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[mark_h]

LINKS:

Add a mechanism for searching inside MC itself.  That way we could, for example, click an item from any playlist, click the link and have MC open a new tab containing all the referenced artists albums...  etc.  Multiple different links would create their own customisable results view, eg artist album thumbnails, all tracks by an artist, artist albums by ranks etc...

Mark

[DancerMike]

Few things I like to see if possible:

1.  Ditto on requests for cover art for your video files.
2.  Keyboard Shortcut for direct exit from application when not in standard view mode.
3.  Ditto on better tag ( or maybe better said as associated db information ) on your video library.

Thanks!

[tombert]

Allow to normalize (gain) the songs when creating an mp3 data CD.

[Skeet]

Something I'd like to see would be lastfm support for the UPnP server. So that when I stream my music to my UPnP device (radio/media client), the play stat is scrobbled to lastfm.
I've searched everywhere for an app that does this, but none currently do. I did find plenty of people asking this question though.

[Osho]

One feature I would like to see is faster loading of USBUIRT remote: I use USBUIRT plugin to control MC via remote. It takes 5-6 seconds of lag time before remote commands are recognized after MC13's Theater View home screen is displayed upon start. Can we please fix this if possible? The delay could be really annoying when one uses MC13 often enough.

Thanks,
Osho

[imugli]

One feature I would like to see is faster loading of USBUIRT remote: I use USBUIRT plugin to control MC via remote. It takes 5-6 seconds of lag time before remote commands are recognized after MC13's Theater View home screen is displayed upon start. Can we please fix this if possible? The delay could be really annoying when one uses MC13 often enough.

Thanks,
Osho

+1. I thought I was the only one suffering from this...

[robydago]

Allow to normalize (gain) the songs when creating an mp3 data CD.

also when syncing to an handheld (or is it possible already?)

[mark_h]

Normalisation is already available for hand helds and CD burning.  Check the options.

Mark

[Dirhael]

Here are a few things that I'd love to see in MC13 (sorry if these have already been mentioned):

• Real random playback (shuffle != random) would be nice, and while on the subject, I'd also like the possibility to sort my "now playing" list as I'd like (and have it stick) and still have the playback be random. There is no good reason why the tracks must be listed in playback order.
• It would be nice if it was possible to click on grouped album headers and/or covers to select all tracks in said album. At least add the possibility to enable such functionality in the options dialogue.
• I realize that this is unlikely to happen, but what about offering a paid for (optional purchase) AAC/M4A plugin? I understand from reading some posts on this forum that you don't want to add such a plugin in MC13 due to licensing costs, but if it was a separate purchase (let's say $10) then this would be available for those of us that wouldn't mind paying a premium to have native support for this. This appears to be working for at least one of your competitors, so perhaps it could be something to consider? Especially now that iTunes have dropped all their DRM, I can see people purchasing more content in this format.

[tombert]

Normalisation is already available for hand helds and CD burning.  Check the options.

Mark

For Audio only, but not for mp3 data CDs.

[tombert]

also when syncing to an handheld (or is it possible already?)

No - its not - and I want that too!

[mark_h]

No - its not - and I want that too!

You are correct.  My mistake.

Mark

[tombert]

More options (frame rate, bit rate etc.) for ffmpeg (when converting for portables e.g. to 3gp) or at least the possibility to specify own command line options.

thx

[glynor]

More options (frame rate, bit rate etc.) for ffmpeg (when converting for portables e.g. to 3gp) or at least the possibility to specify own command line options.

+++

And better built-in conversion options that aren't tied to the hardware that happens to be connected or not connected.  I often want to convert videos to iPod format without my iPod actually plugged in.  Firstly because I also have an iPhone that doesn't directly support MC (but which could still use the videos converted through it) and secondly because it sometimes takes a long time to do the conversion so having them pre-converted in a cache can be convenient.

[jehrico76]

I'd also like to see customizable RSS feeds...either that, or add a good feed for sports scores.

Any way to use the obsidian skin for theater view from MC12?  I like to keep the theaterview for MC12 up on the touchscreen of my HTPC (7", 800x600), and that skin was more attractive and favorable for a small screen than the new version.

