SoundBox 3.1

Kingdom Hall Meeting Recording & Music/Video Playback

Revision History

  • 20 Oct 2018 (v3.1.0.120) After Dec 2018, toast message about end of life won't display. Disabled the auto-population of timers after Dec 2018.
  • 20 May 2018 (v3.1.0.117) SoundBox end-of-life tweaks. Updates to user guide.
  • 05 May 2018 (v3.1.0.115) Provided redundancy for cv8.org.uk so that the media service, etc continues to work if SoundBox website is down. SoundBox now uses the OnlyT feed so that SoundBox will continue to populate song numbers and meeting times after 31 Dec 2018.
  • 08 April 2018 (v3.1.0.111) Fixed bug in Bible Text Image tool.
  • 01 April 2018 (v3.1.0.110) Modifications in preparation for SB end-of-life 31 Dec 2018. Improved Bible Text Image download. Fixed ConfLaunch compatibility.
  • 08 Jan 2018 (v3.1.0.108) Removed redundant timer on Ministry page. Added manual timer adjustment to the 3 Ministry timers.
  • 05 Jan 2018 (v3.1.0.107) Fixed sounding of auto timing bell.
  • 27 Dec 2017 (v3.1.0.106) Removed mailing list link. Added check for VLC version number (2.2.8 is minimum supported).
  • 25 Dec 2017 (v3.1.0.105) Fix for incompatibility with most recent versions of VLC (2.2.5 onwards).
  • 20 Nov 2017 (v3.1.0.104) Localisation updates for new midweek meeting items (Ministry section starting 1 Jan 2018).
  • 14 Nov 2017 (v3.1.0.102) Added support for new midweek meeting timers (Ministry section starting 1 Jan 2018). Weekly changes to new talk times are automatically downloaded. Disabled "video presentations" item timer starting Jan 2018. Modified auto-bell function to cater for new Ministry section where one of the items is often not a student talk.
  • 30 Sep 2017 (v3.1.0.101) Added 'JW Library' mode which can assist when using JW Library as media player. Modified homepage timer so that if a timer is stopped within a second of starting (likely an operator error) the timer resets rather than automatically advancing to the next one. Improved timer performance. Minor language translation updates.
  • 30 Aug 2017 (v3.1.0.97) Updated Turkish translation. pt-PT now downloads its own song media rather than that of pt-BR. Modified rendering of Folio lyrics to accommodate long words (in some non-English languages). Added announcement about SoundBox end-of-life to user guide, Welcome page. When the old songs are no longer available for download in your language you can still uninstall from the Update Songs window.
  • 23 June 2017 (v3.1.0.94) Updated Swedish translation. When recording folder is specified using a command-line option, SoundBox now appends the congregation name (if applicable).
  • 14 June 2017 (v3.1.0.93) Removed Dropbox support because the API is deprecated.
  • 26 May 2017 (v3.1.0.92) Modified image thumbnail function to prevent crash in rare circumstances. Updated Swedish language translation. Added an error message to indicate if SoundBox discovers a bug in jw.org lyrics timing data.
  • 7 April 2017 (v3.1.0.91) Fixed bug in songs downloader when new songs are published in a language ahead of lyric timing data.
  • 30 March 2017 (v3.1.0.90) Fixed bug when reading media file meta-data in some images. Updated Turkish and Polish language translations.
  • 13 March 2017 (v3.1.0.89) Added "Folio lyrics Theme" setting (original colour scheme + new black background). Changed item title from "Bible Study" to "Bible Study / Talk". Fixed bug whereby the -noautosongs command-line option also turns off the automatic setting of meeting timers. Redirect "pt-PT" language code to "pt" for retrieval of new songs. Modified detection of new songbook lyric availability in "Update Songs" window. Updated Dutch and Finnish translations.
  • 12 February 2017 (v3.1.0.87) Updated Lithuanian, Italian and Finnish translations.
  • 31 January 2017 (v3.1.0.86) Fixed timing report bug (non-production in some circumstances)
  • 31 January 2017 (v3.1.0.85) Updated Welsh, Iloko, Croatian, Simplified Chinese, Polish, Norwegian, Russian, Bulgarian, Swedish, Turkish, Haitian Creole and Estonian language translations. Added Czech language translation. Modified timing report to exclude anomalous timings (e.g. where a mistake is made and the timer is reset). Modified background image fade when playing song video.
  • 14 January 2017 (v3.1.0.83) Updated Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Twi and Romanian language translations.
