GAC help, please! (Mastiff's on the loose in Tonto again...)

[Mastiff]

Well, it's been a while since I bothered anybody about this, but with the cool, new 21" touchscreen monitor I would like a bit more control. What I'm looking for is a kind of filtering, but not really... I have GAC buttons for each genre - for instance pressing Heavy gets me only those albums I have in that genre. But since I have more than 1200 album in that genre alone I would like a row of buttons at the top with A-C, D-F, G-I and so on. Can this be done in any way? Since it looks like anything can be done with GAC, I would guess so, but how?

[Jlee]

This is easy. Just point your GAC at a View Scheme in MC that has these items:
- Genre
- Album artist (auto) Grouped (3)
- Album artist (auto)

By setting the first Album Artist (auto) item as grouped you'll get your A-C, D-F etc shown in the GAC and selecting one of these will take you down to the next level. Play about with the grouping level to get the right amount. If you are doing a ccf for PPC you might want to check out my ccf as I've done quite a bit of work with GACs.

[Wilhelm]

Just out of curiousity for me dummy: What is GAC?
Is it this Klingon delicacy everybody is talking about on the Enterprise? I just hate theese 3-letter-words when I don't know what they mean...

[Jlee]

GAC gets it's name from what it was originally intended to do: Get Album Cover Art. The aim was to provide a graphical view of the MC library.

[Mastiff]

GetAlbumCover. Browsing the library with album covers.

Sorry, J. That won't work - that's filtering! I want a flat view. I have created views like Media Library\NetRemote\Alternativ, Media Library\NetRemote\Heavy and so on. Your version will not work on what I want to do - to always open the first set of covers and then click on one of the letter buttons (let's say D-F) to get to that set of covers. Then, if I don't fancy what I see there, I click on another letter button (let's say S-U) and see all the covers there. Not going back, just jumping around. I often select music to listen to that way.

I tried to use Media Library\NetRemote\Heavy\A-C and so on, the problem is that when I do it that way I get every album that has the letters A-C in them! And that's most of them...

But if you have a trick for JRMC that gives me a view with all covers that start with A-C, that would be really helpful!

[Jlee]

Can I just make sure that I understand you correctly. From what I can gather my suggestion will work but it means 1 extra click e.g. when looking at A-C it's 2 clicks instead of 1 to look at D-F. Is this why my suggestion will not work for you?

[Jlee]

By the way, you don't need a separate view scheme for each genre. Just one view scheme where Genre is the first item in the scheme will do the same thing. I'm assuming that's what you've done but I'm not sure. It sounded like you've created multiple view schemes, one for each genre.

[Mastiff]

Yes, you understood that one correctly. It will be like clicking the letters A-C in the Artist (Grouped) windows in MC (I hope you understood that one...), mostly for ease of use. When I'm finished with the covers under A-C I want to be able to go directly to the covers under O-P, for instance.

And I have created views for each genre but that's because I have several smaller subgenres that I have brought in to one main genre in the NetRemote view scheme (like Rap & italo disco coming in under Pop & Disco). So I first decide what kind of music I want to listen to (heavy, pop, classical (in my case that's very unlikely, but it could happen...) and so on) and click a big button on one screen. That's the filtering. That button sends me to the GAC with all covers of that genre. Then, if I don't see what I want at first, clicking the buttons I want at the top of that window will get me to only those covers that starts with the "active" letters. And if this sounds confusing it's simply because I am confused, generally... :roll:

[Jlee]

Ok, create the view scheme like I originally suggested i.e. use the Album artist (auto) grouped item. That will give you something like this in the tree:

Media Library\NetRemote\Alternative
.............A-C
.............D-F etc

Then just make the buttons at the top and get them to point at that tree item e.g. The A-C button will point at Media Library\NetRemote\Alternative\A-C.