A button or some quick way to move MC from my small screen to the big screen on demand would rock as well for those of us running multiple screen on our home theater setup.

Lastly...Is there anyway to get theaterview to only dedicate the bottom 25% to whatever view you have chosen instead of the bottom 50%?  I'd rather have more of my limited real estate dedicated to thumbnails for whats coming up in the playlist.

Thanks.

[gappie]

Any way to use the obsidian skin for theater view from MC12?  I like to keep the theaterview for MC12 up on the touchscreen of my HTPC (7", 800x600), and that skin was more attractive and favorable for a small screen than the new version.

to get the old obsidian back... is mc 12 still on your system. under program files in windows. go to jriver>media center 12> fullskins. look for obsidian. change the name of that folder to for instance obsidian old. copy the folder.
now go to jriver>media center 13> fullskins and past the folder. in the settings of theaterview you can now choose for obsidian old. 

 
gab

[mark_h]

Add the ability to only write tags to files without destroying data.  My partner uses my central music collection but her own version of MC - I have set up both our machines with user fields, ie My Rating, Her Rating, etc that only exist on the specific users PC to separate out our important personal information.  But right now it's not possible(?) to write either set of data without trashing the others because the act of writing does not look at what's already there is simply takes the database set and writes it out.

What I'd like is an option that non-destructively writes tags; thus I could write Her Rating to the file without destroying My Rating, and vice-versa.

As it stands, all my data is written, and none of hers is.  That leaves me very concerned for her data after database corruptions.  I do take other backups but would prefer the software could help me write the data to the original files where full incremental backups/mirroring is active.

Mark

[jehrico76]

to get the old obsidian back... is mc 12 still on your system. under program files in windows. go to jriver>media center 12> fullskins. look for obsidian. change the name of that folder to for instance obsidian old. copy the folder.
now go to jriver>media center 13> fullskins and past the folder. in the settings of theaterview you can now choose for obsidian old. 

 
gab

Thanks!  That was the main thing keeping me from going full steam with 13.  Now if I can just get my sports feed on it when I'm not listening to music!

[jehrico76]

One other update...while I was at it, I figured out how to change how much real estate the Obsidian skin devoted to the playlist and the visualization down below.  However, I could only drop it to 36%.  If I set it at 35.5% or below, it wouldn't properly show the visualization (I was only trying track info ones, specifically Noire, simple, and ocean).  Instead of showing the plugin, it would show a white background with the thumbnail in the middle, nothing else, regardless of which track info view I chose for the bottom portion.  Any idea why you can't take the bottom portion to be less than 36%?  I'd like to set it at about 30% with minimal info and have more real estate devoted to the playlist.

[gappie]

One other update...while I was at it, I figured out how to change how much real estate the Obsidian skin devoted to the playlist and the visualization down below.  However, I could only drop it to 36%.  If I set it at 35.5% or below, it wouldn't properly show the visualization (I was only trying track info ones, specifically Noire, simple, and ocean).  Instead of showing the plugin, it would show a white background with the thumbnail in the middle, nothing else, regardless of which track info view I chose for the bottom portion.  Any idea why you can't take the bottom portion to be less than 36%?  I'd like to set it at about 30% with minimal info and have more real estate devoted to the playlist.

does that also happen when you disable 'show cover art when small'? right click on the viz to get that option.

 
gab

[jehrico76]

Disabling that has no impact.

FWIW, right now I'm using a modified version of Noire.  I went into the style sheet and limited the art for 200 pixels, and brought the font sizes down a little.  Then, I went into the index HTLM file, got rid of any background images, and set the bgcolor for straight black.  All of this in the Obsidian skin that I ported from MC12.

[mark_h]

Add case-sensitivity option to smartlists

Mark

[mark_h]

Update the replace() expression so that we can specify to replace the nth entry (default is as now which replaces all).

eg

replace([name],the,The,1)

will replace the first occurrence only.

replace([name],the,The,3)

will replace the third occurrence only.

replace([name],the,The)

will replace all occurrences.

Cheers,

Mark

[mark_h]

Make isRange() expression case sensitive.