  • 12 January 2017 (v3.1.0.82) Updated Iloko, Tagalog, English-US, Bulgarian, Pangasinan, Portuguese (pt-PT), Finnish, Indonesian, Javanese, Haitian Creole and Danish language translations. Added Pangasinan, Indonesian and Javanese language translation. Added Pangasinan and Javanese custom cultures. Fixed minor bug in song downloader when MP4 song videos are manually installed. Improved progress bar slide animation when starting a song video. Fixed minor bug that allowed you to change song number while a song video was loading in preparation to play. Fixed bug in media page that allowed dropped or pasted media files to disrupt any existing presentation. Removed mini timer display from timer monitor when video song is displayed. Added option to remove title from scrolling lyrics display (to allow more room at the top of the display). Fixed bug in flashing of homepage timer. Changed the default value of the 'Adaptive timer starts on quarter' setting to true. Changed the default value of the 'Two way adaptive timing' setting to false. Added Timing Report feature. Fixed API bug - SoundBox failed to send song-end event notification. Added confirmation prompt when uninstalling song books. Fixed obscure bug that occasionally raises a progress bar error when operating videos via a remote app. Fixed bug that creates UI inconsistency when double-clicking the Play button for a video song. New option to display background image only when background music is playing. Improved application load time. Added optional analytics to help track user numbers during SoundBox close-down. Improved load performance of Shortcut Manager. Now check for URL hex control codes in a PDF filename and raise a warning message when we attempt to display. Modified custom culture generator to cater for cultures that exist in Win 10 but not in earlier Windows versions. Some language fixes to Bible Text Image tool.
  • 16 December 2016 (v3.1.0.50) Added zoom-in support (105% or 110%) for song videos to enhance legibility on TVs (thanks Rick!).
  • 15 December 2016 (v3.1.0.49) Modified background music so that with the "Misc" option enabled. SoundBox automatically selects from the "Songs" folder if no MP3 files are in the "Misc" folder. Modified rendering of video on timer monitor. Added "Expand all" command to Options, Settings page. Added Hiligaynon translation. Added Lithuanian translation (formerly missing from installation). Fixed bug in audio playback device selection (thanks Anssi!).
  • 08 December 2016 (v3.1.0.46) First release with full support for new song videos.
  • 08 December 2016 (BETA v3.1.0.45) Fixed a minor bug when using Windows Media Player video player mode. Modified behaviour of songs downloader window in the case where lyrics are available but not the music.
  • 07 December 2016 (BETA v3.1.0.44) Additional support for emerging song videos in English. Modified error handling for corrupt subscriptions file.
  • 06 December 2016 (BETA v3.1.0.43) Added Indonesian language translation. Additional support for emerging song videos in English.
  • 05 December 2016 (BETA v3.1.0.40) Updated Dutch, Greek, Polish and Twi translations. Updated list of credits. Added font size limits and animation to preview of SoundBox Speaker Message application. Fixed a bug in the Display function of the Bible Text Image tool. Modified recording function so that slow target media does not interfere with application UI during starting of recording. Modified Media Subscriptions window to take account of the region setting as well as the language. Added Options window to Speaker Message tool.
  • 30 November 2016 (v3.1.0.37) Added Ewe, Lithuanian, Sinhala, Twi translations. Updated Bulgarian, Chinese (simplified), Croatian, Dutch, English (US), Estonian, Finnish, French, Ga, German, Greek, Hungarian, Iloko, Italian, Latvian, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian, Welsh, translations. Added Ewe and Twi custom cultures. Added support for the new songbook (audio MP3 files only; video songs not yet released). Included slideshow-style lyrics for new songbook. Modified the Options Settings page so that the category and property orders are language-independent. Added optional homepage timer reminder (it flashes to alert you that you may have forgotten to start it). Combined MP3 and lyric download/update into one function and removed the Update Lyrics button. Modified the "Sunday" timer tab label to read "Weekend" Update user guide for Folio lyrics and changes to Options page layout. Added SoundBox Speaker Message application. Removed elevation requirement from Shortcut Manager tool. Added support for ".jpe" image file extension. Fixed a bug that meant the media progress bar is not displayed if a video is paused very quickly after starting. Modified browser emulation mode value to improve compatibility with some websites (and Keynote Live in particular). Added Bible Text Image tool (currently experimental and unsupported). Font names are now sorted in the Options, Settings page. Modified recording so that SoundBox warns you if you have no access to the destination folder. To assist with cloud-backed recording folders, SoundBox now uses a temporary folder and moves the file to the recordings folder when complete. Additional error checking in media service. Updated API to v7 to include additional data in media API, and a new event notifications API. Added support for optional language-specific curator homepage.
