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Author Topic: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .  (Read 1165 times)

sjames_chimera

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Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« on: May 14, 2020, 07:17:54 am »

Hello Everyone.

I've just purchased Media Center for my large music collection and I'm escaping from years of - let's be honest - rubbish use of iTunes!

Yesterday it took 16+ hours to import my collection into MC and that has gone very well it appears. But further (newbie) help is needed . . .

I have been playing around with various settings to get views and grouping etc. how I need them but I'm struggling a bit! This is what I need :

One simple view where the artists are in alphabetical order with each of their albums running consecutive i.e. ABBA - all of their albums in order (not grouped into one) and then onto the next artist etc.

Secondly I can't seem to change the order of labeling on each album i.e. title of album first and then the artist underneath - this is the other way round at the moment.

Lastly I want to be able to have ALL compilations at the bottom / after artists.

Observant peeps might realise that basically what I want is exactly the way things were set up in iTunes - just with reliable software ;D

I hope these are simple things and that someone can help ASAP. Many thanks in advance :)
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Dawgincontrol

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2020, 09:59:24 am »

What view are you using?  Standard, Theater, etc.?  Are you using a panes view, a thumbnail view, a detail view?

Uploading a screen shot would help.
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sjames_chimera

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2020, 10:32:16 am »

Hiya. Thanks for replying. Just tried to attach a screenshot and it won't let me upload! Anyway, I'm using standard view with thumbnails. Oh and on a PC!
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Moe

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2020, 06:39:01 pm »

Upload your screenshot to imgur (it's free, quick and easy) if you can't get it working here.
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sjames_chimera

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2020, 06:01:11 am »

Here you go . . .
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lepa

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2020, 06:13:46 am »

Thumbnail text order changing should be easy:
Put mouse cursor over the  tab header (Artists with arrowhead down). Then select from appearing list thumbnails -> thumbnail text and enter you desired thumbnail text e.g
Code: [Select]
[Album]
[Album Artist (auto)]

in "thumbnails -> thumbnails text lines" you might need to set the value to 2 rows

That would swap your thumbnail text position in this category level to e.g.

(Varies)
10cc
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w_axlrose1

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2020, 06:24:29 am »

In addition to Iepa's post you should then be able to sort the artists by clicking the same arrowhead again and selecting Sort By > Custom and changing the text to list:

Artist (a-z)
Album (a-z)
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sjames_chimera

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #7 on: May 15, 2020, 08:38:39 am »

Many thanks guys . . . so far so good! :)

Now can I move all multiple artist (compilation) albums to the bottom of the list / view?
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w_axlrose1

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2020, 09:29:18 am »

You could try changing the sort list like this

Mix Album (a-z)
Artist (a-z)
Album (a-z)

If that doesn't appear as you would like then you could always create a new library field by going to Tools > Options > Library & Folders > Manage Library Fields. Add a new field, for example "Compilation Album".

You can then populate this field for all of the tracks that are part of compilation albums, then use my previous post instructions to add this field to the sort list. You may have to play around with the ordering of the rules but hopefully you'll be able to get something that works as you'd expect.
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RoderickGI

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #9 on: May 15, 2020, 10:00:04 pm »

While I understand that you want to make MC look and work a bit like iTunes, you are making it a bit hard on yourself.

For example, you seem to have deleted the default Artists View already, and you are editing the default Album View. It is much better to copy the default Views and edit the copies. Then you can go back and look at the default Views, how they are defined, and copy them again if required, to create even more Views. When you are all done you can then delete the default Views, if you still want to.

You could Reset the Views to defaults to get them back, but then you would lose all the changes you have made. So if you want to see what the default Views used now, the easiest way is to create a new empty Library (make sure MC doesn't try to automatically import everything when you do this. See the message in the Action Window, bottom left corner, with countdown, and stop it), then you can just switch to that Library any time you want to check the default View definitions. Or you can save the Default Views from the empty Libary and load them into your main Library. I keep just such a "Reference" Library to check what was in the default Library, although a lot of settings would be shared between the two Libraries.

Using the [Mix Album] field in the sort was a great idea w_axlrose1. That works in the top Pane of the Album View just fine, but it can break up the Artist grouping in the top Pane created by sorting by [Album Artist (auto)]. For example, I have three Albums by "Pendulum" in my test Library. Two are mix Albums. The non-mix Album sorts alphabetically amongst other non-mix Albums up the top, but the two mix Albums sort down near the bottom with the other mix Albums. The mix Albums are sorted at the bottom alphabetically amongst themselves, even though the mix Albums have the [Album Artist] set to "Pendulum", and hence the [Album Artist (auto)] is set to "Pendulum".

Personally, I just got used to Albums with [Album Artist (auto)] set to (Multiple Artists) being sorted to the top, so that all Albums belonging to one [Album Artist] are grouped together. If you wanted to move just the Albums that have their [Album Artist (auto)] set to (Multiple Artists) to the bottom of the list, and not other Albums that are mixes, then a custom field based on an expression would be required. Not difficult, just: IsEqual([Album Artist (auto)],/(Multiple Artists/),0)

I created a field called [MoveMultipleArtists], made it a String field that can't be edited, and made it a Calculated field using the expression IsEqual([Album Artist (auto)],/(Multiple Artists/),0). Then I sorted the Album View by;
[MoveMultipleArtists] (a-z)
[Album Artist (auto)] (a-z)
[Album] (a-z)

Done. With that setup all three of my Pendulum Albums stay together, and all (Multiple Artists) Albums move to the bottom of the list. I might even start using that View sometimes.  8)


PS: Use [Album Artist (auto)] is View definitions, expressions and so on, not just [Artist], unless you only ever have one Artist defined per Album. Which based on that image, you don't. Read: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_(Auto)

PPS: sjames_chimera, have you worked out there is a bottom Pane to the Album View yet, which shows the file details based on the selection in the top pane? Have you checked out the "List Style" settings for a View? The default Artists View can actually work quite well with a List Style of "Thumbnails" in the top Pane, and a List Style of "Album Thumbnails" in the bottom Pane, if you don't need to see the Track details. That's why its good to have multiple Views, such as one Artist View that shows Track details, and one that just shows Albums, in the bottom Pane.
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What specific version of MC you are running:MC27.0.27 @ Oct 27, 2020 and updating regularly Jim!                        MC Release Notes: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Release_Notes
What OS(s) and Version you are running:     Windows 10 Pro 64bit Version 2004 (OS Build 19041.572).
The JRMark score of the PC with an issue:    JRMark (version 26.0.52 64 bit): 3419
Important relevant info about your environment:     
  Using the HTPC as a MC Server & a Workstation as a MC Client plus some DLNA clients.
  Running JRiver for Android, JRemote2, Gizmo, & MO 4Media on a Sony Xperia XZ Premium Android 9.
  Playing video out to a Sony 65" TV connected via HDMI, playing digital audio out via motherboard sound card, PCIe TV tuner

sjames_chimera

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #10 on: May 20, 2020, 09:43:56 am »

Thanks everyone for the great help :) Wow - very comprehensive RoderickGI ;-)
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sjames_chimera

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Re: Hello Everyone / Newbie Help Needed . . .
« Reply #11 on: May 20, 2020, 10:07:38 am »

So . . . I clicked on DISPLAY EXPRESSION under SORT BY and surprisingly that got me exactly what I want for all of the basic ordering.

For moving the multiple artist albums I really like the idea of having a separate view for this so like your suggestion w_axlrose1 :) I have set up a new field and view etc. but how do I populate this with multiple artist albums only?
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