Foobar2000:Foobar2000

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Revision as of 19:01, 5 April 2005 by Jan (talk | contribs)

foobar2000 is a free music player for Windows. It features multiple playlists, a music database, streaming, ReplayGain support, extensive plug-ins support and more.



A note to potential editors

The Newbie Guide is intended to provide no more than a very basic competence in fb2k. Therefore, it should be relatively broad, readable in one sitting, and contain only the most essential information for getting started. Any documentation beyond this purpose belongs in the Intermediate or Advanced Use sections. Similarly, small issues that demand a significant amount of detail are better suited for the FAQ section.

Remember that if any reader feels that the Newbie Guide is beneath them, they may always move beyond it, but a Newbie Guide that is bogged down by too much information will be no less intimidating than the looming behemoth we call our forum.

Supported...

Playback Formats

Supported through plug-ins:

In addition, foobar2000 can also play music directly from compressed RAR, ZIP and 7-ZIP archives without requiring the user to extract the files prior to playing.

Languages

  • English

Platforms

  • Windows

No known plans exists to port it to other platforms, but attempts have been made, with varying degrees of success, to run foobar2000 on x86 Linux systems by using Wine.

User Interface

Standard

By default foobar2000 uses the standard interface, foo_ui_standard. This interface is based around a tabbed list of playlists. Playlists are then formatted according to the title formatting strings entered by the user. These allow access to tag data, as well as information about the state of the program in the playlist display.

Columns UI

foo_ui_columns is an extension of the ideas used in the standard interface. It takes the open area of the playlist and divides it into one or more columns that have individual formatting strings. Recent versions of Columns UI have also added support for UI Extension panels which appear in Columns UI's sidebar or in the toolbar.

Because of the useful extensions to the Standard UI, Columns UI is rapidly becoming popular and continues to be under rapid development.

Newbie/Novice/Advanced User Guides



Tips & Tricks

Volume Slider in Sidebar/Toolbar

foo_uie_volume

Placing Panels Above the Playlist

To place panels above the playlist, check "List all toolbars" in the "Other" tab of the Columns UI preferences. When checked, right-clicking on the toolbar will give you the option of placing panels on the toolbar. If a panel appears "squashed," it is because it needs to have a minimum height set in its preferences. If the panel extension has no minimum height setting, you may place it in a panel stack, and set a minimum height via the panel stack options.

Two Tabbed Panel Stacks in One Sidebar/Toolbar

While holding shift: Right-click on sidebar/toolbar, click "Layout > Tabbed Panel Stack"

Handy Strings

Standardize my PLAY_DATE and PLAY_TIME fields

LAST_PLAYED has been developed as a standard to replace the widely variable PLAY_DATE and PLAY_TIME usages. Use these Masstagger scripts to convert your specific format to this new standard. More info about LAST_PLAYED available here.

!!!NOTE!!!: Be VERY CAREFUL when applying any of the scripts below. Be sure to test the script on one file before running it on your whole library.

If your current time/datestamp is in the format...

  • PLAY_DATE = DDMMYY, PLAY_TIME = HHMMSS (24hr) (this is foo_playcount's default format)
    ...download scripts from this thread post.
  • PLAY_DATE = YYYYMMDD, PLAY_TIME = HHMMSS (24hr)
    ...download script from this thread post.
  • PLAY_DATE = DD~MM~YY, PLAY_TIME = HH~MM~SS (where ~ is any one single-character separator)
    ...download script from this thread post.
"The Band" becomes "Band, The"
$if($strcmp($left(%artist%,4),The ),$right(%artist%,$sub($len(%artist%),4))', 'The,%artist%)
Pad tracknumber with leading zeros ("1" becomes "01")
$num(%tracknumber%,2)
Alternating Stripes in the playlist (Like iTunes)

Go to Preferences/Display/Columns UI/Globals/Colour Tab, enter this under the background section of your color string (text|selected text|background|selected background|...) 

$ifgreater($mod(%_playlist_number%,2),0,�F2E8DF�,�FFFFFF�)

Replace the last two colors with your own.

Indicate Replaygain tags

This is if you want to show which kind of Replaygain you have. This string will show an "A" if album gain has been applied, a "T" if Track gain is applied, and a red "X" if there is no replaygain data in the file. 

$if(%__replaygain_album_gain%,A,$if(%__replaygain_track_gain%,T,�0000FF|000�X))
Indicate Audioscrobbler submission

Audioscrobbler is a service that, using the foo_scrobbler component, keeps a record of the songs you listen to and provides various statistical reports. A track is submitted when either 50% or 4 minutes have elapsed, and this is what the string tests for. Actual submission to Audioscrobbler can only be verified by foobar's console. 

$if(%_isplaying%,
$ifgreater(%_time_elapsed_seconds%,240,'*',
$ifgreater(%_time_elapsed_seconds%,$div(%_time_total_seconds%,2),'*',)))

Components

Find components for foobar2000 at the components page


FAQ

A rather extensive FAQ is available at the SH/SC Wiki.

Q: Album list shows dead entries after a restart, even though I used "Remove dead entries" before. Why is that?

A: The files are probably still contained in one of your playlists or in the history (only if you are using an older version of foo_history). Use "Playlist/Remove dead entries" from the main menu on all your playlists, or remove the dead entries manually. As long as the files are on a playlist, they will be in the database and thus will show up in album list.

Encouraged Tag Standards

FIELD_NAME [format] (component)

  • ALBUM ARTIST [e.g., Various Artists, The Foobar Collective] (none)
    Notes: Field name is ALBUM ARTIST, with no underscore. Tag should exist if and only if an album is by multiple artists, and be contained in every track. Track-specific artists should be entered in the ARTIST tag, never in the TITLE tag.
    (more about this standard)
  • LAST_PLAYED [2005-03-22 19:00:00...] (foo_playcount)
    Notes: Any amount or type of data may be placed after the time. Compliant TAGZ code shall use $substr() instead of $right() when extracting substrings from this field.
    See also: Standardize my PLAY_DATE and PLAY_TIME fields
    (more about this standard)

Important Links

Official Site

Community

Guides

Appearance

Components / Plugins

General
Specific Components
  • case's Page: special installer, diskwriter components, etc.
  • kode's Page: file-formats, archive-support, OSD, shuffle (temporary mirror since the primary host is down)
  • Messer's page: freedb-masstagger, streaming with save-function, etc.

Thanks

picmixer: ReplayGain tutorial

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