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[bob]

This is a BETA bulld of JRiver Media Center 27.  Please post bugs here.  Please start a new thread for anything requiring discussion.  Non-bug posts will be deleted.

Download
https://files.jriver.com/mediacenter/channels/v27/latest/MediaCenter270020.dmg

27.0.20 (10/5/2020)

1. NEW: Beta build with native screen drawing. Please report issues with this!
2. Changed: Enabled automatic retry in 30 to 60 minutes of SiliconDust EPG loading so that we would not miss a daily reloading due to not having discovered the DLNA tuners yet.
3. Fixed: When using SiliconDust EPG, all programs were classified as "new".  Now re-runs will be properly treated as re-runs.
5: NEW: Trackinfo templates implemented.
5. NEW: When the language for the system is Japanese, that will be the default translation used (instead of English).
6. NEW: Added a confirmation when exiting from "Load Program Guide..." window with "Automatically load the program guide every day in the background" option off.
7. NEW: (Experimental) MC allows "Beyonwiz V2" device to be treated as a DMS TV tuner.

27.0.18 (9/30/2020)

1. Changed: Added an information message box to inform the user after DLNA is enabled during SiliconDust EPG setup, that it is a good idea to restart MC before re-attempting EPG setup.
2. NEW: Trackinfo and 2D Visualizations implemented (intel only at this time).
3. Fixed: Spelling error.  On Load Program Guide window, the word "everyday" is changed to "every day".
4. Changed: The program no longer pauses a playing video when clicking to activate the program from another program.
5. NEW: When the language for the system is Japanese, that will be the default translation used (instead of English).
6. Changed: MC will show better error message when it fails to download EPG data, especially from SiliconDust.
7. NEW: Added the web service function File/GetPlaylists to get a list of playlists for a given file.
8. Changed: Respond to a Playlist/Build call with the new playlist ID.
9. Changed: The genre, artist, album, composer, track #, and name are read from the iTunes database during import (so files don't need to be tagged for those fields).
10. Changed: MC will parse <episode-num> element with system="onscreen" attribute in XMLTV files more smartly so it will pick up season number and episode number, in particular from SiliconDust EPG.
11. Changed: MC will reload TV channel logos during EPG loading (if EPG data file contains the logo images) if previous image file is missing.
12. NEW: During SiliconDust EPG setup MC will detect whether DLNA is enabled.  If not, MC will offer to display Media Network options page.
13. Changed: TheMovieDB TV Show lookup populates the IMDB Id with the episode id.
14. Fixed: Subtitle lookup for TV shows was not finding any results.
15. NEW: Added the playlist format "M3U (relative paths, forward slashes)" to handheld upload.
16. Changed: Increased the pause on click timer to hopefully avoid fighting with double-click.
17. Changed: Slovak translation updated (thanks Peter Lukac).
18. Fixed: Importing MP4 video files with Playback set to "External" could result in some information missing.
19. Fixed: MP4 video files will more reliably use the video engine to fill in missing metadata.
20. Fixed: SiliconDust EPG re-loading could randomly be skipped.
21. NEW: Links to websites (that start with http:// or https://) in list controls will be active links now.
22. Changed: Lists will set the cursor in some cases like hoovering over the rating or a link.
23. Changed: On the "Schedule Guide Reloading" window, the "Next Load" column will include a date, instead of just time.
24. Fixed: SiliconDust EPG repeat loading time could be wrong.
25. Fixed: WAV files with a zero sample rate could crash (now they are rejected).
26. NEW: TV EPG loading modes will have their own start time settings so users can configure multiple modes to start at different time of the day.
27. Fixed: Background EPG loading threads could be unnecessarily created in rare cases even though no EPG loading mode was scheduled to start at the time.

27.0.15 (9/21/2020)

1. Changed: Video pause will fire the OSD when in full screen mode now.
2. Changed: MC will query HDHomeRun devices for the number of tuners, instead of using hard-coded values, for a more accurate count.
3. NEW: The text shown in Theater View's playing now can be customized in Options > Theater View > Advanced > Expression for Playing Now.
4. Changed: MC will classify a show as "movie" if the XMLTV puts it in a category of "Television movie" or "Cinema movie".
5. Changed: Left click won't pause when releasing a menu or double-clicking.
6. Fixed: Internal Volume was not enabled for DMS TV playback.
7. Fixed: When stopping playback in Display View, the position of the window could switch to the previous position.
8. Changed: When no changes are made with a MCWS/v1/File/SetInfo call, the response "No changes." is provided with the failure.
9. Fixed: FLAC files would not always load images properly.
10. Changed: When the program is in gapless between album tracks, it will stay gapless if you back up a track as well.
11. Changed: MC2XML EPG option is removed from TV setup.
12. Changed: Panel - Jump to playing now when playing video files.
13. NEW: Left clicking a playing video will toggle the pause state.
14. NEW: SiliconDust EPG is added to TV setup EPG options for manual setup.

