Roon Vs jriver

[Old Listener]

On 8/12/2017 at 1:19 PM, koupa said:

 

 

 

 

3. Jriver is a weird thing. It's powerfull but I think that the developers are the main problem. For example you can't sort albums only with the Album Name. I have a lot of compilations and they are impossible to manage. Imagine the compilation 500 Greatest Songs by Rolling Stone Magazine. There are almost 400 artists. I don't want to have "Various Artist" tag because there are no such name. There are Beatles, Pink Floyd etc. Also you can't have lyrics easily. And weird little things that are annoying. And in the video section for example you can't download subtitles easily and you can't change the mouse buttons. Little things that are very annoying and the developers are not willing to hear. I have made a lot of complaints but the answer is always the same. Use our way.

 

It took me about 10 seconds to create a view that lists albums by name in alphabetical order.  (Not by artist and album name.)   Less time than you have spent complaining.

 

 I've never used an online tag database that always provides tag values exactly as I want them.  If you don't like the way JRiver tags a compilation album, you can edit the tag values.  I check the values JRiver suggests before I start ripping a CD.  When I import downloaded music files, I check the tag values in those files and make any changes that I feel necessary.

 

 

[Old Listener]

I consider it to be confrontational for someone to blame his own ignorance on someone else or something else.  Software like JRiver or Roon or iTunes required many man hours to make it useful to many users.  Newcomers who have spent a few man-seconds before complaining should show a little respect for the efforts of those who brought real knowledge and real effort into developing something useful.

 

For the record, I'm not a JRiver employee or an employee of any other company.

[Old Listener]

I do not know Kroupa or you or Fitzcaraldo215.  I read what each of you post and go from those words.

 

Just before I posted, I actually created a new view as I stated.  I was not just voicing an opinion;  I was stating my actual experience.

 

"

How about being friendly and asking someone to double check rather than telling them they aren't that smart. 

"

 

After Fitzcaraldo215 stated that JRiver could sort by album alone, Kroupa continued to assert that JRiver could not sort by album.

 

Miscommunication?

 

Kroupa would be correct in saying "I don't know how to sort by Album name without Artist name".  That is quite different from saying that JRiver does not support sorting by Album name alone.

 

Kroupa may have meant something else entirely.  Fitzcaraldo215 and I have pointed out that his oeiginal statement is not correct.  It is up to Kroupa to state what he actually means.

 

 

 

[Old Listener]

On 8/15/2017 at 0:32 AM, koupa said:

I included a typical compilation album. And I have screenshots from the three programs that I use plus tagscanner.

 

In general I think that Jriver is an excellent software. BUT I am used to something else in terms of support and customization. As I wrote before I don't like the attitude in their forums. If they listened us I would be much happier. If I didn't believe that I wouldn't have bought a master license twice. It's my main player in Linux since it's far more superior than anything else there.

 

A few disclaimers.  While I do have a JRiver Id (packaged Linux and MC), I use it in the headless mode.  My advice is based on using MC on Windows with names in English.  I have mostly classical music and other genres for which the composer and performers are both important.  I do not use Album views and never use the Album Artist tag.  I had to work carefully through using it on compilation albums.

 

Kroupa,  Ted_b's suggestion is almost right.  You need to place a value like "Various artists" or "Multiple artists" in the Album Artist tag rather than the Album Artist (Auto) tag.  This article in the JRiver Wiki might make things clearer.

 

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_(Auto)

 

 

Adding a value to the Album Artist tag of compilation albums need not be too much work.  Your second screenshot shows a album cover repeated a number of times. You could click on the first occurrence and then shift-click on the last occurrence.  If the tag editing area isn't visible, click on "Tag" in the Edit menu at the top of the MC window to make it visible.  Find the Album Artist line and enter a value and press return.  Now scroll down in the list and find the next Album that is repeated and select all those occurrences and enter an Album Artist value.  Keep going until you have found and fixed all the compilation albums.

 

You may have to move to a different view and come back to the Album view before you see a change.

 

There is a quick and dirty way to get a view that displays Albums without relying on the Album Artist tag.

 

1. Right-click on "audio" at the top of the list of audio-oriented views.  Choose "Add library view"

 

2. In the window that  appears, choose Panes (text only list) or Categories (Album thumbnails with text underneath) in the "View as" field.  Give the view a name that will be meaningful to you.

 

3. Click  on the "Add" button below and to the right of the "Show Categories in this order" text.  In the windows that appears, click on "Expression" in the list under "Type".  Under "Expression to Group by", click on the down arrow head symbol and choose Album from the list of fields.  Click on the OK button to return to the previous window. [Album] should appear under "Show categories...".  Click OK to exit from this window.  See attached file

 

You should see a single item for each compilation album even if the Album Artist tag is empty.

 

For the record, the problem with compilation albums dates back 20 years to an inadequate definition of ID3 tags.  It is pretty simple to deal with it in JRiver.  The question comes up frequently in the JRiver forum and usually gets resolved quickly.