Autofill genre combo box and more

[streets97f]

My suggestions:

1. I think the genre combo pulldown box should automatically scroll to the appropriate genre as the user types in genre field box. I think this is called autotype or autofill and is similar to what iTunes does. Less characters need to be typed in to find an appropriate match.

2. Playing songs in jaikoz would be nice, especially during manual matching. Sometimes it is necessary to listen to the file before making a decision. Note: It would be really cool if jaikoz could play a preview of the various manualmatch options by using the amazon id or open the appropriate amazon web page to play the song previews.

3. During Manualmatch: The ability to manually change metadata fields. After the user has finished typing and hits enter or unclicks the field box, jaikoz should query musicbrainz for more options for the changed song. Especially helpful if the user sees an error and wants to quickly fix it. This would give the user almost realtime musicbrainz info to select from as they’re manually editing.

4. An option to query various metadata music databases (ie, Amazon, CDDB, etc.) in the Remote Correct menu. This of course will be used as a last resort if the file can not be matched using musicbrainz. (I know that the musicbrainz automatching threshold can be adjusted, but even during manual matching, some song don’t appear to be in the musicbrainz database. Although less accurate, CDDB, amazon etc., I think, have many more songs in their database.)

5. I see you’re already working on the ability to backup metadata. Nice!

This program is a godsend. Keep up the good work.

[paultaylor]

1. I think the genre combo pulldown box should automatically scroll to the appropriate genre as the user types in genre field box.

Already on todo list, will be done at some time.

2. Playing songs in jaikoz would be nice, especially during manual matching. Sometimes it is necessary to listen to the file before making a decision. Note: It would be really cool if jaikoz could play a preview of the various manualmatch options by using the amazon id or open the appropriate amazon web page to play the song previews.

You can play your existing files by configuring the external app preference. For licensing reasons it may not be possible to build in a music player into Jaikoz but Im unsure of the issues. The idea about playing the preview clip based on Amazon Id is an interesting idea I will look further into this.

3. During Manualmatch: The ability to manually change metadata fields. After the user has finished typing and hits enter or unclicks the field box, jaikoz should query musicbrainz for more options for the changed song. Especially helpful if the user sees an error and wants to quickly fix it. This would give the user almost realtime musicbrainz info to select from as they’re manually editing.

Can you explain this further, I dont follow.

4. An option to query various metadata music databases (ie, Amazon, CDDB, etc.) in the Remote Correct menu. This of course will be used as a last resort if the file can not be matched using musicbrainz. (I know that the musicbrainz automatching threshold can be adjusted, but even during manual matching, some song don’t appear to be in the musicbrainz database. Although less accurate, CDDB, amazon etc., I think, have many more songs in their database.)

If there are any really good databases I may add them as well as Musicbrainz, potential options are last.fm fingerprinting and discogs. I cant use cddb because of licensing issues, I could use freedb but it is very inaccurate. I dont think Amazon is accurate enough to fix automtically without user intervention.

[streets97f]

2. There must be a bug then. After intalling, the external application path was blank in Preferences. At this point, right click/run external app would open window media player, but not load the song. Now, I have enter the path of window media player and nothing happens when you click Run external app. Shouldn’t the Run external app oopen media player and start playing the song?

3. During the manualmatch session, Jaikoz looks up 10 songs at a time and displays them in a dialog box for the user to select the appropriate match.
   a) The right click/Run external app doesn’t exist. For me, this is the is acctually the perfect time to be listening to a song. Listening to the song while i match helps the me identify the song, big time!
   b) We should have ability to modify (manually type in) the Artist, Album, Track, etc. fields in the manualmatch dialog box if Musicbrainz has not displayed any of the correct choices. Then, when the user unclicks or hits enter after typing in the correct album name, jaikoz will:

1. erase all the possible choises under the song
2. query musicbrainz for more possiblities with the new song tag info. (ie. new album, same artist, same track)
3. and display the new possibilities taking into account the new album that was entered.
4. Ah, now, a 88% match was found! I select it and move on.

