Alchemy Desktop - touch friendly control interface for HQPlayer for Windows

[Keith_W]

Very nice, thank you Dean. I do have a problem though:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29734[/ATTACH]

 

As you can see:

 

1. Not all folder icons are recognized. Within each folder there is an image called folder.jpg

I take it back - apologies.

I had another look at the "folder image problem" and it turns out that the image file I left in those specific directories was not called folder.jpg. I renamed each image file to "folder.jpg" and it now works.

 

Sorry Dean, my mistake.

[dean70]

I take it back - apologies.

I had another look at the "folder image problem" and it turns out that the image file I left in those specific directories was not called folder.jpg. I renamed each image file to "folder.jpg" and it now works.

 

Sorry Dean, my mistake.

 

No problems. I will take a look at the display DPI issue and a minor update will be released.

[bibo01]

Just a couple of things to check:

On the Linux box check the directory/media/public contains the Music directory. Check that the subfolders are also accessible.

As I wrote before, on the Linux box the directory /media/samba/public contains the Music directory ans all subfolders are accessible.

As Media Point I tried /media/samba/public, but it does not work.

 

 

In the Alchemy library setup, the media path would be \\192.168.0.98\public\Music

The media path is \\DISKSTATION\public\Music, which is the same as \\192.168.0.98\public\Music

 

 

Thanks for the continuous support.

[dean70]

As I wrote before, on the Linux box the directory /media/samba/public contains the Music directory ans all subfolders are accessible.

As Media Point I tried /media/samba/public, but it does not work.

 

 

The media path is \\DISKSTATION\public\Music, which is the same as \\192.168.0.98\public\Music

 

Thanks for the continuous support.

 

Sorry I missed that bit. I was replying from a phone. That is what would be causing the issue. Try /media/samba as the mount point in Alchemy. I just tested having a Linux mount point as /media/samba and Alchemy library as \\nas\Media1\Audio & this will load the tracks when /media/samba is specified in the mount point field.

 

Think of the remote connect doing a search and replace on \\DISKSTATION\public\ and replacing with /media/samba/ so the paths become /media/samba/Music/...

[bibo01]

Sorry I missed that bit. I was replying from a phone. That is what would be causing the issue. Try /media/samba as the mount point in Alchemy. I just tested having a Linux mount point as /media/samba and Alchemy library as \\nas\Media1\Audio & this will load the tracks when /media/samba is specified in the mount point field.

 

Think of the remote connect doing a search and replace on \\DISKSTATION\public\ and replacing with /media/samba/ so the paths become /media/samba/public/Music/...

 

OK, it works!

Thanks

 

Now I have to study how to change filters and so on...

[bibo01]

I have been checking the scan of Music library on NAS.

There are many "ghost albums" in Alchemy - albums that are repeated twice.

I have noticed that when the album title contains an apostrophe - like "I'm with ..." - there is a second instance of the album with a bad reading - something like "I&spog;m with...". Please check it out.

 

There are also different kind of ghost entries, but I will tell you more about it when I understand the exact reason.

[dean70]

I have been checking the scan of Music library on NAS.

There are many "ghost albums" in Alchemy - albums that are repeated twice.

I have noticed that when the album title contains an apostrophe - like "I'm with ..." - there is a second instance of the album with a bad reading - something like "I&spog;m with...". Please check it out.

 

There are also different kind of ghost entries, but I will tell you more about it when I understand the exact reason.

 

When was the library originally scanned? This issue should have been resolved in the last 1.01.01 release. I have verified a recent scan with ' in the tags shows correctly and also shows this in the library xml.

[bibo01]

When was the library originally scanned? This issue should have been resolved in the last 1.01.01 release. I have verified a recent scan with ' in the tags shows correctly and also shows this in the library xml.

