Step 4 - Launch The PC Jukebox
Step 5 - Enter Your Music Path
Step 6 - Enter Your Library Path
Step 7 - Build Your Music Library
Introduction (return to top)
Welcome to The PC Jukebox, Version 8.0!!
The evaluation version of the program will limit you to 10 uses
before purchase is needed. Furthermore, within
those 10 uses, you will be limited to playing 10 songs per use.
After your evaluation, if you would like to purchase the full
version of the program and unlock the program for unlimited use, please visit
www.thepcjukebox.com and click on the Purchase button. After payment is verified, you will receive
an Unlock Code that, once entered, will unlock the program.
Please use the following instructions as a guide map to setting up
the program. If you follow these
instructions step by step, you will be up and running in just a matter of
minutes (providing you ID3 tags are setup properly on all of your MP3 and other
media files!!). You may want to print
this file so it is easier to refer to during the setup process (if you are
viewing this file from within the application, just right click anywhere in the
document and select ‘Print’ from the shortcut menu).
Please keep in mind that The PC Jukebox is designed to run full
screen on a monitor set at 1024x768 resolution.
The program will run properly if your monitor is set to a higher
resolution, i.e. 1600x1200, however it will not take up the entire screen. An additional download is available to
support 800x600 if necessary.
Step 1 - Run the Setup (return to top)
Double click the ThePCJukeboxSetup.exe file that unzipped with the
download. Accept all of the default
settings in the setup, unless you have a specific reason to change a
setting. The default folder where the
application is installed is C:\Program Files\The PC Jukebox. After installation is complete, you should
have a series of new files and folders created in this location. The files in this folder should be the
following:
·
The PC Jukebox Installation - READ FIRST!!.html - This file.
·
The PC Jukebox.exe - This is the main application
executable.
·
Configurator.exe – This is an executable that will allow
you to set up your Music Library and any preferences before launching The PC
Jukebox.
·
SynchroLyricsWriteXML.exe
– This
is a small utility program that will allow you to create synchronized lyrics
for songs that The PC Jukebox can display
·
NonMP3Tagger.exe – This is a
small utility that will allow you add tag information for media files that are
not in the MP3 format. Without these
tags, non MP3s will NOT get added to the Music Library. See step 2a below for
further details.
·
ThePCJukebox8.mdb - This is a supporting database
file.
·
PCJBLibraries8.mdb
– This is the Music Libraries database file.
·
PCJBSettings8.mdb – This a the
settings database file.
·
ImageNotFound.jpg - This is the image that is displayed
when The PC Jukebox is unable to locate the proper album cover.
·
Focus.wav – This is a small sound file that can be played whenever the
mouse clicks or hovers over any button.
·
The PC Jukebox Help.html – An HTML file
that provides a description of all features in the Configurator.
·
The PC Jukebox
Help2.html – An HTML file that provides a description of all features on the
Options screen.
·
What's New.html - An HTML file
that describes all of the updates that have been made to the application.
·
How To Create A
Skin.html – An HTML file that describes how to create and edit skins for
The PC Jukebox.
You should also have several subfolders created. One of them is named 'Images'. Another copy of the ImageNotFound.jpg file is
placed here by default.
There are also several folders created that pertain to skins. Please refer to the file How To Create A Skin for further
details.
Step 2 - Tag All Of Your MP3s (return to top)
MAKE SURE ALL OF YOUR MP3 ID3 TAGS ARE SETUP PROPERLY. If the tags are not perfect, you will get
unexpected results when running The PC Jukebox.
Perfect, in this sense, means that if you expect certain songs to show
up under a certain artist, the artist tag for each of these songs must be IDENTICAL,
including case. Similarly, if you expect
certain songs to show up under the same album, the album tags for these songs
must be IDENTICAL, including case.
Failure to have these tags perfect and matching will result in multiple
listings of artists and songs, each with an individual spelling.
IMPORTANT -- Any MP3 that does not contain a Title,
Artist, and Album tag will be added to The PC Jukebox with a label of ‘Unknown
Title’, ‘Unknown Artist’, or ‘Unknown Album’ respectively.
Optional tags that can be included on your files include ‘Track
Number’ and, if your songs are tagged using ID3 v2, ‘Band or Orchestra’. Starting with Version 5.0, the ‘Band or
Orchestra’ tag is used to group songs from compilation albums together. For example, if you have 3 songs from a
soundtrack album but they all have different Artists, you will be able to see
them all listed together if you make all of their ‘Band or Orchestra’ tags
equal to ‘Soundtracks’. Make sure the
Album Name tag is the same for all of them.
Now, you will see an entry named ‘Soundtracks’ on the Artist List
screen. Also, on the Album Cover View
screen, if you sort the albums by Album Name, you will see a single entry for
that album.
If you need further assistance on how to set up your ‘Band or
Orchestra’ tags, please feel free to send an email to questions@thepcjukebox.com or support@thepcjukebox.com. We’ll be happy to help you out!!
Step 2a - Tag All Of Your NON MP3s
(return to top)
Starting with Version 8.0, non MP3 media files are supported and
can be played in The PC Jukebox. These
formats include .wma, .wav, .wmv, .avi, .mpg and .mpeg. However, since none of these type of files
directly support tagging, a new approach had to be taken.
Included with The PC Jukebox installation is a small utility named
NonMP3Tagger. This program is very
simple and easy to use. Simply start the
program by clicking Start -> All Programs -> The PC Jukebox
->NonMP3Tagger. Once the program is
running, click the Browse… button and select the media file you would like to
tag. When it is selected, you can fill
in all of the necessary tag information and click the ‘Create Tag File’
button. REMEMBER TO FILL IN THE ARTIST, SONG TITLE, and CD TITLE FIELDS, at a
minimum. You should receive a
message informing you that the tag file was created. That’s it!
