Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[negopus]

I am an Italian audio enthusiast engineer. I am going to report a (long) list of considerations I have made during the last months while using Media Center.

Immediateness Of Use
I am using Media Center a lot, as it is the only integrated tool that allows me to perform certain organization tasks on audio files. It is really one step beyond a simple "multimedia file player". But its use isn't immediate.
When, in your workplace, you are compelled by your management to use certain software, e.g. Word or Outlook, you find it very difficult to achieve certain results. You have to resort to all your skill and imagination: at the end, with a great effort, you can still achieve the result you want. But you have to concentrate on the instrument, while the instrument should be transparent and immediate to use, just like using a screwdriver.
The same applies to Media Center. Many things can be done, but they are all two or three clicks away, while the most used functions should all be one click (or one hot-key) away. Most functions I use very often (like Audio Analysis) require a long sequence of mouse clicks (or, using the keyboard, ALT+T, L, A, a key sequence that one is going to forget easily). Moreover, when you want to perform a given task, you have to put an hand on your forehead and _think_: "well, how do I do that?". Most functions appear really unnatural. If I want to have a certain sorting on files, I have to _think_: "well, to have files sorted by fields A, B, and C I have to click on the columns in reverse order: C, B then A".
After all, Media Center is entertainment software.

Structuring of Media Center Features
Media Center has lots of possibilities, but they should be better structured. For example, the Option menu should be split in a "Program Options" and a "Library Options" menu, as one is pertaining the program behaviour, and the other is about the configuration of the single library.

Niche or Mainstream Product?
Maybe my need is different from the needs of the masses, and nowadays software is made for the masses. The basic equation that seems to rule the world is "Total Profit = Unit Profit * Number Of Copies Sold". To increase "Total Profit" there is no need to resort to complex optimization methods: if you cannot increase "Unit Profit", you have to increase "Number Of Copies Sold". Media Center, however, does not seem a product for the masses. It is, actually, a "niche" product, for media enthusiasts who, notwithstanding the lack of documentation, spend a lot of time playing with it and find out how to use its enormous potential. So, even if Media Center is a commercial product, few features are available straight "out of the box".
The features I seek in Media Center are oriented to a more "professional" audience, like DJs, audio technicians or musical reviewers. A market, however, that JRiver could keep in mind. I don't think I am the only person in the world that uses his music collection the way I do: music professional use their audio collection in a similar manner in order to perform their work.
I think that Media Center could become an excellent product for music reviewers, and audio professionals at large. A DJ could use the superior organization features of Media Center to create playlists, the export them to professional mixing software. I think, however, it is useless to add professional mixing/scratching features to Media Center, even if it would be so much fun to loop and scratch the track you are listening to...

Features I will never use
Media Center is so packed with features, that I keep finding very advanced one that I will sever use, as the do not fit my way of enjoying PC-based entertainment. "Stream Radio to a Remote PC", for example, is technically interesting.

Media Formats
I am not interested in images or video playback. I don't even have such media types on my PC. I have removed them in order to make space on the hard disk. Also, imaging and video technologies are not mature yet. Just see the awesome number of formats (and codecs) available. Dedicated image and video playback are by far more feature-packed and more responsive. I have tried playing DVDs on Media Center, but it really acts as a very basic viewer (resembling the difference between Notepad and Word).
I even find the "Image Playback" feature annoying (I want to listen to music), and I haven’t figured out how to disable it easily.
Speaking of audio media formats, I am oriented to keeping my files in two formats only: WAV for uncompressed audio and MP3 for compressed audio. Two formats are enough for me, but more are of course welcome, and a program named "Media Center" cannot afford missing a single one.

Documentation
Media Center is really powerful, but it lacks on documentation. It is a program for "hands-on" people. When you want to do something, you have to figure it out by yourself how to do it.
Audio algorithms are not documented. Also, no information is found about audio reference levels. Calculated field could be a very interesting feature, but no reference is found about calculated fields templates. In Media Center 10 I found a new field, "Access Rating", whose meaning I do not understand.

Forums
You can override the lack of documentation in Media Center by going to the online forums. There is a lot information buried in there, but it is really volatile. Also, the search engine is rather slow and not very powerful, and it is difficult to find interesting results with it.

