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[aliciaviola]

MC 27 (newest release) creates dropouts when I am typing something in the search field while playing a file. The activity monitor shows that the CPU that normally is low rises during the typing up to more than 100 percent. That didn't happen in any of the former versions (auto-import is disabled - Mac Pro, Mojave 10.14.6., 48 GB memory, Radeon RX 570 Graphic Card).
MC has a problem if another program like WaveLab or iZotope RX are open at the same time and have files with different sample rates (for example: 44 kHz MC - 48 kHz Wavelab). If I am playing a file in WaveLab and thereafter one in MC with a different sample rate, MC plays the file in the wrong speed and pitch.

Finally there still is the problem with special characters, for instance in the title tag field. It's appears correct if I am typing file names in MC (ä=ä, á=á....) and it's proper, too, when I copy and paste words or sentences from Chrome. Copy and paste from Safari results in broken names (älter = a lter or désirée = de sire e). Same thing if I am importing files with special characters - the characters appear broken in MC. Same when I am moving or renaming files with MC (Shortcut F6). The special characters in MC look all right - the resulting file has broken words.
If a folder has the name Dylan, Bob and I move a file from MC (F6) into this folder it's no problem. If the folder has the name Dylan, Bob (*1941) MC doesn't move the file into this folder but creates a new one named Dylan, Bob (_1941) and moves it to this new folder.
All this never has been improved, corrected or solved up to now.
I am a long-time MC user and a happy one but no other program on my MAC including all music programs ever had such a problem (iTunes, WaveLab Pro, Isotope RX, Metadatics....).
Please, finally find a solution.
Frank

[Fred1]

The problem with special characters in MC for Mac exists as long as the Mac-version is on earth. I fear it will never be solved.

[Awesome Donkey]

It's probably not an easy thing to fix.

The folder thing might be an issue with macOS' file system with specific characters. Like for example you can't use folders with preceding periods in the name (like for example a folder containing Metallica's ...And Justice For All) because the OS (both macOS and Linux) treats those folders as hidden folders and MC won't be able to import them. I have to use underscores for those artists and album folders instead of the periods (so ...And Justice For All has to become ___And Justice For All for it to work correctly) to avoid issues like that.

[aliciaviola]

If this is no easy thing to fix: why is MediaCenter the only MAC program I ever had that has this problem - for many years now?
And: the only characters that don't work, for instance, in WaveLab Pro while saving files (that comes from the Windows world, too) is :.
The system then gives a warning that forbidden characters are used. / divides a file in two parts.
That's all. All other characters work, can be written and read without any problem.
Sorry, I hope it sounds not too aggressive. I love MC and  - even if it's still not a full MAC looking program - it's simply the best one can get.
You make a great job.
But we pay our money for each new version so that the program can continue to develop and keep getting still better.
I'm not giving up my hope yet ...
Frank

One more thing: it would be great if there should be a TV solution for other TV sticks, too.

[Awesome Donkey]

If this is no easy thing to fix: why is MediaCenter the only MAC program I ever had that has this problem

The answer is MC isn't a typical Mac app, it uses its own system for window drawing, skinning, etc. This would also apply, I'm assuming, to unicode/UTF-8 font handling as well. It's something that might have to be addressed character-by-character or something like that. I've yet to encounter any issues with special characters so far in MC for Mac, but I guess I'm not using any problematic characters.

Bob is probably the one to answer this one.

One more thing: it would be great if there should be a TV solution for other TV sticks, too.

Television is only possible on Linux and macOS with DLNA compatible tuners like some HDHomeRun devices. Any other devices completely lack driver support outside of Windows, so they can't work. If you meant TV sticks like the Fire TV stick I also don't foresee JRiver supporting Fire TV sticks with JRiver for Android either, just the Nvidia Shield TV.

[JimH]

... problem with special characters, for instance in the title tag field. It's appears correct if I am typing file names in MC (ä=ä, á=á....) and it's proper, too, when I copy and paste words or sentences from Chrome. Copy and paste from Safari results in broken names (älter = a lter or désirée = de sire e). Same thing if I am importing files with special characters - the characters appear broken in MC. Same when I am moving or renaming files with MC (Shortcut F6). The special characters in MC look all right - the resulting file has broken words.

If it works when you paste from Chrome but doesn't work when you paste from Safari, then the character sets used must be different in the two browsers.  Is that a reliable way to reproduce the problem?

[aliciaviola]

Safari (last version) is set to standard, Chrome/Mac as far as I can find out has no preferences for that.

[RoderickGI]

Safari (last version) is set to standard, Chrome/Mac as far as I can find out has no preferences for that.

