I'm posting this as what I hope you will take as constructive criticism. I have been following MJ for a while and these are the main issues that are keeping me from using MJ as my main player. (Which I REALLY want to do!). I understand any changes made might not make it into MJ8, but I would just like to know your opinion on these issues which I feel are important.
tag writing/reading system needs to be overhauled.
- each format's tag w/r should probably be handled by individual plugins since they all have different capabilities
- the MJMETADATA tag really has to go IMO. The very fact that a tag called MJmetadata (hence the MJ) is being written says that information stored within only applies to the MJ program, and therefore should be stored only by MJ itself internally, in its database, NOT tagged to the file. The fact that there is no way to remove that tag (without removing all tags) just makes it all the more frustrating.
- MJ has to stop adding YEAR and TRACK tags with a value of 0. If it has no value, than just don't add the tag.
- If you edit one particular tag, MJ forces you to write all the other tags for which it has info in its database as well. This shouldn't be the case. Only the individual tags you have edited yourself manualy should be written to the file.
- a system where the user can define common custom tags and have a standard tag eding dialog created automatically would be very nice. A Vorbis frontend program called WinVorbis has this feature, and its source is available if it would help to get this feature implemented at some point.
http://winvorbis.stationplaylist.com- there should be a way to remove/disable all the pseudo tag info that MJ stores internally, and have only that info actually tagged in the file be used.
ReplayGain.
- This is a standard which all players can use (and I know of at least 3 that do ATM) and shouldn't be stored in the proprietary MJMETADATA tag. It should be added to the file according to the format's spec. That being said, the only formats that have a standard way of tagging RG data (afaik) are Vorbis and MpegPlus. (RG_RADIO, RG_AUDIOPHILE, RG_PEAK tags) MJ should support reading and writing of these standard tags.
- The RG preamp, hard-limiter, and clip-preventer(preamp reduction) features have to be implemented for RG to be usefull. I must commend you however on MJ being able to calculate the average RG value of the last set of files played and to use this for files with no RG info available. I can't find a way to reset this value though, which I think is needed.
- The ability to do RG analysis during playback of files. This has to be done carefully though. MJ has to know to ignore all the DSP settings, silence removal, playback skipping/glitch, crossfading, etc. And if the entire file is not analyzed all the information must be discarded. The result from this process should be exactly the same as using any other RG analysis tool for that format. (It is a standard after all!) Now one obstacle that arises is that Vorbis files (and MP3's with id3v2 as well) need to be completely rewritten when the are tagged (afaik). If MJ is performing RG analysis on each file it plays it would then have to rewrite/tag each file as it goes along, and this would take more resources than acceptable. One way I thought of is to have MJ just temporarily store the RG values, and when exiting MJ ask the user if they want to apply those tags to the files.
The ability to select which plugins are installed, during the install process. For example I NEVER use WMA, nor do I own any portable devices or remotes, yet I have to keep installing/uninstalling these plugins.
The ability for MJ's volume control to cooperate with the system mixers setting. (esp. for DirectSound output) In this mode, when MJ's volume slider is at 100%, the volume is 100% of the system mixers WAVE slider. This is very important when you have music/MJ playing in the background of say a game and you want to adjust MJ's volume in relation to the game's volume. You could then set MJ's volume slider to 50% and have your music playback at half the volume of your game's sound effects, just right! (Note: this is how the Winamp2 directsound output plugin behaves)
Having said all this, MJ8 is really the best jukebox/allinone player out there, and has the potential to be the best player period. I hope these issues are eventually addressed (or you convince me they are not a good idea) so that I can use MJ all the time, for everything that is audio. Keep up the good work!
Thank you,
Mike