Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Get answers about the current version of MediaMonkey 5

Moderator: Gurus

kjohnson@nctv.com
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 7:47 am

Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Post by kjohnson@nctv.com »

What happened to combined Artist and Album list? It was all I used. Can I go back to v. 4?
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Post by Lowlander »

Do you mean in the Media Tree? If so, Artist provides this in MediaMonkey 5.

https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... 0#Settings
kjohnson@nctv.com
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 7:47 am

Best thing about MM 5

Post by kjohnson@nctv.com »

Long time MM user. Finally found something to like about MM 5. It installed beside MM 4, instead of replacing it, so I can uninstall MM 5 and keep using the one I like.
Ludek
Posts: 4945
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:00 am

Re: Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Post by Ludek »

I also don't see what do you mean by the "combined Artist and Album list",
maybe you mean "List (by Album)" view, see: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3jbktvutbf361 ... 2.png?dl=0
This is still available in MM5.
keiths
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2015 5:54 am

Re: Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Post by keiths »

I have the same issue. In MM4 you could click on Artists, which expanded to a list of artists in the left hand tree. You could select one, which gave a list of albums. Selecting Artist gave you a list of all tracks and albums. Selecting an album gave you the tracks in the album.
In MM5 you seem to just get a monumental list of all artists, albums and tracks. You can collapse them into grid form which gives you a screen full of identical boxes if many of the artists share the first two letters of their names. You then have to scroll down and identify the artist you want, then go through the same process for the album...
There's got to be a simpler method to recreate the 'click on artists, click on artist, expand list of albums, select album' that worked so well with MM4...

Just tried again, and the issue is that the 'expand' triangle has disappeared in the tree for Albums, Artists, Composers and Genres. It still exists for Classification, Rating, Years and Location. These can be expanded and collapsed as in MM4. How do I get this back for Albums and Artists?

Ahh - just found it from another thread: Enable 'subnodes'
https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... 0#Settings
Ludek
Posts: 4945
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:00 am

Re: Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Post by Ludek »

keiths wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 5:53 am Ahh - just found it from another thread: Enable 'subnodes'
https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... 0#Settings
Yes, that does the trick for the MM5's Media Tree interface to be like in MM4.
There's got to be a simpler method to recreate the 'click on artists, click on artist, expand list of albums, select album' that worked so well with MM4...
I think that MM5 has faster methods (even with subnodes disabled), as it is mostly hard to navigate thousands of subnodes.
In MM5 you can simply type the first letters of the searched artist (to filter the grid) and get the desired artist in a second like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6brlwmr5bfnmc ... 6.png?dl=0
thepipe
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:31 pm

Re: Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Post by thepipe »

I'm not liking MM5 either. It may be that I'm just not used to it, but a lot of it just doesn't seem to make sense. How the heck do you use the Manage Views function? How do you add new skins? How do you display album art in the player? Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't new versions also make the program more intuitive?
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Post by Lowlander »

1) Please start here: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... ging_Views

2) Please find them here: https://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brow ... 1/skins-1/ and see: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... ing_Addons

3) The Player doesn't have Artwork anymore (not sure if Skinners can't do this or that none have done so). You can use the Preview window to show the playing files Artwork: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... ng_Preview
Barry4679
Posts: 2398
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:07 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Post by Barry4679 »

thepipe wrote: Tue May 18, 2021 8:54 am I'm not liking MM5 either. It may be that I'm just not used to it, but a lot of it just doesn't seem to make sense. How the heck do you use the Manage Views function?
I don't think that the Manage Views is of much use at the present. So I would ignore it atm.

I reported this a fortnight ago, but no response so far. They probably have more pressing issues.



thepipe wrote: Tue May 18, 2021 8:54 am Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't new versions also make the program more intuitive?
I have been testing MM5 for a few years.
FWIIW I think that MM5 is big improvement over MM4, but agree your point that much of it is not intuitive.
The thing is that MM4 wasn't too intuitive either, but we all got used to it.
The other thing is that MediaMonkey is tool with considerable depth, and that generally implies some complexity and a learning curve.

