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[6233638]

I purchased MC18 about a month ago after trying it for a couple of weeks, and have been using it on a daily basis since then.
I really like it a lot, but there's a lot of little things that have been annoying me as I have spent more time with it, and for the last week or so I started keeping track of them.
Some of these I would go as far as to consider bugs, others are feature requests, others are ease-of-use, and some are purely cosmetic.
Maybe you won't agree with them all, and even if you do agree with some of the changes I've suggested, maybe they won't make it into the current version of MediaCenter, but this is what I have so far:

• Number formatting is ugly - numbers should be right-aligned, and fields like ReplayGain should have special handling.
  
• The [Disc #] tag will only accept numbers, and not discs in the format 1/3, 2/3, 3/3. This is fine inside MC18, but can cause problems in other programs, as they don't see it as a multi-disc album.
• When browsing discs (in this case, Blu-ray) you are only shown the result of the index.bdmv file and there is no way to access individual titles or other playlists on the disc.
  This means that you cannot select individual episodes from a TV show (as pictured) access special features on the disc, or even watch the film, if it's pointing at the wrong playlist.
  Inception selects the wrong playlist for example (00101.mpls, rather than 00102.mpls) so you can't play the film unless you go and find the right playlist via Windows Explorer, and I have at least a few other discs where this is the case.
  Being able to see all playlists or titles more than X minutes in length would be useful. (I would probably set this to 40 minutes)
  
• It would be great to see something similar for DVDs, so that we never have to see the menus.
  
• It would be much more useful to either have tagging pop up as a separate window (similar to the black OS X "HUD Windows") or as a pane on the right side of the screen rather than inside the left sidebar. I have the sidebar at minimum width at all times, but tagging needs to be at least 2-3x that to be useful, and should be displayed at full height by default if set to "show all tags".
• I would like to be able to turn off remove the Action Window.
  
• Because the progress bar is typically displayed at almost the full width of the application, only updating once a second looks very jumpy. It would be nice if this could be changed to update at least at 1/4s, but preferably at the current refresh rate - typically 1/60s. Even iTunes updates at 1/2s, rather than 1s.
• When mousing over the progress bar, you should be able to see the time for the position you are hovering over - either as a tooltip, or by changing the [Elapsed Time] value temporarily, so that you know where you are going to seek to. This is more of an issue with videos and podcasts than it is with music.
• Playback progress should be shown in the taskbar, as has been standard for media players since Windows Vista.
  
• Playback controls are not updated in the taskbar (e.g. switching between play/pause) and have a tendency to disappear for some reason.
  
• Having the taskbar display the album art for the currently playing track when you hover over it rather than a preview of the window would be nice.
  
• Being able to quickly rate items via the taskbar (perhaps via jump list tasks?) would also be very useful.
  
• When MC18 is minimized, the UI stops updating. I understand why this is done, but I often mouse over the icon on the taskbar to see what the current track playing is, for example, and have to actually bring MC18 to the foreground to see it. Having MC18 at least update once the track changes, or at a very slow rate when minimized rather than freezing the UI altogether would be nice.
• Filetypes are grouped together as "MediaCenter File" in Windows Explorer when associated with MC18. I have fixed the problem for you, but that is how it should behave as standard. (example showing audio files post-fix)
  
• Font rendering is displayed at full saturation rather than following the system setting, which is very ugly on my display. It would be nice if it could be updated to use natural symmetric rendering too.
  
• Film covers are stored with the files, which clutters up search results and file navigation outside of MC18. Please store them in some other location that is referenced in the database.
  
• The aspect ratio tag is completely ignored for video playback and thumbnail generation.
  
• Get Movie & TV Info... should populate the [Duration] tag for .iso files.
  
• The currently playing track should be italicized rather than made bold. Making it bold changes the width and often pushes it beyond the column width.
• The "Skip Analyzed Files" setting in Analyze Audio is not remembered - I never want it to skip files, because if they already have tags, it's because I applied ReplayGain outside of MC18 and I am wanting to re-analyze them to populate the BPM and Intensity tags.
  
