Topic: Media Center 11.0.66 Alpha Available (Read 5273 times)

Matt · « **on:** August 23, 2004, 05:31:06 pm »

We're still working on Media Center 11. We appreciate your feedback on it, but MC11 may not work as expected and we can't yet fully support it. When upgrading from MC 10, you will lose your settings. Some plugins still do not work.

If you want a more trouble-free experience, please download Media Center 10 here:
http://www.musicex.com/mediacenter/download.html

Media Center 11 is available here:
ftp://ftp.jriver.com/pub/downloads/music/MediaCenter110066.exe

11.0.65 / 11.0.66 (8/23/04)

1. NEW: Added CUE file playback support of individual tracks. (note the sample-accurate MP3 seeking below)
2. NEW: MP3 plugin uses sample-accurate seeking for all seeks.
3. NEW: Improved playback range / seeking system inside player / decoder core to be sample-accurate everywhere.
4. Fixed: In some cases, track boundaries could creep when burning MP3 files.
5. Changed: MP3 length analyzer for VBR files w/o a xing header is much faster.
6. Changed: Updated APE playback plugin to support sample-accurate seeking for CUE support.
7. NEW: Playback range is honored during conversion and audio analysis.
8. Fixed: IRMan plugin support was not functioning properly.
9. Changed: MC 11 now supports MC 10 (and previous) remote control plugins.
10. Fixed: Some right-click commands would not enable / disable properly in certain views.
11. NEW: Several image editor improvements and fixes.
12. Fixed: Selecting no file associations would cause MC to associate with the default types on install.
13. Fixed: The plural 'All' listing in the panes could be invalid in some cases.
14. Fixed: String type fields could be stored numerically in some cases. (i.e. Artist: 0.9)
15. Fixed: On non-administrative XP accounts, MC could report a 'Critical error #21' and not function properly.
16. NEW: Added location bar to the top of the Hairstyle Theater View skin.
17. NEW: Added ability to show webpages inside of Theater View. (currently hard coded as 'News', but will be user-customizable soon)

11.0.64 (8/19/04)

1. NEW: View schemes can be configured to show or not show in Theater View.
2. Changed: Simplified the display names of the year, month, and day fields.
3. Changed: 'All' listing in panes, tree, and Theater View includes field name.
4. Changed: Tweaked some wordings in Theater View.
5. Changed: Starting playback with 'Enter' in Theater View wouldn't always show the "Starting playback..." message.
6. NEW: Introduced new keyboard / remote navigation model for Theater View that doesn't mix left / right with page switching.
7. Fixed: Switching away from a tile view could cause a crash.
8. Fixed: Access Control settings were not being saved between sessions.

MC 11 Improvements

CUE file playback support with sample-accurate MP3 seeking
Many Theater View enhancements
Animated Direct3D file browsing
Split views so you can look at two (or more) views at the same time (ex. look at Media Library and Playing Now together)
Vastly improved database engine capable of handling 100,000's of files and large amounts of metadata (lyrics, bios, etc.)
Several memory and speed enhancements -- like database and skin unloading when minimizing MC
Much of MC's interface can be translated to other languages
Integrated database import and update with smart broken linking repairing, and other nice features
MC can run with guest permissions on Windows 2000 / Windows XP
New view customization system with more flexibility for thumbnail size, text, etc.
Options dialogs reworked -- several small options added
Added multi-zone synchronization
Added Album Gain support
Document support with full text searching / indexing
Pane auto-sizing
Tile view that allows fully customizable Track Info style tiles to be used in file lists
New database caching layer that makes a huge speed difference in many areas of MC
File tagging happens in a background thread so MC can continue to be used while it's saving tags
Basic image editing
Enhanced album grouping for pictures so pictures taken together get grouped without any user intervention
Preview mode to only play the intro of songs

Matt · « **Reply #1 on:** August 23, 2004, 05:31:14 pm »

Overview of some of the key MC 11 improvements:

