Opera as an MP3 player
I was playing around with customizing the keyboard setup in the Opera 7.20 beta, when I discovered, quite by accident, that this beta has a minimal but fully working audio player.
If you’re already running this beta, you can download custom menu and keyboard setups for enabling the player.
- Install the Opera MP3 menu. Updated: The menu now includes an item to turn a Music Panel on/off in the hotlist
- Install the Opera MP3 keyboard setup
- You can also get the MP3 menu with Toby A. Inksters W3-Dev-menu
The player seems to be minimal for now, as it doesn’t seem to have an actual GUI, and it only plays single files, not playlists. That also means that there are some entries in the menu that doesn’t work just yet.
As for the keyboard setup, it is a standard Opera keyboard setup with these additions, similar to the Winamp keyboard setup:
- M, L: Add file to the playlist. You can only open one file at the moment.
- M, X: Play
- M, C: Pause
- M, Z: Previous track
- M, B: Next track
The keyboard shortcuts are in Emacs-style. So: M, L means that you should press M first, then L.
Update: The player seems to require that Windows Media Player is installed in order to work.
Update: It’s now been quite some time, and Opera now has Opera 8 in beta, and it should be noted that these setups under no circumstances should be used directly. Instead, use these files as templates for rolling your own version.
Have fun!
Comments
Comment from Jor on 2003-07-20 14:13
It doesn’t appear to work for me at all.
Must certain MIME Types (audio/mpeg, audio/mp3) be assigned to open with Opera for this to work?
On my system thet belong to QuickTime…
Comment from Arve on 2003-07-20 17:05
Hm. Other than having both Quicktime 6.3 and the Windows Media Player 8 plugin installed to an otherwise unmodified Opera 7.20, build 2981, there is nothing special about my install.
Comment from Jor on 2003-07-20 21:07
Well, I have it working now. It definetely uses the WiMP, even without plugins. Great find!
Comment from Jor on 2003-07-21 01:25
I found out some new tricks about this: detailed at my.opera.com’s beta forum.
Very intriguing find, thx .
Comment from J. King on 2003-07-21 03:16
I don’t know if this is specific to additional software I have installed, but it also plays OGG files. :)
Comment from Arve on 2003-07-21 03:28
Since it is using Windows Media Player, it will play anything that you can throw at Windows Media Player. Right now, I am watching The Matrix in Opera.
Comment from blurboy on 2005-09-11 08:51
why so long haven update??? Opera Release 8.02 this player haven updating?
Comment from Arve on 2005-09-11 09:34
This feature was never an official Opera feature, so I wouldn’t expect any updates to it.
This discussion has been closed. No further comments may be added.