Player problems, duplicates, working with MEXP field data

MagGyver · Post by **MagGyver** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:57 pm

Greetings, MediaMonkey gurus. I recently purchased MediaMonkey Gold after seeing some of the powerful file management tools this library has. I've been using MEXP up until now and like some of its features (such as multiple databases) but its file management tools are unimpressive compared to MM. I am toying with the idea of making the switch completely to MM, but there are some strange behaviors I'd like to ask about first. I'm using MM 2.4.2.874, WinAmp 5.1 and Windows XP Pro.

1. I cannot get the MM player to play anything. The track loads in the Now Playing area and in the status window of the player but the track won't play. I can use the slider to advance on the timeline of the track but no sound and no progress bar. I've tried both DirectSound and WaveOut, and have also tried configuring MM to use WinAmp but when I do that WinAmp opens an "Open File..." dialog box rather than playing the file I just selected. The tracks I'm trying to play work just fine if I open them from within WinAmp and also from MEXP - perhaps MEXP and MM are conflicting?

2. When I was first using MM, I created a couple of playlists from within MM and played around with copying tracks to another folder, then exporting the playlist to an M3U file in this other folder to be taken offsite. I don't have this other folder added as a folder for my library nor as a monitored folder, but MM picked up the tracks in it when I did a rescan of my library (I'm assuming because of the playlist I'd created), resulting in duplicates in my database. I saw (thru File Properties) that these duplicates were located in this other non-related folder so I deleted this other folder using Explorer and then deleted the playlists I'd created in MM, then rescanned my files. The duplicates are still appearing, even though the location of the files doesn't exist anymore. There were over 100 tracks in this folder - am I going to have to scan through my 2700+ tracks to look for these duplicates and remove them from the library? Wouldn't this be expected automatic behavior when I rescanned the files?
(NOTE: I just discovered the "Dead Links" node and was able to remove these extra entries there. I did, however, discover plenty of other duplicates in the "Duplicate Titles" section which were multiple entries for the same track in the same location. Why does this happen?)

3. I spent a considerable amount of time entering custom field data in MEXP and linked each one of my custom fields to a mostly unused ID3v2 tag frame name so that this information would be carried along with the files. For example, I linked Mood to TMED, Tempo to TBPM, and Situation to TIT3 (yes, I was a former MusicMatch user so I got used to these tags). I've noticed that only a handful of my 2700+ tracks have this information when I view them through MM. I know MM provides these MusicMatch-inherited fields within the interface already, but if I was to make the switch from MEXP to MM, it looks like I'd be stuck re-entering all of this field data AGAIN, something I don't relish. Does anyone know any other way to recover this info?

MM uses more a standardized database structure (I use Access already) and has much more powerful file management tools for the kind of organization I prefer. I'm really hoping that these issues can be resolved so I can settle in on one library tool instead of the hodgepodge I'm using now. Thanks!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:32 pm

so in breakdown

1 how do so many dupies get put in the list for one song?

2. how can i make sure the fields in the tags of my songs i used in the old player get transfered in to the monkeys database?

3. you like monkey as do all the rest of us.

A1. i don't know we are still trying to figure that out so we can tell them about it.

A2. unsure if it will mess it up or not? i don't know what the MEXP is?

A3. glad you like it like us.

sorry thats all i can help with?
rovingcowboy / keith hall.
not logged in yet again.

MagGyver · Post by **MagGyver** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:14 pm

thanks for a reply...I did some further digging and found that the duplicate behavior was happening because I had File Monitor turned on and I'd rescanned my files several times in a row when I was trying to get rid of those dead links (before I found the "Dead Links" node). I don't really need to use File Monitor so I'll just deactivate it.

and yes, my third question has to do with transferring my custom data from one interface (MEXP) to another. MEXP is another library management tool, like MM or WinAmp's ML. I was drawn there after having a complete library meltdown while using MusicMatch (my nemesis - corrupted files everywhere).

I'm not sure why I didn't check out MediaMonkey first, but now that I'm needing to do a lot more with my library than before (I just started DJing and doing programming for an online radio station) I'm feeling restricted by MEXP's file management capabilities (which is still in beta, but I can't wait any longer for these features). MM seems to fit with the way I use my library and I like the user community here too - very helpful.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that the player thing is being worked on, if it is in fact a bug, and would love any feedback about the data fields transfer issue. I've switched music library management tools - and re-entered a LOT of data - twice this year. If I make another switch, I'd like it to be my last one for a while.

Post by **Peke** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:37 pm

MagGyver,
Few Qs.
Do you see PeekBars in player while song is playing?
While playing go to settings of DirectSound output plugin and in Status Tab do you see something is working?

If both answers are Yes than something is not OK with Sound Card drivers settings.
1. Output is sent to other sound card or sound channels.
2. Sound is muted in MM somehow.

Hint: If you use DirectSound Output Plugin in Winamp compare settings in Winamp and in MM (Winamp one can be used in MM if existing is owerwritten) as they are compatible (I last checked in 5.08).

Re MEXP: Due to its Beta status few years ago I have tried MM and never ever used MEXP again. BTW how far they come to development, Winamps ML looks lots similar to MEXP that I know. 1st MM Library was/is free

MagGyver · Post by **MagGyver** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:14 pm

Hi Peke,

No, I'm not getting any PeekBars in the player - nothing on the player moves except that the track name & bitrate get loaded. If I click Play, Pause, Forward, Reverse or Stop, nothing happens. I can access the equalizer and other menu items. This happens with all files I try, and all files can be played through other media players. They're all MP3 files, not MP3Pro or ogg or wma.

Maybe I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling to see if that helps. I'll report back here after I try that.

Post by **Peke** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:24 am

Contact me over IM If you find me Online or and write here so that someoneelse could help.

MagGyver · Post by **MagGyver** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 4:56 pm

Many thanks to Peke for his help! Through an IM session we got the fix for the player problem implemented:

Closed MM.
Renamed in_wmp3.dll to donotuse_in_wmp3.dll.
Reopened MM - files play now!

Now I'm off to re-enter all my custom tag data since it sounds like there may not be a way to transfer this info from MEXP.

A lovely supportive community here - I'm glad to be a part of it!

Post by **Peke** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 6:52 pm

I only have to add one thing that Jiri pointed in some posts here.
There is some cases when one of two MP3 Plugins distributed with MM
can't load/play some perticular MP3 and rename of one (like in this case) fixes the problem.

MagGyver,
Thx, for info and help in finding the solution.

Welcome to MM community.