[quote=PetrCBR post_id=449555 time=1537093470 user_id=3394]
Will add your request (about Choose columns and ability to hide Artwork column) to my TODO.
[/quote]

Facility to configure to remove the artwork column from Album&Tracks view does introduce a problem.

In MM4 a click on an album's Summary column cell causes selection of the whole album. This is very useful when wanting to select a whole album, or to multi-select a group of albums.

In MM5 this album select click action has moved from the Summary cell to the art thumb. ... ie. the Summary cell now contains separate clickable links for AlbumArtist & Album, but no click function to select the album without also navigating into the album's detail display ... you can Ctrl+A in the album's Detail screen to select the whole album, but without the Album Art column we would have no facility to multi-select a group of albums.

@Barry
I agree that Top Tracks could be useful but not to me. I guess i have an aversion to the concept because I perceive it as a sort of 'Hit Parade' which is not the way i categorize or listen to music. I rarely listen to any music over & over & when I listen to Classical Music i don't listen to "tracks" but rather Works by Composers, Conductors & Artists. Having said that i don't mind if it's there as long as its not a default view & i can switch it off.

[quote=Davo post_id=449643 time=1537268727 user_id=10457]
I would prefer that "Top Tracks" was an optional view/function. imo there are already enough mechanisms to deal with large databases, eg Filters; Collections; Playlists; Views etc. If i want to listen to random tracks i can use Shuffle. "Top Tracks" seems too arbitrary & vague to be of much use.
[/quote]

It is optional on the Years tabs (via the tracks toggle on the subviews menu), and the setting seems to persist.

I quite like the facility. ... It's not really random tracks, which would not be of much use. It is random favourite tracks, which at least has something going for it.

I play whole albums, not mixed tracks, so it is not much use to me personally.

They have a similar idea for albums on the home screen, which I think is a great addition. It looks like it is play count weighted (true?), as it usually seems to be mostly my favourite albums. It doesn't seem to also apply any extra weighting for favourite albums which haven't been played recently, which would be a good addition for at least some of the slots IMO. ... It is good that it seems based on a partially randomised weighting, of my favourite albums, so it is not a boring static display. ... Maybe it only appears to be a randomised weighting to me because all my tracks have an equal track rating of "unrated". ... If it is not intentionally partially randomised, I would like to report that is a desirable feature IMO.

I think that is a good addition for people with large collections. It helps bring back some of the sense of connection that gets lost as your collection grows larger.

[quote=Davo post_id=449685 time=1537306490 user_id=10457]
On that point, why not put Views under Tools & let the "ordinary user" arrange their own views. Then you wouldn't have to try & guess what users really want. For example I would like to be able to set up a Global View applicable to all my Collections & Nodes.
[/quote]

There is already option "Manage views" in context menu for some views. It has currently limited functionality, but should be expanded in the future.

[quote]Yes, it is hard to look at the application as "ordinary user", when you see it from the other side as a developer [/quote]

On that point, why not put Views under Tools & let the "ordinary user" arrange their own views. Then you wouldn't have to try & guess what users really want. For example I would like to be able to set up a Global View applicable to all my Collections & Nodes.

There were bugs in importing rating values from GPM and in sorting by rating, that were causing some of the mentioned problems in top tracks, will be fixed in the next release.

Barry4679: thanks. Yes, UI is not ideal yet. We will try to unify views more. Some features were added only to some views and not others yet. Years and Genres should have probably the same features as e.g. Artists. Tracked: https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=15112
Top Tracks/All Tracks subview will be probably revised to be more clear.
Yes, it is hard to look at the application as "ordinary user", when you see it from the other side as a developer for a long time, that is why is your feedback important for us, thanks.

[quote=Davo post_id=449643 time=1537268727 user_id=10457]
I would prefer that "Top Tracks" was an optional view/function. imo there are already enough mechanisms to deal with large databases, eg Filters; Collections; Playlists; Views etc. If i want to listen to random tracks i can use Shuffle. "Top Tracks" seems too arbitrary & vague to be of much use.
[/quote]

It is optional, you can switch to All Tracks and this should persist.

I would prefer that "Top Tracks" was an optional view/function. imo there are already enough mechanisms to deal with large databases, eg Filters; Collections; Playlists; Views etc. If i want to listen to random tracks i can use Shuffle. "Top Tracks" seems too arbitrary & vague to be of much use.

[quote=MiPi post_id=449629 time=1537254109 user_id=27459]
but the second "tracks area" you mentioned is album grid popup, i.e. it does not make sense for me to expect, that the subview switcher "Tracks" will affect this
[/quote]

Thanks for your explanation.

