Gmu 0.8.0BETA1 released

2011-06-08 13:18
Here is a new Gmu release with some new (long awaited) features. The two most notable features are internet streaming audio support and the graphical spectrum analyzer. Just like with the 0.7.0 series I start the 0.8.0 series with a beta release, mostly because there were many changes to the code base.

Gmu (track info view with spectrum analyzer)

Changes since the last release include:
  • Internet streaming audio support on network-enabled devices (for web radio, currently mp3 only)
  • Graphical spectrum analyzer
  • Support for PLS playlist files
  • Fixed time display bug for very long playtimes
  • Window icon for platforms running Gmu in a windowed environment
  • By default Gmu's file browser now advances to the next file when adding a file (optional)
Probably less interesing for the ordinary user:
  • Configurable verbosity on stdout (with the -v flag)
To play an internet audio stream all you have to do is save the playlist file (M3U or PLS format) of the web radio station with your web browser and copy it to your device, then add the file to Gmu's playlist just like you would add an ordinary audio file.

gmu-0.8.0BETA1-gp2xwiz.zip (GP2X and Wiz version)
725 KB, md5sum: 400e08bb7e2be3266d9b96a1c7405579

gmu-0.8.0BETA1-dingux.zip (Dingoo A320/A330 [Dingux] version)
775 KB, md5sum: 8a05ac8fcfc040b2e36ebb52cd0d5e31

gmu-0.8.0beta1.pnd (Pandora version)
1.4 MB, md5sum: dba836ffcd3937b0a0d8d86b73c0e1b4

gmu-0.8.0BETA1-zipit-z2.zip (Zipit Z2 [uClibc] version)
245 KB, md5sum: d61f9f7da4a88d3e1432e2e34a90580e

gmu-0.8.0BETA1.tar.gz (GPLv2 source)
240 KB, md5sum: a1a3d346802f3877b4c739b3c65225d6


There is also an updated Gmu package for Arch Linux on the Pandora available through the repository. Simply run "pacman -Sy gmu" to install/update Gmu.

The Zipit Z2 version has been build for uClibc-based systems. It works with my tiny Z2 Linux system and should also work with z2lite which is based on my tiny system.

Pandora users: As there is a full keyboard as well as four gaming buttons named with letters, to distinguish between those, when referring to the gaming buttons they are put in brackets, while the normal buttons are not. So (A) means the A gaming button, while A means the normal A button.
 
deeice (web) says:
2011-06-10 14:46:15
I compiled an IZ2S version of the gmu-0.8.0BETA1 package and added it my IZ2S goodie bag http://members.cox.net/deeice/files.html (the new internet radio feature is a winner)
Logan (web) says:
2011-06-20 20:02:58
Always nice to see new/updated software for the GP2X even in 2011. The spectrum analyser looks like fun.
dario (web) says:
2011-07-27 22:37:23
any plan on porting it to android?
i dont like the players it has, they all sort you music by artist and stuff, but most of my stuff hve bad id3 tag or none at all and i can't find something like oldplay or gmu so i can just play the folder. :(
wej (web) says:
2011-07-28 08:44:20
dario: Actually I have considered doing just that as I don't like the Android audio players much myself. The problem is, that most Android devices are built to be controlled with fingers on the touchscreen. Gmu is designed such that it can show much information on the screen (with pretty small fonts etc.) which doesn't go to well with finger controlled touchscreen. That means that I need to redesign at least Gmu's frontend for Android.
So I might create an Android Gmu, but I currently can't give you a timeframe, when it will be ready.
dario (web) says:
2011-08-07 20:55:58
good to hear that :P
i was just thinking that if you add support for midi, mod and some of those, it whould be an overkill for the rest of the players.
PowerPlay doesn't support midi nor mod, winamp does support xm, mod and those i think, and theres one orrible player who's name i can't remember wich plays the old formats from the amiga, psf, famicom, etc.
A good all-in-one player will surely get a lot of attention
wej (web) says:
2011-08-08 06:27:25
dario: Gmu supports various module (including classic Amiga .mod files and .xm files). It doesn't support midi files, though. To support midi files, one needs to include some sort of software synthesizer, as midi files do not include any samples like modules do. Midi files basically only include information about which notes to play.
dario (web) says:
2011-08-08 14:38:51
yeah i knew it supports mod , didn't know about the others, though...
and about the midi support, android has native support for midi through the JetPlayer class afaik.
there are even some hardware codecs the mp3, ogg atc around though i read that there where some stability issues.
wy_scorpio (web) says:
2011-09-15 12:34:15
hi
thanks your app
i use gmu on dingoo..i like it..
but the browser of gmu cant support chinese file's name..can add chinese font support?thanks
and..
if can add "wma" format support?thx:)
wej (web) says:
2011-09-15 14:24:42
wy_scorpio: You are right about the chinese characters. To support those characters (and other non latin-1 characters) I would have to switch from bitmap font rendering to some sort of truetype font rendering. I am actually considering this, at least as an option in addition to the current interface, but this will take a little while.
As for wma, I haven't looked into that much myself. I simply do not use the wma format. If there is a usable integer-only wma decoder library, adding support for those files would be possible, though.
deeice (web) says:
2011-09-21 16:49:44
Rockbox has a fixed point WMA decoder library. I think you can download a standalone version of it here.

http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/4984

deeice (web) says:
2011-09-21 19:54:53
VLC uses the rockbox fixed point wma lib here:

http://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc/modules/codec/wmafixed/

I don't know what (if any) modifications they made to it though.
Jonis (web) says:
2011-11-27 10:52:51
I like GMU and use it daily, when listening to audiobooks on my dingoo. It is easy to use once you get the hang of it (at first I was a little intimidated by all the options you had ;) ) and the best part is that it can remember where you were in files. It is the only app I've found that lets you listen to audiobooks and enjoy it.

