Remote Control CD Player
Remote Control CD (RCCD)

The Remote Control CD player provides a comprehensive set of commands for controlling the play of an audio CD via hot-keys.

Hot-keys are keyboard short cuts that you define to enable you to take control of the CD player without having to give focus to the application. This means that the CD player could run in the Windows 95/98/NT task bar tray. It need not be displayed on screen. You still have full control.

RCCD is CDDB compatible. An internet connection is all you require to enable automatic downloading of your CD title, artist and track information.

Contact Information:

For more information about this application, e-mail: jag@access.net.au

For up-to-date versions of this application visit my web page:

http://web.access.net.au/jag

This application can be found in the programming/shareware section.

Credits

Graphics: Ed Hatherley - pegged@hurontel.on.ca

CDDB: Thanks to Ti Kan and Steve Scherf at CDDB for providing a free service for users of CD players to enable downloading of CD artist and track information - http://www.cddb.com

TCP software: François PIETTE - http://www.rtfm.be/fpiette


Menu

Right clicking the application displays the menu. When the application is running in the task bar tray the same menu us available by clicking the RCCD icon.

For more information See:

View Menu

Select Track

Put in Tray

Playing Commands

Properties

CDDB


View Menu

The View Menu allows you to tailor the appearance of the CD player.

The CD player is displayed in three sections:

Appearance

The tool bar is at the top, the track positioning bar is in the middle and the status bar is at the base.

You can choose to display or hide these individual components by selecting the corresponding menu options.

Hints (Tool Tips)

Hints or Tool Tips are, by default, enabled for the program. You can switch off hints by selecting the Hints menu option. When a check mark appears beside it hints are displayed.

Menu Size

Since the whole point of this CD player is that it can be operated by remote keys (hot keys) the section of the main menu that deals with playing, stopping and so forth can be removed from the menu. When Short Menu is checked, the playing commands are not visible on the menu.


Select Track Menu

Select Track

The Select Track Menu allows you to select individual tracks from a CD. Clicking this menu option (when a CD is loaded) will display something like the following:

A radio button appears beside the currently selected track to assist track selection. Simply select the number of the track you wish to play.

If you have edited the play list and provided track names those names will be displayed in the menu. Alternatively, registered users can download the track names from CDDB.


Put in Tray Menu

Put in Tray

The Put in Tray Menu provides a means of placing the CD player in the task bar tray and removing the application from the screen. The same menu functions are available by clicking on the icon. Additionally, double clicking the icon will re-display the CD player.

Alternatively, select Remove from Tray when RCCD is in the tray to remove it from the tray.


Edit Play List

The Edit Play List dialog gives you complete control over the naming of artist, CD title and track name information.

By providing information about artist, title and track name:

•	the Track menu will display the track names,

•	the tool tip for the title bar will be able to display any of the information entered here

•	you will be able to share your CD database with others.

Note: If you haven’t selected a format in which to save the information entered here, you will be prompted to select one when you close this dialog. Otherwise you will only be keeping track information for the current play session.

The dialog is layed with two main areas:

•	the list of available tracks on the left, and

•	the selected play list on the right

Available Tracks

This is where you name your tracks. The following actions can be taken in this control:

Action	Result
Double Click	Copies a track to the play list, adding it to the end of the list.
Mouse Down	Edits the track name
F2	Edits the track name
<esc>	Cancels editing of the track name
Mouse down and drag	Allows you to drag-and-drop a track onto your play list.
Play List

The Play List lists the tracks you have selected to play, and the order in which they will play. Note that this order affects the track selected when you select Forwards and Back from the play menu (or hot keys). If you go forward from the current track, the next track to be played is the next one in this list, not necessarily the next one numerically.

The following actions can be taken in this control:

Action	Result
Double Click	Removes a track from the play list
Mouse down and drag	Allows you to drag-and-drop a track within your play list or remove it from the list


Playing Commands

The normal commands expected of CD players are available from the menu. Note that the number of seconds that are skipped forward or backward using the corresponding commands is able to be set in the Properties dialog.

In addition to using the normal playing commands, the position within a track can be selected by dragging the track selection bar:

The track bar allows quite precise positioning within a track. The currently selected track position is displayed in the center panel of the status bar.


Properties

Of most concern to you will be the first four options:

Behaviour

Appearance

Hot Keys

CDDB

The most important tab is, of course, the Register tab!


Properties - Behaviour

On Startup

Control how the CD player displays when it starts up. Either display it in the same position every time on screen, or send it straight to the task bar tray.

When a CD is inserted

Most CD players are simply started when a CD is first inserted. Subsequent CD’s need to be played manually. By selecting Start playing immediately you can have every CD start straight away. No need to wait for it to be loaded and then instruct it to play.

Options:

Stop CD playing on exit

You can elect to stop the current CD playing by checking this option.