 

It was scanned first time today

[dean70]

New version 1.0.2.1 released. The changes below have been made:

 

1.0.2.1 - 15/10/16
   - Fixed: Filter maps clear button would leave previous Genre selection. Now clears all previous list selections
   - Fixed: Initial startup on a clean install may result in main window too large for screen. Now starts at smallest size
   - Fixed: Library scan cancel does not clear previous partial scan results causing duplicates when scan is re-run
   - Fixed: Direct mode in setup was not disabling remote connect, library, dac modes & filters tab
   - Fixed: Missing or blank track title tag would cause library scan to not fill in channel, file type and sample rate information
   - New: Show Summary report after library scan to show how many albums were added and any errors found during the scan. Scan results are stored under C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Alchemy\Logs
   - Fixed: Display scaling now handles up to 150% scale setting
   - Changed: Drastically improved Album view initialization time for large libraries

[bibo01]

New version 1.0.2.1 released. The changes below have been made:

 

1.0.2.1 - 15/10/16
   - Fixed: Filter maps clear button would leave previous Genre selection. Now clears all previous list selections
   - Fixed: Initial startup on a clean install may result in main window too large for screen. Now starts at smallest size
   - Fixed: Library scan cancel does not clear previous partial scan results causing duplicates when scan is re-run
   - Fixed: Direct mode in setup was not disabling remote connect, library, dac modes & filters tab
   - Fixed: Missing or blank track title tag would cause library scan to not fill in channel, file type and sample rate information
   - New: Show Summary report after library scan to show how many albums were added and any errors found during the scan. Scan results are stored under C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Alchemy\Logs
   - Fixed: Display scaling now handles up to 150% scale setting
   - Changed: Drastically improved Album view initialization time for large libraries

 

Thanks Dean.

In the new version the recognition of the music library is much much better than before.

I had about a dozen albums with no cover because the cover was named "folder.JPG", instead of "folder.jpg".

 

My Various Artists folder was a mixed bag. Some of them were recognized as Multiple Artists, some as VA, some as Various Artists and some were listed under the name of the 1st artist (practically impossible to find). I renamed the Album Artist tag (not to be confused with Artist tag) of all of them to (Multiple Artists). I tried a rescan but the program would always hang half way.

So I deleted the MediaLibrary.xml and rescanned from scratch, that worked! All my music library is now listed properly.

 

One thing I noticed, the little triangle button under the library to switch to a no cover list does not work properly anymore.

[bibo01]

ADDENDUM:

 

If I want to rescan only an entry (for example for a new cover), if I select it in Settings/Setup Library and click rescan, the entry is NOT updated. How do I have to do it?

 

Artist names starting with characters like "Á" are placed at the end of the library, instead of under "A".

 

BTW, I did not find Album View initialization much faster reading from NAS.

[dean70]

Thanks Dean.

In the new version the recognition of the music library is much much better than before.

I had about a dozen albums with no cover because the cover was named "folder.JPG", instead of "folder.jpg".

 

My Various Artists folder was a mixed bag. Some of them were recognized as Multiple Artists, some as VA, some as Various Artists and some were listed under the name of the 1st artist (practically impossible to find). I renamed the Album Artist tag (not to be confused with Artist tag) of all of them to (Multiple Artists). I tried a rescan but the program would always hang half way.

So I deleted the MediaLibrary.xml and rescanned from scratch, that worked! All my music library is now listed properly.

 

One thing I noticed, the little triangle button under the library to switch to a no cover list does not work properly anymore.

 

I will check for case sensitive checks on filenames. There are probably a few areas where an uppercase extension gets missed.

 

The Album View groups by Album Artist tag & the playlist shows Album (Artist) tags on the second line. VA folders need to be tagged under a single Album Artist label to be grouped together. The Artist tag will be the individual artists on the album.

 

Each scan should now save a log file under c:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Alchemy\Logs with a timestamp of the scan. Can you please email the scan log for the hung scan.

 

Re: the track list button - does it open the track list when clicked? or is the list empty?

 

 

ADDENDUM:

 

If I want to rescan only an entry (for example for a new cover), if I select it in Settings/Setup Library and click rescan, the entry is NOT updated. How do I have to do it?

 

Artist names starting with characters like "Á" are placed at the end of the library, instead of under "A".

 

BTW, I did not find Album View initialization much faster reading from NAS.

 

At the moment, existing entries are not updated, however an entry can be removed by selecting and pressing the Remove button, then Apply, then run a Scan to re-add this updated entry.

 

I will need to look at the sort order for names starting with "Á", etc. The collation sequence will need some work to deal with accents.

 

The Album View initialization would be the time between the Loading Library... message closing and displaying the albums on-screen.

[bibo01]

...

Each scan should now save a log file under c:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Alchemy\Logs with a timestamp of the scan. Can you please email the scan log for the hung scan.

I am not sure there is a log for the hung scan.

