Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jengajumanji]

Switched to Media Center from iTunes yesterday and all the extra features MC has are great and it seems to run better than iTunes, but there are 3 things I still miss. They may already exist and I'm not seeing it or they are existing plug-ins. Anyway, here they are:



The audio view where it shows one thumbnail per album and info for each song. Its a combination of MC's Details and Album Thumbnail view, and it makes the most sense to me.



Party Shuffle, shuffles songs and shows what is coming up next, more helpful than regular shuffle because you can remove and rearrange upcoming songs. I really like the idea of MC's radio mode but it seems to play a lot of the same artists for some reason. The perfect thing would be if radio was more random and showed what was coming up next.



A toolbar on the taskbar when minimized, very helpful


That's it, that's all I miss about iTunes, other than that the program is great. I'm hoping some of this stuff already exists and you guys can just show me how to get it. Thanks a lot.

[Matt]

#1) Pick Group > Album from the menu at the top of your audio view.
#2) Try Player > Play Radio
#3) Options > General > Minimize to System Tray (you'll have to right-click to get commands)

[jengajumanji]

#1) Pick Group > Album from the menu at the top of your audio view.
#2) Try Player > Play Radio
#3) Options > General > Minimize to System Tray (you'll have to right-click to get commands)

hey thanks for the quick reply

#1) Perfect, thanks so much, this was my biggest problem.

#2) I really like the idea of radio, I've been trying it and I've gone through 20 songs, it has only played 4 different artists out of my 153. Am I missing some sort of setting?

#3) This will do.

I realize that there were no plug-ins needed for these issues so this thread is in the wrong section, so I'm sorry, but while I'm here....

In video, I like the thumbnail view, but I have seasons of TV shows I want to show as one thumbnail instead of each episode's thumbnail. If I switch to album thumbnail it sorts it by some sort of date, I don't even know what this date represents.

Thanks again, and I'm sorry this is in the wrong section.

[eba]

#2) not sure why it should select certain artists multiple times, but anyway you state you want to be able to see what's coming up and rearrange them, so how about just selecting everything you want included, then right click, More -> Play (shuffled)?  (also try the smartlists)

#3) you may want to take at look at these threads:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=39883.0
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=44532.0

[Peter_T]

I also miss Party Shuffle... Selecting all the songs you want to play doesn't cut it in some cases - like if you have it feeding from a playlist and a song comes on that makes you think, "hey, we should listen to ___ ", so you put a few newly-inspired songs into the upcoming mix and when they're done it resumes pulling songs from the original pool.

It was like jumping the que on a jukebox, and I miss how easy it was to use.

[Matt]

I also miss Party Shuffle... Selecting all the songs you want to play doesn't cut it in some cases - like if you have it feeding from a playlist and a song comes on that makes you think, "hey, we should listen to ___ ", so you put a few newly-inspired songs into the upcoming mix and when they're done it resumes pulling songs from the original pool.

You can pick files and do an "Add (as next to play)" anytime.  After they're done, the previous playlist keeps playing.

[datdude]

Just a quick suggestion on radio while we are on the topic.  It would be nice if there was some sort of 'always on' option to it so that whenever music ends in playing now, it kicks in.

[galahad1974]

    The Date sorting you are seeing is most likely because the album filed is auto populated with a date for videos, I believe it is the import date, but could be the file creation date (not 100% sure).
   
     It sounds like we want something similar. What i do for tv series, is create a custom filed caled series and fill it with the name of the series, then populate album with the "name of the series - the season of the series". That way I can set my view to show me all my tv files by series and in my actual View pane I group by album as above with audio, it lets me see all my series in the tree and in theater view and when I select one, it gives me the individual seasons, each with 1 thumbnail (I use the dvd cover art if it exists).

Let me know if this makes no sense, im really tired. I can provide screenshots if needed.

[glynor]

MC's "Party Shuffle" mode is far more capable and advanced, it is just called "Smartlists".  Try them out.  And, in Playing Now, you can easily re-arrange the upcoming songs, and add new ones (via the Add as Next To Play command Matt mentioned, or via many other means).

MC has LOTS of different and quite capable "Shuffle" modes.  Radio is just one option.  It is cool, but there are lots of other possibilities.

[jengajumanji]

    The Date sorting you are seeing is most likely because the album filed is auto populated with a date for videos, I believe it is the import date, but could be the file creation date (not 100% sure).
   
     It sounds like we want something similar. What i do for tv series, is create a custom filed caled series and fill it with the name of the series, then populate album with the "name of the series - the season of the series". That way I can set my view to show me all my tv files by series and in my actual View pane I group by album as above with audio, it lets me see all my series in the tree and in theater view and when I select one, it gives me the individual seasons, each with 1 thumbnail (I use the dvd cover art if it exists).