27.0.12 (9/14/2020)

1. NEW: First MC27 Mac release.
2. Changed: TV playback will work on first load in non-fullscreen display view windows. This required a fairly generic UI change, please report any NEW UI issues.
3. Changed: MC will skip automatic creation of DMS (Tuner Stream) channels for an HDHomeRun device if it can determine the tuner's TV format to be DVB-T, and DVB-T channels already exist.
4. NEW: Added a "Find License" button to the purchase / restore dialog.
5. Changed: Updated Finland.Oulu-DNA DVB-C tuning parameters.  Thanks lepa!
6. Changed: When stopped, the display window will go back to showing the logo.
7. Changed: New / Improved This Version links to the v27 page.
8. Changed: Updated ModernCards Dark (thanks Marko).
9. NEW: MC will automatically create TV channels if HDHomeRun tuners are found, and related channels have not already been created.
10. Changed: Panel - Updated video streaming to use HLS Video-On-Demand.
11. Changed: Recent searches will no longer store duplicates.
12. NEW: MC will automatically attempt downloading EPG data from SiliconDust if HDHomeRun devices are found, on condition that no other online EPG has been set up, and SiliconDust EPG has not explicitly been disabled.
13. NEW: URL's that have a content-length will be converted when enabled to DLNA renderers.
14. Fixed: When XMLTV file contain IDs that are shared by different channels, some of the channels may not be properly matched to their XMLTV IDs.
15. Changed: Middle click will close the active tab (before it did nothing).
16. Fixed: Switching to high resolution in the Analyzer could crash.
17. Fixed: VST2 effects would not load properly.
18. Fixed: Right-click on an empty car radio button would crash.
19. Changed: Slovak translation updated (thanks Peter Lukac).
20. Fixed: Right-click in a no column area of a list could crash.
21. Changed: Middle click on the active tab closes instead of cycles the list style.
22. Changed: Showtime disables shuffle.
23. Changed: Auto-import disables getting cover art and getting video metadata by default.
24. Changed: Auto-sizing columns is moved to a new setting name so it will default to on for everyone.
25. Changed: Analyzer has a checkbox to increase the resolution so it should be better at low frequencies.
26. Fixed: TV Channel to XMLTV ID mapping might find very few matches if users choose not to include a channel number in front of each channel name, for some XMLTV data.
27. Fixed: Middle click on the active tab could crash.
28. Fixed: Closing a tab with a middle click could cycle the list style.
29. Changed: Updated Greek translation (thanks Panagiotis).
30. Fixed: TV Channel to XMLTV ID mapping could result in multiple minor channels with the same major channel mapped to the same XMLTV ID, especially for Tuner Stream channels and HDHomeRun EPG data.
31. Fixed: Right-clicking tabs could crash.
32. Fixed: Closing the current tab could crash.
33. Changed: Switched closing tabs to a middle click.
34. Changed: Typing in the search box will hide the suggestions if you press enter with no suggestion selected.
35. NEW: Added the min and max expression functions (they take any number of parameters).
36. Fixed: When editing in a popup, if the underlying file is changed, the edit will be canceled (previously could crash).
37. Changed: When editing in a popup, the file selection will not be changed on track change.
38. NEW: Added the expression functions avg and sum to average and sum numbers.
39. NEW: Added the FieldQuery expression function to return a list of matches based on a list of fields to search.
40. Changed: Previously the entire tab would show a tooltip about closing, but now it only shows on the close button.
41. Fixed: When Tuner Stream (DMS) type of TV channel started playing, the player status was not changed and remained "Starting TV..."
42. Changed: Pause/Resume is enabled for Tuner Stream (DMS) type of TV channel playback.
43. NEW: Added a new search to options to allow setting a grouping of files to automatically apply a bookmark (so if "Use Bookmarking" is set to default, it turns on for files that match the search).
44. Changed: Tabs always show a close button, even if they're inactive.
45. Fixed: Image lookup from Google (for artist images, etc.) was not working.
46. NEW: Last.fm artist images are used along with Google images for the artist image display.
47. Fixed: Doing a file rename of the case only could hang from a recent change.
48. NEW: RadioJRiver can be played to a DLNA devices that required transcoding.
49. NEW: Cloudplay API updates to allow retrieval of more of the properties of the tracks being played.
