MM4 Playlist migration & same old problems?!

[beg]

Hi,

I just installed MM4 1388 as portable installation (which would be usefull in my case : )

Since the database is not compatible - how can I migrate my (>1500) handmade playlists being sorted in nested folders from MM3 into MM4? To make them new is not really an option for me.. : (

Then what I noticed instantly: The implementation of the equalizer is as not useable as it used to be in MM3. It produces MASSIV interruptions to the music playback with ANY interactions... : (

My biggest problem why I can not use MM as playback for Dj-ing is utterly unreliable playback. I documented this a year ago for MM3 with a screenshot video and I can reproduce this easily with this MM4 version with only some thousand tracks in database and 1 automated playlist! When opening an automated playlist when one track is about to end the loading of the autoplaylists takes some seconds quite often. This is when playback gets interrupted and or corrupted (stop playing for several seconds up to minutes and/or playing some wrong seconds in between) Don't ask me to make another video because I have done this for MM3 and it obviously was ignored.

I really like MM but if the massiv problems I experience all the time with MM3 (in order of unstable operation, unreliable playback as described above) are not addressed properly I really have to change to J. River Mediacenter which has a rock-solid database and stable operation which is most important to me and my work. Please get these basic and necessary functions right in MM4!

To me there is no point in including video as long as audio can't be handled properly.. I am VERY disappointed about this versions so far. I really don't care about all the new features as long as MM is not able to play audio properly.

cheers,
Bernhard

[Lowlander]

Have you done any of the common suggestions like switching output plugins and making sure the correct audio device is selected or even send in a debug log so the developers can see what is happening. Only few people run into these problems and are often resolvable by these type of changes.

[beg]

Yes I tried different plugins. But what wonders me is that EVERY colleague I asked using MM confirmed that..

Since I installed the debug version by now again I can copy the log of the moment when I had again to wait forever for a playlist to open freezing MM meanwhile (which leads to interruption of output in case a song is ending at the same moment btw.)

00000558 85.25052643 [6176] Thread initialized 4800
00000559 85.25466919 [6176] 4800 DB open SQL: SELECT Songs.*
00000560 85.25466919 [6176] FROM Songs WHERE (Songs.SongPath like '%cd-compilations%')
00000561 85.49829102 [6176] 4532 DB open SQL: SELECT Playlists.*, (SELECT Count(*) FROM Playlists as Plst2 WHERE Plst2.ParentPlaylist=Playlists.IDPlaylist) AS cnt FROM Playlists WHERE Playlists.ParentPlaylist=3631 ORDER BY Playlists.PlaylistName
00000562 139.98991394 [6176] 4800 DB lock finished, took 192447028.
00000563 140.00610352 [6176] 4532 DB lock finished, took 191640930.
00000564 140.46220398 [6176] Thread has started 7968
00000565 140.46228027 [6176] Thread registered, going to initialize 7968

As you can see it's not a difficult automated playlist - lust listing the tracks of a certain folder.. I don't know the units the "took..." is calculating but it was quite long... (this was with the old version though..)

cheers,
Bernhard

PS btw. I have problems using the same database once with regular MM installation and once with MM debug installation both being the same version?! After changeing the mobile HD from laptop (regular installation) to workstation (debug version) the debug version is not starting any more. After terminating the window there is this error: Access violation at address 006A82Cs in moulde Mediamonkey.exe. Read of address
00000480.
After that, second try MM starts without any problem..

These are exactly these unstable, unreliable things I am talking about..

[Lowlander]

Do you install as portable install on the portable drive?

[beg]

no this was the old version being installed regular but using database and music from the portable HD

[Lowlander]

MM4 supports Portable Install and thus you should test with the Portable Install if you use it on an external drive on multiple PC's.

[rusty]

Hi Beg,

I tried installing MM4 (build 1392; non-portable) and your MM3 DB (that you sent some time ago) updated normally--including all playlists.

As far as the problem re. large autoplaylists interfering with playback, that issue should have been fixed (see: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=6498 ). I've re-opened the issue for verification by someone else, but I cannot replicate the problem (even using your DB).

-Rusty

[jiri]

Bernhard,

re. the large autoplaylists - have you tried with a clean installation, i.e. with all the scripts and non-default plug-ins removed? I suppose that it might be related to a particular script, since we can't reproduce in the default configuration. A complete debug log might help as well, feel free to e-mail it to me.

As the equalizer issue - in case you use out_MMDS output plug-in, there shouldn't be any difference from MM 3.x. In case of WASAPI, it's a little more complex issue, it depends on several factors - Exclusive vs. Shared mode, etc. There are some more improvements in this area planned for future versions.

Jiri

[beg]

Hi Rusty,

thank you for your reply!

since it was said that MM4 uses a completely different DB I did not even try to open my old MM3-DB with MM4. I thought I'll have to start with a new MM4 DB and import my playlists somehow.

ok then - How can I make MM4 PORTABLE version use my old MM3-DB?

I'll give it another try!

cheers,
Bernhard

[beg]

ok, found it. copied my old DB onto the portable DB one..

first feedback for the opening/converting process:
a progress bar filling itself up again and again and again - doesn't make any sense..

[nohitter151]

ok, found it. copied my old DB onto the portable DB one..

first feedback for the opening/converting process:
a progress bar filling itself up again and again and again - doesn't make any sense..

You need to give the conversion process some time - especially with a large DB it will take a little while.

[rusty]

With further testing, we're still unable to replicate this issue.

-Rusty