You may be correct, and its obviously not a big issue. I was just reporting anything that was initally confusing

I don't think that MM5 users can see MM5 like like you do. I don't see a grid and any obvious popup separate window ... I just see it, after you have stitched it all together, as as a single window, and there was a menu saying that it I could tailor the appearance of that window, and the selection terms used were not clear to me. ... I don't have your insight.
[url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/vx3j2qq8u12y7vz/track%20option%20confusing.png?dl=0[/url]

Not only do I not see it as one of the designers or developers see it, I don't even see as it as I may in a few months, after I grow to understand its overall design.

I am still finding the new UI to be semi-confusing ... ie. lots of different tabs ... with different view modes, different facilities, and different buttons

Take that tab for example, ie the Years tab ... it seems to have come from a different designer than other parts of MM5... ie. only one view mode ... no column browser facility ... no SortBy facility, ... and a facility to tailor what i do and don't see, something which I haven't noticed anywhere else.

This type of variation makes it difficult to get a clear picture of the overall design of MM5.

BTW I am not saying that the Year tab isn't useful.


[quote=MiPi post_id=449629 time=1537254109 user_id=27459]
"Top Tracks" is meant to display some set of representative tracks. E.g. if you display "1960s" and have big DB, it could contain hundreds of tracks from 1960s. To speed things up, the Tracks component displays only some of the tracks by default. Currently it chooses the highest rated and most played tracks.
[/quote]

Thanks. A toggle between those two options would be good ... and a tool tip show the current selection criteria.

It doesn't see to be working 100%.
All of my tracks are unrated (because that was the only way in MM4 that I could get an ungrouped cover flow display, ie. [url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/3kncn6m71fmlkc7/zero%20rated.png?dl=0[/url])

In my MM5 db I have synced with my GPM library, so MM5 has imported a lot of unwanted junk into my MM5 library ... so now I do have same tracks with ratings.

In the following image you can see my library for the 1970's. All those "top" tracks have been imported from GPM. The track by Blondie and the track by The Byrds are there because in GPM they seem to have a track rating, although I didn't put it there. The tracks by The Peddlars are unrated (ie = None), so presumably you include them due to their "high: play count.
[url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/ruktfsysnlcgwnr/1970%20top%20tracks.png?dl=0[/url]

But if I display all of my 1970 tracks, and sort by play count, you can see that they were not my most played unrated tracks from the 1970's .
[url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/4jheccozso7z332/real%20top%20tracks.png?dl=0[/url]

ie. the {top) albums part of that display gets it right, those are my most played albums from the 1970's, but the top tracks part does not.

Barry4679: but the second "tracks area" you mentioned is album grid popup, i.e. it does not make sense for me to expect, that the subview switcher "Tracks" will affect this, it is not subview, it is feature of the album grid, common for all grids, were albums appear, displayed always after clicking the album, not after switching some subview on.
We are open to rename the "Tracks" switcher, but I am not sure what is better. "Top Tracks" is not accurate too and can be more confusing, as this component can display also All Tracks (after clicking "Show all ... tracks" in case there are more tracks to display). Maybe "Top/All Tracks".
"Top Tracks" is meant to display some set of representative tracks. E.g. if you display "1960s" and have big DB, it could contain hundreds of tracks from 1960s. To speed things up, the Tracks component displays only some of the tracks by default. Currently it chooses the highest rated and most played tracks.

[quote=MiPi post_id=449558 time=1537103481 user_id=27459]
Re Year tab subview - "Tracks" item in subviews section in menu refers to subview/control, that displays Top Tracks or All Tracks. The second is general album grid popup, it is feature of the grid, not the view or subview, so this menu item cannot be related to it...
[/quote]

Sorry, I didn't explain myself clearly.

I was meaning to suggest that the toggle item named "Tracks" in the Years tab subview menu section does not clearly describe what it affects. ... ie. there are two track-related areas on that panel ... the menu item would be clearer if its name was "Top Tracks"

btw, what is "Top Tracks"? ... this not clear ... highest rated tracks? ... most played tracks? ... tracks at the top of the current sort sequence? .. most recent tracks? .. etc

That panel name could do with a better title, or have a tool tip which explained your selection criteria

The contextual search issues tracked as https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=15106

Column browser case (in)sensitivity tracked here: https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=15101

Re Year tab subview - "Tracks" item in subviews section in menu refers to subview/control, that displays Top Tracks or All Tracks. The second is general album grid popup, it is feature of the grid, not the view or subview, so this menu item cannot be related to it...

Will add your request (about Choose columns and ability to hide Artwork column) to my TODO.