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[marko]

Media Center 11 Comments:
After a heavy workout, MC began to falter on me. As I banged into things that interrupted my workflow, I jotted them down in this file. Overall, MC performed very well indeed and I’ve managed to get through a fair old chunk of my backlog, what follows is a little feedback containing some wishes and some repeatable bugs. Take from it what you will, I wrote the stuff, so even though it’s got bit chunky, I may as well post it.

Here we go then:
Favourites should switch media mode if it’s required, and the favourites list should auto-update if a location is moved or deleted. The tree can get well spread out, and while there is always ctrl + g, a well organised favourites list is a great way of getting around and the above items would help enormously with the “well organised” bit.
Talking of the tree, I also think that the Library Browser should be pinned as the first item below Media Library. This way it would not get lost as more branches of the tree are expanded. It’s been added to my favourites list because I keep losing it! I *think* that what I'm proposing would mean that navigational favourites would need to move out of the registry and into the database somewhere. That sounds massive. If it can be done, that would be amazing, if it can't, fair enough, you gotta admit though, it would be neat

The MC image editor is very basic, but is actually quite handy, or it would be but for a couple of bad traits…

I’m using it like so: having gotten a fair few of my images (originals safely backed up) organised in MC, while browsing the image albums I come across one that could use some red-eye work or a bit of cropping perhaps, and the editor is but a click away. Great. Upon saving the edits though, all tags are deleted and MC adjusts the date to match the [date (modified)], which in turn breaks the album and any ‘timeline’ viewschemes. Is there anyway to update a files’ thumbnail? If I use an external editor, then return to MC, the AW preview shows the edited file but the thumbnail does not update to reflect the edit.

There is something weird going on with panes / filelists and persistently selected files.
In a view scheme with several panes, leave the right most on “all” and click through some selections to the left, and finally select something in the list. Now click on “all” in the right-most pane. Nothing happens. So click elsewhere in the pane, then click on “all” again and the panes finally refresh, but the selection still remains in the filelist. Selecting a bunch of files in the list and deleting them removes them from the list, but does not remove the selection “block”. Ie. If 10 files were selected and deleted, the list moves up and now the next 10 files in the list are selected.

When setting the image playback options, can we use database expressions in the caption field? Another place I’d like to use them is in the thumbnail text area of the customise current view dialogue. Images can contain all manner of tags, if the people tag is populated, I might like to use that, but use something else if it is not.

Customise current view has an apply button. I’d really, really, like to see one of those added to the edit viewscheme dialogue too.

Whenever I’ve tried cd or DVD burning with MC I’ve run into problems so I use something else . Last night, I successfully burned a data DVD of .ape backup files using MC, which was nice. The only aftercare needed was the volume name in the cd database had to be updated manually.  I may do some more MC burning. I wonder if it handles cd text writing any better these days? Only one way to find out I guess.

When typing in, say, the info area of the playlist header, and the track changes, the cursor will bounce back, not just to “home” but the very start of the field being edited, if you miss this when it happens, the result is some very odd looking descriptions that are not discovered till later on. V. annoying.

For the past couple of days MC has been getting a workout as I catch up on some of those jobs that are always going to get done ‘tomorrow’.

I have 169 audio files selected and want to rename them from properties, there is no music playing at this time, (can’t interrupt Coronation Street ) and MC throws me this warning…

I don’t understand it as the only field that should change is the filename, and what, I wonder, are the other files?

I have set up keywords for some of the more lengthy library fields. fnp becomes [filename (path)] and fnn becomes [filename (name)]. MC would appear to be having problems as this:


becomes this:


~mix is also playing up:
This is fine:


But this is not:


It becomes:


I think it’s only a cosmetic issue as the searches seem to return the correct results. Still a little disconcerting nonetheless.

As more weirdness sets in, I decide to close MC before something nasty or irretrievable happens, and after much HDD grinding, I’m presented with this:


I re-opened MC and retried moving the 169 files and this time all went as expected. That’s this post wrapped up now, If you’re still reading, I salute and thank you.

Goodnight,
-marko.

edited by admin - 28/06/05

[marko]

talking of smartlists...

It would be neat if the search box could keep a shortlist, perhaps 10?, of the last typed searches, under a 'presets' sub-menu at the top of the wizard?

and on a high note, showing there's always something else to find in this program, even after several years of use.

You know when using 3D vizualisations and one of the 'picture' presets, and when starting it tells you about creating a playlist called "3D Visualization Images"? Well, I did. I used it from day one, when it was little more than an easter egg you'd only know about if you follow the forum closely, know what I mean?
The picture cube looks great on the t.v. I remember that we lost the easter egg for quite some time, and then it came back, with a visible option and an all new 'picture show' preset. That playlist was a natural part of my MC setup, and now and again, I'd clear it out and add some new pics. Great.
I did that today, and it felt like a chore.
I smack hand to forehead and cannot understand why I'd never tried using a smartlist called "3D Visualization Images"? DOH!
Works too which is awesome.
If you use picture show, the pics all display in a regular slideshow pattern, and if you use picture cube, you get six pictures per track. If anyone else fell in the same trap, which is probably not likely, you should try this, it is very cool indeed.


-marko.

[marko]

the status bar could be a little more user friendly. it can contain useful information, but more often than not mine simply states "done saving tag changes" while I want to know how many files are selected and how big the selection is.


I got the info via 'statistics overview' in the AW, but that is such a cumbersome route when compared to glancing at the status bar.

-marko.

