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[haggis999]

One of the problems about using Gizmo for classical music is the lack of any display of the Composer tag or any ability to show custom tags, e.g. a Work tag containing the name of a composition (usually spanning several tracks). Whether you like it or not, all you get is Track, Artist and Album tags in Gizmo's 'Playing Now' display.

With any luck, a future version of Gizmo will correct this current bias towards the needs of popular music. In the meantime, is there any way to remap the Artist and Album tags in MC just for Gizmo? If so, I would probably want to remap one of them to Composer and the other to Work (or possibly a concatenation of Work and Artist).

David

[csimon]

It would also be handy to be able to remap tags when synching with a handheld.

For example, lots of mobile players don't know about Album Artist, or don't have a Sort Artist tag, or the sort tag is inaccessible from MC. So I'd like to be able to specify what goes into Artist and Album Artist, which may be different for individual synch types.

Putting these two requests together, it makes a case for some sort of generic mapping facility that can be applied to views or exports or conversions etc....

[haggis999]

It would also be handy to be able to remap tags when synching with a handheld.

For example, lots of mobile players don't know about Album Artist, or don't have a Sort Artist tag, or the sort tag is inaccessible from MC. So I'd like to be able to specify what goes into Artist and Album Artist, which may be different for individual synch types.

Putting these two requests together, it makes a case for some sort of generic mapping facility that can be applied to views or exports or conversions etc....

Sadly, your reply appears to confirm my fear that there is no existing tag remapping tool for Gizmo. However, I already knew I was clutching at straws ...

I didn't quite follow what you meant by "It would also be handy to be able to remap tags when synching with a handheld". Do you mean a mobile phone? If so, then that's no different from my desire to have tag remapping for use with Gizmo, which is designed for any Android device (and in my case is run on a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 'phablet').

My plea for a tag remapping facility was not an original idea. I recently found out that this concept is exploited in MinimServer to make it work more effectively for the needs of classical music with a variety of control points. Simon Nash, the author of MinimServer, is an extremely smart programmer and makes a point of seeking out classical-friendly solutions.

If you make use of a Work (aka Composition) tag in MinimServer and alias that to MinimServer's Group tag, which are both likely things for a classical enthusiast to do, then the Album tag is automatically remapped to Work. This works very well with BubbleUPnP, whose 'Now Playing' screen can display Track, Artist, Album and Composer. With MinimServer's automatic remapping, this becomes Track, Artist, Work and Composer - thus meeting the basic requirements for classical music. MinimServer also appears to offer more generic tag remapping and combination facilities.

While J River MC reigns supreme in my view as a tool for all music file organisation duties and tag updates, I have come to the conclusion that MinimServer on a NAS and BubbleUPnP on an Android phone or tablet are something of a dream team for playing classical music without any need to turn on your computer. That said, I would still like to see a tag remapping facility in MC and a Composer tag display on Gizmo and JRemote (in addition to Artist rather than via remapping). This would enable them to match the capability of the MinimServer/BubbleUPnP combo.

David

[csimon]

Well, I'm not saying that it isn't there, it's just that I haven't found it either!

I didn't quite follow what you meant by "It would also be handy to be able to remap tags when synching with a handheld". Do you mean a mobile phone? If so, then that's no different from my desire to have tag remapping for use with Gizmo, which is designed for any Android device

Yes, a mobile phone is an example, however the Sync to Handheld facility is indeed a different case from Gizmo. The sync facility physically copies files from MC to the device for playing locally in its own player. Gizmo doesn't get files downloaded to it but they get streamed from MC via the Gizmo Views.  Same requirement for remapping but completely different use-case and solution.  If it was done via DLNA then there may be common ground in the form of Conversion.  Both DLNA and Handheld Sync allow you to convert the file from one format to another for compatibility purposes and the tag remapping could be done in the Conversion setup.

It is my major complaint with most media players that they severaly restrict you on how to categorise your collection of music. that's why I settled on MC because it's the only one that's completely flexible and allows you to do what you want, inside the confines of its own UI.

[haggis999]

Please excuse my ignorance . Until your last post I'd never seen Tools/Options/Handheld before! MC is such a comprehensive application that it is all too easy to overlook some of its capabilities.

