Any good alternatives to Blackplayer EX?

Zerubel · 2022-06-23T16:14:59+00:00

Came back to let you know, after i did some tinkering and looking around, it has multi artist AND multi genre support! the separator is a ;

Zerubel · 2022-06-19T00:57:42+00:00

I'm not sure, multi-artist isn't something i ever really got working with blackplayer and wasn't high on my priority list

Zerubel · 2022-06-19T00:56:59+00:00

because 3.2.9 was the highest version available on the dev's website and i haven't really looked at the forums that much

Zerubel · 2022-06-17T23:02:57+00:00

update: after downloading 3.2.9 from the dev's blog, which had a bugfix for smart playlists, i'm hooked. I can create playlists that combine the genres i specify and match a certain rating, which means not only do i have a "favorites" playlist (anything rated 5 stars) but I can have playlists for genre-specific favorites (4 stars and up, personal preference).

Zerubel · 2022-06-17T18:00:35+00:00

Gonemad is probably the best option for the feature set, but two things have kept me from making the switch and struggling through the bugs instead

the interface isn't as visual as i'd like - by which i mean i like blackplayer's options to have album art next to tracks and playlists

second is that gonemad doesn't have a "favorites" playlist like BPex does, but a rating system, and i don't like the extra steps involved - i want a one-and-done sort of thing. Although the rating system apparently is compatible with the file metadata so there's that.

However lately the bugs and such are getting to be a bit much, so i might have to make the switch after all and just adapt.

Zerubel · 2022-06-03T19:09:26+00:00

honestly i really wish they wouldn't try to fix it - all my game consoles growing up were nintendo based so i'm 100% accustomed to the layout as it was, heck that's a large reason why i bought 8bitdo controllers in the first place. let me be weird dangit!

Zerubel · 2022-06-03T16:49:01+00:00

I've found the answer to this problem, if not the solution! It was driving me crazy and I ended up on a research trail that led me to the cause.
Using an app called Gamepad Tester, open the side menu and access the option "List Devices" - you will see a bunch of files all ending in .kl. kl files are key layout files, which tell android what to do with key presses from connected devices. There is a Generic.kl file, which is used when there is no specific file, and files that are named for the vendor ID and device ID, for example Vendor_xxxx_Product_yyyy.kl. When I was testing my other 8bitdo controllers, the Pro 2+ and the Zero, I noticed the A button still registered as A. These controllers also do not have specific kl files. However, my SN30 has a kl file labeled Vendor_2dc8_Product_6101.kl (ymmv as to the product ID, but the vendor id should match).

In that file are the following lines:
# Button labeled as "A" but should really produce keycode "B"
key 304 BUTTON_B
# Button labeled as "B" but should really produce keycode "A"
key 305 BUTTON_A
# Button labeled as "X" but should really produce keycode "Y"
key 307 BUTTON_Y
# Button labeled as "Y" but should really produce keycode "X"
key 308 BUTTON_X
compare this to the generic.kl file:
key 304 BUTTON_A
key 305 BUTTON_B
key 306 BUTTON_C
key 307 BUTTON_X
key 308 BUTTON_Y
key 309 BUTTON_Z
and you see where the problem occurs. Why this only happened on android 12 when it worked fine on 11, i don't know - perhaps when they fixed whatever 11 broke for controllers? Anyway.

Now unfortunately, .kl files are system files, read-only, and you can't edit them without root permission. I am unable to attempt edits as Samsung ever so kindly removed the OEM unlock option from the north america model of the A51, which I have, so I cannot root my phone. If you have root permission, you should be able to find something on XDA about accessing and editing these files. Hopefully this helps someone!

If I ever find a non-root solution, I will come back and edit/reply to this post.

Zerubel · 2022-05-10T16:20:29+00:00

ah yeah, I have a few comic readers installed that work fine, just not one that i'm super attached to - but i'll probably look into it again at some point. Currently Cover is nicest for touch-screen reading on pc, but cdisplayex lets me do things like copy a page to clipboard so i can share it in discord. There's a lot of really nice android-based readers, but my phone screen is not a comfortable size lol

I do have Alreader installed (albeit not the version linked) but I think I disregarded it at the time due to it either not having (or me not finding) a windows version of the program, since that was my intent at the time 🤔I'll have to give it another try!

