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[6233638]

Is there any way to selectively disable tracks in MC18?

In iTunes there's a checkmark next to each track that you can disable, so that when you just hit play on the album, those tracks are skipped.

I don't want to remove the tracks from my library, but there are some tracks that I don't want to play when I just randomly hit play on an album.

For example:

[rjm]

Many different ways to achieve this.

You could use the standard rating field to assign a low rating (say 1) to tracks you want to skip. Or you could create a custom field specifically for the purpose of flagging tracks to skip.

Then create a view with a Search List pane and add a filter for excluding the tracks you do not want.

[MrC]

You can use ZoneSwitch rules to send tracks tagged a certain way to a zone which sends playback to the null device.

[DoubtingThomas]

You can use ZoneSwitch rules to send tracks tagged a certain way to a zone which sends playback to the null device.

Cool idea.  How do we create a zone which sends playback to a null device?

I can create the zone, but the "null device" eludes me.

Wait, even if this worked, MC wouldn't switch back to the starting zone after switching to the DoNotPlayZone...  unless there was another rule on the starting zone.  That might work, but then tracks not meeting the DoNotPlayZone rules could never be played in any other zone.

I'd like to use this to skip all tracks with Rating1 in the current playlist...

So if I rate a track1 and go to the next track, then choose "previous track" it would skip the track I just rated as 1.

[MrC]

Create and select the zone.  Go to Player > Playback Options > Audio Output > Output mode: Null Output.

Add a Zone Switch rule that triggers on [Rating]=[1], and make it the first rule.  Add a next rule to play all audio in your primary zone.

[DoubtingThomas]

Create and select the zone.  Go to Player > Playback Options > Audio Output > Output mode: Null Output.

Add a Zone Switch rule that triggers on [Rating]=[1], and make it the first rule.  Add a next rule to play all audio in your primary zone.

Okay, I'm blind, I now see "Null Output", didn't see it before...

But the problem is once I create those 2 rules then audio can only be played in those zones while ZoneSwitch is active.

And the skipped track still plays in the DoNotPlayZone, but there is no output.

[DoubtingThomas]

I'm having trouble getting ZoneSwitch to work...

This is my setup, so I would think than any track with Rating-1 would play in the DoNotPlayThisTrack, but the zone does not switch.  Can you see what I'm doing wrong?

[MrC]

Are you playing from zone's Playing Now playlist?  If so, that won't work. Media will not be yanked out from under you in a zone - rather, Zone Switch targets placement of tracks to a zone.

[DoubtingThomas]

Yes I was playing from "PlayingNow"... I keep trying to find a use for ZoneSwitch, and your idea seems neat.  But I guess it won't work for me.

What I really want is for any track rated 1 to simply be skipped.  Having the skipping happen during PlayingNow selection is not what I want.  I want it to be dynamic, if I rate something 1 in PlayingNow, I want that track to simply be skipped when it gets there.  Any ideas?

[Matt]

You could use Access Control to hide files based on rules.

Or you could use Play Doctor -- it basically never plays a 1 star track.

[DoubtingThomas]

You could use Access Control to hide files based on rules.

Or you could use Play Doctor -- it basically never plays a 1 star track.

PlayDoctor is not a good choice for me, I never ever want to hear music I have not specifically selected.

But I just played with AccessControl and that seems to work dynamically.

I was just playing tracks from PlayingNow.  I then set the next track to Rating-1 and then advanced to the "next track" and it skipped the Rating-1 track !!!

If I set a currently playing track to Rating-1 it does not skip it... which is not a problem.  When I set any track to Rating-1 from any of my remotes around the house, it automatically does the Rating-1 and then skips to the next track.

Thanks, pretty neat.

While I've never used iTunes, I do like the check mark idea shown by the original thread creator.

AccessControl does work and I will use it, but then I have to turn it off to see what I've rated as "1" to determine if I really want to delete them.  It would be great to see everything all the time, but simply have MediaCenter skip tracks based on a checkbox (or something).  Of course, if that were added to MediaCenter, I'd need an MC18.exe command to check/uncheck the box...

[MrC]

Okay, I'm blind, I now see "Null Output", didn't see it before...

But the problem is once I create those 2 rules then audio can only be played in those zones while ZoneSwitch is active.

And the skipped track still plays in the DoNotPlayZone, but there is no output.

If you want to use ZoneSwitch, then you need to define rules for playback for files that don't match.  So you can target your default zone, with no rules, and everything that doesn't hit a rule goes to that zone.  You can send files manually to any zone you want otherwise.

Alternatively, you can create zones rules for files that should play back, and leave no default match-anything rule.  Files that don't match just aren't included in any playlist.

[MrC]

Access rules is a nice solution.

[rjm]

Access rules is a nice solution.

Yes, quietly hides all unwanted tracks from all views with no fuss.
 

[DoubtingThomas]

Yes, quietly hides all unwanted tracks from all views with no fuss.
 

