Any workaround for WMP11 being rubbish?

[SenojNW]

I have all my MP3's well organised and tagged (using MP3Tag) and Winamp has no problem with grouping based on the tags - but Windows Media Player 11 is another matter...

Taking an example - if I search for "Triple J Hottest 100" under "albums" in VMC or WMP11 - it manages to spread the tracks out into what it thinks are about 4 different albums of the same name... If I search the same music library with Winamp it groups all tracks together under the single album. All the tracks have exactly the same entry in their "album" tag - I have checked numerous times in MP3Tag. And I have deleted the WMP11 cache a couple of times and forced it to rebuild.

I have all my music stored in folders based on artist so for the example above it needs to read tags across directories because it is a compilation CD - obviously too challenging for it...

I'd move on and just use Winamp however you are lumped with WMP11 if you want to use Vista Media Centre...

Any ideas?

Plus it tries to second guess your every move... and it randomly applies album art wherever it finds that artist if you have blanks anywhere else... such a frustrating effort at a media player!!!

[ExtremePC]

Thats what you get for using free software.

[SenojNW]

Which free software would that be? WMP11? I paid for that inconvenience.

[krypto]

If he means MP3Tag, its probably one of the best and most reliable pieces of software that I regularly use - I liked it so much that I donated.

Got rid of all my album art issues using MP3Tag by embedding art in the mp3 files.

As for your problem, I have found that slight differences in spelling of albums, different album artists (Should all be various artists) or any other accidental differences such as genre etc will cause the problem.

Have a look at the tracks in WMP advanced tag editor, check the different tabs to make sure that all the generic info is identical for all tracks - WMP can be a bitch

[ExtremePC]

Originally Posted by SenojNW

Which free software would that be? WMP11? I paid for that inconvenience.

I mean WMP11, it comes bundled free with Windows or its a free download. Even MC comes free with some Vista versions.

[SenojNW]

Yes they do kindly throw it in with Vista Home Premium... bless em... for WAF Vista Media Centre is a must, so unfortunately you are kind of stuck with WMP11.

I don't like making tracks on my compilation CDs all the same genre and artist (because they aren't) - WMP11 should be able to handle it - Winamp does and that's free!

Gonna play around MediaPortal and see what that's like...

[BladeRoNNeR]

Oh the pain! I am with you on this one. WinAMP is excellent as a music player and has been for over 10 years since I started using it back in the day (Except V3.0 lol), but is the nemisis of WMP.

I couldnt find a solution and have reverted to mainly playing my music on my main PC via WinAMP due to the poor file management of WMP.

Saying that, my favorite albums I have added to the VMC/WMP and manually changed them as required. Same issue as you, different folders for same albums, even though in same folders, same tags etc etc. Took some time to do around 50-100 albums but it is ok now after fixing some album art issues also. You can drag and drop them into one 'album' when it scans it as separate ones, but if you screw up you will need to rescan the lot and start again loosing your updates.

I may have sympathy for your situation but regrettably no solution.

** Dreams of a WinAMP VMC plugin to replace the Music Library tile **

[dgaust]

Dunno, but you could try this.

Doesn't read tags AFAIK, but if you have your music collection in well organised folders it might help.

[BladeRoNNeR]

By the time I got back to this thread, I had noticed your post on this plugin. LMAO!

Will give it a try this week when I have some time. Cheers.