some remarks and questions about MP1 RC2 (1 Viewer)

[montecristo]

hello,

before i start with my remarks and questions let me first explain my current situation.

at this point i have no HTPC yet (parts ordered and waiting for arrival)
i installed MP1 RC2 on my laptop to check things out.
i have no movies on my HD (so , cannot test that one in MP1)
i do have loaded my CD's on my HD, at this time 220 cd's (ipod)

now comes my questoins and remarks (don't shoot me if you deem neccesary)

remarks:
MP is loading (starting up) very slowly
it takes a very long time

questions:

my biggest question/problem is seeing the covers of my cd's in MP
i can only see my covers when i opened the album and can see the songs.
i do not see covers when i select from the albums.
i also want to be able to when i open 'my music" to see instantly all my cd covers, at this point it doesn't look like it is possible.
or just see a list with the artists.
now i can only see them trough the alfabeth. for example if i click the letter A i will see the artists or albums starting with that letter.
and then i still don't see the covers, only when i open the album.

my albums are stored in their own map.
for example:

c:\music\ac_dc\back in black\song.m4a
c:\music\ac_dc\blow up your video\song.m4a

c:\music\abba\the visitors\song.m4a
c:\music\abba\waterloo\song.m4a

c:\music\billy joel\52nd street\song.m4a


i hope somebody understand my complicated explained problem and can help me.




thanks,

Montecristo

 

[Spragleknas]

Hi montecristo. Welcome to the forums.

Gonna take some time to answer all you Q's, so I'd like to firs direct you to our wiki:
MediaPortal/Configuration/Music/Database - MediaPortal Wiki Documentation
MediaPortal/Configuration/Music/Views - MediaPortal Wiki Documentation

That will get you started. So - to answer some points:
* To avoid getting the grouping [A, B, C), just delete this line in views (press [d])
* Rescan you database after you've set database correctly conserning pictures etc.

Big tip: Get a Last.FM account and use the Audioscrobbler plugin to het album and artist art.

I'll come back later to answer the things I skipped now, or follow ups

Good luck!

 

[geov]

Welcome Montecristo....why would we shoot you, we are far to friendly on this Forum to hurt anyone

The music views are very configurable; so don’t give up to easily. For the record, your directory structure is totally supported to give you everything you asked for in your post. As stated by “Spragleknas”, start by deleting the “Group” entry under views in the “MP-Configuration” application, that should get rid of the A, B, C etc (remember to click the Save-button, after every change). If you have your own album-art and don’t want to download them from Last.FM, just make sure that you name it Folder.jpg, and that you put it into the specific album-directory. Also take note that there are different views (Album, Artist..etc) and you will have to edit each one to your liking (remember to save after every change, otherwise MP will not remember it).

As for the slow start-up, my Laptop also starts PM very slow (20sec), but my main HTPC takes about 5sec. You did not specify what your system-specs are, so it could be anything…from memory to hard-drive performance.

 

[montecristo]

thanks a lot for the help.

i fixed the problem and now i have what i want
now i just need to find out if i put in a cd or dvd if i can choose to play or to copy straight to the HD so i don't have to put in my cd or dvd anymore the next time. then i can choose straight from the library. would be nice if that is possible.

but i have seen some other problem as well.
more precisely a weather problem.
i'm using the spinsafe 1080 skin.
and when i go check the weather everything seems to be on top of each other in the left upper corner.
so it is impossible to read it. is this a know problem? how can i fix?
all other pages look OK to me.



Montecristo

 

[geov]

thanks a lot for the help.

i fixed the problem and now i have what i want

I'm happy to hear that, remember to click on the "Thanks" button

now i just need to find out if i put in a cd or dvd if i can choose to play or to copy straight to the HD so i don't have to put in my cd or dvd anymore the next time. then i can choose straight from the library. would be nice if that is possible.

There are some DVD-rip plug-ins, just search the forum...sorry I dont use them so I cant help you with this one

but i have seen some other problem as well.
more precisely a weather problem.
i'm using the spinsafe 1080 skin.
and when i go check the weather everything seems to be on top of each other in the left upper corner.
so it is impossible to read it. is this a know problem? how can i fix?
all other pages look OK to me.

Montecristo

Are you using a 1080 desktop res, otherwise you will get this type of problem. Some skins only work on 16:9 -res, like spinsafe 1080, and other work with 4:3 res. To resolve this you have three options, change your res to 16:9, or edit the weather XML-file until everything fits (very easy to do once you understand how..), or ask for help on the spinsafe dedicated forum....