INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: Phydeaux on March 01, 2003, 11:54:24 pm
-
Hmmm... The good news is that I've been able to cut my bug list by quite a few! The bad news is that MC does not handle upgrading libraries well when there is a change in the defaults. Let me explain.
After complaining time and time again that my durations were being reported as the number of seconds (a 3:00 track would be reported as having duration 180) and various date issues (Last Played was reported as the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch (I think)) and so on, I helped a friend to install the latest version of 9 (122, I think) and noticed that he didn't have any of the same problems that I was having.
The first thing I tried was backing up a library and installing it over a clean install of MC. This didn't work and kept all the fields identical to how they were previously.
So I then carefully backed up all my library info into the tags and created a new library and re-imported all my music.
This was ok until I realised that none of my custom fields were present. A minor tremor went through my body, along with a brief fit of cursing. However, I then re-created all the fields I had (thank you so much for giving us the tag dump!! I used it extensively to see what fields I had created!) and re-imported all the music and it's all working fine now.
THANK YOU!
However, here are some suggestions which I have for you:
- When upgrading to a version that changes the default library structure, why not have a dialog box that alerts people to this and asks whether they would like to have their information upgraded to the new library structure. One thing that I don't get is that the actual fields don't seem to have changed. Duration is still a string (which I thought was the bug, previously). But now it is displayed correctly...
- When importing music to a database that has other tag information for fields that are not in the DB, to display a list of such tags and say "Do you want to import these also?" This might require a second run at the importing, but hey: I think it's worth it.
- I have a fairly classical oriented database and as such I like the composer to be displayed as a "General" field, not just an "Extended" field. This surely has no huge bearing on the DB so why can we not change where fields are displayed? (Other than the obvious "because we disabled it..." ;) )
- While not directly as a consequence of this sequence of events, I really would like the ability to add one's own categories to Audio, Display, General, Extended and File Info. Once more options are possible, having fixed groups for each field is surely anti-constructive?
- Given that we have field groupings, please can you cascade the field menus (ie: when choosing what fields to display) so that finding the right field can be a little more intuitive rather than searching through a list the length of my arm.
I think that about covers my adventures this morning. I hope that my suggestions can be of use.
P.