To verify the tag file exists and is accurate, you can navigate to
folder where the media file exists.
There should be a new file in the folder with the same name as the CD
Title and a .tag extension.
IMPORTANT -- Any NON MP3 media file that does not have a
separate tag file created for it will NOT be included when the Music Library is
built or updated.
Step 3 - Get Your Cover Art (return to top)
If your ID3 tags are all version 2 and you have your cover art
contained in your files, you can skip this step. Otherwise, in order for the album cover art
to appear in The PC Jukebox, this step must be followed exactly.
Starting with Version 6.0 is the ability to automatically download
your cover art from the internet, provided you have an active internet
connection while you are building your Music Library. Simply check the box marked ‘Automatically
Download Cover Art During Build/Update?’ in The PC Jukebox Configurator and it
will search the internet for matching album covers during the build or update
process.
To make sure the cover art appears for a given song, there must be
a graphic file located in the same folder as the media file with the exact name
of the album from the ID3 tag, with a .jpg extension. In other words, if the Album Title tag of a
song reads '
The PC Jukebox will first check to see if this graphic file
exists. If not, The PC Jukebox will
check to see if the MP3 file contains a Version 2 tag. If so, it will check to see if there are any
images contained within the file. If so,
it will display the first image. If The
PC Jukebox is unable to locate either of these, the default ImageNotFound.jpg
will be displayed instead. This file can
be found in the root folder where The PC Jukebox.exe is located, as well as in
the Images folder.
Step 4 - Launch The PC Jukebox Configurator (return to top)
You are now ready to customize and load The PC Jukebox!
Click on Start-Programs-The PC Jukebox-The PC Jukebox
Configurator. You will be presented with
the initial setup screen. You can click
on the Help button for more detail if necessary.
Before you can play any music through The PC Jukebox, you will
need to build your Music Library.
Fortunately this is very easy to do.
Step 5 - Enter Your Music Path (return to top)
The PC Jukebox will need to know where it can find your MP3 and
other media files. You will indicate
this in the Music Path text box. The PC
Jukebox will search for MP3 and other media files in the folder that is indicated
in the Music Path text box, as well as any subfolders of that path.
To search your entire drive, simply enter the drive letter
followed by :\ in the Music Path text box, i.e. C:\. To narrow and speed your search, you may
indicate a starting folder, i.e. C:\Music.
Currently, The PC Jukebox will only search on one drive letter. However, to search multiple drives, you can
do them one at a time (i.e. enter C:\ and search, then, when finished, enter
D:\ and search. The Music Library will
be updated with any files from both drives).
Step 6 - Select Your Music Library (return to top)
Starting with Version 6.0, The PC Jukebox supports
multiple Music Libraries. By default, a
Music Library by the name of MusicLibrary1 is selected. You can create additional Music Libraries by
clicking the ‘Create Music Library’ button, but this is just an optional
feature. Initially, it is recommended
that you simply use ‘MusicLibrary1’.
To be able
to build your Music Library, you MUST have, at a minimum, Version 2.7 of the
Microsoft Data Access Components installed on your PC. If
you do not have these loaded, you can download these components by visiting www.thepcjukebox.com and visiting the
Downloads page.
Step 7 - Build Your Music Library
(return to top)
The Music Library MUST be built at least once before clicking the
‘Save & Start The PC Jukebox’ button and launching the program.
Once all of the path and library information is entered in steps 5 & 6, you can build your Music
Library. Click on the 'Build Music
Library' button. The PC Jukebox will
begin searching for MP3 files, starting in the folder indicated in the Music Path
text box. It will extract all of the
relevant tag information from each file it finds and record it in the Music
Library database. Building the Music
Library may take several minutes, based on how many files it finds and the
speed of your PC.
Once the search is complete, the indicator will display how many
songs The PC Jukebox found and then the word 'Complete'.
Step 8 - Start The PC Jukebox (return to top)
Click on the ‘Save & Start The PC Jukebox’ button. The PC Jukebox will initialize by reading all
of the data out of the Music Library File.
This can take a couple of minutes, based on how big your library is and
the speed of your machine.
Once initialized, The PC Jukebox main screen is displayed and you
may begin picking songs to play.
Step 9 - Play A Song (return to top)
Click on the ‘Browse By Artists’ button on the left hand side. All
of the available artists will be displayed on pushbuttons to the right of the
screen. Click on a button. All of the songs that are available for that
artist are listed in alphabetical order, again on pushbuttons on the right of
the screen. All of the available albums
for that Artist will be displayed in the middle of the screen, indicated by
their album cover. Clicking on any one
of the album covers will filter the pushbuttons on the right side to display
only songs that appear on that album.
Clicking on any one of the song pushbuttons will allow you to add that
song to queue.
To add a song to the queue, simply click the 'Add Song To Queue'
button at the bottom of the screen. If
this is the first song to be added, the song will begin to play
immediately. Otherwise it will be added
to the bottom of the queue.
Add as many songs as you would like for the artist. When finished, click the 'Back' button to
return to the main screen. You will now
see the album cover, artist name, song name, and album name displayed for the
song currently playing.
Prologue (return to top)
That's it!! You have now
successfully set up and started The PC Jukebox.
Again, if you would like to purchase the full version of the
program and unlock it for unlimited use, please visit www.thepcjukebox.com and
click on the Purchase button.
Thanks for downloading and we hope you enjoy The PC Jukebox!!