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[softshellcrab]

Hello, does the JRiver Media Center allow for adding extensive album reviews and artist bios to either the database or the tags?

For me, ideally this information would be in the database, in  two separate fields. But if that's not possible, is it possible to put it  in two separate tag fields? Or would that add too much size to an MP3 file?

I know while a song is playing you can call up some information at allmusic.com, but I'd like to have my own artist bios and album reviews.

Or perhaps some of this is available through a plug-in???

Thanks.

--Pat

[AoXoMoXoA]

Yes it does!

And you have the option to save this data in either location inthe tags or in the database.
You can use the NOTES field or create your own Custom Tag Field specificaly for this purpose.

[softshellcrab]

Wow, thanks so much for the fast reply. You people are super. 

Through what functions/commands (where in the menu) would I go to in order to add the album reviews and artist bios to the database? Are there two separate places I can do this so I can keep the reviews separate from the bios?  I think some of my album reviews and bios might be too long for tags. And I would lose formatting too if I put them in the tags. So my preference is the database.

thanks,
Pat

[AoXoMoXoA]

goto Tools -> Options -> Library & Folders

Here you can add custom user tags. You can also set any of the tags to be saved in the file tags or leave that unchecked and they will be saved solely in the database.

You can also set the user tags to be of a variety of data types: String, Interger, Decimal, Percentage, or List (semi-colon deliminated).  Since there already exists a Field for Bios and one for Lyrics you can create your own for Reviews.

[glynor]

When you are creating your own Reviews field, you'll want to set the Edit Type to Large Value so that you get the full-size editor when you edit the field in the Tag Action Window.

I, personally, use the Bios field for many of my favorite artists.  I generally just copy/paste the Bios either on Wikipedia or AMG.

[softshellcrab]

Ok, so I added a custom field in User Library Fields called Album Reviews. Now, is the only place to enter data into this field the Tag Editor? And how do I view the album review, especially say when a song is playing? Is there a way to make it pop up or show in a pane?

--Pat

[Alex B]

Ok, so I added a custom field in User Library Fields called Album Reviews. Now, is the only place to enter data into this field the Tag Editor? And how do I view the album review, especially say when a song is playing? Is there a way to make it pop up or show in a pane? --Pat

You can use the tag editor in Action Window or add the column in a view scheme and paste the text in.

Some track info plugins can show library data, but I have not found that very practical.

In any case these fields are text only and the same text will be saved to several files (though only in the database in case the field is not configured to be saved to the file tag).

I usually save things like reviews and artist biographies as separate files in the album folders and import the files to MC. I tag them with the same artist and album tags with the audio files.

I save web pages in the MHT format (web archive). It is a nice format that can hold web pages including images in a single file (at least I.E and Opera can save pages in the MHT format).

When I want to access these files I use a view scheme that can display the audio files, image files and document files together by artists & albums.

Alternatively, I can right-click an audio file and use the "locate external" command for opening the file folder where the related document is.

When a document file is "played" MC sends it to the default program like a web browser, text editor or PDF viewer.

EDIT

Here is an an example album from my library. It contains audio, document and image files.


Click to enlarge.

[hit_ny]

I usually save things like reviews and artist biographies as separate files in the album folders and import the files to MC. I tag them with the same artist and album tags with the audio files.

I would recommend this practice over saving to tags for Bios & reviews etc. As suggested you can savewebpages  to mht files which retains the exact layouts of the webpages where this info was sourced, more appealing to the eye than just plain text. If you want to access them quickly, you can configure Send to (external) to open the mht file in the album folder.

The simplest reason to save to seperate files is it keeps bloat in the library down. Not that MC can't handle it (within reason, upto 100k files on a decent P4, with bios & reviews saved to tags, whereas without them MC could prolly handle three times as many files) but its a much more scalable way of doing things going forward.

Your media collection will only grow over time and there will be less slowdown due to the increased data MC has to keep in memory. MC regularly makes library backups behind the scenes, these will complete much faster if there is less to save.

[softshellcrab]

Alex and hit, thanks for the information. I think I'm going to try a hybrid approach now, putting album reviews in the actual tags and using MHT files to add some selected bios.