  • 12 October 2016 (v3.0.0.78) Modified restriction on minimum number of lines displayed in lyrics, allowing for larger text size. Updated absolute maximum lyric font size from 128pt to 300pt. Modified folder access rights for Songs and Lyric folders to allow all users access. Updated Croatian, Russian, Bulgarian, Spanish, Norwegian, Tagalog, Turkish, German, Swedish, Estonian and Portuguese (Portugal) translations. New prompt during the "Update MP3s" command to alert you if the song archives have not been changed since you last updated. The word "Song" as it appears in the Timer window now uses the current media language (which is significant when media language and UI language are different). New Chinese (simplified), Latvian and Iloko translations. Fixed track-numbering bug in one of the Iloko song files on jw.org. Improved handling of media and timer target displays when they become disconnected. Modified installer to adjust access rights to any extant songs folder. Fixed a bug that displays an error message in the media subscriptions window in Windows 7.
  • 17 September 2016 (v3.0.0.67) Added Shortcut Manager application. Added an attribute to the lyric control file so that you can modify the scrolling delay on all songs at once. Fixed bug that displayed lyrics on timer display when an image was being shown. Modified the lyrics line-splitting algorithm to improve handling of larger font sizes. Modified font-sizing in lyrics display to ensure that at least 5 lines of text will always be shown regardless of settings. Added custom culture generation to support culture settings that are not yet in Windows (e.g. Haitian Creole). Added a warning regarding the "Videos on timer" option. Added meeting-start countdown timer. Added "-noAutoSongs" command-line option. Added "/midweekStart" and "/weekendStart" command-line options to specify meeting start times (affects auto-stop of background music and the display of the countdown timer before the start of the meeting). Added Portuguese (Portugal) and Ga (Ghana) translations. Added "/mediaLang" command-line option. Modified behaviour of "background music on launch" feature to guard against accidentally playing music on a restart. Prevent display sleep. Modified access rights to media calendar folders created by the media service so that the purge command in SoundBox works. Modified behaviour of media service feeds so that old files in the feed (more than 2 weeks old) are not downloaded. Reintroduced check for song 151 (now released in most languages). Added larger application icon sizes. Fully updated Hungarian, Finnish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish, Catalan, German, Italian, Slovak, Ukranian, Romanian, English (US) and Dutch translations. Added support for v6 of the SoundBox web API. Added check for Raptr and PlaysTV. Added better error checking during unzipping of song archives.
  • 16 August 2016 (v3.0.0.42) Updated song timings for new orchestral songs (now completing the archive). Fixed minor bug that prevented the timer working properly when background music is playing. Modified time of day display in clock webpage to always include 4 digits (even in 12hr clock mode). Added command file support for specification of command-line options. Removed redundant piano music from default (English) songs download. Updated French and Bulgarian translations.
  • 12 August 2016 (v3.0.0.40) Fixed crash on startup when the congregation name contains invalid filename characters, e.g. quotation marks. Modified media service so that a failure to queue a media item doesn't prevent processing of other items and feeds. Fixed media service processing of website links. Fixed the display of some Portuguese song names in the Music page. Updated Croatian and Hungarian translations.
  • 06 August 2016 (v3.0.0.38) Added logging framework. Added media service. Fixed bug that prevented selection of a media target display when song was playing with lyrics enabled. Added image and video tooltips in Media page. In media list we now display the media title in the subtitle line if the option is to display file name. Added automatic purging of media control file. Introduced media listing codes and associated sorting. Tagalog localisation added. Added automatic opening of port 8095 TCP and UDP on install and closing on uninstall. Changed default settings for most of the API options (except Enable web API), enabling them by default. Background music snippets now defaults to off. Background image naming convention can now use congregation names. Added support for background jpg files (as alternative to png). Added API v5 support for 512 thumbnails and video thumbnails, and support for jpg thumbnails. Added option to disable mouse cursor on target display. Fixed minor issue where Media navigation button appeared non-selected when API was used to open the Media page. Added API setting summary in Options General page. Added an option to desync audio from video in VLC player mode. Added a check in Media Service for media title length and truncate if longer than 120 characters. Added support for duplicating videos and images on the timer display (Media Foundation mode only for videos). We now prevent a target display being locked when no selection is made. Modified terminology to refer to "remote devices" and "remote connections" rather than an "API" - changes reflected in User Guide and Options pages. Fix minor bug in display of timer progress bar when the option is off. Improved song playback performance (increased length of decode and streaming buffers). Added colour coding of media items with listing codes. Added user agent string to web requests for media service resources. Language updates: Dutch, Finnish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Turkish, Ukrainian. Temporarily ignore the "missing song 151" error.