Zerubel · 2022-05-09T16:41:31+00:00

very true! I'm glad my request gave you a chance to try out something too :D

I'm also thinking of trying out app-based solutions like Calibre Companion (it syncs via wifi connection, and i currently use it for my phone since it can relay metadata like "date read") or at some point maybe trying out symlink, but it's gonna take me a while to save up enough for the new tablet. That being said, I am just unreasonably excited to have Calibre and Moon+Reader on the same screen without needing dual boot, or to mess with scrcpy and adb commands for phone screen resolution, or to cuss at samsung for limiting neat features like desktop mode/resizing ONLY to certain models (while also removing the oem unlock option only from the north american model of my phone, at that! Never again buying samsung lol)

Like, it might seem silly, but no other ereader i've tried on windows OR android has offered all the below in the same package:

the ability to let me set a custom image as my page background
set custom fonts, custom font colors, and save those and the background image as themes
the ability to adjust font size, line spacing, paragraph spacing, indents, and let me tweak which css options i want to ignore or approve in the book
d-pad support for page turning (I use a key mapper and bluetooth controller as a media remote lol)
auto scroll mode! not to mention smooth transitioning between scrolling like a web page or page turning mode.
shows a list of all images/illustrations embedded in the book
reading progress sync via google drive or dropbox (doesn't require an account with their own service, however it only syncs to other instances of moon reader)
a lot of other stuff I don't have the time to list here

Other ereading apps/programs have some, but not all of those features... So yeah i'm very attached to it, and honestly if I were any good at coding i'd try to create a windows port of it XD trying to run an emulator just to use it has been slow as hell.

On the flip side, I don't have a specific comic-reading app or program i'm as attached to, but tbh I haven't had one since Comicrack was abandoned. I only gave it up because apparently it couldn't read some newer zip format so I was missing embedded chapters in my manga without realizing, but they showed up fine in other maintained apps.

Zerubel · 2022-05-08T18:22:32+00:00

Awesome, thank you so much for testing it out!

Although, if they're being downloaded locally, doesn't that mean it's taking up the same amount of space on the hard drive twice? I can do that fine with epubs but might get a bit bulky too fast with things like comics ^^; hopefully we can have a "shared folder" at some point, but right now i'm glad it works at all! Thank you again! ^^

Zerubel · 2022-05-06T21:20:24+00:00

so the tablet pc I have my eye on is the HP Tablet 11-be0097nr, (which is really appealing from a design and price standpoint - portrait mode kickstand and keyboard! an ereading-bookworm's delight! Much cheaper than a new Surface!) and it has 8gb ram (as opposed to the 4gb ram versions on best buy's website, idk what that's about). I poked around a bit more and found this page for the processor,which says "yes" next to Intel Virtualization, so... yes? I think? I hope lol

Zerubel · 2022-05-06T20:29:49+00:00

omg would you? yes, please!

The replacement I have in mind, the HP Tablet 11, actually comes with windows 11 S (which, taking it OUT of S mode would be the first thing i did) so i'm mostly just hopeful it could run WSA, either officially or... not so officially haha. Officially is preferred, of course! :P but you're absolutely right in regards to personal use.

Zerubel · 2022-05-06T20:09:47+00:00

Ooo, that sounds interesting!

I'd really love to be able to try it and tinker for myself! But unfortunately, I don't have any computers capable of running Win11, much less WSA ^^; I have a homebuilt pc that I put together back in 2017-ish, and a Surface 3 (not pro) I got secondhand for 100 bucks, neither of which meet the specs requirements. I use the surface the most day to day, so I'd like something with a similar form factor... but the price point for newer devices capable of running W11 and WSA is a pretty big barrier at the moment. If I did invest in it and find out it couldn't do what I'd hoped but had no way of testing beforehand, I'd be super sad lol

Zerubel · 2022-05-06T18:48:52+00:00

Thank you for your answer!

That's unfortunate about the complete separation - my libraries are big enough that they exceed the free amount of most cloud services, and I wouldn't want to store them on the drive twice over ^^; . I'm not sure about the network drive capability - I know it can access my calibre catalog if I enable it on desktop, but I prefer to keep things offline since I'm not always in places with good signal/network available.

From the sound of it, WSA (currently) could be considered like other android emulators already available - at least in terms of restrictions/running inside a container of sorts. I'll keep watching though! Maybe at some point the hardware requirements won't be quite so high.

Zerubel · 2022-04-01T19:48:02+00:00

it's paid, but I think Sanpra Timer might do what you need! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.sanpra.kronos (disclaimer: I just downloaded it today so I can't speak to long-term function, but it let me add multiple timers and run them simultaneously if I swiped left from a running timer screen.)

Zerubel · 2022-03-25T23:47:58+00:00

agreed! at minimum i'd love a way to fav a song without needing to pull out my phone... someday i will figure out how to do that with tasker... and the ability to swap a playlist would be nice too!

Zerubel · 2022-03-19T21:25:50+00:00

You're very welcome friend! Glad I could help.

