INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 25 for Mac => Topic started by: RayG on October 12, 2019, 10:02:54 pm
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I get box sets and have decided to group them by using the Comment field. When I enter something in the comment field for an album I can see it in the tags of the Album.
BUT, when I look at the Albums as List Style>Details and add the Comment column, there's nothing it the data field for that tag.
Just updated to 25.0.108, but this has carried over from the previous version I was using (96).
Thanks
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The top Pane of the standard Albums View, when set to List Type "Details", is sort of a summary of the tags against all files in the Album. But it displays some tags from the last file in the Album, which probably means it doesn't show you the comment you just entered. You can see that by adding the Track # field to the top Pane.
So don't set the List Type to "Details" to see your comments. Add the comments field to the bottom Pane and you will see the comments against each file.
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Thanks
But, didn't I batch-tag the Comment field in every track from the albums by just selecting the albums and entering data into that tag field? So the Comment should be in 'the last file in the Album'. When I've done as you suggested, I can see that each track in each album is tagged the same way in the Comment field.
Where there's more than one value in a field within a single Album (e.g., Artist), the List Style>Details displays the value '[Varies]' in those fields. Logic would expect the same in the Comment field.
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Sorry, I didn't realise you used the Tag Window to tag the Album, which does of course tag all files in the Album. I should have realised what you did.
You are correct, in the top pane using the List Type of "Details", most fields would show either the tag value that every file has, or the value "[Varies]". The Comment field does not, always remaining blank. I don't know if that is deliberate or not.
Interestingly, if you set all files to one Comment value using the tag window, then change one file to a different Comment, the value in the tag window does correctly change to "[Varies]".
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The question, then, is whether this is a bug or a feature.
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I'm not sure about this unusual behavior you are describing. But I *do* have a strong opinion that using the Comment field for this purpose is probably the wrong way to do it.
You have a specific purpose: Grouping box sets. You should make a custom field to do this. [Comment] is a large text field and may have historical or special behaviors based on it's type (large text field) or it's historical uses. If instead, you build your own field, and call it something like [Box Set] or [Box Set Group] or whatever make sense, then you can specify exactly what kind of field it is, and (mostly) exactly how it will behave.
MC has quite a few "magic behaviors" for specific fields in specific views. Most of them make sense once you find out why they do it. Using your own field mostly avoids unwanted magic.
Making new fields is really easy. In just a few clicks you'll have a new field to work with. Even better, you can easily copy your Comment field contents into this new field. You will probably want to make sure that your Comment field doesn't actually contain "comments" that are not part of your box set grouping function before you bulk copy it all over.
This is just friendly advice. I think it's very good advice. You are free to disagree. :)
Brian.
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Thanks, that is good advice.
I used the Comment field because it's a standard that is supported by iTunes and the Poweramp app on my DAP. Because I can't get MC to see the SD cards in my DAP (see https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,122015.0.html), I need to go through iTunes and iSyncr to sync playlists.
I can always use both fields, if necessary. I don't have so many box sets that that would be arduous.