  • 07 July 2016 (v2.9.0.198) Improved handling of corrupt MP3 song files. Changed parsing of song titles to accommodate changes to MP3 tag formats on jw.org. Added check for sufficient space before downloading or updating MP3 songs. Provided a work-around for bad track numbers embedded in Portuguese MP3 songs files 136-150. Modified the lyrics function to accommodate the revised introductions to some of the new orchestral songs (in batch dated June 2016). The /dataFolder commandline parameter now overrides folder targets properly when the 'Share media' option is disabled. Updated API (v4) to include an additional timer property. Improved performance of Dropbox upload. Fixed some missing Tagalog lyrics. Added 'Getting Started' section to user guide. Added Estonian language.
  • 11 June 2016 (v2.9.0.193) Added several language revisions. Fixed a bug preventing Dropbox uploads in some circumstances. Modified lyric metrics for new songs (152-154 released yesterday). Relegated warnings about missing songs to a toast notification.
  • 08 June 2016 (v2.9.0.192) Enlarged the size of the Media and Copy page scrollbars to assist with touch operation. Changed main window internal title (removed reference to 2014). Added options to purge old recordings and media calendar items. Fixed minor bug in media calendar display. Added web API v3 with support for media control. Updated WTImageDisco to accommodate a small change in WT epub format. Added 'album art' images to SoundBox MP3 recordings. Updated Polish, French, Arabic and Italian translations. Updated FMOD library to 4.44.61. Added UDP broadcast response option. If a target display is disconnected SoundBox will still remember it for next time. Fixed bug in displaying an image very quickly after song lyrics end (when background image is in use). Fixed bug in playing some Polish videos containing multi-line titles. Fixed WTImageDisco incompatibility with September WT. Added browser support for opening new window (target=_blank). Fixed occasional media screen flicker during background music playback.
  • 06 May 2016 (v2.9.0.169) Slightly reduced size of media list item text. Updated Croatian and Swedish translations. Fixed bug in handling corrupt configuration files (introduced in 2.9.0.168).
  • 1 May 2016 (v2.9.0.168) Many revised translations. Minor improvements in Dropbox upload function. Modified lyric function to fade 5 seconds before the end of MP3s to better accommodate the silence at the end of Kingdom songs. Improved handling of corrupt settings file. Moved the drag-and-drop file copy operation off the UI thread. Revised size of items in Timer Window. Added option to display time of day instead of traffic lights in Timer window. Background image now fades before start of video rather than simply hides. Ensured SoundBox web browser render mode is set appropriately during startup. Provided warning message when attempting to stream video from https using Media Foundation mode. Modified handling of script errors in Dropbox sign-up page.
  • 01 April 2016 (v2.9.0.154) Added check for monitor scaling. Added support for the .m4v video file format. Added slide-show feature. Enabled touch scrolling of media list. Modified the scaling factor of the zoom buttons in the image preview window from 0.1 to 0.05. Removed the video fade in/out option (largely redundant and difficult to maintain with several video player options). Added an option to specify when the background music should stop. Added options to control image fades. Simplified language-specific background images. Fixed lyrics line-splitting bug. Auto-stop background music function modified so that it only operates once per session, allowing background music to be restarted immediately if needed. Added runtime check for existence of audio playback device. Allowed display of an image without having to hide the previous one first. Added media item checkmarks to indicate which is currently displayed.
  • 18 Mar 2016 (v2.9.0.135) Fix for Italian song lyrics. Updated Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian translations.
  • 18 Mar 2016 (v2.9.0.134) Added lyrics display feature. Added Russian translation. Fixed minor display bug in Bulgarian song titles. Added code to workaround any invalid xml in the media control file. Fixed the -reset command-line option. Fixed writing of MP3 tag data when a recording is aborted. Added -nolyrics command-line argument to disable lyric display regardless of application settings. Added lyrics control file for manual override of some lyrics display options.
  • 04 Mar 2016 (v2.9.0.117) Added a Misc. Option to delay any Dropbox uploads until after the end of the meeting. Added Dropbox section to Settings page. Fixed bug that crashed SoundBox under unusual circumstances (and only when using VLC or WMP video mode). Added optional check for low space on recording drive. Added toast notifications. Added option to display student overtime notification. Added option to check and report internet connectivity. Added option to display notifications when the adaptive timer makes significant adjustments. Made it easier to select media items with short names (in the Media page list). Added activity markers to the main navigation buttons indicating when a song or video is playing, etc. Improved clarity of navigation buttons. Fixed a problem that arises when you delete the Dropbox account that is registered with SoundBox. Fixed mutex issue when trying to launch a 2nd copy of SoundBox when the first has queued Dropbox uploads. Added user-guide section on "Managing Folders". Added option to allow users to stop recording when in auto-recording mode. Added "-reset" command-line option to reset settings to default values. Fixed bug in calculation of first mid-week meeting of the month. Increased the chairman's 1-minute counsel from 60 secs to 75 secs by popular request. Added a work-around for incorrect MP3 metadata in one of the Portuguese songs.
