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[Matt]

There's an update version of the Media Jukebox 9.0 preview here, but FIRST PLEASE READ THIS:

IMPORTANT-- This is only a preview -- some things don't work, some things crash, and your data may not be safe. Don't use this preview with files that can't be replaced. If you don't consider yourself an expert with Media Jukebox, please wait for a later release. Backup your database (and files) before doing anything else.

You will have to delete your .jmd (database files) from the folder: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\Data or similar. You will lose your playlists.

If you're sure you want to continue, you can download the preview here:

ftp://ftp.jriver.com/pub/downloads/music/MediaJukebox90057.exe

Some of the major changes in this preview:

-Added JPEG tagging
-Improved tag saving speed
-Database more efficient about managing / flushing non-imported files
-Playlist ordering works again
-Numeric database fields couldn't be assigned negative numbers (why Replay Gain wasn't working)
-Searches of time database fields (like duration) didn't work
-Search engine smarter when dealing with decimal fields like Replay Gain, etc.
-Updated some preset "Auto Smartlists" (recently imported sorts by import date, etc.)
-Windowed file properties dialog now remembers size and position
-Playlist Automation (SDK) hopefully works again
-Added letter range searching to search engine ( i.e. artist=a-c )
-Numbers now get their own '0-9' entry in grouped Library view schemes
-Media Jukebox could excessively slow down when updating cover art information. (like after a get art from internet)

Keep in mind that at this stage in the game, we're getting way more bug reports than we can fix each build. Please keep a list of bugs you find, and re-report anything that doesn't get fixed each build.

Thanks for your help, support, and patience.

-Matt
JRiver

(note: Previous version 9.0 preview Media Libraries will not work with this preview. The library data format will not be finalized for a couple of builds, so be prepared to erase and re-import with each new preview)

[JimH]

I spent the afternoon adding tags to my jpg files.  I keep them like this:

year / genre / comment

where genre is a subject, a place, or a trip.  Each year, the set of genres is a little different.

I used the MJ tool "fill properties from filenames" to get the files organized.  I checked directories, using "[year][genre]" on the ones that didn't have a comment, then "[year][genre][comment] on those that did.

In the properties window, you can switch from file properties to image to ...  On the page named "format", if you select a single image, you can see the new tag.

Once the tags are filled, they can be moved to another machine or a new installation of MJ and when you reimport, they will put themselves back in the right order.

Hope this example will help people who are trying the tags out.

Have fun.

[RemyJ]

Problems Fixed...

Playlists are still resorting themselves.  FIXED
Track numbers are importing but now replay gain isn't.  FIXED
Track selection in thumbnail mode with the shift key pressed FIXED
Grouping on artist places all artist names starting with numbers FIXED
Track list writing is off by 1. FIXED

Still open...

Column resizes aren't being remembered.
Encoder options missing from main Options dialog.
- Only shows when you take options from rip dialog.
Media Server is returning references to it's local file system.
- I.E. "C:\Music\..." instead of "m01p://server/c:\Music..."
Auto track advance isn't working with ASIO output.
- Next track just buffers permanently.

New problems...

CD Text isn't being read.  Reads OK in V8 and EAC.
"Sequence" in the device detail view is always "0".

Remy

[tofer]

Is it possible to download and run mj 9 and continue to use mj8?  I would set up a separate test library for mj9 (a dup of my regular library)

[Matt]

Column resizes aren't being remembered.

Can't reproduce -- do you maybe have auto sizing on?

Encoder options missing from main Options dialog.
- Only shows when you take options from rip dialog.

By design. (we're still up in the air about how options will look in the release version of 9)

Media Server is returning references to it's local file system.
- I.E. "C:\Music\..." instead of "m01p://server/c:\Music..."

?

Auto track advance isn't working with ASIO output.

That's strange.  Do different settings make a difference?  In a week or so, if it still doesn't work, drop me a line at matt @ jriver.com and we'll figure it out.

