Topic: Tips and Tricks (Read 4514 times)

lise · « **on:** January 28, 2002, 11:16:50 am »

I'm including "tips and tricks" boxes throughout the help file. If you have something you want to contribute, post it here. And of course, I will include the source of the tip, so if you don't want credit for it, indicate that when posting.

And a note to all power-users... I've stayed away from beta-testing too much on v8, so that when it came time to write the help file, I wouldn't be taking anything for granted. So you may see me posting more 'how to' questions than usual in the coming days. All help is much appreciated.

Xstatic · « **Reply #1 on:** January 28, 2002, 11:35:58 am »

if I understand your post correctly, you are gathering all the (or most of the) tips and tricks in how to get the best and most out of the different functionalities in MJ and together with J River put in the help file?

That is a fantastic idea!
So big and cool of you to do that work!

Will contribute to the best of my skill and knowledge.

regards
Jesper

Alonso N · « **Reply #2 on:** January 28, 2002, 11:45:29 am »

Some kind fellow (Doof, I think) started a T&T thread back a ways that got some good results. You might want to find it and copy the good bits here to start.

lise · « **Reply #3 on:** January 28, 2002, 11:50:26 am »

Jesper,

Perhaps not as 'big and cool' as you might think... I was hired to write the help file for m7, and now I'm updating it for v8. For the v7 manual, I included my own little tips throughout, but this time I thought it would be more fun and beneficial to other users to officially include tips & tricks from all users.

lise · « **Reply #4 on:** January 28, 2002, 12:01:45 pm »

Ok. Here are a couple from Doof (from the other thread)...

"Thanks to MJ's new Media View/Search integration, we can create media views that filter out files to our hearts content. One of the things I did was create an Artist/Album view that only included Artists with Albums. (If I don't have, nor intend to get an entire album, I take the album name out of the tag)"

And another...

"[A]nother thing I found that I can do, is create a Playlist Group called "Media Types". In there, I created two smartlists. One called Audio and the other called Video. I used the following rules for each :

Audio : type=[669],[aa],[aif],[aifc],[aiff],[amf],[ape],[apl],[au],[cda],[dsm],[far],[gdm],[imf],[it],[jmx],[lqt],[m01],[m15],[med],[mid],[midi],[mod],[mp|PLS|],[mp2],[mp3],[mpa],[ogg],[okt],[ra],[rmi],[rmid],[rmj],[s3m],[sdp],[snd],[stm],[stx],[ult],[uni],[voc],[vqf],[wav],[wma],[xm]

Video : type=[avi],[m1v],[mov],[mpe],[mpeg],[mpg],[mpv],[qt],[ram],[rv],[swf],[wmv]

I then created a Media View that uses that Playlist Group. Now I have a Media View that automatically seperates all of my audio and video files. I could even go deeper and add Artist\Album to that view as well, if I want."

And from Alonso N in that same thread...

Separate the cuts & stuff from the full albums buy putting all cuts in \server\musicuts and all albums in \server\music\albums\artist.
To distinguish cuts from non-cuts, just do this:
Smartlist Cuts: location=[\server\musicuts\"
Smartlist Non-Cuts: location=[\server\music\"

And I'll add Callithumpian's here too in a few minutes

Matt · « **Reply #5 on:** January 29, 2002, 06:22:43 am »

I think right-clicking on the Play button is pretty nifty...

KingSparta · « **Reply #6 on:** January 29, 2002, 06:36:32 am »

or right clicking on the EQ, DSP Buttons Or The Volume Slider to turn them on or off

Doof · « **Reply #7 on:** January 29, 2002, 07:34:12 am »

Right Clicking the EQ, DSP, and Playback buttons> I didn't even know I could do that until just now. Next Page

See, it's working already. Next Page

Cmagic · « **Reply #8 on:** January 29, 2002, 11:36:47 am »

Right Click on the progress bar to pause/play !

Actually only Stop has no right click action !

