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[bdh]

I'm a former Foobar2000 user.  I switched as I think MC15 has better sound quality.  However, I still like the Foobar2000 UI better.  Here are a few things I can't seem to find in MC15 that I really want.  Does anyone know if they are available and I just can't find them?

- Configure global hotkeys to Play\Pause, Next\Previous track, jump to next random album, etc.  I want to pause at the touch of a key rather than fumble for my mouse, find the window, and find the pause icon.  (Note: GLOBAL hot keys work even if the MC15 UI is not the active Window.)

- Shuffle by album rather than by song.

- Cursor follows playback.  I hate manually trying to find the album and song that's playing in a list of 18000 songs.

- After doing just about anything in Media Center 15 (look at Options, look at a playlist, etc.), and then go back to 'Audio', my column sort I had is now cleared and I'm also back at the top of the list, and so I have to yet again click the Album column to sort by albums and then manually find out where I was looking previously or what's currently playing.  I've tried saving a customized view, but this still happens.

[JimH]

- Configure global hotkeys to Play\Pause, Next\Previous track, jump to next random album, etc.  I want to pause at the touch of a key rather than fumble for my mouse, find the window, and find the pause icon.  (Note: GLOBAL hot keys work even if the MC15 UI is not the active Window.)

A keyboard with media keys should work.  Or an MCE remote (see the ad above right).

[Matt]

This might interest you:
http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/User_Defined_Global_Keyboard_Shortcuts

[bdh]

Well, I'm using this at work and don't have a fancy keyboard or remote ability.  And since I get interupted frequently, I want to pause at the touch of a button (with Foobar, I map Play\Pause to <Ctrl><Shift>Z, and if you click the Global check-box, this works no matter what application is active.)

And at home I'm using it with a laptop to control my stereo system, and my laptop doesn't have any media keys on it.

(Note: the link Matt just posted will hopefully let me be able to do the global key mapping.  Thanks!)

I take it the other features I mentioned are not available either?

[Alex B]

- Cursor follows playback.  I hate manually trying to find the album and song that's playing in a list of 18000 songs.

I just wrote a reply about the Playing Now list:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=59208.msg400181#msg400181.
It is a feature that does not exist in fb2k, at least not in its default UI.

In MC the currently playing media file is indicated also in the library views but the actual handling of the playback queue happens in Playing Now.

Personally I am happy with MC's style. I use the library views separately from the playback queue (or queues if more than one is configured) that runs elsewhere.

A quick forum search found some my of old related replies:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=55700.msg378468#msg378468
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=50037.msg342274#msg342274
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=57197.msg388097#msg388097
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=49381.msg338160#msg338160

...and an example of a "DJ" setup that uses two Playing Now & MC instances:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=50518.msg345477#msg345477

EDIT

+ http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=50518.msg345373#msg345373

[bdh]

Okay, three features down, one to go.  Woo hoo!

Copying my whole library to the Playing Now list solves the problem of locating the currently playing song.  And the Playing Now list maintains my column sort and returns to the currently playing file if you go away from the Playing Now list and come back.  While it doesn't do the 'Cursor follows playback' like Foobar, it's much better than nothing.

I don't create playlists or anything like that.  I just use my full library and would like to randomly jump to the beginning of a new album if I don't want to listen to the one currently playing.  I almost never play individual songs, it's usually full albums.

Thanks!

[qwert73]

I just wrote a reply about the Playing Now list:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=59208.msg400181#msg400181.
It is a feature that does not exist in fb2k, at least not in its default UI.

As a foobar2000 user i have to correct you. The Playing Now list do exist - there are multiple of them. You made the mistake to mix them up with MCs tracklists in the library part of MC which aren't playable lists and therefore they send their content to the one and only Now playing list. That is indeed an totally different concept!

[rick.ca]

While it doesn't do the 'Cursor follows playback' like Foobar, it's much better than nothing.

It wouldn't be appropriate for the cursor to automatically follow playback in a library view—that's what PN is for. But it would be nice if there were a command for scrolling to the currently playing item (which, I suppose, would do nothing if the item were not in the view).

There are different ways PN can be used. One is to use a split view—so you can work in a library view and monitor PN at the same time. Another is to open PN in a separate tab. You can't see both at once, but that gives more screen space to both. Either is preferable to switching between a library view and PN in the same tab. Doing that causes the current selection settings of the library view to be lost. (Use a separate tab for whatever view you want to "remember" what you were doing last. I use one for each of Audio, Images, Video and PN.)

It can also be helpful to display an IsInPlayingNow() expression column in a details view and/or an add an expression category like If(IsPlaying(),Playing,If(IsInPlayingNow(),Selected,)) to the view. In a Panes view, the latter allows displaying whatever is in PN (using the current view scheme—e.g., by album) with one click on "Selected."

Okay, three features down, one to go.  Woo hoo!