Plug-ins
Some of my needs are solved by using plug-ins. But only few plug-ins are shown in the official Media Center web site. A lot of plug-ins are discussed in the "Third Party Plug-ins" forum.
If a plug-in is missing, you can always program it by yourself. There is a lot of SDK documentation available. But you are supposed to be able to program, and to have a lot of spare time available.
An interesting plug-in site is http://www.spartasoft.com (King Sparta). The plug-in goals are good, but graphically they are very coarse. Fonts are chosen that do not support ClearType rendering. I don't know is "Sparta" stands for a certain simplicity in software, however I have installed the plug-ins and I ended up never having used them.

Usage Modes
I use Media Center to listen to music in two basic ways:
1) Foreground (actively working on the music I am listening to)
2) Background (while doing other tasks on the PC)
All the features I need in Media Center fall, of course, in one of those two types of use.
I am not much interested in the "Hairstyle" mode because I work on my PC and I don't just sit on a sofa listening music. This is my way of experiencing media.

[JimH]

[Continued comments by Negopus, moved here by JimH]

Database Issues

Tree-style Navigation
Since Media Center 9.1 (if my memory serves me), the tree-style navigation of Media Library was removed. I really miss it. Not my favourite one, however it is the standard way of accessing data for anyone using professionally a computer, and it should be kept for "compatibility" reasons.

Relational Database
The audio experience is greatly improved when integrated with additional information about what you are listening to. Besides track Notes and Lyrics, information could be added to Artist, Album and Genre level. The database structure should be extended, making is a relational database with TRACK, ALBUM, ARTIST and GENRE tables. This is a radical design issue that could improve the usefulness of the database in a dramatic way.

Advanced Duplicates Handling
Duplicates search should be improved by adding the search of "similar" tracks.
So duplicates could be filtered on tracks having a similar duration, in order to find tracks with blanks added at the beginning or to the end, and other encoding artefacts.
Optionally, when a track in stored in uncompressed format (WAV) and the same track is found in a compressed format (MP3), an switch should be added not o consider these two tracks as duplicates.
An advanced duplicates search function should be added, that considers tracks having similar names, for example "Track" and "Track (Live)".
When two tracks are found that have the same duration, some form of technical analysis should be made to compare them and find their differences. Besides calculating the basic "Audio Analysis" parameters, a correlation of tracks could be made (correlation is a signal processing technique, used in radar decoding).

Enhanced Track Info Window
The "Track Info" visualization is nice, but it lacks real-time updating (of track position), and it is read-only: fields cannot be updated, but only read. Also, in previous versions of Media Center, the "Track Info" side window could be resized and made "always on top". Both can be useful, but they are not enough. The default editor for Notes and Lyrics (Data Type=String, Edit Type=Large Value) is really poor. Small font, not resizable. One could hardly use it.
I think that the audio experience is greatly enhanced by having additional information about what you are listening to. So an enhanced "Track Info" is needed.
"Enhanced Track Info" would be a window that can be made "always on top", activated by means of an hot-key (or icon). The window would have a few "tabs", each on which has a different activation hot-key (or icon). Tabs would be "General Info", "Lyrics", "Track Notes", "Artist Info/Bios", "Album Info", "and Genre Info". The window would be updated in real time with track position information and it would skip to the currently playing track. When the user is editing a field (with F2), of course the window would not change track until the user confirmed (or discarded) changes, for example with CTRL+ENTER.
It would be fun to have synchronized words and chord display, but, again, not really needed.

List Valued Fields
There are some type of information that are well suited to getting their values from a preset list (stored internally as a bitmap?). The "Keywords" could be one of these. This data type could be used to indicate "Key" (CM, Dm, Bbm, Atonal, N/A) or "Tempo" (4/4, 12/8, 5/4) for each track, allowing for multiple tonalities and/or tempos.

ID3V1 Mode
I am fond of using ID3V1 tags, as they are put at the end of the MP3 file, requiring no massive data movement on the hard disk. These tags have some limitations, but I think their advantages are more than their disadvantages. An "ID3V1" mode would come in very handy. This mode can be applied to any kind of file, but optionally it would display only relevant (MP3) files. It would be graphically clear that you are working in this "limited" mode. The "Genre" field would become a drop-down list, where only the 128 preset genres can be chosen. Text fields would be limited to 32 characters. Those exceeding the limit would be highlighted.

Markers
Markers could be added to each track, and an hot key to navigate between markers (sub-index) would be really useful. A configurable pre-roll time could be added to marker navigation, so you could start listening a few seconds before the marker itself.
Markers could be displayed while a global waveform view of the track is shown, giving a visual indication of the track structure (for example verse/chorus/bridge).