If our assumption that tag remapping does not yet exist is correct then it is a rare example of a missing facility. Until now, I had gained the impression that there was almost nothing that MC could not achieve.

David

[MrC]

There is no tag remapping.  You can accomplish this in a multi-step operation.

First, sync the files to the Handheld.  Next, ensure they are imported into MC.  Third, select those tracks and use expressions or the Move/Copy fields tool to "map" your tags to another field.

[haggis999]

There is no tag remapping.  You can accomplish this in a multi-step operation.

First, sync the files to the Handheld.  Next, ensure they are imported into MC.  Third, select those tracks and use expressions or the Move/Copy fields tool to "map" your tags to another field.

Sadly, I don't think that works for real time playing of music direct from the MC library via Gizmo.

David

[MrC]

Yeah, sorry, I just read the most recent question in the thread, and didn't remember the context of the thread.

You want a Title-like expression that MC's DLNA server has available, whereby you can set a customized display title.

[haggis999]

You want a Title-like expression that MC's DLNA server has available, whereby you can set a customized display title.

Can you please explain that suggestion in a little more detail in relation to the tags that Gizmo can display.

David

[MrC]

I don't have Gizmo, so am not authoritative on what it can do, or how it can be configured.  I'm guessing, as you mention, the Playing Now list has only Track, Artist and Album, and so you've come up with the idea that if you could only remap one tag to another, you'd get the info you want.

But I'd suggest an alternative solution would be that Gizmo supported customized Titles in Playing Now, ideally, you could specify the fields you wanted displayed.  More ideally, you'd be able to use the expression language (or some form of one) to customize the display based on content.  But this might be complicated, and maybe not easy.

An alternative is to support a Title expression, which could default to Track, Artist and Album, and have Gizmo use that Title value. This way, MC decides the metadata to be displayed, and Gizmo just consumes it.  Then, you have control and could use MC's expression language to test the content's metadata, and send the appropriate data via Title.

[csimon]

There is no tag remapping.  You can accomplish this in a multi-step operation.

First, sync the files to the Handheld.  Next, ensure they are imported into MC.  Third, select those tracks and use expressions or the Move/Copy fields tool to "map" your tags to another field.

Sorry, I don't understand!  The files are already in MC.  If the files have already been synched (either exported to Android or to a folder), how can altering the tags in MC affect those files, and without affecting the originals?  Are you saying that I would need to create a separate library each time I want to sync?

[MrC]

My HH files are not added to the Library.  I don't use the MC cache, nor add this virtual HH directory to auto-import.  If yours are already there, you can skip that step.

I suppose the thing to take away from this discussion is that MC can sync, and it can change tags, but the two are separate operations.  So if you want to do both, it involves multiple steps, and these depend on how you want to manage your workflow.

[csimon]

I think the only way I can see this working is to clone the library, alter the tags in the new library, and then sync from the new library (or indeed point Gizmo at the new library, keeping the OP in mind). That's fine for a one-off but not really practical for incremental changes.

[haggis999]

I don't have Gizmo, so am not authoritative on what it can do, or how it can be configured.  I'm guessing, as you mention, the Playing Now list has only Track, Artist and Album, and so you've come up with the idea that if you could only remap one tag to another, you'd get the info you want.

But I'd suggest an alternative solution would be that Gizmo supported customized Titles in Playing Now, ideally, you could specify the fields you wanted displayed.  More ideally, you'd be able to use the expression language (or some form of one) to customize the display based on content.  But this might be complicated, and maybe not easy.

An alternative is to support a Title expression, which could default to Track, Artist and Album, and have Gizmo use that Title value. This way, MC decides the metadata to be displayed, and Gizmo just consumes it.  Then, you have control and could use MC's expression language to test the content's metadata, and send the appropriate data via Title.

My tag remapping suggestion was merely a hoped for interim fix. A cleaner solution would indeed be for Gizmo to offer some level of customisation so that users can choose which tags are to be displayed for each track during both Playing Now and library views, preferably with a choice of four such tags as currently offered by BubbleUPnP. As you say, it would be even better if one could adjust the tag display according to content - such as a Genre-based choice where you see Composer, Work, Artist and Track for classical, while for non-classical you get Artist, Album and Track. 

David