[Rhythmbox-devel] In the mood: predictive playback for Rhythmbox

["Charlotte Curtis" <c f curtis gmail com>]

Hi all,

Thanks to a variety of helpful people, my GSoC plugin has reached some
semblance of functionality.  If anyone is interested in testing it
out, the package can be downloaded from
http://code.google.com/p/rhythmbox-predictive-playback/downloads/list.
 It also requires the installation of the most recent Marsyas version,
which can be acquired from
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=84982&package_id=96585&release_id=612499.
 In order to have ogg and mp3 support, Marsyas must be configured with
--with-mad and --with-vorbis.

On first run, In the Mood will prompt you (with an oh-so-naughty
popup) that the feature analysis database is incomplete.  This is an
unfortunately time-consuming process, taking anywhere from 0.5 to 3
seconds per song, depending on the speed of your computer.  However,
Rhythmbox *should* be functional during this time.  After this
one-time analysis step, you simply drag a song onto the 'In The Mood'
playlist source, and it will add another song that it believes is the
best match.  Once the second starts playing, a third is appended and
so on.

There aren't many options in the configuration panel, but basically,
you can start the analysis from there (if you don't want to do it the
first time it prompts you), and you can choose whether or not new
songs added to the library get analyzed right away.  Also, you can
choose 'evolution' mode (songs appended to the playlist are chosen
based on the LAST song) or 'in the mood' mode (songs are chosen based
on the FIRST song).

I'd love to hear any feedback you might have, thanks!

Charlotte