Mark

[runemail]

Lately I have used MC13 exclusive to rip, tag and rename my new music, works kind of great but I have a couple of issues that annoys me:

On the right click -> library tools -> rename move & copy Mc 13 remembers my choices, except for the most important: I always choose "Copy" instead of "Rename" and I have to select that manually every time. It would be better if Mc13 could remember this as well!

Fill track numbers from list order would be even better if it used the xx format, like 01,02.. etc. Optional?

Cover art finder is actually pretty good, but I always want more metadata. Because we all know that the use of metadata is the only thing that really separates us from the apes. We allready have the Amazon store built in, can't we use some of their metadata? (And I don't mean coverart) Or Last.fm since we have built in the plugin?

I would love to organize my movies in MC, but that won't happen untill I have some kind of basic metadata-grabber to help me...

[benn600]

I'll include my few wishes I've asked for a million times:

1. Way to save DVD rip tags to folder <- auto import destroys [Name] field on DVD rips.
2. Save bookmarks for DVDs to a central database <- perhaps a simple .txt file you could set.  So multiple HTPCs would provide cross-TV bookmarking.
3. Option to ignore bookmark on starting DVD.
4. More server abilities <- connect to HTPC server to get all settings, configurations, etc.  Sort of like library server but able to lookup a network drive listing on own.

[silkshadow]

Two way network communication. I can rate a song on a client connected to MC13 server and it will actually be saved. Not too much to ask, I think.

[raldo]

Face Tagging!

[raldo]

When deleting a file, I think the following new option (radio button) would be useful: "Keep in Media Library and send to the Recycle Bin".

Thus you could keep track of what you've seen but delete it from disk...

[P3TER]

One thing I wish for a future release is the ability to stream the output from one MC client, to be played on another client.

The problem:
I have MC12 installed on my server, my Laptop, and a few other PC's around the house.

There is a Roland sound card on my server with 'line out' patched to my living room Amplifier. (I also have headphone out + TV Out modulated as a Nicam Stereo Cable TV channel, so I can listen in stereo on any TV in the house!)

Currently I use a MS Remote Desktop session to control Media Center, which works 'OK'. Limitations are that the server screen is diverted to the laptop, and DirectX doesn't work, so it is not possible to display Video or Images at the server (& therefore on my 'private TV channel'!). But this is acceptable if you mostly are interested in Audio.

The Remote Desktop solution however is not easy enough to pass W.A.T. (wife acceptance test!), so the only other solution to control MC on the server is to use Remote Server, which is incredibly basic, rather unfriendly and unintuitive, and has not been improved since forever. Even if with a huge amount of time invested, Remote Server will never be an elegant solution for controlling a remote Media Center installation, and of course developing it further would inevitably stop Remote Server working with PDA's and other very thin clients.

The Solution?
So.. if there was a possibility for my Server Media Center / Media Server to act as a 'Zone', this might be a simpler option, instead of extending the very basic remote control functionality?

In other words, when opening a client instance of MC that is by default loading its media library from a library server, it would be great if you could also optionally stream the output via that servers own sound card. (optionally, since often you would want to play the output to the client, as originally intended)

I guess there are many ways to crack this, but my dream is to enable others in my family to control the media on our server, using a local install of Media Center connected to the library server, using Theater view. When pressing play, (or as a menu choice) they would then see an easily accessible menu choice to output the resulting stream to the Server OR to the installed MC client.

Any other takers for this?

[nuke2000]

Hi there, Apologies if any of these have been mentioned before but just a few feature requests, all related to the Theatre View experience:

1. Remote control navigation - Can the keyboard shortcut mapping be fully extended into theatre view to improve navigation

2. Any chance of an option for transparent menu overlays with playing now in the background (perhaps with a configurable time out returning to now playing after certain timeframe). Pressing any key brings the OSD back - Might just be me but getting back to full screen playing now is somewhat tricky at the moment

3. Customisation of the options in theatre view to enable removal of unwanted items (volume up/down, stop etc)

4. Ability to rename home screen buttons and reassign function (As an example i would like a DVD library button on the home screen taking me to my iso's) - I know you are considering improving things in the DVD Library area so looking forward to that.

