Streamlining the browsing tree & multiple configs

[haggis999]

(22-09-2013 09:12)simoncn Wrote:  This wouldn't help if you use WorkOrTrackTitle:Group in aliasTags, because you would get the same problem as you're seeing now. You would need to put Work:Group in aliasTags and put WorkOrTrackTitle in indexTags. This is similar to my own approach of using Composition for what you are calling WorkOrTrackTitle.

I must be getting more familiar with this stuff because I had already intuitively realised that I would have to leave my aliasTags setting unchanged and just add WorkOrTrackTitle to indexTags (though I've not tried it, as my music files don't currently contain that proposed new tag).

If you use a 'Composition' tag, does that mean your Composer, Composition and Track tags contain (as my equivalents do) only the indicated information, with no duplication?

For example:
Composer = Beethoven
Composition = Symphony No 9 in D minor, "Choral", Op 125
Track = II. Molto vivace - Presto - Molto vivace - Presto

Quote:A simpler solution would be to use Kinsky or BubbleUPnP/BubbleDS as a control point instead of foobar2000. Kinsky runs on various platforms including Windows, and BubblePnP/BubbleDS run on Android only. This would require you have a UPnP renderer, which could be either be a separate piece of hardware or some software running on your Windows PC. Is this a possibility?

I have only ever used Foobar for rapidly checking the effects of changes to the MinimServer configuration. I have no plans to use it for any other purpose. JRMC can act as a renderer on my PC and my Oppo BDP-105 is also a renderer. Unfortunately, the Oppo cannot currently provide gapless playback via DLNA, though Oppo has told me that this is likely to change with a future firmware update (when it does, I will have a cheaper alternative to Linn and Naim streamers).

My choice of control point is not yet decided. I have installed Kinsky on my PC and it is able to display MinimServer's browsing tree but I can't see where to select the renderer (the Oppo has not appeared anywhere obvious even after doing a network rescan in Kinsky).

BubbleUPnP on my Android phone works but suffers from a limited information display on the playing now screen, i.e. no composer name or work title. All I get are a non-scrolling track title and artist list, i.e. a pop-oriented display.

David

[DavidHB]

(21-09-2013 22:54)haggis999 Wrote:  JRMC has a searchable online Wiki system in place of a conventional user manual. This is a link to the table of contents page ...

Thank you. I'd seen the page, but not looked at it as closely as I should have done. Sample reading suggests that the tagging facilities are pretty good; I much prefer the syntax of JRMCs expression language to the grep-style regular expressions in MP3 Tag (EDIT: though I now see that the JMRC language has the facility to use regular expressions as well - clever).

David

[haggis999]

I've made a small degree of progress with Kinsky on my PC. A reinstallation of Kinsky and then a PC reboot enabled it to find my Oppo BDP-105 but having successfully started to play a specific track I can find no way of playing anything else! I can only pause the current track and even a restart of Kinsky still shows the same track in the top right corner. Rather oddly, there is no Stop button.

A brief check of a related post on the Linn forum suggests that I am not the only one to have similar problems. I suspect that Kinsky is not that keen on playing with kit that wasn't made in Glasgow!

David

[simoncn]

(22-09-2013 17:22)haggis999 Wrote:  I've made a small degree of progress with Kinsky on my PC. A reinstallation of Kinsky and then a PC reboot enabled it to find my Oppo BDP-105 but having successfully started to play a specific track I can find no way of playing anything else! I can only pause the current track and even a restart of Kinsky still shows the same track in the top right corner. Rather oddly, there is no Stop button.

A brief check of a related post on the Linn forum suggests that I am not the only one to have similar problems. I suspect that Kinsky is not that keen on playing with kit that wasn't made in Glasgow!

David

Please refer to this discussion. Although it's about using dBpoweramp Renaissance as a UPnP renderer with Kinsky, the information there is likely to apply to the OPPO as well.

[simoncn]

(22-09-2013 12:54)haggis999 Wrote:  If you use a 'Composition' tag, does that mean your Composer, Composition and Track tags contain (as my equivalents do) only the indicated information, with no duplication?

For example:
Composer = Beethoven
Composition = Symphony No 9 in D minor, "Choral", Op 125
Track = II. Molto vivace - Presto - Molto vivace - Presto

Yes, that's right. It's a good idea to avoid duplication in tag values and use the MinimServer tagFormat property if you want to view a combination of tag values in the control point.