[risingdamp]

I agree that the status bar could be much more useful than it currently is.  I'd like to see a small area there where you can click the mouse and a list pops up for 'quick tagging'.  It would work like this:

1.  You would have a new Tagging Group in addition to General, Extended etc called Status Bar that contains the fields you most commonly want to update. 
2.  You would select some files in the current view.
3.  You left click a small area of the status bar (you would only really need an area enough for a small pointer) and a list would draw upwards of the fields you can tag.
4.  You left click the field and a pop up box appears like it does for Tagging Mode for you to update the tag.

'Done saving tag changes' should have it's own place in the bar, as should an area to show how many files are in the current view and how many are selected.

[marko]

I'm forever clearing out the cd/dvd database because MC catalogues everything it finds in the cd/drives. I really don't need my game or application discs in the database. It would be nice if MC would apply the "don't import previously removed items" logic to the cd/dvd database too.

-marko.

[marko]

I remember waay back when, and I had a cd writer, philips it was, and it burned @ 4x max. If you so much as breathed on the PC during the burn, which could take up to 25 minutes for 650 mb, the buffer would underrun!!

Today, I burned 4-and-a-bit gigs of data to DVD in little over 10 minutes. I used MC for the burn, it was also playing music and showing whitecap on the TV. It burned the files to disc using a database expression for the filepaths and it finished perfectly.

Impressive stuff indeed.

Now, we just need to iron out the little quirks in the cd/dvd database and we're all set

-marko.

[Pink Waters]

Hope your thread ring some bells

[Pink Waters]

 

[Fex]

?

[Mastiff]

I've got an expression for you: anal, compulsive backuper. Which is what I am. If I have changed anything. And I mean anything, even the spelling of one track, I do a library backup. To me that seems sensible, to most people it would seem like overkill. But I have never lost one library change, and I do a lot of them, so I would think that it serves me well enough.

And a 4x writer? Try the first external 1 x writers! HP stuff, and about as solid and stable as the Euro! I recon at least 1/3 of the CD's burned on that thing would be coasters. Heck, the thing "only" cost around 1000 bucks when I bought it...

[modelmaker]

I've got an expression for you: anal, compulsive backuper. Which is what I am. If I have changed anything. And I mean anything, even the spelling of one track, I do a library backup. To me that seems sensible, to most people it would seem like overkill. But I have never lost one library change, and I do a lot of them, so I would think that it serves me well enough.

I'm totally with you here! At the end of a session, I also run Karen's Replicator and update my backup HD as well. And it has paid off. I have had a couple of crashes since I got into the backup habit and restoring everything to status quo has been pretty painless with only the loss of a couple of files if any.

[Mastiff]

Oh, of course I do have my carputer, which has an exact mirror of both library, all files in the library and all necessary work files. Even if my house burns down, I will at least have my music, work files and the Girder and NetRemote stuff I have spent hours and more hours on! "Burning down the house..."

[modelmaker]

Quoting myself from a parrallel thread:

I use 3 drives for storing and backing up. The chances of all 3 dying at once is pretty slim. One drive is internal, the other 2 rotate between backing up and serving as the hard drive for my car system.

[hit_ny]

I've got an expression for you: anal, compulsive backuper. Which is what I am. If I have changed anything. And I mean anything, even the spelling of one track, I do a library backup. To me that seems sensible, to most people it would seem like overkill. But I have never lost one library change, and I do a lot of them, so I would think that it serves me well enough.

Heh, and i thought i was the only one crazy enough to do this. Defnitely lesser  probs if you do it this way. 

Totally justified by the staggering amount of man-hours that can be spent on getting the library just the way you want it.

[GHammer]

Heh, and i thought i was the only one crazy enough to do this. Defnitely lesser  probs if you do it this way. 

Totally justified by the staggering amount of man-hours that can be spent on getting the library just the way you want it.

But... how do you know the library (I include MCs and the audio files here) is not corrupt before you back it up?

I lost a few APE files recently. Something (who knows?) caused an error in the APE files. No problem, just restore the backup. Nope. The corrupted files were backed up.

Now I run FSum and verify the library only has MY changes before I back it up.

[hit_ny]

Good question...

I keep an eye on total space ocupied by the library or album count (have a viewscheme with just one column (Album) for this). If it grows as expected during an import, and after checking that the import went fine, then i do a backup.

Another possible indicator is the smartlist to check for missing files, this should normally be zero after telling it to ignore cue files.

I also have a recently imported viewscheme that shows me what was imported lately.

Granted all the above are  rough indicators, i'm at a loss for anything better or easier.


I did consider checksumming, but the time it would take to verify a library of 20K+ files is too much to do on a daily basis. The other problem with checksums is if you modify a tag (change rating, correct typo) the cheksum will fail. Unless of course you set the tags not to write back to the files, something i'm not too comfortable with, in regards to important tags.

What workarounds do you have or does your fsum tool only concentrate on the audio/video section of the media file ?

How to check if there any inconsistancies with the tags and what the files actually contain is still unknown to me ? I only have the library view for that.

[GHammer]

No FSum does not only look at the data portion of the files.
If I have tagged something I know why its checksum is different and I go ahead with the backup.
I don't change or add files on a daily basis, so the time it takes to run FSum is acceptable to me. We all sleep sometime!

I am not looking for missing files though they would show.

I am looking for unexplained changes. Then I can investigate before I overwrite a backed up file.

If FSum completes normally, the backup then runs. If FSum fails the backup must be run manually.

It will save me from overwriting good files with bad going forward.