I'm looking for general feedback and broad directions we should pursue now. Not feature requests.
I'm not entirely clear on the distinction here.
I've been keeping a list of things that I'd like to see addressed in MC21, and have been trying to keep that as short as possible (originally my intent was to have a "five changes I'd like to see in MC21" post) but it keeps growing.
Finish what you started: • R128 Volume Leveling:
⚬ There is still no option to tag an album as a "mixtape" to force track-based leveling.
⚬ There is still no option to adjust the target level from the default -23 LUFS. Video should be -31 LUFS. I would prefer to set both to the same level, some people have expressed a desire to reduce the target to match ReplayGain's -16dB.
⚬ Volume Leveling still runs
after internal volume control, so reducing the volume level does not give you additional headroom for leveling. Linking volume control to an adjustable target level might be one possible solution.
⚬ Analysis writes tags in R128 and ReplayGain formats, but not iTunNORM for some reason.
• The DSP Preset system, as currently implemented, only works in some highly specific situations.
With a bit of work, I believe this can be transformed into a feature that is not only more useful, but robust enough that you should only ever have to assign presets to a file once instead of constantly having to update/modify them.
Improve what's there: • Expand Zone Switch's capabilities:
⚬ A special "Null Zone" that instantly discards any file sent to it would allow files to be temporarily marked as "do not play" in the library without removing them.
⚬ The ability to group Zones together would improve the flexibility of Zone Switch, and simplify the user-facing behavior. (files play in the group, instead of several different zones)
⚬ The manual "Send to → <Zone>" function should bypass Zone Switch altogether so that specific files can routed to a different zone than expected. E.g. Sending a video test pattern to a specific display.
⚬ "Stop" rules in Zone Switch should be evaluated even when playback is started via an item in Playing Now. This is important to prevent conflicts when you have several Zones that play to the same output device.
• Replacing
JPG thumbnails with
PNG thumbnails would be quite noticeable.
• The podcast tools do not currently support YouTube's RSS format. Having it download videos automatically would be a huge convenience factor.
• Restore the original [Album Artist (auto)] functionality, or expand it further.
• Restore the file caching functionality to Memory Playback. Allow the playback buffer to be set to a user-defined size independently of the file cache. (e.g. 50MB rather than 1GB)
• Move from 1LSB RPDF to industry-standard TPDF dither. (2RPDF)
• Only install the WDM driver when necessary, or find a way to preserve the existing settings when reinstalling it.
