INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: sbsp2 on May 10, 2005, 05:05:51 pm
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How about a forum where only new MC 12 topics are posted and the ones JRiver likes get flagged and/or JRiver updates a 'top requests' post (locked at the top too) that everybody can see and review and doesn't get lost in all the other support questions. Seems like lots of good ideas are posted here, but there is no real confidence that topics/requests discussed today will be remembered tomorrow, next week, next month, etc. (my observation anyways).
So, what do others and JRiver think?
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I think that my only request, a resume playback function for all file types, would be a good idea! ;D ;D
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The number one thing I'd like to see in 12 is a mode that will allow MC to run 2 playing nows, essentially for use at parties.
When you add tracks to the second playing now list they play when the currently playing track is finished. If the second playing now list is empty MC reverts back to the first list and continues until something is added to the second list. This will allow you to play your selected playlist but still allow others to add tracks in between adhoc. The current method of using 'Add as next to play' doesn't really work for this as the last one to be added always jumps to the top of the queue so the requests are not played in the order they were selected.
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I would like to see a separate forum for version 12. This forum in the middle of 11 beta testing got very confusing if a person was asking about 10 or 11. Trying to handle 3 versions in one forum would be very difficult.
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I would like to see a separate forum for version 12. This forum in the middle of 11 beta testing got very confusing if a person was asking about 10 or 11. Trying to handle 3 versions in one forum would be very difficult.
No, it's good. Trust me, it's been said before.
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I'd like to see the tree replaced with something else... Tabs maybe?
The tree design just seems outdated compared to the rest of MC.
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No, it's good. Trust me, it's been said before.
Exactly, it will become a v11 - v12 forum and v10 will get relegated to an older forum.
Why ?
...cos v12 will be in alpha stage so any new users will be trying v11. They will have the benefit of experienced users helping them out all in one space.
Nice idea about the requests thread, but they don't work that way. We had the same with v11. They got a list of what they want to do, then they try to address what people want. If you're lucky you get what you want else wait for the next version.
They don't have sticky request list threads as it makes it easier for us to bully them about pending requests. If it's a really burning issue it will take on a life of its own. Helps them concentrate on the really important issues. The idea is request in a seprate thread, see how much traction it gets, figure out if its worth their time to implement.
This is the order it works in.
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For now we could each list our want lists in this thread and number them at put your username at the top; then we could reference the lists and make a master list.
I have a list already saved. What do you guys think; I doubt we are going to see a new forum dedicated to MC12 but...IT"S A GREAT IDEA :)
JC
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I don't know about anybody else, but one of my first problems with media center still exists to date...the inability to play aac files natively.
Quicktime plays them allright, but say what you want, playback feels slightly 'delayed' when comparing to eg mp3. Also, no cover art, no visualisations...
Though I recently saw a post by Matt which hinted at the possibility that MC will play them natively in the future.
Of course, what kept me on media center is that it's the only program which allows me to use a big library (and I mean really USE it) and supports my ipod as well as other players I might buy. Besides, once you get used to the user interface (which took me a while) I feel that other applications are somewhat lacking in ease of use ;D
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I wish to see Album Handling, where an album is treated as a single unit as I often play only entire albums (play each completely, in track order as per the CD) and would love the ability to handle them as such
i.e., if you sent 5 complete albums to Playing Now, then click on Shuffle . . . . it would shuffle the order the Albums were played, but NOT the track order within the album. There are other instances besides Playing Now where this would be helpful to those of us who like the Album-Based concept as opposed to Track-based as it is now.
Nice idea Lisa. This fits in with the shuffle modes on the iPod (i.e. Albums, Songs or Off) so if Albums is selected it will always keep full albums together in track number order but it will shuffle the albums. It would be nice to have this as a feature of MC's shuffle mode (an option like on iPod) as well as a random sort parameter for view schemes (e.g. sort=[Random (albums)] or sort=[Random (Songs)] ). Great idea Lisa!
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I wish to see Album Handling, where an album is treated as a single unit as I often play only entire albums (play each completely, in track order as per the CD) and would love the ability to handle them as such
i.e., if you sent 5 complete albums to Playing Now, then click on Shuffle . . . . it would shuffle the order the Albums were played, but NOT the track order within the album. There are other instances besides Playing Now where this would be helpful to those of us who like the Album-Based concept as opposed to Track-based as it is now.
I too would like to see this - but for slightly different reasons:
I have many CD singles in my music collection, and most singles include tracks that are also on an album. In order for my MC library to resemble my CD collection, I have the album field data type set as a list, and tracks that are on both a single and an album have both listed. So, view schemes show the correct tracks on both the single and album without the need to have duplicate copies of tracks. However, as there's only one track, there can only be one track number and one cover art file, so it's far from a perfect solution.
An album / playlist based library (like Sony's SonicStage software) would solve this problem. For each album or playlist you could then define the tracks, order of tracks, cover art etc. It would be very easy to define tracks as belonging to multiple albums / singles / compilations etc without the need to have duplicates.
This would also enable a view I'd really like to see instead of the View Scheme, Library Browser and most importantly the Theatre View file lists: An Album View. By this I envisage the album cover art on the left with the tracks on the right.
Anyone else feel the same?
Ed.
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Ed,
Can we see some screenshots? I'm interested.
I was out by the pool, before reading your post, thinking about my duplicate tracks that come mostly from various artist albums.
I have some need to keep dups because it's interesting to here the difference in the different releases & mastering styles.
But, even though storage is cheap I would like to get rid of some every now and then
So......when you delete a file externally, MC shows a red X. I was wondering if MC would try to play these on shuffle mode or simply avoid them. Then I could leave the deleted entries in MC so as to know which tracks albums I care to burn are missing. I guess I could just enter into the comment field all the albums that the track can be found on, but I think your on to something. We are coming at it from different angles.
MC should develop some way to enhance the organization of singles and albums. I'm archiving 45's and when someone collects a genre usually these various artist comp. albums can provide a lot of overlap, but for posterity sake it's good to know the original sources, however many there may be.
JC
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I would like to see MC handle ripped DVD's as easily as it handles CD's
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Can we see some screenshots? I'm interested.
Ok:
http://www.interbeat.co.uk/studios/mc/mc1.gif
http://www.interbeat.co.uk/studios/mc/mc2.gif
The first screen shot shows the tracklisting of "Hopes And Fears" by Keane. Note track 4 (selected) called "Everybody's Changing", and the contents of the custom tag "CD" which is "Everybody's Changing;Hopes And Fears".
The second shot shows what happens when you click "Everybody's Changing" in the CD list (top right of view scheme). You get the tracklisting of the single, "Everybody's Changing" which includes the track "Everybody's Changing" and two b-sides. The "Everybody's Changing" file is the same file in both, which is why it is track 4 in both. This is where the problems start and why an album / playlist approach is needed, so that a album / playlist can be allocated tracks in an order that applies only to that album.
So......when you delete a file externally, MC shows a red X. I was wondering if MC would try to play these on shuffle mode or simply avoid them. Then I could leave the deleted entries in MC so as to know which tracks albums I care to burn are missing. I guess I could just enter into the comment field all the albums that the track can be found on, but I think your on to something. We are coming at it from different angles.
I'm not sure what happens when MC encounters a deleted file. I think it just skips it and moves to the next. I don't like having duplicates because I like the "Last Played" and "Number of Plays" tags which aren't accurate if you have multiple versions of the same file.
MC should develop some way to enhance the organization of singles and albums. I'm archiving 45's and when someone collects a genre usually these various artist comp. albums can provide a lot of overlap, but for posterity sake it's good to know the original sources, however many there may be.
Yes, exactly. When I used Sony's SonicStage and ripped a CD, the tracks went into the library, and a playlist was automatically created with the tracklist of the ripped tracks. The playlist also held genre, artist, sleeve etc tags. Playlists were organised and navigated like a library and offered ultimate flexibility in this respect - you could have an individual track (file) on unlimited playlists which in turn could have different genres etc - this made storing compilations albums very easy amongst other things. Of course it was also possible to navigate the library in track / file mode like MC so you had the best of both worlds (albeit only with ATRAC format files, hence the reason I soon gave up with SonicStage!).
Ed.
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This is very interesting. I think we could also tie in the aspect I have been hoping to have changed. All of this is pretty abstract but it's basically how MC associates files w/ albums. When you view Album Thumbnails and select one, the red checks come up in your panes; you don't get a track list. The Album View plugin is desirable because of this feature. I think this idea might very well integrate with exactly what type of "association" we are hoping for.
Your naming your singles by the title of the song, in the Album field?, so they get attached into the "real" album track list. If MC would allow playlists for each album you could have multiple thumbnails of same title (when single title ends up being an album title) and then click the EP or single and see it's tracks or slect the album thumbnail etc.
EDIT- So the Hopes & Fears album tracks 4,5, & 6 are tracks 1,2, & 3 on the EP right? I thinking what happens when the EP and album title end up being the same. I guess you could simply use EP at the end, but...
You don't want dups, but you want the single isolated. When you select an album/cd iin the pane it will list the tracks for you. MC does not do the same in reverse; it should but stop at tracks and not shift the all the panes to the selected GENRE/ARTIST/CD etc. ....integrate that with a more organized way to handle dups or "removed" dups and we'll be all set.
MC should move backwards in the panes. By this I mean that if you browse your NAME pane and click on a song...all the albums (in Album Thumbnail view) that that song is found on will pop up below (in Automatic view you get a detailed list of where the songs can be found).
My proposal: Click on an album in the ALBUM THUMBNAIL VIEW, the NAME pane is replaced w/ all the names/tracks on that album (like album view plugin). The ARTIST pane would then be selected & represent that particular artist and the rest of their albums would be listed in the ALBUM pane for even more access to other albums by the same artist.
If it happnes to be a Various Artist album, then the ARTIST pane could just list all of the artists on that compilation and the tracks/names of the album would be displayed in NAME.
Sounds confusing, but it is all about the flow (and the vibe ; )
We need to sort this all out. I think there are a lot of great ideas for MC that aren't simply personal quirks or shortcuts. This idea here is very intuitive imo.
JC
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This topic has strayed from the title into the same territory as this:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=27592.0
Looks like popular stuff!
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Ok:
http://www.interbeat.co.uk/studios/mc/mc1.gif
http://www.interbeat.co.uk/studios/mc/mc2.gif
The first screen shot shows the tracklisting of "Hopes And Fears" by Keane. Note track 4 (selected) called "Everybody's Changing", and the contents of the custom tag "CD" which is "Everybody's Changing;Hopes And Fears".
The second shot shows what happens when you click "Everybody's Changing" in the CD list (top right of view scheme). You get the tracklisting of the single, "Everybody's Changing" which includes the track "Everybody's Changing" and two b-sides. The "Everybody's Changing" file is the same file in both, which is why it is track 4 in both. This is where the problems start and why an album / playlist approach is needed, so that a album / playlist can be allocated tracks in an order that applies only to that album.
I have a simpler solution to this albums , singles problem.
i put singles in a separate directory. All singles of any genre get put in this directory.
I have a view scheme that looks at singles only and sorts them accordingly. The single title is the album name.
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EDIT- So the Hopes & Fears album tracks 4,5, & 6 are tracks 1,2, & 3 on the EP right? I thinking what happens when the EP and album title end up being the same. I guess you could simply use EP at the end, but...
Not quite. Tracks 5 & 6 are only on the album. Tracks 2 & 3 on the EP are unique to the EP (they're not on the album). Only track 4 on the album and 1 on the EP are the same.
You're right about when an album and EP have the same name and I do exactly what you suggest - I simple add "[album]" to the album name.
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Thinking more about the album playlist approach, it could offer some very nice possibilities; for example, how about adding images to the playlist - the booklet pages for example. These could do a slideshow in a special "album info" display plugin that could also display the usual track info at the same time. In fact, an album playlist could include a tag for which display plugin to use - how about setting all your U2 albums to use a U2 themed display for example??
Ed.
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I have a simpler solution to this albums , singles problem.
i put singles in a separate directory. All singles of any genre get put in this directory.
I have a view scheme that looks at singles only and sorts them accordingly. The single title is the album name.
Hi,
Could you explain this in more detail please - does it get round the issue of not having duplicate files?
Ed.
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Could you explain this in more detail please - does it get round the issue of not having duplicate files?
Ed.
No it does not.
That will have to wait till v12 :)
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I'd like to see a system like Nero Burning Rom
where by when you buy, you get the current version + 1.
So in My case bought license for 11, and free upgrade to version 12....
:)
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A function desire if it is feasible.
RESUME FOR DVD PLAYBACK as with Powerdvd etc..
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Better file conversion options for handhelds. As it is now for me it is totally inflexible.
My player can handle mp3 and/or wma at 128 or less. My library is a mixture of mp3, wma, and ape at different bitrates. The "one size is supposed to fit all" solution of convert if necessary or no conversion is useless to me. If I set it to convert to wma, my mp3s get converted when I don't want, or need them to. If I set it to "Convert if necessary", MC does not downsample my higher bitrate files of the same type. So, I have to sort by filetypes, transfer some with conversion, go into options and change settings, then transfer more without conversion. What a hassle.
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It would be nice to have profiles for ripping preferences. For example; I rip audiobooks differently than I do music and different yet again than ripping for storage on a handheld. I use different encoders and even use different disk locations as I don't want audiobooks ripped into my music directory. It is a pain to have to go into options and change all these settings each time. It would make it so much easier to just select a profile that I set up in advance.
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Great idea EDbro; I do the same. I hadn't thought of that. It woul dbr great to see that added.
JC
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I wish to see Album Handling, where an album is treated as a single unit as I often play only entire albums (play each completely, in track order as per the CD) and would love the ability to handle them as such
i.e., if you sent 5 complete albums to Playing Now, then click on Shuffle . . . . it would shuffle the order the Albums were played, but NOT the track order within the album. There are other instances besides Playing Now where this would be helpful to those of us who like the Album-Based concept as opposed to Track-based as it is now.
Amen !
Something like the Columns UI for f2k (obviously improved)
http://columns.outerspase.net/uploads/plisk_v014.png
Preferably the album view would be something like this:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/pank2002/Albumview.gif)
edit: Also, does MC finalize CD's? For music CD's I prefer to have them finalized, but I don't think it's an option in MC (but I'm probably wrong)
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Well Id like to see this in V 11, but having the song name/artist be scrolled in the taskbar instead of "Media Center".
also, V 11 isnt even complete - when is version 12 planned for release? I just bought the beta upgrade!
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also, V 11 isnt even complete - when is version 12 planned for release? I just bought the beta upgrade!
v11 is nearly over, just a few bugfixes. The so called incompletness of v11 will be handled in v12 :)
Matt goes on vacation soon and the Hula girls are waiting ;)
v12 will be released shortly in very early beta ie alpha stage. v12 will be ready a year from now.
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Please include this post (keep action window minimized state between sessions) in version 12:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=27671.0
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- Resume
- Command for Start TV --> "Media Editor.exe -TV" for example
- Click in Full Screen View --> Pause
- in Handheld Player , button for Examinate Folder and Files directly
- TV teletext , Tv Order for Number
- Pad or joystick control media center :D
- change key shortcurts
sorry for my english , and Thx for this amazing program
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I would like to see thumbnails for PDF files like in windows explorer:
(http://img17.paintedover.com/uploads/thumbs/17/pdf.png) (http://paintedover.com/uploads/show.php?loc=17&f=pdf.png)
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An A-B loop would be nice. :-\
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Some sort of 'beat-matching' for automating trance/techno crossovers would make me happy.
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It would be nice to have profiles for ripping preferences. For example; I rip audiobooks differently than I do music and different yet again than ripping for storage on a handheld. I use different encoders and even use different disk locations as I don't want audiobooks ripped into my music directory. It is a pain to have to go into options and change all these settings each time. It would make it so much easier to just select a profile that I set up in advance.
Taking this one step further how about having a way to save all your setup options to a config/profile file that could be used when we need to re-install or upgrade etc?
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Actually, as pointed out by somebody els, the tree needs to be replaced with something els. It's not really all to great, as it is now. Tabs is an idea, but I'm not sure that's the definitive answer
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I'd like an option to right click on a file, and add it's album to currently playing list.
I could go through the library browser, but usually when i start browsing i have no idea what i want to play until i see a specific track. If i could tell it to play that particular album... that would be funky :-)
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Chris, are you aware of the Locate → Album feature in the right-click menu? This might do what you want.
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Chris, are you aware of the Locate → Album feature in the right-click menu? This might do what you want.
Nope! :D
I'm getting to the point where the more I think I know about Media Center the more I realise I know Sweet * A :-)
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I would love to see Web Radio untied from the JRiver central database. I want to be able to save stations as favorites without it being in the JRiver database. I have found the database to be out of date and unresponsive to requests for it to be updated (Radio Paradise).
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=26250.0
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=25832.0
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=25633.msg178057#msg178057
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As I use to burn my albums sometimes to audio-cd's I'd like use the original cd-cover-files as front and back cover.
In cd-labeler it's not possible to use a background-image for the back-cover, only for front and label.
Would be great to add this option.
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I thought I'd wait to comment on this until we have a more final build of 11. I think the last one, if not it, is darn close, so...
Glynor's Wishlist (roughly in order of importance to me):
0) Media Library Server improvements. I, and many other users, can't realistically use the Media Library Server because of it's current limitations. I feel that the database needs to be able to accept changes from the "client" systems simultaneously. As I and others have mentioned, I would even be willing to pay for this functionality separately (as part of some kind of Media Server Pro product).
1) Improved TV Tuner and PVR support. A system similar to what Beyond TV provides would be devine. Including: the ability to control DirecTV boxes, Cable TV boxes, etc; a built-in program guide; vastly improved "pausing live TV" functionality; integrated recording scheduling.
2) Image management improvements. The problems here have been discussed in detail in previous threads (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=26596.msg185008#msg185008).
3) Toolbar Redesign. I'd still like the Toolbar to be improved. A system similar to what Adobe uses (with movable and dockable toolbars) would be splendid, along with the option to create buttons for basically all of the current automation functions.