• Analyze Audio during auto-import doesn't seem to fill the Album Gain tag.
  
• ReplayGain only applies to music. It would be nice to be able to apply ReplayGain to video files. MC19!
  
• Even if ReplayGain is too complex to use with video files, it would be nice to have an option that would normalize volume between 2.0/5.1/7.1 video tracks when downmixing audio. (to Stereo in my case) As you normalize when downmixing, you should be able to calculate the reduction in volume for each format, and adjust 2.0/5.1 to match the volume of 7.1 audio.
  
• A custom matrix option for JRSS downmixing would be nice.
• Play count should be editable by default. This can be fixed by creating a =[Number Plays] expression column, but that should not be necessary.
  
• There should be some way to rename folders without requiring all files to be imported. Just make it an option and give me a big warning about why I shouldn't do it unless I really know what I'm doing.
  
• Autoplay should be configurable on a per-drive basis. I want autoplay for mounted .iso files, I do not want autoplay when I insert a disc for ripping.
  
  • If it is possible, I would also like Autoplay to only apply when MC18 has mounted the image, and not when it was mounted outside of MC18. (e.g. only autoplay within 120s of hitting "play" on an iso file inside MC18, otherwise ignore new discs)
  • Being able to eject the disc when playback is stopped would be a nice feature to have as well.
• There should be an option to auto-import from a folder without including subfolders. Having to add exception rules for every subfolder is not a solution.
  
• You should be able to include multiple directories within a single "rule" for auto-import, rather than creating the same rule multiple times. E.g. "C:\Video\"; "D:\Video\"; "E:\Video\";
  
• Some forms accept standard Windows text selection controls such as CTRL+Shift+Left to select a word at a time, or CTRL+Backspace to delete a word at a time, and others do not.
• Some lists allow you to navigate them via the keyboard (e.g. when selecting columns, type "year" to select it, rather than scroll through that huge list) and other lists throughout the UI do not respond to keyboard input.
• Can we have some way to save our current Zoom & Position settings as a preset?
  
• Can we control double-click behavior independently between the video & audio sections?
  • With Audio, double-clicking on a file means I want to play through the rest of that album.
  • With Video I only want to play that video - I don't want to create a playlist of them.
• When viewing files grouped by album, if you double-click on a track it should add all tracks below it to the playlist. It should not stop at the end of that album.
  
• There is no way to selectively disable tracks, as you can in iTunes and other players. There are a number of suggested ways to work around it by hiding tracks or giving them a 1-star rating, but I don't want to have them hidden from view, and I don't necessarily think they are a 1-star track (though some of them are) I just don't think they are suited to "general" playback and don't want them to play if I just hit "play" on an album or an artist, or if I am just putting it on shuffle to hear random tracks play.
  
• Hovering over the tabs at the top that bring down the List/Sort/Thumbnail options will steal focus and move MC18 to the front. This shouldn't happen. Fixed in 18.0.154
  
• It would be useful to define particles by chapter markers, rather than time. Defining particles by time is not working correctly for me either.
  
• Particle creation in general seems like it could be made easier. If I want to split a file into three, it would be nice to do it through a single dialogue.
• It would be nice to have library views auto-expand/collapse in the tree, but not categories. (Audio/Images/Video...) My screen is not tall enough to have all of my library views left open, but I don't like having audio/video automatically collapse when I switch from one to the other. Behavioral quirk that can be worked around
  
• Please place chapter markers on the progress bar/timeline. Simple 2px wide vertical bars similar to what MPC-HC does is fine.
  
• Some way to customize the inputs would be great. E.g. Using back/forward on the mouse to skip chapters in video playback, tracks in audio playback, changing what the mouse wheel does etc.

[jmone]

Always great to see such a well thought out list from a new (but experienced) user.  The two that caught my eye are as follows (I'm sure others will comment on the others).

