jooky: car jukebox

this is the web page for jooky, a car audio jukebox system. jooky plays oggs, mp3s, and does lots of other cool things. read more below.

jooky is car jukebox software. it was written so that, with the aid of a simple computer and display, i could listen to a ton of music in my car without the need for cds. this is exactly like an mp3 jukebox works, only i use a different, better format for my files. i also wanted a bunch of features that other software didn't offer. (see also cajun).

about a year ago, there was no software out there that let you play ogg files in your car, so i started to write this beast. in fact there weren't any in-dash units either! since then i still don't know of any (or anyone with oggs in their car), but, who knows. (actually if you know of something similar let me know and i will put a link up.) i'm sure they will crop up soon enough as the ogg project steadily matures.

jooky makes a great media player, whether you run it on its own computer or not, and whether you use it in a car or not.

with a lot of aftermarket mp3 in-dash units coming out, this is a pretty good question. aftermarket units are generally cheaper than throwing together your own computer, look nicer, and have a bit less setup time required (eg, none.)

however, there are quite a few reasons why i have found this way is better. first, when you use your own computer, you have complete control over what features your car stereo has -- and only the amount of work you are willing to put into it is the limit. find me an aftermarket car mp3 unit that i can update from my room with a wireless card; or one that even plays ogg files!

i already have a nice head unit that sounds very good and i didn't want to replace it by settling for some jukebox that sounds mushy. also, it is very easy to upgrade something you have made yourself. try adding a bigger harddrive to some of those jukeboxes out there.

finally, using a computer means you can take full advantage of that extra processing power. you might look at the way jooky works and say, eek! why would i want to run MySQL just to listen to some mp3s/oggs? my feeling is, if you're going to throw a computer in your car, you might as well tax its resources to the limit. that is why i have a song database that can store statistics and other cool things.

let the fun begin! sneak on over to the download page for the files and documentation.

site & code © 2003 mike wakerly
project page: http://jooky.souceforge.net/