4) A multi-computer network "distribution" system similar to ATI's EasyShare/EasyConnect product (http://www.ati.com/products/multimediacenter/EazyConnect.html). This would solve many of the Multi-Zone sync issues that Mastiff and others have dealt with. If you could simply "stream" what is playing on the "server" system to multiple "client" machines (including Video and Audio) then syncing multiple zones and multiple machines wouldn't be a problem anymore!
There are other little things I'd like as well (exportable Smartlists/ViewSchemes, unified Edit View Scheme/Customize Current View settings, etc), but we'll get to that later.
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Sorry, Glynor, that wouldn't solve any of my problems. That means that there would have to be a running computer in every room that should use the system, and I don't want that. Most people want to live in a house, not a computer shop...all though my house probably comes close to the latter... ;)
Anywa, the best way to do that is to have cables from a master zone to the regular zones and mute and unmute the line in.
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I would like to see MC have the ability to cut/trim mp3 files internally WITHOUT converting to wav and back. Many other programs can do this, it shouldn't be too hard (what do I know).
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Sorry, Glynor, that wouldn't solve any of my problems. That means that there would have to be a running computer in every room that should use the system, and I don't want that. Most people want to live in a house, not a computer shop...all though my house probably comes close to the latter... ;)
Anywa, the best way to do that is to have cables from a master zone to the regular zones and mute and unmute the line in.
Come on! Everyone wants to live in a computer shop. (Just don't ask my wife.) ;D
More seriously though, you're right. It wouldn't help in those cases, but when you DO have another machine in the room, it would be fabulous. I still think the feature would be very valuable, though there was a reason I put it last on my list.
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For Version 12, I would love to see some impovements made to the Theater View. I think the Theater View interface is lacking a bit when compared to programs like Meedio, Media Portal, and Beyond Media. However, those programs can not even begin to compete with Media Centers ability to organize, tag, and play your media. Basically, I think Media Center would be the ultimate Home Theater front end if theater view was improved. More specifically, an interface that more closely resembles other HTPC frontends, the ability to rate your music from the theater view, support for 3rd party plug-ins for things like weather, movie showtimes, ect.., ability to move songs around in Playing now, simplfy how music is added to playing now, like one button press to select a song instead of having to open a submenu to select a song, the ability to size theater view to fit on the tv, Built in DVD support, instead of needing to have PowerDVD or another program installed, and a DVD player that supports advance features like VRM9, and though I have not played with yet, but it sounds like improvents to the DVR functions would be great too. And probably a few more things that I can't think of right now.
Reading through the forums, this does not seem to be very high on the list of improvements most people would like to see in MC12. I am not sure how many people are using MC for an HTPC frontend, but in my opinon the only thing the other programs have over MC is the interface. What MC has under the hood though is just leaps and bounds better then anyone else. It seems like a market MC could really make a big impact in.
I hope some focus can be put on this, but even if that is not the direction where JRiver is heading , I am sure I will still be using Media Center for a long time for all it's other great abilities.
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I would like to see MC have the ability to cut/trim mp3 files internally WITHOUT converting to wav and back. Many other programs can do this, it shouldn't be too hard (what do I know).
I agree. That would be really nice.
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1) Improved TV Tuner and PVR support. A system similar to what Beyond TV provides would be devine. Including: the ability to control DirecTV boxes, Cable TV boxes, etc; a built-in program guide; vastly improved "pausing live TV" functionality; integrated recording scheduling.
I fully agree on this. I'm playing around now with the open source project MediaPortal. It lacks many of the abilities of MC when it comes to music, but I love the TV-part of it with all its abilities concerning scheduled recording of TV-pograms with an electronic program guide.
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I agree. That would be really nice.
Can't Media Editor (Inside the JRiver folder) already do this?
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Considering the concept of media modes (audio, images, video, everything) has been implemented in MC for a long while now, it would be nice if that concept could also be extended to the Import Media function as well.
Update:
Or better yet, add the ability to create multiple, user-defined "profiles" to select from when importing. Yeah, that'd be cool. :)
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Considering the concept of media modes (audio, images, video, everything) has been implemented in MC for a long while now, it would be nice if that concept could also be extended to the Import Media function as well.
Update:
Or better yet, add the ability to create multiple, user-defined "profiles" to select from when importing. Yeah, that'd be cool. :)
I'd like a way to link all content(audio, video, image, tex) of a particular artist into a encylopedia type of interface. The first thing MC needs is a relational database, and then someone needs to come up with a html scheme that takes all of that data and formats into a cool layout. This could be done now with a playing now feature and put all media types in artist folders but if JRiver could do this that would be dandy.
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Can't Media Editor (Inside the JRiver folder) already do this?
It looks like Media Editor decodes before any editing and then encodes when saving the file. I notice, though, that this the conversions are done much faster than I remember it, which make the conversions less of a problem. However, The coding/decoding does not seem good from a sound quality perspective.
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It would be nice if the Media mode icons worked within the library browser. As it is now, if you click one of the media mode icons while in the library browser it will jump you ou of the library browser and into the Media Library. The only way to change media from within the library browser is to use the small dropdown list which sits right below the big media mode icons.
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True support for iPod photo and shuffle (and iPods in general), including better replay gain handling and dynamic playlists.
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- An "Organise Library" feature which encompasses the import feature as well as an auto "Rename Files from Properties" feature. Different media types could be set to be renamed differently.
mc checks to see if the library info has been written to the tags, and if not, updates them.
MC checks for and deletes empty folders.
- Import should remember folders to import from per library.
- Import should put backups in the your backups folder, not in Documents and Settings. Confusing for new users.
- Anf MC should remind users to backup library periodically, like Outlook does.
- Fix broken links function sperate from Remove broken links. "Fix broken links" is really useful, but very destuctive if it cant find where the files have been moved to. Both would be tickable boxes.
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1% increments for the volume control within MC.
5% increments as it is now is not very slick, but I understand it was a comprimise to be able to cover as many keyboards as possible.
It's strange, but to me, having that kind of responsiveness really makes a big difference in the GUI - otherwise of course I wouldn't even mention it. I use the circular volume control on the Logitech Cordless Elite (much nicer feel than using up/down arrows for volume, which is the main reason I didn't go for the DiNovo keyboard).
Maybe this can be tackled and nailed in MC12. If it is, I'm sure to upgrade when the time comes (well, even better chance if an A-B Loop feature was added too) ;-)
Thanks,
Kwake
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kwake, why not use mjextman (I think it's called MC11.exe in newer builds)?
mjextman.exe /Command VolumeUp [Value] increases sound by Value. Default is 5%
mjextman.exe /Command VolumeDown [Value] decreases sound by Value. Default by 5%
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I use Theater View in my lounge setup (MC11), and for audio has been working well, but I would like also do TV stuff as well now.
Below is my "wishlist"
1) When in the playing now view if playback is paused (or stopped) the green marker indicating the track stays there. So if somebody comes along and looks at the screen it can be difficult to tell if the system is actually playing something (and no sound is coming out) or if in fact the music is paused/stopped.
This gets more confusing if you have more than one zone and are trying to determine if a zone is actually playing or not.
Can I suggest that either the green marker is hidden when playback is stopped/paused. Or even better change the marker to the universal "Paused" symbol or "Stopped" symbol. This way a quick glance at the screen will tell you is the music is playing, paused or stopped.
2) Display Album Name in the title bar rather than "Home / Playing Now".
3) Implement the Tools/Locate/Album functionality into Theater View
4) Have the ability to toggle between "Playing Now" and the last location in the menu tree without having to go back to "home". (available via the remote control as well)
5) Allow Visualization Studio the ability to display user defined library fields (I know this isn't only theater view)
6) The ability to schedule TV recordings within theater view (I don't have mouse/keyboard on the PC I just use a remote control) so can't use the current media Scheduler interface.
Richard
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kwake, why not use mjextman (I think it's called MC11.exe in newer builds)?
mjextman.exe /Command VolumeUp [Value] increases sound by Value. Default is 5%
mjextman.exe /Command VolumeDown [Value] decreases sound by Value. Default by 5%
Pank, thanks for your response... - are you saying I can set it up so that my circular volume control on my Logitech keyboard will increment/decrement in 1% steps using mjextman? Can you tell me how I could set this up so it is active 'by default'? Is it something I can put into an initialization startup file or something??
Thanks,
Kwake
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Possibly. Can you configure how the wheel should work? If that's the case then put the command to be MC11 /Command VolumeUp 1.
The easiest way would of course be to set a default value of 1, but I'm not sure if you can do this. You should start a new thread; the developers or another member can probably answer your question.
-Rasmus
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I like Glynor's idea:
"4) A multi-computer network "distribution" system similar to ATI's EasyShare/EasyConnect product. This would solve many of the Multi-Zone sync issues that Mastiff and others have dealt with. If you could simply "stream" what is playing on the "server" system to multiple "client" machines (including Video and Audio) then syncing multiple zones and multiple machines wouldn't be a problem anymore!"
This is somethng to consider. The option to stream would be great for those of us who can really use it. IP assignable speakers are comming out (not that I'm interested....yet), and using networking instead of wires, which WIVES hate!, is worth the R&D on MC's part. Running wires isn't always an option for those of us in apartments either.
JC
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Quite a few good ideas suggested so far.
I'm still recovering my library and coming out of a few postings about that:
- Fully utilize MC's "internal" audio fingerprint
MC already (based on previous responses from JR) calculates a fingerprint that it uses with YADB. Unfortunately the 'fix/remove broken links' feature does not use this and is of little use for me. At best, I can try to force MC to compare an unknown track with YADB but the information there may not match my database. Since MC already has its own fingerprint, I should be able to pick any arbitrary file on local storage and have MC compare it to my own local library using the fingerprint to identify it.
This also could be used for more accurately finding duplicates.
I also agree that the 'fix' and 'remove' portions of this feature should be independently selectable options - I generally do not want broken links removed if they can't be fixed. Being forced into an 'all or nothing' scenario typically prescribes a feature I will never use.
JR won't give access to this via API (or via MC) and I've seen at least a few attempts at implementing some fingerprinting abilities via plugin. While a
MusicBrainz (http://musicbrainz.org/) plugin would be nice (if only I had time to work with the other efforts), the ability to use MC's fingerprint would be a big win itself.
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I'd like to get the following features:
(1) Storing the DiscID as additional tag information during CD rip
(2) local YADB support
(3) access to local YADB through SDK
HSC
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If 11.0 stays the way it looks like it is, then for 12.0, please add tagging cover art in the background.
Function added back in 11.0
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Pank, thanks for your response... - are you saying I can set it up so that my circular volume control on my Logitech keyboard will increment/decrement in 1% steps using mjextman? Can you tell me how I could set this up so it is active 'by default'? Is it something I can put into an initialization startup file or something??
If it is possible to reassign the function of the Volume Control, you would do it from inside SetPoint (Logitech's keyboard software). Take a look and see if you can assign a different function to the Volume Up and Volume Down commands. If you can, and if it lets you assign a "program" to those commands, you can assign the command lines Pank mentioned above and it should work.
The only downside is that the Volume Control will then only work when you have MC running. If you want to turn down the volume of a game you're playing, you're out of luck.
Otherwise ...
There are a LOT of great ideas in here. It takes a while to wade through them all, but there are some real gems.
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My "partial" wish list for MC.12 would include:
1.- Macros to automate repetitive tasks that are normally performed in the same sequence... import, clean properties, rename, etc.
2.- Fully customization of Library Browser.
3.- A plug-in to download information from Allmusic.com, such as other competitors have. I'm aware that AMG charges a high fee for that, but make it optional and I would gladly pay $$$ for this option.
Thank you.
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I second risingdamp's request. (See quotes below). It is the same request I've made in version 10 & 11.
The number one thing I'd like to see in 12 is a mode that will allow MC to run 2 playing nows, essentially for use at parties.
When you add tracks to the second playing now list they play when the currently playing track is finished. If the second playing now list is empty MC reverts back to the first list and continues until something is added to the second list. This will allow you to play your selected playlist but still allow others to add tracks in between adhoc. The current method of using 'Add as next to play' doesn't really work for this as the last one to be added always jumps to the top of the queue so the requests are not played in the order they were selected.
Can we try to get this feature in version 11? Thanks in advance.
I'd like to see the following feature added to ver 10.
I usually set up a play list for a party. However, during the party, I often get a BUNCH of requests for other songs. I'd like to queue up all of the requests in the order I receive them.
The "Add to Playing Next" feature comes close to what I want, but these are Stacked (the last requested becomes the next to play and the first requested is the last to play) instead of Queued (the first request is next to play).
I've seen this feature in other products. In the other product there are 2 lists kept. The "regular list" plays in a predetermined order if the "request list" is empty. Otherwise, the songs in the "request list" play.
Thanks for your consideration. (Sorry if this is a duplicate request).
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Lockable views:
In split view mode I would like the possibility to lock one (or more) of the views so it doesn't change if I klick somewhere in the tree while that view is still active, which is very easy to do by mistake. This could preferrably be done as a right-klicking option: "Lock this view" / "Unlock this view".
A locked view should still be accessible for normal handling e.g. use of selection panes, adding/deleting files in playlists, changing order in playlists etc.
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Keeping view positions between sessions
I would like MC to start with each view (as the term is used in the "Split view" option) where I left it the last time MC was closed down. If I leave a view in the library, it should start in the library, more specifically in the tree position where it was at closedown. Even better if it also remembers the selections in the panes. If I leave a view in the playlists, it should start in the playlists, and preferably in the playlist where I left it. A view left as "Playing Now" should start as "Playing Now".
As a complement, it should also be possible to declare the start position for each view explicitly in the Startup settings.
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Immediate fading – ad hoc control of MC’s behaviour:
Sometimes (e.g. in a DJ situation) it is necessary to stop the playing of a song gracefully before it is finished. An abrupt stop is normally not the best way to do it. The possibilities I need are:
- Fade out now, then stop playing (In this case, a later Play command should start playing the next track.) This is already possible to do with the playback settings, but then all stopping of playing will take time, which can be annoying, so I need both the present stop (in my case a fast fade out) and the softer fade out.
- Fade out now, then start playing next track (with the preset time gap after the fade out).
For some users I guess other options could be more interesting, like
- Crossfade to next track now.
Since different users’ needs vary rather much, there should be different options available. For me, crossfading is really, really not an option; for other people in other situations, playing other kinds of music, silence between tracks seems to be the last thing they want.
To make the different varieties easily accessible without cluttering up the interface too much, I see two possible ways:
1. Introduce an extended play control field next to the standard play control field. There, each user could place the controls he/she needs (from a pre-defined pool). For those who want an clean interface: Make this field very discrete when empty. This is the implementation I would prefer.
2. Make an icon for each option accessible for putting in the top or bottom toolbar.
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My "partial" wish list for MC.12 would include:
1.- Macros to automate repetitive tasks that are normally performed in the same sequence... import, clean properties, rename, etc.
2.- Fully customization of Library Browser.
3.- A plug-in to download information from Allmusic.com, such as other competitors have. I'm aware that AMG charges a high fee for that, but make it optional and I would gladly pay $$$ for this option.
Thank you.
Having options beyond YADB would be GREAT! I think many users would be willing to pay for DB access.
Not trying to knock YADB, but, like all databases, it's not 100% complete and accurate.
I vote for Freedb and/or Allmusic....
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- An "Organise Library" feature which encompasses the import feature as well as an auto "Rename Files from Properties" feature. Different media types could be set to be renamed differently.
mc checks to see if the library info has been written to the tags, and if not, updates them.
MC checks for and deletes empty folders.
- Import should remember folders to import from per library.
- Import should put backups in the your backups folder, not in Documents and Settings. Confusing for new users.
- Anf MC should remind users to backup library periodically, like Outlook does.
- Fix broken links function sperate from Remove broken links. "Fix broken links" is really useful, but very destuctive if it cant find where the files have been moved to. Both would be tickable boxes.
Taking up from my previous post. I would really like to see the JRiver team take advantage of the Media Scheduler application. It sits there in the tray, probably unused by the majority of MC users, simply because it it too technical for them to use. Who knows how to find the playlist id, just so that they can set a playlist to wake them up?!
All the functionality is there already, it just needs to be skinned, pushed under peoples noses a bit more, and most importantly, it needs a whole bunch of presets, or even better, some graphical way to make the tasks, like with smarlists.
This could also be a way to make the "Organize library" feature that I spoke about in my previous post too.
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humm... ideas for MC12, ok, well you did ask for them, so here goes.
MC12 should be able to:
- initiate updates to the library held on the MC Server.
- add new media to the MC Server
- delete media from the MC Server
- control multiple screens (one for visuals, one for controls)
- have an inbuilt webserver for remote control (i.e. using PDA over wifi)
- support multiple sound cards (different or the same music on each card)
- Display playing details in the title bar
- lock/unlock this view
The MCServer should:
- be run when not logged on (i.e. as a network service)
- re-scan media every "period" of time to update library
- ignore or accept updates from the MC clients (on a per user / perclient basis)
- be able to stream the same piece of music to multiple clients (effectively control clients)
well, I know it's a long list, but I would love to see this stuff, and would use it so much more.
Rich
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As a tagging-freak i would really like to see a possibility to create own categories for the library-fields.
If you have a lot of library-fields the 6 predifined categories (general, extended, audio, display, file info, calculated) are not enough.
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I would like to see the library browser fully customizable, rating system for albums, way more skins with a skin tool to make our own and the ability to print out album lists per genre etc.
Terry
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Would like to see the tree removed and replaced with something better.....
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AAC, ISO, VOB, and MPEG-4 handling/playing/importing improvements;
concurr on deep-sixing the tree-based view
looks like with the Intel-Apple alliance, DRM is going to be shoved down our throats, so might as well start planning it into MC 12 as well.
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Camera RAW filetypes and EXIF support (Sorry, did miss it is already in 11)
that's what I really would like to see.
I think that MCs organizing and library features are really great. Having preview support for raw-files (which lots of modern digital SLRs provide) would be great.
But how about a file versioning system where files that are marked as versions of another are kept in a set with that? What comes to mind is something analogous to Adobe's Photoshop Elements...
