Print

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

[JimH]

Matt said in another thread:

Here's a couple screenshots of the new list grouping feature:
http://pix01.com/n8@eity

[221bBS]

I'm loving this!! 

[Efjay]

I quite like the look of the grouping feature but I would like more control. For instance, group by Album but in a specific (i.e. date) order or by Year, then Album.

[221bBS]

I would like to be able to right click the group title and have the right click menu come up to perform an action for the whole group.

[jack wallstreet]

Great potential, needs more control/options for usefulness.

1. more primary groups (e.g., select from the entire field list) - most important
2. secondary control - the ability to use the existing sorts (current version) is very nice, but it would be nice to have a bold secondary sort, e.g., - primary by artist, then a secondary by album (if desired) and then the file lists within the album.

[eba]

Fantastic!
Would be nice to be able to change the text for the grouping.  I'd like to be able to use my own [Album Year] field rather than the [Year] field, for example - at the moment I get The Best of by Meat Loaf (1987.2 avg) - or can I already do this I just haven't found it?

One problem that MC's had for a long time but is a bit more obvious with this feature in place, is that if you have two albums next to each other of the same name but by different artists (e.g. Greatest Hits), the large thumbnail doesn't pick up the second album's coverart.

EDIT: Finally, why does it say Various Artists for multiple artist albums when I have an Album Artist specified?

Ta

[hit_ny]

When using the Group feature to group by Album in Playing Now. Clicking on Seq# does not order the albums by seq#.

I have a list of albums in PN and then used the Group by Album, i was expecting the same order to be maintained with the new layout.

[mark_h]

Very cool!

Mark

[mark_h]

Great potential, needs more control/options for usefulness.

2. secondary control - the ability to use the existing sorts (current version) is very nice, but it would be nice to have a bold secondary sort, e.g., - primary by artist, then a secondary by album (if desired) and then the file lists within the album.

The thing I notice immediately that I'd like to see related to sorting is that the grouping pane follows the sort order of the info pane above it.  For instance, I have a view scheme which shows albums in a specific order - I can group the lower info pane by album but it is alphabetical order - I would love to see an option where the sort order of the groups reflect the sort order of the parent window above.

[morrison]

wonderful option

[robydago]

Thanks a lot for this option!

1. more primary groups (e.g., select from the entire field list) - most important

Yep , I agree!

Somethin I'd like to see as well is pictures that are group-by field sensitive: i.e. if I group by Composer I'd like to see pictures of composers, not album's, and when grouping by Actor, the actor's picture is relevant, and so on.
But before getting that in grouping, I guess that JR should add a way to link external pictures to MC db records or maybe embed more than one in the media file itself...

[gappie]

posted this in the beta forum before:

'i do think the grouping can look nice. but i have not find any use for it. for me the biggest drawback is that it not only groups, but also sorts. for instance. the new album (by date), for images only, sorts it precisly the other way around from the way i have sorted them. in audio i have my albums sorted by artist and then by date, the latest at the top. choosing year just turns it around again, and i can not choose album by date (and also there i would like that descending).

and indeed a collapse all/expand all is nearly a must when using album as grouping.

i think this can become a nice tool when it would be possible to choose what items to group (all tags) and in what order (or just following the order as choosen in the view).

thanks
gab'

[MrHaugen]

First of all. I was REALLY happy when I found this new function. Thanks alot for your work on this!

and indeed a collapse all/expand all is nearly a must when using album as grouping.

i think this can become a nice tool when it would be possible to choose what items to group (all tags) and in what order (or just following the order as choosen in the view).

Those are a must, yes. I found my self lost when using this for my TV series. There was no Series or Season field to use...
There should also be a way of editing the Header text by using the library fields of choise. Even if album view is used I would like to have something like: "Album Artist (auto) - Album (Date)" as the header.

- Carl

[ThoBar]

What robydago said. 

[gappie]

when you want to use the album grouping but sorted by date for audio files. just make sure that you include images in your view (edit view scheme), choose grouping album by date. and edit the view scheme again, taking away the images. bit of a work around for something i do not understand why it is not standard. 

[johnnyboy]

Great feature!
One enhancement I think would make alot of diff and be really nice is if some logic was applied to it and the display customised slightly more than just leaving it as the 'details' view.

If its grouped as 'album' for instance, then the album name for all the files is going to be the same. As such showing it repeatedly for every track is overkill and a little summary tile somewhere that had the album name would be more than enough.

For things like album you'd expect: album name, year, possibly artist, etc to all stay the same so could be summed up in a tile somewhere leaving more space for other data to be shown

[park]

I've just played with this for the first time. This is going to be great. I've been waiting for this view for months. I think that it looks perfect at the moment but I agree with others about the need for more control.

