A new Plugin for the Music-Part! Is it possible? (2 Viewers)

[joz]

it's not user friendly on the config part as with everything in MP, so that should not hold you back.
It's about how it's used after setup, which is user friendly yes.

besides that queries are easy, loads of people can help you out coming up with something you like, if you can't manage yourself.

 

[emphatic]

Ideas for PLAYLIST CREATION:

How about if you select a song/album and press AND HOLD the OK button on your remote, this will add to the playlist (don't know if this is user friendly/reliable)? OR, while browsing your music, you press your INFO button, and there's a PLAYLIST MODE available with an ON/OFF marker, that when selected (turned on) will show an additional menu where you can set it up "on the fly". Suggestion for this menu:

* ALBUM MODE | Click on albums to add it wholly [ ] (chosen albums will receive a green border)
* SINGLE MODE | Click on albums to browse individual tracks [ ] (chosen tracks will receive a green border)
* AVOID MULTIPLE ENTRIES | Won't add the same track twice [ ]
* USE LAST.FM/SCROBBLE | Single mode/Album mode could have different options [ ]
* SIMILAR GENRE RANDOM PLAYLIST FROM x USER TRACKS | Select x tracks, a playlist within these genres will be created

Other useful features could be, SHOW LATEST ADDED TRACKS/ALBUMS, SHOW NEWEST TRACKS/ALBUMS

What I really don't like in MediaPortal's current music (browsing) is that the filenames are shown, instead of the content of the ID3 tags. It's not until you're playing the tracks that they're "pretty names" are shown.

Emph

 

[joz]

That sounds like pretty darn good ideas emphatic.
I do have second thoughts on holding the ok button, cause I have seen remotes which are kinda not working with the whole repeating thing (it does for me though!).

 

[tourettes]

What I really don't like in MediaPortal's current music (browsing) is that the filenames are shown, instead of the content of the ID3 tags. It's not until you're playing the tracks that they're "pretty names" are shown.

Try using database mode

 

[Spragleknas]

I cant believe that people still are not using a DB view
Here is some tips for making music browsing in MP a delight:
- Use MT Tag That to make sure your music is tagged correctly
- Scan your music folder
- Use the audioscrobbler in configuration to get (additional) artist/album artwork (requires Last.fm account - free is fine)
- Re-scan (to add new artwork)*
- Customize your views (I always delete the annoying grouping and use list view for almost all levels)
- Costomize how info is displayed. I like [Track] [Title] [Artist] - [Duration], so songname is always displayed fully.
- Enter MP and choose DB-view of your preference.
- Enjoy.

 

[emphatic]

What I really don't like in MediaPortal's current music (browsing) is that the filenames are shown, instead of the content of the ID3 tags. It's not until you're playing the tracks that they're "pretty names" are shown.

Try using database mode

Yes, I did try that, and I just got confused and turned off. In fact, I've revisited it several times, and it's not grown on me, and I consider myself a rather advanced user of MP. Sorry, but it's 2009 now, things should have evolved. I realize things will look hotter in MediaPortal 2, but meanwhile, let's just get a plugin to hotten things up a bit, as it'll be a while until we get that going.

For anyone that wants to just start using MediaPortal for the first time and have everything presented nicely (look at MP TV-Series) without more configuration than hdd locactions, they'll surely stick to iTunes, Winamp or whatever they used in the past for their music playback.

In fact, what if the music section was EXACTLY like MP TV-Series?

Series = Artist
Season = Album
Episode = Track
Episode Plot = Lyrics

On each startup of the music plugin, the importer will look for changes and ask the user to verify any discrepancies (similarly named artists/bands), perhaps showing a picture of the artists available, or genre to help getting the correct information UNLESS everything fits to the filtering of the plugin, then the import will be running silently in the background. Fanart and album covers can be chosen with the remote etc.

I cant believe that people still are not using a DB view
Here is some tips for making music browsing in MP a delight:
- Use MT Tag That to make sure your music is tagged correctly
- Scan your music folder
- Use the audioscrobbler in configuration to get (additional) artist/album artwork (requires Last.fm account - free is fine)
- Re-scan (to add new artwork)*
- Customize your views (I always delete the annoying grouping and use list view for almost all levels)
- Costomize how info is displayed. I like [Track] [Title] [Artist] - [Duration], so songname is always displayed fully.
- Enter MP and choose DB-view of your preference.
- Enjoy.

Well, how about you make a little guide (with screen dumps) on how to set everything up, and I will gladly try it. But for all the NEW users of MediaPortal, is this really user friendly enough?

Emph

 

[Spragleknas]

Getting a decent result with MP is not hard, IMO, but your files has to be tagged. The more correct it is tagged, the better the end result will be.

I'll see if I can find time to make a little guide. The fact that you want this is reason enough for it, as I also consider you to be an advanced user.
(And if I - or anyone else - don't come up with anything in reasonable time, don't hesitate to give me a friendly reminder - or a kick in the ***, for that matter )

 

[druid9]

+1 for the use of database.

The reason why TV Series looks and works os well is BECUASE it is by nature a database view. Same for Moving Pictures, and I guess My Films, though I have never used that one.

For an rxample setup a folder in my videos for your TV episoded and see how that looks.

MPTagthat makes tagging the music files a breeze.

As for reverting to iTunes, the only way iTunes works and looks well is if the the files are tagged, and the album art has been obtained. Try doing that across 10000 poorly tagged .mp3s, not in albums, that your kids have put on the system - no thanks. But having done all of that, what do you have? A database.

Oh, and has anyone tried using iTunes with a remote, not a mouse - try it you won't like it.

This whole database thing is why we have so many threads on "How do you arrange your files?", with a database yit is largely irrelevant as the database does the sorting and the collating.

For the record, I like Spragleknas remove the annoying grouping. Is use AlbumArtist view because that deals with multiple artist compilations best, and for speed of browsing I also tend to go for list view. Might be how I like to listen to music, but pick an artist, pick an album press play is not that tedious. I do have playlists set up for times when I just want background music with various tracks, and these work pretty well with autoscrobbler adding tracks like the ones I orginally set up. I can do some further notes if needed

 

[emphatic]

Perhaps the default settings for the views in MediaPortal could be set like Spragleknas' set his data up? I have about 90% of my music tagged perfectly AFAIK, but I just to get rid of the:
#
A
B
C
D
etc.

that I get now when I try database views, instead of shares. I'm not saying that using databases is bad, I just don't think MediaPortal presents it well.

Emph

 

[Spragleknas]

I can answer that part right now

- Select the ACT colum for the grouped line.
- Then hit [d] (delete). Do this for the rest of the views.
- Save

I wonder how many actually uses grouping