info only. How can I do that

There is no option to choose MB screen saver in the Windows 7 Control Panel: Change Screen Saver menu.

Otherwise works great! Thanks 

[Steven]

thanks for letting me know about that bug and its fixed now (ScreenSaver.zip has been updated now)

i have no plans to make this anything more than having one layout configuration although i would be open to having some sort of background picture rotation.
there is nothing to configure and it is not a window screen saver. It gets displayed in place of the windows screen saver in the conditions i listed in a previous post

[VX]

thanks for letting me know about that bug and its fixed now (ScreenSaver.zip has been updated now)

Thanks.

i have no plans to make this anything more than having one layout configuration although i would be open to having some sort of background picture rotation.

It's a pitty. I wish I could change the screen severs just like it's possible for skins...

If screen savers customised by users were stored in the separate subfolders in the Plugins folder, the navigation between them could be quite simple. Users could change a screen saver easily, customise it and share.
The current solution seems not perfect as copying a new screen saver to the Plugins folder overwrites the existing one and there is no an easy way to restore it.

Thanks for considering 

[paq]

I like your idea VX. However I don't see one changing their, optional plug-in, screen saver layout that often so that it would need a context menu.  As long as one renames the file ScreenSaver.Settings.xml before adding a new to that folder, it shouldn't be that big of a hassle. I still like your idea though, just wondering if its worth the time it takes to implement. 

I see one thing that could be added though in help when creating new layouts or trying out existing ones. Since I have to restart MusicBee every time to see a difference made to the settings-file, how about a "Restart MusicBee" in the File menu?