Extended support for exif information or tiff-tagging would be cool too...
Just a dream...
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Raw image support was recently added to MC11.
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1. smartlist import/export - that way there could be a database of smartlists that users have created that you could add to your library.
2. Total Album Rating system - some way to have MC calculate an album rating based of the indivdual song ratings.
3. A jukebox type interface - for party's - similar interface to this one: http://www.jukeboxpro.com/xp.jpg
4. A way to interface with the Turtle Beach Audiotron (which isn't being made anymore) but I know there are a lot of users out there.
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I like the idea of a jukebox type interface, especially, making it user friendly for touch screen use.
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Would like to see the tree removed and replaced with something better.....
How about vertical split views from left to right? Wide screen owners would love this.
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Since it apparantly cannot be built in version 11 anymore, here's my little request:
It would be a great feature for me when there would be a 'Paste'-button too in the Lyrics-edit box. Now it's just Copy to clipboard, Save and Cancel.
Would that be possible?
And I know, I know, you can do that with Ctrl-V too, but nonetheless I'd like such a button.
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Some requests for refinements on what already exists in Media Center:
I would personally like to see some work on smartlists. An interface to make them (like itunes) would be cool, with different areas of the window put aside for different elements (fields related to frequency and no. of plays etc. together, with preset time periods so that you dont have to enter everything in minutes).
Also, I think that the addition of expressions in v11 was powerful, but I am not technical enough to use them. Some extra work to bring this power to the layman, perhaps in the same interface, would be cool (ie: slider controls to set percentages for genres etc.)
The next, easily most convenient thing would be a simple, easy to see button, that would allow you to see the file list of an album when in album view (without having to find it in the panes all the time).
And finally, the ability to rate images (or even do full tagging upon images) that are being shown as part of a slideshow.
Yes, Yes, t'would be good, it would.
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"How about vertical split views from left to right? Wide screen owners would love this".
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.....PLEASE!!!!
Man what a good idea.
JC
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Split views are great, but I am annoyed every time I fire up MC and it has forgotten that I want my Audio view scheme in the top pane and the Now Playing view in the bottom pane. MC should remember which set of views had been selected across sessions. Perhaps allowing the user to explicitly set up the default starting views in the Options would be a good if MC can't just remember.
I'm also shocked every time in split view mode I perform a search in my Audio view scheme and the search also gets applied to my Playing Now view. AAAAAAAAGHGHGH... I instantly loose all context of what is currently playing, how many songs I have queued up before I have dead air, etc. I need to be able to specify which view pane is subject to the search bar, and which is not.
I agree with the poster who suggests being able to lock certain view panes, or conversely, to specify which view pane is subject to change based on clicking elsewhere in the tree.
I need the ability to "pause playlist after this song" in my DJing such that halfway through a song I can tell MC to gracefully pause at the end of it to let me make an announcement. It would be really cool to actually have a "Pause" pseudo-track that I can insert into a playlist or the Playing Now so I can pre-program or insert on-the-fly (respectively) an announcement break.
I would like the ability to repair broken links based on customizable parameters. In the same way that I can specify which tags define tracks as being "Duplicate", I would like to be able to set a preference for how tracks are supposed to be matched and repaired. I need this because I would like to build my club playlists on my desktop machine, which stores tracks in artist/album folders, and export these playlists to my laptop, which stores all my tracks in a single flat folder. These are always imported as file missing, because I assume the match must be attempted based on full filename and fails because of the different file structure. It would work as desired, however, if I could set the match and repair to be based on track name, artist, album, and duration.
Move/Copy Fields is nice, but I need new operations to split the contents of one field into 2 or 3 fields, or combine 2 or 3 fields into one. Specifically, I would like to do field "math" functions.
For zones, I need to be able to set more than just "Playback Options" per zone. I need to set "General Options" per zone as well, particularly the behavior settings which control the response to user gestures like double click, previous button. In my headphones zone, I want a double click to Replace Playing Now (all). In my live club zone, I want double click to Add to Playing Now (to end).
I hate to end on a down note but as a usability expert and UI designer, I hear stuff like this all the time: "replace the tree with something better". My follow up question is always something like "What have you tried to do with the tree but can't do, or find too inconvenient to do with the tree?" Once in a while I'm surprised with some insight I lacked about the use of the application, but usually people just complain about the status quo. I encourage everyone who is recommending a change like "replace the tree" to be specific about what in the current system is not functional for you. If you're just tired of looking at it, hey, feel free to say that too.
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I just had a brainstorm this morning, expanding on last night's idea of a pseudo-track that was actually a "Pause" command. There should be a bunch of pseudo-track commands. Here's the list I came up with:
Pause
reason: Allows users to program breaks in the music to make announcements, remind them to make a call, etc.
options include:
for duration ___ seconds
until manually restarted
keep at current sequence number of playlist
Pop Up
reason: Allows user to pop up a non modal alert with reminder information from any tag (like lyrics). This would be used in conjunction with a Pause, so your announcement script could be displayed.
options include:
check box list of tags to display, and the ability to reorder the the checked tags
Replace Playing Now
reason: for the guy who has suggested a pair of alternating playlists... when the current playlist is done, it rolls seamlessly to the next.
options include:
with playlist ____
keep at current sequence number of playlist
Jump to
reason: allows users to control some randomness in their playlists
options include:
track sequence number __
random track
keep at current sequence number of playlist
conditionals include:
if [not] [before | after] _:__ [am | pm]
__% of the time
Shuffle Playing Now
reason: Users can put this at the end of a playlist, and set MC to Continuous, so each time through a playlist you get a random order.
options include:
keep at current sequence number of playlist
All these commands should allow all their normal tags to be set, but their icon would distinguish them from regular audio tracks.
Cheers,
Jeff
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DivX 6 is awsome. MC support would be even "awsomer".
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Simple request, make the interface capable of being used on a touchscreen. Think 'left clicks only' and you'll get the idea.
That and simple zone switching from the toolbar.
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1) Album Thumbnail pop up window that lists tracks which can be individually selected for playing now. This feature should pop up when the mouse is single clicked on an album thumbnail. When this happens the pop up should be positioned at one of it’s 4 corners to the mouse pointer. The pop up would go away when either the ‘x’ is clicked to close or any other part of MC is clicked on.
2) Vertical Split Views. The tree view is already implemented with this idea. Now a setting should be added so that either the ‘left ‘or the ‘right’ view can be assigned to anything just like the current horizontal split view works. I imagine seeing the media library on the left split view with the playing now on the right split view. One could then have the album art/visualization displayed at the top right with the playing now below at the same time allowing plenty of room for the media library on the left view.
3) Split views need to allow a locked and unlocked option to each view. Most of the time I would lock the now playing view and then navigate with the other view.
4) I would like a way for ALL library fields to be not editable from the primary interface. The tagging mode instruction dialogue that currently pops up should be applicable to all tagging modes/fields and not just the check boxes. Party mode does not work very well at all for this type of feature. In fact I know it caused irregularities in my library while testing it out. MC is just way too easy to change a field somewhere and not even realize it has. This has happened a few times that I caught and I’m sure a few times I have not. Please add.
5) Speed up Scrolling. MC is the only app I have that lags behind when scrolling. It doesn’t matter whether there are 30 songs or 3,000 songs in the list; the scrolling is extremely choppy and needs to be fixed.
6) Change font sizes without having to go into the options menu. This should be implemented like in an html browser. Ctrl + scroll wheel changes the font size up or down. This should only change the main media library row fonts for both panes and the selection area. No need to change the tree, menu, or display fonts (those don’t show correctly anyways when changed). Additionally the columns expand/contract based upon the font changing so that they don’t cut off. If I am far away form my TV then I can enlarge the font. If I am closer, I can fit more rows on the screen with a smaller font.
7) An option so that anytime focus is lost from MC, it instantly switches to windowed view rather than have to click and unclick every time (to access windowed view). If I click back on MC in the taskbar, it would ‘return to program’.
8) Bring back those Tiny Thumbnails in the media library.
9) Allow a “playing now” variable to be added to smartlists. Any song that is playing could dynamically change a smartlist. i.e. a song with a certain genre and year is playing and a smartlist uses the information from the current song on those 2 fields and is able to filter songs that are within a range of that songs data. I find myself doing this all the time with the panes in media library and would love for MC to be able to do this automatically.
10) Relational database. I imagine seeing an HTML front end like encyclopedia. This could easily be used in the display area of the now playing screen. Users could apply different HTML templates/Style sheets. Imagine being able to see ALL media (docs, photos, audio, and video) for an artist and having a unique link based interface to it!
11) Selecting Panes in any order and not just from left to right as it is right now. Im not sure why this can't be done. I really don't like having to change the order of panes inside the menu system.
12) Adding color shades to each row in the meida library where each shade represents a specific song rating from 1 -5. This would really help in knowing which songs are your best ones. The eye does not have to travel to where ever the rating column is and infact the rating column could be removed to save space for those who have their ratings set for all songs.
13) Dynamic smartlist support for Ipod.
Whew!!!
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Auto Download Lyrics from a Free DB
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Split views are great, but I am annoyed every time I fire up MC and it has forgotten that I want my Audio view scheme in the top pane and the Now Playing view in the bottom pane. MC should remember which set of views had been selected across sessions. Perhaps allowing the user to explicitly set up the default starting views in the Options would be a good if MC can't just remember.
How about 3 Views? I constantly use 3 views. I suggest to add ability to select a Favorite Link (which can contain any Location in the Library) from menus in Options\Startup: Location (Pane 1), Location (Pane 2), Location (Pane 3).
The search bar should be added to Each View separately also for observation purposes.
Move/Copy Fields is nice, but I need new operations to split the contents of one field into 2 or 3 fields, or combine 2 or 3 fields into one. Specifically, I would like to do field "math" functions.
I made a suggestion in some topic to have the availability to Link/Group Fields.
Speed up Scrolling. MC is the only app I have that lags behind when scrolling. It doesn’t matter whether there are 30 songs or 3,000 songs in the list; the scrolling is extremely choppy and needs to be fixed.
The "Tag Info" List with 20-30 fields in groups General/Extended: currently I have to wait 1-5 seconds after expanding/collapsing these groups. It's too slow.
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Second that!
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Sorting preference requests:
1. a drop down "Current View" button that has a list of your sorting preferences so that you can more quickly and easily change the order of albums shown in the list.
2.I want to see what kind of sorting is being applied all the time. (maybe some semi transparent always visible label at the top of the list, or at the head of the before mentioned drop down list).
And I'd like to see some more work done on the cover art features.
1. A "loose" setting for matching cover art already in the cover art dir. with files in the library.
2. Ability to rename all pics in the cover art dir. to match those of the files (for when filenames etc. get changed over time).
3. When burning a Cd or DVD, or even just copying files to another hard drive: the ability to copy just the pics for selected files to the said media.
4. more intelligence when it tries to get the art from the net. ability to remove special characters, "the", "disc 1", etc.
:) :) :)
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There is an inconsistency for multi-artist albums in MC. I originally used a Multiple Artists folder and then when using the library command Rename Files from Properties, saw there was an option for "Use 'Assorted' for [Artist] on multi-artist albums". Hmmm, if that's what MC likes, I'll change to use Assorted. However, there are still times when MC uses (Multiple Artists) like on ripping and saving cover art images.
It would be nice to have an option, probably in the File Locations dialog, for what to use for multi-artist songs that the user could enter: (Multiple Artists), Assorted, Various Artists, etc.
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I third the Undo "feature".
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I would like to see a better lyrics editor. Right now I use KingSparta's Lyrics Finder to build my lyrics but sometimes it can't find them or there may be some changes needed. You can only get to edit the lyrics via the Tag Info and then click the Edit button in the Lyrics line. If you have a number of lyrics to look at and/or change, it's a cumbersome process.
If editing in the Tag Info window you can press PgDn to go to the next file in the list without having to go over to the list and click on the next file. A similar thing in the Lyrics editor window would be one way to make the lyrics editing easier.
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Hi
I suggest the possibility to translate all the texts, labels, prompts, etc to other languages, and simplify de translate option or give us the language option when MC wass installing.
Tks
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I'd simply like to have an option in view schemes so it does NOT reset all panes to the right of the one last clicked.
If I want to reset the pane I can do it by clicking the All option myself or reclicking on the view scheme in the tree to do a reset of all panes.
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I would like to see an optional resident stub that would speed the load of MC. I'd give up a few bytes of ram to have a snappier load.
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How about merging "edit viewscheme" and "customize current view" into one window called "Customize current view", with perhaps 2 tabs, and put a button for it somewhere on the main interface so that anyobody can find it.
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Also, when in tagging mode, and i tick a box, it should cause a library refresh after it has finished saving to the tags. I shouldnt have to do it manually each time to see my changes.
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The number one thing I'd like to see in 12 is a mode that will allow MC to run 2 playing nows, essentially for use at parties.
When you add tracks to the second playing now list they play when the currently playing track is finished. If the second playing now list is empty MC reverts back to the first list and continues until something is added to the second list. This will allow you to play your selected playlist but still allow others to add tracks in between adhoc. The current method of using 'Add as next to play' doesn't really work for this as the last one to be added always jumps to the top of the queue so the requests are not played in the order they were selected.
I like this idea. The second playing now should simply be a smartlist that could either reference another playlist of individual songs or apply certain rules such as last played and ratings.
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Advanced Tagging Mode = Accumulative Batch Tagging = the ability to make a number of changes to various tag fields on the same selection of file as a 'batch' THEN all saved at once when through.
Yes I know it was made to be safe for general users, but more advanced users may prefer power and speed to safety.
This would definately be appreciated!!
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I would like too see an option that tells MC which field to use to group files for the "list style: album thumnbails" feature.
For example, I would want it to use my own field "photo album" for images, and for video, maybe I would use "director".
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i would like to see an option for customize preview mode. i may be enable to customize how much time i wanna preview (suppose 1 min 1.30 min etc).
i also wanna see the option for controlling volume in theater mode
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I would definatelly love to see MC in "Mixing mode" with two decks, pitch control, support for two sound cards (one for playing and other for headphones) and a simple mixer style... so I eventually get rid of traktor
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Hi , I approve Glynor's requests!!!!
Here's my request:
what about an big impovement of the "client/server" ,allowing a direct access and no limitations to clients ?
for example:
- creating acounts and define limitations
- sharing clients over the web
- intranets clients allowed to externally locate the file from a client server (opening with windows explorer)
- alowing to use "send to", "mail", etc....
- modidy fields
- convert
- brun CD & DVD
dear developpers , is the fix already plannedf? It could be so usefull!!!
thanx for all
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[snipped improvements for htpc frontend]
Reading through the forums, [Theater View improvements do] not seem to be very high on the list of improvements most people would like to see in MC12. I am not sure how many people are using MC for an HTPC frontend, but in my opinon the only thing the other programs have over MC is the interface. What MC has under the hood though is just leaps and bounds better then anyone else. It seems like a market MC could really make a big impact in.
I hope some focus can be put on this, but even if that is not the direction where JRiver is heading , I am sure I will still be using Media Center for a long time for all it's other great abilities.
Agree.
I started using MJ8 because of the superior tagging and organization features compared to other mp3 players. I was pleased to see that MC10/11 introduced HTPC features. The HTPC frontend, however, could need some fixing up, as Temeryx points out.
Here are my suggestions:
o One click navigation in the menus (right arrow opens a sub menu, then you must press enter). I find this extremely irritating, especially when you have a rather deep tree structure... This of course holds only when you have changed views away from thumbs.
o The HTPC frontend seems so be oriented towards mouse as opposed to keyboards (or media pads).
o When playing DVDs in full screen, where is the DVD menu? I.e. subtitles which can be found by right clicking in the view in PowerDvd.
o When watching fullscreen TV, I would like to see more of the functionality as buttons (timeshift++)
Most of these are minor issues, but I have on several occasions had to play DVDs in other apps so that i could change options...
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Direct support of the SnapStream Firefly remote control. With that, I would be a really happy guy!
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MJ 9 allowed you to open the Playing Now as a separate window . I want that feature back. Just a small window open of my playing now list is perfecto for me.
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I just started using gloonet to stream songs from my PC to my Treo (Palm smartphone). It also allows me to access all the photos on my PC using just a browser on my Treo. Very cool app! It installs on the PC and works with a central server. Nothing gets installed on the Treo itself.
I'd strongly prefer using MC to do this. Just get rid of the requirement of having an MC installed at the client. This would fit nicely into MC's all media/all devices vision.
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Hi
I suggest the possibility to translate all the texts, labels, prompts, etc to other languages, and simplify de translate option or give us the language option when MC wass installing.
Tks
I agree! According to a basic commercial logic: more MediaCenter will be available in many languages, more the users will be numerous. It is really important. ::)
The currently available method (for the translations) is antiquated
(or almost). :o
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All I want is an AAC encoder so I don't have to use iTunes to import discs anymore, and support for Protected RealAudio 10 (.rax) files.
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I figure now is the time since JRiver is probably whiteboarding it. Please add some of these ideas to that board.
* Album Thumbnail pop up window (media library) that lists tracks which can be selected for playing now. This feature should pop up (over the selection) like the old action window did when the mouse is single clicked on the thumbnail. The pop up would go away when the mouse moves off the pop up.
* Add Vertical Split Views.
* Add a locked split view option. Most of the time I would lock the now playing view and then navigate with the other view. I don’t want to worry about what view currently has focus.
* Speed up Scrolling in column views. It should scroll like the tree view does. MC is the only app I have that lags behind when scrolling.
* Add a dynamic ‘switch track’ playback option. When playing albums I prefer gapless and when playing a mix I prefer a cross fade of 5 seconds. MC is smart enough to know the difference between an album and a mix so this should be possible (make it customizable).
* Assign a font size for each view scheme. Less panes larger fonts vs. more panes smaller fonts. These 2 schemes ‘would’ be useful depending upon how far you are from the T.V. if this were implemented. Right now you have to switch fonts in the option’s menu system.
