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[Richee]

Has anyone else run in to this problem with Play Doctor
adding Modifiers.
I type in Frank Sinatra for example, do a Limit number to 50
and apply.
The result I get is no Frank Sinatra, not even the correct Genre,
and a list of 199 song. It picks Genres like Progressive Metal, etc.

If I have no modifier I get a list of 100 songs in the Vocal, Jazz Genre.
I have tried different vareity settings as well.
I had variety set to none and the result had not one song by artist used as seed.
Different artists tried.
Other modifiers tried had same incorrect result.

I also tried this on Media center 17 with the same wrong results.

[Matt]

Modifiers are not supported with Play Doctor.

I think you might be thinking too hard.  Type something you like and hit enter.  Play Doctor does the rest.

[Richee]

Hello Matt
I have no problem if modifiers are not supported with Play Doctor.

The problem is how is anyone supposed to know this when modifers show in the
Play Doctor Options. Shouldn't it at least be greyed out or better yet, not
in the view.
I have to interpret "Set Rules For Files That Can Be Included" as only Rules
and not rules and modifiers listed in the menu.

While I do tend to overthink things I still do not think it is good to have
unuseable menu items listed.

You do hide other menus from user when they are not available so why not this?
Just thought I'd throw it out there as a suggestion especially for your Mac version.
 
I use a fraction of MediaCenters power but it is nice to know if I need it to do something
there probably is a way. And a group of experts that can help.
Keep up the great work.

[Matt]

I thought you were typing something like "dylan ~a" in the main Play Doctor box.

But I now realize you're talking about the advanced 'Set Rules For Files That Can Be Included' dialog.  In general you should rarely, if ever, have to edit those rules.  I never have.

You only do that if you're trying to exclude stuff you never want (Christmas music, audio books, etc.).

I'm not sure what modifiers will do there, but probably nothing good.  You're off in an advanced area, and it's tough to protect against everything in these cases.

[wig]

But I now realize you're talking about the advanced 'Set Rules For Files That Can Be Included' dialog.  In general you should rarely, if ever, have to edit those rules.  I never have.

You only do that if you're trying to exclude stuff you never want (Christmas music, audio books, etc.).

I'm not sure what modifiers will do there, but probably nothing good.  You're off in an advanced area, and it's tough to protect against everything in these cases.

Matt, I find this attitude towards Play Doctor a little puzzling. I realize that it's designed primarily as a tool for new users, to help them play their music faster. And I know there other tools (smartlists, etc) for power users for playing music.

You've made it a central part of the interface, and even expanded its footprint in MC18 with the addition of the Car Radio buttons. It just seems that you've spent a lot of time and effort on Play Doctor to leave it as a new user feature.

Why not take it a half step further and make it a truly powerful tool? Support modifiers. Let users add additional seeds to create customized channels. Add a voting feature so users could improve their channels. It would be awesome!

Right now Play Doctor is an interesting feature, one I tinker with from time to time before returning to my smartlists after realizing it's limitations. I think it could be so much more dynamic, something that could engaged new users and veterans alike; even help bridge the gap between the two.

[Matt]

It just seems that you've spent a lot of time and effort on Play Doctor to leave it as a new user feature.

I use it all the time.

I'll let you decide what that says about me

[wig]

I use it all the time.

I'll let you decide what that says about me

The only DSP effect I've ever used is Volume Leveling. To me, Convolution sounds like a really bad disease 

We're all passionate about different things. My guess: a lot of folks would enjoy more powerful tools for creating their own channels.

[JimH]

I use it all the time.

I'll let you decide what that says about me

I do too.

[Richee]

I thought you were typing something like "dylan ~a" in the main Play Doctor box.

But I now realize you're talking about the advanced 'Set Rules For Files That Can Be Included' dialog.  In general you should rarely, if ever, have to edit those rules.  I never have.

Matt
The Set Rules menu is what I was referring to. It appears the Rules part of the menu functions.
And I can definitely confirm Modifiers like time, percent, and number spawn very strange results.

I do use Play Doctor quite abit but with the addition in MC18 of the radio buttons I thought I would try limiting
the song list to 25. I didn't realize a Play Doctor lists are dynamic not static. Songs are being added after each song
finishes. I can see where modifers would be a problem in that case.

Honestly I have no idea what would be involved in hiding the modifier part of the set rules page to avoid
confusion for new people. When I see an available item in a menu I assume that it is useable.

I can surely understand how little things can get missed by a programmer with a program that has so many
different things that it can do.
The problem with Media Center is that it can do so much that it inspires people to experiment with the different menus.

Now that I understand better what Play Doctor is doing I can see how modifiers would be hard to incorporate.

I'll leave that for smartlists I create.
Thanks Matt and Jim for the great program. Everytime I have to use Itunes for my IPad I cringe. You have me
spoiled.