Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)
I am running Roon 1.8 build 783 on a Nucleus Plus
Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)
Wired ethernet connection to the Nucleus Plus
Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)
Nucleus Plus connected to my Bryston SP-4 Surround Processor via HDMI.
Description Of Issue
In Roon 1.8 “Show hidden tracks and albums” setting does not work, at least in my setup. It certainly worked properly in Roon 1.7.
I am going to present the major problems this presents in the order in which I originally discovered them. I will also indicate related issues as they come up.
For the record, I do have the “Show hidden tracks and albums” setting set to “Yes”.
I. Home Screen → Recent Activity – Added
Since Roon 1.8, this screen seems to only display the higher resolution version. For example, I recently ripped both the SACD surround layer and the CD layer of Mendelssohn: Complete Chamber Music for Strings Vol. III and only the Surround (DSF 5.0) version appears.
Over the past few days, a couple of very strange things have occurred regarding the above display.
Six days ago I ripped both the DTS 5.1 version and the stereo remaster CD of Al Stewart’s recently released 45th Anniversary box set of “Year of the Cat”. Initially only the DTS 5.1 version showed up and then 3 days later the CD version was displayed as well. Today, only the DTS 5.1 version is displayed.
Also, for some reason the latest Roon Build turned off the “Format”, “Version” and “Dynamic Range” settings in the “Customize Album Display” setting.
II. Composers → [e.g. Gustav Mahler] → Compositions
The listing does not display all the versions I have. Using Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 as an example, I have 23 recordings of this work but only 20 are displayed. Missing are CD versions of SACDs conducted by Ivan Fischer, Michael Tilson Thomas and Manfred Honeck. However, both the SACD and CD versions of SACDs by James Levine and Bruno Walter do appear. All 23 recordings including all the versions appear in Composers → [e.g. Gustav Mahler] → Overview. A random sample suggests that most SACDS and possible other high resolution formats such as DVD Audio/Video and Blu-ray Audio have this problem. This type of problem does not appear to be format or genre specific but is most noticeable in Classical music or Soundtracks where Composition is more important.
There are a number of other problems with the Composition listings.
If you use the Album View, the Format, Version and Dynamic Range is displayed. However, if you go into the Recordings View, this information is not displayed. Unfortunately, at least in my case, I cannot even get it from the title because the title is usually truncated such that the relevant information is cut off. For filing reasons, I put all this information in parentheses or square brackets at the end of the title. For example: Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D Major; Honeck, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra [DSF 2.0]. Thus, even when the different versions are displayed, you don’t know which one is which without going into each album. I believe that at least some of this information was superimposed on the album cover in Roon 1.7. In any case, this information should be displayed on the Recordings View screen somehow.
There is another oddity about the two views that can be explained by using Composers → John Adams → Harmonielehre as an example.
In both cases there are 3 recordings listed but in fact there are actually 5 recordings, 2 of which are SACDs which only have 1 version listed. The weirdness is that in the Album View, all 3 album versions are CD quality (1 CD plus 2 CD layers of SACDs) whereas in the Recordings View, there are 2 DSF 64 versions and 1 CD quality version.
Finally, the sorting function in these views is much worse than in Version 1.7. As it stands now, the only even vaguely useful sort of any kind for classical music is by album title; however, this sort still leaves a lot to be desired because of the inconsistencies in Classical music titles. As a result, different recordings by the same artist or conductor are scattered throughout the list. The most useful sort for classical music is by artist which groups these disparate recordings and makes it easier to search and to browse. As I recall, Version 1.7 had the additional sort options for Artist and for Ensemble. I believe that within Artist, priority was given to Conductor. This worked extremely well and would be a very desirable feature to reinstate.
III. The Library Symbol within an Album
This symbol of course gives you the number of recordings of a work. In the case, of the Mahler example used above Composers → [Gustav Mahler] → Compositions [Symphony No. 1 in D Major → Work/Track within the Album [in this case “Symphony No. 1 in D Major”] the Library symbol lists 23 recordings. However, similar the listings under individual works in the composition view, only 20 of the 23 are displayed.
IV. In Summary
To reiterate, all of the above problems seem to result from the “Show hidden tracks and albums” setting not working properly or at least being applied inconsistently. It is a real mystery to me as to why some albums are hidden and not others. I simply cannot find a pattern to this behaviour.
It is particularly frustrating that in Roon 1.7 all these issues did not exist apart from the inevitable human error that can occur when you have just over 1,000 high resolution discs with potentially more than one layer to rip. Although it would be difficult but not impossible, I do not particularly wish to have to go through each on of these items to see if there is a problem, particularly when one did not exist before. In any case, I am not even sure how to fix the problem even when it is identified. The only solution I can see at this point is to “reidentify” the “hidden versions” by using the file data instead of the Roon metadata. However, then one loses a good part of the Roon experience with reviews, additional information, etc. Even then, I am not sure that this fix would work in all cases.
I can only hope that you can find a way to check and see if there is something wrong with my setup and suggest some remedies. If it is a Roon 1.8 issue, then I hope you can fix it there. Hopefully, you will also consider looking at some of the other problems that I brought up such as the sorts for the Album and Recordings views within the individual Composition listings.
Thank you in advance for your efforts. I hold out some hope that you can help with this as you have vastly improved the Boolean Search function in a relatively short period of time (Kudos are definitely in order).
Jim