* Add option for ALL library fields to not be editable from the primary interface. The ‘tagging mode instructions’ dialogue that currently pops up should be applicable to all tagging modes/fields and not just the check boxes. There also needs to be a way to switch back to non tagging mode without having to restart MC as it currently is now. MC is just way too easy to change a field somewhere and not even realize it has. Please add.
* Select Panes in any order, not just from left to right as it is right now. Normally I have the year pane before the artist. It would be cool if I could select some artists and the year pane only showed those artist years. As of now I would have to right click – edit view scheme and change the order. This is very annoying since I would then have to change it back afterwards.
* Top display area should be able to minimize to the size of the bottom tool bar which could save about 10% screen real estate to allow for greater viewing areas. The minimized view could still have all of the primary features just not a giant display area. This is important when having a high def wide screen T.V. since most are only 768 pixels high thus the ‘display’ area shows up really large and is unnecessary.
* Design a second ‘playing now queue’ with smartlist capabilities that is started after the normal “playing now’ is done and is NOT on repeat. A really cool feature could be the last played song in the first playing now causes random songs by that artist or year to be played.
* Add dynamic playlists on the iPod.
* Ability to use the MC interface to wirelessly stream music to a media receiver. Right now you can only use the receiver’s interface which is cumbersome.
* Bring back those Tiny Thumbnails in the Media Library.
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* Revisit tagging with an eye towards using standard fields where they exist.
* Disable double click editing of fields in Playng Now. Have a tagging mode.
* Finish/extend CUE support.
* Extend APL functionality to all formats.
* Rework Menus- Library functions, for example are under Tools and File
* Add MSN "What I'm Listening To' ability (I know a plugin is available)
* Add the functions of the most popular plugins natively. Orphans are bad...
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* Support multiple names for Artist and Composer fields in WMA. (Actually, any field that supports it.) Even though I have everything tagged with multiple names, I can't see anything but the first artist or composer in MC 11. :( I can't even see them to move them to a custom field.
* "Use MP3 ID3v2 TPE2 as Artist Album" for compatibility with Microsoft media product behavior and ID3v2 tag tools. This can be optional. (Current MC Album Artist is stored as a special proprietary comment for MP3 files and can't be seen by anything but MC.)
* Support for multiple names in standard Composer & Artist fields in MP3 ID3v2, too. Right now I see it as one big text item. The ID3v2 standard allows for multiple names in text tags stored with "/" as a delimeter. See http://www.id3.org/id3v2.3.0.html#TCOM I know I can add custom fields to do something similar, but why add more when it can be standard? This can be optional, too.
* More use of other standard MP3 ID3v2 tags whenever possible!
* Make it easy for WMP 10 users to get everything they had and more in Media Center.
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Few simple ones:
- deselect-possibility when ripping a c.d. (default is now that all is selected - if you want just one track to be ripped you've got to manually deselect all the others)
- 'next'-button in data-cd-burning mode better visible for all screen resolutions
- more burning-possibilities (copy CD for instance)
- hotkeys for backing up (Ctrl-B)
- more logical way to import a playlist (only way I know how to do it is by rightclicking a playlist in Microsoft's Explorer...)
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I'd really like to see MC access Rhapsody as a "virtual metadata" repository. I like to be able to use MC to access my Rhapsody streams via the Rhapsody UPNP interface and combine it w/ my MC native music to have a single application to get all my music. I would expect MC to handle all the tagging and just use Rhapsody to play the streams.
At least Rhapsody can combine everything into a single view, although everything else about it is terrible.
The feature request should really allow MC to access any UPNP server(s) and combine them into a single view.
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How about the ability to treat portable hd's like an ipod, so that you can synch last played and no of plays data (from the portable hd) to your main drive at the end of a long hard day.
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I would like another set of 3 rateable stars, next to the word genre. So that we can rate tracks for that particular genre.
For MC to recognize multiple cover art that is located inside the albums folder. For example if I have the album/cover art files
Colette - Hypnotized - Front
Colette - Hypnotized - Back
Could MC import/attach the front cover to even tracks and back cover to odd tracks
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I notice that MC 11 does not register itself completely in regards to the "Set Program Access and Defaults" menu in Windows XP. This option can be found under "Start Menu/Set Program Access and Defaults" with Windows XP SP1 and higher. The purpose of this option is to be able to replace the default middleware app, such as Microsoft's Media Player, with an alternate third party middleware app, such as J River Media Center. On my system, I notice that Quicktime and iTunes, both support this option, while MC does not.
Here is a link in MSDN on how to properly register MC - Registering Programs with Client Types (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/programmersguide/shell_adv/registeringapps.asp). See the section titled - Registering Installation Information.
Thanks, Chris
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Quick and simple, can you change the date format to yyyy-mm-dd? It saves me bags of time trying to find the most recent one.
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Quick and simple, can you change the date format to yyyy-mm-dd? It saves me bags of time trying to find the most recent one.
By which you mean the date format for Library Backup file-naming, right? ;)
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* More work around photo usability...
* photo tags saved to IPTC and Adobe XMP tagging formats
[EDIT: link to another thread on XMP format: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=29031.0 ]
* ability to suppress existing JRiver tags to jpegs (as long as it can be written to IPTC/XMP format)
* full editing of IPTC data in photos
* thumbnail view size changeable with slider bar
* seperate "Rename from properties" settings for images vs. audio files
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By which you mean the date format for Library Backup file-naming, right? ;)
Yes, that's what I mean.
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Support for iPod color/photo
And better gain control.
When i connect my iPod i want this to happen:
Start MC(if not already running)-Connect-AutoSync-Diconnect iPod.
Theater view is kind of useless as a HTPC frontend in my opinion. At least put the library browser in there, too hard to browse the library with the current Theather view. Maybe it would be better to let some other frontend like Mediaportal (or windows MCE ;)) use MC as a engine or connect to a MC media server. Maybe JRiver should develop this as a separate app/frontend that connects to a MC server(Port this to windows mobile or linux and we could have MC on phones or (cheap)powerful media recivers)?
Improved handling of photos.
More user control over the layout of MC (add,remove,rearrange and customize tree, panes and right click menu. More buttons in toolbars(sync/disconnect iPod))
I wish J.river or someone else could provide a similar service to Audioscrobbler for MC that worked directly with the MC database, kind of like the MCXMLExport/Xalbum plugin on stereoids. A browsable library that updates with playcounts and playtimes, and also have a frontend kind of like AS but more configurable. It would also be cool for those who write blogs to have all the tracks played every day written in their blog/calendar.
I belive this could be useful for video as well. Coupled with a Imdb tagger for video. videoscrobbler ? (My girfriend prefers light romatic comedys, and she watches them over and over again. So my profile would look kind of gay, "not that its anything wrong with that"(Seinfeld))
Putting all this together with picture/thumbnail hosting of my photos could put MC miles ahead of the competition.
(Those features would require some web hosting, but some advertising might bring the costs down? I would not mind paying for extra for this)
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I second risingdamp's request. (See quotes below). It is the same request I've made in version 10 & 11.
I have to throw in my support on some version of this as well. The "first-queued, first-played" style of now-playing ordering would be extremely useful for those of us who use MC to DJ. I personally wouldn't want it to be complicated at all (I'm not so sure about the 2 playing now list thing). Instead, it would be more useful if the "Add to Playing Now" functionality could be modified a slight bit (or maybe a new option under Send to --> Play).
As it is, if I double click on a list of files it begins playing the list in order (as it should). If I then select a file and choose Add to Playing Now it goes to the very end of the list. What I'd like is for it to put the song just under the currently playing track if all the others in the list were auto-queued at the beginning of playback (similar to Add as Next to Play). If some files were manually added previously (by adding them using any of the Send to --> Play options) then the new file should be queued just under them. Maybe you could call it "Send to Playing Now (Smart-Queue)"
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Some work with the Convert Formats...
I Use 3 formats,
Ape, Library
mp3 160 -IPod
wma 69 - Work
I rip cd to ape, then use the convert twice to get the other formats.
Would be good to be able to set it up to do more then 1 format at a time....
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It would be great if they could make it work with PFS services like Yahoo Unlimited and Napster To Go for handhelds.
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* Select Panes in any order, not just from left to right as it is right now. Normally I have the year pane before the artist. It would be cool if I could select some artists and the year pane only showed those artist years. As of now I would have to right click – edit view scheme and change the order. This is very annoying since I would then have to change it back afterwards.
* Add dynamic playlists on the iPod.
Amen!
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True iPod support (Now all ‘grown up’ models have color screen and thus photo support)
Support for iPod shuffle
Album View (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=28958.msg191772#msg191772)
A build-in beer-cooler plugin... IMO you don’t have to add support for Budweiser, but Carlsberg is a must!
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I would like the possibility to run two instances of MC at the same time, addressing two different soundcards. This would be great for DJ:ing, allowing me to use one card for the speakers and one for the headphones (e.g. for proof-of-concept listening of the next few tracks).
It would be even better if the two instances could use different skins so I can see which is which.
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I would love to see mobile dj functions in this software its so good and if you had better dj functions im sure many digital dj's would come your way.
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I'd like a new smartlist tool that could be added onto the current duplicates command. I want to be able to exclude the duplicates of songs that have been played within, say a week or so and the time could be adjusted. Currently, I haven't figured out how to do the math on that myself with what's already available. You could call it "duplicates of songs last played." It would have the drop down menu for include/exclude, a field for duplicate type ([name],[artist] OR [name],[composer] is what I use) and there would be another field you could enter the amount of minutes like all the other time-based smartlist commands. This would be useful to me because I tend to synchronize every day to keep a fresh playlist and the next day I would hear a different version of a song I just heard the day before.
Also, maybe there could be a checkbox for a duplicate priority to play the duplicates with the lowest playcount first.
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Drag and Drop in the tree like it was in MC 10. It was faster than win explorer.
The visual cue (red bar in the thunderbird skin) in the tree made it very easy to know where the target is. In MC 11 it's (that red bar) not there and if you scroll beyond the viewable area, scroll bar and display are not in sync.
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Bring back the WINAMP PLUGIN support. I've asked about why this stopped and if it's coming back several times in the plugin section and have never gotten any kind of official answer regarding the status of this. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could address this issue.
Chris
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Support for XSPF ("spiff") - XML Shareable Playlist format. This is for sharing PLAYLISTS, not the music itself.
See http://xspf.org/
Here is a post from one of the creators of the format:
http://www.gonze.com/weblog/story/9-2-5#9-2-5
and here is a blog post for background if interested from Marc Canter (original founder of Macromedia I think):
http://marc.blogs.it/archives/2005/09/xspf_phase_ii.html
It would allow exchanging between people of playlists, posting to websites or blogs, "whats playing now" type lists, future uses of matching users based on similar playlists. This is an open implementation of iTunes online list features.
Again, this is not music sharing, but list sharing. I think this could really make MC a tool more integrated with the greater environment of all the music and social tools out there. Some sort of linkage to flickr or del.ico.us type sites.
EDIT: a bit more on this. Yahoo Music Engine has the best implementation of this so far. People can share playlists as XSPF links. If now I could read XSPF with MC, I could then play that play list and any songs in my library would fill in. Any songs NOT in my library I would get an option to BUY from my default music shopping service (be it iTunes, Yahoo, Napster or whatever). This assumes that those services support XSPF too which is a big assumption). But I think MC shoudl add momentum to this movement.
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- Resume
- Command for Start TV --> "Media Editor.exe -TV" for example
- Click in Full Screen View --> Pause
- in Handheld Player , button for Examinate Folder and Files directly
- TV teletext , Tv Order for Number
- Pad or joystick control media center :D
- change key shortcurts
sorry for my english , and Thx for this amazing program
I have the same english, sorry !
I hope, for me, MC with :
- all formats audio (acc, accPLUS, ....) and all formats video
- linguage packs (french, spanish, german, ...)
Thanks.
Merci !
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1. Native support for FLAC (yeah, yeah, I've said it before).
2. Internet radio needs an overhaul.
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I would also like to second imjustagamer's thought. It would be great if MC could perform multiple encodes of various formats at once if requested by user. If you rip your CD and want an Archival copy in APE or FLAC but at the same time you want a copy in MP3 for your portable device and an MPC copy for your computer it could do all three one after another without multiple conversions. There is a command line type program that works with various rippers out there like EAC or CDEX called MAREO that does just this.
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idem for YADB and CDDB .... or other database !
.... and MC11, MC12 must import correctly the files *.m3u, *.pls ! (Itunes, Foobar, Vuplayer, Core media Player, Media Player Classic, Media Player Creativesources Appollo, DpowerAmp, RealPlayer... do that without problem !)
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Relational database
Artist and Album info should be stored in separate relational tables. When changing Artist or Album info, those would propagate on all track by that artist or in that album.
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Relational database
Artist and Album info should be stored in separate relational tables. When changing Artist or Album info, those would propagate on all track by that artist or in that album.
I second this! A big plus would be to finally have charts over your music like in the real world, instead of the now very limited "number of plays" and "Last played" fields.
Then you could view dynamic charts like:
top nn each week/month/year/custom date
The current system only allows you to see when a song was last played because of the non-relational db.
It would be like an offline last.fm experience with more functionality!
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I second this! A big plus would be to finally have charts over your music like in the real world, instead of the now very limited "number of plays" and "Last played" fields.
Then you could view dynamic charts like:
top nn each week/month/year/custom date
The current system only allows you to see when a song was last played because of the non-relational db.
It would be like an offline last.fm experience with more functionality!
Yes please!
This would be great and might actually atract som new users.
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I second this! A big plus would be to finally have charts over your music like in the real world, instead of the now very limited "number of plays" and "Last played" fields.
Then you could view dynamic charts like:
top nn each week/month/year/custom date
The current system only allows you to see when a song was last played because of the non-relational db.
It would be like an offline last.fm experience with more functionality!
Then again who's really offline these days? Don't have broadband? Get it!
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One of the best features that I could find in the new version of MC is bidirectional syncronization with portable devices, I have a Rio Karma but I'm planning to move to another one such as Creative Labs Zen.
I do not like the Music Manager provided by Rio, it does not have all the coolest things of MC
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Then again who's really offline these days? Don't have broadband? Get it!
Well...since JRiver doesn't have an user database for storing such things, it really doesn't matter if you're online or not :) Besides, it's cooler to have the stats/lists within MC than on a sluggish web page like last.fm...not that I don't like it, it's fabulous!
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I agree that they should have a relational database and Im sure that will come in the next few versions.
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A big plus would be to finally have charts over your music like in the real world, instead of the now very limited "number of plays" and "Last played" fields.
Then you could view dynamic charts like:
top nn each week/month/year/custom date
The current system only allows you to see when a song was last played because of the non-relational db.
It would be like an offline last.fm experience with more functionality!
I like the idea and would like to extend it so i can have my own charts drawn giving user specific data. Its getting tedious to explort library, then do this in excel :(
examples like % in time of music from different genres as a whole.
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Important things to change:
1. better design, maxi and especially mini view (did not change since MJ7!!)
2. better plugin / skin integration. Like a list of plugins from the start page that install / uninstall easily. Not external exe files and forum search...
3. web media... radio and stuff. Did not change since MJ7...
4. Integration of lyrics and image finder within MC12 ;-)
And for jriver marcom dept generally: IMHO you should really clean up and update your websites, they are a bit messy (MC, MJ, JRiver etc), and change your branding... media center is really a too general term (and the name of a windows edition...).
In short, MC is still the best player ever, but needs some basic brainstorming on it's very roots I think.
And of course I can't wait to test the next builds 8)
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I have collected a series of ideas for MC12, I wrote them down and posted them all together in this forum, in a few consecutive posts. This forum is made for discussion, and only a few ideas at a time are dealt with. People only read the last messages in a thread. I think have made a mistake posting them all together. I am going to delete all the previous posts and resubmit them one at a time, with some days between them, allowing some discussion on each one.
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Audio analysis plug-in architecture
An API could be created in order to write plug-ins that analyze a sample stream and calculate advanced audio analysis parameters.
The sample stream to be analyzed could be Y-split into multiple paths and sent to different analysis modules, that the user would activate and deactivate at will. The average user would choose just to analyze the standard parameters (reply gain, peak level, intensity, BPM), and this would be the default choice. The advanced user would choose additional (installable) analysis modules, that would populate additional database fields (and consume more CPU power).
The audio analysis modules could also extract a waveform profile (like a .pk file in CoolEdit/Adobe Audition) and beat markers. This way, beat markers won’t need to be extracted in real-time during playback, and they would then be editable in Media Editor.
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My biggest wants:
- Direct support for WASAPI in Vista, should work like ASIO and allow me to specify directly what channels on the hardware get the audio, and achieve low latency. This will eliminate the need for ASIO4ALL as many people are using now, which has its own issues.
- 64 bit native build for win2k3/xp/Vista. Let's get out of WOW64 and back into a more predictable CPU schedule.
- Method to decouple browsing/searching from playback! In iTunes, there's a mode where it randomly plays tracks, and you can modify that playlist (such as "Playing Now" in MC). So, I'm playing, then I start browsing, and want to queue up a track to play next. If I double-click, it starts randomly playing based on what's on the screen. I would like to be able to change the default to have double-click send to the next spot on Playing Now, so I can continue browsing and queueing, but if I don't queue enough, it goes back into random from my entire collection.
- Offline library sync'ing. I primarily rip at home, listen at work, and carry files back and forth on an external drive. To preserve playlists and get faster browsing, I am adding the files on the external drive to the library on the work PC, rather than using it as a "portable" device and waiting for a few minutes to read all the tags. I'd like a more reliable method of syncing the two libraries, and files, even if its one-way.
- Multithreaded ripping / burning. If I have multiple drives, I should be able to do X burns and Y rips simultaneously
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since i went wireless, i've been forced (not really!) to use itunes to make use of the airport express i got to plug into my stereo. whilst the airport is excellent, itunes is simply pants compared to media center, so please, please, please make mc12 able to use the airport express, so i can remove itunes from my pc!
i see that Jon Lech Johansen has written some app to allow mpeg4 files to be streamed to the airport (http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/5481.cfm). i hope his start can be media center's grand finalle!