5. Normalisation of volume output when playing multiple files of different volumes (applied to both audio and video files)


Thats my lot, all the above are navigation related (except the last one) and i think would make MC13 unbeatable as an HTPC front end enabling easy remote control operation by all the family

Oh, seen it mentioned elswhere but here's another vote for 3d view in Theatre View - Not sure how you would navigate that with a remote! but i would look way cool 

Thanks for an excellent piece of software guys

[Galager]

I would like to see more options when it comes to printing up play lists.  For example, I would love to be able to print by album then show what songs are in each album, the same with Artist - songs, artist - album - songs, yadda yadda yadda.  You get the picture.

I am an old MusicMatch user.  I really loved the way it used the whole screen to show it's libraries with out the left columb.  It was very helpful if you had files with very long names like many that are generated when you rip a classical or opera CD.  Even though it has been several years since Yahoo destroyed that wonderful program I am still in mourning.  It's a good thing I discovered Media Center, I was beggining to loose all hope for humanity.  Great program.

[beardypete]

I agree about DLNA support - I was disappointed to discover that the Buffalo support is for the Link Theatre (UPnP), and not the NAS devices. I can't believe that it can pay to ignore the existance of the growing DLNA community.

I'd like to see the implementation include the ability to create playlists based on DLNA server content, this is not supported in iTunes and is a real shortcoming of Apple's offering.

So, finger's crossed that some genius can come up with a DLNA patch.

Regards,
Pete

[dmm]

I would like to have the ability to set the DSP output upsample rate to be a multiple of the native sample rate of the music file.

For instance, I could set the output to 2x upsampling.  Thus

Native rate    output rate
44.1              88.2
96                 192

I prefer the sound of even multiple upsampling of my music out my digital SPDIF output to my receiver.

Also, the ability to set the upsampling on or off by file extension.  I have .dts and .ac3 files that I don't want upsampled because that would corrupt the encoded DD and DTS streams.

[JONCAT]

1. Make the abilty to move the video displayed an option, countless times my kids are rolling around on the couch and the screen gets moved. I do it myself when just attempting to select buttons or menus. It's a strange stock feature; it'd make me VERY nervous using MC in a business or corporate video presentation. I'm not sure why a user is able to do this, the point is....?

2. Full m4a support.

DC

[tombert]

Color the background of already played files in Theater view - e.g. for when watching a series of videos I would know which one I have already seen.

MAC users are already able to give files few different backgrounds (red, green, blue, ...) to mark them for special purposes.

There must be an easy possibility to clear this flag (background color).
Also, this should go automatic when - lets say 75% - of the video has already been played. The 75% must be configurable somewhere.

thx

[MusicHawk]

ReplayGain is a super feature, and to use it for playback requires that MC's DSP Studio have Volume Leveling enabled. Works great to make tracks sound reasonably balanced across a huge playlist.

BUT... It drops the overall level of my system way down, so I have to crank the amp volume up quite a bit, which leads to a nasty surprise when switching to a different audio input (without first turning down the volume, a good practice rarely done by family members).

The question is, why does enabling Volume Leveling drop the overall audio level so much? One possible answer is that MC is looking at the loudest tracks and adjusting everything down from there. Another possible answer is that it uses the lowest tracks as the norm and adjusts louder tracks down to match (rather than raising the level of low tracks).

I expected volume leveling to allow a higher average volume because both extremes are adjusted, but this isn't what happens in my experience. Is MC reacting to a few huge peaks somewhere in the tens of thousands of tracks in my library, even though all of them have ReplayGain values?

I come from a broadcast station background where volume leveling is known as compression and limiting, and while the process details are different (audio level is adjusted continuously within a song, not just across songs), the end result is both a consistent volume level and an INCREASE in average volume (a major reason stations do it), whereas in MC, Volume Leveling results in a DECREASE, at least in my library where a typical playlist has 20,000 tracks of an eclectic mix of music.

I'm living with it, but wondering why, and if there could be some tweaking of DSP's Volume Leveling.

Plan B is to normalize the entire library, or possibly locate and adjust "too low" tracks, but we know the risks of resampling.

[JONCAT]

It's been discussed quite a bit here and I believe Alex B has posted some details on manually adjusted the RG data for files. I think the target rate based on an algorithm I don't completely understand was an spl of 83db. So RG reduces volume to hit this and the average the most of my 47K files fall into is -8 to -12db. I don't notice any hit on fidelity and use an external DAC for volume control.