Is it possible to download and run mj 9 and continue to use mj8? I would set up a separate test library for mj9 (a dup of my regular library)

Sorry, only one at a time.  You have to uninstall one and install the other to switch, otherwise lots of things won't work.

Thanks.

-Matt

[RemyJ]

Column resizes aren't being remembered.
--Can't reproduce -- do you maybe have auto sizing on?
Nope, just checked.  When I drag my mouse to change a column size, then change views and come back, the colums are back to their original size.  I did a complete clean install with 55 but maybe I'll do another and see what happens.

Encoder options missing from main Options dialog.
- Only shows when you take options from rip dialog.
---By design. (we're still up in the air about how options will look in the release version of 9)
No problem.

Media Server is returning references to it's local file system.
- I.E. "C:\Music\..." instead of "m01p://server/c:\Music..."
---?
By "?" do you mean you need more info?
9.0.57 is installed on 2 machines and media server is started on machine 1.  When machine 2 connects and the database is downloaded, the location field says "c:\usr\music\..."  which is the LOCAL path on machine 1. I.E.  it's the exact contents of the location field in the source database. When machine 2 tries to play it, it fails because it can't find "c:\usr\music\..." (naturally).  If machine 2 connects to my other server which has 8.0.370 installed, the location field has the m01p connect string prepended and the client finds and plays the file just fine.

Auto track advance isn't working with ASIO output.
That's strange. Do different settings make a difference? In a week or so, if it still doesn't work, drop me a line at matt @ jriver.com and we'll figure it out.
Should have been more specific but I'm just getting into ASIO.  I've got 3 driver entries:  ASIO DirectX, ASIO Multimedia, and Creative ASIO.  Creative doesn't work at all (Error during playback) probably becasue the only sample rate is 48k.  ASIO Multimedia seemed to work ok when I just checked it.  ASIO DirectX always hangs with "Buffering..." at track transitions.  The sound card is a Audigy Platinum.  I won't worry about this for now.  I probably couldn't hear the difference anyway.

Remy

[JimH]

Remy,
Media Server is probably not working yet.  We have to get to the point when we can freeze the date format.  Should happen next week.

Thanks for all your detailed reports.

Jim

[DocLotus]

Superb!!

* MJ no longer crashes when I double click on a selection… wonderful!

* File Properties/File Info now stays put & some items no longer disappears when I reorder the Play list headers… fantastic!

BUGs…
* Track numbers are off by one… no track one.
* Play list headers do not automatically resize.

Otherwise… looking pretty good.

[DocLotus]

Sorry guys... Auto Sizing of columns IS working.  My fault.  Thanks.

[Woodman]

Hey Matt,
It would be cool if while you were in the main window in album/image view, as you passed over the thumbs a next size larger thumb were poped up in the lower left box (above volume control box.

[RemyJ]

[JimH] Media Server is probably not working yet. We have to get to the point when we can freeze the date format. Should happen next week.

No problem or hurry.  I have the luxury of having a test machine with a full copy of my music and some free time so I figured I put it to good use and test what I can.

[kranium256]

hey everybody...

mj9 is amazing ... but i have a few suggestions..

1. while displaying images, could you show them in the tv tuner window, rather than the play window..coz the playlist takes half the space and leaves a very small pic in there.

2. could there be an easy shortcut to jump from one database to another? i have my music in one library, and my pictures in another... and its quite tedious to keep on going to the file menu.

another thing ... why dont i get an option "GET INFORMATION FROM CDDB" when i right click to "tools" on a music file?? its mentioned in the help menu but i've never seen it on mine.

and fyi, i use mj v9.0.51.

but man ur doing a great job! (i have been using mj since v4!)

kranium256

[nila]

I add my vote for making libraries easier to change between. A little drop down list at the top of the window with the media libraries etc that let us easily switch between libraries would be soo welcomed.

[nila]

Still the same problem.

