Mede8er Music Jukebox User Guide

High Definition Multimedia Players

Music Jukebox User Guide

Based on V2.0.7 - 2 May 2012

Updated 8 May 2012

Introducing the Mede8er Music Jukebox for X2 series

After the incredible success or the V2 Movie Jukebox the boys at Mede8er felt that it was time to offer a Music Jukebox that would work with multi-codec music collections and across home networks. We are proud to state that this dream has been achieved and we are sure that you will get much pleasure from this new functionality. As the Jukebox relies on the embedded Music files 'Tag' information and correct image sizing for its functionality, we feel that it is critical that you spend the time to correctly Tag your music collection. Please read this this User Guide for correct Music Jukebox operation.

X2 -- MED400X2 / MED450X2 / MED500X2

The latest Firmware can be found here

Demo Videos

Music Jukebox Demo

Saving Playlists Demo

Demo Collection (10sec / track)

You can download this Demo to check the Jukebox functionality (It is complete with music.db so no need to scan it - Just make a Favourite Link and make sure you turn the Jukebox View 'on' in the Setup Menu)

Music_demo_final_28_feb2012

Music Jukebox Features

Direct MP3 Scan

Supports mp3, OGG, Monkey's Audio, Flac, AAC, wma, m4a files when scanned with Tagscanner

Works on local drives and Network shares

Displays Tag information in the Music Player

Screensaver with Album Artwork

QPL (Quick Play List) Function

Make and Save Mede8er m3u Playlists on the GUI

Supports Playlist Creator 3 - 'Non extended information' m3u Playlists

Search Album Year

Search Artist by drop list or Text input

Search Genre

Search Track Keyword

Supports .cue files play function (Album based)

Large collections supported +- 40 000 tracks

Supports the Auto View function

Easy Drop List selection with Right / Left Nav Alpha Jump

Results filtered by Album or Title option

Easy Setup for Multiple Music Jukeboxes

iTunes DRM m4a not supported

WMA DRM and advanced profile not supported

	Basic MP3 direct Scanner Operation
		This is not a general scanner like the default Realtek included on the Home Page so note that the Music collection cannot be mixed with Video content so please separate these. Navigate to the root folder of your Music Collection and press the 'Menu' button and select the option 'Add to Favourites'. Press the 'Blue' button on the remote to go to the Favourite page. On the Favourite page select the Icon Shortcut of the Music Collection you just made and press the 'Menu' button and select the 'Scan Folder' Option - the firmware will automatically detect the music files and then scan all the MP3 tags and build a music.db (music database) file and save it to the root folder of your collection. All non MP3 tags will be ignored. Your Music Collection can be in a nested folder arrangement. Approx scanning time = 48 sec /1000 tracks
	Multi Codec Scanner Operation
		This is not a general scanner like the default Realtek included on the Home Page so note that the Music collection cannot be mixed with Video content so please separate these. A free Windows PC program called Tagscanner together with a special Mede8er Script Update script Sort Albums by Artist is used to scan the music collection and to export the Tag information to a file named TrackList.xml. Once you have installed Tagscanner then download the Mede8er Script and copy it to the 'Script' folder in Tagscanner ie C:\Program Files\tagscan5.1.610\scripts If you cannot get Tagscanner to install for some reason you can try the Portable Version Remember you still need to install the Mede8er Script. Tagscanner User Manual by Narayan Aras Once you have completed using Tagscanner to tag and arrange your music collection you must export the tag information to a file called Tracklist.xml. Go to 'List Maker' page in Tagscanner and select 'ALL' the files in your scanned collection and then select the Mede8er script on the right hand side and then select 'export' . The Tracklist.xml will be saved to the root of your Music Collection. In X2 GUI Navigate to the root folder of your Music Collection and press the 'Menu' Button and select the option 'Add to Favourites'. Press the Blue button on the remote to go to the Favourite page. On the Favourite page select the Icon Shortcut of the Music Collection you just made and press the 'Menu' button and select the 'Scan Folder' Option - the firmware will automatically detect the Tracklist.xml file and then scan it and build a music.db (music database) file and save it to the root folder of your collection. Your Music Collection can be in a nested folder arrangement. Approx scanning time = 20 sec /1000 tracks Tagscanner is a very powerful Music Tag editing program (the best in our opinion) written by Sergey Serkov and it will allow you to arrange/tag and clean up your music collection in order to get the best out of the Mede8er Jukebox. Sergey has put huge effort in developing and maintaining this program. We therefore strongly suggest you make some financial contribution for his efforts on the Tagscanner Website.