Doof · « **Reply #9 on:** January 29, 2002, 11:58:44 am »

It would be a perfect place for:

Hard Stop
Fade Out And Stop
Finish Song Then Stop
Finish Song Then Stop With Fade

Callithumpian · « **Reply #10 on:** January 29, 2002, 12:57:02 pm »

Doof, you have a great mind!

Doof · « **Reply #11 on:** January 29, 2002, 12:57:50 pm »

It wasn't my idea. Next Page

Mr_X · « **Reply #12 on:** January 29, 2002, 08:22:21 pm »

So now that I found out about the right-click on the control buttons, I've right-clicked just about everything else in the window, and found one more good trick:

Right-Clicking on any of the column-titles in the right pane (where you would left-click to "sort-by") allows you to select and de-select colums to be shown in that view. Very cool!

lise · « **Reply #13 on:** February 03, 2002, 12:58:49 pm »

bumping... it's almost your last change to submit your tips and tricks.

Cmagic · « **Reply #14 on:** February 04, 2002, 11:50:13 am »

Chère Lise,

Voici mes 2 centimes :

Viewing removable medias by categories
======================================
The simple way (by media type)
Add a new View scheme (R-click on Media Library) call it 'Removable media types'
In the view scheme properties dialog
Add type, Add Volume Name,
set 'show files' as 'CD & DVD titles'
Ok, that's your removable media will be sorted as cda, dvd, mp3, ape...
feel free to rename the volume names

The more general way (take full control of what you wanna see)
Add a playlist group named 'media type', in this group create 3 (or more) smartlists
call the first one 'CDA' and set the rule 'location=.cda'
call the second 'DVD' and set the rule 'location=.dvd'
then call the third one 'DATA' and set the rule '-location=.cda -location=.dvd'

Now Edit the 'CD & DVD' view scheme Add the playlist group 'media type'
then use the up/down button so that the order is Playlist (media type), Volume Name
Close Ok.
Now when you select the CD & DVD view, your removable medias will be sorted
in on of the group CDA, DVD, DATA depending on the media. You can Rename each
Volume name so that it's significant.

Creating Playing Stats views
=================================
Create a New Playlist Group (R-click on Playlists/Add playlist group)
Give it some name like 'play stats'
Create a new smartlist under this group call it 'never played' set the rule lastplayed=>9999999
(be careful if you enter more than seven digits you'll be back to 0!)
Create another smartlist call it 'played last hour' set the rule lastplayed=<60
Create one other call it 'Recently played', set the rule lastplayed=<99999999. Yes we're
re-creating a recently played playlist that will be fully accessible like any other playlist.

Create a new view scheme (R-click Media Library) call it play stats
In the properties Add Playlist 'play stats', Add Artist then Add Album
Now you can navigate in the play stats view and check the tracks that you
played last hour and those that you never played.

You can combine those basic smartlists with genres or years to build a
'Never played jazz tracks from the sixties'

Using MPL playlist as a convenient way of saving partial database
=================================================================
Sometimes you'll want to save the database informations including custom fields
without saving the whole database. For example when creating a backup CD-rom.
You can use a mpl playlist for that purpose.
Select the albums/tracks you want save.
Then in File/export playlist choose MPL playlist
Select a convenient location and filename (default us playlist.mpl)
Make sure All fields is checked as Included fields
All right, click OK!
You now have an mpl playlist that is fully importable with Tools/Import media
All fields of the database are save in an easy editable XML file.

Importing an MPL playlist
=========================
from the previous tip, you've learned how to save a portion of your database in an
MPL playlist. Now you'll want to import it back, easy !
Go to File/Library/Import Media...
Select the directory where your mpl file is stored.
Make sure the mpl check box is set, also make sure to disable other file extension
that might be present in the same directory (to make things cleaner !)
Then press 'Start search'.
All your data field should now be back in your library.
If some fields are missing (date field in MJ8.0.195) you can do a library update :
Go to File/Library/Update Library..
Check the box "Update 'new' database fields (for upgrading)"
click Ok, you're set.
Provided that your music and image files are on the correct paths you can enjoy your music.

Please feel free to edit/correct/change the spelling and the grammar
as U know l'anglais n'est pas la langue de ma maman, ni celle de
mon père qui est polonais et encore moins celle de ma femme qui est africaine !

