Questions about MusicFab

[supine]

Sylvia , Thank you for your reply. Yes, I do understand some of these problems take time and I do believe the team is working to make the program better.

In the mean time, 1.0.1.6 is out. For the information of everyone, I have also been turning in "Tickets" through the member portal. When I updated, a change log was not offered, so I can't say what was or wasn't worked on. I have only been "Playing" with it a short time, but this is what I noticed.

The Whine List:

1, The "Protected Content" screen in Spotify, and the "This Version Of Edge Is Not Supported" in Amazon are still there and a major issue. When the "Protected Content" screen is up in the Spotify section, MusicFab is essentially unless. Although, through rebooting and restarting MusicFab (often many times), the "Protected Content" screen can be bypassed, this is still a serious issue. Nobody wants to have to struggle to use a program.
Note: As long as I'm not logged in, Spotify seems to come up normally. As soon as I try to log in through the "Fab Browser" however, the "Protected Content screen immediately appears. This does not happen going through my regular browsers outside of MusicFab.

2. After finally getting past the "Protected content" screen and when I finish downloading several tracks, the track selection screen did not show up to select new tracks after pulling up a new artist and album. This forced me to restart MusicFab, and deal with the "Protected Content" screen all over again. If I am unable to select tracks, MusicFab is (again) useless while the issue is happening.

3 MusicFab is still dumping all of the tracks from multiple disc albums into single directory. The album I chose to test this problem was a five disc album. MusicFab dumped all the songs from all five discs into a single directory making a tangled mess that will take a huge amount of time to unravel. (if I can at all)

I haven't had time to see if the "Crash" issue is still there. Nor some of the more (to me) minor issues. I can report back on those later as I have the time to investigate.

The Issues I mentioned above are part of what I have privately refer to as the "Big Four". Although there are more minor issues that I didn't address, those are the (current) major issues that (I feel) most severely impact functionality, usability and the serviceability of the program as a whole. While I'm sure that the Team is concerned, is working on them, and will eventually solve them; finding the cause of, and a way to solve "The Big Four" issues seems to have eluded the "Fab Team" for a while. When the major issues are solved, I will start recommending MusicFab to my friends and Family, and start endorsing it far and wide. I am very much looking forward to the next update.

[Sylvia]

It has occurred to me, that I got side tracked and other than a brief comment, never really said much about the latest update.

The "Protected Content" screen in Spotify, and the "This version of Edge is not supported" screen in Amazon are still a crippling issue. When these screens are up no content can be selected from either platform. I can log in from my computer bypassing MusicFab and the imbedded FAB Browser, and have no problems listening to content. This is leading me to believe, that there is something in the imbedded FAB browser that these platforms are identifying that may be causing these issues. Note: If there is a download list already populated, the "Protected Content" screen does not seem to hinder the download process. Downloads can be restarted after a crash and/or restart with no problems, even with the "Protected Content" screen displayed in the browser section.
I (personally) believe, that these "Lockouts" are the number one issue plaguing MusicFab as a whole. If I had to pick a priority to work on, this would be it. The Team however, will make it's own decisions about that.

Rebooting and restarting the program (sometimes several times) will eventually bypass the "Protected Content" screen, but there is never a way to tell how long these "lockouts" will last.

The Track Selection screen in Spotify fails to come up frequently when trying to add new content, making track selection for the downloader impossible. This happens most frequently while populating an unusually long selection list, or after finishing a download list, and trying to select new content. A restart of MusicFab brings it back, but it also brings back the "Protected Content" screen, making it impossible to view and select anything on Spotify.

MusicFab continues to crash and disappear off of the screen randomly, for no discernable reason. One such crash happened after a track download failure, when I attempted to pause the download to restart it and pick up the failed track. So far today, it has crashed three times in the space of forty five minutes. Other times, it will run for twenty hours or more without a hitch. Although it has crashed while idle, most crashes occur while downloading. I have previously uploaded logs from these crashes. The advice I get to delete folders, and restart does not seem to help.