I'm not sure where we are now.

You should be able to configure a view to your liking for the purpose of selecting albums for play. Whether that's categorized or shuffled and details or thumbnails is up to you. By using a separate PN view, your album view should retain it's state and the cursor not following playback should be less of an issue.

[bdh]

Just copying my whole library to the Playing Now list solves the problem of finding the currently playing song and not reseting the view.

The one issue I'm still not able to do is Shuffle or Play Random by album rather than by song.

[Alex B]

As a foobar2000 user i have to correct you. The Playing Now list do exist - there are multiple of them. You made the mistake to mix them up with MCs tracklists in the library part of MC which aren't playable lists and therefore they send their content to the one and only Now playing list. That is indeed an totally different concept!

I have had fb2k installed since the version 0.5, but I am not very familiar with its UI tweaking possibilities. However, in my opinion fb2k is a playlist based player. The default playlist and the playlist tabs are the first things you see after you have installed it. You can use its media library viewers and send tracks to the playlists. You can play any single playlist, but only one at a time.

MC is a database based player. Its database includes the stored static playlists and also automatic smartlists. The Playing Now queues are intentionally separate from the database views. You can create several PNs by using the Zones feature.

[rick.ca]

The one issue I'm still not able to do is Shuffle or Play Random by album rather than by song.

That's what I was addressing with "you should be able to configure a view to your liking for the purpose of selecting albums for play."

Use a Categories view with Album sorted randomly and display only album thumbnails. If you like, add Genre and/or Style categories before that to restrict the selection. Select all the albums and Play. If you don't like the album that's playing, refresh the view (to shuffle them) and Play again.

[Alex B]

Here is my interpretation of randomness:


Click to enlarge.

- Album thumbnails in random order (press F5 to reshuffle).
- The file list shows the tracks in the selected album.
- Playing Now on the right shows the played album or albums. You can play individual albums or add more albums to PN.

You can move the dividers by dragging them.
The lists and the tree can be closed and reopened by moving the dividers.

The view is basically the same as my "albums by date imported" view here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=59177.msg399965#msg399965. I changed the sort order to random and added the Playing Now split.

The search rule for this view (in my library) is:
[Complete Album]=1 [Media Type]=[Audio] -[Album]=[] -[Artist]=[] -[Album Type]=[],[Multiple artists/(incomplete/)],[Single artist /(incomplete/)] ~d=m ~sort=random

[DoubtingThomas]

I have a batch file with these commands

REM MediaCenter is already active so just bring to front in PlayingNow
C:\WINDOWS\system32\MC14.exe /MCC 10013,1
C:\WINDOWS\system32\MC14.exe /MCC 10027
C:\WINDOWS\system32\MC14.exe /MCC 25016,0       REM collapse tree

Which I execute from a button on my QuickLaunch toolbar.

It brings MC to the front, collapses the tree, goes to PlayingNow and brings the currently playing track into view and  highlights it.

[bdh]

Okay that really helped!

And after a lot of trial and error, I also figured out how to jump to a new random album via global hot keys.  Mapping a key to 22007 (Refresh) reshuffles the list.  And adding a key for Stop will allow restarting play on the newly shuffled list.  Pause\Play will only keep playing the previous list -- you have to Stop it for the newly ordered list to be recognized.

So when I start MC15, I select the Search List, select all the album thumbnails.  I can then refresh and play either manually or via hotkey commands.

I would never have figured out how do all this without help from this forum.  Thanks everyone!


P.S. to the coders -- It would seem like it would just be a few lines of code to add a Play (Shuffled Album) to the right-click menu...

[flac.rules]

I'm a former Foobar2000 user.  I switched as I think MC15 has better sound quality.  However, I still like the Foobar2000 UI better.  Here are a few things I can't seem to find in MC15 that I really want.  Does anyone know if they are available and I just can't find them?

- Configure global hotkeys to Play\Pause, Next\Previous track, jump to next random album, etc.  I want to pause at the touch of a key rather than fumble for my mouse, find the window, and find the pause icon.  (Note: GLOBAL hot keys work even if the MC15 UI is not the active Window.)

- Cursor follows playback.  I hate manually trying to find the album and song that's playing in a list of 18000 songs.

Global hotkeys would be nice, and I also like the shuffle-button in foobar (jump to a random track, instead of shuffeling the whole list.

- The cursor follows playbakc-issue irritates me abit too (although my poblem seems slightly different), in playing now, if you do a search, and jump to another file, and clear the search again, you get back to the start of the list, instead of the currently playing track. I really wish that was handled differently.

[Gl3nn]

Here is my interpretation of randomness:

Thanks Alex! I really appreciate these kinds of posts which clearly show useful views along with the method of achieving them.  I keep reading and plagiarizing!    If you've posted other examples in the past and have the links handy to share, it would be more than appreciated.  I, for one, struggle on my own.

Thanks again.