From: Scott Rubin <slr2777@...>
Date: 2005-02-17T00:04:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Reading mp3 files

Stefan,

Yeah, I know all about xine, I run gentoo :P  But as you said, this is 
definitely too much for what I need.  However, it will very much come in handy 
in the future for other projects.  I'll keep an eye out for stable releases. 
Any other options?

-Scott


Stefan Holst wrote:
> Scott Rubin wrote:
> 
>> I've been writing some simple music collection management scripts in 
>> ruby lately, and it seems to be going well.  I found ruby id3 with a 
>> google search, it while not perfect it seems to meet my needs.  
>> However, I can't seem to find any ruby library/class that will help me 
>> get information out of mp3/ogg/etc. files that is not ID3.  For 
>> example I would like to examine any mp3 file and determine its bitrate 
>> and playtime. Is there a utility to give me this functionality or am I 
>> going to have to write a wrapper for a C library?
> 
> 
> i've already written a wrapper which might suit your needs. it is
> rather new and it's also the first time i mention it here.
> it wraps xine (http://xine.sf.net), a media player library you might
> heard of and can be found here:
> 
> http://xiron.sourceforge.net/
> 
> only a cvs module (xiron-new) is available for now, it is not yet
> released. you may also need the latest cvs of xine-lib since xiron may
> trigger some bugs in lastest released version.
> 
> you can retrieve information about _any_ media file xine supports:
> 
> stefan@droopy data $ irb -r xiron
> irb(main):001:0> s = Stream.new VideoPort.none, AudioPort.none
> => #<Stream:0x40715de4>
> irb(main):002:0> s.open "ogg_vorbis.ogg"
> => true
> irb(main):003:0> s.length
> => 10.011
> irb(main):004:0> s.title
> => "Matrix XP Soundtrack"
> irb(main):005:0> s.bitrate
> => 110734
> irb(main):006:0> s.open "xvid.avi"
> => true
> irb(main):007:0> s.length
> => 120.0
> irb(main):008:0>
> 
> you can also play these files of course.
> 
> but there are also a few catches:
> - xine has a relatively large memory footprint which might be too blown
>   for your needs
> - the tag informations are only readible for now
> - only tested on linux, might also work on other unix-derivates
> 
> 
> RY
> Stefan
> 
>