Since I mentioned Failed Downloads, Although random track downloads seem to have started failing again within the last two updates, the failures are infrequent and only pose a very minor issue.

When selecting tracks from albums past a certain point in a Discography list, I am bounced back to the top of the list after selecting tracks from an album, forcing me to scroll back through the entire list to get back where I was after exiting from that album. The main reason this is an issue for me is, Spotify seems to put all of the Singles, Compilations and Live albums at the top of the list leaving what I call "The Meat" toward the bottom of these lists. Enough random albums seem to be scattered through the list making it unwise to head to the bottom of the list (where the bounce occurs) and working up.

Artwork imbedded .MP3 tag metadata is still not showing up in Windows. The Artwork is there in the tag, but only shows up in Windows after refreshing or replacing the artwork in the Tag/Metadata

I believe that I would be remiss in not mentioning, that I have downloaded a more than reasonable amount of content for offline listening, from my paid Spotify subscription, to make (to me) my software license fee worth while. The interface however, is still a struggle, and I don't feel that the program as a whole is "ready for prime time". For those who enjoy content, have patience and don't mind a little vexation from time to time to get that content for offline listening, you might just want to consider a license agreement to help fund this fledgling project. (Feed the Dragon so to speak.) Your financial support will help support the team to possibly overcome these "Issues". Who knows? Perhaps even nurture and further launch this thing to get it to fly!

My thanks also to the many unpaid volunteers that are donating their time to help make this project a success. I look forward to the next update.

We understand your problem, and for the stable operation of the software and user experience to pay time and effort; I believe you can understand, not immediately solve all the problems, but we are still in a step-by-step process, so we are very grateful for your patience.

In addition, our team will definitely make the software better!

[supine]

It has occurred to me, that I got side tracked and other than a brief comment, never really said much about the latest update.

The "Protected Content" screen in Spotify, and the "This version of Edge is not supported" screen in Amazon are still a crippling issue. When these screens are up no content can be selected from either platform. I can log in from my computer bypassing MusicFab and the imbedded FAB Browser, and have no problems listening to content. This is leading me to believe, that there is something in the imbedded FAB browser that these platforms are identifying that may be causing these issues. Note: If there is a download list already populated, the "Protected Content" screen does not seem to hinder the download process. Downloads can be restarted after a crash and/or restart with no problems, even with the "Protected Content" screen displayed in the browser section.
I (personally) believe, that these "Lockouts" are the number one issue plaguing MusicFab as a whole. If I had to pick a priority to work on, this would be it. The Team however, will make it's own decisions about that.

Rebooting and restarting the program (sometimes several times) will eventually bypass the "Protected Content" screen, but there is never a way to tell how long these "lockouts" will last.

The Track Selection screen in Spotify fails to come up frequently when trying to add new content, making track selection for the downloader impossible. This happens most frequently while populating an unusually long selection list, or after finishing a download list, and trying to select new content. A restart of MusicFab brings it back, but it also brings back the "Protected Content" screen, making it impossible to view and select anything on Spotify.

MusicFab continues to crash and disappear off of the screen randomly, for no discernable reason. One such crash happened after a track download failure, when I attempted to pause the download to restart it and pick up the failed track. So far today, it has crashed three times in the space of forty five minutes. Other times, it will run for twenty hours or more without a hitch. Although it has crashed while idle, most crashes occur while downloading. I have previously uploaded logs from these crashes. The advice I get to delete folders, and restart does not seem to help.

Since I mentioned Failed Downloads, Although random track downloads seem to have started failing again within the last two updates, the failures are infrequent and only pose a very minor issue.

When selecting tracks from albums past a certain point in a Discography list, I am bounced back to the top of the list after selecting tracks from an album, forcing me to scroll back through the entire list to get back where I was after exiting from that album. The main reason this is an issue for me is, Spotify seems to put all of the Singles, Compilations and Live albums at the top of the list leaving what I call "The Meat" toward the bottom of these lists. Enough random albums seem to be scattered through the list making it unwise to head to the bottom of the list (where the bounce occurs) and working up.