RCCD is the default player

By default, insertion of a CD causes the Microsoft CD player to start playing (if you have selected the auto-play feature). You can make RCCD the default player for all audio CD operations by checking this option.

NOTE: If you choose to un-install RCCD, ensure you’ve restored Microsoft’s CD player to be the default by un-checking this box.

Skip Amount

The Skip Forward/Back commands can be tailored by changing the number of seconds in this setting. The skip amount can be set anywhere from 1 to 30 seconds.

Double-Clicking the Title Bar

You can select what action is performed when you double-click the title bar by selecting one of the available options in this list they include:

•	Put RCCD in the tray

•	Edit CD Play List

•	Open RCCD Properties

•	Roll display up/down

Default CD Drive

For users with multiple CD drives in their computer, this option lets you select the drive to be used.

CD Database

The track information entered via the Edit Play List option can be saved in either of two databases:

Microsoft stores its track information in the CDPlayer.Ini file in your windows directory. It uses the serial number of the CD to identify that information.

On the internet there is a whole database of CD information known as CDDB (CD Database). For whatever reason, they’ve chosen to calculate a separate serial number for CD’s. As it is intended that version 3 of RCCD be CDDB compatible, the option is provided to save your track information with the CDDB format. This means that when RCCD V3 is released, you will already have your own database stored in readiness for CDDB.

You might elect to store in both formats to be able to share your CD database with friends who don’t use a CDDB compatible player.


Properties - Appearance

Options

Control which parts of the CD player are displayed. For more information about these options see the View Menu.

Title bar tool tip display

The title bar can display a tool tip that provides artist, title and track name information in a variety of formats. They include:

•	None

•	Artist

•	Title

•	Track Name

•	Artist, Title

•	Artist, Title, Track Name

•	Artist, Track Name

•	Title, Track Name


Properties - Hot Keys

Use this tab to tailor the hot keys used to control the CD player. Most of the information on this tab is self explanatory. Of particular note, however, is the Short Cut Control section.

Note: Hot keys are disabled whilst this tab is selected.

Hot Key Control (Enable/Disable hot keys)

Many applications use hot keys or short cuts for one reason or another. How many word processing packages use Ctrl + B to bold text?

Whilst you may think you’ve chosen hot keys that do not conflict with other packages, you may find you’ve chosen the exact same settings. For example, to alter the point size in MS Word, Ctrl + Shift + P places the cursor in the Font Size drop down. Ctrl + Shift + F places the cursor in the Font Name drop down.

If you want to use the hot keys of another application that conflict with the CD player, simply press the key stroke selected in the Enable/Disable hot keys to disable the CD player hot keys. Issue the hot key command of the other application, then reinstate the hot keys for the CD player by issuing the same Enable/Disable hot keys command. A brief message appears in the screen center informing you of the status of the CD player hot keys.

Registered users can access the CDDB options.


Control how RCCD is displayed when first started. Either send it to the tray immediately or display it on screen.


When the CD is inserted it can be played immediately or at your command. Use this option to specify what action you want RCCD to take when a new CD is inserted.

Note: This is not the same as the action taken when a CD is inserted before RCCD is running.


Checking this option causes the toolbar with its playing buttons to be displayed on RCCD. The buttons give you do direct control over the operation of the CD player.


Checking this option causes the track positioning bar to be displayed on RCCD. The track positioning bar allows you to select the position with a track by sliding the control.


Checking this option causes the status bar to be displayed on RCCD. The status bar provides information about track number and position.


Checking this option causes tool tips (or hints) to be displayed as the cursor passes over various controls on RCCD.


RCCD can display a short or a long menu when you right click the player (or the icon in the tray).

The long menu includes all the playing and transport commands. By checking this option and selecting the short menu you can reduce the size of the menu by around eight options. As all these commands are available as hot keys or from RCCD’s interface, you may prefer to simplify the menu by selecting Short Menu.


By checking this option, the current CD will be stopped when RCCD is shut down.


Windows makes its own CD player the default player. By checking this option you can make RCCD the default player.

As the default player, RCCD will be started when you insert CD’s, and it will be started when you double-click CD tracks in Windows Explorer.


When you pass the mouse over the title bar of RCCD, you can display whatever combination of artist, title and track name that you want.

Simply choose the information you want to display from the drop down list.


With this option you can control the number of seconds skipped forwards or backwards when using the Skip commands.


To customize RCCD further, decide what action is taken when you double click the title bar. Select the action you want to perform from the drop down list.


RCCD can save track and artist information in the native Windows format as used by CDPlayer.EXE and stored in CDPlayer.INI.

By checking this option you can save CD information in the CDPlayer.INI file.


RCCD can save track and artist information in the Internet CDDB format. In fact, the format is identical to the native Windows format as used by CDPlayer.EXE and stored in CDPlayer.INI. The difference is in the serial number used to identify the track information.