I’ve got to say I’ve never had a develper/programmer be so attentive to the users comments and so quick to fix bugs. You’re doing an amazing job!

[streets97f]

about the metadata look up: I’m using a program called FixTunes. I think is uses various databases and, by comparing the results, gives the user a percentage of accuracy. All percent above 80% are seperated into an “Identified” catagory and the rest “Unidentified.”
I’m going to use this software to look up the songs that jaikoz hasn’t found. I’ll post my results to see if it is helpful.

[paultaylor]

[quote=streets97f]2) There must be a bug then. After intalling, the external application path was blank in Preferences. At this point, right click/run external app would open window media player, but not load the song. Now, I have enter the path of window media player and nothing happens when you click Run external app. Shouldn’t the Run external app oopen media player and start playing the song?
[/quote]
I did see this problem once but then it was ok, I think it is an issue with Windows Media Plyer try something else such as Winamp.

3. During the manualmatch session, Jaikoz looks up 10 songs at a time and displays them in a dialog box for the user to select the appropriate match.
   a) The right click/Run external app doesn’t exist. For me, this is the is acctually the perfect time to be listening to a song. Listening to the song while i match helps the me identify the song, big time!

Ok, I’lll add it.

  b) We should have ability to modify (manually type in) the Artist, Album, Track, etc. fields in the manualmatch dialog box if Musicbrainz has not displayed any of the correct choices. Then, when the user unclicks or hits enter after typing in the correct album name, jaikoz will:

1. erase all the possible choises under the song
2. query musicbrainz for more possiblities with the new song tag info. (ie. new album, same artist, same track)
3. and display the new possibilities taking into account the new album that was entered.
4. Ah, now, a 88% match was found! I select it and move on.

Sounds awfully complicated, not convinced (yet).

[quote]
I’ve got to say I’ve never had a develper/programmer be so attentive to the users comments and so quick to fix bugs. You’re doing an amazing job![/quote]
Thanks, feel free to post a review of Jaikoz on your favourite download site.

[mcammer]

I think Streets is looking for a way to give Manual Correct “hints”.

I would settle for the ability to set/save table prefs for the Manual Correct window. This would let me Manual Correct in smaller batches, say one artist at a time. After one round of correction, I could enter additional information in the Edit window and Manual Correct again. What makes multiple Correct/Edit cycles tedious now is having to scroll around in the Manual Correct window.

[paultaylor]

yes I agree, re:horizontal scrolling I already put modifications of displayed columns in the todo list. As for vertical scrolling I assume youre aware of the MusicBrainz/Manual Match/No of Records to Process Before Showing Dialog’ option

[mcammer]

Thanks. Being able to see all the relevant columns at the same time is indeed the issue.

[streets97f]

I would just like to add one more thing to that:

The option to display album art in the manual match dialog box. Sometimes the search pulls up multiple albums for the same song. I would like to choose the one with the album art vs. the obscure “Greatest Hits” album with no artwork.

[streets97f]

Well, actually two:

Adding an “Album Artwork Exists” match score will greatly speed up the process of finding cover art. Those of us that use itunes and ipod’s cover flow prefer having artwork over extremely accurate album tags. Thanks

[paultaylor]

Added both to list

[greengeek]

If there are any really good databases I may add them as well as Musicbrainz, potential options are last.fm fingerprinting and discogs. I cant use cddb because of licensing issues, I could use freedb but it is very inaccurate. I dont think Amazon is accurate enough to fix automtically without user intervention.

Out of all the different programs I have used to find this information, I find that audioscrobbler / last.fm is by far the most comprehensive and most accurate. It lists all the different tags in order of relevance, and I find the first tag which is almost always 100 is right on for all my music, even some of the obscure stuff that no one has ever heard.