Artwork imbedded .MP3 tag metadata is still not showing up in Windows. The Artwork is there in the tag, but only shows up in Windows after refreshing or replacing the artwork in the Tag/Metadata

I believe that I would be remiss in not mentioning, that I have downloaded a more than reasonable amount of content for offline listening, from my paid Spotify subscription, to make (to me) my software license fee worth while. The interface however, is still a struggle, and I don't feel that the program as a whole is "ready for prime time". For those who enjoy content, have patience and don't mind a little vexation from time to time to get that content for offline listening, you might just want to consider a license agreement to help fund this fledgling project. (Feed the Dragon so to speak.) Your financial support will help support the team to possibly overcome these "Issues". Who knows? Perhaps even nurture and further launch this thing to get it to fly!

My thanks also to the many unpaid volunteers that are donating their time to help make this project a success. I look forward to the next update.

[supine]

Thank you, D300!

Ditto (X 2)

jkadlec,
signals is a good person. I have had the pleasure of dealing with him/her in other threads. ...and yes, being rude and obnoxious to others in a Forum has always been unacceptable, and a reason to be banned. I also agree that no one should have to listen to abusive comments anywhere else either.

[jkadlec]

Thank you, D300!

[D780]

@all
Spam, bad behaviour, insults and insinuations. Despite requests to refrain from this, ord1117 has continued with it. Moderators have to ensure that things are civilised in a forum.....
ord1117 was therefore no longer acceptable.

[jkadlec]

Supine,
He is immature, rude and insulted another member of this forum by saying that member was probably a fat pig. He definitely did cross the line. Years ago the rules on this forum were a lot more strict. Back then you could have been banned if you talked bad about any of the products and people were banned for doing just that...after being given warnings of course. Signals (the forum admin) was a good guy. So were SOME of the moderators. However there were a couple of moderators that let their "power" go to their heads and weren't afraid to show it. If you disagreed with them on ANYTHING you could have been banned. Most of them were good though. They were all volunteers and didn't work for DVDFab or Fengtao. Nowadays the enforcements of rules are a lot less strict and more priority is being given to free speech, which is good. However, the lack of maturity and being rude to others is not good and should be dealt with. No one wants to see that crap on a support forum...or anywhere else for that matter.

[supine]

Well... It looks like ord1117 crossed a line. The T.O.S. (Forum rules) are generally known, and fairly liberal. Although some leeway is sometimes given, they are also fairly strict.
If negative comments were a reason to be kicked off, Microsoft would have banned me years ago. I know that my commenting on issues and deficits in an app, program or platform are sometimes construed as negative. There is no malice in my comments however. I don't loose any sleep over these issues, nor do I harbor ill feelings toward people who disagree with me in these Forums. The negative effect on my life and wellbeing isn't worth it. ord1117; If you haven't ditched reading this Forum thread; raise a glass and party on. Trust me; the heartburn isn't worth carrying a grudge. (Peace be with you.)

[supine]

I complained about being Unapproved when I Post (But ALL Of MY Posts have been APPROVED) !!!!

And Chameleon CONT to attack ME, with his Unnecessary Comments and Accusations !!!!!!

Chameleon SAID,


""He was trolling the stream Fab subforum also, he is very rude. He should be banned.""-------

I was Trolling------I was Rude !!!!!!!!!!!!

Chameleon I know YOU have a CHIP on your Shoulder about ME, Please STOP !!!!!!!

