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Author Topic: Performer Digital - Sharing Subscription Downloads on 2 PC's  (Read 4144 times)

sixdoubleo

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Performer Digital - Sharing Subscription Downloads on 2 PC's
« on: January 14, 2008, 05:35:51 pm »

I signed up with Performer Digital and had a couple questions about the location and behavior of the downloaded subscription files (the wma's). 

1. It downloads all subscription music to "My Music".  Can I change this?  I don't see an option in the program.  I also poked around in the registry and didn't see anything.   I know I can redirect "My Music" to the desired location, but I'd like to avoid this.

2.  Can 2 computers point to the same download location?  I have 2 computers that I will use this on.....my HTPC and my office computer.  I would like both of them to download the music to the same mapped drive...say M:\PD.  Is this possible?  When I used Yahoo Music Unlimited, I couldn't do this.  Basically, whichever computer last updated the license would work, but the other computer would indicate that the license was corrupt...and would need to reacquire the license...which of course blew out the OTHER computer...and so on.  So I had to maintain 2 copies of the downloaded music.  I'd like to avoid this if possible.

I understand I should probably submit this to Performer Digital support but figured since there were likely some advanced users here, I thought I'd ask here.  All in all, it appears to be the same music library as Yahoo (MusicNet) but with a MUCH, MUCH more powerful interface. :)
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JimH

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Re: Performer Digital - Sharing Subscription Downloads on 2 PC's
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2008, 06:20:33 pm »

Thanks for using it!  If you can change locations, it would be in options/file locations, but it may not be possible.  I don't know the answer to #2, but I would guess not.

It is the same library as Yahoo.  MediaNet Digital (formerly MusicNet) is the provider.

You can see more similar players here:

http://www.jrmediacenter.com/partnerplayers.html

Not all have MediaNet backends.
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sixdoubleo

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Re: Performer Digital - Sharing Subscription Downloads on 2 PC's
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2008, 07:02:22 pm »

Thanks for the reply Jim.  #2 I can understand...and I can deal with storing two copies.  I do all my listening on the living room HTPC and then the office PC just becomes essentially a workstation for me to manage my subscribed music and copy it to my portable.

But not being able to change the location it stores downloads to is a pretty big problem actually. 

I can think of a number of reasons why somebody might not want this thing downloading directly to "My Music".  Most notably, Performer Digital doesn't isolate its music as in "My Music\Performer"....rather it simply dumps its stuff into "My Music" which could really mess up somebody's existing folder structure. 

There's got to be a way to change it.  I can't imagine them not providing one.  I don't readily see it in any of MC11's options, or in the registry...but I'll dig a little deeper and see what I come up with. 

If it truly is not an option, is it possible to use your influence to get that option added? 
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sixdoubleo

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Re: Performer Digital - Sharing Subscription Downloads on 2 PC's
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2008, 07:50:13 pm »

Grrr....   >:(
This is supposed to be the download location (according to their Help on the site)....

Where are songs stored when they're downloaded? Can I change this location? 
By default, Performer Digital stores your downloaded songs in the desktop folder My Documents\My Music.
You can change this location by selecting the Tools menu, then clicking Options..., and selecting File Locations from the list on the left of the window that appears. In the Output File Location section, click the ... button next to the Base Path text box. Select the directory where you would like your downloads saved and click the OK button. Future downloads will be saved to the directory you selected. 


...it appears to have no affect on where it stores files.  I've tried "M:\PD", "C:\PDTest" and neither work.  Tried various combinations of restarting the program, rebooting, logging in and out of PD.  No matter what, it always saves to "My Music".

I even did a fresh install on another computer and set the path to a local drive....no dice.  It always goes to My Music.

I'll submit this to their tech support.  I sure hope this is a bug or something. 

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sixdoubleo

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Re: Performer Digital - Sharing Subscription Downloads on 2 PC's
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2008, 09:11:19 pm »

OK, submitted a ticket with tech support. 

For the time being I wrote a script to launch Performer Digital and fool it.  It modifies HKCU\SOftware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\My Music and points it to where I want PD to download to.  Then it launches PD.....waits for the window to come into focus, and then changes My Music back.  (My testing shows that PD reads the value once on program startup and never again unless you restart the program.)

Crude temporary solution but it works for now. 

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sixdoubleo

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Re: Performer Digital - Sharing Subscription Downloads on 2 PC's
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2008, 03:00:02 pm »

It's a bug.   :(

And before I start, know that the problems are NOT with MC11....the problems are with their specific implementation and how they have failed to hook into MC11.

FWIW, I regmon'd the startup of the app, and it's simply querying the "My Music" pointer at "HKCU\SW\Microsoft\CV\Explorer\User Shell Folders" and also "HKCU\SW\Microsoft\CV\Explorer\Shell Folders" once...then uses that as the base path.  What it SHOULD be using (if it is to operate as their online Help file suggests) is "HKCU\Software\JRiver\Performer Digital\Properties\File Location - Recorded Location"

My impression of Performer Digital is that it is completely unfinished, and doesn't seem like it has even been tested at all.  It's been out for too long to have issues like this. 

And again, I know the JRiver forum isn't the most appropriate place for this, but I figured if there were any advanced PD users, they'd be here. 


Open Date: 01/14/08
Subject: Cannot specify a download location other than "My Music"

I understand that you want to be able to re-direct where your music is
downloaded to. Presently this is function of the player does not work
properly and is a bug that is being worked on.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

For further assistance, please reply to this message. We will be glad
 to
assist you.

Thank you for using FYE,

Tier I Support Representative
FYE Support


[Message reduced in size and volume by JimH]
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