I'm working on a http system to play MP3 files from a bash script, but I need a way of getting data back from the playing file, so I display it on the screen. At the moment I'm using amp, which gives me a frame count, but not a total frame count, so I can't give a % complete.

Can anyone recommend some MP3 software that has good feedback on it's status. One that allows me to change volume etc. while playing would be even better.

Thanks

mplayer all the way personally. you can even use the -slave option to make it accept commands from stdin, i.e. wrap it with your program to allow the end user to control it.

Mplay on mplayer.

I've had a look at mplayer and tried installing it, and failed. Before I kill myself getting it to install can you just confirm something for me that wasn't obvious on the mplayer site.

Can I control mplayer completely from the shell, by sending it commands? I'm not talking about doing CTRL+SOMETHING to make it play, but actually send it a command like 'mplayer -f my.mp3' to get it to play an mp3. The reason I ask is I would be controlling it from bash scipts. Also another function that I need is to just add a file to the playlist, and to clear the playlist, again through the command line.

Thanks for any help you can give

like i said, use -slave mode. you can then start it off by catting a named pipe and then just write to the named pipe to send it to mplayer.

not to take anything away from the mplayer option, but vlc has a remote control advanced telnet interface that I use; you can play, stop, pause, next, etc, plus control the playlist, etc. There's also a simple http interface that accomplishes the same.

it's not the most intuitive to setup, but once it's up and running it runs like clockwork - if you'd like to know more, just post here and I'll (we'll) help you out.


cheers,

@acid_kewpie: Thanks I just wanted to check, as I still find installing software difficult and didn't want to spend a day on it and find it wasn't even close to what I wanted.

@mrclisdue: I need more traditional command line at the moment, but I bear it in mind, if I get into problems.