50: NEW: MC will try to put the interface into digital mode when playing AC3 encoded material.
51. Changed: Typing in the search box will hide the suggestions if you press enter with no suggestion selected.
52. Changed: Added the min and max expression functions (they take any number of parameters).
53. Fixed: When editing in a popup, if the underlying file is changed, the edit will be canceled (previously could crash).
54. Changed: When editing in a popup, the file selection will not be changed on track change.
55. NEW: Added the expression functions avg and sum to average and sum numbers.
56. Changed: Revised the sorting menu in the column header right-click.
57. Changed: "Show signal strength on screen" context menu item is not displayed for TV tuner types that do not support it (OpenCABLE, Sat>IP, Tuner Stream, etc.).
58. Changed: "Window" context menu (aspect ratio, zooming etc.) is not displayed for Tuner Stream type of TV playback as it is not supported right now.
59. Fixed: "Audio Programs" context menu did not work when playing a Tuner Stream TV channel.
60. Fixed: Zooming in on an image thumbnail will scroll so the selected item is shown (previously it could scroll to a different spot).
61. Changed: Removed the obsolete mini view skins from the build.
62. Fixed: Uploading to a handheld would replace the filename in the database with the handheld filename.
63. Fixed: Video playback and TV playback would show incorrect error message on screen if MC failed to download LAV filters.
64. Changed: The right-click choice "Remove Column From Sorting" only appears for columns in the current sorting.
65. Changed: Made the sorting interactive in the right-click menu instead of only display.
66. Changed: Re-integrating TV functionality.
67. NEW: Added MPL to the list of output formats for playlist export.
68. NEW: Added the MCWS function GetFilledTemplate.
69. Changed: Made the export playlist dialog split into two columns.
70. Changed: When setting a filename, all other files with the same name will also be changed.
71. Changed: Allow renaming a particle filename.
72. NEW: Allow up to 16 simultaneous conversions for handheld configuration.
73. NEW: Added standardize quotes to the Clean File Properties tool.
74. NEW: Right-click on a tab close button will close all other tabs and leave that one open.
75. Changed: Column auto-sizing defaults to on.
76. NEW: Added the field [Playlist Total Time] to the player customization.
77. Changed: Made the total disc calculator run at startup faster by setting anything with no disc number to have one total discs.
78. NEW: Added the option to keep pane tagging on to Options > General > Advanced.
79. Changed: The tab key will not auto-select a choice from the tag box.
80. NEW: Added mode 2 to the ListRemove expression function which does substring matching (instead of entire string).
81. Changed: When playing to a tuner near startup, the error message indicates that you might need to allow the program longer to run.
82. Fixed: If chapters are at the same time, the names will be sorted by the chapter name.
83. Changed: When installing too new of a license, a more informative message is shown.
84. NEW: Added the library field "Last Sync" that gets set when a file is synced to a handheld.
85. NEW: Added a right-click command to Car Radio buttons to Add to Playing Now.
86. NEW: Added the sorting of a list to the column header right-click menu.
87. NEW: The volume slider shows zero when the volume is muted (instead of the unmuted level).
88. Changed: When setting up TV channel logo, the image file location is saved in the channel's ImageFile tag even if the image file is located inside the TV Logos folder.  This way it will be easier to remove the logo when necessary.
89. NEW: Undo / redo in the menu summarizes the changes by the menu text.
90. NEW: Added a stop after current file button to the toolbar.
91. NEW: Added a right-click command to library server to close both the server and Media Center.
92. Changed: Model name will be included in the device name of a DMS TV tuner for easier visual identification.
93. NEW: Added the ability to freeze columns.
94. Changed: Updated German translation file (thanks Bytestar).

[HaWi]

I'm afraid the URL above doesn't work.
EDIT: Just saw it as pulled

[bob]

It's updated as of 21:21 CDT. Give it a try!

[HaWi]

Thanks, will do Bob

[HaWi]

Just started it up. I noticed that the text in the top title bar got pushed down (see screenshot)

[HaWi]

One more thing. I was hoping for scrolling to be smoother but no joy.

