Music Player 6 - Scanning

Thanks @Mabon - I'll have a look on those sites and or google

 

You mean lrc file as I gotta feeling.lrc?
This is as exe, am i right?

 

I'm talking lyrics for hi-def stuff. My Zidoo will primarily be used for Hi-Def music not for lossy content.

 

Thanks, i want to use it for karaoke.

 

Yup, and if you stand on one leg facing north is goes faster according to lore. I want it to work as it should, not mess with "hope fors".

 

would that be your response if you bought a car and the car wouldn't run for more than a few minutes until stopping? You can't always get what you want is a very odd response for a product not working.

 

Keep in mind that don't have an ideal devices without bugs. It is impossible to create device without bugs.

 

The Zidoo does many things well. It serves no one to just accept what isn't working.

 

Maybe will better for you install old music player apk for example from zidoo h6 pro firmware or from early firmware for x9s (year 2016-2017).

 

I think we all would agree on the relieving thought that Zidoo doesn't produce cars.

@rozel:
Excuse me if I've overlooked, but with what sharing protocol did you encounter these scanning issues?

 

I think this matter lies with Zidoo. My Zidoo"Shares" or "Sources" are all NFS and situated on one of 3 NAS's. These are in a room well away from my Zidoo and connected via Ethernet. I seem to have mastered the way to Scan the "Zidoo Way". What I do is start the scan, which eventually bombs - I can tell it has in 2 ways: - 1. The disc activity light on my NAS stops blinking and 2. I no longer see the "%-Counter" in MP 6. I then "Stop" the Scan and then press "Update". It then seems to carry on where it left off as the %-Counter doesn't start from zero. It then carries on to conclusion without any further problem until the %-Counter is replaced with "Scanned". During all this procedure I leave the Screen-Saver on - which I've set to 10 mins.

The reason I say it's an issue at Zidoo's front door is because my Zidoo also contains a server, as does my PC - "MinimServer". When I set this to scan the same Share scans/updates in massively less time. My PC lies in the same room as my NAS's and again connected via Ethernet.

Hope this helps

 

Damn, I had the impression the scanning issues with NFS shares were solved. I must admit having tested it with just one share without subfolders.
I'll try again with a larger NFS share with subfolders. While I´m at it, I´ll also scan a same sized share via SMB to see whether the issue would exist on NFS only.
Will report back.

 

I have a large collection. Have tried smb and putting it on zidoo usb hard drive. All fail.

 

Ah, so it seems the scanning issues aren't specifically NFS related. Thanks for sharing your info, @darkeyes909.

 

Hi all

Sorry to dig up this thread but I had a problem yesterday. I switched on my Zidoo for an Audio session and went to my "Sources" in MP6 - they showed "Invalid" and were all greyed out. I had this problem once before when I inadvertantly forgot to "stop" the playback of a track in UAPP before exiting the app on my Tablet. After turning on my Ziddo the time after, I had this "Invalid" issue.

This time however I could see no issue on my tablet, and had been playing with both UAPP and HiBy music player so now I don't know what to do, without scanning for hours again, even if my Sources are found.

Can someone point me in the right direction please - I'm hoping it is my lack of experience playing around with different apps.

Thanks

 

Nobody? I'm going to have to re-scan I think. But I'm thinking it may happen again and would like an idea why my scans have become "Invalid".

Thanks

 

I want to write this guide for the Zidoo Music Player (MP) 6.0 as I see there is very little information available. There are some pointers for the older versions however the information is very limited. Hopefully my experiences detailed below can help you to tackle Your Collection and allow you to experience your music with your AV setup. MP really start to shine when you can build your own Playlists however it "HAS TO" successfully scan the source first.

My device is the Z9X with the v6.1.05 firmware. I only just got the v6.1.15 firmware. I do not see the new firmware affecting my experience.

I also want to take this opportunity to highlight the bugs that I have encountered and experienced. Also to suggest a few requests hopefully to improve MP.

My Collection
I have been accumulating my music collection for quite a long time. Since the availability of the PC, it has been moving more and more digital. My Collection is mostly smooth jazz, some 80s, pop, and some local artists (which I have scanned yet). I think My Collection is about 400Gb of data and files, probably some 2000 albums, about 25000 songs, about 200 folders of artists. Mostly mp3s, some ogg, flac, ape, wav.

How does MP Work (ideally)
MP is built to incorporate your music when you acquire them. That is suppose to mean adding the titles one by one.


What Not To Do With MP Scanning
Obviously, most of us are not going to want to follow the ideal way, and start the Update Scan with the entire My Collection. MP will take a really really really long time with My Collection, crash out without a status. Trying again and hope it resolves will/may give a bit more progress, and will result in another crash out.

[Bug] Using this huge My Collection scanning, I have noted that MP starts at the Artists beginning with 'S' (at the end of the range) and works its way towards 'A'. Exactly 8 folders towards 'A', there is definitely a pointer processing problem, where it totally skips that artist folder. This happens again another 18 folders from that one. (If I remember correctly.) There is literally nothing you can do force the scanning of these 'skipped' artist folders.