Alex, I got up to the part to make the MHT files. I used Internet Explorer. But I can't figure out how to create a scheme like the one in your image? I tried. But I don't know how to combine the different types of files so that they all show up at the same time. Can you give some instructions on how to do that?   Also, am I stuck with that ugly "e" as the icon for my MHT files? Is there any way to change that? I see your MHT files have a different icon.

--Pat

[Alex B]

Alex, I got up to the part to make the MHT files. I used Internet Explorer. But I can't figure out how to create a scheme like the one in your image? I tried. But I don't know how to combine the different types of files so that they all show up at the same time. Can you give some instructions on how to do that?

You could try these links:
http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Add_a_custom_view_scheme_group_to_Media_Center's_tree
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=31061.msg213568;topicseen#msg213568

If you still have questions just ask.

Also, am I stuck with that ugly "e" as the icon for my MHT files? Is there any way to change that? I see your MHT files have a different icon.

On my PC it is the default icon for that file type (MHTML) in Windows Explorer. It is one of the icons that are provided with I.E.

You can change any file type icon in Windows Explorer's "Folder Options". You can find instructions here: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1838904,00.asp

[softshellcrab]

Thanks Alex, that was a big help. This helped me to also understand how to edit existing tree nodes! 

But two questions:

1) How do you get that split view in your image? Where the top shows the jpeg, mht, and txt files, and the bottom pane shows the list view? I couldn't figure this out.

2) My system won't show the replaced IE icon. It simply shows the default one, even though the edit window where you browse to and select the new icon correctly shows the new icon! I tried it first with ICO files, and then using a replacement icon from the default shell32.dll file. But in both cases it won't show. Then I tried changing the default folder icon, and same thing. My system simply won't sow the new replacement icon. Is there some system setting that is preventing the new icon from showing up? I'm on XP Home, SP-2.

--Pat

[Alex B]

1) It is just a standrad "thumbs" view with the "File Type" field as one of the view items. It is possible to always show a file list on bottom. When one or more of the top thumbnails is selected the bottom part of the display shows only the selected files. In my previous screenshot I had an active search, which limited the amount of listed files.

Here is the same view scheme when the Pane mode is selected and the view scheme's configuration window:


Clik to enlarge.

Here's a thumbnails view with the options menu:


Clik to enlarge.


2) I don't know why it doesn't work for you. Maybe MC's internal thumbnail in the thumbnail cache is not up-to-date. Is the changed thumbnail visible in Windows Explorer?

[softshellcrab]

Alex, thanks once again for your time in providing answers and the image shots which were really helpful. The Media Center interface is very confusing for someone who is new to it like me. But now I know how to get those split screens. Just like you showed in your images. I did not even know the "Always Show Files" option existed.

In the All Media view, I like to use "Album" at the top instead of File Type. I also chose to stack the items. When I do this the default image on top of the stack  is always a txt or mht file if one is present for that album. Is there a way to make it so that the Album cover is always on top of the stack by default? Some way I can modify the program? This really bugs me for some reason. When I hover over the stack with the cursor, the album cover comes to the top, but it always go back to the rear when I change views or close the program and reopen it.

As for the icons, the problem exists outside of the Media Center application. The new icons just won't  show up anywhere in Windows -- not on the desktop or inside of other folders. Just doesn't work. The only thing I can think of is that maybe XP Home is crippled in the ability to change icons for items such as this? I know XP Home has less features than XP Pro, so perhaps that's what's preventing me from changing it. It's not a biggie. I will live with the ugly IE icon. The stacking issue actually bothers me more.  Have any ideas for that?

--Pat

[softshellcrab]

Nevermind, I solved the stacking problem. I had been keeping album cover art in a central file, but I moved them to their respective folders and now the stacks show the album cover on the top as the default.

But if anyone knows how to change the icons for mht or htm files I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Pat

[softshellcrab]

Nevermind, I solved the stacking problem. I had been keeping album cover art in a central file, but I moved them to their respective folders and now the stacks show the album cover on the top as the default.

I thought I worked this out, but today it seems a little random and It's vexing. Sometimes I open the program and the album cover art is on top. Sometimes it isn't. Then there's just one album -- and it's always the same one -- where even when all the other albums have the cover art on the top of the stack, this one doesn't. It has either a word doc or text file on top. So this part isn't random. 

Is there a key to the way I need to organize or name my cover art in order to make the stacking order more persistent?

 ?

--Pat