[vox] multimedia metadata

[Wes Hardaker]

Peter> i've got more mp3's from obscure bands than i'll ever be able
Peter> to recall.  some phenomenal, some lackluster, a lot is
Peter> mediocre.  it's a problem trying to remember what music out of
Peter> the 100+ GB stood out when i listened to it.

Wes> If you haven't tried amarok, a KDE player and music catalog, I'd
Wes> suggest you give that a whirl.  It does a great job of cataloging
Wes> stuff based on both a user ranking and a ranking based on how much
Wes> you've listened to stuff.

Peter> Does it support metadata other than ranking?  Like "masterful
Peter> guitar work" or "interesting chord progression"?

It only has a 'comment' field as an additional source of data by
default.

However, the collection is stored in a database (either a simple one
via sqllite or a real one like mysql or postgres (I forget which they
support off the top of my head)).  Extending it with your own
relational data should be trivial, assuming any knowledge of SQL.

It's also somewhat extensible...  IE, there are plugins you can
install to do "other stuff", most of which I haven't looked at.

A quick glance at the list showed this one which is one way to add
additional info to the playing screen:

  This script looks for text or html files in the playing directory and
  inserts them in a new manageable box into the context browser. I hope
  you don't expect too much of a script that's named almost like a tab
  in amaroK ;) but there already are some ideas to extend its
  functionality...

Interestingly enough, I hated big-huge-jukebox type interfaces.  Until
I tried this one.  I finally told myself one day "ok, gotta at least
try it before you dismiss it."  It rocks.  It's still a
big-gui-interface (which is admittedly pretty, but still takes up a
virtual room all to itself), but it does some really cool things and
does a great job managing my zillions of digitized disks.
-- 
"In the bathtub of history the truth is harder to hold than the soap,
 and much more difficult to find."  -- Terry Pratchett