I have a few questions/requests though.


Will there be an equalizer in future editions?

Is it possible to make it so that the volume change is smoother? Right now it changes every 10 (or so) steps that you adjust and sometimes the increase in volume is just too much.
Or if that can't be done, fix so the volume goes like from 1-15 or something so I don't have to press about 10 times every time I want a volume change?

Also GMU skips the last 10 or so seconds of an mp3, at least when listening to audiofiles that are longer than 30 minuter. (Audio books on mp3 is a perfect example of this.)

Thank you for a great application / Jonis
wej (web) says:
2011-11-27 11:04:09
Jonis: Thanks for your comment. I might add an equalizer in the future, but there are still some other things I would like to implement first, so an equalizer is probably still a few releases away.
As for the volume issue, the big jumps in volume control are actually caused by the Dingoo's hardware mixer. There is not much I can do about it except not using it at all. You can disable the hardware mixer pretty easily by editing Gmu's config file (gmu.dingux.conf). Search for the line containing "VolumeControl=Software+Hardware" and change it to "VolumeControl=Software". The next time you start Gmu will use its own software mixer only, resulting in fewer volume steps with a more even distribution.

Gmu should never skip 10 seconds of audio at the end of files. I have not yet seen that behavior with any of my audio files, so if you have an example file or could tell me how to create such a file which causes this skipping, I would appreciate it.
Jonis (web) says:
2011-11-29 15:38:11
Basically, it happens on all my files mp3 files, at least the ones that are "longer than usual". I'll check it up with some mp3s in a day or two.

What are the other things that you wish to implement? What do we have to look forward to?


What is the difference between the two mixers? Just the volume, or audio quality as well?

/ Jonis
wej (web) says:
2011-11-29 21:52:49
There are several things on my list, one of them is full Unicode support along with an optional truetype font based user interface, to better support non-latin-1 characters. Another one is streaming audio support for more file formats like ogg vorbis. Right now only the mp3 decoder has been updated to use the new Gmu reader API to allow both local file playback as well as internet audio streaming.

The difference between the two mixers ist that the hardware mixer does its volume control in hardware, which should result in a better audio quality (in theory at least). This is because when doing volume control in software, the actual resolution of the audio signal is being reduced and as such the dynamic range is being reduced as well (depending on the attenuation). This is mostly a theoretical problem. The audio quality is not bad by any means when using the software volume control. Also one cannot be sure if the "hardware" volume control actually is done in hardware on every device. Especially on devices like the Dingoo with its huge volume steps it looks like the hardware does not really support volume control that well.
Jonis (web) says:
2011-11-30 16:51:57
Ok, I tested with "regular length" mp3s and the skipping wasn't a problem. However, when listening to longer audiofiles, that are like 50 minutes, it skips. It functions that way on all audiobooks i've listened to since august. / Jonis
mozzwald (web) says:
2012-01-14 22:47:59
In case anyone is using openwrt on the Zipit, I have a package available: http://mozzwald.com/zipit/openwrt/packages/gmu_0.8.0BETA1-3_pxa.ipk

I also have the makefile available in my github if you'd like to compile your own: https://github.com/mozzwald/openwrt-zipit/commit/47e19c995f2f6ad353fe8a0edb35b3d11a3d22c1
pdrift (web) says:
2012-01-16 13:28:56
How do I update to this version?
I'm using a zipit z2 running your small linux system.

I love this player!!
Timothee Groleau (web) says:
2012-04-25 16:22:16
Hi there Wej,

I've gotten my pandora back after a looong repair period and just installed gmu 0.8.0 beta1. Thanks for the great work, this is still by far my favorite player :)

I have two issues to report: Firstly, pressing L for Lock+screenoff hides the UI, but I still see the mouse, which means the backlight is still on. Secondly, (A) to play file in browser mode doesn't work (I reported that for 0.7.2), even though pandora.keymap shows: "FileBrowserPlayFile=(A)" . I have verified that the (A) button works in the pandora input tester app.

I hesitated posting this here, do you have a preferered way to log bug reports?

Anyway many thanks for gmu! And I look forward to 0.8.0 full :)

Tim.
wej (web) says:
2012-04-26 07:47:26
Hi Tim,

reporting bugs here is okay. Another way would be sending them via e-mail.
The screen locking thing on the Pandora is knwon. Actually, this was kind of intentional. The thing is, as the Pandora supports multi-tasking with multiple applications running at the same time, it is not really a good idea for an application to decide to turn off the display's backlight. This should be done by the operating system. I only left the screen locking in the keyboard mapping for the Pandora, so one can lock the keyboard.

As for the file browser playback, I have to look into it. This really should not be the case. I will fix it with the next release (yes, there will be a new release :).

wej
Hairy Popper (web) says:
2016-01-25 05:01:12
Not a bad player, it just seems to have some problems with the volume-function. When the user turn volume up or down, first it reacts normally, but then it`s like a jump and it gets extremely loud or extremely silent. It`s like the player jumps through the volume-values. Apart this, player is good.