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[denbo]

Hi - I've just purchased Media Centre 17 to, hopefully, manage my music library of about 50,000 files.

Seems a great app. - albeit a bit 'geeky' - even for me.  (I consider myself computer 'savvy').

And that presents some difficulties for me - so I need to ask some questions and despite my perusing the mesage board posts, can't find anything that answers them.

I've overcome most of the initial problems I've experienced, other people might not bother and 'go' and you've just lost a new customer.  Which is a pity.

There seems to be no direct 'help' contact - so, is there is there any way I can communicate with a 'techie', other than by this message board.

I think my questions will be useful for future development.

[InflatableMouse]

Is this support?

The forums are the way to communicate. If, for whatever reason you need to keep your talk private, I'm sure you can PM one of the admin/developers.

You may be sceptic about using a forum for support, but trust me, it works.

[denbo]

Thanks for you response.

If this isn't 'support' - where else do I go?

Here goes then.

I've spent considerable time creating libraries, playlists and adjusting 'settings'.

Now I want to back up all those settings in case of a disaster or to enable me to restore things if I screw something up.

1. I couldn't find any inbuilt 'backup/restore settings' function in MC 17.  Is there one?
If not - what files do I need backup and where are they stored?   (I'm using XP).

2. In the left hand pane there are folders :-
'Playing Now'
'Audio'
'Images'
'Video'
'Documents' .. etc.

I have no use for most of these - can they be removed?

3.  Future development - suggestion. The search facility.

Stuck up in the top righ hand corner and a bit clunky as it only searched the current playlist.  I use this all the time - but usually it's to search my entire library for something to insert into a playlist  To do this I have to leqave the playlist and actually go to my library list to find the track.  So much easier if I could search my entire library from the current playlist, find what I'm looking for and insert it into the playlist.

TIA

[marko]

MC creates (and manages) automatic library backups, and you can also create manual backups. All your user settings and customisations are included in these backups. To see it in action, check out the options under File > Library

Check out "Tools > Options > General > Features" to see a list of stuff you can turn off.

Under the view menu, perhaps try a split view layout. Playlist in one view, library in the other. Search in the library view, drag into the playlist.
Another option is to open the playlist for editing in the action window (bottom left corner), search in the main window, drag to playlist to add tracks.

That do to get you going for now?

[denbo]

Thanks for your help.

I did see this menu option in my travels - but I thought that 'Library' referred to my music files - and, as  I already have them well backed up (over 300gb), I ignored it.

I didn't realise 'Library' primarily means 'settings' in this instance.

Following your information took me (back) to a myriad of options that I've perused before but ignored as I have no idea what they do and didn't want to 'fiddle' too much in case I screw something up.

I've created a library clone on another drive - still can't see how if I can get it to update automatically.

Den

[JimH]

At the bottom of the option called "File Locations", you can set the location where you want Library Backups to go.  These backups describe everything MC knows about the files in your library, plus your settings.  When you restore, you can restore only the library data or the settings or both.

[denbo]

Found it!

Many thanks - now, there's a bit of progress.   

[Listener]

3.  Future development - suggestion. The search facility.

Stuck up in the top righ hand corner and a bit clunky as it only searched the current playlist.  I use this all the time - but usually it's to search my entire library for something to insert into a playlist  To do this I have to leqave the playlist and actually go to my library list to find the track.  So much easier if I could search my entire library from the current playlist, find what I'm looking for and insert it into the playlist.

3. Search

The search feature works on the list of files currently selected.  This method was the result of extended discussion on this forum.

You can accomplish what you want to accomplish in several ways. For example,

A. You can use the back and forward arrows just above the list of files to move quickly between your current view and a previous view. (See 1. in this screenshot.)



or

B. You can have more than one view present in different tabs.  Click on the area marked 2. in the above screenshot to create an additional  tab where you can have another view active.  Once you have created an additional tab, use the Tree area to select a view for that Tab.

---
The tone of your posts in this thread is that if you can't figure something out on your own or if some feature doesn't work the way you think it should, JRiver is to blame.  This forum has many people who can and will help if you ask questions without the negative tone of your posts so far.

Bill

[Listener]

Thanks for your attention to my queries.  I appreciate the trouble you went to to address the things I was having trouble with.

I was thinking, "what a great crowd, so helpful - just goes to show - everything's there if you can just find out where it is".

Pity. many newbies just wouldn't bother.