3.When browsing discs (in this case, Blu-ray) you are only shown the result of the index.bdmv file and there is no way to access individual titles or other playlists on the disc.
This means that you cannot select individual episodes from a TV show (as pictured) access special features on the disc, or even watch the film, if it's pointing at the wrong playlist.
Inception selects the wrong playlist for example (00101.mpls, rather than 00102.mpls) so you can't play the film unless you go and find the right playlist via Windows Explorer, and I have at least a few other discs where this is the case.
Being able to see all playlists or titles more than X minutes in length would be useful. (I would probably set this to 40 minutes)

If you right click on the playing BD --> Title or in TheaterView use the arrows to navigate to the Title sub menu you will see a list of all the playlists in order of length.  In addition if the BD has been mounted by AnyDVD HD (either a physical disk, or ISO) or ripped as a structure, MC will read the Disc.INF file that AnyDVD created and will use the "correct" playlist info if included.

37.It would be useful to define particles by chapter markers, rather than time. Defining particles by time is not working correctly for me either.
38.Particle creation in general seems like it could be made easier. If I want to split a file into three, it would be nice to do it through a single dialogue.

Enhancement of how particles work would be welcome and has been requested.

[6233638]

If you right click on the playing BD --> Title or in TheaterView use the arrows to navigate to the Title sub menu you will see a list of all the playlists in order of length.

Thanks, that did the trick, and it seems that MC18 remembers the title that you select if you try playing the disc again. It would be nice to see a list of titles over X length before playing though - to access episodes of a TV show directly, or film extras, as previously mentioned.

In addition if the BD has been mounted by AnyDVD HD (either a physical disk, or ISO) or ripped as a structure, MC will read the Disc.INF file that AnyDVD created and will use the "correct" playlist info if included.

Yes, I can confirm that this is working. Inception and a few other discs do not have this information though, so it was choosing the longest title. (which was wrong)
And as a suggestion for the auto-detection, it should also take resolution into account. One disc was picking an SD resolution title because it was longest (by a minute) rather than the HD film.
Having some way of submitting the correct title might also be useful? (but it could be abused, I suppose)

Enhancement of how particles work would be welcome and has been requested.

Yeah, I'm sure that a lot of these things have already been brought up - I've even created topics for some of them. But when the list was getting this big, it seemed better than creating a topic for each item, and might serve as a reminder for some things that had possibly been overlooked, or help prioritize them.

[JimH]

Thanks for the list.  If you believe you have found a bug, please report it in the thread that announces the build.  If you have several, you could keep a list like this one, but only bugs, and post a link to it in the build thread.

#6 above can be done now.  Tools/Options/Startup/Startup Interface/Action Window...

[InflatableMouse]

Thank you!

[6233638]

Thanks for the list.  If you believe you have found a bug, please report it in the thread that announces the build.  If you have several, you could keep a list like this one, but only bugs, and post a link to it in the build thread.

Looking back over the list, there are four that I would actually consider to be bugs; #10, #17, #36, and #37.

#6 above can be done now.  Tools/Options/Startup/Startup Interface/Action Window...

What I had actually meant, was to completely remove the action window, rather than set it to stay minimized. I don't think I have ever needed to use it.

[StFeder]

That's a nice list! I was going to reply with "I agree to you No. #, ##, ## ..." but I agree to every single point! Your list covers many things I also would have called "little annoyances" for my daily use. I hope JRiver will have a look at this and consider change some (all?) of the things you suggest.

[Matt]

Discussion about JRSS downmixing and the LFE split here (#24):
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=79282.0

[rjm]

nice work with fresh clear eyes

[kstuart]

5, 6, and 9 have been requested numerous times in the past, as well as "Play Entire Album", which you imply in 33 and 34 (and could be coded by just combining the code of "Locate Album" and "Play" without the GUI changes of "Locate Album").  Of course, "Add Entire Album to Playing Now" would be helpful (and preferable if only one thing could be added).

And there's a third-party plugin that does 11.

[HTPC4ME]

Our list yet to be fixed that affect our household on all pc's, and devices on a daily basis.