Of course you won't want to set up buttons for every single genre so you could set an action on your genre buttons to set a variable with the name of the current genre e.g. When you press Alternative it will set a variable of MyGenre = Alternative. Then you make the button for A-C point at:
Media Library\NetRemote\{MyGenre}\A-C

[Mastiff]

Thanks! But be gentle with me! :shock: Variables scare me! :oops: OK, I guess I add another command to the list, but what does the actual line with the variable say? This are the lines that are in my jump button (leading to Barnemusikk, which is children's songs in norwegian):

MP.GACCount,35;Set GAC count
MP.GACSize,L;Set GAC image size
MP.GACStart,0
MP.GACScheme,Media Library\NetRemote\Barnemusikk
GAC {MP.GACScheme} {MP.GACStart} {MP.GACCount} {MP.GACSize}
[Jump] Media Center: Covers 1

[Jlee]

That's it. Just add an extra action with the IR code of:

5001 0000 0000 0002 FC19 0005 0001 0000

...and an IR name of:

MyGenre,Barnemusikk

When you press the Barnemusikk button you've actually set MP.GACScheme to Media Library\NetRemote\Barnemusikk and jumped to your GAC panel. This will show A-C etc in the GAC listing because that's how you've set up your view scheme. If you want to go straight to the A-C listings when you first select the button then just tag \A-C onto the MP.GACScheme variable.

Your GAC panel will have some extra buttons at the top for A-C, D-F etc. Copy the actions from your Barnemusikk button to your A-C button and modify them slightly to look like this:

MP.GACCount,35;Set GAC count
MP.GACSize,L;Set GAC image size
MP.GACStart,0
MP.GACScheme,Media Library\NetRemote\{MyGenre}\A-C
GAC {MP.GACScheme} {MP.GACStart} {MP.GACCount} {MP.GACSize}

This way this same panel can be used for all your other genre buttons - not just Barnemusikk.

[Jlee]

Another cool thing to do with GAC's is to create smartlists in MC that will select an album at random e.g. a Heavy rock album, a favourite album etc. I've added an extra action to the button that plays the album to store the GAC name that I've just played as a variable e.g. LastGAC,{MP.GACScheme}. Then I have a button on my main MC panel that will play the GAC again i.e. pick another album at random. The button that plays the album again simply uses the LX Play command to play {LastGAC} hence MC plays the same smartlist, which results in another album being selected at random..

If you check out my playlists button in my ccf and the repeat button below it you'll see what I mean.

I use this feature all the time for selecting albums.

[Mastiff]

Yes, yes, yes!!! That worked, thanks! As for the second suggestion, let's not get ahead of ourselves here... I have enough trouble grasping this. It will take an hour at least just to change all those buttons... But I've got it now! Thanks again!

[Jlee]

Glad it worked.

If you can set that lot up you can set up the random thing really easily. Just create some nice random view schemes in e.g. "Media Library\My nice random view schemes" and make a button (like your Barnemusikk button) that jumps to your GAC panel in that location. Add an IR action to the button in your GAC panel that plays the selection as follows:
IR Code: 5001 0000 0000 0002 FC19 0005 0001 0000
IR Name: LastGAC,{MP.GACScheme}

Then make a button in your main panel that just uses the LX command to play {LastGAC} (just copy the actions from the button in the lower left of my ccf).

This repeat button will then repeat anything that you've recently selected in your GAC panel.

Piece of cake for you Tor.

[Mastiff]

Damn. It wasn't that easy after all. I now only get the first album for each group of letters when I don't use the special buttons. I would like the page to show all albums (some genres are small, so all albums have room on the same page). And on the page with only 15 covers on each page I have the album title under the cover with this IR name:

LX PLAY {MP.GACAlbumPath_<LoopIndex>} -1

But that only shows the A-C and so on, not the actual name. And it also just shows the first album in each group. It's not filtering, because when I press the cover, I don't get to a new level, that album starts playing.

Edit: This is my setup:
Media Library
NetRemote (audio only, sorted by album artist auto grouped and album artist auto)
And then the genres under this, they are created manually as sub vewi schemes since they aren't strictly genres, but combinations, and we will use Barnemusikk as the example:
Barnemusikk (sorted by sorted by album artist auto grouped and album artist auto, with the pick files to show as this:
[Genre]=[Barnemusikk] -[Album Artist (auto)]=[(Multiple Artists)]
This removes compliations. Those I have as their own genre in this setup.