CUE file playback support with sample-accurate MP3 seeking
Many Theater View enhancements
Animated Direct3D file browsing
Split views so you can look at two (or more) views at the same time (ex. look at Media Library and Playing Now together)
Vastly improved database engine capable of handling 100,000's of files and large amounts of metadata (lyrics, bios, etc.)
Several memory and speed enhancements -- like database and skin unloading when minimizing MC
Much of MC's interface can be translated to other languages
Integrated database import and update with smart broken linking repairing, and other nice features
MC can run with guest permissions on Windows 2000 / Windows XP
New view customization system with more flexibility for thumbnail size, text, etc.
Options dialogs reworked -- several small options added
Added multi-zone synchronization
Added Album Gain support
Document support with full text searching / indexing
Pane auto-sizing
Tile view that allows fully customizable Track Info style tiles to be used in file lists
New database caching layer that makes a huge speed difference in many areas of MC
File tagging happens in a background thread so MC can continue to be used while it's saving tags
Basic image editing
Enhanced album grouping for pictures so pictures taken together get grouped without any user intervention
Preview mode to only play the intro of songs

LonWar · « **Reply #2 on:** August 23, 2004, 06:07:39 pm »

BUG...

If there are extra . in the name or path, it will not convert.
Ex.. Album Wasted Years...Stranger in A Strange Land will not convert until I change it to Wasted Years Stranger in A Strange Land

I'm trying to convert a ton of tracks to take to work and I have to rename, convert then change the name back...

Requests:

**Can you please add .csv to the supported list. It opens with MS Excell.
**Be able to have the EQ always visible in MegaMe
**Be able to change the tool tip fonts and background color... Would love to be able to use the ThunderStorm windowblinds skin again.
**Any way for you guys to be able to let us specify different Import locations for each library
**Can we be able to view www.last.fm from within MC. This is for the AudioScrobbler Plugin.

DougHamm · « **Reply #3 on:** August 23, 2004, 09:07:02 pm »

Excellent new features! Thanks guys.

BTW, I still have to alt-tab away and back again when MC launches if I want to see its icon on the taskbar.

-Doug

DocLotus · « **Reply #4 on:** August 23, 2004, 09:32:03 pm »

* Am still getting the Failed to load JRImage.dll that a lot of users have reported on right after installing MC11. It still shows even after a Win XP restart as required by some installs of MC; it finally goes away after the second Win XP boot up.

* TV was scrambled; the Video Crossbar was coming up with the incorrect TV input as Video Tuner In (should be S-Video as that is all I have hooked up).

* I can change it to S-Video and I will get the correct TV image but it will revert back to Video Tuner the next time I try to load the TV.

* There was no sound on the TV.

* Got several other error messages.

* Had a broken library and had to rebuild it which took forever.

* Re-installed v163 but had the same problems (it was the one that was working correctly before installing v166).

* Finally got the sound working but can not get S-Video to keep working.

* When I try to scan the TV it just keeps saying Scanning TV Channels but never completes.

* The ATI TV work just fine.

paulr · « **Reply #5 on:** August 23, 2004, 09:38:22 pm »

Quote

BTW, I still have to alt-tab away and back again when MC launches if I want to see its icon on the taskbar.

I've noticed this before and I just confirmed. When MC is started, its taskbar icon doesn't show up until you alt-tab away from it or minimize it.

Great new features!

One request: Would it be possible to have an option that would lower MC's thread priority during lengthy audio analysis operations? Right now, I do this manually from within the task manager, but it would be nice to set it inside MC.

IlPadrino · « **Reply #6 on:** August 23, 2004, 09:55:47 pm »

Quote from: Matt on August 23, 2004, 05:31:06 pm

17. NEW: Added ability to show webpages inside of Theater View. (currently hard coded as 'News', but will be user-customizable soon)

That is very useful for getting some weather information into MC. But I don't see any way to customize the websites that are shown - it seems to use the default brower's homepage.

How about the ability to add sites below the "Back" button on the left? Populate them from the somewhere in the Library maybe using a special Playlist?

IlPadrino-

Dragyn · « **Reply #7 on:** August 23, 2004, 10:46:47 pm »

Bottom Bar Highlight Text using TopBar settings.
Bottom Bar flickers a lot (toolbar).
Default cover art doesn't show while playing songs without cover art.
~s... turns to limit while typing, instead of ~sort
search wizard doesn't pick up values when typing it out. always have to re-edit items. ie. type r=5 and 5 isn't included in the rating yeilding no results.
right-click paste does not work in a search box unless first clicked. copy works just fine.

