Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming New 'Core Control' iPad App Impressions & Comments

Well just a few minutes with the new app. One thing I noticed. On the C15 you can select CDs by a tag and then when you go to cover view only the CDs with the selected tag will display. Doesn't seem to work that way in the app. Even if you select a tag in explore the cover view shows all CDs in the collection. Am I missing something?

EDIT: Sorry I figured it out. You go to focus/tags and add a new tag. That threw me off because I wanted to focus on an exisiting tag but this just means add a tag to the focus not create a new tag.

Initial impressions are very positive. Having some issues with album art being displayed (need to really read the threads on that topic here). Create set now works (could never get it to work on the older iPad app) too! Nice.

I think the app is much faster in finding the core and loading the data than the old app.

Hi Vinyl
Consolidating a few previous posts into my reply here

If you use to Debug screen to go into a few Albums of your choice, you will see that Every Album "should" have the following files within the list that you will see

cover.img02resize170.jpg

cover.img02resize256.dds
cover.img02resize256.jpg

cover.img02resize512.dds
cover.img02resize512.jpg

cover.jpg

The above 6 Files should be within each Album folder.....and they will all have the same names as above

The JPG Files are Image files......with different sizes of the Cover

The Cover.jpg can be

a) the default Low Res 170 to 200 Pixel Artwork from AMG

b) a High Res Cover inserted by the User.....either at the Import stage ......or later on

c) It could also be a "ReIssue" Cover.......or a different Album cover entirely from the one that AMG Defaults to

The reason that you have a Blank square in the Album Grid for the Rolling Stones Album you mention above......is that that Album folder does not have a "Cover002Resize170.jpg" file.......hence Blank Square

All other instances of the Sooloos Control Apps use the "Cover.jpg" file........and that's what appears on the other Two iPad screens in the new iPad app

As regards what a ".DDS" file does.......it's simply a grpahics file used by Sooloos to render the Image "on the fly"

Official explanation here

How does one remedy that? I too have a couple of black squares in the album grid.

At the moment, I don't believe that you can

Reasons outlined in previous threads.......summary, Sooloos does not "update" the ReSize files when a User Updates his Main Cover file

Meridian are now aware of the issue since Saturday and hopefully will react!!

I wonder, can one delete the album from Sooloos and reload it? Does that 'fix' the problem?

Hi Ronnie,

Thanks for the explanation. It only affects a small number of albums so I shall wait for a fix from Meridian.

After a very short play, I think the new app is a huge step forward for playing/selecting the music that you have on your Sooloos system from an iPad

It is not a replacement for a C15/ControlMac in my opinion (and was probably never intended to be at least not in this incarnation) and has some things on which to improve:

1 - As noted in posts above there is no/very little ability to edit your collection/clean-up metadata.

2 - No feedback when selecting items that are empty/unpopulated (e.g. once an album is selected in tabbing through (tracks/Genres/Credits/Tags/Moods/Review) if a tab is empty there is no sound or visual indication of such - just keep pressing until you guess that it is empty and not just poor accuracy on pressing the screen button

3 - Not always intuitive once you have selected a menu of choice, how you can exit from the menu (pressing all over the screen appears to work most of the time, sometimes there is a cancel button within the menu, but sometimes you have to make a choice to be able to move on)

4 - Album art never goes full screen and there does not appear to be a screen saver mode (a la C15)

5 - You still need C15/ControlMac/ControlPC to set export destinations.

6 - Once you create a playlist/playlist set you cannot edit the name (maybe true of C15 & Control:Mac).

The general speed is okay (on an iPad 2 with N wifi) and overall it is much better than the previous app for what it was designed to do (and still not a complete C15/Control:Mac/PC replacement).

Interestingly for a new app it is version 2.102 as per the iPad Settings. Settings also has option to Prevent Editing and Prevent Sleep

Yes, if you wish to go to those lengths, that will fix the problem

Make sure to select a High Res Cover at the Import or RIP stage.......BEFORE Importing into Sooloos..........that step will make sure your Resize files are Resizes of High Res covers........better for the long run IMHO

Re Zone Linking, I tried and failed, loosing connection with the MS600. I assumed it was network traffic (MS600 connected using AE) so I hard wired the MS600 and it then seemed to work fine.

Tintin