Then, I got to the bottom of your last message.

Wow!

And I went back throught my posts.

...
Having read the above I decided to buy the app anyway and see if I can learn how to use it - I'm glad I did, until I read your attitude towards my posts.
...
Maybe, to retain the synergy of your message board, you'd like to edit out just the last bit of your last message before too many people read it and remove this one completely.

I am not an employee of JRiver.  I reacted to your posts as another MC user who regularly tries to provide help.

If you have a problem, you should explain your problem and ask for help. 

> I would have thought my comments might have been considered useful.

Your posts seem to mostly about providing criticism of a program that you don't yet understand.   

> So "Many thanks - now there's a bit of progress.

Yes, I find your tone to be rude.  You got directly useful advice from 4 people.  That is much more than a bit of progress.  In the context of your preceding posts, it sounds like a very grudging nod toward the efforts of those people..

Look at your latest response.  You seem bent on presenting evidence that MC is not satisfactory.  MC has many advanced features such a database expressions that allow you to do things you can't accomplish with most other player software.  You can use those features if necessary but they are not required for most situations.

> Maybe, to retain the synergy of your message board, you'd like to edit out just the last bit of your last message
> before too many people read it and remove this one completely.

JRiver will edit my post if they feel it necessary.

Bill

[rick.ca]

I was thinking, "what a great crowd, so helpful - just goes to show - everything's there if you can just find out where it is".

Some people have difficulty understanding most of what they perceive as 'tone' comes from their own mind. Try to stick with this thought, and ask whatever you feel the need to ask. Most of us find both parts of this statement to be true—much more often than not.

[InflatableMouse]

If there's one thing I've learned on message boards and online communication in general, is that text does not carry thought very well. People tend to read a comment in their own mindset, even though the intended 'tone' was completely opposite.

The way I see it is that this is a classic misunderstanding in that the intended 'tone' was not received as such and I think its unfortunate that a new user has to go through this.

I mean, even if there was some negative undertone in the message, isn't it better to ignore it or at least be a bit more subtle about it and see if he turns around?

[NickF]

I'm not sure I understand the strength of reaction to denbo's posts but I guess it is quite easy for those of us familiar with the way the Forum works to be a little insensitive to newcomers expecting something different.  I hope denbo isn't discouraged from using the Forum.  It's a great resource with truly great people supporting it.

denbo's original question was about Backups and when I looked at the wiki FAQ page, there was nothing shown so I have found and updated some material elsewhere on the wiki on Backup Library and Restore a Library and linked it to the Main Topic Index/FAQ page.

Nick.

[medvedik]

The tone of your posts in this thread is that if you can't figure something out on your own or if some feature doesn't work the way you think it should, JRiver is to blame.  This forum has many people who can and will help if you ask questions without the negative tone of your posts so far.

Bill

You have to keep in mind Bill, that this forum is also used by people who don't really speak, write or understand english very good. I am not a native english speaker myself, and although my english isn't bad, I still have problems sometimes when I read here on the board. Especially when it's about technical stuff.

That is why sometimes some posts from those people can have a negative "tone" to you, it doesn't necessarely mean that that "tone" was meant to be "rude", as you call it, and blaming jriver. I am sure this wasn't meant to be blaming anyone, but by your attitude it caused someone to leave the board, although he purchased mc17. Now in the future if he has some problems, he might not come back again here, and that would be a pity. Simply because one man here called him rude. And then he would probably not upgrade anymore to mc18 or higher.

At first I didn't want to respond to this, but then I remembered that it happens more. People with bad english are often not helped or get a reaction about their bad english, rather then trying to understand what exactly the problem is. Maybe you want this to be an only native english spoken board, who knows, maybe you even think less about people who are bad in english.

My point is: if you think he was rude, don't react at all, but please don't blame him to be rude, and then be rude yourself.

[JimH]

denbo,
I want to echo what others have said.  Don't give up.  A forum is different but it really works.  It is amazing how many generous and knowledgeable people like listener that there are here.  I'm the founder of the company, but I learn from them on a daily basis.

Bill,
I don't think you were out of line.  Thanks for trying to help.

medvedik,
I agree that language can often be a barrier.  I don't think that's the case here though.

The problem began as a general post/mild complaint about support.  It's best to just ask the question.  It's better to ask them in threads that have subjects that describe the problem.

So I'll close this thread now.  Please post any further question you have in a new thread.