Why should I use ML2/3?

[Jaggy]

After reading the wiki & thinking MLx would do what I want & then finding out things don't work as I expected them to work I thought rather than just getting more disappointed with each thing that doesn't do what I expect it to I would ask you long term users what are it's strong points & why do you use it?

I have been trying to work out why all/most of you use tkgafs mode as it just doesn't make sense to me, if tkgafs mode does what I think it does, which I am now starting to think it doesn't?

[psycik]

I don't. I originally wrote that by request. The main features I use are random playing of music and the database library.

I don't care about albums, or want to see my file structure (which is based around DVD backups of my music). So when I originally wrote ML2 it featured a DB structure with tags and the random music button.

Pretty much every feature after that was added as request.

[mvallevand]

If you have to ask, your music library is probably too small and you probably don't need it, although you are also might be using some of it via Interface.dll in MLPanel

Depending on my mood, I have tkgafs mode off or on, now it is off and I use the menu to generate the random list. I do like it because it turns my computer into a personal internet radio station. I've found that deciding what to listen to from my own collection was taking too much thought, even though I like it and I was overplaying some music and underplaying others.

Also with the random play unlike basic shuffle, I like seeing what was played and what's coming up. Sometimes I forget all the tracks I have and I don't know them by name, but I might not be on the machine to see the screen saver. If I don't like a song that is coming up, I can remove it.

I also use it because I need a database since my collection is scattered over many shares, and I don't want to amalgamate them all because I don't want to re-rip everything if I have a hard disk failure.

On plus for me is I like being able to navigate mobile style by the remote and now a wirelss keyboard on my NMT. To hear Jaggy singing the retro-skin blues it is just a few keystrokes 5(J) 2(A) and I am almost there and its even faster with the keyboard. Once there, left yellow and it's playing. If I think of something else I want hear afterwords, I simple queue it or play next.

The Music Plugin also does some of this, but it didn't have random play.

Martin

[ACTCMS]

I don't use all of the features of ML3... I start it up, then mostly I select an artist or an album or a genre or a collection (depending on how I am feeling) and hit the Red button. Sometimes if I'm feeling adventureous I'll hit the red button on All. That's my take on a personal internet radio station (except that I can skip forward or backward). I have 'At the end of a Random Playlist' set to 'New Playlist' in config so I get random tracks for as long as I want. Once in a blue moon I'll browse throught the library and Q a set of tracks.

ML3 (and ML2 before it) floats my boat...

When I first started using GBPVR the key features for me were TV viewing, recording and playback, ML2/MLPanel and support for the MVP. Once I had built up a collection of music videos, Moviewiz then became another key feature. Of course, being a half-blind old fart, the Blue-Retro-SHV skin also became a key feature...

Alex

[Fatman_do]

Of course, being a half-blind old fart, the Blue-Retro-SHV skin also became a key feature...

Alex

Now where have I heard that before? :p

Don't listen to much music on my HTPC despite having a good 20k or so tracks. Database feature is a big plus and have been using it since forever for that reason.

[pz1]

After reading the wiki & thinking MLx would do what I want & then finding out things don't work as I expected them to work I thought rather than just getting more disappointed with each thing that doesn't do what I expect it to I would ask you long term users what are it's strong points & why do you use it?

Could you enumerate those things in terms of what you expected it to do? That would be helpful to better explain things on the WIKI.
Pieter

[HtV]

I used ML2/3 quite alot but in the end I think it was too much hassle. And in my setup too many watts.
To play some music I had to have running:
-my gbpvr-pc upstairs
-tv downstairs
-mvp
-Hifi-kit

Together probably taking about 400 watts. I might even save money going to the local cafe and run the jukebox there.
Well that's not an option because they removed it ~30 years ago.:o
I now have most of my music on an "old" mp3-player I had from my daughter.
I hooked that up to my hifi-kit, so when I feel the urge to hear some music I start up the Creative Zen Touch and I feel young and cool.

cya Hans

[mvallevand]

Valid points Hans. In fact I do turn off my monitor, but that is another reason I like having the playlist after the fact.

To help you be as green as you can to make the comment on watts really valid, unplug your MVP, the adapter plugged in draws most of the power that you think you are saving, and the network is active too. Exit emulation mode when you don't need GBPVR, and power off the GBPVR machine using mvpmc with WOL. Set GBPVR logging to Error too, to avoid disk writes while it is running.

Martin

[psycik]

Yeah I turn my screen off as well (46" LCD TV lol). But basically hit the random button and then off I go....although (and I blame ACTMS and jaggy here) cos of the work they've done with MLPanel, I'm likely to leave screen on now to see album art.

[Jaggy]

I like the idea of the database structure, but I am still not totally convinced that ML3 will do what I want for my music but I suspect that is the way I have things setup & not actually a limitation with ML3.

I was hoping to get some ideas from this thread on how others were using it that I could try myself while I will carry on testing it on development PC.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to restructure my music directory/files but I am having problems figuring out how to organise it more to my liking. I was thinking I may setup collections but I can't figure out how to without either having to add each album individually under system first or physically move my files around?

BTW Martin I do only have a small collection at the moment on the server of about 10k songs but I also have many hundreds of vinyl albums that I still have to get converted so that will at least double if I ever get the "free" time to do it.