Let me know if this makes no sense, im really tired. I can provide screenshots if needed.

This is incredibly helpful, I've been trying to figure this out, thanks a lot. This program almost has too many features, I'm usually able to figure stuff out, but I'm lost with this one. Thanks again.

[jengajumanji]

MC's "Party Shuffle" mode is far more capable and advanced, it is just called "Smartlists".  Try them out.  And, in Playing Now, you can easily re-arrange the upcoming songs, and add new ones (via the Add as Next To Play command Matt mentioned, or via many other means).

MC has LOTS of different and quite capable "Shuffle" modes.  Radio is just one option.  It is cool, but there are lots of other possibilities.

Yeah, I've started to figure out smartlists, and I'm starting to like radio. Media Center seems to have eveything, I just need to take the time to find it. Thanks for the help.

[galahad1974]

Happy to help!!!! Thats whats great about this board, someones always been where you are Now, go tell all your friends how awesome this software is.

[Peter_T]

You can pick files and do an "Add (as next to play)" anytime.  After they're done, the previous playlist keeps playing.

   I'll have to try that... I love MC for answers like these.  It's worth feeling silly for asking the question.

[MGD_King]

#1) Pick Group > Album from the menu at the top of your audio view.

Very Nice!! Why I have never tried this before is a mystery! 

[Peter_T]

I find it seems to get stuck in little patterns where it'll just play tracks from about the same 4-5 albums with the very occasional track from elsewhere.

I agree - I was listening last night for 4-5 hours and heard 15-20 PJ Harvey songs and 15-20 Smashing Pumpkins songs (out of a very large library).  The first few were kind of nice (I don't put either band on much any more) but as time went on it got to be a bit much.  I was doing some work on my front porch so skipping songs took a bit of effort (take off the work boots, go to the living room, press skip, return to the porch, re-lace the boots), though I skipped a few tunes near the end.  I'm not sure if I listened long enough or skipped enough for my skips to steer the algorithm. 

I'm definitely interested in Radio Mode though... I need to log some more hours with it to see how I like it.

[Magic_Randy]

#1) Pick Group > Album from the menu at the top of your audio view.

One more gem I did not know was there. 

[avpman]

Add #4:
Play a playlist. When it's finished and you click play to re-play it (before closing or clearing Playing Now), MC starts with the the last song in the playlist and then stops. Very annoying.

In iTunes, if you re-play a playlist it starts at the beginning and plays all the songs.

[JimH]

Add #4:
Play a playlist. When it's finished and you click play to re-play it (before closing or clearing Playing Now), MC starts with the the last song in the playlist and then stops. Very annoying.

In iTunes, if you re-play a playlist it starts at the beginning and plays all the songs.

MC's playback options can be changed.  Try options/general/behaviour.  You might be able to get what you expect.

[avpman]

MC's playback options can be changed.  Try options/general/behaviour.  You might be able to get what you expect.

Dude - you guys rock! Now if I could just get you to throw events in the SDK when remote control IR keys are pressed.... 

[JimH]

Radio mode comments were split here.

[Alex B]

Add #4:
Play a playlist. When it's finished and you click play to re-play it (before closing or clearing Playing Now), MC starts with the the last song in the playlist and then stops. Very annoying.

In iTunes, if you re-play a playlist it starts at the beginning and plays all the songs.

I am always confused when I use iTunes on my friends' Macs because it does not have a "Playing Now" list. In iTunes it is not possible to just simply browse the library and mark some of the browsed tracks to be played (= add to Playing Now in MC) without altering or creating a named playlist.

In MC you don't need to jump to Playing Now when playback is started. It is optional. (I usually have it disabled. For getting to Playing Now quickly when needed I have added the Playing Now toolbar button.)

When you stay in the playlist view pressing the playlist specific play button again (or right-click > play on the playlist name in the tree) starts playing the list from the beginning:



In addition, you can use the tabs or split view modes for switching between your playlists, Playing Now and any other views quickly.

[glynor]

Hysterical that your screenshot includes both Alice Cooper and Enya!    

[Alex B]

Hysterical that your screenshot includes both Alice Cooper and Enya!    

I like contrasts...

Actually, that library is used by all members in my family and we have varied musical tastes. Personally, I am open-minded and like many genres and styles. Also, as I have gradually become a seriously addicted music collector (I blame MC for that) I have gathered quite a few almost complete artist discographies.

[mabes]

You can pick files and do an "Add (as next to play)" anytime.  After they're done, the previous playlist keeps playing.

Will this work with a playlist playing randomly? If you pick a few songs and select "play next" it will play them all and then go back to a random order for the rest?

[JimH]

Did you try it?  It should.

[glynor]

It does.  I use it all the time.  I could even say, I use it MOST of the time.