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I'm sure that MC 12 will bring us many features that are going to surprise me and make me happy. But there is only one, really just one real wish. I posted it a few times and I'm going to repeat it now:
a) MC should stop writing the name of it and the version number in the tagframe
b)In case of ID3v2 there should be a small field where i can define in wich frame a value should be placed when i create a new field. For example: TSST for "set subtitle", TDRL for "release time". In short: full support of ID3v2 standard ( www.id3.org )
c)Apetag support for MP3 files.
That's all! There is nothing more i wish! I would even pay price that is three times higher than now. ;D
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Hi everybody!!
Is it possible, or does exist? to add a pitch slide bar to change the speed of the songs, and possible to save the speed of each song you select separate from the rest.
?
Also in the library browser(i like it so much) when you mouse over the artist cover art and start changing album covers, the particular album you want is the one that will play when you select play, and to show the album name next to the artist name when the cover art album is changing!!
MC is the best!!
thnx
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Beat/measure/section markers and measure:beat time display
Media Editor could be used to edit marker positions, tag them also as measure or section markers and, when needed, run beat detection again.
When beat detection and measure detection has been completed, the playback engine could use that data in order to synchronize lyrics and chord display.
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I heavily use the server feature and would like to see some improvements:
- ability to update library from client (mentioned a million times, but for a reason)
- ability to burn cd's, dvd's and sync ipod from client
Besides that, I would like to have a default type of rating field (1-5) that has the stars in the display like the normal rating. I have requested this several times and honestly don't know why its so hard. I have a rating field for the album, for my wife's song rating and my wife's album ratings, and they are all just 1-5.
Finally, i'd like to see the ability to transfer an actual smartplaylist to the ipod, like itunes will do.
Thanks
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Synchronized lyrics and chord display
When the beat/measure/section markers are defined in an audio file, lyrics and chords would automagically be in sync with audio. Think about Text and Lyrics events in MIDI files. A single lyrics event for each lyrics line would be enough. There is no need of a lyrics event for each note (this would be oriented towards karaoke).
This is an idea for a new format that integrates audio with song structure information and lyrics/chord information. There could even be a consumer-oriented marked for such additional information. And music producers could provide their records with beat/measure/section and lyrics/chord information in them as a bonus.
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I second this! A big plus would be to finally have charts over your music like in the real world, instead of the now very limited "number of plays" and "Last played" fields.
Then you could view dynamic charts like:
top nn each week/month/year/custom date
The current system only allows you to see when a song was last played because of the non-relational db.
It would be like an offline last.fm experience with more functionality!
Did I mention that if JRiver implements a relational DB, you could have a similar feature like in WMP that let you use songs played at different hours and weekdays. For instance, you could select songs played by night, Monday mornings and Finally Friday. Awsome!
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Visualizations
JR could add some technical-oriented visualizations, that can be activated simultaneously. They are not intended to replace or integrate standard visualizations, that remain for pure aesthetic pleasure and entertainment purposes.
- Oscilloscope, with amplitude scale that can be labelled in dB, percent, sample value
- Spectrum Analyzer, with log or linear frequency scale and amplitude scale in dB
- The log scale spectrum analyzer could have a musical keyboard under the frequency scale, with pitches aligned to the correct frequency. The highest energy peaks could brighten the corresponding keyboard key and display its name.
There are two products that suggested me this visualization: Transcribe! http://www.seventhstring.com/, a tool that helps people transcribing the musical score to an audio track, and MuseOn http://dbhovel.com/Extras/MuseOn.aspx, a plug-in for Windows Media Player (only) that does (approximate) note and chord detection in real time
- Output level meter, that can respond as a VU meter, PPM, K-System/RMS (see http://www.digido.com/portal/pmodule_id=11/pmdmode=fullscreen/pageadder_page_id=59 (http://www.digido.com/portal/pmodule_id=11/pmdmode=fullscreen/pageadder_page_id=59) on the Digital Domain site for a discussion of K-System)
- The output level meter could display the average track level (reply gain) and peak level on its side, when the audio track has these audio analysis information already calculated
- The output level meter could become red when a “digital over” is detected, that is, an arbitrary number of consecutive samples with maximum amplitude is reproduced; the user would have to click on the red lights to reset them
- Optionally the output level meter can show the output dB SPL level from the speaker system (it is dependent from the analog knob positions on the amplifier and requires human calibration). One could add “presets” that remind the user of the position of the knobs used (classical music, pop music, reference, etc…)
- A blinking light in sync with beat markers, that would blink in a different colour when the measure changes
- DJ-oriented scrolling waveform display with beat markers highlighted. The scrolling waveform visualization should not draw by directly sending a long sequence of dot coordinates to the GUI, but should prepare a bitmap image in background and refresh that image to the screen, in order to have a smoother scroll effect. I guess that using DirectX would make the display even smoother.
- Scrolling spectrogram
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(echoing some previous wishes...)
1. Built-in support for ripped DVDs stored and played off the hard disk. I'd be nice to have these natively displayed/managed/etc. as DVDs not VOB files.
2. A first class TV experience like a MythTV or MS MCE. Especially for a TV guide like feature. Even keep the TV as is and build a native guide, recorder and schedule. That Pig plug-in is just that.
3. iPod Shuffle support
4. Non-MC-specific streaming server and client. Meaning I could listen to my MC12 collection via Rhythmbox on Linux without mounting a share and importing my library again into another app.
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Multiple simultaneous encodings and management of multiple versions of the same file
The user could encode different version of the same file at the same time: one lossless copy for computer use, one lossy copy for quick transfer to portable players. Logically, they all would be a single item. When changing tags on one file, they would change on all associated files.
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I would like an easy way to see my top artist/song/album charts without having to use an external program.
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Here's what I'd Like To See in MC12:
MC to be able to rip DVD's Like You can With CD's
In video library, it would be nice to be able to see a movies cover art, click on it and be able to see a synopsis, & cast info.
A cast info field.
MC to allow some sort of tagging, or file association for video files so that when streamed on the server, clients can view the cover art, notes and artist (i use this field for cast info)
Better more accurate importing of video files.
When converting files, Mc dosen't currently delete the old file. it should or atl least ther should be that option.
Faster Ripping & encoding.
More functionality for Clients using the Media Server. being able to burn cd's, sync portable players, and Edit playlists (The new edited playlist should only be saved on the client it was made on, the playlist on the server stays as is, unless new playlist is exported to it)
Have a way to export MP3's to portable players at the same volume.
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QUOTE
Theater view is kind of useless as a HTPC frontend in my opinion. At least put the library browser in there, too hard to browse the library with the current Theather view. Maybe it would be better to let some other frontend like Mediaportal (or windows MCE ) use MC as a engine or connect to a MC media server. Maybe JRiver should develop this as a separate app/frontend that connects to a MC server(Port this to windows mobile or linux and we could have MC on phones or (cheap)powerful media recivers)?
UNQUOTE
I can only second what runemail said quite a while ago. Theaterview is falling miles behind other front ends and this is becoming a serious shortfall of MC11 because its not really great to use as a frontend on a large plasma in the living room and do all your media browsing/search with remote control from the sofa.
b
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Enhanced Notes and Lyrics editing
Notes and Lyrics should be editable in a real text editor, not in an almost unusable tiny text field.
Lyrics display could be in sync with audio (when the beat/measure/section metadata structure has been extracted), with each lyrics line being associated to a certain beat.
Chord display could be in sync with audio as well.
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Notes and Lyrics should be editable in a real text editor, not in an almost unusable tiny text field.
Hear, hear!
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Here goes with the wish list.
There is a market out there for a good solid device independant media server.
the UPnP server should be developed further.
1) Run as a service.
2) Support multiple device profiles with specific filters ie music to music only media adaptors.
3) Provide a collection container to serve a sequence of file as a single stream as per the Phillips and Pinnacle servers, a bit like an auto playlist i guess.
4) Provide parental controls and access via the UPnP server based on MC meta data setup.
5) Stability and performance enhancements.
The Media Centre should in my view..
1) Include a UPnP AV control point to access other servers.
2) Include a UPnP AV Renderer to play content from UPNP media server.
3) Improve the meta data editor to make it easier for dunces like me to build catalogs and views of video collections.
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I heavily use the server feature and would like to see some improvements:
- ability to update library from client (mentioned a million times, but for a reason)
- ability to burn cd's, dvd's and sync ipod from client
Ditto (but substitute generic handheld where the word ipod appears).
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Better DirectX plug-in support
Support for DirectX visualization plug-ins, with a faster refresh rate. DirectX visualizations are currently unusable.
DXi instruments should not be initialized (only DX effects), as they make the start-up of Media Center awfully slow.
(Actually that was an MC10 behaviour, I haven’t tried that in MC11 yet)
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Please add vertical split views like this:
(http://myspace-191.vo.llnwd.net/00269/19/16/269756191_l.jpg)
The benefits are obvious (you would think).
Would this be difficult to implement (it would be worth it either way ;))?
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Have we talked about wizards yet? Well... I've always thought MC could (and should) be more user friendly.
For example: Earlier today, I bought a new harddrive where I wanted all my media stored, instead of scattered all over three different discs (the files are building up serious storage space real quick these days).
So as an experienced MC user, I used find/replace on filename path to change the location of my files. But after doing this for the fourth time, I'm still nervous about doing this the wrong way.
Wouldn't it be better if I could use a wizard for this operation, perhaps found in a place called "Manage library"?
Step 1: Select files or old location
Step 2: Select new location
Step 3: Preview result
Step 4: Execute operation
Since it might get complicated with peoples different personal preferences, Step 1 and 2 could implement some easy-to-use mini-wizard for building the paths, like the rules in "Rename from tags".
Well, just ranting, hopefully something good came out :)
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Marty3d-
Highlite the files you want then right click >> library tools >> rename file from properties.
From there just change the base path and you are good to go. Back up your library before, just in case.
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DJ features
Two completely independent playback engines (A/B), with pitch change and beat sync (using previously extracted beat markers metadata), with separate outputs, mixed output with A/B fader, and phones output. An analog DJ would do everything with just two turntables. A digital DJ would add a third, simpler, playback engine, with its output routed just to phones, to preview tracks to be loaded in the standard engines.
Tracks in a playlist would be alternatively played by playback engines A and B.
A-B looping. Loop points can be set on the fly or stored as meta-tags (metadata).
Thanks to its superior library organization capabilities, Media Center would become the ultimate DJ tool.
DJ features would be disabled by default, and the user would see one standard playback engine, without looping and pitch change functions. DJ features would be enabled only by advanced users needing them.
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My short wish list.
1. Add a "Add to playing now" option to the CD insert pop up window. Without this option it's sort of a 'now or never' world. I like later sometimes.
2. Give us the option to add a Library Browser button to the toolbar. I use the browser much more than the actual media library and would love a one-click button to access it.
3. Some sort of pop-up tool tip in the library browser that would have more information on what is in that genre, artist, etc. I would especially love this in the album listings. Most of my music is classical with such illuminating album titles as "Symphony No. 5" with no idea if that's by Beethoven or Shostakovich, or... If I add the composer to the album title then all I see is the composer's name with perhaps three other letters. Album art often isn't all that illuminting to me.
I'm thinking that in Genre the pop-up could list artists or albums. Under artists you could pop-up a list of available albums while albums could pop-up the artist name and a list of file.s
If these ideas have been mentioned before, forgive me. If it can already be done, let me know how.
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Meta-tagging
Meta-tags (or meta-data, information about data) really seem the next step in A/V systems, both professional (BWF, OMFI) and end-user (MPEG-7).
Support could be added in MC for meta-tags, that are associated to a specific position in and audio file. In addition to beat/measure/section, meta-tags could indicate an emotionally intense passage, the use of a certain arrangement, the resemblance to another audio track and so on. Meta-tags could link to other meta-tags, and the user should be able to quickly navigate between meta-tags.
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Meta-tagging
Meta-tags (or meta-data, information about data) really seem the next step in A/V systems, both professional (BWF, OMFI) and end-user (MPEG-7).
Support could be added in MC for meta-tags, that are associated to a specific position in and audio file. In addition to beat/measure/section, meta-tags could indicate an emotionally intense passage, the use of a certain arrangement, the resemblance to another audio track and so on. Meta-tags could link to other meta-tags, and the user should be able to quickly navigate between meta-tags.
This is kind of confusing and seems like several different requests. What do you mean by "Meta-tags could link to other meta-tags, and the user should be able to quickly navigate between meta-tags."?
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I'd like to see the tree replaced with something else... Tabs maybe?
The tree design just seems outdated compared to the rest of MC.
Yes. Please get rid of that facacta tree. That's one of the main reasons I don't use Windows Media Player. I like the flat design of iTunes better, even with the nested playlists.
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This is kind of confusing and seems like several different requests. What do you mean by "Meta-tags could link to other meta-tags, and the user should be able to quickly navigate between meta-tags."?
Yes, I actually wrote the post about meta-data in several sections at different times, so it may be somewhat confusing. I think it deservers some more explanation.
First of all: what is meta-data? It is "information about data". For audio: song sections (verse/chorus/bridge), lyrics, chords. For video: foreground and background description, information about camera motion. Both the professional and the consumer market are beginning to consider the addition of meta-data to audio/video content. For the consumer market, the issue is addressed by the MPEG-7 standard. One may guess that, if the concept of meta-data catches on (you never know...), future media players will all have support for meta-data.
On my side, it all started with some requests of mine to be implemented in MC in order to suit my desires (I cannot say needs because MC is an entertainment product after all). I wished to have song sections marked (verse/chorus/bridge), and to have section:measure:beat markers (in addition to the more trivial lyrics and chords). I called these "meta-tags". They were intended just to have a more "active" musical experience: not only listening, but being able to follow the song structure at a glance. I thought that was only an amateur musician wish. But, with some further searching, I found out that the concept of meta-tags is far more extended, and more general forms of meta-data can be added to audio/video content. Meta-data can be attached to video as well as to audio files. The most trivial meta-data that can be added to video are subtitles, but the range of video meta-data is so wide that, for example, a video scene could be explained by a speech synthesized to blind people.
What do I mean by “link” meta-tags and “navigate” between related tags?
I was thinking about a generic “marker” that could be added to audio track to identify, for example, a certain passage or a certain chord sequence. If you have the same passage (or chord sequence) in several tracks, it is natural to “link” similar markers, in order to quickly jump between them. So you can audition the similar passages in a quick sequence.
While most players will probably support meta-data and meta-tags, MC could gain a competitive advantage by introducing links and correlation between tags.
MC, with its database, is already adding a minimal set of meta-data about media files. So I think it would be natural for such a product to extend its meta-data handling capabilities.
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So now I understand what you are asking for. Im not sure actually obtaining this data is possible or if there woudl be a martket. I know there are sound analysers out there but how accurate to be able to describe insturments, specific notes, passages etc. is possible? If MC included and organised this data, that would be sweet but I don't know how many others would use that. Are there any programs out there that can 'create' this metadata?
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Im not sure actually obtaining this data is possible or if there woudl be a martket. I know there are sound analysers out there but how accurate to be able to describe insturments, specific notes, passages etc. is possible?
I think there could be a market for meta-data, otherwise there would be no development of standards like MPEG-7.
The kind of meta-data I am interested in (meta-tags showing song structure and section:measure:beat) can be automatically extracted, however. In MC, this could be handled by additional "plug-in" audio analisys modules, another feature I suggested.
As an example of the possible application of meta-data and meta-tags, I will suggest two experimental projects.
The first, SmartMusicKIOSK http://staff.aist.go.jp/m.goto/SmartMusicKIOSK/, is an advanced listening station, designed to be used in record shops. The user can see the the structure of the song, and navigate among the various song sections. Its creator, Dr. Masataka Goto, has developed an algorithm that detects the song structure with a 70-80% accuracy.
The second, the Glass Engine http://www.philipglass.com/glassengine/, in an experimental site by IBM, in which you can navigate the music of Philip Glass. Music is classified according to several dimensions (velocity, year, album title, atmosphere, intensity, ...), you navigate in one dimension and all other dimensions get updated accordingly.
Warning: the Glass Engine is written in Java, and does not work under the Opera browser. I had to use Internet Explorer, and it does not always work even under this platform.
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When i switched over to MC from winamp, although I was very happy with MC, there were a few things I really missed, so here they are:
1. the ability to immediately refresh the media library when new files are added, without having to go through the import media process
2. global hotkeys to control playback even when window is not in focus
3. ability to add a tree that actually represents the folder structure
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"3. ability to add a tree that actually represents the folder structure "
Go to the tree view > audio > disk location
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hey, cool. only two requests now.
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I use MC as an all in one file organizer for Music, Images, Movies, and Data. I seems to me that most of the energy is put into music play/organization functionality, and rightly so. Especially given its roots to Jukebox (I think that was what it is called). However, I would like to see some time spent enhancing the functionality of the other parts of MC's core competency. To wit:
Data enhancements:
Can MC12 finally import *.zip? I have a workaround, but it would be very nice.
I am proable the only one who would also like to be able to track files like .dbf, .pst, .qbk, so could MC12 allow you to add your own extentions to catalogue?
Global Filters set in another place than the top screen area (see music enhancements for more on this).
File preview would be nice.
Could MC12 report date installed and version in a more automatic fashion? A tough one, perhaps, but very, very helpful.
Video enhancements
Can MC12 catalogue DVD's and VHS with as little manual data loading as possible (for DVD's primarily I suppose) in the same way that it does CD's today. Specifically, I invision a process modeled after the way CD audio is handled today where you put in the title, and MC copies the info available from the disc and gets anything missing or incorrect from the internet. Then, and without massive data to your computer, it should retain all the information even when the disc is ejected. I realize it would play them. Aside from the obvious benefit of knowing what was in your library, you could track what was borrowed and loaned out easier. You could select a title to watch right from the TV (once loaded or copied to computer via Media Server.
You should also be able to just enter the title and or director and have it search for more info for you.
You should also be able to catalogue your own personal Home Movies burned to DVD or CD.
Image enhancements
Duplicate image help!!!!
Launch (your app here) to do image corrections or whatever.
I haven't gotten to this feature too much as music and movies take all my time right now, so I don't know all that I need yet.