Multidimensional Navigation
Since a lot of information is associated to tracks, tracks could be classified and navigated in pretty advanced ways. For example, you can take a look to the "Glass Engine" (http://www.philipglass.com/glassengine/). Or you could navigate tracks in a 3D view, where the "norm" between tracks can be any kind of "likelihood" defined on the various database fields. This is pretty advanced stuff, however.

Libraries Synchronization
A tool to compare two libraries ("diff") could be useful: compare two local libraries and compare a local library with another one shared via Media Server.

View Schemas and Presets
The choice of columns to show and their sorting is very important when working with audio files. The set of such options was called "View Schema" in Media Center 9. Media Center 10 greatly improved the situation with the introduction of "Presets", but they are so far to reach (many mouse clicks and no hot-key). I switch very often between presets, as they servers my purposes well, but the operation is tedious. It should be possible to change presets with a single hot-key (or an icon in the toolbar).

Graphical Improvements
Icons (of course configurable) can be added to indicate genres.
A flag (maybe coloured) can be added to mark tracks with a particular interest.

[JimH]

[Continued comments by Negopus, moved here by JimH]

Advanced Usage

Icons and Hoy Keys
Hot-keys and toolbar icons are very few, and not configurable. All functions in Media Center should be assigned to an icon and a hot key. In order to increase usability, you need to access every function with a single keystroke (or click). I find it necessary for the few commands I always use.

Spreadsheet Mode
When Media Center is in foreground, I use it as if it was a spreadsheet. Actually, I never felt the need for skins, and I started using them when it became impossible to use "No Skin". MC would really seem a standard spreadsheet when used by me. I prefer using the keyboard, and my hands lift off the keyboard to the mouse only when I cannot perform the intended operation otherwise.
To enter the spreadsheet-like mode you have to click the mouse on a very small area (8 by 8?) with the arrows pointing left. The focus might remain in the left pane, so pressing the up/down arrows produces unintended results. The first impression is that I am using a spreadsheet written by a newbie with very coarse design shortcomings and coding errors. Not always F2 edits the field. You have to "highlight", clicking with the mouse, the intended field. In general, Media Center resembles only a feeble similarity to a standard spreadsheet.
In a real "spreadsheet" mode you would move through fields (not entire lines) using the arrow keys. When the field is highlighted, you just press F2 and edit it. When a field can assume a limited set of values ("combo box" or "drop-down)", an hot-key could be used to open the list of possible values.
The hot-key could be F6 (or F4, I don't remember the Microsoft standard, but F4 is already taken). The ENTER key starts playback. The real spreadsheet mode can be switched on and off with the F4 hot-key (like the sidebar in Opera).

Additional View Filters
On the column heading, in spreadsheet mode, an "Automatic Filter" could be shown, in addition to the (few) standard filters.
Lots of additional filters could defined, for general use (not only in spreadsheet mode). Their icons could be dragged on the toolbar.

File Playlists View in Action Window
When the "Action Window" shows "File Playlists", the check mark should appear before closed branches, when the current track is contained in a closed branch.
Also, an hot-key should be added to open all the branches (or just those containing the current track).

Background Usage
The background mode should not be too intrusive, as I believe that excessive stimulation is not health-safe.

Global Hot Keys
I think that arrow keys with SCROLL LOCK on can be an excellent "remote control" (no need for diNovo's) when used as "global" hot keys. I have tried Girder to obtain that result, but in order to use arrow keys only with SCROLL LOCK on you have to resort to some programming, and study Girder. So global hot keys are better suited to be built-in into Media Center.
The CTRL and SHIFT keys would act as modifiers to change the rewind speed
The ALT key could choose an alternate mode for stop con fade, cross fade, etc…

Current Track in Current Window Title
The title of the Current Track could be displayed in the title of the current window, fixed or scrolling. A Winamp plug-in does this task already exists, by the way.

System Tray VU Meter
A non-intrusive, yet useful, use of Media Center would be to display the output level in a system tray icon (or, alternatively,  in a fourth button on the left of the canonical _ox). In addition, a clipping indicator (red) could be added, with manual reset (click). Clipping could be shown in a different colour (yellow or orange) when it is due to Replay Gain in a track with irregular peaks. The response of the VU Meter should be quick, like ZoneAlarm
I think that the metering is applicable only to formats that can be played back through a "controllable" chain. I have found that videos, and certain audio types, are played back through the default sound card (I found the playback chain documented nowhere, by the way).