Bon courage pour la rédaction.

Cordialement

Gatobrit · « **Reply #15 on:** February 04, 2002, 11:57:11 am »

I guess select a file or files, then click on Properties / Tools - so many things to play with.

lise · « **Reply #16 on:** February 06, 2002, 08:20:45 am »

Rather than just having "tips & tricks", I'm also considering adding a section on MJers and how they actually use the program (the kinds of playlists they create, how they have set it up in their car (Dragyn!), etc). So if you have something you want to contribute that might not exactly fit under the "tips & tricks" category, please post it anyway. I'm sure it would be benefical to all readers of the help file to see how others are using the program, and thus giving newbies (and power-users) insight into the far-reaching possiblities of MJ. Heck, perhaps the results can even go somewhere on this webpage!

bennyd · « **Reply #17 on:** February 06, 2002, 08:34:01 am »

- You can turn on BIG icons with text underneath via customise toolbar (default are small icons with selective text)
- I've created a Media View : Genre/Subgenre/Artist/Album So e.g. I can see Alternative/Slows/Smashing Pumpkins/Hits/Disarm
- Next and Back buttons on Toolbar will bring you back or forth to the last selected item in MediaJukebox
- In TV Tuner you can add a channel what's in fact your webcam and take snapshots of it, very cool (in full screen)

- In Visualisations you can Cycle through ONE folder now, which allows you to copy all your favourate visualisations into 1 folder and cycle them random

Doof · « **Reply #18 on:** February 07, 2002, 05:32:03 am »

How about this?

You can add HTML tags to your tags to cause them to display a certain way in TrackInfo, completely independently of what the Template defines.

For instance, I just took an Enya song, and put both Latin and English version of the lyrics in the edit box, and put my own tags around each section of the lyrics, so that when it displays in Track Info, both translations show up side by side instead of in one long column.

Like this:

JustJoe · « **Reply #19 on:** February 07, 2002, 05:32:23 pm »

OK, If any of you feel this is in the wrong category, I do apologize. Otherwise, I wonder i you any of you out there have a T or T on how to possibly modify the available tasks in the Media Scheduler. I have approximately 418 hours of music, all tagged, categorized, appointed situations, etc. I also have various playlists such as "The Jazz Hour", "JamBands Sessions", etc. All of my music is shared throughout the entire house, and accessible from almost every room, and all audio is piped throughout the entire house as well via my receiver and X10 wireless speaker amps. What I would like to do is have the ability to almost create my own radio station by having certain playlists played on Day X, at time Y.

Again, if in the wrong place, I apologize, but this discussion seems to involve people who are truly USING MJ, and "bringing it to new levels" Next Page

. Any input you may have would be greatly appreciated!

JustJoe

lise · « **Reply #20 on:** February 07, 2002, 05:51:50 pm »

Ok, this one was just too good. I can't wait for the help file, I have to share it now.

Thanks to Raymond, I just discovered a truly amazing thing about media scheduler. Check out what I do.

On weekdays at 9:05 CBC radio plays a show called "Ideas". But I want to first see the schedule of who is on before listening to it. Check out what MJ does. At 9pm it will automatically open the web page for the show's schedule. If I like what I see, I just click on the shortcut for "Play Ideas" or "Record Ideas", or I just go ahead and schedule MJ to automatically tune into the station at 9:05. Man this is outstanding!

To auto open a web page:

1. Open Media Scheduler < Next Page

rograms> < Media Scheduler>
2. Select "Add Perdiodic Task"
3. Under the Action menu, select "Start Custom Task"
4. give a start time
5. In Program Path, browse to explorer.exe
6. In command line, insert web address
7. Select Weekdays
8. Press "OK"

To create a shortcut for "Play Ideas"

1. Repeat steps 2-4
2. In Program Path, browse to mediajukebox.exe
3. In Command Line, insert Play/web address
4. Select Weekdays
5. Click on Command Shortcuts
6. Select "Save current as a shortcut"
7. Give it a name.
(accessing the short cut is a bit clunky right now, but Raymond is looking into it)

To set the Scheduler to auto play (or record) the station:

1. Under Action, select Start Media Jukebox (or Start Recording)
2. Then just fill in the blanks as described in the steps above.