The 'Name' field is showing the file name rather than the name of the song. Tested again in winamp and mp3-explorer.
mp3-explorer showed the same info your showing for the 'name' field in it's: 'File' field as it seperates file path and file name into two fields (might be a nice idea for MJ).
For the title it's showing the correct title.
This is again with a full uninstall of the last build and a fresh install of this build with database files.
I hope this is fixed soon as it's a real pain.

Also, 'Fill Fields from File Name' is not working. it's not changing anything and I'm using one of your pre-defined formats for the file name so it's not a case of me entering anything wrong.

I love the new smartlist examples. I think that'll be EXTREMELY useful to new users and encourage the braver of them to start making their own and for the less brave it will just provide them with something they will use a lot.

You've now put all playlists found into the root playlist dir though and I have around 300 playlists (1 for each album) and so this has totally flooded my playlist list. As far as I can see I can only move them one by one into a Group which would take ages.
Could there be an option to have them all imported into a group to begin with. What would be even more useful is a tool to organise playlists so I could click select 300 in one go and just then drop all of them into a group instead of the current one by one method which would take years.

Another suggestion - the initial import tool is easy to use and clear but it's a more technical way of doing it. New users will just click next and end up with tons of pictures too which they might not want. An idea just to incourage more beginners to be happy might be to have a 'wizard' type thing for this whereby it asks what type of files you want to import: Images, Audio, Video, All etc might be a nice way to make it simpler for beginners. I know a LOT of people that dont have a clue what a .jpg or .avi is and I also know the same people would call me up when they are using MJ and ask me why a song's not playing when in fact it's an image or something.

[nila]

Ah, another idea,
while I was testing the mp3's in winamp 3 I noticed a few of it's features (I haven't really played with it much).

One thing I noticed in it's media Library is that when you do searches, it has two boxes at the top that are as default set to: Artist and Album but can be changed to anything.
These boxes show all the artists and albums that meet the search criteria.
I'm sure you guys monitor the competitions software and so know what I mean.
This feature is something I personally just found really nice. It makes it really easy to find albums etc.
Any chance of adding something like this to MJ?

[JimH]

kranium,
> 1. while displaying images, could you show them in the tv tuner window, rather than the play window..coz the playlist takes half the space and leaves a very small pic in there.

Try full screen with a double click on the image or you can adjust the splitter bar with the little triangles and grip image.

[DocLotus]

I have installed every version 9 so far.

As there are so many changes being made, I am doing a re-install then a new install to clean out any conflicting files.

My problem... I have to re-do all the icons each time.

Which file stores the icon settings?

[JimH]

Doc,
If you're uninstalling first, don't do that.  The problem you mention should go away next week when we freeze the data format.

Jim

[kranium256]

hey thanks...

but what do i do i cant access cddb with my normal music files?? i pop in a cd and it checks it, but what about my music files??

and btw, what does YADB stand for anyway??

..::kranium::..

[Mirko]

Fixed:

replay gain works. Changing volume is gone. Thanks!

Bugs:

If I try to open the options dialog MJ crashes.

Adding a view scheme with "genre" as the only criteria and with filter "mediatype=image", MJ only shows two of about 6 genres assigned. Checked them in the media-overview with the same filter, they are in the database.

"find&replace" with two blanks ("  ") to change to none (nothing entered in the textbox), crashes MJ two times :-) Changing "-" to nothing works.

Suggestions:

add a "recently imported"-playlist like the one in MJ8, where I can delete without removing from database

Listening to: 'Cruel summer (Big Bonus Mix)' by 'Ace of Base' on Media Jukebox

[DocLotus]

Thanks Jim.

I would still like to know the file name where the icon settings are stored. I like to keep a seperate folder for settings files for all my programs.  When I have to do a complete install of Windows I can sinply copy the settings to get back to where I was with each program.

[Griff]

"mediatype=audio" and "mediatype=image"

Something happen in 90057?
These dont work anymore.
Clean install and reload (twice)

Thanks Griff

[JimH]

Griff, take a look at the pre-made playlists.  Here's an example.

mediatype=[audio] ~sort=[Number Plays]-d ~n=10

[Griff]

JimH
Reloaded 90055 and they work.