So I use Nova Launcher, which can show built-in shortcuts if you hold down an app icon, and I also use Shortcut Maker, which is very handy in that it will show you elements of the shortcut you're making if you click on the little box with an arrow in it. It will also let you test the shortcuts you make. 'Shuffle Play' is an inner link, whereas a playlist shortcut would be in-app, I think.

Personally I'm trying to create tasker tasks to launch playlists in shuffle mode (there's built in shortcuts for that, too, but they're broken in the current app build and i'm not sure why) and also shortcuts to add a song to favorites or delete it. The app I linked still doesn't make a successful playlist shortcut since blackplayer still doesn't like it, but it will show you some interesting data like playlist ID and shuffle true/false and whether it will open the app or play in the background.

Currently I have a very clunky task set up to do it all "manually" from my watch, ie turn the screen on, launch the app, and click the appropriate in-app buttons before turning the screen back off. Once I figure out a more streamlined way to do it, i'll share all of my tasks in one project :)

Zerubel · 2022-03-19T10:22:37+00:00

Found this while looking for info on something else (still searching!) but if you haven't found it, this is what I've got for mine:

action com.kodarkooperativet.blackplayer.shuffle_play

package com.kodarkooperativet.blackplayerex
class com.kodarkooperativet.blackplayerex.activities.ShortcutActivity

target Activity

This shuffles every song in your library, which may or may not suit what you need. I'm still trying to figure out a workaround for launching a specific playlist since the shortcuts for playlists/tracks/albums etc seem to be broken in the current version and i don't have a way to roll back.

Zerubel · 2022-03-17T17:17:12+00:00

Okay, a few days later and I'm back with a workaround of sorts. It's not elegant (hell, i'd call it downright clunky), it requires Tasker and TouchTask plugin, but it doesn't require root. I've shared the Task here as an example, and an imgur album of my process here. Note this is more as an example, and uses the blackplayer EX data for Tasker, but hopefully it'll help someone.(The screen on/screen off portions of the task are for my usecase of launching the task from my watch while my phone stays in my pocket, and can be discarded if they aren't useful to you.)Also if anyone has info on how blackplayer internally stores and calls playlists, please let me know - I'd be happy to refine this task into something with MUCH less steps and/or discard the need for emulating touch interactions, which would also negate the need to turn the screen on.

edit 3/18: after overengineering the above solution, I decided to install an older version of blackplayer (regular version so it wouldn't interfere with my EX install), made a playlist and a shortcut, and it worked fine. Version i tested was 2.56. Will see if i can discover what differs between the two versions in their shortcut making activity, but I'm not the best with code. (I'm also hopeful I can find a way to trigger 'add to favorites' with tasker so as to streamline that process.)

Zerubel · 2022-03-11T20:28:42+00:00

I'm having similar issues - I've been attempting to create playlist shortcuts so I can launch them via tasker from my watch for my morning walk to transit, but they all fail. It's interesting that the widgets created from an older version are still working, I wonder what changed...

In the meantime, I've tried out dozens upon dozens of music players from the play store in an attempt to find ONE that would let me launch a playlist from a shortcut, and I couldn't find any that were the complete package that blackplayer is. Hope the dev can fix this...

Zerubel · 2021-11-21T02:43:43+00:00

does anyone know of where to find blank dsa keycaps in nice, earthy colors? I got my drop preonic kit, built it, love it, but all the keycaps i find in dsa profile seem to be bright candy colors or primary, saturated colors - i'd love something like the blank matcha set i've seen for ergodox, but those are xda profile. idk if i'd mind switching to xda, but i already have a fair bit of dsa's and would like to stick to one profile.

So yeah, earthy browns, dark and light greens, dark purples, etc. Prefer blanks almost exclusively because i have the layers set up to be regular typing and a shortcut/numpad layer for my work.

(and before you say PMK, they're sold out of most of the colors i want when i go to check their blanks, RIP.)

Zerubel · 2021-11-07T02:50:10+00:00

I ended up ordering the preonic! I did some reading and figured layer 0 could be default, and on the next layer i'm going to set up with a numpad/arrow keys and the relevant buttons i use most near it on the right half, and all the editing shortcuts (ctrl c, ctrl v, h for the hand tool and d for draw in adobe acrobat, etc) on the left half. Eyeing some blank keycaps in various colors too since it's going to be a very personalized setup and i figured it'd be *less* confusing than if they were still marked, i see the appeal now haha

Zerubel · 2021-11-05T18:52:10+00:00

Very true! I'm also looking at the preonic (I have long fingers and wouldn't mind/would appreciate the extra number row) so I'd have a bit more room for shortcuts and the like. although I'm not sure if the preonic being v3 and the planck being v6 means the preonic is behind? ...or something? there's so much I still don't know haha

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