Kinda grumpy about MM5 and the lack of skins and plugins

[smellhole]

Just going to bluntly ask, why is the plugin and skin support for MM5 so... well, it's all pretty much useless now. There are SIX skins on the MM5 website. Six. It's been well over a year, right? Why aren't there tons of skins like there were for MM4?

And the plugins... why are there so few available? All the cool stuff I used to be able to do with MM4 I can't do now. I waited to see if new stuff would come out, but I'm tired of waiting now.

It's a sad thing that I feel I have to go back to the previous version of a program that I bought an upgrade for because the old version is just simply better. Cause that's pretty much what I've had to do to get back the MM functionality that I used to enjoy with MM4.

If there were another good player that did nested playlists (and it had lots of third party support) I would switch right away. But MM is, apparently, the only player in the multiverse that does nested playlists (that I know of, anyway).

Here's some grumpy emotes for flavor:

[Peke]

Hi,
Thank you for "Kinda grumpy" review. Not sure how to correctly answer as most of the answers you already gave in review. LIke MM5 is only 1 year old MM4 was 20 when MM5 went out. Yes, there is only 6 skins for MM5, but there should be muchmore in next 19 years. Same goes for plugins, while I ma not sure what exact plugins you refer to as we are not aware many that we made natively in MM4 that are missing in MM5, but can make few that do not exist in MM4 as native function and work half baked as third party.

Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to know all what users miss and at least morally obligated to not port user third party plugins to native functions without plugin developer consent.

Please, allow me to ask you if you to list what you are missing from MM4 write here and me or someone else would gladly explain what and why it happen or point you whre some features are implemented in MM5 and what changes it included.

[Barry4679]

Please, allow me to ask you if you to list what you are missing from MM4 write here and me or someone else would gladly explain what and why it happen

Is not my thread. but since you are asking:

The top of my wish list would to allow more flexibility for the criteria clause for creation of a Collection or a playlist. .... Magic nodes would be great.

But actually I could be kept happy with just a small thing from what was is in there. ie. the ability set criteria on any of the Customx tags, using the numeric operators (>, >=, between, etc).

I can store numbers in the Custom tags.
The Custom tags sort numbers correctly ... ie sorts to 1, 2, 10 ... not 1, 10, 2 as they would be if sorted alphabetically.
Both of those things work.

But I can't create a criteria clause like "custom2 < 5"

Here's some more grumpy emojis for you

[smellhole]

Please, allow me to ask you if you to list what you are missing from MM4 write here and me or someone else would gladly explain what and why it happen or point you whre some features are implemented in MM5 and what changes it included.

Right now, my biggest need is an Android remote. That alone is keeping me with MM4.

But, mostly, it's the lack of skins. I use MM on different computers in different settings (a desktop PC, a laptop that's usually on my lap, or an HDTV PC hooked up to my home theater stuff). I need different skins depending on where I'm using it because I'm different distances to the screen. MM4 has tons of skins to choose from. MM5 has very few. And, yeah, MM4 has been around much longer, but I think that, by now, MM5 should have a lot more skins. Why wouldn't there be? Is it a lot harder to make skins for MM5 now or something? I have no idea.

I miss MM5 already, though. It has a lot of useful stuff that MM4 doesn't.

And, hey, yeah I'm grumpy, but I'm still a total MM fanboy and you all are still awesome for having given me an awesome player to use for the past billion years (17 years, actually, I think).

Here's some goofy emotes:

[Peke]

Hi,

Right now, my biggest need is an Android remote. That alone is keeping me with MM4.

If that is the case, then you should be happy that we are already in contact with developers and MM5 version is worked on

hy wouldn't there be? Is it a lot harder to make skins for MM5 now or something? I have no idea.

It is easier to make skins in MM, but as it is a completely new platform and process, so it just needs to take time, I also checked and MM3 When Skinning engine went fully out took almost 3 years that skins pops out and only after 10 we got increased number of them.

I miss MM5 already, though. It has a lot of useful stuff that MM4 doesn't.

Huh, you got me worried for a second. I felt the same at one point.

And, hey, yeah I'm grumpy, but I'm still a total MM fanboy and you all are still awesome for having given me an awesome player to use for the past billion years (17 years, actually, I think).

If there was no users like you then MM would not be MM that is now and woudl be just another player.

[Erwin Hanzl]

Hello Barry,

Custom-x fields are not numeric but text fields - This means that the criterion is compared character by character.
This is exactly why there are no numeric operators.

[Barry4679]

Custom-x fields are not numeric but text fields - This means that the criterion is compared character by character.
This is exactly why there are no numeric operators.

Hi Erwin, you are describing the problem, but not the cause ... and there is a solution available to the MM Developers.

MM uses the Sqlite database, which unlike many other databases, does not have rigid static typing.
Sqlite offers what it calls Flexible Typing.

SQLite provides developers with the freedom to store content in any desired format, regardless of the declared datatype of the column.

You can see that MM partially handles numeric data in the Customx tags. .. ie. 1, 2, 10 is sorted numerically, not alphabetically. Originally this did not happen in MM5. They made a change to partially fix this shortcoming. They need to go further IMO.

Also alphabetic data can be operated upon with "numeric operators, ie "a" < "b" is a valid operation, resulting in True.

The "solution" is to enable these operators in the Customx columns.
At the moment these columns are only partially useful. ie. I can store a number in them, but can't use it fully in criteria.

Example Use Case:

• store play count, or numeric date last played, for an album as whole, in Custom1

• create a Collection or Playlist of whole albums that have been Played < 3 times, or have not been played for a year

The workaround is ugly. .. ie. don't use the Customx columns for this kind of purpose ... instead grab some other column that MM fully treats as a numeric column, eg. BPM

[Erwin Hanzl]

Hello Barry,

Hi Erwin, you are describing the problem, but not the cause ...

You raised this issue. To get the developers to deal with this, you should open a new post. This post is not about that.

[Barry4679]

You raised this issue. To get the developers to deal with this, you should open a new post. This post is not about that.

Fair call Erwin.
The Developers already know about my request. I reported it during the MM5 Alpha, and during the Beta, and there is also a Mantis entry sitting in a dark lonely corner somewhere.

Peke said to list what is missing from the MM4 ecosystem, and I could not stop myself from adding my 2c worth.
Apologies for crashing your thread.