[PLAY ALL]: Understanding Music Management & Music Playing in MP

[Junoman]

Started on:
last update:

Summary:
True Music Management or Just A Basic Player?
[Interface is not convenient for large collections]

Area:
My Music

Description:

"...Sometimes not understanding can make it most difficult to recommend!"

Not sure if this is a feature request or even a future possibility, but I do know that this effects MANY people using MP with large music collections.

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I store my music in folders for organization
ARTIST > ALBUM > Tracks
I have a directory structure with 11,600 artists folders
(not too mention the album folders within each)

It is very easy to find a specific song by browsing and quite responsive for speed.
(A big improvement from 2 years ago! Thanks Guys!!!)


The issue is that many folders have only one song, and it becomes tiresome to back out of directories and find the next song for play.
EXTENSIVE work needs to be done in the playlist area of MP...but that is a whole other post!!!

It would be great to have a "PLAY ALL" feature or something similar, that is available from the main root (artists level) and from the album level.

The idea...PLAY ALL (with SHUFFLE option...very important!) could be done when looking at the artist list and would simply play any song from anywhere in the collection from any artist. PLAY ALL in the album area would shuffle and play random tracks from all albums by that artist.

Basically scanning the directory tree, from where we launch the PLAY ALL query.

Additionally, it would be great to play based on specific tags. ie: Play 80's music or 90's music.

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Perhaps this will only become a posibility when the music portion of MP also becomes a service or MusicServer (similar to the TVServer) >> and the ideal direction to follow.

Do we need to use the SQL database to catalog all our music?
I think that would be ideal!

It would also add unrivaled options to MP that other HTPC's could wish for, and build a solid base for future growth of the music section.

[The_Stig]

What you want is already possible. The trick is to adjust the Music View.

Go to setup, Music, Music Views, edit Artist, delete Operator group.

Then go to music, switch view: Artists. That should do what you want. But keep in mind that this sorting option can be slower as the standard-option.

Regards,

Paloema

P.S.: Respect goes to rtv, which told me this :-)

[Junoman]

Thanks Paloema (and RTV)...I'll give it a try this week.

But this just brings up a 'twist' to the original question.
The overall future success of MP will rely stongly on user friendliness and ease of use. (Especially true if you read most peoples forum requests)

So to add the "twist"....Can someone add functionality to MP so that this above suggestion can be accessed while in MyMusic (an 'on-the-fly' option).
I have seen a ton of forum posts that all revolve around SORTING.

I think most people want the functionality and options of music players they already have like WinAmp and MS MediaPlayer. Not realistic at this time for MP (understandably), but people always want all the bells and whistles

Can we have an additional menu available in the My Music that can apply different sort orders/options?

This seems to be really what most people are looking for. Yes we can achieve these things through other methods and fixes, but I think people here really need a simple sorting menu that can be brought up!

[Ideally, so not to have to restart MP for a sort change -- I may use the current sort order most times for speed (as you mention), but some nights want to random play the entire collection]

The PLAY ALL option/suggestion was just an easy way to push one button and listen to ALL my music.

After seeing so many SORTING related posts, it seems to me that a sorting menu with 'dummy' options would entice many of the current and future MP users, while adding "ease of use"!

Take for example something like the following:

1) PLAY ALL MUSIC (All Artists)
2) PLAY ALL MUSIC (By this Artist)
3) PLAY FAVORITES LIST
4) PLAY 80's MUSIC
5) PLAY 90's MUSIC
6) PLAY MUSIC OF GENRE [..SELECT GENRE]
Rock
Soft-Rock
Country

etc....

For myself, like others, it would seem that a great many posts would be answered by such functionality being a part of the regular system.

I would love to hear from other people about how much improved your experience would be with such added functionality.

Thanks again for the help Paloema!

[hwahrmann]

Whenever you are on a folder and press "P" or the "Play" button on your remote all the songs in subfolders are added to the playlist and played.
So pressing "P" on "Beatles" plays all your beatles songs of all albums.

[The_Stig]

Why open 2 threads on this? I closed the other one...

[Junoman]

Hey hwahrmann,

I have tried your recommendation to press play on the remote when I am on an artist folder....or the entire music tree.

It does not work??? (no keyboard attached to HTPC)

I was using SVN March 3/2007 when I first tried. I have now installed SVN Apr 1/2007 and I have the same results.

Is there something else I am missing? (using hauppauge PVR-500 card w/Remote) ..all other features seem to work fine.

Be great if you could make a suggestion -- thanks.

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It is great that there are a ton of keyboard and mouse shortcuts...but like all the users I have supported in my job for years > None of them yet know about things like CTRL+C & CTRL+V ...they have all used pc's everyday for 15 years.

I think the majority of "general" users would prefer the added value of a sub menu. (or extra options in the current menu)

I must confess that I too am crippled by not having menu options ...this is mostly because I do not want to keep a "cheat sheet" of keyboard and remote shortcuts on my coffee table and can never remember them from one day to the next.
[I'm definatley like most...want to see a menu of options I can choose from]

If the functionality is already there for all the options I have previously mentioned, then perhaps someone would be able to code a sub menu to display these options quite easily.

I think the end result would be ease of use and less forum time for new users...not to mention that people would "percieve" MP as a more user friendly experience with more options than the competition.

Thanks in advance to really give this some thought.

[mzemina]

Junoman - *If* your suggestion (submenus for existing shortcuts) makes it into realization. I hope that an option to not show the submenus is also provided - to help keep the screen clear.

[Junoman]

Alright....in an effort to ensure this is an error or not.

[Have installed MP on another machine]
CORRECTION: I am able to use the play button (remote) to play all when I am on the artist or album folders.

...this is a good thing, and I will look into why it would not work with the other pc which is identical except for video and cable card.

Although, it will not work on the root directory of MUSIC!???

Perhaps its that the main path goes right to my MUSIC folder in MP Setup, and I have to back out of this initial directory to use the PLAY button on the remote?

I don't want to put my MUSIC folder inside a MUSIC folder to enable this feature...would this be something that can be looked at closer???

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SUB MENUS

Also, regarding the "sub menus" mentioned above (I do not like clutter or too many options as well)...I kind of foresee the sub menu to be similar to sub menus already in the my photos section.

The idea that when you press the menu or more button on your remote, you are presented with the standard options that are already there....but...there would be one more option to choose called something like "music mix" (or whatever better name) that would change to the sub menu with the play options discussed above and others that would be suitable.

Hope that helps share my perspective on the menu in a good way for everyone.

[macca macca]

This may or may not be a relative question, but i dun wanna start a new post for it. What is better for large collections, database, or no database? I have about 1000 folders with a fair bit of music (5 - 200 tracks) in each folder. One word answer will be fine.

[stig]

database