Lists - Metadata Line - Implement Disc Icon?

[Fitzian]

I have under Settings -> Library -> Lists, Show Track Number in the meta - relevant categories and Show Disc enabled.

For any vinyl rips in my collection, I've decided upon using the disc metadata for vinyl side A, B, C, etc., and track # metadata for the track order on that disc/side.

For example, when viewing track #2 from disc #3's metadata line I see:

♪ 2/3 | 4:13 | flac | 24 bit

Would it not be possible to give the disc metadata its own icon? This is somewhat unclear visually. Is it track 2 of 3? Is it track 2 disc 3? Is it track 3 disc 2?

Even when I change my settings to Show Track Number as Separate number - relevant categories, the disc metadata shown in the line is still granted a ♪ (8th note, grace note, whatever you want to call it) which IMHO is not appropriate for indicating a "disc".

There are unicode characters for an optical disc, such as that shown here (1F5B8)

If this was used, the example metadata line would be like:

♪ 2 | 🖸 3 | 4:13 | flac | 24 bit

Which more clearly indicates all I need to know, without confusion.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Fitzian

[andrewilley]

I think it might be partly a space issue, especially on Compact List view where the metadata already takes up a good chunk of the space on a line which is meant to be showing Artist details. But I agree that 2/3 almost reads like track#2 out of three tracks.

I place track numbers to the left of the album art by the way, which avoids any confusion with disc numbers (but also takes up space of course):

Andre

[Fitzian]

Well I agree that the compact list view is a bit of a stretch for this, my view only shows the track name and then the metadata under an artist's album's songs. Not to mention the icon your display shows is a treble clef whereas mine shows the grace note.

Trying to see album artwork artist names disc track number song length and file type in the compact view is a bit absurd. That's way too much information for that space. Something's got to go and in my case I only see the track name and metadata.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Fitzian

[andrewilley]

It'd be nice to have the metadata content more customisable generally. There are another few threads requesting customisation of the Title and Artist/Album lines in the Player and Song List views (summarised HERE) so perhaps something similar for the meta content at the same time? Basically an easily editable formatting string, which to create what you asked for would look like this: "♪ %track% | 🖸 %disc% | %duration% | %fileformat% | %bitdepth%". So you could build your own wild and wacky info lines, especially if you are using the larger list views.

Andre

[Fitzian]

This would be good (if implemented). At the risk of sounding selfish, I do still think an ad-hoc fix of changing up the UI icon used for disc would fix this more easily. I can just use the separate track number option, but still having a grace note or treble clef denoting a disc is totally incongruous.

[maxmp]

@andrewilley formatting strings for advanced users to change track labels are what I would like to implement rather sooner. This will resolve other label related requests, such as swapping title and album-artist strings.

But it won’t allow editing icons, only unicode symbols, such as 💿

[MotleyG]

1 hour ago, maxmp said:

@andrewilley formatting strings for advanced users to change track labels are what I would like to implement rather sooner. This will resolve other label related requests, such as swapping title and album-artist strings.

But it won’t allow editing icons, only unicode symbols, such as 💿

I really look forward to this change, thanks @maxmp!

[Fitzian]

3 hours ago, maxmp said:

@andrewilley formatting strings for advanced users to change track labels are what I would like to implement rather sooner. This will resolve other label related requests, such as swapping title and album-artist strings.

But it won’t allow editing icons, only unicode symbols, such as 💿

Awesome!

I wasn't looking for icon editing on user's end, just to implement that exact type of unicode symbol where appropriate, thanks!

[andrewilley]

I think by 'icon editing' Max was referring to the little identifier icon to the left of the metadata info, which is not currently part of the text itself but instead is a separate little music-note or treble-clef (skin dependent):

The simplest solution would be for Max to remove it as a stand-alone icon and make it the first character of the metadata string instead, as a Unicode character so it becomes editable if the user wants to.

I created quite a detailed summary post a while ago to collect together all the elements from the various threads asking for customisable Title and Artist/Album lines, which I think covers all the most common requests. I've just added the metadata request to it:

Does this seem to cover all the bases?

The key takes were:

• The master formatting strings for the Top Line, Second Line, and Metadata would be editable in Settings > Library > Lists.
• There would also be formatting strings available in each List Options to optionally override the master strings for each different Category view.
• Square Brackets to denote conditional contents, so if a song has no Album Title or Disc# tag for example, that part could be cleanly omitted. e.g. "[%artist% - %album%]" would be used to indicate that if either or both of the contained tags is empty, the delimiter literal ("<space><hyphen><space>") would not be shown either. Or use "[%track%.  ]%title%" to add track numbers (if present) to the start of the Title line. 
• Several existing Settings could be removed and instead built into these formatting strings as necessary (e.g. the options to insert Track# at start of Title line, or Disc# visibility in the meta line). Also 'Hide Unknown Album' would no longer be needed as it would be handled by the square bracket system instead. On the first install of this new feature, the new formatting strings would be automatically set up to replicate them, then the options can go.  

Andre