Media Center Registered 11.0.66 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 11\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
AMD Unknown 1992 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1047 MB, Free - 471 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive E: TEAC CD-W54E Mode:ModeSecure Type:Auto Speed:Max
Drive F: Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive E: TEAC CD-W54E Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:4 MaxSpeed:4 BurnProof:No
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: No / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

Berto · « **Reply #8 on:** August 24, 2004, 12:04:45 am »

Great new build, except that is still doesn't support the new DFX 7 plug-in.

matshif · « **Reply #9 on:** August 24, 2004, 01:06:14 am »

Split views so you can look at two (or more) views at the same time (ex. look at Media Library and Playing Now together)

Doesn't work for me. It did when it was intoduced but not after that.

Media Center Registered 11.0.66 -- C:\Program\J River\Media Center 11\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 3171 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1047 MB, Free - 754 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1552 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1556 (xpsp2_gdr.040517-1325) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive E: HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8162B Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Drive F: Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive F: _NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:16 MaxSpeed:16 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

DWAnderson · « **Reply #10 on:** August 24, 2004, 01:38:12 am »

-- In Theaterview, selecting Audio or Images from the top level menu just plays music or shows pictures (behind the Theaterview window) but doesn't go to any subsidiary view schemes. Do I need to do something to use Viewschemes in Theaterview in this version that I didn't need to do in MC 10?

-- Right clicking on a viewscheme and choosing Edit View Scheme crashes MC.

GHammer · « **Reply #11 on:** August 24, 2004, 01:58:06 am »

The Direct-X host plugin is not available in Plugin Manager or in DSP settings. The DLL is in the plugins directory.

My favorite capability (except CUE file)! Please tell me what I missed.

This is a new install of this version. No previous versions of MC 11 have been installed.

I did the plugin download and install just to see if that helped. The plugin was installed into the old MC 10 directory.

JimH · « **Reply #12 on:** August 24, 2004, 08:57:04 am »

Please use this thread for cue file questions and comments:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=23221

Matt · « **Reply #13 on:** August 24, 2004, 09:04:08 am »

Quote from: imjustagamer on August 23, 2004, 06:07:39 pm

If there are extra . in the name or path, it will not convert.
Ex.. Album Wasted Years...Stranger in A Strange Land will not convert until I change it to Wasted Years Stranger in A Strange Land

I can't reproduce. Maybe start a thread with more details like the exact filename and the source and destination file types.

Thanks.

Matt · « **Reply #14 on:** August 24, 2004, 09:05:50 am »

Quote from: DWAnderson on August 24, 2004, 01:38:12 am

-- In Theaterview, selecting Audio or Images from the top level menu just plays music or shows pictures (behind the Theaterview window) but doesn't go to any subsidiary view schemes. Do I need to do something to use Viewschemes in Theaterview in this version that I didn't need to do in MC 10?

You need to enable "Show In Theater View" for schemes you want to show. The root items like "Audio" should show automatically though.

Quote

-- Right clicking on a viewscheme and choosing Edit View Scheme crashes MC.

Could you send a library backup to matt at jriver.com ? Thanks.

Jaguu · « **Reply #15 on:** August 24, 2004, 09:19:07 am »

error #21: Now working OK!

DougHamm · « **Reply #16 on:** August 24, 2004, 01:06:42 pm »

I've done only a short test on two machines, but it appears that the exact 192kbps CBR files that did not burn properly prior to .66 (track boundaries progressively off) do not burn at all now.

What's actually happening is this: regardless of whether direct-to-cd encoding is on or off, these Lame-encoded CBR files are burning only the first 26 seconds to disc. This does not happen with VBR files or WMA files. If direct-to-cd encoding is off, it's obvious that the wav conversion happens way, way too quick. So the issue isn't in the burn process, but something to do with the mp3 analyzing/converting.

