Multiple ratings? Vqf-plugin?

johandenver · Post by **johandenver** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 6:57 am

Hello!

After just having purchased a life-time license of your outstanding software I'd like to ask two questions.

1. Has anyone else raised the point of having multiple ratings on a song?
I mean, me and my girlfriend don't always agree on which songs are really good

. I thought maybe it would be possible to have different users in MM so that each user could have his/her own ratings to the songs.
Impossible?

2. Is there a working vqf-plugin somewhere?
I've tried one that I used for winamp but it screws up the time on each track. It thinks all vqf songs are over 3 hours long when they're really just a couple of minutes. Also, sometimes it stops playing the song or just refuses to start playing it.

With kind regards.
/Johan Hansson

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 12:35 pm

i dont know about the vqf and i believe that the double ratings would be impossible. just use the half star. you like it rate it four stars she dont like it rate it 3 stars right? since there is no double ratings make the song rated at 3 and a half stars

Post by **Lowlander** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 7:10 pm

There would be a way to get around this in the current MM.

You could use to DB's for MM, one for you and for the girlfriend (it might be easier to install MM twice for that as DB switching isn't supported in the MM interface).
You'll then need to disable change tags immediatly in at least one of the MM DB's. That way the rating is only stored in the DB and not in the tags.

This solution is far from desirable I think and can be quit cumbersome. The best way would be for multiple rating fields in the DB (and in the tags would be nice too).

As for the VQF plugin did you use one from WinAmp2 or WinAmp3? WinAmp3 isn't supported by MM and might result in errors and problems.

My advice would be to just have the ratings of the girlfriend and make her happy, unless you don't plan on keeping her, lol.

As for myself I don't require such feature.

johandenver · Post by **johandenver** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 2:59 am

My thanks to the both of you for replying.

I didn't think of having two installations of MM, I think I'll try that.
Thanks for the tip!

I'm sure that the vqf-plugin is for Winamp2, I tried two different ones that
I downloaded from the Winamp2-site but neither of the worked.
Also, I kind of got the feeling that I wouldn't have to even bother
with installing plugins för vqf since MM seemed to support that format
generally. Did I get the wrong impression?

If I try without the plugins, then the songs just gets "greyed out".

/Johan

Post by **jiri** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 3:25 am

MediaMonkey needs a plug-in for playback of any filetype, including VQF. There is a simple internal support for scanning VQF files (reading artist name, title, etc.), but there isn't internal playback support.

There definitely exists a WinAmp2 plug-in capable of VQF playback, but I'm not sure where to find it, or maybe that you have even already tested it and it doesn't work on your machine, because VQF format is pretty much dead now.

Jiri

Post by **Lowlander** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 12:42 pm

Just a warning on two installations:

It could happen that after installing both still use the same DB (another user encountered this). So check this before playing with the songs (If on first run after installation before scanning for songs DB is populated with songs you are using the same DB). You'll need to change the mediamonkey.ini file for that.

Make sure that in at least one of the MM's the update tags in file is turned off. So the information isn't written to the file itself. You'll probably need to turn of file-monitor (or not turn on).

You'll see the files in the unsynchronized node as DB and files don't correspond in the ratings field.

There's always a chance that due to some action done by one of you the files are updated with the different ratings. Most likely you can go to the other install of MM and change them back.

Just be very careful so you don't make a mess of the ratings field and have to do all work again.

I hope I covered all the cautions you should take. Let us know how it works out and which problems you encounter.

johandenver · Post by **johandenver** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 2:48 am

I've now tried two databases and it seems to work fairly well.
I've turned off the "update tags directly..." so the ratings work
as I want them to.
However, I've left the File Monitor and Startup scan on since otherwise
I won't see the changes I make within the first installation of MM.

I'll continue to test this and let you know how it works out.

/Johan

Post by **Lowlander** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 12:44 pm

I believe the file monitor will possibly get you in trouble as it should notice the file has different ratings than the DB. I'm not sure as the files might not have changed at all.
Just be aware that ratings could be changed in the second DB to reflect the ratings in the tag.

Good luck

johandenver · Post by **johandenver** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 3:43 am

I've decided to not run two different installations of MM.
There seems to be too many problems involved, I have to rescan the whole database, in the second installation, each time if I want the changes
made in the first installation to be visible.
I guess I'll have to wait for multiple ratings instead

Thanks for all the tips though!

/Johan

Apopsis · Post by **Apopsis** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 5:13 am

Why don't you use a custom field for the second rating, so simple...
(there are 3 custom fields available)

Post by **Lowlander** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 1:36 pm

True, very simple!

Multiple ratings? Vqf-plugin?

Multiple ratings? Vqf-plugin?

There would be a way

Some cautions

Good luck

True