Music enhancements
Can MC12 do a better job or use a different music database to retrieve info from than the YBBD or whatever. Sony uses CDBB or whatever and gets far more Cd info. This is only a problem for Various artist mixes, Special orders from Europe/Japan and in the cases of TV specials like TimeLive and Rollingstones "super hits" collections.
Can MC12 let you set a filter/mask, and then let you do the rest as is normal. this would save space at the top for other filters/masks. For instance, I have taken great pains to go through all 12k+ songs I have and seperate them firstly into one of three buckets: A Sides, B sides, and unheard (modeling the old 45's). That way I can catalogue all music, but organize only what I want/know/like by drilling down with other "filters" such as Genre, Gender, Tempo, and so on. I haven't fooled with advanced expressions yet because I found them not entirely intuitive and last I read, they were buggy and labled as "use at own risk" or something like that. But, I admit I am not on this site as often as I like, so if that is the best way to set a global filter, then I am sorry for wasting your time.
Duplicate file management - help delete those already there.
Duplicate file management - option to tell MC to report the album name and artist info (duration, bitrate too?) of any file about to be ripped that matches a file already in your library. In the case of a match, you should be able to write over the existing fiile or rename it as well as skip it.
In the case of songs that say "remix or *mix after the title, I would like to have auto tagging done. This would be based on parameters I would define in options. I am invisioning something like an email function where emails from certain senders or with certain subjets and/or keywords get automatically filed into what ever folder you specify.
I have more ideas, but these are mose pressing. As I have always said, this is the greatest and one of my two most valuable programs. I preach MC to everyone I know. Thank you!
xsivfun1
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@Database: YES, definitely I would also like to have the album handling function mentioned above (associate a song to multiple albums with different track numbers, cover art, etc).
@ID3 tags: I think whatever possible should be stored there, because that way it can be moved to other locations. In particular this is multiple genres and multiple artists (like WMP does it). This is definitely a feature I would like to have... and actually the reason I did not purchase MC10 or 11 after the trial periode.
@handhelds: some handheld players do not display songs according to the ID3 tags but use folder structures. MC should be able to copy files to handhelds and building folder structures (like WMP10 does it). Really I am no friend of MS products and WMP but since there are features which MC is missing this should tell you even more how strongly missing they are... ;D
other good ideas:
* theater view enhancements (please try out the search functions and you know what I mean...)
* enhancements to the ripping functions (different profiles) and different profiles for different handhelds (formats, quality, etc.)
* replacement of the menu tree
with these features I would think twice to recommend MC as the best player/manager for MP3s I ever got to know...
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What I forgot:
@cover art: I hate to say this, but WMP does a way better job then MC when it comes to find cover art on the internet... can this be improved?
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My request would be multiple choice lookups from YADB when organizing mp3s. That is, choosing from a list of albums to match to the current selection of tracks, then choosing which tracks to match with which.
The way this would work comes from another thread I posted:
Lookups are needed when tracks are freshly ripped - this is the easy part - or in my case where I'm re-organizing a large collection of mp3s, already with some good tags in them and rather disorganised - this is the hard part.
Let's say we had a lookup tool that does the internet lookup, then presents the user with options and allows track and album mapping in various ways before committing the changes to the user's library, writing the mp3 tags, and, if there's new information, re-synching it with the online database.
Basically you select your tracks, start the lookup tool, and your tracks come up on a right-side list, underneath search fields (which should probably default to the current album or artist, if known)
The search produces a list of albums (or tracks.) Double click on one of the items in the list, and the track(s) from that item then fill the left-side fields next to the mp3 tracks you have already selected from your collection in the right-side fields. You can re-sort the right side list, re-order it by moving tracks up or down, match them to the left side tracks by manually clicking, or by matching substrings in all the titles at once, or by matching track order all at once. You can exclude selected fields from being replaced. You can go back to your lookup-search results list, to try out a different entry that may better suit your preferences (typing, naming conventions, level of information, whatever).
When happy, click the commit button and this does what you've set up in the options, for example:
-writing id3 tags with the new info
-updating YADB with the info (this could be especially useful since the data may now be a mix of what was previously in YADB plus local user edits)
-running the MC file renamer with its template
I've had mostly dud seeks to YADB, mainly because of the messy tags and album info already in my files. Also, I need to see the original album lined up with my list of tracks side by side.
The other problem is the lack of multiple choice in the MC-YADB solution. In my circumstances I've had to pick between several releases of an album, or several freedb submissions of the same CD, to get the right data and in the formatting that I like. I can't do this with MC and YADB, even though I would like to. That's why I've had to use the Wen Software Music Library program to make freedb queries, though it's been slow getting MC to load the updates.
This also makes me want to request linkage to multiple databases. If we had multiple-choice matching, and the ability to mix choices, exclude tags while matching, then submit the corrected data both to the user's library and the online database, this would basically amount to a free synchronization service for YADB with other databases. There shouldn't be a legal problem for JRiver if there was an option to include freedb searches since it's just people submitting the data as usual, just with more information at their disposal.
The main issue, though, is being able to see a list of returned albums from YADB and making a manual selection and do track matching.
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Another request for the tree views
Have the tree view under Library-Audio-DiskLocation and the tree view under DisksAndDevices behave consistently with each other. They both should provide correct refresh after file moves, correct refresh after LibraryTools-Rename operations, consistent MC Explorer file drag and drop.
And Right-Click on a folder in either tree view, Update/ImportToLibrary to see external changes to tags, pathnames or filenames.
Currently, the DiskLocation tree doesn't have the Update/Import option, doesn't support drag and drop, and doesn't refresh even when Rename ops are initiated from a folder selected within it. It also collapses in response to updates and changes in the Drives and Devices tree instead of just refreshing.
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Horizontal slide bar for the left part of the browser (tree view), please. If I have 3-4 subfolders, then selecting the last one will take up way too much spase on the left side. Slide bar would take care of this.
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An option to minimize to the mini view would be nice.
I'd also like the search for album art during a 'get from file' search to automatically start in the folder containing the music files.
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Adobe Bridge lets you rate images on the fly using the "Ctrl+1-5" keyboard shortcuts. This would be SO cool, if we could have the same in MC. (Or even better, move the mouse, or click on an image, and the current rating appears over the top of it for you to change).
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Hi again - it would be nice if Split Views and other interesting arrangements of window panes could be stored as saved layouts, maybe with a few presets.
and when the tree view is visible, I'd like to lock which window pane responds to the tree view, because I seem to be clicking in all 3 windows and forgetting which is the one I clicked on last before clicking in the tree view again (makes me lose the Playing Now view)
Perhaps saved layouts could lock the window relationships.
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Bopz, I agree with you, and I applaud your dogged persistence! Please note that you are on page 5 of the feature request thread, and jriver has yet to implement a single one.
IMO, the GUI is too flexible, and tends to get away from one. This also appplies to viewing Playing Now in split views. Playing Now ought to be immune from searches, and there should be a button to make it sticky, so it doesn't disappear on you.
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When running the tivo server how 'bout showing the album art on the TiVo screen?
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JRiver needs to work out a deal with these guys http://www.musicpictures.com/ for the now playing slideshow option. I'd be fine with it if they got rid of the not for reproduction message but kept their logo in the corner and maybe had a link below the image to go and purchase the photo. Maybe it could be streamed in MC and we couldn't download unless we purchased. This would be sweet.
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Support for the creation writing to Image Files.
More flexibility to load different audio and video codecs, rather than rely on plug-ins.
Jon
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This might be a bit of a wild idea...
but what I'd like to be able to do is save all my settings
online to JRiver.Com
obviously for the security fanatics it would not be a default option..
however I'd so like my settings to follow me where ever I go
so that MC is set up just how I like it where ever I go.
If I'd reinstalled my OS it would be no worry cuz i'd
just log on and MC would be ready to go,
the benefits of an Internet Application without
requiring a 100mbit connection
:)
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In addition to suggesting a feature, I wonder if this would be useful to anyone but me....
2 things:
1) Imagine collapsible folders within a playlist. Different from playlist folders in that the folders could be moved as a unit in the playlist. For example if you had an album in the playlist, you could colapse it and in the playlist you would see the name of the album and the playing time of the album rather than 10 individual tracks. Within it you could change the order of the tracks, and also move the group around in the playlist. A sort of nonlinear playlisting (sort of).
and
2) For me it would be very useful if track information could span two (or three) rows in a view. Perhaps Name Artist Genre ... on the first line and comments, bpm, duration... on the second. Could also be collapseable but not necessary. I love that I can store so much info in MC, I just wish I could see it all at once without scrolling on my 12.1 inch screen.
Also does anyone know if these things can be done with plugins (whether or not they are developed yet)?
Thanks,
Ben
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Hi
right now, when in theatre view (my default view for a 8" Touchscreen), there is no real search function.
For example, I would love to only search artists, A to Z, first letters of artist's name, then display the results or search on with second letter A to Z and so on. That would be a fast and easy way to access the desired album
Same with album search and title search..
Right now, the theatre view search ends up displaying letter combinations also within the title, for example searching for the combo "eas" could get you "love don't come EASy" or "The flEA Sits on my dog" and not ONLY "EASy lover", which is not very helpful in theatre view.
Actually, I would love to see that already working in version 11....
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Since we have "Status" column in the handheld pre-transfer window, i would like to see 'Queued to delete' information. If not this, then some kind of
warning display with a list of files to be deleted before it has actually being deleted from handheld device.
UPD: Implemented in 11.1.100 build - thank you very much!
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I know I am probebly going to get flamed for this.. But here is a suggestion none the less.
I have used the Microsoft Media Center on a friends computer and love it.. So why not make the theatre mode a similar or a copy of it.
I would love to be able to put that type of thing on my computer.. and with all the plug ins that there is on here. It is alot better.
Just would love the look and feel of the Windows Media Center.
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MC should be better at remembering the configurable paths to folders on a portable device.
When the device isn't online, the entries are reset. They should be remembered and configurable whether the device is online or not.
On one of my devices, the Playlists path is always reset regardless of whether the device is online or not. Perhaps because playlists aren't supported on WMDM (can't find documentation for this). In this case the Playlists path should be grayed out and non-editable.
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I know I am probebly going to get flamed for this.. But here is a suggestion none the less.
I have used the Microsoft Media Center on a friends computer and love it.. So why not make the theatre mode a similar or a copy of it.
I would love to be able to put that type of thing on my computer.. and with all the plug ins that there is on here. It is alot better.
Just would love the look and feel of the Windows Media Center.
Obviously not gonna happen. Is there anything you like about MC that you would like to see on Windows Media Player?
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Mainly the look, feel and animations that are present..
Something that circles the menu system instead of having all the options displayed. (IE like a rotating menu used in MCE or some mobile phones where the options are only displayed when you move to another part of the menu)
Start up sounds.
A bit sleeker with the Playing now page. (You don't really need that many options open.. Maybe Play delete and info)
The background to take up the whole screen.. (IE the cd cover to not be in a big black box)
Just to look a bit more streamlined.
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You mean those are things you don't like about MC? ?
What drew you into trying out MC? Is there anything you do like about MC?
Im confused with the comparisons to Windows Media Player and MCE.
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This might be a bit of a wild idea... but what I'd like to be able to do is save all my settings online to JRiver.Com.
obviously for the security fanatics it would not be a default option..
however I'd so like my settings to follow me where ever I go so that MC is set up just how I like it where ever I go.
If I'd reinstalled my OS it would be no worry cuz i'd just log on and MC would be ready to go, the benefits of an Internet Application without
requiring a 100mbit connection :)
Yeah, I concur. Either a way to store the settings online or an easy way to export/import the set-up, at least (we could always store the file on gmail, or a something of that nauture, for easy downloading to another PC later) ... The basic layout settings, options, playlists, etc.. .... but something that was simple enough that it would work well across MC builds, so that implementing this personal profile scheme would work after a fresh install of an upgrade as well as work when you install MC on, say, your work PC and you want to start with the same settings and look that you're using on your home PC....
2) For me it would be very useful if track information could span two (or three) rows in a view. Perhaps Name Artist Genre ... on the first line and comments, bpm, duration... on the second. Could also be collapseable but not necessary. I love that I can store so much info in MC, I just wish I could see it all at once without scrolling on my 12.1 inch screen.
That would be awesome.
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You mean those are things you don't like about MC? ?
What drew you into trying out MC? Is there anything you do like about MC?
Im confused with the comparisons to Windows Media Player and MCE.
I believe Ranmasaotomes is simply saying that while he appreciates the power of MC, he feels that there are aspects that could be jazzed up visually. Personally, I'm far more concerned with functionality, stability, speed, and options than I am with the graphic interface ... but ya gotta admit that in many respects MC looks & feels more like a serious database program than a consumer music player in comparison to the newest versions of some of the big-name players out there (at least until you've figured out how customizable the program is and all the interface options that are actually possible). Of course, I use MC like a serious database program 60% of the time, so it's current look is fine by me -- 11.1 is better that 11 which was better than 10, etc... nothin' wrong with that ;D
When I'm not using MC to organize and tag and upload and such, I'm usually either (a) using it to play music in the background while I'm doing something else, or (b) using it to watch a movie or TV show -- in either case, I'm not looking at the basic MC interface, because I'm either (a) looking at something else, or (b) looking at the movie in full-screen mode, respectively. So, to me, making MC look a lot slicker or consumer friendly is not a priority by any means. But offering a really slick, jazzy, deceptively simple "wow awesome" interface for the Playing Now and Start screens -- the screens that users are going to see first and might use the most at first -- might be a good way to crack a larger consumer market, in terms of offering a pretty face to front for the awesome mechanics.
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For everyone that is asking.. I am actually talking about the new Windows XP Media Center Edition.
Its basically a copy of Windows XP with a media center application in order to take control of playing Music/TV/DVD's
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/default.mspx
This is what I was kinda expecting with MC.. And what I kind of got.
So far I am impressed with what I have seen. I like the way that the menu system Is.. and I like it that I don't have to install Windows XP Media Center Edition on my other computers to get a similar interface.
The computer I am MC on is mainly going to be used as an entertainment PC.. basically so that I can run TV, Movies, Music and other things through it.
The copy that I am talking about is not Windows Media Player.. But a Microsoft Application similar to MC. I kind of only stumbled on this page when I was looking for Plug ins for Windows XP Media Center Edition.
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I would like to have a cue option ie, listening for other tracks in my headphone while my main soundcard output is playing music.
Manu
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But offering a really slick, jazzy, deceptively simple "wow awesome" interface for the Playing Now and Start screens -- the screens that users are going to see first and might use the most at first -- might be a good way to crack a larger consumer market, in terms of offering a pretty face to front for the awesome mechanics.
Yes, I think these 2 things the playing now and start screen could be much improved in terms of cool features. The playing now should hopefully eventually have an itunes party shuffle like auto DJ functionality.
I think others have asked for a more customizable start screen as well.
I think that overall MC is the best player for cataloguing, smart listing, and browsing, with a great underlying audio playback engine. However the overall fun of 'look what this can do', kinda thing seems to be slightly behind the above categories.
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4) A multi-computer network "distribution" system similar to ATI's EasyShare/EasyConnect product (http://www.ati.com/products/multimediacenter/EazyConnect.html). This would solve many of the Multi-Zone sync issues that Mastiff and others have dealt with. If you could simply "stream" what is playing on the "server" system to multiple "client" machines (including Video and Audio) then syncing multiple zones and multiple machines wouldn't be a problem anymore!
Having three HTPC's each attached to a separate audio system, I am very interested in this feature. When we have a party my wife wants to know why there is different music playing in each room.
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I would dearly like more movie support in MC. At the moment I use MC for all things Music. But I have to use another product to do the same for my movies.
J River would do well to take a look at Extreme Movie Manager (http://www.binaryworks.it/extrememoviemanager/index.asp)
It is a bit ropey round the edges but provides a great way to manage your movies. I took the decesion about 18 months ago to rip all my movies into MPEG4 (Xvid) fromat place them on a 'Media Server' (also where all my music is too) and access them via network. So I could do with all the flexibility and tagging that MC provides for music but for specifically for Movies as well (Maybe two databases - one for music, one for films).
I currently think movie support in MC is extremely weak, a look at extreme movie manager will put that into perspective.
Laffer.
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I really do not like how when searching in MC, the search applies to both the library & playing now. IF the search is still on, I can't add any songs to MC. I think a great feautre would asearch box like those found on some forums where a search button is pressed and up pops a slighlty bigger search box. That would be perfrect for the playing now.
Also I am still sort of suprised that a shuffle based on last played, ratings, ... has not been invented for the playing now.
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What about settings for playlists e.g. Fades, no-gap, etc so you don't have to switch shuffle on/off.
Shuffle should implement differently in Playing Now. Tracks should load into playing now in track order or how they were selected not scrambled if shuffle is on. Shuffle should work "behind the scenes".
Try add to playing now with an album w/ shuffle on, the tracks are shuffled into Playing Now. It's counter-intuitive to me.
Dr. C
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You know those light blue music notes to the left of songs in the media library?
I would love them to be like the tick boxes of itunes. Clicking turns then from blue to grey. Making sure only certain songs are uploaded. And also making an option that states:
"UnNoted/UnTicked Songs will: Played/Uploaded
Not uploaded to iPod
Not Played
Not played or uploaded to ipod
;D
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It Would Be a Nice Idea To Have An Option For Directing Audio From Video, (either A DVD or File), To The S/PDIF Output as a pass through to an outboard processor/Reciever. (Like Cyberlink Power DVD Does)
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Since JRiver has MC 12 in the works, I thought I would update my list of changes that I am hoping for:
* Save ALL settings in a library backup if possible. Backups should happen every time MC is started AND delete older backups.
* Add random sorting option for tile view, from option menu at top right.
* Album tile or thumbnails should playback in track order by default settings(there used to be an option for this).
* 'View’ menu for each tile should have a 'files' option for full screen list viewing at all times, and not just the files at bottom option as it currently is. It would be really nice if this view option went directly to panes.
* Files at bottom sorting should be seperate from the view scheme sorting.
* 'View' menu for each tile should auto open saving tons of unnecessary clicking.
