Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[BryanC]

MC currently doesn't provide a standardized way to handle box set containing individually named albums (a [Series] equivalent). From research most users either repurpose [Series] (to make use of its artwork feature for box set art, which is quirky when used in this manner), create a new library field and new views to selectively group by [Collection] or [Box Set] (ex. if([Collection],[Collection],[Album])), or use [Album Artist] for grouping, thereby losing the granularity of individual per-album [Album Artist]. Truth be told I have a hard time distinguishing a [Box Set] from a [Collection] from a [Series], but the data structures are the same (hierarchical nesting) so why not just abstract it to the existing fields and forget all of it?

Would it be possible to add list capabilities to the [Album] field so that we can create our own nested Album structures, and perhaps weave this into the default views so that Albums are displayed as nested groups by [Album[0]], then [Album[1]], ..., by default with each [Album] element also having its own corresponding cover art?

This approach could also work for [Series] on the video side, I currently use a custom [Collection] field to hold video box sets but this approach would work more naturally there also (a series hierarchy).

Does this make sense? Is it even possible?

Example:
I've run into such a box set (comprised of individually-named albums, with different [Album Artist]s) and it seems like a massive chore to implement any of the existing workarounds since I have to create new fields and change views in multiple places (Standard view, Theater View, JRemote, DLNA) to use [Series]/[Collection]/[Box Set], when instead I would like to provide a semi-colon delineated list that describes the box set/collection/series hierarchy: [Album]=Florilegium Series: Medieval & Renaissance; Music For Holy Week

Then Album views could grouped by the first element "Florilegium Series: Medieval & Renaissance" and then by the individual album "Music For Holy Week". You could add infinite nesting but even just a few hardcoded levels would really open up the possibilities for users.