[Android Apps and Games] Andre Gosselin:
Multine-line behavior vs album artist vs artist

I just installed v1.6, and got a bit confused about what the impact of "multi-line" display in the Library and Palylist tabs should, or should not be. So I decided to run a series of tests using 4 different UPNP servers based on the same set of music files (FLAC format). Those servers are :

- Twonky Media (running on a WD MyBookLive NAS)

- Foobar 2000

- MediaMonkey v4

- WMP (on Windows 7)

Here are my results, using a Nexus 7-inch tablet. In the following, "Album Header" refers to the block of lines which can precede a track list and which hold the album art icon, album title, album artist, genre and year. This header can be seen in the Playlist tab when "Albums" is selected in the View menu.

1. The "Multi-line" setting appears to have an impact only when the following conditions apply:

a) No "Album header" shown

b) Tablet is used in "Landscape" orientation

If those conditions hold, tracks are displayed using 3 lines (track title, album name, artist-length) if "muti-line" is on. With "multi-line" off, tracks are displayed on 5 cols lines (icon, track title, album name, artist, track length)

In portrait orientation and with no album header, tracks are always displayed on 3 lines (track title, album name, artist-length).

From all the tests I ran, you get a "No Album Header" condition in the following situations.

a) In the Playlist tab when "Tracks" is selected in the View menu.

b) In the Library tab when browsing by folder ( I could never get an album header when browsing by folder on any upnp server I tried).

c) In the Library tab when browsing by Artist, album, etc with MediaMonkey, but not with the other 3 upnp servers I tried. I do not understand why MediaMonkey behaves differently here than the other three.

2. When an album header appears (eg in the Playlist tab with "Albums" selected in the View menu), the tracks are always displayed in muti-cols lines, irrespective of how the Muti-Line setting is set.

3. When an album header is displayed, tracks are displayed on 2 cols lines (track title, track length), or 3 cols lines (track title, artist name, track length), depending on whether or not the "Album Artist" is identical to "Artist" for a track.

The display of the artist name to the right of the track title when Artist does not match Album Artist is what confused me the most, because it severly truncates the track title when the title is long, as frequently happens in classical music. Unfortunately for me, the vast majority of the tracks comprising my library have an Album Artist value which differs from the Artist value. The reason is that the Album Artist tag is used to name the artist "gluing" the album together (eg Karajan conducting Beethove 9th symphony), whereas the Artist tag names the artists heard in the track (eg key singers in the choral movement of Beethoven 9th symphony). Except for solo performances or single movement pieces, most classical music exhibit that behavior. An "Album Artist" is needed to tie the piece tracks together.

In my opinion, it is important to be able to see "long" titles in their fullest, especially when browsing in the Library tab. In BubbleUPNP v 1.6, this seems possible only when browsing by folder, or when Artist Album exactly matches Artist.

I could humbly suggest the following cures.

1. In the Library tab, implement a "View" menu similar to the one found in the Playlist tab. Selecting the "Tracks" view would put you in the " No Album header" condition, where tracks are displayed on 3 lines.

2. If the Multi-Line setting is on, ignore the Artist value and display only the track title on the line.

3. If the Multi-Line setting is on when album header is shown, display tracks on 2 lines (track title on first line, artist on second event if it is identical to the Album Artist diplayed in the header). This is how BubbleUPNP v1.4.4.1 worked.

Those comments are just suggestions, made to (imho) improve what is already a great product!

Regards to developpers