The target level is a bit low, but if you're lucky enough to have a DAC with pots or internal jumpers like the Benchmark or just really sensitive speakers and input sensitivity on your amps, it's okay. I used to own the DAC1 from Benchmark and was able to compensate for RG with the pots; when your try to do this in software your risk clipping, but overall it seems you might be safe using the Fixed adjustment +3-4db and enabling Clip Protection.  Clipping risk because: the songs that only need under -3db of reduction are given an increase in amplitude; I guess this is only a danger if the peaks are really high in the file.

Some recommend the Album setting in RG but it's really like having RG off in my opinion as you are clumping together tracks of similar amplitude but the next batch (album) will be different.

btw - you have a PM from me.

DC

[MusicHawk]

DC:  Thanks for the info.

I don't think extreme peaks are likely or even possible in commercially recorded music. Peaks are a problem in the original recording session, in mixing, in mastering, in the final delivery medium -- all down the line. Peaks have to be dynamically limited (rapid reduction then release) or allowed to be clipped (yikes) or something will get overloaded with even more distortion. So there are multiple stages of limiting and compression. Therefore, MC should not encounter extreme peaks. So, I'll experiment with raising the overall level a tad. (Even human ears will clip on extreme peaks.)

But I still wonder why the overall level is so low when applied across tracks -- easily noted by turning DSP Volume Leveling on/off. What is it sensing?

[jeh14]

Issue: Custom library fields not usable for podcast tagging

I have a custom library field called [yearmo] . It is a calculated field in the form yyyy-mm . It works fine in most places.

However, when I set up a podcast, I want to be able use it in the "podcast tag and file renaming rules" to override the podcast's default Album tag. I want to put in the Album tag something like

[yearmo] Podcast Overall Title

and then the downloaded files would be automatically put into albums specific to eachyear and month. Reason: for some podcasts I save many back eps and I don't want the contents of any one album to get too long.

Unfortunately this doesn't work. What I get in the "album" is literally

[yearmo] Podcast Overall Title

...square brackets and all.

Using the built in library fields [Date (year)] and [Date (month)] has analagous results. They don't get substituted.

The [Date] field works, but I don't want an album per date! This does give a clue that "computed" library fields aren't available until too late.

Oddly, my [yearmo] field works in the "directory" rule, where I have, for example

Podcast artist\[yearmo] Podcast Overall Title

and so the files get stored in directories grouped the way I want. (This does give a clue that "computed" library fields aren't available until too late, after the MP3 tag is stored in the temp file but before the target file is created.) But for mp3 browsers that follow the actual tags this isn't enough. I want the year and month info in the album tag as well.

Can this be considered a bug to be fixed? Is there a workaround?

(edited: removed tt tags, as they didn't help readability one bit)

[JONCAT]

I meant to replay sooner but I remember a few years ago when I discovered some sub-par mp3s were throwing off the RG reduction. Maybe your playing large lists of files at once (like I do) on shuffle; in that case those mp3s needed almost 25db reductions and affected the entire calculation.

View your entire library in one scheme and add the RG column and sort by it to weed any nasties out.


I do remember seeing EMU patchmix get in the red commonly when receiving music from JRiver if I upped the RG to much; you can watch the Peak Meter in the RG window while playing a tune to get a sense of what the peak is, or you could just take a look by adding the tag Peak as a column.

DC

DC:  Thanks for the info.

I don't think extreme peaks are likely or even possible in commercially recorded music. Peaks are a problem in the original recording session, in mixing, in mastering, in the final delivery medium -- all down the line. Peaks have to be dynamically limited (rapid reduction then release) or allowed to be clipped (yikes) or something will get overloaded with even more distortion. So there are multiple stages of limiting and compression. Therefore, MC should not encounter extreme peaks. So, I'll experiment with raising the overall level a tad. (Even human ears will clip on extreme peaks.)

But I still wonder why the overall level is so low when applied across tracks -- easily noted by turning DSP Volume Leveling on/off. What is it sensing?

[JONCAT]

This one would be useful and really easy:

When using Panes, long fields are re-listed with the first item e.g. All Artists.