Reloaded 90057 and no go.

This was a simple way for me to keep my media type sep. in the library.

"mediatype=[audio] ~sort=[Number Plays]-d ~n=100"
Not too sure what you are trying to tell me.

"Griff, take a look at the pre-made playlists"
Are you talking about the Smartlist?

Audio smartlist has audio in it.
Image smartlist has nothing.

Thanks Griff

[Doof]

I decided to start trying to get my images organized the same way that MJ helped me to organize my audio and video. The only problem is, if I edit the name of a file in the content view, the database entry becomes disconnected from the actual file (or something). MJ will no longer display that image, and when I check in Explorer to see if it's still there, it's gone! Further scrutiny reveals that MJ has renamed the file something like "~!~MJ Temp~!~".

Guess organization will have to wait until another day.

[Matt]

Hey Doof, are your images read only or protected somehow?

When MJ goes to add a JPEG tag, if it needs to rewrite the file (normally only the first time), it creates a new file called ~!~MJTEMP~!~, and only if everything works out will it replace the original.  For some reason, that replace part isn't working.  Do you have any ideas?

Thanks.

-Matt

(p.s. don't know if you saw it, but your view scheme grouping idea will be in the next build )

[Mirko]

Bugdetails:

Search criteria with view schemes doesn't work. If I add "mediatype=[image]" to a view scheme, there are about ten pictures from about 1.000 shown. If I add the same filtering criteria to a smartlist, the images are all shown. So if I make a view scheme with "add"-"playlistgroup", there are all pictures shown (but there is one additional tree-node).

Bye,
Mirko

[Doof]

I don't know what was happening. It seems to be working now though. I've rebooted since I tried it last, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Ah, well. If it acts up again, I'll try and pinpoint what may be causing it and let you guys know.

I actually hadn't seen that View Grouping would be in the next build. That's awesome! How is it going to be implemented? Will it seperate Audio, Video and Images? Or will it just allow you to create a Media View Group with its own Search Criteria and then allow you to Add other View Schemes beneath that?

I say "just" but that last one sounds way more powerful than the first one I mention. For the sake of simplicity, I think that if you are going to do the second one, that MJ maybe have a 3 groups included by default that seperate Audio, Video, and Images the way other jukeboxes do.  That way new users can benefit from it right away without having to know the nitty gritty.

I actually had a thought the other day about how to make smartlists a little more friendly. There are currently two views of smartlists. The basic view and the advanced view. I noticed that the advanced view is actually more user friendly than the basic view. For instance, the basic view just displays a box that says stuff like

rating=4,5 mediatype=[audio] ~s=650

while the advanced view has a summary box that lists the exact same criteria as

Rating : 4,5
Media Type : Audio
Special limit to 650 MB

So wouldn't it be more friendly to reverse these and have the Summary box as the Basic view and the other stuff as the advanced? And adding the search limiters to the list of easily added in keywords and such, I think smartlists could be made a lot more easy to use and a lot less intimidating for the new user. What do you think?

[Kurt Young]

The "Auto Smartlists" have quite a lot of good preset lists in them, very nice.  However, they will not die!

I spent quite a bit of time re-arranging all the playlists... I ended up deleting the "Auto Smartlists (video and image)" group and renaming the "Auto Smartlists (Audio)" to just be "Smartlists"

Each time I open MJ, the two auto smartlist groups are back!  I delete them outright, and they're back!  The two playlist groups that I want to be there are fine... but these two just keep coming back from the dead!

Figured I should report it.  

================

Media Jukebox PLUS 9.0.57
Install Path: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

CPU: Intel Pentium III 931 MHz MMX
Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 639 MB
OS: Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106
ComCtl32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

[Doof]

This may sound like a weird request, but the more I use MJ, the more I wish I had this...

