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Music only

72 (38.9%)

Video only

0 (0%)

Video and Music

33 (17.8%)

Images and Music

21 (11.4%)

All three types

42 (22.7%)

All four types

17 (9.2%)

Total Members Voted: 179

[DarkPenguin]

Comparible?  Well, no...

Do they have any applications which allow tagging and organization?  Certainly.  I actually like both Bridge and Lightroom quite a bit.  Lightroom has quickly become my go-to application for photo-manipulation, selection, and printing.  For organization?  MC still has it beat by quite a formidable margin, once you get a workflow set up in MC.

Bridge is a nice browser, which I use a lot on my Macs, but MC beats it for most serious heavy-lifting organizing tasks.

Printing?  Lightroom doesn't offer soft proofing or any output sharpening.  (Or creative sharpening.  It does have excellent capture sharpening.)  Everything I go to print in LR still has to roundtrip its way to CS3.  Bah!  Junk.  Poor replacement for Raw Shooter Premium.  (RIP)

[rjm]

I highly recommend ThumbsPlus from cerious.com for photo organization, searching, viewing, and printing. It also comes with photo editing tools that suffice for minor adjustments and you can always shell out to Photoshop for more demanding edits.

Their database is second to none in my opinion. It is built on the Access engine which means you can get at the schema and tables in the event they ever go out of business. I have tens of thousands of hours invested in my photo database so it is very important to me that the data is stored in an "open" format that can be moved to another application if necessary.

[DarkPenguin]

You really want as much stored in the image file as possible.  That's why I recommend just using keywords for organization.  That way the application you are using or the database associated with it can be corrupt and you can just reload from the files.  We do that with keywords.

I also like using DNG for my raw files for the same reason.  No sidecar files to lose.  If you have the file you have the information.

[glynor]

Printing?  Lightroom doesn't offer soft proofing or any output sharpening.  (Or creative sharpening.  It does have excellent capture sharpening.)  Everything I go to print in LR still has to roundtrip its way to CS3.  Bah!  Junk.  Poor replacement for Raw Shooter Premium.  (RIP)

We use Lightroom quite heavily for printing.  However, it sounds like we might be doing a much different kind of printing than you are.  For a "production" environment where you have a photographer who might have taken 300-400 shots, as part of a large photo shoot, and you need to go through and choose the best one of each subject and print out photo packages Lightroom beats the pants off of the old way of doing it in Photoshop.  Jobs that used to take days now take us hours.  In this type of situation, anything more than minimal effort to "save" a photo is not realistic -- just choose one that isn't broken instead.

Is it perfect?  No, of course not, but it's version 1.

BTW... Lightroom 1.2 now has the same sharpening engine as Photoshop under the Develop "tab".  You have full control over  the Unsharp Mask Amount, Radius, Detail, and Masking.   You can't selectively sharpen via a layer mask like you can in Photoshop (and, yes, it doesn't have any soft proofing features) so I still go to Photoshop for "saving" images, but that's generally not how I use Lightroom anyway...

[aussie1]

MC is one of the three most used applications on my computer. Of the numerous features and capabilities, I would boil it down to two core strengths: a database with sophisticated query capabilities tailored for digital media and a central hub/player for a network of HTPCs.

I use MC primarily to manage my music collection. I also use it to store and play video.

There is no single app I've found that is adequate for images. With respect to tagging, I like Elements' find faces for tagging feature. I use a different app for geotagging. Lightspeed has emerged as my main app for processing, manipulating, and managing images. I use it for keywording and ITPC tags. Its interface has problems, but the basic flaws are known and will be fixed in v2. As discussed in a different thread, the problem with tagging in MC is that, other than keywords, the tags do not comply well with standards and, therefore, can only be used in MC. Once the initial tagging is done, MC is good for managing and accessing the images as part of managing and playing the entire digital media collection.

Other features in MC that I use a lot are the podcast capabilities and the handheld syncing.

[glynor]

Lightspeed has emerged as my main app for processing, manipulating, and managing images.

What is Lightspeed?  Or did you mean Lightroom?

[aussie1]

Yep, Lightroom

[tunetyme]

With all the positive comments, I will take a new look at using MC to organize my photos.  Candidly, photos are not one of my primary interests.  Music is and MC Rocks!  As for Adobe, I use Photoshop and does everything I want or need to do. 

My task was to answer the poll and simply state how I use the MC software.  I think it is great how passionate people are about their favorite software.

[park]

I also like using DNG for my raw files for the same reason.  No sidecar files to lose.  If you have the file you have the information.

Can MC import and organize DNG fies? If so, I might look into converting all my raw files.

[JimH]

What I find interesting is that this poll started out with about 15% saying "music only" and has steadily grown.  "Music only" is now at 40%. 