[bob]

Just started it up. I noticed that the text in the top title bar got pushed down (see screenshot)

Interesting, is that just the title bar that's off for you? It's fine on my machines.

As for the scrolling, I assume you mean scrolling up and down file lists?
It's really quite fast now even on my 2007 iMac and 2012 Mac mini.

[HaWi]

Yes, as far as text placement goes, I have so far only seen the Title pushed down. EDIT: On closer look, the search filed and all lines in the panes are also pushed down. I'll post a screenshot asap.
Scrolling through a file list in a pane, yes. Still very jerky

[JimH]

One more thing. I was hoping for scrolling to be smoother but no joy.

Try building all your thumbnails.  It's under the View Menu in MC's options.

[HaWi]

Here is the screenshot

[HaWi]

Try building all your thumbnails.  It's under the View Menu in MC's options.

Will do, thanks

[HaWi]

Didn't find the thumbnail build in Views but there is one in Tools/Advanced Tools/Build Missing Thumbnails. I had done that before so none were missing.

[Awesome Donkey]

If I had to do a "shot in the dark" guess, it's probably related to the skins themselves, not all of them will likely look that well. Not sure if they can be fixed though (at least, not without messing up the skin on other platforms like Windows potentially).

[HaWi]

If I had to do a "shot in the dark" guess, it's probably related the skins themselves, not all of them will likely look that well. Not sure if they can be fixed though (at least, not without messing up the skin on other platforms like Windows potentially).

Ohoh, not good.
Another weird thing I am seeing is that when I click on a line in a pane, the text in the column I click intermittently gets turned upside down to the upper half of the line and then flips back over. Haven't found a way to capture that yet. Might try a video capture.

[dfortney]

Native drawing? Exactly what is this magic of which you speak?  How is this different from previous versions for a sense of perspective before I give it a go? Is this using Metal or some slick new macOs frameworks? Little nervous to try it maybe, little excited even.

[HaWi]

This is what it looks like in non-retina

[bob]

Here is the screenshot

What type font and size are you using?
My tests were done with the stock font and size.
Thanks for testing, this is the kind of feedback I'm looking for.

[bob]

Ohoh, not good.
Another weird thing I am seeing is that when I click on a line in a pane, the text in the column I click intermittently gets turned upside down to the upper half of the line and then flips back over. Haven't found a way to capture that yet. Might try a video capture.

Great, looking for this kind of stuff too.

[HaWi]

If I had to do a "shot in the dark" guess, it's probably related to the skins themselves, not all of them will likely look that well. Not sure if they can be fixed though (at least, not without messing up the skin on other platforms like Windows potentially).

I tried a few and they all have the strange placement and turning-text-over effect

[bob]

Native drawing? Exactly what is this magic of which you speak?  How is this different from previous versions for a sense of perspective before I give it a go? Is this using Metal or some slick new macOs frameworks? Little nervous to try it maybe, little excited even.

Basically the Mac has a screen drawing mode that was likely added to get windows developers to port their code that makes the Mac screen coordinate system match windows. We used that to port MC.

This build uses the native coordinate system which means a lot of changes in MC but then the Mac is no longer needing to do that flipping when drawing. From tests Hendrik did it's a lot faster to not require the Mac to flip the drawing.

[bob]

This is what it looks like in non-retina

Ok, so the vertical is only off in retina mode, that should be a pretty simple fix.

[Awesome Donkey]

I noticed the fonts were also much larger (and/or they reset to a different font, can't tell). I do like it though, fonts are nice and sharper (like the system fonts are).

[bob]

I noticed the fonts were also much larger (and/or they reset to a different font, can't tell). I do like it though, fonts are nice and sharper (like the system fonts are).

They seem a lot sharper to me as well.

[HaWi]

I actually don't recall having changed the fonts at all. What do you need me to do to find out which ones I am using?

[HaWi]

Bob,
I have sent you an email (if Bob at JRiver dot com is correct) with a screen recording showing what happens when I scroll through a pane. It is the same in retina and non retina at 100% size.

[Awesome Donkey]

That's odd, scrolling through panes here is pretty quick, it's scrolling through views (like Artist or Album) that have a lot of images like album covers showing up that causes slower scrolling here.

