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[RayG]

Some of my albums by different artists have the same name. When I view albums by Recent, these albums get combined into one. When I view by Artist, they don't.

Media Centre doesn't make this mistake, the error is in JRemote2.

A fix for the next update?

[thecrow]

The views in JRemote2 are actually set in Media Centre.
If you go to Tools>Options>Media Network>Advanced>Customize views for JRemote, Gizmo & Panel>Audio>Recent you will be able to change how JRemote2 displays your albums.

[DJLegba]

The views in JRemote2 are actually set in Media Centre.
If you go to Tools>Options>Media Network>Advanced>Customize views for JRemote, Gizmo & Panel>Audio>Recent you will be able to change how JRemote2 displays your albums.

As far as I've been able to determine, you can't resolve this problem with JRemote customized views.

[RoderickGI]

I think this can be done pretty easily, but my test database doesn't really have enough data to be sure.

First, note that the "Audio > Recent" Views aren't really what you might expect them to be. They are all Tracks grouped by [Album], and sorted by [Date Imported]. I always forget that and think it is showing me Tracks or Albums sorted in reverse by the [Last Played] date. But it isn't.

Second, when you make changes to "JRemote, Gizmo & Panel" Views, you must restart MC before the changes appear in the remote you are using. I restart both MC and JRemote2 for my testing.

Third, check the [Album Artist] and [Album Artist (auto)] fields, just to be sure that they are correct for the different Artists.


I set up a one Track Album with the same name, but different Artist, Album Artist, and with the files in a different directory. MC Standard View correctly showed them as different Albums.

Then I checked in JRemote2, and sure enough, the two Albums were grouped together, but JRemote2 did show there were two Albums via the stacked thumbnail display. I'm not sure if that was a design choice or not. But as the View is supposed to be sorted by [Date Imported] I agree that it isn't correct.



The simple fix though is to change the Category used for the View to an Expression, and then include the [Album Artist (auto)] field in the "Expression to group by" setting. See the first attached image. Note also that the sorting is set to [Date Imported], and even though it isn't possible to define the sort as Ascending or Descending, the View gets correctly sorted as Descending. i.e. Most recent Albums at the top. You can check the [Date Imported] in JRemote2 using the metadata display.

The second attached image shows the fixed View in JRemote2. I could have just displayed the Album name, but chose to display the same thing as I was grouping by. i.e. [Album]: [Album Artist (auto)] That way you can tell which Album is which in JRemote2. Note that I restricted the display to Albums beginning with "B" just to simplify the testing and image.


Does that do what you want?

[Dawgincontrol]

Or you can change the Album name by just adding the band name to the title.

For instance:

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Badfinger - Wish You Were Here

That fixes it too.

[RoderickGI]

Yes, you could.

But then you have started down a very slippery slope of structuring fields to include data that they were not intended to hold. That always fails, eventually. An exception or two will come up, and the user will work around it. Then a few more will show up. Then lots. Soon there are more exceptions than cases that follow the rules, and the database becomes useless, with users having to have "private knowledge" of what is real data and what isn't.

Okay, a bit dramatic for a music database, but I saw it a lot in Enterprise Resource Planning software. A company doesn't train people properly, so they misuse fields. Or the company doesn't want to pay for extra fields that are required to be added, or the customisation to support the fields. Informal information systems then spring up just so people can cope, and suddenly your business is running on Garry's spreadsheet that runs on his PC, isn't backed up anywhere, no-one else has the password, and Garry is about to retire. Or worse, Garry retired last week and can't be contacted. Seriously, I have seen this happen multiple times.

Fields can be added to MC as required, although their need should be considered seriously before they are.
Views can be modified to use the data available without misusing fields, as I showed.

Doing it the correct way also means users understand how MC works better, and can maintain their Library better. It works out far better all around.

[Dawgincontrol]

I've been standing on that slippery slope for a long time without falling.   

Only use it for the very rare instance and all Best of/Greatest Hits.  Not for everything.  To each his own.

[RoderickGI]

I've been standing on that slippery slope for a long time without falling.   

Many do, though it has its downside.

I've never been a database administrator, but I think there has long been a hidden one inside me, trying to get out. So I like to use databases the way they were intended, or change them so that they have what is required.

Sigh. It is a burden. 

[RayG]

I ended up just adding an underscore to some album names. Strange that JRemote can't work out that albums with the same album name but different album artists weren't the same album. At least, it can't do that in the Recent display, but it can under the Artist display.