-Doug

Matt · « **Reply #17 on:** August 24, 2004, 03:08:27 pm »

Quote from: DougHamm on August 24, 2004, 01:06:42 pm

I've done only a short test on two machines, but it appears that the exact 192kbps CBR files that did not burn properly prior to .66 (track boundaries progressively off) do not burn at all now.

What's actually happening is this: regardless of whether direct-to-cd encoding is on or off, these Lame-encoded CBR files are burning only the first 26 seconds to disc. This does not happen with VBR files or WMA files. If direct-to-cd encoding is off, it's obvious that the wav conversion happens way, way too quick. So the issue isn't in the burn process, but something to do with the mp3 analyzing/converting.

-Doug

We can't reproduce. Could you try again with different files? Maybe remove them from MC and reimport to be sure there isn't a library issue.

Thanks.

DougHamm · « **Reply #18 on:** August 24, 2004, 03:37:35 pm »

Quote from: Matt on August 24, 2004, 03:08:27 pm

We can't reproduce. Could you try again with different files? Maybe remove them from MC and reimport to be sure there isn't a library issue.

Thanks.

Will do Matt. I'll post what I find. If worse comes to worse I can finally use the e-mail capability and send you some files. I hope you like Euro power metal...

-Doug

DougHamm · « **Reply #19 on:** August 24, 2004, 04:10:35 pm »

Alright, I just made a very eclectic mix to test burning various bitrates:

Track 1: WMA8 64kbps 44KHz - 8:31 - shows 8:31 when playing, and plays all the way through without issue
Track 2: MP3 192kbps 44KHZ CBR - 6:22 - shows 26 seconds when playing, but after 13 seconds it starts playing audio from track 3
Track 3: MP3 192kbps 44KHZ VBR - 5:26 - starts 13 seconds into the song (because of track 2) but otherwise plays right through without issue
Track 4: WMA9 lossless - 5:56 - shows 5:56 when playing, and plays all the way through without issue
Track 5: OGG 128kbps - 4:47 - shows 4:47 when playing, and plays all the way through without issue
Track 6: MP3 55kbps 22KHZ mono - 6:23 - shows 26 seconds when playing, but after 13 seconds it starts playing audio from ...get this...track 2!
Track 7: MP3 192kbps 44KHZ CBR - 3:04 - shows 26 seconds when playing, plays for 26 seconds, and stops.

Errr...yeah. Eh? Sure looks localized to MP3 CBR whatever it is. ?

-Doug

JimH · « **Reply #20 on:** August 24, 2004, 04:16:00 pm »

Doug,
I'm going to split this out to a new thread. Look for it there after your next post.

Can you try encoding a new file or two with MC using the standard MP3 encoder and then burn one? I wonder if your files may be corrupt.

KingSparta · « **Reply #21 on:** August 24, 2004, 04:45:07 pm »

I Added A Song From Playing Now To A Play List.

If you click on a Play List In The Action Window, And Right Click A Menu Comes Up But When You Select Delete, It Does Not Delete The Song That Was Just Highlighted In The Play List. It Deleted The Highlighted File That Was In My Playing Now List.

DougHamm · « **Reply #22 on:** August 24, 2004, 04:56:47 pm »

Quote from: JimH on August 24, 2004, 04:16:00 pm

Doug,
I'm going to split this out to a new thread. Look for it there after your next post.

Can you try encoding a new file or two with MC using the standard MP3 encoder and then burn one? I wonder if your files may be corrupt.

Thanks Jim. I just converted two wma lossless files (ripped straight from CD that way) to 192kbps CBR MP3 using MC11's standard encoder, and when subsequently burned and played back from the burned CD both tracks play for only 26 seconds before stopping. This on two computers, with two different brands of CD burner (one's a DVD burner).

Same converted files burn perfectly using WMP9. Also works on MC11 build .64 - I just backleveled and tried - as long as direct decode is disabled.

==========

Media Center Registered 11.0.66 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 11\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2536 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 193 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0002) , ASPI for Win32 DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0002)

Ripping / Drive G: Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Drive H: Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Drive M: Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive H: GENERIC DVD RW 4XMax Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:10 MaxSpeed:10 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

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Author Topic: Media Center 11.0.66 Alpha Available (Read 5273 times)