SoC 2009/Media Library

This project is part of Google Summer of Code 2009. Student: Srikanth Raju Mentor: Jean-Philippe Andre

Project Abstract

The project is about extending the Media Library(ML) for VLC Player. The media library will allow users to manage all their local and network media. The project will use the basic structure that already exists for the ML and will focus on extending the features. New features include Search, Smart playlists, Annotations and "Just play music".

Goals

• Basic: Add media files/folders to the library.
• Live Folders: This will automatically scan folders for media additions. They will be automatically added to the ML. This feature already exists and requires some finetuning.
• Search: Audio, Video, Streams and their metadata can be searched. Also, there is an advanced search that can allow searches on specific fields in the metadata.
• Smart Playlists: A Smart playlist can be created from an "Advanced Search". Here you can specify some search and the result of this search can be stored in the playlist. The Smartness is that this type of playlist changes dynamically as the ML changes. Example: all audio between year 1970 and 1980 with rating > 4.
• Bookmarks and Annotations:
• Auto metadata fill: This will automatically fetch meta data information from external sources such as IMDB, Rotten Romatoes, AzLyrics(for lyrics), MusicBrainz, etc
• Save file specific settings: VLC will remember if you played that screwed up video using some video filter/subtitle, etc. Next time the same media is opened, the settings are loaded from the ML. Ofcourse, there is a line to draw. This won't be very useful for volume, for example. No point setting low volume, if your sleeping roomate has to wake up everytime the track changes.
• Podcasts and Services Discovery Integration: This will move all the services discovery features in VLC into the ML and complete the unified portal to accessing media! Notifications for these features will be improved.
• "Just Play Music" Feature. Use information about what the user has been playing and likes(based on ratings) and find music that the user likes the best from his ML and play randomly.

Todo List

What	When	Status
Learn qt, git, bit of auto*.	April 23 - May 16	Started
Design DB and figure out how the functionalities will be implemented. Design Phase.	May 1 - 16	Not started
Off on a small vacation	May 16 - 23	Not started
Basic ML changes	June 23 - 31	Not started
Improve Live folders	June 23 - 31	Not started
Search	June 23 - 31	Not started
Smart Playlists	June 23 - 31	Not started

Right now

Learning up the current ML code and figuring out the database schema