I'd like to see it a bit more set up as an "album viewer" Ie. When you click on the "album" group, the "image:large icon" should come on by default so that we are in a nice looking album view. And the large icon should be like a tile where you can double click on it to play an album, or have a "play" link on it.

Also, since this takes up a lot of screen real estate, a faster way to collapse/expand that view would be good. I envisage most people using it only in the "bottom files view" so that they can use the top library view to filter in the broad strokes kind of way. If I'm right, then we have plenty of space on the bottom files list view header for a "album view" toggle box, and even a separate "Sort" menu.

This is going to make MC even easier to play both songs and albums. I excited by the program's potential again.

[AoXoMoXoA]

I like the feature and love many of the suggested enhancements & improvements posted above.
I would really love to be able to then sort the groups by my choice of Field, including "Sort Albums by Album Date (year)", and "Random Sort Albums" where the album groups are sorted by Album rather than by File.

This would make it easier for those of us who prefer to play whole albums and treat each album as a "unit".
(perhaps I should have ripped all my CDs into "single-track + cue sheet", but it is waaaaaay too late for that)

[hit_ny]

This would make it easier for those of us who prefer to play whole albums and treat each album as a "unit".
(perhaps I should have ripped all my CDs into "single-track + cue sheet", but it is waaaaaay too late for that)

just so you know ripping to cue would not make any difference whatsoever. The only reason to rip to cue is to preserve transitions between tracks with formats that don't support gapless playback.

MC has no concept of album as a unit to date. Do you know of any software that does ?

The album tag is as close as its gets..via grouping or sorting.

Initially i liked the idea of album-as-unit but i'm not finding any compelling reasons any more

[AoXoMoXoA]

just so you know ripping to cue would not make any difference whatsoever. The only reason to rip to cue is to preserve transitions between tracks with formats that don't support gapless playback.

MC has no concept of album as a unit to date. Do you know of any software that does ?

The album tag is as close as its gets..via grouping or sorting.

Initially i liked the idea of album-as-unit but i'm not finding any compelling reasons any more

Actually, Yes, I do.  http://www.albumplayer.com/index.htm
Besides, I think MC has some clue as to what an Album is, otherwise the "Incomplete Albums" smartlist could not function. This may not be the ideal, but there MC does have some clue

My compelling reason is that I play complete albums in the original track order and in their entirety, as if I had slipped a CD into a player. While I understand that computer audio "set us free" from that, it is my preferred way to listen. I consider an album to be like a novel, a work in it's entirety. And, no, I do not read only single chapters or read them out of sucession.

Yes, MC offers me the options for mixed or shuffled playlists based on all sorts of parameters, but I feel it neglects the "Album" as a unit. Too bad for me that it is my preferred unit to work with.

[hit_ny]

Besides, I think MC has some clue as to what an Album is, otherwise the "Incomplete Albums" smartlist could not function. This may not be the ideal, but there MC does have some clue

It's just a simple test to check if numbers are missing, there is little more but the details escape me atm. The illusion is it checks integrity but that's it.

My compelling reason is that I play complete albums in the original track order and in their entirety, as if I had slipped a CD into a player. While I understand that computer audio "set us free" from that, it is my preferred way to listen. I consider an album to be like a novel, a work in it's entirety. And, no, I do not read only single chapters or read them out of sucession.

Exactly the way as i do, but still wondering how album-as-a unit will make this easier/intuitive. As it stands now, i just right click an Album from any Album Pane and add to Playing Now.  Alternatively if you are in Album thumbnails view, the same action will also work. Not drag & drop like album player but functionally equivalent.

Perhaps if there were another option in the Send To Menu,

Right click-> Send To->Play->Add (as Album)

where you could just right click a track and MC automagically picks up all tracks from the same [Album] tag and sends to PN.

[horse]

I'm either using a random smartlist or playing an entire album and want it played in the correct CD/track order.
I also like to keep a multi artist album in a single folder, hence I do the following.

Album = Album Title
Artist = Track Artist (usually the same but varies with Various Artist Albums and Duets etc.)
Album Artist = Who actually released the Album or "Various Artists" if it is a compilation.

For Mutil CD albums I use the Disk # field. The View scheme is then set with a sort criteria of the usual + Disk # and Track #.
My View Scheme for playing Albums actually use Album Artist as the sort field. Now when I play a multi disk album it plays all disk and tracks in the correct order.
If I search by artist it actually uses the Artist field.

For me, it keeps the entire album in a one folder (the File name gets a little long as I add disk and track # from library properties)

When I group by albums it seems to keep my audio view scheme sort which include the disc and track options.

This is what I love about MC, the fact I can listen and organize my music "My Way"

Still working on the Video and Picture menus :-)

[rjm]

Just tried grouping and I love it. Thanks!

One suggestion. I find grouping by album to be very useful in Details List Style but not useful in Thumbnails List Styles.

Could you make the grouping option unique and persistent for each List Style?