[Jlee]

Damn. It wasn't that easy after all. I now only get the first album for each group of letters when I don't use the special buttons. I would like the page to show all albums (some genres are small, so all albums have room on the same page)..

No problem, just a little messy. You'll need to have 2 view schemes for each genre, 1 with the items grouped like you have now and another without the grouping. Your genre button will point to the VS without the groupings whereas your special buttons will point at the ones with.



And on the page with only 15 covers on each page I have the album title under the cover with this IR name:

LX PLAY {MP.GACAlbumPath_<LoopIndex>} -1

But that only shows the A-C and so on, not the actual name. And it also just shows the first album in each group. It's not filtering, because when I press the cover, I don't get to a new level, that album starts playing.

That's no surpise if the cover has that action on it. I can't advise what the action should be to go down to the next level as I'm at work but you can copy it from my ccf. In my GAC, for each item I have:
Cover - Text - Play Button - Add to Play Button.

Both the cover and text will both drill down a level.

[Edit - I have several GAC panels. Look at the one that the playlists button links to. It's third one down on left of cover art.]

[Mastiff]

Thanks! Creating extra view schemes isn't a problem. Only time consuming. But the second part - I don't want it to drill down, I only want it to show the correct album name.

[Jlee]

In that case you've only got to set up the new view schemes; your buttons are fine as they are.

I have mine set to drill down so I can look at the tracks on the album. Then if I want to play the whole album I can still do this without going back up a level because I have a 'Play all items in view' button at the bottom of my GAC panel. Just a thought.

[Mastiff]

Then I think we have hit it! :D One more thing: Is it possible to copy a view scheme in MC? I'd like to simply copy the one I have and then adjust it instead of creating all the subgenres all over again.

[Jlee]

No. You can drag and drop but not copy. You can copy the rules onto the clipboard and paste them into another VS but that's it.

[Mastiff]

OK, thanks. I will get myself ready for carpal tunnel massage, then. :wink:

[Mastiff]

The deed is done and the backups are taken. Mean machine! With this touchscreen and this CCF I can teach anybody to put on music in 20 seconds! So much more intuitive than browsing the library the regular way. I really hope this may save the 21" in the living room... :wink: Thanks again for the help, J!

[jwilson56]

Any chance you could write up (with screen shots of the views) and provide a sample CCF to play with? I will add it to Nowplaying.

John

[Jlee]

Sounds great Tor but I'm still not sure you can get away with that dinosaur in the lounge. Good luck.

John - My ccf for ppc in the gallery includes examples of GAC scheme usage with an explanation of the View Schemes that need setting up in MC. Let me know if you need any help.

[Mastiff]

Hey, J, maybe Ben will award me a medal as a veteran of the NetRemote wars if I'm badly hurt! :roll:

[Jlee]

That would be good as long as it's not a postumous one.

[Mastiff]

Nah, she can't afford to kill me. She's unemployed and my life insurance isn't that good! But she can wound me pretty hard as long as she leaves my hands intact, so I can still use a keyboard! :shock:

btw I posted a poll: http://www.netremote.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=8314

[sapnho]

Can someone please explain to my modest brain how to do the following in MC:


Edit: This is my setup:
Media Library
NetRemote (audio only, sorted by album artist auto grouped and album artist auto)


How do I set up a NetRemote folder in Media Library? I know how to set up groups in the playlist section but how does it work in Media Library?

Thanks! :D

[Mastiff]

Right click on the Media library and choose Add view scheme. To use my setup you will sort by genre, deselect auto name and call it NetRemote, don't populate tree, finally right click on the down arrow in Step 4 and select Add preset - Audio only.

[jwilson56]

Mastiff are you going to post your CCF and instrusctions on how to set of the views now that you have it all working?


John

[Mastiff]

Yes, when I get time. But right now my job has exploded... I will only post the MC part, though, since the rest is very specific for my setup. And it's built on Moe2, so I may have to get his permission to post it.