I have the same problem

ImportError: No module named gtk

Im sure its because I didnt have the Python Runtime installed

Install Python.

I have downloaded and tried out all those mentioned above (Canola2, UKMP, Kagu, Mediabox and Kilikali and of course the Default Player) over the last few days including the latest mplayer dist. using the posted temporary repos. I am fairly new to Internet Tablets and definitely a user not a developer. I largely agree with the comments of gazza_d above.

It seems that you need to load mplayer for its wide video support. I don't play a lot of video so that pretty much sorts me from that angle if the default player doesn't deliver (hopefully)

My main interest is in playing mp3 files and this is a mess as far as the handling of album art is concerned. I only really need the player to find and use the ones with the id3 tags and the folders for each album. My mp3 files are all ripped from CDs I own, mostly using Musicmatch (now gone the way of all) which allowed insertion of album art if it isn't in CDDB online. some files are ripped with iTunes (yes I know but the wife insisted she wanted an ipod!!!!) None of the players handled this correctly.

Canola1 seemed ok on my 770, but Canola2 does support Covers yet on my N800 running OS2008.

UKMP insists on scanning each time but doesn't seem to find some art (even when its there) and then on several occasions downloaded incorrect art from the online Db.

Kagu also seemed to have some problems finding art that UKMP did find - many albums were just displayed with a "disk" icon.

Mediabox found most art but again not all of it.

Kilikali does appear to display art - is that right?

Default player definitely doesn't.

All the 4 main options have nice touches and the look of the player is a personal thing. From an eye-candy perspective I don't think you can beat Canola2 (especially in the graphite theme) with UKMP and Kagu close together behind. I believe that when this moves from Beta with all the issues fixed Canola2 will become my app of choice - the photo viewer is great as others have said. I also understand that they are looking for others to write plug-ins (perhaps that isn't quite Opensource I don't know).

For me any online scanning for art should be manual and not overide those already there.

I am soon off on a longish trip and I will use the default player for mp3 (given the low overhead) - perhaps someone could add simple (probably not simple I don't know) album art support to it displaying where the "music symbols" come up now???!!

A very big thank you to all the developers for all your efforts - I really do love the community aspect of the Tablets especially supplying those like me who can't do it for themselves.


Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." -Confucius

Twinkletoes: Thanks for your excellent survey and assessment of existing N800 media players, with which I find myself in fairly complete agreement regarding their various strengths and weaknesses.

I myself settled on Kagu awhile back, principally because it was the only one to incorporate Milhouse's a2dp hack (so I could use my Bluetooth stereo headphones) but for other features of Kagu I liked as well. Now, of course, there is not yet a viable a2dp hack to work with the N800 media players (including Kagu) so the playing field has become a bit more level for me in my assessments of their relative suitabilities for my needs.

Since my recent $20 (plus shipping) purchase of a mp3 a2dp dongle, which works fine with my stereo Bluetooth headphones with all the N800 media players, I find I am still leaning towards retaining my use of Kagu. Although I am still very frustrated over all the wrong album covers it turns up, even though the correct covers are readily available, either on-line or already incorporated into the album information I've ripped.

While there are other features (or lack of, to be more precise) in Kagu which I've otherwise complained of in this forum, my main concern now is that Kagu may be in the process of being abandoned by its developers. I'm hoping this perception of mine proves not to be the case.

Thanks to ascherjim for the heads-up on the a2dp situation - I must research that further.

I did a simple test of the Album Art handling last night.

I ripped some CDs using iTunes - I decided use this as expect that world-wide the majority of rippers will use it ( I don't usually as I said in an earlier post) Itunes tells me these id3 tags v2.2 and each file contains the album art. I ripped them to a completely separate folder to any other files. I then tried to play and display.

First on the PC

iTunes - Obviouly displayed the album Art

Musicmatch - Failed to show the covers

Windows Media Player - Failed to show the covers

WinAmp - Showed the covers perfectly


On the N800 - wifi/bluetooth was disable to avoid any downloads of art

UKMP, Kagu and Mediabox - All failed to display the art in the id3 tags
Canola2 doesn't display any art yet - that's coming.

I think that any player should display art embedded in the tags - is this reasonable?

Just out of curiosity (I don't have iTunes). Is this the latest version of iTunes which writes ID3 v2.2 tags? v2.2 seems rather old to me and everyone should write v2.4 tags now.

Hi Pycage - sorry for delay I have been away from the coal face.

Yes that is iTunes v7.5.0.20 (and I just checked a minute ago and it is the latest). The tags are shown as v2.2 as I say -What do you expect from a company that hard wires your battery so you can't replace it!!!!???? The tag editor does a reasonable job allowing a "part of compilation" tick box and Album Artist selection to get around the Album of many artists being listed as "n" albums with one track all with the same cover art. It grieves me but I have to admit it is a clean,good looking and easy to use interface for your mp3s etc.

Now I just need Canola2 (or one of the other players) to see the embedded art, or it looks like a long night creating album art in manual folders.

Unless Apple changed this recently, iTunes did NOT embed artwork in the ID3 tags, but kept it in it's own directory. The only time it embeds artwork into ID3 is if you manually add the artwork yourself. There is an Applescript (link below) that will go through and embed artwork into the ID3 tags from the iTunes artwork directory. It doesn't seem to reliably work for me, but I have my library duplicated in a number of places, so I may have confused myself!

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/script...hp?sp=embedart

Note- applescripts only work on the OS/X version of iTunes.

-steve

Only downloaded artwork is not embedded. You only get downloaded artwork when you buy files from the iTunes Store or select the appropriate "Download Artwork from iTunes" command on files you already have.

However, if you add artwork using the Get Info window, then it is embedded into the ID3.

Also, AFAIK, iTunes does not use newer versions of the tags unless the metadata demands it, to maximize player compatibility.