Real Time Usage

Keyboard Control and Responsiveness
Transport control by keyboard using CTRL+ARROWS is uncomfortable (having to keep the CTRL key pressed) and the step size, 5 seconds, is very coarse. Start and stop with CTRL+P and CTRL+S is unnatural also. I don't love using the mouse, I prefer a solid "analog" feel: few commands, that always work.

Professional Remote Control
Interesting alternative control surfaces are JL Cooper's MCS 2 and 3, but their price tag is very high in absolute ($300+) and in particular for a simple media user.
An hardware "Keyboard extender" (or "Media Pad") could be studied that includes a coloured (green-red) VU meter and big and solid transport controls.
It could be in-line with the keyboard, within easy reach, and it should go, for ergonomic reasons, on the opposite side of the mouse. It would be, however, unnatural to use media controls with the left hand for a right-handed person (and vice-versa). Keeping it on the mouse side would move the mouse too far from the keyboard. Media transport control keys could be of a different colour.

Go To Playing Now
An hot-key (and an icon) would be useful to move the focus to the currently playing track, if it is in sight. It the track is not in sight, the focus can be given to Playing Now.

Stop After Current Track
A minor flaw in Media Center is the missing "Stop After Current Track" command.

[JimH]

[Continued comments by Negopus, moved here by JimH]

Real Time Usage - Professional Audio

Visualizations
As you may guess, the only visualization I am interested in are "oscilloscope" and "spectrum analyzer". They are neither flashy nor cool, but I am interested in the technical content of visualization. The most notably missing feature is the X-Y oscilloscope (or, if it is possible to get it, I haven’t figured out yet how to program it).
Additional oscilloscope views would be interesting, such as a "scrolling waveform" like in high-end audio tools. It could be scaled down to get a preview of the (envelope of the) entire track.
Another interesting visualization would show a one-sided amplitude envelope, such as in professional mixing (DJ-oriented) software. This is well suited to displaying markers too, showing the track structure (chorus/verse/bridge/etc...)

There are fine VST plug-ins available to similar purposes. One solution might be to get a VST to DX adapter and use existing professional VST plug-ins.

I have also found some DirectX plug-ins that perform similar visualization tasks.
There are several DirectX plug-ins for visualization (spectrum and waveform) available

DirectX Host
I have installed the "DirectX Host" plug-in on MC 10, but at first nothing happened. I noticed only that now MC waits a minute, spinning the CPU usage to 10-20%, before starting playback. I cannot configure "DirectX Host" it in the "Plugin Manager" menu option, nor does it appear in the Plugins tree.
It could seem that "DirectX Host" was developed for MC 9 and not updated anymore. Really a shame, it could have solved my visualization needs.
But "DirectX Host" also appears in the MC 10 plug-ins list, and the initial release date shown in the site is not the latest release date (really confusing!).
With some effort (after a search within Interact) I discovered that the DirectX Host plug-in is useable within DSP Studio (really counter-intuitive!). Again, this feature is not documented.
The visualization performance is very poor. Refresh happens about two times per second, in a very irregular fashion. The sound processing by DirectX does not seem "stuttering", however (I am using a P4 2.4 GHz with 1 GB RAM).
So it is clear that "DirectX Host" was not made for visualization purposes.
Visualization plug-ins should be handled differently. They should appear in separate (multiple) windows with customizable refresh interval, and they should be treated as "Display Plugins" that can be displayed in full-screen mode. More than one visualization plug-in should be visualized, when in windowed mode.
After all this digression, it is clear that times are not mature yet for using external visualization plug-ins. JRiver should consider improving their visualization plug-in in a more "technical" fashion.

Audio Analysis
Audio Analysis could show the Peak Level expressed in dB, and not in percent. The dB and percent visualization could be switched as an user option, as the percent view could be more "mainstream".
The Replay Gain could be expressed with an opposite sign and shown as Average Level (or similar concept). Again, this could be an option.

Test Signal Generator
In order to use Media Center as a measurement tool for the home audio setup, an audio generator could be added.

Handling of Short Sounds
I also use Media Center to classify my "Computer Events" sounds (dings, bleeps, etc...). Media Center, however, is not strong at handling these files. Mostly because the "current" cursor advances with the "read-ahead" buffer used internally, and generates a lot of confusion on the listener, who is listening to one sound while the cursor is 10 tracks ahead, even setting a 2-second pause between tracks.

I hope someone read my long digression to the end. This is the result of months spent using Media Center.

negopus

[cattani]

wow !! good user !! your notes help us !!
italian people talk very much sometime

[Jaguu]

Far too much! My Mum was Italian too and she talked all the time. Now that she has passed away it seems that I have inherited that habit

[JimH]

That's a long list.  I'm not sure what we can do with it, but there are some interesting points made.

