Playlists are a useful way to organize your digital music... if you have only a few hundred songs. Once you have thousands of songs, it becomes a chore to modify playlists to suit changing tastes / moods. Also, playlists become completely impractical when you have to suit the musical tastes of various household members. JukeBx changes this. It builds playlists in the background that it creates based on how you, and up to nine other users, rate the song. This enables you to hear the songs you love regularly, and the ones you don't like as much less, while still giving you the variety that rebuilding playlists every day would give you. Up to ten programmable patterns can be set so everyone can hear music they like equally, or unequally if you set it that way! For example, you can set a pattern that will select 5 songs in a row that you like followed by one your partner likes. JukeBx can be set to use a database that is stored at a remote location and allow you to hear music the way you want it in any room with a networked computer. Multiple copies of JukeBx can use the same database when configured this way.

JukeBx supports most media files, including most video types, and songs can be imported from playlists or directories. JukeBx can also be used as a playlist generator if you like another player but dislike it's selection ability. JukeBx even includes a Media Filler mode for portable music players which will fill up a directory with a set amount of music.

• Each song can be rated from 0-10 for up to ten users. Each user name can be personalised. Alternative, the "users" could be the same person, but with ratings for different moods/situations.
• Lists can be made for a single user or, by using one of the customisable patterns, for up to ten people with different likes/dislikes.
• Patterns allow you to generate lists for users fairly, or un-fairly. In addition. this function can be used for other applications. For example;
  • Alternating between two people
  • Make one in four songs be one your children like. (Or vice versa!)
  • Play a comedy song or short every ten songs.
  • Make a radio station and play an "oldie" every five songs and an advertisement every ten songs.
• Patterns can be named for easy identification.
• The last 100 songs are remembered to avoid playing repeats. (This feature can be disabled)
• The artist of the last 20 songs are remembered to maximise song variety. (This feature can be disabled.)
• Low rated songs can be set to not play via a "Minimum Rating" feature.
• Partner/parent/friend/kid unfriendly songs can be avoided using the Offence control function. (The Offence Rating for each song must be individually set for this function to work.)
• File types can be individually selected for playing and/or importing.
• JukeBx can be set to automatically play when started.
• The current generated list is saved when JukeBx exits and resumed when it is restarted. (This feature can be disabled.)
• JukeBx can be set to pre-build lists when it is paused. The number of songs it prepares can also be changed.
• A special network mode is provided so multiple copies of JukeBx can share a single database. This enables you to use any computer in the house to modify ratings and see the results reflected in the rest of the house. This mode makes a local copy of the database to increase access speed and to reduce conflicts.

Options

Song selection method customisation

• Even the way that JukeBx sees ratings can be tweaked so it works just the way you want. By default songs rated as "2" are played twice as much as songs rated as "1", and songs rated as "3" are played twice as much as songs rated as "2" and so on. But this can be changed so, for example, have a constant difference of 2 (1, 3, 5 etc), or they can be scaled in-equally so songs that are rated less than 4 have a extremely low chance of playing (1, 2, 4, 8, 100, 200, etc.)
• JukeBx can automatically import files from a selected directory or playlist. Recursive directory searching is supported.
• Several database function are included, including ones to delete missing songs, restore all ratings to default, duplicate ratings between users and to export the database as a playlist.
• New databases can be created or existing ones selected via this window.

Database functions, including song import

• The song database can be manually viewed/edited in the Song Details window. This is shown for the current song via the button in the toolbar, or by right clicking any entry in the generated list or search result.
• Options such as the songs degree of offensiveness (clean, muddy, dirty, very dirty) and the start and end time of the song can be edited here
• A running tally of how many times JukeBx has selected this song is also shown in this window.
• Searches can be done from here as well.
• Multi-user setups are supported and JukeBx will run without any problems on a low privilege system and Windows Vista.
• JukeBx is written in 100% Assembly Language and is very small and memory efficient. The program itself is under 150KB!
• JukeBx can be run from a USB key and does not even need to be installed. Simply select "Extract" from the installer and then copy "JukeBx.exe" wherever you want!

Song Details

• JukeBx can be used to fill external storage devices with songs selected the same way as the main program. This can also be used to fill portable players that do not require using special software. (Apple iPod players and Sony players are examples of devices that will not work.)
• While settings are initially derived from the base programs current configuration, many of the settings can be customised for just this function. This allows you to, for example, have videos enabled with the main program, but disabled for the filler.
• Each file can have a number pre-fix to allow them to be played in the order they are selected.
• Several fill sizes are supported, and JukeBx can automatically empty the device prior to filling.
• This function is included in the main program and can be access via the menu, or by a command line switch.

Media Filler Window