When I create an Artist\Album view scheme, it sometimes gets annoying to click on an artist and see only (unassigned). What I'd like to see, is if there are no albums assigned under an artist, to just skip that last level. If that makes sense.

So if an artist has an two albums, and then some tracks without an album assigned, show the two album names and (unassigned). But if there are absolutely no albums under that artist, just don't bother displaying that node.

Ideally, I'd like to see this behavior for any node in any view scheme that would only show (unassigned).

[Doof]

While going through my ninth mass file renaming where I stupidly tried to rename 100|PLS| files all the same thing, it has occurred to me that MJ desperately needs some kind of Cancel function during the renaming process.

[JimH]

How about the undo?  It's there in 9.0.

[Doof]

The undo isn't the issue. It's going through 200 clicks on the No (I don't want to overwrite) and Ok (it couldn't update tag info) buttons to get to a point where I can finally do an undo.

The undo works great.

[bennyd]

So how do I fill in a custom added field (like decade) if I can't find it back in the file properties ?

Only via the list view ?

[Mirko]

Bug:

"fill tag from filename": The filename was "X-perience - 01 Magic field.mp3" and I gave MJ the pattern "[ARTIST] - [TRACK #] [NAME]". It tagged the file "Artist = X-perience", "Track # = 01", "Name = TRACK 01". The last one is not correct.

CDR-creation: If I had the property box open and switch to the CDR-drive under the "CD, DVD & Handhelds"-treeitem, the options on the bottom of the screen are not shown. After closing the property box and re-switching to CDR-drive, they are shown.

HTH,
Mirko

[SeanC]

Thoughts on MJ 9.0.57

- Moving through the database is _extremely_ slow.   I didn't import a v8 database, I imported from scratch.
- Can we please have support for mouse-wheel volume changing in mini-me?  Also, the Control-- and Control-|PLS| don't work on my keyboard, either in mini-me or mega-me.  I don't have a numeric keypad, just an 84-key keyboard, so could you please make it so that Control-_ and Control-= work too? (same keys as minus and plus).
- The status bar line that shows Size says: "Size:0bytes" and should say "Size: 0 bytes".
- when listening to radio where artist and song name is sent, please pass those on to slideshow
- Check for update shows an 8.0.36x version as the latest and prompts to download.
- Can we please get a more interesting, visually appealing start page?  You've got flash - let's make it cool!

Media Jukebox PLUS 9.0.57
Install Path: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

CPU: Intel Pentium III 155 MHz MMX  <<< (Wrong, actually 1 ghz.  didn't we fix this in v8?)

Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 157 MB
OS: Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1  (Build 2600)

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2600.0000
ComCtl32.dll: 6.00.2600.0000
Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2600.0000
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2600.0000
wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

[SeanC]

The "Auto Smartlists" have quite a lot of good preset lists in them, very nice. However, they will not die!
I spent quite a bit of time re-arranging all the playlists... I ended up deleting the "Auto Smartlists (video and image)" group and renaming the "Auto Smartlists (Audio)" to just be "Smartlists"

Each time I open MJ, the two auto smartlist groups are back! I delete them outright, and they're back! The two playlist groups that I want to be there are fine... but these two just keep coming back from the dead!

I have the opposite problem - I have 9.0.57, but can't find the new auto-smartlists.. where are they?

[JimH]

Sean,
They should be under playlists in the tree.

[DocLotus]

Tried to add several thousand Midi files to my play list but got the following errors…

* Failed to connect to server.
* Failed to download plug-in info.

The two errors come up twice each, then the midi files are added to the play list.  They play fine.

Problem with midi file play list…
* The name of the selection is missing.

[DocLotus]

Properties screen...

I often jump back & forth between 'File Properties' & 'Image' screens. I find the right & left arrows a slow way to get there.

Would like to see five seperate buttons... one for each screen to be able to quickly get to where I want to go without having to go through three other screens that I don't use much.

Or another way of doing it... put the 'File Properties' & 'Image' screens next to each other so the arrow keys will go directly to the one I want.

Or... let me change the order of the five screens.

