What features would you like to see added to Music in Media Center?

A lot of attention goes in to the TV features of Windows Media Center and I am sure Microsoft get a lot of feedback on what features are missing, but I must admin I take the Music function of Media Center for grantage and I am sure there are lots of features that other people feel are missing or suggestion to improve the Music experience.

So if you use Music in Media Center what is it missing that would make the Music experience better for you?

If you not using Music, why not? What stops you from using Music? Is it a feature or a performance issue?

I know what lots of people have asked for a Folder view of there music rather than the library view we have now, but I am sure there a  lots of missing features and things that bug you that could be documented?

So what bugs you about Music?

Please post comments on this thread

Hi,

One thing that bugs me with the Music playback is the inability to easily jump to a particular position within the track.

This is most noticable for very long tracks (ie Media Center Show Podcast MP3's) - and I sometimes want to jump to a particular part of the show - and have to spend a while fwd winding to that point.

cheers

Niall

 

I would like to be able to choose a default song/playlist for when I play a photo slideshow. When I want to play a photo slideshow from MCE, I'd rather  not go into MUSIC, select and start a song/playlist and then go into PHOTOS and select and play a slideshow. I would much prefer a bunch of songs/playlists that could be used as the default soundtrack of the slideshow, so right after I start a slideshow, it automatically asks me which of the default songs/playlists I should play - if there is only one default song/playlist, it will skip from asking me which song/playlist I should play. Of course, if I'd rather not have any music play when I play a slideshow, I can go into settings and tell it to never ask me what song/playlist to play.

That's what I'd like to see.

Speaking of photos, what's up with only being able to drill down only ONE tag. What if I want to drill down to multiple tags: i.e. weddings & My Sister. Heck, I'd like to be able to do a boolean tag search: i.e. I want to see all photos that have tags with "weddings"AND "My Sister", but NOT with "Uncle Earl".

 Actually this boolean search capability would be a GREAT overall Vista feature. It could be used for searching within the start menu. Or getting back on subject, it could be used for searching within music: "beatles" OR "monkees", but NOT "dreamer".

 
p.s. Just wondering when you'll be announcing the winners of the give away. thanks!
 

The one thing that I would like to see is a FASTER SEARCH.I have 30k MP3's and it takes several minutes to search and/or find a song.

Not so much a new feature but a very poor current feature, the online music database. This week I added the new Kaiser Chiefs 4 days after release, CD not recognised, searched and found two entries, one with album art and neither with a single track listed so a manual job for me. But this is not a one off and has been happening for months now, some CDs by major artists are still not listed 3-4 weeks after release. Back catalogue is also very poor often recognising the artist but not the actual disc for some strange reason. Every other piece of software seems to get all the tracks from sources like GraceNote but as I rip to WMA lossless I'm limited by what I can use.

Hi Ian and thanks for mentioning the "poor quality thumbnails" of the CoverArt on the show. I never knew that people on the "Media center" community actually spend a lot of time in the MUSIC section, instead the TV was the biggest thing. I personnal spend mostly all of my time in MC in the MUSIC, so maybe that's why I noticed the poor quality in the first time.

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aliburns: I agreed, I thnik WMP DB has to be combined with the WONDERFUL URGE DB, but I buy most of my CD's so there is no point for me to buy URGE. For the People who DO use URGE, it should be avalible in MC, so you can buy/download songs directly from MC ;]

I would like to see integration with techniques like MusicBrainz and MusicIP to get a more like this, or other dynamic scenario or mood based playlists that help me get more out of my music collection.

I wish the song view type ahead find worked better, I have so many titles its too slow to be useful :(

Keep the suggestions coming!

I'd like to be able to play (at random) all music videos of a particular genre: i.e. Rock, R&B, OR (Rock AND R&B).

I'd like to be able to make a playlist (and add to the queue) consisting of music videos - and perhaps being able to create a playlist consisting of BOTH music videos and regular music files - where you can choose a (visualization or muted video) to play if a regular music file starts playing. Or better yet, you can choose to associate a specific music file to a specific looping muted video file.

I primarily use vmc for multi source multi zone whole house audio/HD distribution. I have a large music collection (2184 albums) at 320k with embedded album art mostly at 500x500. Before vista upgrade I also had a folder.jpg matching the embed image. When wmp11/vmc scanned my collection for the first time it shredded my album art down to 200x200 trashing my hi-res folder.jpg as well.

 

Does MS realize the work they have created for everyone to fix this?  Do they care?

 

Has MS not noticed the huge jump in 40+” flat screen display sales? They have certainly improved the look of VMC only to put a huge scare across it by trashing Hi-Res user created album art!

 

I also have a Zune. What an exceptional piece of equipment it is truly phenomenal! Is MS on crack???  I need another music DB to manage like a hole in the head. Especially since MS has put this same horrible feature trashing album art in to the Zune software. For those of you thinking of buying a Zune because of how great is (and it is that good!) forget about WMP11/VMC syncing to the Zune they do not recognize the Zune (what a brick wall!)

 

Feature request 1:

 

VMC, WPM11 and Zune Software when they see an embedded album art image should use that image to create the album art folder images. It didn’t get there by its self. In fact the above 3 pieces of software should be constantly trying to improve the quality of the embedded image and the folder files created by this process.

It should be noted that the Zune firmeware version 1.2 now supports 240 x 240 art for the the little Zune display a tiny step forward but doesn't help vmc a bit.

 

Feature request 2:

 

Ok MS it seems you need to have the concept of 10’ interface explained to you. I sit in my easy chair flip up my foot rest, take my vmc remote in hand scroll to my music then slide over to Zune Marketplace hit the OK button and buy 100’s of Albums! With embedded 500x500 album art, then hit the sync Zune button.

 

Until then I refuse to buy one track form the Zune Site!!!!

 

VMC + Zune = M$!

 

 

I would love to see a dynmically created playlist based on listining habbits (from Last.Fm, pandora or similar).

After starting a playback of a song, say a Led Zeppelin song, the playlist creator would poll last.fm for similar artist that exists in my collection, and queue this song (maybe an AC/DC song).

Mediaportal has this functionality today in addition to a last.fm radio.

 

Niall might want to check this addin out...

http://blogs.msdn.com/toub/archive/2007/01/03/position-changer-add-in-updated-for-windows-vista.aspx

Cheers

Alan

I would like a resume plugin. When power control puts mce in standby after 10 minutes inactivity and pausing music for any reason the playlist is gone.

In Winamp there is such a plugin that lets'you resume where you were. Even after standby or cold startup.

Also I'd like to see wich songs were played in the playlist. Now the only thing you can see is wich song is playing now.

Better albumart. Now a lot of a albums give black thumbnails. deleting ther albumart.jpg and leaving the folder.jpg solves this.

a resume plugin is a great idea