MP3 Playlist for Chromecast

Come to find out, I am a very retro guy when it comes to music. I have these old things that I like to use to play music, you may not have heard of them, they are called MP3s. They are kind of like 8-track tapes, but digital, not in the cloud, and not old enough to be cool yet.

How do you play MP3s via Chromecast?

The official answer is to use Google Play, but that implies that you want to both pay for that service and upload your files to the cloud. The unofficial answer is to drag and drop your MP3s into a Chrome tab and cast that tab, however this does not allow you to create a playlist.

Introducing Playlist for Chromecast

I have created a simple single page HTML 5 application that will act as a playlist for MP3s on your computer. Just download the project and open up release/playlist.html in Chrome, then drag and drop MP3s on to the page.

Development

I had a lot of fun making this, and I'm not done. I intend to use this project as a case study to talk about VSCode, TypeScript, SASS, HTML5 Audio, NPM, and unit testing. For now, I just wanted to start by getting this initial post up, but expect more to follow.

• Source on GitHub

What's next?

• Update project documentation.
• Create unit tests.
• Add theme support.
• Write blog posts about development.
• Maybe host it on a domain.
• Maybe submit it as a Chrome application.

Enjoy,
Tom

Converting SNES Soundtracks to MP3

Do you like video game soundtracks from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System? Do all of your media devices use the MP3 format? Well then you are in luck!

You can download any SNES sound track and convert all of it's tracks to MP3 for free.

Step 1: Setup the Tools

• WinRAR
  • Download: www.win-rar.com/download.html
  • Install: Just run the installer.
• Foobar2000
  • Download: www.foobar2000.org/download
  • Install: Just run the installer, I use the "standalone" settings.
• Game Emu Player (foo_gep)
  • Download: www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_gep
  • Install: Lunch Foobar. Select Library, Configure, Components, Install, and select the foo_gep component file.
• LAME MP3 Encoder
  • Download: www.free-codecs.com/Lame_Encoder_download.htm
  • Just extract the files, no install required.

Step 2: Go get some music

SNESMusic.org is a very nearly complete archive of all SNES soundtracks. Go there, find something you like, and download the RSN file. These RSN files are actually archives contains all of the individual tracks in SPC format.

Open the RSN file using WinRAR and extract the SPCs. If you have properly installed the foo_gep component, you should now be able to open and play these files in Foobar.

(Having a hard time deciding what to get? Check out VGMuseum's top SNES Soundtracks.)

Step 3: Convert to MP3

Create a playlist in Foobar of all the tracks that you wish to convert. Select them, right click, and select convert.

Set the output format to "MP3 Lame". Update your destination settings, I recommend specifying an output folder, and setting a multi-track file pattern of "%album%\%album% - %title%". There is no need to update the processing or other settings unless you wish to.

Click convert and the program will ask you to specify the file path of the LAME MP3 Encoder that you downloaded in step 1. Just put in the path and select lame.exe

Step 4: Rock out!

Foobar should now be converting your SPC files to MP3s. :)

Enjoy,
Tom