[slinkelist] CDJ questions/problems reprise

[Ron Chrisley]

This is a followup to a message I posted on April 7th, with some new
questions/suggestions.

Thanks to those of you who replied to my earlier posting.

Here are some outstanding problems.  Again, I am using CDJ version 1.30
Build 2016 (01/19/00) -- are any of these solved in the latest version?

1.  There is a Y2K bug when sorting by "date added" in the library -- 2000
dates are being sorted as earlier than 1999 dates.

> I would like to be able to search by date added, to play all recently
> acquired CDs, for example.

I found out that there is a keyword "time added" which permits this.  I was
confused because the field is called "date added" in the library view, and I
couldn't find anything with that name in the help file.  Perhaps the same
name shoudl be used for both?

2.  The date added field not always filled in when a new CD is added.

3.  When doing CDDB lookup, if CDJ encounters a title or artist containing a
slash, it gets confused and enters the wrong info into the library.

4. When searching albums for number of times played, CDJ actually returns
answers based on track, not album properties.  So if the album option is
selected, and one searches for nt<1, the result is a list of all albums that
have a track that has not been played.  Perhaps this is intentional (I don't
think it is desirable), but if so, it should be added to the documentation.

5.  Incidentally, in the help file, where comparisons are explained,
"greater
than" and "less than" have been reversed.

> Is there any way to save a *search* (parameterised playlists)?  For
example,
> I often start up CDJ, search for "kw = classical & nt<1", then press
random.
> This gives me all the classical tracks that I have not listened to.  But
it
> changes from session to session, so I have to type the search in every
time.
> Not too big a hassle, but it would be good if we could save "intensional"
> playlists as well as "extensional" ones, if that means anything to
anybody.

I have given up on this, and have re-arranged my setup so that I now use a
apre remote to do things like this, like everybody else does.  BUT:

6.  How does the Slink-e data window in CDJ work?  That is, If I type a
device command like "remote:3"  does it decode this symbolically, using my
maps files, and then have CDJ do whatever is contained therein, or does it
look up the IR value for this, and them transmit it?  I don's have the IR
xmitter hooked up right now, and want to know is that is why I am not
getting any joy when I type "remote:3" to the SLink-e data window.  The
funny thing is that I get results when I type "cdj:plalist_play" etc.

7.  It would be nice to have a button that takes you to the library entry
for the selection now playing?

8.  CDJ makes a mess when one is editing a library field when the track or
disc changes.  Exceptional weirdness occurs if one is editing details such
as "image file".

9.  There is no way to search for empty fields.

10.  Provision for rest-of-the-world dating systems (e.g., DD/MM/YY) would
be nice.

11.  Trivial matters: no popup descriptions for the "option" and "tip of the
day" icons; ctrl-c and ctrl-v do not work when editing details such as
keywords or image file (although right clicking does work).

12.  It would be nice to be able to search by "has image".

?
>
> I never had any "disc look up" problems when I had only one player, but
now
> with two CDJ just seems to skip a lookup every now and then.  E.g., if I
ask
> CDJ to look up every disc between 200 and 300 (on either player), about 10
> CDs will not be looked up.

I have now given in and put my players on two different busses.  This seems
to have eliminated the above problem, as well as the problems I mentioned
earlier about using the x-fade option.

13.  Does anybody else using a passive mixer (such as the one whose deign is
on the Nirvis website) have a problem with levels changing as players start
and stop?  Any suggestions for how it can be fixed?

14.  When I first got the Covers program, I had problems with one of my CDJ
entires:  whenever Covers got to that entry it would choke.  So I just
attached a dummy image file to that entry, Covers would no longer look for
that entry, and everything was fine.  But now this happens with every other
library entry.  HAs anyone else had this problem?  The error message I get
is "malformed URL" or something similar.

15.  When searching by track keyword, a track will be returned if the album
keyword matches the query, even if the track does not.  A more natural
inheiritance hierarchy would be nice (use album kw as track kw unless track
kw is explicitly present).

16.  If I click a lot on the library scroll bars (e.g., because I am looking
for the album that is currently playing -- see 7.), the scrolling goes crazy
and continues eventhough I am not clicking anymore.  This is not mere
"clickahead".  Trivial, but inconvenient.

Thanks for your help.

Ron