INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18  (Read 2214 times)

rec head

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1012
Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« on: January 11, 2013, 09:50:07 am »

My trial of MC is counting down and I still I'm still trying to get things the way I want them on my HTPC. Overall I really like MC18 especially for watching movies. Here is what I'm trying to get working to make it my "one solution"

Netflix - playback is fine but when browsing my instant queue is there a way to have my recently watched videos at the top? So far I think Netflix in a browser is by far the best but I need the mouse. NF on WMC isn't great but at least I don't need to browse around to just keep watching a series night after night. This has a lot to do with the WAF of using NF on MC18. I do like how fast the scrolling in MC18 is.

The Remote Control - I use a Harmony One. It works fine but I find that when I switch from MC18 to WMC I can browse around but "stop" for example is trying to control MC18 instead of WMC. I don't know what is going on here. I still need WMC because of xbox extenders.

More Remote - is there a skip back 30 seconds function?


Standard View Music - I currently use MediaMonkey for music playback and library management. I like it but would leave it for MC18 if I could get MC18 to work more like MM. I only bring this up because it seems like MC18 is very customizable. In MM I like the Now Playing window is on the right and has commands like randomize list. Can I set MC18 like this? Also slightly less important is there a way to get my track ratings from MM to MC18?

I will also say that I would pay for MC18 in an instant if it had a youtube interface that just let me browse the channels I am subscribed to. There is great stuff on youtube but I hate their interface.

Thanks for looking and any help. I hope this has been covered and someone can just point me in the right direction. MC is so vast that it's hard to get a grip on everything. I've been living with MC for almost a month and want to try and get things sorted out in the next couple days.
Logged

InflatableMouse

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3978
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2013, 11:02:14 am »

MC has a background process that catches remote control keys. When you switch between the two, make sure nothing of MC is running in the background.

Under Tools/Options/Audio, Stop, Seek & Skip section, there you can configure the forward/backward function.

When you click on Playing Now, there are three buttons top right. One of them controls shuffle. When you enable it, it will shuffle the playlist in Playing Now. Another way is to right click on the 'zone' under playing now, and choose reshuffle (or reshuffle remaining).

I'm not sure about the ratings, MC will try and store them in the files' tags if the file supports that. If MM didn't store the ratings in the file, MC won't be able to import them I'm afraid. But maybe there are other ways I'm not aware of, someone else might have an idea.
Logged

Micromecca

  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 283
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2013, 11:09:18 am »

Set The Media Key Mode to App Commands and leave it running as server in the system tray when your using WMC, it won't respond to remote commands until you open it then.
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2013, 11:09:53 am »


I'm not sure about the ratings, MC will try and store them in the files' tags if the file supports that. If MM didn't store the ratings in the file, MC won't be able to import them I'm afraid. But maybe there are other ways I'm not aware of, someone else might have an idea.

This is correct, if MM didn't store the ratings in the file's tag, and only stored it in MM's own database (a la Itunes), then MC won't see it.
Something you could do to migrate, is to create a playlist in MM for each rating.
Import those playlists into MC.
Open the 5 star playlist, ctrl-a to select all, Click the 5 star.
All of those update.
Watch the status line at the bottom of the MC window to see when it finishes.
Repeat process for the other star ratings.
Logged

rec head

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1012
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2013, 11:40:23 am »

Thanks for the help. I'll try those suggestions soon.
Logged

rec head

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1012
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2013, 01:08:47 pm »

Thanks, I think I could probably get the tags in MM to save the ratings. I use Tunes Remote on android to control MediaMonkey and it allows me to modify ratings as I'm listening. I don't think that Gizmo does this. I only have about 5% of my music library rated so I'm not going to worry about that stuff. Since I can easily import playlists into MC18 it isn't a big deal.
Logged

rec head

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1012
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2013, 01:09:50 pm »

How do I set this?

Set The remote to 'Media Key Mode' and leave it running as server in the system tray when your using WMC, it won't respond to remote commands until you open it then.



Logged

rec head

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1012
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2013, 01:13:22 pm »


Under Tools/Options/Audio, Stop, Seek & Skip section, there you can configure the forward/backward function.

I guess my problem is that MC18 sees different commands from the remote than WMC. In  WMC  if  I  hit  the  |<< button it goes back 10 sec. That button in MC18 goes to the beginning of the show.

This is another WAF problem. I can't have skip back 2 different buttons.
Logged

Micromecca

  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 283
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2013, 01:47:32 pm »

How do I set this?

Settings > General > Advanced > Media Key Mode: App Commands
Logged

rec head

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1012
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2013, 02:21:18 pm »

Settings > General > Advanced > Media Key Mode: App Commands

Thanks, that seemed to work.
Logged

gappie

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 4583
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2013, 02:47:07 pm »

In MM I like the Now Playing window is on the right and has commands like randomize list. Can I set MC18 like this?
i can help with this one. choose view>split view>2 views. and set the view at the right to pln . and lock the view. :)
Logged

nwboater

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1346
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2013, 02:48:11 pm »

BTW rec head I used Media Monkey for quite awhile. When I switched to MC a few years ago I never looked back. To me MC is miles ahead.

For many of us using one Media application for everything is a big goal. I have found that relearning a few things and being willing to change some of our past ways of running a Media application have been very well worth a little short term difficulty. WAF is very important in our household and over the long term it really improves by only having one application to work with.

Rod
Logged

rec head

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1012
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2013, 05:32:09 pm »

i can help with this one. choose view>split view>2 views. and set the view at the right to pln . and lock the view. :)


Awesome this is what I was looking for.

I will deal with the ratings later. There isn't a way to add ratings from Gizmo though right? If I am in the kitchen a a song comes on that I like I like or don't like to rate it.
Logged

rec head

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1012
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #13 on: January 11, 2013, 05:36:10 pm »

Now I have to go tackle the Skip Back function and figure out what is going on with that. We only really use it for TV viewing.
Logged

MrC

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 10462
  • Your life is short. Give me your money.
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #14 on: January 11, 2013, 05:42:29 pm »

Now I have to go tackle the Skip Back function and figure out what is going on with that. We only really use it for TV viewing.

You could customize the skip button to issue the MCC command:
 
   10035   MCC_SEEK_BACK   nMilliseconds

   MC18.exe /MCC 10035,30000
Logged
The opinions I express represent my own folly.

rec head

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1012
Re: Please help me solve a few problems and sell me on MC18
« Reply #15 on: January 11, 2013, 05:48:58 pm »

I got the remote working fine. Just using different buttons for skip fwd and back. Works great.

One last question, if I update to the latest build I retain my saved views and preferences right? Just follow the instructions to update?

Thanks for everything. This was the first time I really had a chance to dig in to MC since I installed it. I knew there would be a learning curve so I just installed and decided to live with it for a couple weeks to see if it was worth bothering getting too deep. The things l liked about it I really liked so I started messing around today and thanks to all the help I got I really think this will be The One.

I'm going to start a different thread to ask about Netflix.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up