mpdfront

MPD front end written in Python, with the goal of being able to use a keyboard for complete control. Using all keys will more easily translate to use with a remote control. This is meant to be the head on headless MPD in a home theater setup where the user can see the information on a big screen.

The app will attempt to get album art from the media file first, then look for a file named cover.{jpg,png} in the music directory.

Required libraries:

• musicpd MPD client library
• PyGObject using:
  • Gtk
  • Gdk
  • GdkPixbuf
  • Pango
  • GObject
  • GLib
• Mutagen Audio file tags library
• Pillow Image library

Current Status

Working fairly well. Ported to GTK4. Still a few bugs and TODOs left.

Usage

usage: mpdfront [-h] [-c CONFIG]

MPD Frontend

optional arguments:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  -v, --verbose        Turn on verbose output. (default: False)
  -H, --host HOST      Remote host name or IP address. (default: None)
  -p, --port PORT      Remote TCP port number. (default: None)
  -s, --css CSS        CSS file for the Gtk App. (default: None)
  -c, --config CONFIG  Config file. (default: ~/.config/mpdfront/mpdfront.cfg)

A config file is required, whether it is passed as an argument or in the default location: ~/.config/mpdfront/mpdfront.cfg. The config file is in ini format.

Config File Sample

[main]
fullscreen=no
width=1920
height=1080
host=localhost
port=6600
style=style.css
music_dir=/music_dir
sound_card=0
sound_device=0
logger_config=logging.yml
resize=no
decorations=no

[keys]
playpause=p
stop=u
cue=l
rewind=k
next=o
previous=i
info=w
outputs=e
options=r
cardselect=t
browser=1
playlist=2
toggle_main=3
toggle_bottom=4
delete=d
moveup=a
movedown=s

Config File Details

main section

• fullscreen, width, height: fullscreen overrides width and height if set to "yes". Otherwise the app is set to width x height.
• host: the MPD host
• port: the MPD port, normally 6600
• style: path to CSS file
• music_dir: root music directory, normally set to the same as music_directory in mpd.conf
• sound_card, sound_device: sound output device identifiers. ALSA device hw:2,1 would have sound_card=2, sound_device=1
• logger_config: path to YML config for Python logging.
• resize: yes/no for setting the window to be resizable
• decorations: yes/no for setting window decorations, ie. title bar, window frame

keys section

• playpause: key to toggle play/pause
• stop: key to stop playback
• cue: jumps ahead in the song
• rewind: jumps back in the song
• next: next track in playlist
• previous: to the beginning of the current song, or to the previoud track in the playlist
• info: shows the song info dialog
• outputs: shows the outputs dialog
• options: shows the options dialog
• browser: set focus on the browser
• playlist: sets focus on the playlist
• toggle_main: rotates widgets to full and split screen
• toggle_bottom: rotates bottom widgets to full and split screen
• delete: delete track in playlist
• moveup: move track up in playklist
• movedown: move track down in playlist