JimH · « **Reply #21 on:** February 08, 2002, 04:14:44 am »

Justjoe,
Please repost your message in a new thread.

mike · « **Reply #22 on:** February 08, 2002, 05:35:13 am »

I use APE images |PLS| APL files a lot and use the following smartlist commands to filter out the APE images (but not the APLs) so I don't have the album playing twice:

length=>1800 type=ape

It looks for any APE files longer than 30 minutes. Simple but it works!

Doof · « **Reply #23 on:** February 08, 2002, 06:27:45 am »

mike> Isn't it easier to just not import the APE file? That's how I'm doing it. I'm just wondering what benefit you find by having the APE imported into the library...

mike · « **Reply #24 on:** February 08, 2002, 06:48:47 am »

Yeah but this way all I do is just import my music folder as a whole which is easy, and the APE images are filtered out. (I do have some APE's which are not images also) I wish filtered items were completely hidden (not just dimmed) in the playing now display. (I put that in as a wishlist item btw) But yeah if I removed the APE images from my library they wouldn't show up in playing now either. It's nice to have them in the library though if you are tagging them and such.

Doof · « **Reply #25 on:** February 08, 2002, 07:06:15 am »

See, I've been adding APL's to my library one CD at a time (re-enocding them all), so I've just had MJ set to import everything except APE's. I also haven't been tagging the APE at all. I just leave all that for the APL files. No real reason I haven't been, I just haven't. Next Page

I just figure that since it's not really something I ever want to play, and will maybe edit the tag for once, then it doesn't need to be in there.

What I'd like to see in MJ, is some advanced APL support, where you can move the APE or APL file and it will repair the links automatically.

Eric · « **Reply #26 on:** February 08, 2002, 04:38:30 pm »

I like dragging and dropping to start a streaming playlist. e.g. drag and drop one of the Hi Fi Play links on www.mp3.com onto the playing now playlist.

Eric · « **Reply #27 on:** February 08, 2002, 04:43:20 pm »

This works. Drag and drop the link below onto MJ's playlist

http://play.mp3.com/cgi-bin/play/play.cgi/AAIBQinfEQDABG5vcm1QBAAAAFIhPgAAUQEAAABD1pdjPKBtNFWRCO1CaPvCylclpJQ-/Footprints_On_The_Sea.m3u

lise · « **Reply #28 on:** February 14, 2002, 09:31:09 pm »

Last chance for tips & tricks...

lise · « **Reply #29 on:** March 01, 2002, 03:47:33 am »

yup...still looking for more

ZRocker · « **Reply #30 on:** April 15, 2002, 02:07:31 pm »

Just found this one:

When using in-place editing to update/rename a tag value in the List view (right-side), you can use the up/down arrow to start editing an adjacent track (don't press enter until you've edited all the tracks you want). This is pretty nice if you are manually adding Track Names or other fields that don't have repeatable data.

zevele1 · « **Reply #31 on:** April 15, 2002, 02:18:09 pm »

I cannot resist
If you run built 8.239.There is a bug in download manager.If you right click any "stream only"song and chose save with DM.It downloads the song instead of playing it.Very cool!

Ilmar · « **Reply #32 on:** April 16, 2002, 01:26:55 pm »

Hi Lise

Is there any possibility of you posting your "work-in-progress" on the help files/tips'n'tricks in Beta form?

Even if this were in text file format..
this way you could get direct feedback, infills and suggestions as you go along..?

As well as helping many of us, reducing the number of SOS posts, it would help you too?

PLUS! you got an army of proofreaders....

Ilmar

lise · « **Reply #33 on:** April 18, 2002, 06:40:12 am »

llmar,

I don't quite understand. The "Tips & Tricks" section is already included in the help file. You can read it there and post suggestions here.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Tips and Tricks (Read 4514 times)

Xstatic

Alonso N

Cmagic

Mr_X

JustJoe

mike

mike

lise

zevele1