  • 20 Feb 2016 (v2.9.0.100) Added Catalan and Dutch translations. Modified song download to include orchestral renditions of the original piano versions (where language is available). Song folder analysis now caters for duplicates, selecting the most up-to-date version of a particular song. Updated language files. Added option 'Rename media on drag and drop'. Added option 'Show media folder button'. Added option 'Lock timer display'. Added option 'Lock media display'. Added Media Calendar button in Media page and option to display it. Added option 'Allow video scrubbing'. Modified Dropbox xml temp file-naming convention to prevent multiple users overwriting. Added recording fade speed options. Added VLC video playback option. Modified adaptive timer so it handles closing and reopening SoundBox after the start of the meeting. If the http listener has insufficient access rights this is now reported in the event log and cleanup of the listener on shutdown no longer generates an error. Fixed gratuitous creation of empty recording folders. Timer progress bar is updated during Chairman's 1-minute student counsel (mid-week meeting).
  • 05 Feb 2016 (v2.9.0.82) Changed timer behaviour so midweek timer configuration is automatically loaded even on a weekend. Modified http listener to ignore response write exceptions (when a client disconnects before the response has been written). Finnish, Slovak, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Greek and Welsh translations added. Many translations updated. Fixed image preview issues with certain regional settings (thanks to N.L.L.) Added "Mirror" function to assist with website and PDF navigation when projected at a distance. Fixed occasional exception error when counting PDF pages. Added -nogpu command-line switch to turn off hardware graphics rendering. Added /cong command-line parameter to specify congregation name. Added /lang command-line parameter to specify 2-letter locale. Added the following command-line parameters to specify the location of various folders: /songsFolder, /videosFolder, /miscFolder, /mediaFilesFolder, /mediaCalendarFolder, /websitesFolder, /recFolder, /dataFolder. SoundBox now prevents selection of another video while one is currently playing (to overcome possible confusion about which one is being played). Refactored the Options pages so that it's easier to add new options. Added option to disable the video fading. Added option to independently set adaptive timing mode for mid-week and Sunday meetings. Fixed API bug that gave wrong timer information (talk titles) during circuit visit. Added option so that adaptive timing records the meeting start time to the nearest quarter of an hour. Added option to lock the adaptive timing flags. Added option to lock the auto recording flag. Added option to remember (or not) the media and timer displays. Added option to disable the manual timer bell. Added Windows Media Player video rendering option. Added rectangle zoom mode button to image preview window. Added Homepage Timer. Added -touchfix command-line option to work around a WPF incompatibility with some small touch-screens. Modified behaviour so that when a 'target' monitor or projector is removed then the timer or media window is closed (rather than moved to the primary monitor). "Next song" number now remains on timer display during the song itself.
  • 10 Jan 2016 (v2.9.0.57) Fixed bug where occasionally a stopped timer would remain on the timer monitor instead of fading out or reverting to time of day after a few seconds (thanks to J. McCann). Added "Circuit visit" checkbox in Timer (swaps order of Bible study and Concluding comments) (thanks to D. Burton). Fixed bug that didn't sort the media items alphabetically (thanks to J. Ireland). Updated WTImageDisco to cater for individual epub urls. Added Arabic translation. Included adjustment to timer for last meeting of circuit visit. Fixed a timer bug where a zero'd timer can be started by mistake and leads to crash (thanks to J. McCann). Changed video progress slider for progress bar (except when Paused). Added video position indicator (mins/secs) during playback.
  • 04 Jan 2016 (v2.9.0.49) Added Polish, Italian and German translations. With the Copy page open during recording, recordings now automatically appear in the Copy page as soon as they are completed (with thanks to T. Andrews). Fixed minor bug that didn't display progress of CD writing operation (with thanks to J. Bennett). Fixed minor bug in congregation listbox that didn't allow row selection by clicking outside the text of the congregation name (thanks to V. Trombino). Updated web API to v2. Added selected metadata display to media titles in Media page. Fixed bug in timer that doesn't automatically select the correct item times in the 'Living as Christians' section of the meeting. Removed redundant horizontal scrollbar from media lists. Removed gratuitous internet connection during song initialisation. Tidying up of language-specific song selection / downloading.