Simply put, it's a general plug-in for Winamp allowing input from various sources (IRman, Keyboard, Mouse) and displaying information on displays other than a monitor (though an LCD simulation display can be used for standard monitor output).
The functionality the Jukebox plug-in has is pretty much total control over Winamp. Easily browse hard drives and removeable devices (CD-ROM drives) for MP3 files and playlists to play.
No time estimate for a release date at this time.
The visual plug-in is simply what it sounds like - it provides visual information about the file Winamp is playing. The Jukebox plug-in is a general plug-in allowing complete control of Winamp.
Yes. No estimates on any release dates for updated versions.
The easiest way to display information on a panel connected to the parallel port is to directly access the port. Windows 95/98 does not block direct hardware access. Needless to say Windows NT (and 2000) blocks direct hardware access. Basically NT/2000 must have a device driver built to provide a way to access a deivce plugged into the parallel port.
I have heard that a parallel port driver exists that allows direct access for any programs, but I have never seen it or tried it. In theory having such a driver installed would allow the plug-in to work under NT or 2000.
Note that the Simulation Window will run fine under NT and 2000 (it has been tested under Windows 2000 Professional).
The visual LCD plug-in (v.59 or earlier) only officially supports LCD panels with an HD44780 controller with a size of 40x4 or 20x4 running in 8 bit parallel mode. Most of the other sizes happen to work though, but I didn't specifically support them.
The Jukebox plug-in and later versions of the visual LCD plug-in will support character panels with an HD44780 compatible controller (common LCD panel controller) of all sizes running in 8 bit parallel mode, Futaba VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) panels (only 40x4 has been tested, but all sizes should work), and an LCD simulation on your monitor.
I would gladly add support for any other display devices (serial or parallel) if someone donates such a display to develop with. I will not blindly add support for a display no matter how well documented.
The HD44780 display panels (LCD) and Futaba VFD panels connect to the PC's parallel port. See the LCD Connection Page for the wiring table and diagram.
It is highly recommended that you use the wiring table and the data sheet that came with your display to map the pins from the parallel port to the LCD.
The data sheet should tell you this.
Electronic surplus stores. I got mine at www.eio.com so you can try there. Do not send e-mail asking where to get displays becuase I simply don't know!
If the song length shows up as 00:00 or you see mono instead of stereo or other such wrong information then try a different version of Winamp. It has been reported that some versions of Winamp report inaccurate information. v2.64 or maybe v2.65 should work. I was told v2.666 definately had problems with showing proper information. I even read reports of this bug on the Winamp dev mailing list.
If you experience problems of the display garbling (can't read any text, items showing up all over the display in the wrong places...) then the first thing to try is getting the LCDPrint utility and see if that works. So far people have reported that it works even when the plug-in doesn't. If LCDPrint doesn't work and the display is really garbled and doesn't work at all, not even for a second then you may have bad hardware (probably just a bad connection somewhere).
If you think the hardware is fine, then try the following settings in the [LCD] section of the INI file:
OpenMode=1
Compatibility=2
ControlDelay=2
DataDelay=2
If it is still not working, as a last resort you could try increasing the ControlDelay and DataDelay but I don't think that will help. All I can say is the plug-in works 100% on my test machines so unless I have a problem machine sitting beside me it is next to impossible to fix.
I don't know anything about building a car player. I am simply building a plug-ins for Winamp. The plug-ins should work great in a car player though.
In case you don't understand what I'm saying: Don't e-mail me about your car related questions!
No, sorry. I am keeping the source code closed to the public right now.
I'm glad you asked. I originally thought I wanted someone to take over maintaining the web site, but after some serious thinking I've decided to keep the site.
However, if you have any HTML editing skills and you enjoy working on web pages (or just have a lot of free time), it would be nice if someone could take the plain text docs (included in the latest LCDisplayer plug-in) and make them into nice HTML documents I could stick up on the web site.
I think a lot of people would also really like a WYSIWYG ini file editor... anyone who knows Visual Basic and has some free time should be able to make up a nice ini file editor.
If you are interested in helping, let me know so too many people don't end up spending time doing the same thing.