I have a very extensive MP3 collection, it is organized fairly well.

Good enough for myself and family, however Media Center makes a mess of it and takes forever to
to load all the songs. I would prefer to have it listed by folders like My Videos, the MCE peeps at the Microsoft MCE forums say it cant be done, they say alot of things cant be done though.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

Can't be done.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

That is really sad news and something that will keep alot of the more media savvy people away from MCE.  For us that have been organizing our own folders and mp3s for many years this is a very needed feature.  For the beginners, I guess that they are ok with Microsoft managing their media.

You mean MS doesn't want to do it.  They can do anything they want with their software if they wanted to!

Well, there was a time that the available software didn't organize mp3's very well, so people started to organize them themselves using a folder structure. Now there are programs that can organize them, regardless of how they are physically organized... so what's the need for organizing them in a folder structure?

Just my € 0,02

Danee

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The fact that it has already been done by most of us that have had an extensive collection for a while is one reason... I am hoping that someone will come up with a "plug-in" that will allow for folder navigation so that MCE becomes worthwhile for browsing a music collection. 

and YES, Microsoft can do this if they want to-  they just need to know how many of us are looking for other products that will allow this feature. 

That's not how WMP works, thus it's not how MCE works.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

You say that your music is well organised - if it was then sureley you would have oganised the ID3 tags aswell as separating them into folders. Am I right????

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Oliver.

Regardless of the underlying app-  folder navigation is a must-have feature that will always keep the serious music collectors away. 

Doubtful. One of the biggest reasons people rip there music collections to their hard drive is the fact that they can be tagged and sorted by a number of apps. While sorting by folder might be a wanted feature for a few, I really don't think that the mainstream wants it, they want sorting by tags.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

Afraid I have to agree with the majority here - why would you want to sort your music by file/folder?

If your music is well organised, then surely it wouldnt be that hard to tag it - there are so many programs that can automatically tag an album for you (MP3Tag being my recommendation)....

I would imagine that 99% of people using Media Center have their music well organised by both folder AND ID3 tag, and they would all prefer Media Center to use the tag system, as it does now....it allows for so many features, such as searching, sorting, playing by artist, genre, etc, that to have a folder system in place would be a step backwards...My music collection isnt the largest here (3000+ tracks), but I have mine sorted neatly in folders (for my iAudio M3, which, on a slightly different note, I recommend to *anyone* after a hard disk based MP3 Player), and fully tagged, for use in Media Center.

And to be honest, I doubt Microsoft will ever implement a folder system - they have been pushing music databases since Media Player 7 (?? or is it 8).  And, searching through these forums, I haven't found a single other person who has asked for the feature to be included (though I admit it wasnt the most thorough of searches...)

Tag your music, and once you see how much slicker Media Center is, I can't seriously see you wishing for folder based navigation again....

Just my GBP 0.02

I've stayed out of this but in the lack of a poll im gonna answer

I'd LOVE folder based sorting, despite lots of re-tagging and moving stuff around wmp10 insists on splitting my albums and/or losing folder art. I even used wmp10 to copy a cd to the library and it fubared it!! (The album in question is Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin) It can be fine one day and then the next day I launch MCE its lost artwork, and the theory you can add folder.jpg in the folder and it will work isnt correct either, wmp decides to remove it for me at random and replace with the music symbol

Its a minor annoyance that could be overcome by such a simple addition.

Snipperdag

If you are having trouble with Media Player 10 then I would presume that there is a problem with your installation of it - I have *never* had a problem with any version of Media Player deleting my files, or moving things around...

I never use Media Players artwork, as I get all of my own, but I do use the folder.jpg system, by placing the cover to each album in the albums folder.....I have over 250 albums and every one of them works perfectly and I have never lost a file, ID3 Tag, or cover.

I would suggest a quick visit to windows update, see if there are any updates, or a reinstall of Media Player 10, or even windows itself, because you should not be having these problems - this isn't a case of Media Player being buggy, but I would venture it is a case of a fault with your installation...

Chris-  I am sure you are right that the majority does not want an option for folder based navigation-  that is not what I am saying at all.  What I AM saying is that folder based navigation is important to many of us with very large collections.  It is also important to those that prefer ripping straight to .wav files and not have to worry about tags at all.  If you spend any time over at AVS or other forums frequented by experienced computer users you will find that it is probably the most talked about feature that MCE lacks.  I am not asking for Microsoft to overhaul their My Music, ID3 Tagging system at all-  there is alot about it to like.  What I would like is for a plugin to add an option for say, My Albums that will do what many of us have been asking for.  Thanks-

Count me in as another whiner...

All my music is done by folders, and WMP and MCE by association is just horrible at dealing with folders. Winamp plays them with ease.

I still haven't figured out some of it's logic,
I want to be able to do what I do anywhere else, highlight a folder and play all its contents.. this is a simple task that MS has forsaken for 'usability'

It seems to all be based around "I bought my music from MS, or I ripped it with WMP" heaven forbid I tag something wrong, or even worse have tracks I've made by mixing, taking from LP's etc! Oh.. and then there's the huge mistake I once made where MusicMatch mistagged several hundred MP3s.. MCE still can't deal with those.

*grumble b**** grumble*
Diane