There is an extension available for Chrome that will allow you to change the encoding, "Set Character Encoding"

A bit of history. See first answer: https://superuser.com/questions/1160003/how-do-i-change-the-character-encoding-for-a-webpage-in-chrome

[aliciaviola]

Ok, I loaded a Chrome extension and can see that the character encoding is set tu Unicode (UTF-8).
I changed the Safari character encoding to the same setting and - fingers crossed - at the moment it seems to work.
What doesn't work are filenames with special characters like a, ö, ü, á, à and so on.

[HaWi]

What doesn't work are filenames with special characters like a, ö, ü, á, à and so on.

Works for me when I generate the special character within MC27 (see attached screen captures of the file names in Finder and in MC27).

[aliciaviola]

Yes, that works. The problem is not that that I generate the special character with MC but that MC doesn't read correctly files on my Mac.
At the moment there are 253320 audio files (5,8 TB). Many with special characters.
The attached screenshots should show what I mean. The files are from a recorded broadcast and edited and divided in tracks with WaveLab Pro 10.
You can see how they look on the Mac and in MC.

[aliciaviola]

Two more:
1) Normally I name files and folders with _ between the words, for instance: Stravinsky_Persephone_Dixon_Wunderlich_Schade_HR1960.
MC doesn't read the _. It appears as Stravinsky Persephone Dixon Wunderlich Schade HR1960.
2) On the Mac (Better Touch Tool) there is a very simple and extremely useful way of making folders or programs fill the screen or that they take up exactly half or a quarter of the screen: you move the mouse over the top bar of a folder or program and moves the folder or program all the way up (full screen), left center (left half), right center (right half), or in the corners (a quarter of the screen).
This works with all folders and programs, just not with MC.

And do you have any idea why typing in the search field while something is playing creates an extremely hight use of CPU (over 100% percent) and lets the music "stutter"

[HaWi]

Yes, that works. The problem is not that that I generate the special character with MC but that MC doesn't read correctly files on my Mac.
At the moment there are 253320 audio files (5,8 TB). Many with special characters.
The attached screenshots should show what I mean. The files are from a recorded broadcast and edited and divided in tracks with WaveLab Pro 10.
You can see how they look on the Mac and in MC.

Indeed, I see the same thing when I import from some (not all) sources. They do play until one tries to "F6" or update tags etc. Then it breaks for me. I have manually changed all of mine but I only have 20K files. What I did was this:
1) Made a text file from imported special characters
2) Made a text file with manually added special characters
3) Made expressions like this for each special character: =Replace([Name],ä,ä), where the first special character was from the source, the second from the manual file
4) Highlighted ALL tracks in the library, copied the expression into the name tag and execute with <Enter>
5) Did that for all special characters, one after the other.

I did trials with individual tracks first before I did the entire library. You can always "undo" if there is a hitch.
Now I do this after every import for just the imported files, if they contain special characters.
Hope this helps
Hans

[HaWi]

Two more:
1) Normally I name files and folders with _ between the words, for instance: Stravinsky_Persephone_Dixon_Wunderlich_Schade_HR1960.
MC doesn't read the _. It appears as Stravinsky Persephone Dixon Wunderlich Schade HR1960.

I think this is because _ is used by the system to replace the forbidden character : which is not allowed to be part of a filename in most Operating Systems. If any field that becomes part of the filename after "F6" contains a colon : the system will replace it with an underscore _ so the track name Mozart: Don Giovanni  will be saved to disk as Mozart_ Don Giovanni to fulfill OS requirements.
Therefore, if _ is manually inserted it may confuse the system.

[aliciaviola]

Regrettably it doesn't help. I know all that and am still changing by hand a handful of files that had to go to a new hard drive. I used F6 (a really great feature of MC) and all went well with the exception of all files which had a special character in their name that were more recognised by MC any more after the move.
It would be extremely helpful if this MC specific inability to handle this problem would be solved until version 40. Again: no other Mac program has any difficulty with special characters or, at least, tells the user if something is going the wrong way!!!

[aliciaviola]

One thing that I noticed when I just tagged new files (recorded from broadcast, edited with WaveLabPro 10, tagged with Metadatics).
The artist and album artist field show the special character in the correct way while the others don't.
Perhaps that helps to solve a mystery (at least for me).
Frank

[aliciaviola]

As I already wrote in the 27.0.22 thread the problem seems to have been solved.
Something of a miracle.
Thanks.

Frank

[aliciaviola]

Nearly solved. One thing that remains:
Special characters appear correct now but simply try a double-click on a word with a special character and you see one thing that remains - the word is not selected complete but as it should be selected but divided after the special character.