[HaWi]

Maybe I am not using the correct terminology. What I am saying is that when I scroll through the bottom part (the file list, I think) of a pane such as the one depicted in the screenshots I showed earlier, it's not smooth but rather jerky both in retina and non-retina mode.

[bob]

Maybe I am not using the correct terminology. What I am saying is that when I scroll through the bottom part (the file list, I think) of a pane such as the one depicted in the screenshots I showed earlier, it's not smooth but rather jerky both in retina and non-retina mode.

That's the part that seems really quick to me.
There was an issue discovered in the last couple of builds (all platforms) that could affect this, I'll look at putting out another beta today or tomorrow with that fix and the centering fix for retina.

[janpeeters]

When I saw "native screen drawing" I was almost jumping up and down because I hoped it would fix this long standing issue:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,126687.0.html

But with my dual monitor setup of a Macbook Pro retina 15,4-inch (2880 x 1800) screen and a DELL P2715Q Display 27-inch (3840 x 2160) it still doesn't work as it should. The normal view size still has troubles to stick when I've resized and the mini player still gets a taller height when moved around the screen. Thanks for all the work Bob and JimH, I really hope you can tackle this. Thanks!

[HaWi]

That's the part that seems really quick to me.
There was an issue discovered in the last couple of builds (all platforms) that could affect this, I'll look at putting out another beta today or tomorrow with that fix and the centering fix for retina.

Thank you Bob!
While not a show stopper, the jerky scrolling is a bit annoying.

[Dennis in FL]

1) At times, when I try to paste album art from the clipboard it doesn't respond (especially if I have the album selected) - I have to quit MC and restart....then it works.  This happens a lot.....

2) The scrolling of lists with a Mac is too fast (also in MC 26)

3)  Lots of freeze ups so far.   

[hoyt]

Not sure if this is related, but I installed the new beta 2 days ago.  Twice in the last two days I've killed MC because it's taking huge amounts of CPU.  To the point where other apps were sluggish.

[bob]

I'm going to put out a release in the old coordinate system and one flipped.
It would be good to compare them to narrow down the differences to exactly that.

I did some basic testing of the clipboard handling by copy/pasting artwork to and from tracks and that worked for me so if you can give specifics on how to reproduce the issue that would be appreciated. Same thing for the "freeze-ups". I wouldn't think the changes for screen coordinates would make that happen.

[hoyt]

I'll give that a test when posted.  I agree that it seems strange to be related.  But a few times this morning, I'm seeing MC taking up 180% CPU.  Just playing one track it's at 100% with no format changes, DSP, etc.  I will often pause it, then join a Teams/ Zoom meeting, and that's when I've noticed it still taking up a ton of CPU and the video for the other app becomes choppy.

I can clearly tell the difference in the sharpness of fonts, etc.  It does look a bit better. 

When I hover over something and the popup shows, with an album, if I command + tab back to another app, the hover stays on the screen for a split second.  Too short to grab a screenshot, but long enough to think, that's odd.

If I have an album name showing in a column where the full name doesn't fit (so it shows Album Na..), when I hover over that, for a split second the font of the album name turns upside down and/or backwards (like a mirror).

EDIT: If I hit stop, instead of pause, the CPU usage does go down to normal, but there's no stop button on the Mac touch bars. 

[Dennis in FL]

>>for a split second the font of the album name turns upside down and/or backwards (like a mirror).

I've seen that, also

[bob]

I'll give that a test when posted.  I agree that it seems strange to be related.  But a few times this morning, I'm seeing MC taking up 180% CPU.  Just playing one track it's at 100% with no format changes, DSP, etc.  I will often pause it, then join a Teams/ Zoom meeting, and that's when I've noticed it still taking up a ton of CPU and the video for the other app becomes choppy.

I can clearly tell the difference in the sharpness of fonts, etc.  It does look a bit better. 

When I hover over something and the popup shows, with an album, if I command + tab back to another app, the hover stays on the screen for a split second.  Too short to grab a screenshot, but long enough to think, that's odd.

If I have an album name showing in a column where the full name doesn't fit (so it shows Album Na..), when I hover over that, for a split second the font of the album name turns upside down and/or backwards (like a mirror).

EDIT: If I hit stop, instead of pause, the CPU usage does go down to normal, but there's no stop button on the Mac touch bars.

Are you using integer mode for audio output?
One change unrelated to the screen flipping is that integer mode was enabled for devices that only do it in 32 bit format (like the iFi iDSD). That might have come into play on a device you are using.