Root of Collection

The 'Root' of the music collection is the folder that will be scanned and linked to the Favourites Page

The music collection 'Root' will contain the Tracklist.xml (if used), Music.db and m3u files eg

Music Collection <------------------ Root Folder

Music Collection/Music Folder1

Music Collection/Music Folder2

Music Collection/Music Folder3

etc

Music Collection/TrackList.xml

Music Collection/Music.db

Music Collection/Playlist1.m3u

Music Collection/Playlist2.m3u

etc

Tagscanner Screens

Music Renamer -- Copy Music Tag info to Filename

2
Tag Editor -- Edit the Music tag information

3
Tag Processor --

A) Get Tag Data from Online Source

B) Generate Tag from Filename

C) Tag Fields Mixer

D) Text File to Tag

4
Export XML file

Music Box Sets / Double Albums

For Music Box Sets or Double Albums you have two options

a) Different 'Album' name for each CD (each CD in their own folder)

b) Same 'Album' name for all tracks (tracks for all Albums in one folder)

& insert a prefix in the 'Filename' for each CD

eg 1- xxxxxx 2- xxxxx for the sorting order.

	Album Artist Field
		To avoid the database mixing up the same Album name by different Artists we suggest you use the 'AlbumArtist' tag Another advantage of using the 'Albumartist' tag is that the Artist will be displayed after the Album name on the 'All' page and any Album based page.

Mixed Artist in a Album

For mixed Artists in a Album you must add 'Various' (or whatever name you want) to the 'AlbumArtist' tag for each track. If you do not then each Track will become a Album.

	Embedded Album Art
		IMPORTANT: If you are using embedded art it should be optimized otherwise the V2 GUI can be very slow. We suggest you use Tagscanner to Batch your collection A) Open Tagscanner Setup and Select the TAG's option and change the settings as foll 1. Coverart Filename -----> folder 2. Custom size of covers --------> 230 x230 Quality 85% B) On the Tagscanner GUI select the custom image option and it will display 230x230(Custom) C) Scan your collection with Tagscanner and select all the files and select 'Save' and Tagscanner will resize all the embedded images. The preferred method is to use a image named folder.jpg in each folder. The folder.jpg will take priority over embedded art and will also show on the Screensaver. Ideal image size is 230 x 230 pixels at 72 dpi in jpg format saved with compression setting of 85%. a) For easy Batch processing we suggest a free program called Fastone Photo Resizer b) For normal image manipulation, correct aspect ratio cropping and resizing of the folder.jpg we suggest a free program called Photoscape Photoscape demo
	Suggested 'Filename' naming convention
		We suggest you use the following 'Filename' naming convention (This is not compulsory but suggested) a) Normal Albums %track% - %title% b) Double Albums / Box Sets 1 - %track% - %title% 2 - %track% - %title% You can use Tagscanner 'Music Renamer' function to do this. Note you must firstly make sure that all the Tag Info is updated and correct before you do the Filename renaming.
	Arranging your collection
		Your collection can be located on your local Hard Drive, USB Drive or Network Share. The advantage of using a Network share is that you can access one central collection with multiple Mede8er's thus making it ideal for a Multi-Room setup. If you have a big music collection it makes sense to split it up into main categories. This gives you the advantage of being able to better manage your collection in smaller bits as you can still scan the total collection with the added advantage of separate separate shortcut links on the Favourite Page So in this example you would have a main folder with sub folders eg Music Backup_all Music Backup_all/Flac Music Backup_all/Hits_etc Music Backup_all/Music You can make a Favourite shortcut link to each of these folders.

Favourite Links and Scanning

Before you can 'Scan' a folder you must add it to the Favourite Page. Navigate to the Folder in the Media Library and focus on the folder you want to add and then press the 'Menu' button on the remote and select the option 'Add to Favourites'. The Favourite link will be created and if successful a confirmation 'tick' will be displayed top left of the screen. If you get a 'x' then it means the link already exists or the link cannot be made.

Press the 'Blue' button on the remote to go to the Favourite Page. Focus on the Favourite Shortcut and press the 'menu' button and you see options

Scan Folder	- Scan the folder to make a Mede8er database (Music.db).
Remove	- Remove the Favourite Link. This option just removes the link and does not delete the source files.
Genre	- Change the default folder image into a Genre artwork image for the Favourite Link.
Lock	- Lock the Favourite Link so that it is Pin Code Protected.
Unlock	- Unlock a 'Locked' Favourite Link.

If you get a warning message "Set NAS to 'off' for Scan" then you must first switch 'off' the NAS function in the Setup Menu and then scan the collection.

Scan Folder

Genre Artwork for Favourite Shortcuts

Set NAS to 'off' for Scan

Using the Music Jukebox

Setup ------> Misc ------> Set 'JukeBox View' to 'on'

AutoView - We suggest you set this to 'on'

Select a Favourite Shortcut Icon and press 'Enter' ------> the Music Database will be imported and opened.