RCCD is capable of downloading track and artist information from the Internet. By checking this option, you will enable saving of your information to the database that will be used for downloading.


Select the default drive from which you want to play CD’s. If your computer doesn’t have multiple CD drives, this option has no effect.


Enter the hot key combination to control this function.


Your selected hot keys can sometimes conflict with hot key combinations used by other applications. For example CTRL + SHIFT + P sets focus to the point size control in MS Word.

Choose a hot key here that you can use to temporarily disable the RCCD hot keys so that the hot keys can be used for other applications.

After you have performed the required action in the other application, restore the RCCD hot keys by again pressing the chosen hot key entered here.


Registered users can download CD artist, title and track information from CDDB, the internet CD database. The hot key assigned here allows you to manually download the CDDB information for the current CD.

It is equivalent to the CDDB Reload option on the menu.


This is where you name your tracks. The following actions can be taken in this control:

Action	Result
Double Click	Copies a track to the play list, adding it to the end of the list.
Mouse Down	Edits the track name
F2	Edits the track name
<esc>	Cancels editing of the track name
Mouse down and drag	Allows you to drag-and-drop a track onto your play list.


The Play List lists the tracks you have selected to play, and the order in which they will play. Note that this order affects the track selected when you select Forwards and Back from the play menu (or hot keys). If you go forward from the current track, the next track to be played is the next one in this list, not necessarily the next one numerically.

The following actions can be taken in this control:

Action	Result
Double Click	Removes a track from the play list
Mouse down and drag	Allows you to drag-and-drop a track within your play list or remove it from the list


Splash Screen

Only registered users can disable the splash screen.

To Register:

Select Properties/Register and click the "Enter Registration No" button. Enter your registration string (or register to be sent it). If you have not received a registration string after registering then e-mail me (jag@access.net.au) and you will be sent one.

To Disable the splash screen

Once you have registered, you can right click the good looking guy there (on the about tab). A popup menu will give you access to the option to disable the splash screen.


Enter your email address. This is required for communicating with CDDB.


The Selected server is the server from which CD artist/title/track information will be downloaded. To change the selected server, click the Change button.


To change the selected server from which CD information will be obtained, click the Change button.


To test the selected server from which CD information will be obtained, click the Test Selected Server button.


RCCD can download information when it detects a change in CD, or when you choose to request that information. Set the option to suit your method of operation. If you are not often connected to the internet you may prefer to download only when asked.


By selecting this option, a window will display the download status when downloading CDDB information occurs.


Check this option to be notified if connection to the selected server fails.


Check this option to be notified if a download fails. Failure can occur for a number of reasons such as:

No match in database

Corrupt database

Handshake with server failure


Check this option to be notified when a download is complete.


CDDB - Internet CD Database

Only registered users can download from CDDB.

To Register:

Select Properties/Register and click the "Enter Registration No" button. Enter your registration string (or register to be sent it). If you have not received a registration string after registering then e-mail me (jag@access.net.au) and you will be sent one.

CDDB is a free service provided by Ti Kan and Steve Scherf at www.cddb.com. It is a huge database of CD title, artist and track information.

With an internet connection, RCCD can download your CD track information from your chosen server (choose the change button to select a server).

Download from CDDB

RCCD detects when a CD is inserted in the drive. If you have selected to download as required it will first attempt to load information for that CD from your local database. If this fails (and you are a registered user) RCCD will attempt to download from the selected server.

If the CD in your drive is matched exactly then the information for that CD is immediately downloaded. If an exact match cannot be made, a list is displayed from which you can (hopefully) select the correct CD. It is always possible that a CD in your collection is not yet in the database.

If you prefer that RCCD doesn’t automatically download, select Only when asked from the options. To download select CDDB Reload from the main RCCD menu.

Notify me when

RCCD can notify you when one of the options in this group occurs.

•	Connection may fail if the server is unavailable or you don’t have an internet connection.

•	Download may fail if the CD could not be found or the database is corrupt (unlikely)

•	Download is complete when the CD information has been successfully obtained

Options

Instead of being notified when download is complete, you may prefer to have the CDDB download status dialog displayed. This dialog will pop up displaying the current TCP activity. Drag it to whatever position on the screen you would prefer it be displayed. It will display in that position in future.


When this option is checked, the chosen skin will be displayed behind the button bar. If the Skin file name field is blank, the default graphic is displayed.


The selected graphic can be stretched to fit into the area behind the button bars. Check this option to stretch the image so that it is completely displayed.


The selected graphic can be centred behind the button bar. An image that is smaller than the available area will appear top-left if not centred. An image that is larger than the available area will be only partially displayed. Check this box to locate the graphic in the centre of the area behind the button bar.


The selected graphic can be made transparent by checking this option.

Note: not all image formats support transparency.


Enter the name of the image file to display in this field. If this field is left blank and the Enable field is checked, the default image is used.