I'd like to see the tracks, just have them skipped when they meet my criteria, like the original poster of this thread says iTunes does... but no way would/could I use iTunes...

[6233638]

Thank you for the suggestions, but they don't really work for me. Firstly, I don't rate any of my tracks. No-one has really made it easy enough to make it worth the time investment. If, when music was playing, you just hit 1-5 on the keyboard to rate a track, that would make things a lot quicker. Even better, would be to rate things on a better/worse system based on what was last played, which would eventually rate all your music automatically without you having to decide whether something was a 4 or a 5 etc.

But I am not looking to hide tracks. If I wanted that, I would just remove them from the library. I am wanting them to be visible, and to be able to be easily toggled on or off. It's just that there are some tracks that I don't ever want to come up randomly, only when they are specifically chosen.

The more time I spend with MC18, the more it feels like the interface was designed by engineers. It's very powerful, and very flexible in some ways (which are far more complex than most users need) but also lacking in "simple" features like this.

[MrC]

...If, when music was playing, you just hit 1-5 on the keyboard to rate a track, that would make things a lot quicker.

Ctrl-Shift-1 ... 5

[6233638]

Ctrl-Shift-1 ... 5

Well that's something, thanks. But I still don't find it all that useful to be rating tracks. A better/worse system might work for me.

[gappie]

The more time I spend with MC18, the more it feels like the interface was designed by engineers. It's very powerful, and very flexible in some ways (which are far more complex than most users need) but also lacking in "simple" features like this.

maybe so. but very flexible and powerful means a bit of effort form the user. because they are not the same and your "simple" feature is an other "simple" feature than that of most users. they all have some.. i have some.. alot actually.

 
gab

edit.. i forgot.. i can nearly all my "simple" features working in mc..

[MrC]

The suggestion for using rating was because it was easy to use.  Think of it not as rating, but tagging the tracks you don't want played.  If the name bothers you, create your own field called something like Ignored, and set the value to non-zero/non-empty.  You won't be able to use the keyboard shortcut in this case.

In the end, you have to tell MC somehow which tracks you don't want played.  You could use Skip Count as a metric instead, and just skip once or twice such tracks that play.  Your rules for playback can then ignore tracks that have been skipped, say, more than once or twice.

[wig]

maybe so. but very flexible and powerful means a bit of effort form the user. because they are not the same and your "simple" feature is an other "simple" feature than that of most users. they all have some.. i have some.. alot actually.

 
gab

Very true, gappie, but a little bit of simplicity would save me a lot of effort in some cases.

I don't need this particular feature, but I'd really like to have checkbox style entry fields for true/false custom fields. Then we could make our own 'disable' field, or use it to quickly tag any number of fields with just a click.

[MrC]

...but I'd really like to have checkbox style entry fields for true/false custom fields. Then we could make our own 'disable' field, or use it to quickly tag any number of fields with just a click.

This would be a very nice feature.

[gappie]

I don't need this particular feature, but I'd really like to have checkbox style entry fields for true/false custom fields. Then we could make our own 'disable' field, or use it to quickly tag any number of fields with just a click.

maybe, and when it would make you happy .. but i rather would have some checks around field mc made, especialy something like album. saying like something does not belong to it, although it seems like it. i know how to get around it, although im not an "engineer". but still 

 
gab

[glynor]

This would be a very nice feature.

+1

Real booleans, would be quite handy.  I don't think they need to be actually stored in the database as "strongly typed booleans", of course.  Just make it so that the UI does the same thing as an Int-type field with the allowed values set to 0,1, and then add an edit-style that is a checkbox (for the columns, tag AW, etc), and maybe just a "dot" for Theater View and other "view-only" styles.

You can hack it with the Stars, but it is ugly.  It'd be nice to have checkboxes.

[wig]

Wait, +1s from MrC AND glynor for my suggestion?

Marko, Alex B, how about you guys? I've got the rare chance to hit for the cycle here 

[crisnee]

Yeah, it would be nice to have some really simple features like that check box (I spend way too much time already futzing with the darn program). Then I could just check off that cacophonous masterpiece in the middle the otherwise angelic harmonies of the... when I hear it and think nothing more about it until I specifically want to listen to it on the odd day.

I use little of the program's power other than it's fine audio choices and cataloging ability. I just want to be able to find my music as intuitively and easily as possible and then play it. Making it so takes too much time already--I'm dealing with a large variety and quantity; I can hardly imagine the time some of you spend dealing with this thing and all its other features.

[kstuart]

I just want to be able to find my music as intuitively and easily as possible and then play it. Making it so takes too much time already--I'm dealing with a large variety and quantity; I can hardly imagine the time some of you spend dealing with this thing and all its other features.

That's entirely true - and it happens to also be entirely true for every other media player.

Other than the MS and Apple players that Average Joe uses, every other player is the subject of a vast amount of tweaking  - and doesn't do much in its vanilla default setup...

[kmclash]

I would also like this feature. Is anything being done about it? (BUMP)