OK !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please! Petty bickering in an open forum is beneath us all. ord1117, The Moderator (D300) was not trying to be rude. His/Her comment sounded more like a suggestion. What this means is, there have probably been complaints PM'd or Msg'd back to the Mod's from more than one registered user concerning a comment or comments you have made. (Usually the threshold is several different registered users) They are obligated to look into these complaints, and this forces someone to actually read everything that you submit before allowing it to post on the Forum. Trust me. They don't like doing this. The fact that everything you submit is approved and posted means that although often snarky and negative, your comments do not actually violate the T.O.S.. (The Mod's are usually pretty fair about things like that.) Although this is a pain for everyone, It just means your posts are delayed for a while (Unless they actually do violate the T.O.S.). Neither you or the Mod's have much choice in this. What I recommend is, just ignore it until it eventually blows over, and your posts eventually resume normalcy. ...just a suggestion. If we could not bicker on an open Forum I would appreciate it.

[ord1117]

D780 He was trolling the stream Fab subforum also, he is very rude. He should be banned.

I complained about being Unapproved when I Post (But ALL Of MY Posts have been APPROVED) !!!!

And Chameleon CONT to attack ME, with his Unnecessary Comments and Accusations !!!!!!

Chameleon SAID,


""He was trolling the stream Fab subforum also, he is very rude. He should be banned.""-------

I was Trolling------I was Rude !!!!!!!!!!!!

Chameleon I know YOU have a CHIP on your Shoulder about ME, Please STOP !!!!!!!

OK !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[supine]

When I found out that I could also get 5.1 Surround from a properly coded .mp3 file, I switched to that format to save space. It seems, that the issue of the artwork not showing in Windows is primarily MP3 format. I downloaded a few albums in another format, and all of the artwork showed up fine in Windows. Just sayin'... No sense in casting dispersion where there is no blame. It's still an issue; it's just more complicated than I thought.

[supine]

In other news, I just updated MusicFab to 1.0.1.5. Although the "Protected Content" screen reared it's ugly head again, once I rebooted and restarted MusicFab it went away, and has not been back for several restarts. (Just closing and reopening the Spotify tab, or closing and restarting MusicFab didn't work to get rid of the "Protected Content" screen.) MusicFab continues to crash intermittently, and it seems that the issue concerning Multidisc albums has not been addressed. It's still dumping tracks for all of the discs into a single directory. After downloading a short list, the Track Selection window failed to come up again. This is also an ongoing issue. Restarting the program however, restored the selection window, and did not require a reboot. The Album Artwork, despite being in the tag, still does not display in Windows. I believe that this could be an ID2/3 issue, as when I replace the artwork in the tags, it is displayed in Windows.
Either I wasn't offered an update log, or I clicked right through it. I can't say what has been changed in this new update, but for now, it seems that my major concerns still exist. I am looking forward to the next update. If the moderators have any input to the Programming and development side, I would appreciate a gentle "Nudge" asking them to (perhaps) put a little more time and thought into these specific issues. I DO realize that the Spotify specific issues only concern one platform, but to me, major issues on any platform affects the program as a whole.
-Thanks-

[supine]

This is not about quality. Atmos tracks are mixed and engineered for more than 2 channels.

Thanks for your reply. The format that I'm downloading seems like it does quite well with 5.1 Surround as long as what I'm playing it through understands the imbedded coding (Which it does.). I believe I'll just stick with what I have. My small family room would probably be overserved anyway by adding two more speakers. I was just curious. Thanks again.

[mlknez]

I see... I was probably less than clear about what I was asking.
If you would, Please download a song in .flac format onto your computer using MusicFab, and listen to it through the Cube. Then stream the same song directly from Amazon natively through your Cube with Atmos, and see if there is a discernible difference. If you don't feel like conducting this experiment, that's fine. I don't want to be a bother; I'm just curious.

This is not about quality. Atmos tracks are mixed and engineered for more than 2 channels.

[ord1117]

Chameleon------You are Just Attacking ME----Because I said Something YOU DID NOT LIKE !!!!!!!!!!!

GROW UP !!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS NOT YOUR FORUM-------QUIT BEING A BABY -----WAA----WAA