Quote:BubbleUPnP on my Android phone works but suffers from a limited information display on the playing now screen, i.e. no composer name or work title. All I get are a non-scrolling track title and artist list, i.e. a pop-oriented display.

This information is displayed when I use BubbleDS on my Nexus 7.

[haggis999]

How do you handle single track compositions? Do you leave the Composition tag empty and create a derived tag like my WorkOrTrackTitle tag?

As its name implies, BubbleDS is aimed at owners of Linn DS products, so I can't use it. Perhaps the playing now interface in BubbleDS differs from that in BubbleUPnP. On the other hand, did you only start to see Composer and Composition after some tweaking of the BubbleDS settings? If so, do you remember what changes you made?

David

[simoncn]

(22-09-2013 19:53)haggis999 Wrote:  How do you handle single track compositions? Do you leave the Composition tag empty and create a derived tag like my WorkOrTrackTitle tag?

At the moment, I'm only using Composition for multi-movement compositions such as masses, symphonies and concertos. At some stage when I have more time to improve my tagging, I might extend this tag to some single-movement compositions as well. I probably wouldn't use it for short pieces that I only play as part of a complete album.

Quote:As its name implies, BubbleDS is aimed at owners of Linn DS products, so I can't use it. Perhaps the playing now interface in BubbleDS differs from that in BubbleUPnP. On the other hand, did you only start to see Composer and Composition after some tweaking of the BubbleDS settings? If so, do you remember what changes you made?

David

I just tried it with BubbleUPnP, and the Now Playing display shows the same information as BubbleDS. This probably means that BubbleUPnP and BubbleDS show more information on a tablet than they do on a phone.

[haggis999]

(22-09-2013 20:11)simoncn Wrote:  At the moment, I'm only using Composition for multi-movement compositions such as masses, symphonies and concertos. At some stage when I have more time to improve my tagging, I might extend this tag to some single-movement compositions as well. I probably wouldn't use it for short pieces that I only play as part of a complete album.

If you aren't using a derived tag such as my suggestion of a WorkOrTrackTitle tag, then have you another way of displaying a list of all the works of a specified composer? Simply using Composition would miss out all the single track works in your collection.

Quote:I just tried it with BubbleUPnP, and the Now Playing display shows the same information as BubbleDS. This probably means that BubbleUPnP and BubbleDS show more information on a tablet than they do on a phone.

How would either BubbleDS or BubbleUPnP know to display your custom Composition tag without some form of configuration? Are you sure it's not the Album name you are seeing, rather than Composition?

David

[simoncn]

(22-09-2013 22:35)haggis999 Wrote:  If you aren't using a derived tag such as my suggestion of a WorkOrTrackTitle tag, then have you another way of displaying a list of all the works of a specified composer? Simply using Composition would miss out all the single track works in your collection.

I'm not aiming for a fully indexed inventory of every track in my library. For me, the purpose of the index is to help me find music that I want to play, and there are some tracks that I would never want to play unless I am playing the containing album.

Quote:How would either BubbleDS or BubbleUPnP know to display your custom Composition tag without some form of configuration? Are you sure it's not the Album name you are seeing, rather than Composition?

It's the Group tag that I'm seeing. For me, Composition and Group are more or less synonymous. The Group tag is displayed by BubbleDS/BubbleUPnP because MinimServer sends the Group tag value to the control point as the "album" value for each member of the group.

[haggis999]

(22-09-2013 22:55)simoncn Wrote:  I'm not aiming for a fully indexed inventory of every track in my library. For me, the purpose of the index is to help me find music that I want to play, and there are some tracks that I would never want to play unless I am playing the containing album.

I reckon that I will want to select by composer and work about as often as I would wish to select by album. For this reason, it would be important for me to have the ability to select a list of various works by a given composer without making any distinction between single and multitrack works. I guess this means I will have to implement my WorkOrTrackTitle proposal.

Quote:It's the Group tag that I'm seeing. For me, Composition and Group are more or less synonymous. The Group tag is displayed by BubbleDS/BubbleUPnP because MinimServer sends the Group tag value to the control point as the "album" value for each member of the group.

That's a clever solution! However, I don't know anyone with an Android tablet who could demonstrate it in action (in contrast, both of our sons have iPads, so I can always try out an iPad app). Does MinimServer send the Group tag value to all control points as the "Album" value, or is this just done for BubbleDS/BubbleUPnP?

Apart from BubbleUPnP and Kinsky, are there any other control points you can recommend?

David