ok, i have a few wishes.

1. i would really like to have an option to have song times count down as well as up. don't know if anyone else likes this, but i like having the song count down towards 0 rather than up.

2. is there any way to backspace when searching for things like artist, song, album, etc? if there is not, it would be pretty useful, especially for those on this board who are spelling challanged. if this is already doable, could someone tell me how?

3. i would love to be able to insert songs into the next playlist entry when searching rather than only append or start a new playlist altogether. sometimes i want to hear a specific song right away, but don't want to start a new playlist just for that song, or have to go to the end of the current playlist to hear it. again, if this is already possible, please yell at me and let me know how to do it.

thanks,

jeremy

oh, i wish i wish i had an empeg...

Wishes 1 and 3 have been made before, but they both deserved another mention. I especially want to see number 3.

___________
Tony Fabris

In response to #2:

To backspace while searching use the AM/-/REW button on the remote. Each press will take you one slot back.


MkII #080000085

Ta. I only found that one out. Moments before I was about to post a request for it. Took me a while to come up with tho!

Murray 06000047
____________________

Most of your wishes are in the process of being answered in the next release :)

There's also a new shuffle mode which is wonderful. You'll find out soon :)

Hugo

Do you realize just how "God-like" you are and the power you guys hold over we lowly peons? They must be loving this!

George

Hey, I've met this guy. He's no God. He's a good engineer and a nice guy.

If he is a God, I didn't know they made 'em that short.

Still, he's got me on pins and needles regarding the new shuffle mode...

___________
Tony Fabris

The shuffle mode I'd like to see is one that shuffles the artists more than the songs. Ya know, choose a random artist then play all their songs. Or, in the same way shuffle between playlists.

I like shuffle because it lets me randomly hear songs in my rather large data base. But then when I hear an artist I like I have to search for them to play more songs from them.

Alex Lear

But then when I hear an artist I like I have to search for them to play more songs from them.

Actually, you don't. They added a great feature somewhere around beta 10, called "Tweak Order". This is exactly what you're asking for.

Let's say you're shuffling your whole database and an artist comes on that you like. Press the "2" key on the remote and it'll say "Found Matching Artist". The next song in the list is now by the same artist. Press 2 again, and the next two songs will be by the same artist. Keep pressing 2 each time you want the same artist to play. To actually "see" what it's doing, look at the "Now and Next" screen while you do this.

Assuming the disk drive isn't in the middle of a big read, it'll even do this without interrupting the current song.

There are other number keys on the remote that do similar things:

2: Match artist
3: Match album
5: Match genre
6: Match year
8: Swap the next song with a random one from the current playlist
0: Toggle shuffle play on and off

___________
Tony Fabris

That's awesome! It's going to take me months (maybe a year or two) to figure out all the features and just how I might use them!

George

There's also a new shuffle mode which is wonderful. You'll find out soon :)

Speaking of shuffle mode, I have a question/comment about the current one. The "new" (that is, "instant") shuffle works great, but I have a bit of a problem with the user interface. There's the "Shuffle" menu, and when you select the menu, it says "On" if shuffle is currently on, and "Off" if shuffle is off. If you select the "On" or "Off", the entire menu hierarchy disappears and the value is toggled - but you really have no visual feedback that it has been toggled.

If it is going to be the case that selecting this option will result in an instant change with no visible feedback, then it seems to me that the option should reflect what will happen when you select it (something like "Activate" or "Shuffle" when shuffle is currently off, and "Deactivate" or "Unshuffle" when shuffle is currently on). Otherwise, I'd suggest that toggling the option actually toggle it on screen (so you see the word "On" change to "Off", and vice-versa, as in the old shuffle mechanism); or at least, have a text bar at the top of the screen which says "Shuffle is now ON" or something and then fades out or disappears.

I realize this is sort of a nitpicky thing but the new software is so good that most of what's left for me to put on a wish list are nitpicky things... :) Seriously, though, I do think that visual feedback is important in conjunction with functionality like Shuffle mode.





-----
Daniel M. Zimmerman
Mk.2 #060000058, 36GB, Red
Mk.1 #00101, 10GB, Blue

2: Match artist
3: Match album
5: Match genre
6: Match year
8: Swap the next song with a random one from the current playlist
0: Toggle shuffle play on and off


Is this sort of information documented anywhere, or are these clever tricks that people have figured out and share only with other people who know the secret handshake?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

It's in the release notes (all downloadable from the web site). This functionality came too late for the current user guide.

Rob

Hey...is it just a coincidence that the playlist-tweak keys make a 'P' on the remote?

--------------------
Reg #57xx, Ser #080000141, Rec'd Aug.11/00

Hey...is it just a coincidence that the playlist-tweak keys make a 'P' on the remote?

No, I think it's because I made a very strong case against assigning anything to buttons 1 and 4.

I dunno if that's really why or not. But I was very happy to see that the tweak buttons weren't on 1 and 4.

___________
Tony Fabris