I tried removing those two 'skipped' artist folders. It shifted the start from 'S' to 'T'. By one position. Then it continued back towards 'A'. Clearing the database and starting again would result in the same 2 skipped folders in the same position. Obviously the bug has nothing to do with those 2 artist folders. There is probably a few more skipped folders however my scanning keep on crashing without any further progress. And obviously, back then, I had totally no clue what was causing it... This is definitely a bug in the programming logic of MP.

I tried this huge My Collection scanning for about 5 days. And had to abandon this approach because of the above bug.


The Basics Before You Update Scan
The MP scanning system works on the following criteria:

1. MP does not look at the media tags. Just what the file name is.
   
2. The delimiter is hyphen (-). This is very important to remember.
3. MP will use the folder name as the Album name. The format should be Artist - Album Name.
4. The most ideal media Track format is Artist - Album name - Track. I have seen a lot of variations of what a track media can look like. It can be Artist - Track, or just Track. It is my guess that MP will look at the folder name if all the information components are missing.
5. Hyphens in the Artist name. You have to edit them out. For example the artist U-Nam will appear as Artist U, Album name Nam. After the editing it, UNam is the closest to Artist.
6. Hyphens in the Album name. You have to edit them out.
7. Hyphens in the Track name. This will depend how many hyphens are in the file name. The safest option is to edit them out. MP will try its best to determine the album contents. Obviously MP will work faster if you give it all the information.
8. Do not be afraid of renaming your track media file name to fit the criteria.
9. MP does process CUEs correctly. Make sure you have a PERFORMER clause after each TRACK TITLE. This is significant as each Track could be a different Performer. Whilst you are editing/reviewing the CUE, you can check for the GENRE and DATE clause, however I do not see where MP using these (yet).
10. [Bug] I like Albums to appear by Artist and Year. The MP Album interface sort by Year option does not work. Supposedly that should have been part of the Album information. What I do to fit my preference is by inserting the album Year after the Artist name.
11. Ensure you have an album picture named as Front.jpg or Cover.jpg. All the other default pictures are not necessary. Leaving them behind could lead MP to use the wrong picture.
12. There are Titles which are available in multiple disks. I renamed CD1 to Artist Year - Title CD1. Same for CD2, etc.

Scanning Size and Scan Beginning
You should follow the ideal usage method for MP. For my first success, I moved everything out of my Music folder except my first Artist folder.

Clear the MP database. Enable the show file path. Then Update Scan.

It is very important to get the Scanned status, after it reaches 100.00%. With only one Artist it does take some time and is reasonably fast. You will know what I mean (a lot later) when you have built-up your own collection.

On success Backup your database. This will be very important later.


Common Crash Out Reasons and Indicators
If you have a crash out, the first thing you do is go back into MP and Stop Scanning. Simply because continued scanning does absolutely nothing (that is what I believe).

You will need to look for why it crashed out. Here is where having a smaller scope really helps and it is easier to find problems. There are a few indicators for you to check:

1. Folder list. Go to your Artist. MP will start at the bottom of the list and work its way up. There is a square (to the left) with 4 indicators. MP will fill the 4 small indicators with the album picture indicating number of successes (up to 4). It will (permanently) deduct what it has failed. So seeing 4 of 4 status is a very good indicator.
2. Album list. You could watch this as it is scanning. It will populate this list at the top. This probably is the only indictor of what it is processing during the Update Scan. The Album list update will be static when it is not being updated. You can check for the presence of your Artist Album here. Including its contents ie Tracks, and their associated information.
3. Artist list. Look for your Artist. This shows its matched successes. Also the 'other' artists too. Usually mismatches, but it is counted as a MP scan success. This is why it is important to monitor what extra other Artists appear after every Update Scan.

After going through 80% of My Collection, I have noted the following common reasons for my crash outs:

• Hyphens somewhere. Correct by editing those file names.

• Scan match database empty. There is nothing you can do to prevent this. MP will just crash out. You can verify these by trying a track Rematch. Move this album out of your Source Music folder. You can do a folder Remove too to help MP.

• You want to make sure that the Track name (ie the song name) are all correct. This will greatly improve MP scan matching. Do not leave tracks as 01.mp3, 02.mp3, 03.mp3, etc. Edit in the names as detailed on the back cover.

After the changes, Update Scan. If Scanned successful, backup database before doing anything else.

From all the times that I have ran Update Scan and it has a problem, MP has froze on me only once. You will know that it has frozen when the Scanning percentage stops, including the refresh indicator on the bottom-right of the screen too. Press the Home button to exit out.