Press the 'Menu' button

Search options

All	- Display all Albums
Genre	- Drop list of all Genre Tags in the Collection
Year	- Drop list of all Years in the Collection
Album	- Drop List of all Albums in the Collection
Artist	- Drop List of all Track Artists in the Collection
Search Track	- Keyword Track search by text input on Virtual Keyboard / MEDX2KEY USB Wireless Keyboard
Search Genre	- Genre Search by text input on Virtual Keyboard / MEDX2KEY USB Wireless Keyboard
Search Artist	- Artist Search by text input on Virtual Keyboard / MEDX2KEY USB Wireless Keyboard
Search Album	- Album and AlbumArtist Search by text input on Virtual Keyboard / MEDX2KEY USB Wireless Keyboard
Playlist	- List of all Mede8er Playlists in the collection

Search Function

In order to perform a 'Search' function from the 'menu' button you must exit the Music Player by

pressing the 'Return' button on the remote.

Alpha Jump

To jump to a Alpha character in the Drop List ie - Genre - Album - Artist

a) Use the 'ABC' buttons on the Remote

b) Use the Left Right Navigation buttons on the Remote

Music Player Page Jump

Use the Left Right Navigation buttons to jump to the next or previous page in the Music Player

QPL - Quick Play List

The 'Quick Play List' is a easy way to group and play selected Albums or Tracks. The QPL is a one time play facility and will be automatically cancelled one you exit the Music Player. Focus on a Album or Track and press the 'Green' button on the Remote Control and the QPL icon will be added to the Album or Track. To remove a QPL just focus on the Album or Track and press the 'Green' button and the QPL icon will be removed.

Once you are happy with your QPL selection pres the 'Play' button and the QPL list will be loaded and you can now select the first track you want to play and the press 'Enter'.

Saved Playlists

The 'Saved Play List' is a easy way to make a Playlist via the GUI and save it so that it can be played at any time.

Focus on a Album or Track in the order you want them saved and press the 'Green' button on the Remote Control and the QPL icon will be added to the Album or Track. To remove a QPL just focus on the Album or Track and press the 'Green' button and the QPL icon will be removed.

Once you are happy with your Playlist selection press the 'Menu' button and the screen will open and you will see a option 'Save Playlist'. Select this option and a text dialogue screen will open allowing you to rename the Playlist. The Playlist will be saved to the 'Root' folder of your collection.

To play a saved playlist press the 'Menu' button and select the Playlist option and all available Playlists will be listed.

Making Mede8er compatible m3u Playlist with Playlist Creator 3

Download and install Playlist Creator 3

Setup

Extended Information -- Uncheck the option ' Write extended information'

Playlist Details -- Select 'Relative and 'Use Forward Slash instead of back slashes'

Make your Playlist and save it to the 'Root' folder of your Music Collection in m3u format.

Album Art on Music Jukebox Screensaver

If you use a folder.jpg image in each folder with max size of 250 x 250 pixel (recommended size is 230 x 230 pixel) it will be used in the Screensaver together with Album Tag information. For normal image manipulation, correct aspect ratio cropping and resizing of the folder.jpg we suggest a free program called Photoscape

Photoscape demo

11
Add to Jukebox

MP3 scan only

The V2 Jukebox has a facility that enables you to add Albums to a pre scanned collection. If you are adding multiple Albums the easiest way would be to make a new folder with a date eg 'new_6March2012' and copy your new Albums into this folder. Now focus on the new folder 'new_6March2012' and press the 'Menu' button and select the option 'Add to Jukebox' . The new Albums will be added to the data base.

Tracklist.xml

For Tracklist.xml it is probably a lot easier to just do a rescan. For those who want the facility you can follow these instructions. Make a new folder eg 'new' and copy your new Albums into this folder. Open Tagscanner and browse to this folder 'new' and scan it and then export a Tracklist.xml. Now in the X2 Media Library navigate to the 'new' folder and focus on it then press the 'Menu' button and select the option 'Add to Jukebox' . The new Albums will be added to the data base. Now copy the contents of the folder 'new' to the root folder.

12
Music Fan Art

Make a Fan Art image 1280 x 720 pixels in jpg format called 'fanart.jpg' and copy it to a Album folder. The image will then be automatically used as the backdrop when playing the Album.

13
Shuffle / Random Play

Next/Previous Track function is supported in Shuffle/Random Play mode in the Music Jukebox but you cannot use Shuffle/Random Play and then try to select some other track to play as it is Data Base driven and the Tag Info will go out of sequence. If you want to play some other track when in Shuffle/Random Play mode then you must firstly select the 'All' mode on the Repeat button and then select the Track. Also if you want to change back to Shuffle/Random Play mode you need to start at Track1 and then select it.