1. fix mini view's

2. the playing now issue in theaterview. - http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=77543.msg529625#msg529625

[Matt]

Lots of good stuff here.

Please send extra programmers to JRiver, Inc. c/o Matt 

[JimH]

Our list yet to be fixed that affect our household on all pc's, and devices on a daily basis.

1. fix mini view's

2. the playing now issue in theaterview. - http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=77543.msg529625#msg529625

If anyone has a bug, please report it in the thread that announces the build.

I'll remove anything posted here that isn't related to the original post.

[jmone]

Thanks, that did the trick, and it seems that MC18 remembers the title that you select if you try playing the disc again. It would be nice to see a list of titles over X length before playing though - to access episodes of a TV show directly, or film extras, as previously mentioned.

There has been discussions on and off for all sorts of various menus that you could access (full partial etc) and when / how they would appear.  The current two options of manually initiating via Right Click or in Theaterview with the Arrows is the method that has been settled on.  DVD's on top get the DVD menu (Currently there are no non-licenced BD menu).  There seems to be a strong desire from most for the current behaviour to autoplay without any menu.  

Yes, I can confirm that this is working. Inception and a few other discs do not have this information though, so it was choosing the longest title. (which was wrong).  And as a suggestion for the auto-detection, it should also take resolution into account. One disc was picking an SD resolution title because it was longest (by a minute) rather than the HD film.

The logic that selects what title to be played was tweaked not that long ago to do exactly as you suggest.  It looks at the "longest" title and if there are a few around that time then tries to pick the "best" one based on the number / quality of the audio streams - there was even a comparison of this logic over at the LAVFilters thread vs other players.  In addition support for AnyDVD HD's playlist identification was introduced which fixed the screenpass issue.  It may be worth starting a separate thread on the example that don't work well and what logic would help.

Having some way of submitting the correct title might also be useful? (but it could be abused, I suppose)

 I started a thread to hold such info but ... http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=64999.0

[jmone]

Please send extra programmers to JRiver, Inc. c/o Matt 

I was OK at Modular

[Hendrik]

The logic that selects what title to be played was tweaked not that long ago to do exactly as you suggest.  It looks at the "longest" title and if there are a few around that time then tries to pick the "best" one based on the number / quality of the audio streams - there was even a comparison of this logic over at the LAVFilters thread vs other players.

While it does this, i don't think it prefers a HD track over a SD track yet, something that seems easy enough to add and fix a bunch of more discs.

Lots of good stuff here.

Please send extra programmers to JRiver, Inc. c/o Matt 

Give me source, i give you patches.

[6233638]

There has been discussions on and off for all sorts of various menus that you could access (full partial etc) and when / how they would appear.  The current two options of manually initiating via Right Click or in Theaterview with the Arrows is the method that has been settled on.  DVD's on top get the DVD menu (Currently there are no non-licenced BD menu).  There seems to be a strong desire from most for the current behaviour to autoplay without any menu.  

To be clear, I don't want menus, and autoplaying Blu-rays is doing the right thing. But if I browse the disc via Drives & Devices, I would like to see more than just whatever index.bdmv is pointing to - either playlists or titles (or both, in separate groups) that are over a certain length, similar to what this explorer view shows.

I definitely don't want to be dealing with menus, as that takes far too long.

While it does this, i don't think it prefers a HD track over a SD track yet, something that seems easy enough to add and fix a bunch of more discs.

That does seem like it would help. I can't think of any scenario where an SD title would be the main feature.

[jmone]

Give me source, i give you patches.

How good would that be  A+++++

[6233638]

I just wanted to say that I'm impressed that you fixed #36 so quickly!

Unfortunately, I've hit the character limit on my first post, so I won't be able to add anything more to it now, but another change I would find very useful would be to move the file browser in the "categories" view over to the right, rather than having it along the bottom of the screen.

[6233638]

And another disc where the wrong title is selected by default:



It seems like the priorities should be:

• AnyDVD disc.inf
  
• Resolution
• Number of audio streams
• Length
• Playlist number (lower generally seems to be better when you have two titles the same length)