* Double clicking on the final tile after drilling into a view should automatically play, right now it does nothing!
* Add a tile view tooltip that shows all of the stats for that tile rather than the current rotisserie style for stats.
* Searches should persist across current views in a view scheme but not across different view schemes.
* Search box should have a ‘saved searches’ feature much like the navigation toolbar system!
* Search should not apply for both playing now and library views when in split views, this currently makes it confusing and difficult to use playing now.
* There needs to be a better way for applying certain settings within a customize current view and applying those changes across all views but leaving other settings within that view, unique.
* Add tabbed/modulated browsing options on the left hand side of MC for total control of what the user would prefer to see, rather than just the tree and action window OR simply add vertical split views.
* A locked down viewable tagging mode so that no tags can be changed unless they are happening behind the scenes. MC is just too easy to accidentally change tags while browsing without realizing it.
* Add a dynamic ‘switch track’ playback option. When playing albums I prefer gapless and when playing a mix I prefer a cross fade of 5 seconds. MC is smart enough to know the difference between an album and a mix so this should be possible (make it customizable).
* Design a second ‘playing now queue’ (party shuffle) with smartlist capabilities that is always started after the normal “playing now’ is done and is NOT on repeat. A really cool feature could be the last played song in the first playing now causes random songs by that artist or year to be played. Maybe integrate with a service like musicip.
* Bring back the early MC 11.1 slideshow picture option from the internet!
* Improve Start page to allow for customized dynamic HTML style content pulled from my Library database, i.e. stats, suggested songs/albums , and artist profiles based on metadata, etc. Turn this into a full-fledged encyclopedia like interface to browse my library rather than, list and tiles view would be sweet!
* Add a relational database, and all of the cool possibilities that come along with it.
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I agree with most of datdudes suggestions. I hope that the MC team stay focussed on improving the interface.
Personally i dont like the idea of auto entering tiles. What if you want to multiply select tiles?
I would like to see something on the interface showing what the next level would be if you were to double click. ie. "Double click to see Artists of current selection"
Verticle split views would be great, but only if the whole split view system gets an overhaul. I found myself getting very frustrated when clicking on tools, searching, and well just about doing anything, and realising that those actions were applying to the wrong split view. One view should always take focus and be the main view, even after you have clicked in another view. Perhaps more limited options about what can appear in each view would be better. I dont know why anyone would need to see the library in two views at once, but playing now being visible at the same time as the library is really useful.
Before split views happen, I'd be more than content just to be able to see the files list split so that it appears to the right of the tiles, rather than underneath them. Would be great for my dual screen setup.
Would also love it if album thumbnails in the file list were replaced by "album tiles" with these drop down options:
"See album in panes view" (shows the album in panes view with all relevant entries for each pane selected rather than the current behaviour of "Locate album" which just does a simple blanket search)
"play in track order"
"find in list above" (if in "artists" in top view, selected album in bottom view would find and select the artist for that album so that you can see all albums for that artist in one click)
Would also be nice if said "album tiles" could have a drop down/pop out list of songs contained in that album so that we could just play one song without having to keep switching between thumbnails and details.
Loving the tiles, but they are still a bit clumsy at the moment. Cant wait to see what MC12 will look like when it's done.
Finally, how about putting a "Create new field" at the bottom of each of the categories in the tag info window. Something like "New Genre" does in the panes when in tagging mode. This would almost negate the need for the "library options" in the main options, and have everything to do with tagging in one nice neat place. Would be pretty intuitive for new users.
Sorry. Seems I've written another essay. Hope some of you stayed with me till the end.
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Since I'm playing with streaming Internet radio stations right now, here's my (admittedly short) list:
- Ability to add URLs to Playing Now instead of replacing (maybe this is available but File -> OpenURL doesn't have an "Add to Playing Now" option)
- Don't replace a playlist with its individual components. This is a problem with streaming Internet radion -- they give you a playlist for a reason -- they might wanna change the servers! :)
- Make "Playing Now" in Theater View respond to meta-data changes from the Internet streamers like Track Info now does (as of 11.1.184). Maybe there's a way to make this happen in 11.1 but I don't know what it is.
That didn't hurt, did it? ;D
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I like that when you click on a root level element like "Services and plugins" you get webpage explaining in laymans terms what you can do there. It would be nice to see this extended to the "playlists" root with some instructions on creating smartlists and organising through smartlist groups etc. I'm sure that nobody uses the list of of files as it stands, and an easy to follow web page here would be great for new users who dont want to trawl through the help file.
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- a dockable playlist that supports drag/drop or a filmstrip playlist (like movie maker) that you can drop files into and will crossfade when songs/video's are overlapped
- more tools for musicians like a/b repeat, 1/4 and 1/2 speed while preserving pitch (like Transcribe!)
- fixed fonts for lyrics to allow cut and paste of lyrics and guitar chords and keep the guitar chords over the correct words in the song
- the ability to include links to the web within lyrics & comment fields
- while adding a song to playing now - have the option to play it next or add it to the end
- allow songs to be added to multiple genres
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Hows About On On Off Switch For"ON SCREEN Display".......
I Hate When I Run A Playlist With Video & Stills And I See The PLAY or PAUSE On Screen.....
PLEASE Put On On Screen Display OFF Checkbox OR Menu
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I'm ripping classical music CDs in bulk right now so I'm focused on slreamlining that process. MC 11 is the best tool I've found for ripping classical music CDs but some things could be streamlined. I realize that my way of using MC 11 to rip CDs may not be everyone's method but I'd like to do things my way without extra keystrokes and mouse clicks that distract me.
Some context: I start by clicking on my CD drive in the tree on the left side of the screen. I do not have "auto rip mode" enabled. I insert a CD and then fill out tags manually (no YADB) and click on the "rip tracks" button to start.
1. Click once to start ripping - After I click on the "rip tracks button" above the list of tracks on the CD, I have to click on the "Rip" button in the rip progress window.
2. Don't force me to read and dismiss a pop-up dialog to see a summary of ripping results. - For most CDs, a single line saying "All tracks ripped with 100 % confidence" would tell me what I need to know. If some tracks required extra-reads, you can add a line saying how many files required re-reads and what the range of confidence was. You could put the summary about the CD track list or in the Ripping progress window. I might choose to read a detailed report and click on a button if the one or two line summary suggests that I need to. In most cases, I should be able to read a one line summary and insert the next CD without distraction.
3. Leave the track listing on the CD drive contents. - At present, MC 11 jumps to the recently ripped list after I rip a CD. I have to click on the CD drive in the tree list to get back to the list of CD tracks.
In addition to these streamlining requests, I have a request for additional functionality in ripping CDs.
Joining tracks when ripping CDs - I'd like to be able to select a list of tracks that make up a work (i.e. Symphony No. 1, movements 1-4) and have them ripped to a single file with an embedded Cue sheet. I use the Flac format so I'd like to have this cabability for Flac files but it should be supported for those file formats that support cue sheets. (Maybe an external cue sheet would work. )
More context: I tried using YADB. Like FreeDB and CDDB, it doesn't provide a separate Composer tag and usage of Album-Artist-Name tags was erratic. I also hadd trouble with MC 11 crashing during the YADB lookup. I searched the forum for information on such crashes. There were some threads on crashes when more than one CD drive was in use. Nothing about problems a single CD drive situation like mine for 11.163. I did not want to spend time to verify the crashes with the current latest version and perhaps encounter other problems. And YADB didn't really provide what I needed for classical music tagging so I stopped using YADB. However, I did have one comment:
Reduce the number of nesting of dialogs and message boxes during YADB lookup. - I counted at least 3 levels of nested dialogs or message boxes. I think using YADB would be less distracting with fewer pop-ups.
Bill
Bill
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Hierarchical Tagging.
You what I hear you ask?
Well I'm filling in more LOST tags.
Now lost in my library goes under TV Series genre....
Therefore when I receive a new episode of LOST it's very unlikely
to suddenly turn into a film....
Magically using Extreme Turbo logic, MC should work out
that it's a new episode of lost and set the Genre to TV Series.
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Big vote for Listener's suggestions! :D
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1. Fix the tree; yes, it needs fixin’. Been discussed before and again 2. now>>>>>>We need a hotkey to make it open and close or some kind of windows taskbar-like auto hide function (if the tree is stayin') . On a big screen with a dark skin it is ridiculous trying to min/max the tree every 5 minutes; double clicking on the divider is extremely tedious. MC + Pop-up action window/tree = crazy delicious!
3. The Display Window should have customizable options like Find CD & Find Artist so you can then have the toolbar buttons Find CD/Artist search for what is highlighted in a field. This would allow music to run uninterrupted and users could then link to Amazon or All Music.com instantly via what is playing now or from fields they may be editing in the library. This would be incredibly useful as you currently have to search the web with what’s playing now, and then tag, as advised, when not playing the file back.
4. Select Drives & Devices: button for Rip should be there next to play tracks. You can see this button when selecting individual drives but not multiple drives i.e. Drives & Devices. You can right click on Drives & Device and rip all tracks from all drives so a button should appear above the tracks instead of the user having to open the tree and manually select rip (from all drives).
5. Fonts, fonts, fonts. Make the the Tile font adjustable! Large monitors or simply using large fonts for editing provides one with cut off values
at many various Tile sizes.
I have to agree with Listener, less nesting of menus and pop-ups. Ripping is not a destructive activity like burning and the post-rip info could be consolidated; for users who rip from 4 or 5 drives at a time it would help a lot.
Dr. C
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The tree closes with ctrl-g.
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The tree collapses or closes...I see collapse within the tree not close of the tree itself. Minimize and maximize of the tree's side-bar window needs a hotkey.
Dr. C
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Maybe you know, but double click on the divider bar to close the tree window.
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Any hint on when we might get to play with MC12?
I can't wait to see how the auto import works.
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Why not introduce a new view in MC12?
One hyped feature on web2.0 sites is actually really good, and that's Clouds. The more popular a topic is, the larger font (or more visible color) it has.
Here's an example from Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/tag/). There are better examples out there but I think you get the idea.
It could be used for popular albums, artists, and more.
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Before I post my suggestions, let me briefly outline my profile as an MC user.
• I can't care less about skins and visual effect. In Media Jukebox 8 I used no skin at all (it was possible then), the program was looking more like a spreadsheet.
• I like an active style of listening to audio, with quick browsing and attention to real-time control.
• I consider Images and Podcasts a welcome addition, but I never used them and I wouldn't die if they were missing from MC.
• I never used video features in MC. I think that dedicated video player software has much better features.
• I use the keyboard a lot, while I use the mouse as little as possible. I prefer controlling MC with a remote control, when applicable.
My suggestions are:
- Spreadsheet mode
This is mainly for keyboard-only users like me. In spreadsheet mode only a cell at a time is highlighted, and you move between them with the standard arrow keys. When you press F2 to edit, you know in advance what is the field that is going to be edited. There should be a quick keyboard shortcut to display/hide the left pane (like F4 in Opera), in order to have full screen available in spreadsheet mode.
- Cue points
Cue points are meta-data that give added value to the audio track. They are markers to specific points into the track. The transport controls should include shortcuts to quickly jump to cue points. The user could set up A-B loops on the fly. Cue points, if standardized, could be used by DJ software too.
- Meta-data
I know there is a MPEG 7 standard being developed, dealing with meta-data in general. JRiver should follow its evolution and implement meta-data handling in future versions of MC.
- Hot-key and Single-click command activation
Everything is MC is two or three clicks away. All operations are not immediate. I regularly use just half a dozen commands, and I would like them to be quickly available, at the touch of one hot-key (or a single mouse click on a small icon). Hot-keys should be customizable. For example, transport (with cue points) could be controlled using the numeric keypad, like in the Cubase/Nuendo sequencer programs.
- Advanced navigation
I would like to find similar or related tracks in an advanced 2-dimensional display, like in the Glass Engine (http://www.philipglass.com/glassengine/). This display is based on a complete classification of tracks. Music lovers sure would not mind spending some time building their own classification, even if it requires some manual work to update the library with extra tags. Most users, however, do not want to bother and prefer to have track tagged in an automatic way.
- Track structure
The transport slider should display the structure of the track, highlighting different track elements (verse, chorus, bridge, …) with rectangles of different colors. The structure of the track can be delimited by cue points. In DVD videos, for example, the structure is made up of chapters.
Here is an example of what I mean. Dr. Masataka Goto has developed an hardware player device, called the SmartMusicKIOSK (http://staff.aist.go.jp/m.goto/SmartMusicKIOSK/). It allows the listener to “see” the structure of the track, and quickly jump to relevant parts of it. The reason for its development is clearly commercial. It allows the customer in music stores to quickly browse CD tracks before buying them. The SmartMusicKIOSK has algorithms that detect the track structure using hidden Markov chains. I think that automatic structure detection would be too hard to implement in MC. Music lovers, again, wouldn’t mind spending some time devising the structure of a track. So, if some automatic help can be added, I think that beat detection would be enough.
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Spectrum Analyzer
The Spectrum Analyzer in MC is clearly designed for aesthetic pleasure only, not to have any technical meaning. The deviations from the ideal behavior can be visualized by playing test signals by Fred Nachbaur (http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/testwavs/).
• The frequency axis is linear, and not logarithmic as it should be when dealing with audio and music (it makes the high-frequency spectrum more interesting to watch) [linear sweep 20 Hz-20 kHz].
• The frequency axis is limited to 16 kHz (you won't notice when you are listening to band-limited encoded files) [linear sweep 20 Hz-20 kHz].
• The amplitude is not flat, a +3 dB/oct equalization is applied before the meter (it enhances the visual movement in the high-frequency portion of the audio spectrum) [white noise] [pink noise].
• Only instant value is displayed, there is no peak hold neither an average value.
• There are no scale indicators, and no colors are used.
The user should be able to configure many of the spectrum visualization parameters, and some enhancements should be made:
• The user should choose the frequency axis to use, linear or logarithmic. Since 32 bars are displayed, the logarithmic mode could show a 1/3 octave scale.
• The user should be able to remove the +3 dB/oct boost.
• Ballistics (decay time) should be adjustable.
• Peak hold and average value should be optionally displayed, in addition to the instant value.
• A vertical bar indicating the overall level (with both optional peak hold and average value) should be added.
• Small ticks can be added to show a scale reference, even without numbers (for example 100 Hz, 1 kHz and 10 kHz on the frequency axis, and ticks every 10 dB on the amplitude scale).
• There should be an indicator that lights up when the peak level (0 dBFS) is reached. It can be reset by clicking on it.
It is useful to know that peaks in the overall signal amplitude should be analyzed by oversampling, as you might not notice 0dBFS+ artifacts (http://www.tcelectronic.com/media/nielsen_lund_2000_0dbfs_le.pdf) otherwise. This suggestion can be applied to Audio Analysis too. It could find a Peak Level of more than 100% when there are 0 dBFS+ artifacts in the audio file.
The user could choose whether to display two spectrum analyzers with the left frequency scale reversed (the default eye candy setting according to JRiver) or a single spectrum analyzer (on the sum of the two stereo channels) with a waveform display on the other side. Of course, when the sum of the two channels is displayed, the vertical bars should be two, one for each of the audio channels.
And finally there should be an option to "Reset to Defaults" that brings all the settings to the aesthetically pleasing values devised by JRiver.
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Better support for visualization plug-ins
Using DirectX (DirectX host plug-in) for visualization is not feasible because:
• initialization is slow (it scans all DirectX plug-ins, not only instruments, and tries to initialize all of them somehow)
• the video refresh rate is too slow for real-time visualization
• the plug-in "tap" is at the beginning of the audio chain, before the buffer, and visualization is in advance of sound by one buffer size
There should be a plug-in "tap" at the end of the audio chain (after the buffer) for visualization only (that is, the output of the plug-in is discarded), with a decent video refresh rate, so that the visualization in sync with audio.
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Better MIDI support
MC needs VST instruments and/or plug-in support for high quality MIDI playback.
MIDI support isn't very strong in MC. By default MIDI files are played back through the system device, that by default is the standard Microsoft GS Synthesizer, one of the worst synthesizers ever on the face of this world.
Also, KAR files should be handled exactly like MIDI files.
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Quit confirmation
The user might accidentally press ALT+F4 and quit MC by mistake while playing to an audience. In order to prevent that, when the user presses ALT+F4, a pop-up should appear that asks for confirmation. After 15-20 seconds, if the user took no action, the pop-up disappears.
In Tools > Options I find only startup options, not shutdown ones.
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Better support for visualization plug-ins
Using DirectX (DirectX host plug-in) for visualization is not feasible because:
• initialization is slow (it scans all DirectX plug-ins, not only instruments, and tries to initialize all of them somehow)
• the video refresh rate is too slow for real-time visualization
• the plug-in "tap" is at the beginning of the audio chain, before the buffer, and visualization is in advance of sound by one buffer size
There should be a plug-in "tap" at the end of the audio chain (after the buffer) for visualization only (that is, the output of the plug-in is discarded), with a decent video refresh rate, so that the visualization in sync with audio.
Erm.... there is :)
http://www.jrmediacenter.com/devzone.html
Look for Display Plugin SDK
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Erm.... there is :)
http://www.jrmediacenter.com/devzone.html
Look for Display Plugin SDK
I know it, but this is not exactly what I was asking for. This SDK allows a programmer to develop new plug-ins. I was looking for a structural change in MC that allows using existing DirectX or VST plug-ins (very good ones already exist) for technically-oriented visualizations.
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Differentiate the line of products
I think that JRiver could differentiate its line of products, each product having a different price tag and being targeted towards different types of audience. The customer base is so large that cannot be satisfied by a single product. I would suggest a line of products like this:
MC BASIC (all media, no enhanced audio features)
MC PRO (all media, plus enhanced audio features)
MC audio only BASIC (only audio media, no enhanced audio features)
MC audio only PRO (only audio media, plus enhanced audio features)
Of course, I would be interested in MC audio only PRO. By "enhanced audio features" I mean more technically-oriented visualizations, plug-in support, MIDI support and so on.