For long fields, this causing a major waste of screen real estate because the auto size function expands the pane. We already have the Pane titles; maybe just use "All..."

DC

[poptasticboy]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add karaoke support!

By this, I mean the ability to play CDG+MP3 pairs and zip files of the same!  I'd then be able to use Media Center for everything and not need a seperate program to play my karaoke files

[rjm]

A new variant of "Locate On Disc (inside Media Center)" which opens in a new tab would be very useful.

Analogous to ctl-clicking a link in IE8.

[JONCAT]

A new variant of "Locate On Disc (inside Media Center)" which opens in a new tab would be very useful.

Analogous to ctl-clicking a link in IE8.

Yep, I've thought this would be great..SECONDED!!!!

DC

[flac.rules]

Under MC Tools/Options/General(?)/Advanced/Features, you may be able to remove some of the things you don't want.

I have trouble understanding why a program that runs in 50 to 60MB of memory playing audio is a problem when memory is so inexpensive.  If you're having any performance issues, please start a new thread.

I haven't tested very much with MC13 yest, but wwith 12, the working set gets pretty big after a week or se when i have a pretty large library (200k songs) and having a lot of files in "playing now". I am not that familiar with memory managment, the amount of memery used showed in task manager is much less then the working set, but if i quit the program the amount of extra free memory seem to be the working set (wich kan be 300-400MB)

AS to my wishes:

1. RG working the same way as in foobar, with trackgain and albumgain.

2. As it has been mentioned a lot of times, a better theater view, and better skinning ability, some of the oter media centers have rellay nice skins. I know, function of form and all that, but a cool look does help (an example of a nice skin can be seen here: http://www.meedios.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3387), other examples have been posted earlier in the thread

[jeh14]

I haven't tested very much with MC13 yest, but wwith 12, the working set gets pretty big after a week or se when i have a pretty large library (200k songs) and having a lot of files in "playing now". I am not that familiar with memory managment, the amount of memery used showed in task manager is much less then the working set, but if i quit the program the amount of extra free memory seem to be the working set (wich kan be 300-400MB)

This is pretty close. Some of the working set - usually a fairly small portion - is pages also in the working sets of other processes and these don't get released to "available". But the rest (what task manager in Vista reports as "Private Working Set") is indeed RAM allocated privately to the process, and is released to "available" when the process ends.

This should be a subset of task manager's "Commit size" (process-private virtual address space).

It's important to remember though that the working set size of a process is pretty "opportunistic." If nothing else needs the RAM then Windows will allow the WS to grow. If something else shows up that needs the RAM, then Windows will trim the WSs of larger processes to make room. So just because RAM is in the working sets of various processes doesn't mean it's there forever. The same is true of course of the Windows file cache, and of nearly every other process too.

So just because you currently have, say, only 700 MB free RAM does not mean you can't run a process that typically needs 1 GB to perform well. The only reason all that RAM was allocated to your current workload is that it was available to be allocated at the time. When something else needs the RAM it can be "unallocated" from its current processes and put to other uses. This can even be done to the RAM shared by multiple processes if they all drop it from their working sets.

[solosid]

Hi All,

Here are a few things that I'd love to see in MC13 (sorry if these have already been mentioned):

Quick access drop-down box for Zones

Easier renaming (I don't understand this bit at all)


cheers

Mark

[JONCAT]

Hi All,

Here are a few things that I'd love to see in MC13 (sorry if these have already been mentioned):

Quick access drop-down box for Zones

Easier renaming (I don't understand this bit at all)


cheers

Mark

You can:

1. Add the Zones icon to the top or bottom toolbar; it's a drop down.

2. Use a keyboard command (Ctrl + T ?) to switch zones; I have this programmed to my Gyration remote.

DC

[tombert]

Very often I accidentally quit TheaterView by pressing the wrong buttons - playing now to fullscreen mode etc.
There should be a possibility to lock MC into TheaterView - just like the Party Mode - with TheaterView its not possibly to delete the library and other people could use it without worrying me.
Example: Exit TheaterView only through the top menu (Audio, Images, Video, ... Exit) and entering password. The Esc button and other shortcuts should be disabled then.

thx