They could have done more with the UI for the basic tasks, but they didn't. ... like more tool tips, and more explanation in the tool tips which are there.

And the wiki resource is very basic. It is very very plodding read, which mostly just describes what you can already see.
It is close to useless as a Quick Start document, and contains little to describe the design intent behind the innovations and the major mechanisms,

My overall opinion is that MM5 does take quite a bit of effort to come to grips with, but it is worth the effort.
And I know of nothing else out that there which is even close to being this good ... and that includes MM4.
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
yarguy
Posts: 394
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2012 8:34 am

Re: Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Post by yarguy »

[
Barry4679 wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 12:55 am
My overall opinion is that MM5 does take quite a bit of effort to come to grips with, but it is worth the effort.
And I know of nothing else out that there which is even close to being this good ... and that includes MM4.
Sorry, Barry, maybe you should try a few more. MM5 doesn't even come close to programs such as roon or Audirvana (which do cost considerably more). In particular, MM5 is actually worse than MM4 for classical music as MM4 at least has a poor work-around for playing whole compositions - linked tracks. But even that is a long way from what players like roon and Audirvana do for classical listeners. Plus they provide much better support for real Hi-res music and easy integration with Tidal and Qobuz. (And neither wasted time and resources on the now departed low-res Google Play.) And as a way to catalogue a collection it is a joke. No native way to enter label information, no proper way to enter performers (involved people is a sad excuse for this), no way to attach and view pdfs of liner notes, no native way to enter recording information. The best part of MM is auto-organise and MM4 does that just fine.
Barry4679
Posts: 2398
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:07 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: Hate MM v. 5 on first day!

Post by Barry4679 »

yarguy wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 7:53 am
Sorry, Barry, maybe you should try a few more. MM5 doesn't even come close to programs such as roon or Audirvana (which do cost considerably more). In particular, MM5 is actually worse than MM4 for classical music as MM4 at least has a poor work-around for playing whole compositions - linked tracks. But even that is a long way from what players like roon and Audirvana do for classical listeners. Plus they provide much better support for real Hi-res music and easy integration with Tidal and Qobuz. (And neither wasted time and resources on the now departed low-res Google Play.) And as a way to catalogue a collection it is a joke. No native way to enter label information, no proper way to enter performers (involved people is a sad excuse for this), no way to attach and view pdfs of liner notes, no native way to enter recording information. The best part of MM is auto-organise and MM4 does that just fine.
Hi yaguy, I guess that I need to get out more :) ... I suppose we all are blinkered by our own Use Cases.

I never use MM for playing music, only for cataloguing and browsing, and sometimes syncing music to my mobile device.
So I am not really qualified to have an opinion really. ... In my own Use Case MM5 is a step change forward IMO.

I have never tried the tools that you mention. I do have a licence to Catraxx, which is still supported but is no longer sold for some reason. It did a good job of integrating listening notes, reviews and liner notes, but its browsing facilities were very primitive. ... MM4 did have a very very basic facility for album related text, but it did not make the cut for the MM5 rewrite and upgrade, which was disappointing. I believe that they said during the beta that they were going to retain our data in the MM5 database, but AFAICS it has been deleted, which is a bit of a piss off.

I still use Catraxx for this purpose, because I never migrated most of my data to MM4 because the support there was so basic.
yarguy wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 7:53 am MM5 is actually worse than MM4 for classical music as MM4 at least has a poor work-around for playing whole compositions - linked tracks.
My workaround here is called the album :} ... I only ever queue whole albums.
Sony specifically designed the length of a CD so that almost any single Classical composition, other than Operas, would fit on single album.


I suppose that my support for MM is coloured by two things:
  • the Developers were heavily present in the forums during the Alpha and Beta stages, and seemed to try hard to go a long way to meet almost every reasonable request
  • the MM database is effectively open source, and with a few Programming skills you can supplement their solid backbone with things of your own invention ... although, if they tried a little harder it would be appreciated
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
Post Reply