 

(continued)

Examining the Albums, Tracks, and Artists
When MP is Scanned successfully and the database backup done. It is time to verify that MP has done everything correctly. Again, having a limited scanning scope will help you contain and manage your information within MP. If you do find mismatches, MP offers functions like Rematch and Edit to rectify the errors. If you screw-up the information in MP, the backup can help restore it.
The following is my list of observations, requests, and bugs:

1. [Bug] The MP Album view has a sort by Year feature. It simply does not work. I can see easily Year after the Artist. I really dunno where it gets the year info.
2. [Request] MP needs a show Album list by Artist feature. Cos My Collection is a bit unmanageable at about 1800 albums, and growing. Maybe this can be traversed from the existing Artists section as an option ie Artist Albums or All Artist Tracks.
3. [Request] The #A-Z navigation feature in Home Theatre 4.0 when you move the focus to the right side of the screen, could be very useful to traverse large number of number of entries in MP ie albums, artists, and folders. Right now there is no easy way to get to the bottom (in most cases).
4. [Request] MP should show the Albums by Title, and Artist and Year underneath. The non-CUE Albums do not do this.
5. [Request] The Album display of CUEs currently shows these as Title, and Artist underneath. There is no Year display. Really it would be a lot more flexible if it could show be Title on top, and Artist Year underneath. Ie standardize the album display format. Or allow standardized customization. Make sure the sort display methods work. ie A-Z, Z-A, Year, for Title and Artist.
6. [Bug] I have to commend MP scanning for find a fit for some tracks. Mismatched Artists. Particularly those MP scanned successfully tracks but with some other Artist. This creates an erroneous Artist. If I Rematch the entries, they sometimes match correctly. Other times, they do not match at all, and have always returned failures. What I do is I reload the database, and then Edit the correct Artist information in. It says the Edit Success. However I find that the erroneous Artist group has trouble moving that last Track to the correct group. Even after an Update Scan.
7. [Bug] This is similar to the above bug. In the smooth jazz scene, the artists team up and release an album which will appear like ArtistA & ArtistB. MP scans this correctly. It creates a new Artist exactly 'ArtistA & ArtistB'. What I do is Edit all the tracks into 'ArtistA, ArtistB'. After an Update Scan, it appears to work in some cases by putting tracks back into ArtistA and ArtistB. In other cases, they all get stuck in that original Artist group.
8. [Request] Right now, after doing Edit function on Track(s), I have to wait for a Update Scan to process the changes. I think I have seen the Rematch/Edit function work immediately once only with the Rematch function. However never with the Edit function. Could we have a Menu function to process the Artist info edits? Ie move Tracks not belong to its group to where it should belong. Also if the Artist group is empty, remove it.
9. [Request] In the Artist section, can we have a Merge With another Artist function. An example of where it would be useful is the "Kool & and the Gang", and "Kool and the Gang". Likewise an Unmerge feature would be useful too. Just in case it is not desired.

Continuing Your Scanning
Here are the regular steps of the process after each successful Scanned:

1. Repeat by moving the next Artist folder in to the Music folder, or a group of Artists. The most I moved in is 6 Artists folders however that gets tough when you need to find out what is causing a crash out.
   
2. Obtain the Scanned status.
3. Backup database.
4. Repeat.

My Current Progress with My Collection
I have been at the MP ideal scanning for the last 14 days, and I have reached about 80% of My Collection. An Update Scan takes me about 1.5 hours now to reach Scanned successful. Your progress will vary according to how much time and patience you put into the scanning.


Useful Tools
On the PC, Better File Rename. Great for block file renames.

 

A first class Guide @Larry Lo that many will find extremely helpful.

As with my Video collection though, I'm tending to use more and more the Native File Manager to play my files - just a hell of a lot easier with less hassle - although without the pretty pictures My latest tale of woe now however is that I've lost connection to my Music NAS on my Network and three days in, I haven't found a solution. I'm scared I'm going to lose my Shares. You win some and lose some!

 

I have successfully scanned most of My Collection. It took about 17 days in total (on-and-off). So the last step is to re-verify some of the unscannable content that I have. As my MP database is humongous, there really is no way I could work with it. That got cleared. Whilst I was testing, I had a bright spark...


A Better Setup Approach for MP

Rather than adding the entire My Collection as The Source, ie the humongous approach, it would be much more efficient to specify smaller sources. What this means is you add the path to each Artist separately as a Source. This will allow MP to scan each Artist when it is necessary. Ie when you obtain a new Album, or when you make a modification for that Artist. MP will allow you to Update the Scanning for that specific Artist. You do not have to redo the scan for (the entire) My Collection.

Obviously there is nothing stopping you from grouping your media as you see fit. And defining the size of your Sources.

If you experience a crash out now, it is so much more clear which source it is, ie the Artist, or grouping of Artists. You just apply the Stop Scan on that Source. When using this approach, MP also works in a more logical fashion. Ie within that source, it starts from the first album and goes to the last.

If you have followed my earlier 2 posts, it means you have done the foot work for successful scanning. With this better setup approach, your Artists will fly through MP as separated Sources. My Collection re-do with this better setup took about 12 hours (on-and-off). It crashed out twice. One time cos I was being aggressive inserting sources whilst it was scanning. The second time appears to be related to finding suitable matches because it went through fine on a second Update Scan.

If you have just arrived here, then use this setup method in conjunction with the previous tips. And you will have a more efficient faster scanning experience.

[Request] What the Add a Source process menus need is a better way to reach the lower sections of a list. Like when I was traversing my Music folder, it gets a bit laborious scrolling down to the bottom end of the folder list of Artists.


Good luck guys.