Apart from the logs that are fine, there are logs of 1Kb size. Those simply report: "* Added 0 albums".

 

Re: the track list button - does it open the track list when clicked? or is the list empty?

...

Sorry, my mistake. The track list button works fine. I got confused with the square one on bottom left.

[dean70]

I am not sure there is a log for the hung scan.

Apart from the logs that are fine, there are logs of 1Kb size. Those simply report: "* Added 0 albums".

 

 

Sorry, my mistake. The track list button works fine. I got confused with the square one on bottom left.

 

The expand/collapse albums button? It should collapse the Album list so only the Artist names are visible. Allows quick scan through the list of artists, then you can expand the one you want to show the albums.

[bibo01]

...I will need to look at the sort order for names starting with "Á", etc. The collation sequence will need some work to deal with accents.

...

For example an artist name like "Cecile" and "Cécile" are listed in two different places.

 

The expand/collapse albums button? It should collapse the Album list so only the Artist names are visible. Allows quick scan through the list of artists, then you can expand the one you want to show the albums.

Yes, both buttons are fine.

However, the collapse button has to be clicked twice.

[Carl Mawer]

Hi Dean

 

Any plans for a Mac version? There are many Mac users of HQPlayer crying out for a good remote control.

 

Regards

Carl

[dean70]

New version 1.0.2.2 released. The changes below have been made:

 

1.0.2.2 - 21/10/16
   - Fixed: Cover Art with capital filename extension not displaying
   - Fixed: Accents in album view not sorting correctly
   - Fixed: Replay gain was showing 0db

[bibo01]

New version 1.0.2.2 released. The changes below have been made:

 

1.0.2.2 - 21/10/16
   - Fixed: Cover Art with capital filename extension not displaying
   - Fixed: Accents in album view not sorting correctly
   - Fixed: Replay gain was showing 0db

 

Installed the new version over the old one.

I rescanned but I ended up with a few double entries.

 

BTW, if I want to add just one album to the library, do I have to point to that particularly folder containing the new album?

[dean70]

Installed the new version over the old one.

I rescanned but I ended up with a few double entries.

 

BTW, if I want to add just one album to the library, do I have to point to that particularly folder containing the new album?

 

You should not require a re-scan for this update. Not sure why you would still be getting double entries. In the library folder under C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Alchemy\Library there should be a MediaLibrary.xml and MediaLibrary.xml.bak. The .bak file is a backup before the scan was run. Please email both of these so I can determine the reason for the duplicates.

 

To add just one album, all you would need to do is just run scan again. It checks off all the existing paths already in the library and only add the new ones it finds.

[bibo01]

You should not require a re-scan for this update. Not sure why you would still be getting double entries. In the library folder under C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Alchemy\Library there should be a MediaLibrary.xml and MediaLibrary.xml.bak. The .bak file is a backup before the scan was run. Please email both of these so I can determine the reason for the duplicates.

 

To add just one album, all you would need to do is just run scan again. It checks off all the existing paths already in the library and only add the new ones it finds.

 

I just sent them by email.

I rescanned because I noticed that a couple of new albums since my last use were not present.

 

Scanning the whole library every time is very time consuming. Is it possible for the scanner to know and add/delete only albums that have a different time stamp since last scan?

[dean70]

New version 1.0.2.3 released.

 

1.0.2.3 - 22/10/16
   - Fixed: Library scan may create duplicate albums on rescan in rare cases
   - Fixed: Album info panel showing file type field incorrectly
   - Changed: Library scan report shows missing sample rate and channel information warning
   - Changed: Library scan shows total folders scanned as well as albums added in summary report
   - Fixed: Remove button in library setup would delete incorrect entries
   - Fixed: TagLib would reject flac file if metadata not to strict specifications

[dean70]

New version 1.0.3.0 released. If you are upgrading from a previous version, a one-time library conversion is required to use some of the new features. To convert the library, go to library setup and select Convert.