[Dragyn]

Doc,

You can click the name and it will bring up the menu instead (just like for visualizations). Just choose file properties or image from there. Works slick!

[SeanC]

I have the opposite problem - I have 9.0.57, but can't find the new auto-smartlists.. where are they?

They should be under playlists in the tree.

Thanks, JimH.  They really weren't there, but appeared when I installed 9.0.57 over my existing 9.0.57.  I see them now.

[DocLotus]

Thakns Dragyn;

I was right clicking... nothing happened.

Just goes to show... In Windows, click everything, every whch way!

[Mirko]

Undo

It works quite well. Yesterday I renamed a couple of files to "ARTIST - NAME - COMMENT", yes not yet very used to the new rename-variables, and "Undo" did very well.

Well done!

Question: If a plugin changes the contents of fields, is the undo-command able to undo even that?

Mirko

[DocLotus]

Is this non-standard for Windows?

I’ve been using computers daily since 1975 & did not discover that left clicking on the Properties top bar would bring up a drop down menu.  I think this is because I was not trained to left click on a bare area of an object but to right click.

A previous comment by me…

Properties screen...
I often jump back & forth between 'File Properties' & 'Image' screens. I find the right & left arrows a slow way to get there.
Would like to see five separate buttons... one for each screen to be able to quickly get to where I want to go without having to go through three other screens that I don't use much.
Or another way of doing it... put the 'File Properties' & 'Image' screens next to each other so the arrow keys will go directly to the one I want.
Or... let me change the order of the five screens.
Someone pointed out that I could left click on the Properties top bar to bring up a drop-down menu to select which of the five Properties screens that I wanted to go to.

My question is… ‘left click’?  Should it not be a ‘right click’?

My thinking is that left clicking on a non-descript area of anything is non-standard.  Usually this is a right click.

EXAMPLES:

Left Click Activate…
* All buttons… Radio, Checkboxes, etc.
* Icons.

Left Click Select Only…
* Make selected screen current.
* Highlight item in a list such as in Windows Explorer.

Right Click Activate…
* Windows desktop Properties.
* MJ’s own top status bar & toolbar.
* Most less then obvious drop-down menus in a bare, non-descript area such as in a blank portion of Tool bars.
* Roll-up on some Window Blinds screens.

Right Click Select Only…
* Can’t think of any at this time.

Double Left Click Activate…
* Usually activates an item.

Double Right Click Activate…
* Can’t think of any at this time.

SOOO.. should it not be a ‘right click’ to conform to standard Windows methods?

[DocLotus]

MJ9 Observations…

Properties…
* Would like to see a drop-down menu for File/Genre so I can simply pick from a list of any Genre that I have used in the past.

Ripping…
* What is the difference between ‘Copy’ & ‘Auto Rip’?

[Matt]

DocLotus,

Left and right click will both bring up the menu for choosing what property screen to look at in the next build.

Also, about this Question: If a plugin changes the contents of fields, is the undo-command able to undo even that?

Yes, undo will just re-update the tag(s) during the next update cycle.

Thanks.

-Matt

[Doof]

Is the APE encoder for 8 incompatible with 9? I've tried recording to APE and converting wav's to APE, with no luck. It decodes and then just sits there.

[bennyd]

- When retrieving coverart from the internet from an "assorted" album, it looks for the artist "assorted"

- Drag & Drop a music file from within MJ to an external application (like MP3GAIN), doesn't work anymore, it worked in preview I.

- Using Filter, crashes MJ (hangs)

- New fields I add are not possible anymore to fill them in (in file properties, the field does not show up)

- Nothing from WEB MEDIA (or any streaming) works anymore

- My NEO Jukebox is still showing as a Device in MJ but does not show any files anymore and when keep on clicking on subdirectories, MJ crashes

[Doof]

Is it at all technically possible to calculate Replay Gain on a video file?

Also, is it possible to rip the audio track out of a video file?

And if so, what are the chances of seeing these features in MJ?