What does it mean?

And the other interesting thing is that "All four" has 8%.  I originally threw that in there for jgreen, but either 1 in 12 are using MC for documents or 1 in 12 are "social aberrants" and are fooling around with us.

[benn600]

But statistically speaking, I would argue that music only listeners are generally not as sophistocated as those using it for multiple data types.  Practically everyone in the world manages music on their computer in some program.  Photos are kind of just there and most people have their photos all over the place and no good organization.  Video, hmmm.  That's even further down the list.  There isn't a very easy way to get lots of video content that the users will want to keep and organize.

So music only users make up a large percentage of the user base and since there are more users overall, they are more likely to be less indepth/sophisticated and aren't as likely to visit this forum as much.  But since there are more music only users, they will steadily increase the poll count.  So if you leave it up, the music only item will probably rise steadily while the other options will remain nearly the same with only small changes.

It all depends on your bet and what you're rooting for.  Music only?  Leave it up.  Otherwise, CLOSE it.  <-- this has already been proven by what you just said.

[rjm]

What I find interesting is that this poll started out with about 15% saying "music only" and has steadily grown.  "Music only" is now at 40%. 

What does it mean?

And the other interesting thing is that "All four" has 8%.  I originally threw that in there for jgreen, but either 1 in 12 are using MC for documents or 1 in 12 are "social aberrants" and are fooling around with us.

Perhaps the more sophisticated users monitor this forum more frequently and therefore were the first to complete the poll?

With regard to my documents and images, the majority are cover art and txt/mht information about music albums. I wonder if some people would have answered music only in this scenario?

[DarkPenguin]

Can MC import and organize DNG fies? If so, I might look into converting all my raw files.

Should work.  As always test before you convert them all.

[benn600]

I was wanting to say that:

Perhaps the more sophisticated users monitor this forum more frequently and therefore were the first to complete the poll?

So initially, the more sophisticated users would vote -- starting with a greater All/ non-music only audience and now gradually gaining on the music-only end as less sophisticated users skew the results.

[runemail]

I organise music and pictures in MC.


I would use it to organise video if the auto import options was better so that you could add tags based on filename and set up different rules for different locations.

[ADDiCT]

Practically everyone in the world manages music on their computer in some program.

Your "world" seems to be pretty small. You _are_ aware that a large percentage of the "world" doesn't even have regular access to computers, aren't you?

My usage of MC is roughly 95% audio, and some image organization. Audio & iPod support is where MC really shines IMHO.

PS:

So music only users make up a large percentage of the user base and since there are more users overall, they are more likely to be less indepth/sophisticated and aren't as likely to visit this forum as much.

Sigh... The rules of netiquette don't allow me to express what i think about that kind of "logic". I'm glad you're just a user, and not a business consultant for JRiver.

[benn600]

See.  These two previous posters have a relatively low number of posts.  So my assumptions seems somewhat valid.

Yea, I know lots of people don't have computers.  But they still manage their music don't they?  Sure, it may be instruments in wicker baskets but in that case, they're using iWicker.

I prefer Media Center.

Those iWicker proclaimers are obviously not going to spent time organizing their photos because they'd just blow out of iWicker.

[prod]

Sigh...

So to be sophisticated all I need is an MC library consisting of a couple of Spice Girl CD's, a dozen photos of the cat and a video of myself doing the hokey cokey? Brilliant!

I reckon digital content is just digital content - doesn't matter what the nature of it is in the context of how "sophisticated" a user you might be. The rest is just daft arguments over who's got the biggest "server"..

[Krazykanuck]

Benn are you really saying that number of posts directly corresponds to a persons level of sophistication?
The unsophisticated user is more likely not to be using MC since it did not come bundled with their MP3 player or available somewhere for free. I may not have many posts but have been around a while and comment when I think I really have something to add to a topic, at least I think I have something to add anyway others may have other opinions.

I use media center for audio only because I have found other apps that are better at handling photos and videos the way I want. I would love to have an all in one solution but not at the expense of functionality.
MC is improving in the areas of photo and video and I try it out every once in a while to see where it is at but until they are better than what I am using I will stay with my current apps.

[BartMan01]

Perhaps the more sophisticated users monitor this forum more frequently and therefore were the first to complete the poll?

I would suggest a slight vocabulary adjustment:
'Sophisticated' is a poor word choice here.  'MC Power Users' would probably be a better description.  'Sophisticated' implies more about education/social stature that usage.

[prod]

Hmm I don't think anyone's misinterpreted his words. Benn is clearly saying that these so-called unsophisticated users skew the results of the poll because of their music-only use, implying that their vote doesn't count as much as his.