 

1.0.3.0 - 3/12/16
- Fixed: Load on startup not saving correctly
- Fixed: Button hover showing incorrecly on touch screen
- Fixed: Shared Library not syncing on startup
- Fixed: Track properties window filling entire screen when long tag values are present
- Changed: Albums within artist group view are sorted alphabetically.
- New: Displays date imported, last played, year and number of plays in album summary
- New: Filter album view by date imported, last played, year, format, sample rate, genre, number channels
- New: Library, folders and playlists view now selectable from main window
- New: Select startup view as library, folders or playlists in settings
- New: Theme editor tab in settings to edit existing themes or create new theme
- New: Ramdomly play all currently displayed albums with Shuffle Play. Stop to skip to next album, Clear playlist to cancel Shuffle Play
- New: Right click Pause to pause after current track completes
- New: Right click Stop to stop after current track completes
- New: Option to launch Alchemy Desktop on boot
- New: Sleep timer option to stop playback after a delay or at a specific time. Option to shutdown, hibernate or sleep PC

[Keith_W]

Hi Dean, after watching the development of Alchemy over several revisions I decided to buy a license. I love it, it's very good. But I do have a couple more feature requests, if you don't mind:

 

- HQPlayer recognizes keystrokes sent from my Logitech keyboard, e.g. the "play" and volume control buttons work. These buttons don't work on Alchemy desktop.

 

- There is a bug that prevents me from accessing the DAC settings from the setup page. This means that I have to manually set up the sample rate and DAC mode every time I change albums.

 

- Not all the settings/buttons have to be available on screen all the time. Would it be possible to do what HQPlayer does, and put the album selection on one screen, and the playback screen on another? This would give you more space to have larger cover art as well as a more complete track listing. At the moment, the track listing occupies a tiny window and it is difficult to scroll through if the track you want is at the bottom.

 

- Those standard windows scroll bars are ugly. I am using the midnight theme, and the light grey scroll bars stand out and ruin the effect somewhat.

 

- Would it be possible to expand the skinning options, e.g. allow users to import their own JPG's to replace the standard buttons?

[dean70]

Hi Dean, after watching the development of Alchemy over several revisions I decided to buy a license. I love it, it's very good. But I do have a couple more feature requests, if you don't mind:

 

- HQPlayer recognizes keystrokes sent from my Logitech keyboard, e.g. the "play" and volume control buttons work. These buttons don't work on Alchemy desktop.

 

- There is a bug that prevents me from accessing the DAC settings from the setup page. This means that I have to manually set up the sample rate and DAC mode every time I change albums.

 

- Not all the settings/buttons have to be available on screen all the time. Would it be possible to do what HQPlayer does, and put the album selection on one screen, and the playback screen on another? This would give you more space to have larger cover art as well as a more complete track listing. At the moment, the track listing occupies a tiny window and it is difficult to scroll through if the track you want is at the bottom.

 

- Those standard windows scroll bars are ugly. I am using the midnight theme, and the light grey scroll bars stand out and ruin the effect somewhat.

 

- Would it be possible to expand the skinning options, e.g. allow users to import their own JPG's to replace the standard buttons?

 

Hi Keith,

 

Alchemy Desktop will respond to play/pause, stop and back/forward keyboard buttons. The volume buttons are controlled by Explorer and requires a different method.

 

I will look at the DAC modes settings being blocked. It may be related to folder view. You can temporay switch to library view to set the DAC modes.

 

The track list occupies half the album browser height when expanded. How many tracks do you need to have visible?

 

You can currently replace the jpg button images. Under C:\Program Files\Alchemy\Themes\Images there is a folder with the name of the button colour. Copy one of these, rename and edit the image files with the replacement images or colours. Ensure the filename and image format stays the same. The new image folder name will appear in the button theme list in edit theme settings.

[Keith_W]

Hi Dean, thanks for your response.

 

 

I am not able to access any of the highlighted menu items. I checked to see whether it is related to folder mode, and it isn't. I still can't access the menu items in library mode.

 

I am using Windows 10, with no "audiophile enhancements" (like Audiophile Optimizer, etc). If there are other things about my system you would like to know, just ask.

 

 

As for this screen:

 

1: I have to manually set this every time I load a new disc, because it defaults back to "Auto".

 

2: This is the track selection window. It is too small. As you can see, it only shows 2 1/2 tracks of the 36 tracks I have loaded. If the Folder/Library selection pane on the left could be collapsed, you could use it to display many more tracks. You can also see how the standard windows scroll bar interferes with the aesthetics of the program (which I really happen to like, by the way!)

 

3: This pane does not need to be displayed all the time. It can be hidden or collapsed. Showing it all the time wastes space that could be used to display more useful information, IMO - like a larger folder/library display for example.

 

As for those volume control buttons, do you have a suggestion as to how I might get it to work?