Load Player

Overview

A script that can be used from command-line or GUI (with zenity) to prepare a collection of mp3, ogg, or m3u files for transfer to a standard "usb mass storage" mp3 player that will only handle mp3 files.

Background

For Christmas (2007) my daughter got a Sansa Shaker MP3 player. It is a really great player for kids, but unfortunitly for us, it only plays .WMA and .MP3 files. All of our cds are ripped into OGG format. So I had to create a way to convert OGGs into MP3s, then copy the new MP3s over to the device. The trick was it had to be easy enough for a 4th grader to do it without bugging me everytime she wanted to reload the player.

Here are the design issues that I had laid down before I started:

• Must handle all "music" files as input. In my cause it was MP3, OGG, and M3U (my daughter does not know, or care the difference between a song and a song list)
• Must copy/move (or at least give an option) the converted files over to the player
• Organization with track order was important since she has a number of "musicals" CDs. Organization by artist/album would be nice, but not required.
• Option to "clean-up" after itself so as not to unknowningly fill up disk space.

Version History

Version 1.0 - First released version

Prerequisites

• You need the ogg2mp3 script found here. My copy of the same file can be found here.
• You will need to have zenity installed if you wish to use the GUI interface. Not needed if you are going to only use the command line.
• Need to have ogginfo and id3tool installed on your system

Installation

1. Download and install the ogg2mp3 script. Verify that the ogg2mp3 script works first.
2. Download the load_player script, and save it into your path somewhere /usr/local/bin or ~/bin/
3. Define the varables. You can define the varables either at the beginning of the load_player.sh or in the users home directory in a ~/.load_player file. Anything recorded in the ~/.load_player file will override those set in the load_player.sh script.
   • HOLDINGDIR - A temporary location to do the coversions, and hold the MP3 files until they are ready to be moved to the player
   • PLAYERDIR - Since the player is a standard USB mass storage devices, need to store it's mount point.
   • OGGINFO - location of ogginfo
   • MP3INFO - location of id3tool
   • OGG2MP3 - location of the ogg2mp3 script

An example ~/.load_player config file:

HOLDINGDIR=/tmp/$USERNAME-load_player
PLAYERDIR=/media/mp3player

Usage

Due to the design, you can adjust your usage as desired. In the simpliest form, you need to simply pass at least 1 file as an option to the load_player.sh script. The file (or files) that you past should be "music" files. At the current time, that would be OGG, M3U, or MP3 files. The script will then determine if you are using an X interface or not, and all interaction will be based on the decision.

NAUTALUS USERS:

ROX-FILER USERS:

OTHER:

Support

Assuming the problem is with my script, and not the ogg2mp3 script, you can email me at gentgeen AT linuxmail DOT org. Make sure you fix the address before you hit "send".

Credits

Kudos goes to my local LUG, WPLUG for all the scripting help via email and IRC (and really not just for this script, but all the help they have given me)

License

This really is just a script that pulls together a bunch of other stuff, so not like there is a major need for a license ;-) But for the sake of completeness I declair that this script is licensed under the GNU General Public License V2. Each of the individual components (id3tool, ogginfo, ogg2mp3.sh, etc) all hold there own license.