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Differentiate the line of products
I think that JRiver could differentiate its line of products, each product having a different price tag and being targeted towards different types of audience. The customer base is so large that cannot be satisfied by a single product. I would suggest a line of products like this:
MC BASIC (all media, no enhanced audio features)
MC PRO (all media, plus enhanced audio features)
MC audio only BASIC (only audio media, no enhanced audio features)
MC audio only PRO (only audio media, plus enhanced audio features)
Of course, I would be interested in MC audio only PRO. By "enhanced audio features" I mean more technically-oriented visualizations, plug-in support, MIDI support and so on.
I think MC is cheap and it don't need to make different products
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I think MC is cheap and it don't need to make different products
Me too.
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I think MC is cheap and it don't need to make different products
I for one am glad to discover and use those aspects of MC I didn't buy it for.
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I for one am glad to discover and use those aspects of MC I didn't buy it for.
Sorry, I´m from Spain and I don´t understand your coment. Could you explain me, please?
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When I bought MC I did it because it was a decent audio player with a robust library. At the time I didn't care about things like CD burning, or images, or TV playback for example. And I suppose I would have bought a 'lite' version of MC to save a few dollars. But I'm glad I couldn't because I now use these features regularly.
I discoverd after I bought it that MC is easier and quicker to use than Nero for audio CDs. I prefer MC's cover creator to Nero's. The TV software that came with my tuner crashes hard and frequently. MC doesn't, at all. These are all things I didn't think I needed or wanted when I decided to buy but I now find I'm glad MC does them all.
To me it's like I bought an audio player and discovered I got TV tuner and burner software and more for free.
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I think MC is cheap and it don't need to make different products
I just wanted to say that I would pay something more in order to have pro audio features implemented. On the other side, there are other functions in MC that I never used, and I think I'll never do, even if I already paid for them.
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Better MIDI support (updated from previous post)
In order to support high quality MIDI playback MC just needs to make the MIDI output port selectable. You can then use MIDI Yoke (http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http://www.midiox.com/myoke.htm) or Hubi’s Loopback Driver (http://www.geocities.com/mstella/hmidilb/hmdlpbk.html) in order to feed the MIDI stream back into a decent synthesizer (hardware or software).
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Thing is Negopus, there's only so many developers to this project.
If they are making several different versions their high quality work
is going to be spread a tad thinnly. While life is never going to be perfect for
everyone, I think they're doing a pretty good job as it is!
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I think isn't necessary to speak more about that. We want MC with all the features!!! :))
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Erase DVD/CD in Action Window when an Eraseable disk is present
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It would be cool to have some kind of wizard for smartlists. It could be formatted in rows of drop down boxes which contain field or expression ideas, followed by a drop down "and/or/but not" drop down, to show how the rules should relate. Think about Photoshop and it's batch processing/ file saving wizards.
Also, how about an options box for the defualt smartlists like "recently imported" so that we can set how long, and what kind of files stay in the smartlist. (ie: stay in the list for maximum of 3 months, or n number of plays. when i delete one file, delete the rest of the album from the list too. exclude video files. etc.)
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How about the name of the tile that shows up in the files at bottom menu '(tile name) files', is a link to pane browsing for those files? This provide even further integration to the great pane system and allows for a full screen view which currently is a limitation of the files at bottom.
If you are in the pane mode to start with where it says 'click here to reset selection', it should instead say 'reset selection or tile selection' with the appropriate link for either destination (i.e. go to tile view).
The integration would be really nice to go back and forth and makes sense browsing wise.
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i would like to see new 5.1 sound support in MC, new DSP.
In this stage of progress it's little bit to old.
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I know I am probebly going to get flamed for this.. But here is a suggestion none the less.
I have used the Microsoft Media Center on a friends computer and love it.. So why not make the theatre mode a similar or a copy of it.
I would love to be able to put that type of thing on my computer.. and with all the plug ins that there is on here. It is alot better.
Just would love the look and feel of the Windows Media Center.
I'm not going to "flame" you ;D .... http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=33041.0
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I would like add yet another vote to sexing up the theater view.
With Meedio now gone (Yahoo bought 'em out and replaced it with some piece of crap) there is a real opportunity here for JRiver to capitalize on this and create a UI/skinning framework for theater mode.
I LOVE MC and will continue to support it as it THE BEST THERE IS when it comes to organization and especially tagging of audio files. BUT seriously Jim and Co....over the years many people have asked for a more configurable and state-of-the-art theater mode, especially for us who wish to manage the content on a desktop pc BUT USE the content on a HTPC-based system.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE consider this seriously.
You have the best database.
You have the best server.
You have the best management client tool.
PLEASE finish this masterpiece off with a flexible framework ala Meedio etc that the creative types can run rampant on and create some awesome graphical UIs. A jukebox theme would be the ultimate.
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Smart playlists that can track tag, file, and location changes.
much needed.
DC
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Could you add to the contextual menu of each playlist the link (~ an option) "Edit this Playlist"? PLEASE
That will increase much the software ergonomics. ;)
i.e. / example :
(http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8295/addlinkplaylists9pc.th.jpg) (http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=addlinkplaylists9pc.jpg)
Thanks,
mobyF
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What about Drag & Drop Tag Mode that allows the user to drag data from one field to another. Move/Copy field can only do so much especially when trying to fill fields like Album Artist (auto) with new data i.e. a different name. Find & Replace does this but then you have to select the files, open it, set it up, etc. or you can simply copy & paste, but I think this would be interesting as a special mode (toggle on or off) for cleaning up tags quickly.
DC
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What about Drag & Drop Tag Mode that allows the user to drag data from one field to another. Move/Copy field can only do so much especially when trying to fill fields like Album Artist (auto) with new data i.e. a different name. Find & Replace does this but then you have to select the files, open it, set it up, etc. or you can simply copy & paste, but I think this would be interesting as a special mode (toggle on or off) for cleaning up tags quickly.
You can... sort of.
You can drag media files from the right-hand pane (either details view or tiles or thumbs or whatever) and drop them onto "child" items in the tree (if you have Populate Tree turned on in the View Scheme settings) and it will fill the appropriate properties. I use this all the time.... For example, say I just downloaded (legally of course) a new track by the band Neutral Milk Hotel called "King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1". Of course, it doesn't have any of the right tag data assigned though, so I need to add it. If I already have some Neutral Milk Hotel songs tagged, I can just expand my handy Genre/Artist/Album View Scheme in the tree, and drop the file onto the icon for the proper Album. This will automagically assign:
Genre = Indie Rock
Artist = Neutral Milk Hotel
Album = In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
I use this feature all the time when tagging. You can even drag-drop one node of the tree onto another, which will apply the changes to all of the items "contained" within the dropped node. For example, if you have a pile of songs you accidentally tagged "Greatful Dead" instead of "Grateful Dead", you can just drag-drop the Greatful Dead Artist Node from some place on the tree and drop it onto one that is spelled correctly, and it will fix them all.
Either way, if you try this I bet it might solve a bunch of your problems.
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Interesting, so I could make a special view scheme, populate it and then drag files (pre-rip) onto a node on the tree and it will tag that file with the fields assigned to that view scheme?
I am trying to setup some new fields, Style (just subgenre), Burned to CD, Backed Up, & Artist Album (custom). So if I use these fields in a scheme along with Album Artist (auto) I can find the artist and just drag the files that I have ripped or am about to rip on that node? Sounds interesting, thanks.
btw, do you know if there is a field that is the "true" import date or first import date. I re-populated my library and it was useful for backup purposes to have a valid import date.
thanks
DC
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I see that I probably want to limit this tagging scheme to general items, or does MC just tag with tags from the node that are all the same? If some Dead albums are tagged with same genre but different subgenres and I drag the files onto one genre/subgenre that's cool, but my Burned CD & Backed Up tags are going to vary within that genre/subgenre. I guess this is sort of obvious...just thinking out loud I guess. Very useful tool, thanks Glynor.
EDIT - I see you can keep expanding the tree and it corresponds to the fields you've added...VERY interesting, especially considering this is the first time I have used the tree usefully!
Another btw - can we tag images to CDs files prior to rip? I am going to try it now.
DC
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Another btw - can we tag images to CDs files prior to rip? I am going to try it now.
I'm at work now and somewhat busy so I can't address all of your questions (yet), but...
You certainly can. However, that will cause the CDA files (the actual pre-rip files that are on the CD disc) to be added to your library database. This isn't a problem, as long as you understand that they will then show up under the Audio View Scheme.
I use this feature a lot to "pre-tag" my files before ripping them, so I have lots of extraneous CDA files in my library. It's easy to add a search filter to Step 4 of Audio's Edit View Scheme dialog that excludes these CDA files so they don't clutter up your view (which is what I've done).
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I see that I probably want to limit this tagging scheme to general items, or does MC just tag with tags from the node that are all the same? If some Dead albums are tagged with same genre but different subgenres and I drag the files onto one genre/subgenre that's cool, but my Burned CD & Backed Up tags are going to vary within that genre/subgenre. I guess this is sort of obvious...just thinking out loud I guess. Very useful tool, thanks Glynor.
I think I get what you're asking, and I think if you play with it a bit (maybe on some "test" files) you'll see how it works. But, to give an example... Say I have a bunch of Grateful Dead songs from the Album "American Beauty" (but that aren't tagged at all). Also, assume that I've decided that all Grateful Dead songs should fall under the Genre "Psychedelic Rock", but they might all fall under different SubGenres depending on the "feel" of the individual song (that's not how I do it, but work with me here).
Ok, now assume I have two View Schemes. One is Genre/Artist/Album/Subgenre and the other is Genre/Subgenre (both with Populate Tree chosen of course). Now, say I want to tag all my new American Beauty files with these fields (but only these):
Genre = Psychedelic Rock
Artist = Grateful Dead
Album = American Beauty
If I already have tagged at least one file sometime previously which matches ALL of those fields, then when I expand the nodes in the tree under Genre/Artist/Album/Subgenre the album will show up.
(http://users.adelphia.net/~edandjenn/mc/treetagging_example1.jpg)
This could happen if somehow you already had part of the album, but just finished getting the rest of it (or maybe more likely if a few of the files got corrupted and you re-ripped just those few songs -- the rest of them are still there). To apply those tags, you could just drag-drop the new files and drop them onto the "American Beauty" item in the tree and, wha-pow, all of the "parent" tags get applied. However, since you had not expanded that last selection in the tree (Subgenre) and dropped the new files there, the Subgenre field for the new files is left alone (meaning, if it's currently blank then it stays blank, and if there is something there it stays there).
Now, it's probably more likely that you just ripped an entire new album that you never had before, say "Dick's Picks Volume 20" (which incidentally was the show from the day I was born -- fairly cool that I'm a Dick's Picks). In that case, when you expand the tree in the example above, there will be no "Dick's Picks Volume 20" icon to drop the files on. That's okay though, just drop them on "Grateful Dead" in the above tree and it will still assign the Genre and Artist tags (and leave the rest alone). Then you can manually add the Album tag using the Tag Editor.
Now, to assign the Subgenre it's a little tricky (not really, but you have to understand what is happening). Say you have the Genre/Artist/Album/Subgenre Scheme fully expanded. Some of the songs (the ones already there) are assigned to a few different Subgenres (like in the picture below).
(http://users.adelphia.net/~edandjenn/mc/treetagging_example2.jpg)
You do not want to drop your new "Dick's Picks Volume 20" files onto "Jams" in the above example, because that would reassign the Album tag to "American Beauty" (it would correctly set the Subgenre to Jams, and the Artist to Greatful Dead, and the Genre to Psychedelic Rock though). Instead, you'd want to use your separate Genre/Subgenre View Scheme and expand just "Psychedelic Rock" and then "Jams" and drop it there. Then it'll assign the Genre and Subgenre but leave the Artist and Album alone.
If you structure your View Schemes intelligently, you can use this method to greatly speed the tagging of large batches of files AND use the system to ensure your tags all stay consistent. For example, I have a set "list" of Genres that I use. Sometimes though, files come "pre-tagged" with stuff that doesn't match my Scheme (maybe Rock'n'Roll in the Genre field). If populate tree is turned on, you can quickly and easily see this "bad" genre and just grab all the offending files (just grab the Rock'n'Roll item in the tree) and drop it onto the Genre that it should be (maybe just plain vanilla "Rock" if that's what you like to use).
As another example, I can see in my screenshot above that I have some files tagged with "The Dead with Warren Haynes". It shouldn't be this way, and those should be filed under just plain vanilla "Dead, the" (and Warren's involvement would be noted in a different field). I can easily just right click on "The Dead with Warren Haynes" and rename it to "Dead, the" and it will change the Artist field for all of the songs "contained" in there. I could also drag-drop it if there already was one listed there (which it isn't because this is my work computer and I only have a small sub-set of my total music library here at work -- 6000 files or so).
PS. If an admin sees this, you may want to split these past few "tree tagging methods" posts off into their own thread. I can't do it myself. ;D
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One warning though... With this power to quickly and painlessly re-assign the tags of many files at once comes some danger. I strongly recommend that you do not check the "Don't show this message again" box in the Are You SureTM dialog that appears when you drop files onto a tree's node. This will save you from accidentally drag-dropping files from one tree in the node to another when you don't mean to.
It was very nice that Matt added that reminder, and has saved me lots of frustration (I usually hate those nag windows, but this one is useful).
Another note is that dropping files onto an "Unassigned" node in the tree does work correctly and clears the tag to blank (rather than adding the text "Unassigned" to the tag as you may have feared). Dropping files onto the "All (#)" item however, will assign them with the text "All (19)" (for example) in the relevant field, so don't do that (even if the item you're dropping onto is a "child" of an "All" item)!
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I like the genre correction capability, too often genres will not much your personalized ones as well as sub genres. Thanks for the rundown, I am digging this tool. I am ripping my Dead, Dylan, & The Band now; hope you made some quality YADB submissions! ;)
DC
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Like "Artist Info" button for the toolbar that links you right to AllMusic.com we could use an "Album Info" button; AllMusic has album reviews as well.
Also, allowing whatever tile or file is selected to be the one looked up would allow for uninterrupted playback.
thanks
Dr. C
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I would like the ablility to use internal volume with Video files. I have asked for this before, and I was told it might be done in a later version. Please do!
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My 2 Cents worth: :-\
Enhanced TIVO features and Video Editing. In my situation, I do two things with video files: Somewhat temporary storage in .mpeg format for streaming to media player in bedroom (only have 200GB of storage space, so permanent storage is not yet feasible), and transfer to my smartphone for watching shows on the train ride to work. Instead of using 4 different programs to accomplish the same, heres what I would LOVE to see (some of these perhaps incorporated into the TIVO server plugin?):
1. Automatic scheduled transfer of files from TIVO to PC.
2. Ability to access "Now Playing" on TIVO and immediately transfer selected files. Similar to TIVO desktop.
3. Ability to setup individual rules for each transfer group, to allow specific file locations for each transfer or transfer group, instead of just 1 generic location where everything gets thrown together. This could apply for both pre-edited and post-edited files.
4. Ad removal. Or, at least a 30 sec skip feature in editing mode.
5. Ability to set audio and video bitrates, FPS, and resolution for transferred files. This would apply not only to TIVO files, but to .avi, mpeg and wmv files as well.
6. Automatic tagging (or at least the option for doing so) that would pick up the name of the show and add to artist name field (or perhaps a new field, titled "show name" or something along those lines). Right now, I have to manually add the artist name on every show imported.
8. File copying and/or archive function.
9. Automatic file deletion option: here is an option I think would be intriguing and useful for folks like me who dont have 20 tb of disc storage, and who are either streaming their shows on the home network, or, transferring to handheld: the OPTION of automatically deleting files that have reached a certain age, or other pre-set rule(s), to free up disc space for newer shows. Especially the palm smartphone files, I dont really need to keep those once I have watched them, but want to have a ready supply to transfer for the next work week.
thats all (for now).
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well I've wrote in a previous post (very old i guess) that what i want in MC12. I cant recall them all but some of them are like
1. I've used Helium 2006. I like many features of this software. I want those features in MC12.
2. Another thing is song preview option. It should be modified, i mean if i can customize the duration of preview. 1/4 or 2/4 or 4/4 part of a song may be previewed (sorry for my bad english)
3.And of Course the rating system. its pity that various player has various rating system i may recall Musicmatch, Winamp, iTunes, Media Player, MC all of them has different rating system. this thing should be changer. there should be a unique rating system so that i dont have to rate every time in various player
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I would like to see MC with cover CD, like this:
(http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7794/mccover7dc.th.jpg) (http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7794/mccover7dc.jpg)
opinions?
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- Play/Organize ripped DVDs easily. I'd love to be manage/play all my movies from inside MC.
- Cache tracks the have been encoded on the fly for my iPod
- Remote ripping - I'd like to have 4 machines hooked up to one MediaCenter library server, and have those machines rip CDs to that server. i.e. copy them up there and add the files to that library.
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hi
just a little thing (but a big work i know) for MC12 :
TV STREAMING , it will be cool if i can see my TV across my network.
thanks
peace
waiting for MC12...
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Not exactly a feature of the software itself, but I would like some transparency by the development team about what they are currently working on and a *rough* timeframe for deployment of the next version. A blog (with RSS of course) would work nicely; and they are all the rage these days.
One feature I'd like to see is related to synchronizing with devices/folders and using the conversion feature. Currently if you convert from one format to another as part of the sync (for me FLAC -> mp3) it maxes out my CPU making the computer useless for other tasks. A "auto-synchronize when idle" option per device would be sweet.
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hi
just a little thing (but a big work i know) for MC12 :
TV STREAMING , it will be cool if i can see my TV across my network.
thanks
try SageTV...
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I have a suggestion about the use of the tree in MC12.
I know it's had some work done to it already, and I'm not sure how it works now, but I would like to suggest that the current drop down menu in tiles view (to view "genre" or "artist" etc.) be integrated into the tree.
When you click on an audio viewscheme it could auto expand to show the contents of the current drop down menu (including the option to view in panes mode).
Plus: You always see everything you need to be able to see to be able to navigate. (Nothing hidden in menus)
Minus: Conflicts with the current "populate tree" feature of the tree.