[BartMan01]

Hmm I don't think anyone's misinterpreted his words. Benn is clearly saying that these so-called unsophisticated users skew the results of the poll because of their music-only use, implying that their vote doesn't count as much as his.

That was how I read it too, but keep in mind that he did not first use that word so I am assuming that is not exactly what he meant.  If it is, then he is flat wrong.  There are valid reasons not to use MC as a video/image management tool.

As to the results - I would suggest that users with large image (like me) or video libraries already use other tools that provide functionality currently missing from MC for these tasks.

[benn600]

Since I'm obviously incorrect, someone explain why music only keeps rising but started at a tiny percentage of the overall count.

[Krazykanuck]

Ever sit and watch election results come in?
How often do you see a few districts report in solidly for one candidate only to see the person ultimately get trounced.

It's always a mistake to read too much into early results.
In this case I think the majority of users are music only. I say that because there are many long time users here that started when it only was a music product. It still attracts people because of its music roots. Over time as its other features are added and catch up to other apps it will start attracting a larger percentage in those categories.
Not everyone spends their time glued to the forum so until a period of time elapses such that you get a good cross section of the user base what you see is really meaningless. Over time it will settle onto the correct level.

[BartMan01]

Since I'm obviously incorrect, someone explain why music only keeps rising but started at a tiny percentage of the overall count.

The 'average' frequent forum user is most likely to be a JRiver Employee/Beta Tester/MC Evangelist.  The 'average' MC user will not use MC the same way, or to the same extent.  This does not make them unsophisticated (connotation of that word is back woods inbred hick), just different.

[benn600]

Don't you agree that evangelists of MC are much more likely to use MC's other features?  Yes, they still may use only its music abilities but I'd say they are more likely to put their trust in MC as a complete media management program.

[tunetyme]

Benn the false assumption is everyone has the same interest as you do.  If you are a photo enthusiast then that will be your focus.  If music then it is music.  The poll only serves to show what are the dominate features being used today.  That will change over time as MC continues to develop and market its product to groups other than music enthusiasts.  It has nothing to do with sophistication or being a power user.  Not everyone who logs on is willing to be polled nor do they have the time always to take the poll.  The may not like the way the poll is worded.  Who knows.  Clearly MC is known best for music and the numbers reflect that fact  That's why I bought it. 

 

[gappie]

dont know about its users, but mc is very sophisticated indeed.

[StFeder]

I use it to manage my music and my musicvideos. So I chose Music & Video. I tried to organise my images within MC, but ACDSee does a better and faster job for this. I never figured out, how I can listen to music (and controll it) and watch pictures (and controll the slideshow) at the same time. It looks easier to me to have a seperate programm for doing this.

[Launfal]

Since I'm obviously incorrect, someone explain why music only keeps rising but started at a tiny percentage of the overall count.

IMO, it's because average people don't think in terms of managing images and video.  I know I don't.  When I think of a media library, I think of music.  I don't really need an image library, because explorer in thumbnail view gets me where I'm going.  I don't have a video library, so the idea of maintaining a database of videos makes no sense for me.  Maybe I need to sync some music to my phone.  Maybe my wife needs to make a mix CD for her car.  These are real life examples of why someone would need a music database.  Image and video management simply doesn't fit into MY worldview.

I'm not a MC power user by any stretch.  I use it at about 2% of it's total capability, if that.  It does what it does well enough to suit me, and if the next build suddenly became music only, I may not even notice.

I think that's the mindset of average users.  We migrate from Winamp, or Itunes, or WMP. and we bring our music-centric mindset with us.  I simply lack the need/initiative to expand my mindset to include an "all encompassing media management system."  I simply don't care, and I would venture to guess that there are a lot of MC users just like me.  Does that makes us unsophisticated or computer neophytes?  Perhaps, but more likely not.  The appeal of MC is going to be to the converts from other programs, and the headliner is going to be the music management functions.  Cover art browsing is cool, smartlists are cool, transcoding for portable use is cool.  Tagging images, directshow filtering for DVD/video playback, TV tuning, etc, are all waaaay advanced for us average users.  Maybe we'll stick around long enough to learn what it is that we're "missing."  But don't hold your breath, since it's us average users that are going to be the engine that drives MC development forward with our continued conversions and upgrades.

Power users rock, and in other programs, I fit that category.  But for MC, I just need it to keep doing what it's doing until I feel like doing more.

Maybe this strikes a chord with other people and helps explain where at least ONE of those "music only" votes came from.

[benn600]

I find a delicate balance in life is to use only what you need and want to use, not necessarily everything you have or paid for.  Buying something really expensive may lead you to feel like you have to use it more than you'd want to.  I always find that you have to restrict your use to just what you truly need or want.