Here are Twonky 5/6 trees to suit larger music collections
Posted: Sat May 01, 2010 8:21 pm
Hi
Edit (25th March 2014): Please note that the current trees can be downloaded from the Linn news server (post with links, here). When I get a free moment, I will change the links in this post to point directly to the download files.
Twonky 5.1.xx and 6.0.xx Enhanced Music Menu
(Below post totally re-written on 22 Dec 2011)
I have created some bespoke menus for Twonky. These were originally to address the shortfall caused by Twonky dropping the custom music tree settings option from the web interface, but once I had looked into how it could be done, I soon found that it was possible to exceed the functionality previously available in Twonky 4's trees. The new trees contain a simple main menu (to access Artists, Albums, etc) and have more complex features in the sub menus. As an example of this, you can now navigate using paths like genre/composer/album or genre/composer/artist. What that means (as long as your tagging is in good order) is that you can select the classical genre, then show a list of composers from your classical collection, whilst not showing all the ones from the other genres; it acts as a filter (see more at end on genre tagging).
There are two basic size categories of tree; one to suit medium to large music collections (say, a few hundred to many thousands of albums) and another to suit folks with smaller collections (only a few hundred albums). The exact changeover point really depends on the capabilities of your control point and the software you are running on it. The advantage of the trees for larger collections is that they keep the list sizes down and enable faster navigation. This can significantly speed up the performance on slower control points, but I find that over a certain number of albums, it enhances the experience even on faster devices (like iPad based control points); it just makes things more manageable.
For each type of size category of tree, there are two choices; one is suited to folks who have populated their album artist tags and another for folks who haven't done so, so that means there are now 4 completely different tree packs to choose from and thus there should hopefully be one to suit most folks!
I will not send everyone to sleep writing up the instructions on how to use them; that's best found out by using them! As I mentioned, the basic containers (like Album) are pretty straight forward, but below shows some of the more complex navigation routes now possible:
The below shows the main menus for the two trees; on the left is the main menu of the one best suited to folks who have not used the albumartist tags, and to the right is the main menu for the tree suited to folks who have populated their albumartist tags (these are actually from the ones suited to large collections, but the trees better suited to smaller collections have the same main menus as are shown below):
The below shows how you could navigate to an album from the -Album Artists- menu:
The below shows one of the more 'complex' routes available (the one mentioned in the first paragraph):
The latest trees are downloadable from page two, but to save navigating to there, you can also download them directly from the below links:
Which tree pack to choose:
Medium to Large Music Collections (alpha-grouped trees):
Folks with large music collections and who do use the albumartist tags, use 2012_AlbumArtist.zip
Folks with large music collections but who do not use the album artist tags, use 2012_ArtistOnly.zip
Small Music Collections (ungrouped trees):
Folks with small music collections and who do use the albumartist tags, use 2012_Ungrouped_AlbumArtist.zip
Folks with small music collections but who do not use the album artist tags, use 2012_Ungrouped_ArtistOnly.zip
Full instructions (and pictures) of how to install them with the Qnap Twonky QPKG can be found here on the Linn forum.
There are iPad screen shots of the main menu for albumartist tree as viewed on Songbook DS and Chorus DS control points; see here.
Multiple genres in Twonky
Note that in Twonky, you can create entries under more than one genre. You do that by using a comma to separate the entries. By that, what I mean is that if I tagged an album as below (using MP3TAG or equivalent):
Classical,Classical - Piano,Chilled,High Resolution
Then it would appear under all four of the below genres:
Chilled
Classical
Classical - Piano
High Resolution
Note there should be no spaces between the genre entries.
Bri
Edit (25th March 2014): Please note that the current trees can be downloaded from the Linn news server (post with links, here). When I get a free moment, I will change the links in this post to point directly to the download files.
Twonky 5.1.xx and 6.0.xx Enhanced Music Menu
(Below post totally re-written on 22 Dec 2011)
I have created some bespoke menus for Twonky. These were originally to address the shortfall caused by Twonky dropping the custom music tree settings option from the web interface, but once I had looked into how it could be done, I soon found that it was possible to exceed the functionality previously available in Twonky 4's trees. The new trees contain a simple main menu (to access Artists, Albums, etc) and have more complex features in the sub menus. As an example of this, you can now navigate using paths like genre/composer/album or genre/composer/artist. What that means (as long as your tagging is in good order) is that you can select the classical genre, then show a list of composers from your classical collection, whilst not showing all the ones from the other genres; it acts as a filter (see more at end on genre tagging).
There are two basic size categories of tree; one to suit medium to large music collections (say, a few hundred to many thousands of albums) and another to suit folks with smaller collections (only a few hundred albums). The exact changeover point really depends on the capabilities of your control point and the software you are running on it. The advantage of the trees for larger collections is that they keep the list sizes down and enable faster navigation. This can significantly speed up the performance on slower control points, but I find that over a certain number of albums, it enhances the experience even on faster devices (like iPad based control points); it just makes things more manageable.
For each type of size category of tree, there are two choices; one is suited to folks who have populated their album artist tags and another for folks who haven't done so, so that means there are now 4 completely different tree packs to choose from and thus there should hopefully be one to suit most folks!
I will not send everyone to sleep writing up the instructions on how to use them; that's best found out by using them! As I mentioned, the basic containers (like Album) are pretty straight forward, but below shows some of the more complex navigation routes now possible:
The below shows the main menus for the two trees; on the left is the main menu of the one best suited to folks who have not used the albumartist tags, and to the right is the main menu for the tree suited to folks who have populated their albumartist tags (these are actually from the ones suited to large collections, but the trees better suited to smaller collections have the same main menus as are shown below):
The below shows how you could navigate to an album from the -Album Artists- menu:
The below shows one of the more 'complex' routes available (the one mentioned in the first paragraph):
The latest trees are downloadable from page two, but to save navigating to there, you can also download them directly from the below links:
Which tree pack to choose:
Medium to Large Music Collections (alpha-grouped trees):
Folks with large music collections and who do use the albumartist tags, use 2012_AlbumArtist.zip
Folks with large music collections but who do not use the album artist tags, use 2012_ArtistOnly.zip
Small Music Collections (ungrouped trees):
Folks with small music collections and who do use the albumartist tags, use 2012_Ungrouped_AlbumArtist.zip
Folks with small music collections but who do not use the album artist tags, use 2012_Ungrouped_ArtistOnly.zip
Full instructions (and pictures) of how to install them with the Qnap Twonky QPKG can be found here on the Linn forum.
There are iPad screen shots of the main menu for albumartist tree as viewed on Songbook DS and Chorus DS control points; see here.
Multiple genres in Twonky
Note that in Twonky, you can create entries under more than one genre. You do that by using a comma to separate the entries. By that, what I mean is that if I tagged an album as below (using MP3TAG or equivalent):
Classical,Classical - Piano,Chilled,High Resolution
Then it would appear under all four of the below genres:
Chilled
Classical
Classical - Piano
High Resolution
Note there should be no spaces between the genre entries.
Bri