The tree is still there (or should be).  You may need to edit view schemes and turn on the "populate tree".  This is now the default view.

What version are you using?  10.0.146, on our downloads page, is the latest "known good".

[Sauzee]

I work for organisations that pay a small fortune for customer feedback like that!

[hit_ny]

I work for organisations that pay a small fortune for customer feedback like that!

Agreed, its really good, must have taken ages to compile. Each one of those paras can have its own thread. This happens when people get passionate about a product.

[negopus]

The tree is still there (or should be).  You may need to edit view schemes and turn on the "populate tree".  This is now the default view.

Sorry, but I cann't find the "populate tree" option, nor I find it in a context menu.

What version are you using?  10.0.146, on our downloads page, is the latest "known good".

I am using 10.0.144.

[negopus]

I work for organisations that pay a small fortune for customer feedback like that!

Well, the company I work for cares very little about detailed reports like that.  

[negopus]

Agreed, its really good, must have taken ages to compile.

Yes, it took a few days, but spread in several months.

Each one of those paras can have its own thread.

I think I will start separate threads for each topic. It is much more effective.

[JimH]

Do you have a tree at all?

If not, you may have the divider all the way to the left.  Look for little triangles on it and click them.

If you do have a tree, right click on "Media Library", then choose "edit view scheme".  You will see an option called populate tree.

[JimH]

I agree that it is good feedback.  My first reaction to it was, maybe we ought to price MC at $200 and just go after a really high end professional user.

Each user sees this differently, so a composite view is needed to have any idea where the existing customer base is.  That's pretty much what we get here on the forum -- except that newer users tend to be quieter and they are extremely important.  Then there are the users who never tried it because they needed something a little different.  And finally, development costs a lot of money, so we need to prioritize.  It means that some things get more attention than others.

[negopus]

And finally, development costs a lot of money, so we need to prioritize.  It means that some things get more attention than others.

I have expressed my complete "wish list" in my notes, but since priorites have to be set, I would give emphasis to the data organization aspects: Spreadsheet Mode and Relational Database (with TRACK, ALBUM, ARTIST and GENRE tables).

These features would really set MC apart the other products on the data organization side.

[Sauzee]

I agree that it is good feedback.  My first reaction to it was, maybe we ought to price MC at $200 and just go after a really high end professional user.

I'm sure that is, broadly speaking, what a Strategy Consultancy would recommend.  

They'd probably also suggest you forget about video, image & document management and scrap the integrated music service concept.

What makes me say that?  Well, I could be totally wrong, but I have lots of experience in this area (ie. strategy consulting - I've got zero experience in software development.)

[Jaguu]

I have seen more business strategies badly fail than happily succeed!
Successful business is more kind a of gut feeling than strategic thinking!

I feel MC11 is on a good track if they add many of the features that users requested in the past and at the same time add some really innovative features like document handling.

They can probably easily split their product into a music only or music+images only product if necessity arises. Think of MS Office! In the early days they just added features like crazy until they became No. 1, then they started perfecting the product. Obviously it was and is a big success! Probably not what a strategy consultant would have proposed at that time

[Sauzee]

Think of MS Office! In the early days they just added features like crazy until they became No. 1, then they started perfecting the product. Obviously it was and is a big success! Probably not what a strategy consultant would have proposed at that time

I think, given Microsoft's resources, and it's desire for market leadership, it is broadly the sort of thing a strategy consultancy would have proposed at that time.

The situation here is rather different.

[negopus]

And finally, development costs a lot of money, so we need to prioritize.  It means that some things get more attention than others.

I have expressed my complete "wish list" in my notes, but since priorites have to be set, I would give emphasis to the data organization aspects: Spreadsheet Mode and Relational Database (with TRACK, ALBUM, ARTIST and GENRE tables).

These features would really set MC apart the other products on the data organization side.

Then, after Relational Database (already implemente in MC11) and Spreadsheet Mode, my priorities are for Enhanced Track Info display and Keyboard Global Hot Keys (Arrow keys with SCROLL LOCK ON). SCROLL LOCK LED colour could be changed (to orange, for example) for easier identification when there is no light.

When working on the spreadsheet mode, think about accessibility with a screen reader. The voice would announce one field at a time (optionally followed by column title and row number). ENTER would start playback, as usual. F2 would edit the field. CTRL+ENTER would confirm changes to the field.