WiiM Amp USB Album Artist / Compilation issue

[d6jg]

Cheers, that's what I thought.

It's important to ask, otherwise you might miss things ; there could have been a golden vat of functionality I was missing out on.

You're right, of course. Plugging and unplugging the drive is a pain. Fortunately, it's not something I need to do too regularly.

As for the extra searching, I can certainly see how it looks great on paper. I presume the added flexibility is that you can search something completely bespoke like reggae tracks lasting between 3m30s and 4m00s from May 1975, or something. Is that just about it?

That's not a real world example.

What is more likely is that you know you have a version of Uptown Top Ranking by Althea & Donna on a compilation album somewhere but can't remember which one. A few letters into the search box and there it is ......



EDIT
What about that? It is actually 3:52

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

That's not a real world example.

What is more likely is that you know you have a version of Uptown Top Ranking by Althea & Donna on a compilation album somewhere but can't remember which one. A few letters into the search box and there it is ......

View attachment 17085

EDIT
What about that? It is actually 3:52

Right, I can tell you I can definitely do that with the WiiM, and I'll tell you how I know.

One of my favourite '80s tracks is I Won't Let You Down by PhD. It's not available on Amazon Music Unlimited for some reason, though it has been in the past, and is on Spotify.

I have it on a compilation, but it's a multi-disc (I think 5 disc) compilation which has a similar name to several other compilations, so it's not the easiest to find. Very similar to your example.

But if I open my WiiM Home app, click on my music drive and enter 'phd' into the search box at the top, it comes up straight away...

...though strangely not if I search by track title - no idea why.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

Strangely, when searching by track name, it comes up in the list if I search just “I Won”, but all search results disappear if I add the apostrophe or the letter t.



There's something about that apostrophe, as soon as I click on it, all of my "won't" tracks disappear. Just ignoring the apostrophe, or missing a space "I Won t" doesn't work, though "Let You Down Again" does.

There's something about the apostrophe that the WiiM doesn't like.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

By the way, the compilation is 100 Hits: 80's Pop Disc 3.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

By the way:

 

[Burnside]

I think there’s a re-recorded version of the PHD track by its original vocalist Jim Diamond on Amazon Music.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

Right I've tried it with other tracks, The Alarm's Spirit of '76, The Four Seasons' December '63, same result.

Everything is fine until I hit the apostrophe, then everything disappears.

I can bypass the PhD track by searching from after the apostrophe, so just "Let You Down Again", that works.

And apostrophes show correctly.

It's clear that it's just the search function having issues with apostrophes.

I've raised a ticket.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

I think there’s a re-recorded version of the PHD track by its original vocalist Jim Diamond on Amazon Music.

It is indeed. I was aware, but thanks for telling me; I might not have.

As ever though, not as good as the original.

 

[middleagedgrump]

Hi All,

We’ll resolve this issue this month by implementing alternative solutions to index the albums on the USB. Stay tuned for updates!

Thank you @WiiM Team, that is good to hear. Looking forward to the simple introduction of an Album Artist filter.

 

[Djinn]

Thank you @WiiM Team, that is good to hear. Looking forward to the simple introduction of an Album Artist filter.

I think it would be better for the WHA to look for the AlbumArtist (or Album Artist) field first and, if it is present, the app should use that field instead of the Artist field. That way, if the AlbumArtist field is not present, the app would use the Artist field to categorise (group) the album. Note that there are tag formats such as ID3v1 that do not have the AlbumArtist field (but do have the Artist field) and it is important not to break backwards compatibility with these older formats.

 

[slartibartfast]

I think it would be better for the WHA to look for the AlbumArtist (or Album Artist) field first and, if it is present, the app should use that field instead of the Artist field. That way, if the AlbumArtist field is not present, the app would use the Artist field to categorise (group) the album. Note that there are tag formats such as ID3v1 that do not have the AlbumArtist field (but do have the Artist field) and it is important not to break backwards compatibility with these older formats.

Some servers don't require an Album Artist tag for Various Artist albums, they realise that an album with different Artists for each track is a compilation automatically. Albums tagged like that will still be split into multiple albums by the WiiM Home app.

 

[Burnside]

Some servers don't require an Album Artist tag for Various Artist albums, they realise that an album with different Artists for each track is a compilation automatically. Albums tagged like that will still be split into multiple albums by the WiiM Home app.

Wouldn't they need more than that otherwise you could end up with a very large Greatest Hits "compilation"?

 

[Djinn]

Some servers don't require an Album Artist tag for Various Artist albums, they realise that an album with different Artists for each track is a compilation automatically. Albums tagged like that will still be split into multiple albums by the WiiM Home app.

How do those music servers figure out that an album with various artists is a compilation if the Album Artist or AlbumArtist fields do not contain any value? I guess those servers won't use AI to identify these albums, right? They probably need to look for some field to identify compilations (just guessing).

 

[slartibartfast]

Wouldn't they need more than that otherwise you could end up with a very large Greatest Hits "compilation"?

Adding an Album Artist of Various Artists wouldn't change that . Greatest Hits albums generally do have an Album Artist tag, although many of mine don't. I suppose it considers the tracks in one folder as one album in that case.

 

[slartibartfast]

How do those music servers figure out that an album with various artists is a compilation if the Album Artist or AlbumArtist fields do not contain any value? I guess those servers won't use AI to identify these albums, right? They probably need to look for some field to identify compilations (just guessing).

I think if the album contains different track artists it is considered a compilation.

 

[d6jg]

How do those music servers figure out that an album with various artists is a compilation if the Album Artist or AlbumArtist fields do not contain any value? I guess those servers won't use AI to identify these albums, right? They probably need to look for some field to identify compilations (just guessing).

Slarti is referring to LMS methinks

An album is considered as a Compilation in LMS if
1. It has Compilation = 1 or
2. It has multiple different track Artists but no AlbumArtist set

If you have an album where there are multiple different track Artists with a single AlbumArtist then that is indexed under the AlbumArtist.

Use of “Various Artists” in LMS in the AlbumArtist field is not advisable as the filing name for Compilations (apart from Compilations itself) is a global setting. You could for example set this to just Various. Had you populated an album with “Various Artists” and set the global to Various you’d get two distinct entries in your Artist listing.

Clear as mud

 

[Djinn]

Clear as mud

Indeed, thanks for your (detailed) explanation. Do you think the WHA could work as LMS in this matter? Is it technically possible for the Engineering Team?

 

[simbun]

Indeed, thanks for your (detailed) explanation. Do you think the WHA could work as LMS in this matter? Is it technically possible for the Engineering Team?

Sure, it could happen, but it’s not likely or needed.

It's quite simple, as long as you store all the tracks of an album in a single folder and populate AlbumArtist ('Various Artists' for compilations), Album, Compilation, Date, DiscNumber, DiscTotal, TrackNumber, Artist and Title, then your collection will be compatible with just about any server out there.