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[ThatAdamGuy]

I realize that's may not seem like the most targeted of titles, but it sums up quite clearly what I'm trying to communicate here.

I'm a proud geek.  I've beta tested dozens of hardware and software products.  I've taken apart and put back together computers with a screwdriver (and some luck).

But this MediaJukebox thing is baffling me!  I understand that complexity and intuitiveness are often at odds, but ack!

A few of the things that are currently making me scratch my head:

1) Why doesn't search seem to work like it should?
For instance, I have about a dozen songs in my library from the artist E-type.  When I do a search by just typing in "E-type" (no quotes), the program finds four of them.  But what about the rest?  They're in my library, all right, and when I search for them by song title, they come up... complete with "E-Type" listed under the artist field!

2) Why does MediaJukebox keep adding all 1728 of my tracks to "Now Playing" at seemingly random times?
I'll be playing with a song or two... analyzing it, listening to it by doubleclicking, etc... and then I'll look and notice that my Now Playing section lists every single song in my library.  Shuffle?  No, that doesn't seem to be checked.  And oddly/maddeningly, if I *DO* want to play a random selection from my library, I don't see any fast/easy way to do this (though I have noticed the auto-smartlists with a few random catagories... that's pretty neat, and probably the way I ought to approach this latter problem).

3) Why is the program creating playlists from my "now playing list" seemingly every few minutes?  Ack!  I don't see where I told it to do that (in the options or otherwise).

I guess, admittedly, this is a bit of a 4am+ rant.  This looks like such an amazingly powerful program, but I guess I'm just used to being able to pick up programs a bit more easily and with less confusion.

Any words of advice or encouragement?

[JimH]

1.  E-type is spelled differently?

2.  Playing now contains whatever view you were looking at when you began to play.  There are lots of options (see the playback section).

3.  Smartlists get created automatically based on many factors.

The program has a Help section that may explain more.

[ThatAdamGuy]

Okay, some more info on the weird e-type search issue.

If I right-click on any of the returned hits and select LOCATE > ARTIST, then I correctly get a full list of all my E-type songs.

So what's confusing me is why I'm not getting the full list by default when I enter etype, or, weirder still, why the search function doesn't like when I use the correctly-hyphenated version of the artist name, E-type.

[AndyCircuit]

Hidden spaces at the end of e-type? Highlight them to check this. I had this "trouble" before until cleaned all of my artist tagging

AC

[ThatAdamGuy]

Hi there,

Thanks for your prompt replies!

Well, I've checked to see if there are extra spaces (nope) or if somehow capitalization is playing a role here.  No dice.

So, in summary, what we have here (and with capitalizations making NO difference):
- Searching on etype brings up only four hits (a subset of the correct list).
- Searching on e-type or [e-type] or [Artist]=[etype] brings up my entire library (!?)
- Searching on [Artist]=[E-Type] brings up the (correct) full list of e-type songs.

Very strange, eh?

[ThatAdamGuy]

Okay, one more update before I head off to a (late) bed...

- After trying a few other searches, E-Type seems to be the only artist giving me problems.  This suggests that, perhaps, there's some hyphen or other punctuation-related bug in MC9's search?

- I figured out why my NOW PLAYING kept getting filled up with all my tracks.  Apparently, the default behavior when doubleclicking on a tune in my library is to add all the other tracks showing to NOW PLAYING.  I don't get the reasoning behind this.  I prefer the behavior of other programs that simply add the double-clicked track to the NOW PLAYING list, or, slightly less optimal, replacing the current NP LIST with the double-clicked track.  And yes, I realize I can achieve these same results on MC9 via right-click options.
EDITED TO ADD: Okay, this'll teach me to futz around at 6am.  Upon looking at the Prefs again, I see I can modify this double-clicking behavior to suit what I'm used to.  Oops! :O

Okay, that's enough for now.  I apologize for perhaps seem presumptious a bit, barging in here and sort-of-whining in a stream of consciousness.

But in general, I'm still cautiously optimistic about MC9.  I'm a bit bummed about the prospects of paying $40 for MC9, since I don't really need much of the advanced functionality AND I'm already a registered user of Musicmatch (hey, don't hate me... MM's smart-tagging DOES seem to offer many advantages, lookupwise )

Anyway, thanks for your patience and assistance

[LisaRCT]

I'm a proud geek.  I've beta tested dozens of hardware and software products.  I've taken apart and put back together computers with a screwdriver (and some luck).

I use a butterknife . .  . screwdrivers scare me  

I would get all my 'E-Type' songs together on one screen in MC (however you have to get there),
Then I would select them all and right-click on the ARTIST field, select EDIT SELECTED ITEM, and  hit ENTER,
this will insure that all the files have the EXACT SAME artist name.
Then I'd try my search again.
(Another thought . . .   check the 'Artist/Album' and make sure there is no descrepancy there either)

[xen-uno]

> Apparently, the default behavior when doubleclicking on a tune in my library is to add all the other tracks showing to NOW PLAYING

I think the correct path to change this is:
MC>Tools>Options>General>Dbl Click behavior.

What your seeing doesn't sound right...but I'm not sure (you don't have to fiddle with the setting once set...even between builds). You're running latest build (299)?

10^-27

[ThatAdamGuy]

Ah, oops!  I just download MC9 a week ago or so, so I didn't think to check for updates, and it didn't prompt me upon startup.  I have .291.  I'll update ASAP.

Hey, wait a minute... I just did a CHECK FOR UPDATES and it tells me I have the latest build.  Huh?  And you're suggesting that .299 is the latest?  Hmm.

Oh, and I did try that making-all-the-artist-fields equivalent trick, but that didn't change anything.

[Matt]

Looks like a bug in the search parser if you hand type in a dash.

We'll fix it Monday and put out a build.

Sorry for the hassle, and thanks for helping.

[xen-uno]

> And you're suggesting that .299 is the latest?

yes...

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=16660

New builds will always be in the top 1 or 2 threads on the Media Center 9 forum...that's where you'll find the .300 build (when available) that Matt was referring to.

10^-27

[ThatAdamGuy]

Wow!  Pretty nice responsiveness for 7:30am on a Saturday morning

Anyway, glad I was able to help identify a bug, albeit in the midst of some unstructured rambling.  

[ThatAdamGuy]

> And you're suggesting that .299 is the latest?

yes...

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=16660

New builds will always be in the top 1 or 2 threads on the Media Center 9 forum...that's where you'll find the .300 build (when available) that Matt was referring to.

10^-27

Okay, but now I'm a bit confused again; why, then, when I go through the auto-update feature of the software itself am I not told about these updates?  Even if these updates are betaware, the current software should optimally note at least that they're available, and give the user the option to update his or her version.

[JeffB]

Typically, only known stable (both bug-wise and usability-wise) builds are offered as an update through the program.  To get the very latest you have to get it through the forums.  That ensures only people that want to help with potentially hair-pulling problems get the betas and saves JRiver from too many support problems.