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[Afrika]

Hi.
I've just tested MC11 for the first time, and it didn't take me long to find Major drawback's.
The only thing I've tried so far is ripping a CD, so I thought I should mention what I found so far.
When inserting the CD, the database used by MC didn't find the record. (a Norwegian release from 1974, so I wasn't really surprised) The software I normally use (Easy CD-DA Extractor from Poikosoft) uses CDDB, and recognized the CD instantly.
Since CD wasn't recognized, I added track titles manually, infact an alright process to do.
Then I choose to do the rip at the best possible quality, VBR.
The output quality is the best I've experienced so far, although the filesize is twice the size as when ripping to VBR Quality 0.
But major drawback no2, is that track's in the output folder weren't in the right order, but random. If this is something that must be specified somewhere, the software is not good enough, such things comes naturally.
Interface looks good, and if such things as mentioned here can be fixed, this software can be interesting.
I hope this feedback may be of help.

Regards Svein Otterlei, Norway.

[EpF]

The software I normally use (Easy CD-DA Extractor from Poikosoft) uses CDDB, and recognized the CD instantly.

This has been recently recently discussed; see this link:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=27762.msg192790#msg192790
Here's more:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=26688.0
And the official YADB page with info on no. of cd titles, successful hit-rate etc.
http://www.yadb.com/stats.html

The output quality is the best I've experienced so far, although the filesize is twice the size as when ripping to VBR Quality 0

mp3 encoding in MC is powered by LAME, generally thought to be the best mp3 encoder around.  You can set it to give you whatever filesize you want...  See this link for info on encoding settings and everything else about LAME:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/

track's in the output folder weren't in the right order, but random.

This I don't understand.  When you rip a cd in MC, you get a Rip box in the Action Window (lower left corner).  If you click 'options' you get a settings box where, under 'file location', you can see all the details about where the files will be and what they will be called.  I can't remember what the defaults are, so maybe someone from JRiver can answer that, but all you have to do is make sure that the filename is using [track #] to name the files (in a way that won't get undermined by some other alphabetical order, like putting the track name at the beginning of the filename.)  I'm amazed that the default settings don't do this... (can it be true?)

Hope that helps.  Cast around the forum here on subjects you're interested in (ripping, burning, tagging, whatever) and see what people are saying.  MC is a powerful media organiser and player, with very good support; it will serve you well if you get into it...

 

[modelmaker]

Considering what this program can do, you barely scratched the surface and the flaws you did find are relatively minor. MC 11 is still beta, although it is near release and will continue to be polished even after release. Media Center is actively being further develooped, it is not satic like some other nameless media apps. This also happens to be one of the best and most informative forums on th web.

J River/MC uses their own CD lookup database, Yadb,  (based on freedb) as they decided Cddb's licensing fee was too high and would add too much cost to the  program . Yadb is growing every day as most users here contirbute to the database (we hope you added your Norwegian CD ). With the use of KingSparta's free plugins you can increase your success rate, in addition to getting cover art, lyrics, bios and more.

The tagging abillity of MC is 2nd to none in my opinion, although I just noticed the same behavior when manually tagging a CD last night and suspect it is just a bug, as it worked fine in MC 10 (I will post about this in a separate thread). You can add Track # in options>file location>filename rule. Just click on the arrow and then click on track # in the popup. This used to be and should be the default setting.

With  VBR, (Variable Bit Rate), the more extreme you go, the higher the average bit rate and therefore the bigger the total file size, but also, the higher the quality of the sound.

You have a 30-day free trial, really give it a road test, experiment with MCs capabillities. Go through the help files, past posts in the forum and the the options to see what MC can do. Feel free to post any other comments or questions in the forum - we're a friendly and helpful bunch here.

[LonWar]

Are you sure you don't have the random button on?

[Afrika]

Thank You all for replying.......

It was of course not my intention to critizice the software, but feedback of my impression of it. If there is a so called "Random Button" that puts tracks in random order, it should be removed. No one is interested in putting tracks in random order? If so it should be an option, not default. I'm impressed by the Lame encoder, no doubt why it's concidered the best.
Ofcourse I scratched the surface, if not, what is feedback for? I believe this software has something, but so far Poikosoft's Easy CD DA Creator is better when it comes to functionality, exept that it is only for audio. As a multi purpose program MC may be good after some time, but at the moment I think it lack's  a lot.
If we all agreed, we didn't need discussion forums. Neither would any software be completely developed.

[KingSparta]

No one is interested in putting tracks in random order?

Not Correct

If so it should be an option, not default

If I Am Not Mistaken The "Shuffle" Option Default Is Off