Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
785
Seems like good advice.
And, just to be clear, pandering to users afflicted with ocular fixations, who always have to be looking at some huge TV screen, is not enhanced functionality to my way of thinking. Though I could see arguments on the other side, related to the mystical ineffable “SQ”.
I’m still disappointed in this release, because some major areas have yet to be addressed:
On-the-go music. What’s the solution for hiking or driving?
Better metadata. The metadata currently provided is both extremely weak (compared to what comes with CDs these days) and kind of stale. The support for box sets and classical is appallingly poor. The new focus on artists appearances is perhaps another instance of the pandering to ocular fixations I mentioned above, though I do understand that many rock and pop artists exploit exactly that focus to stand out. And perhaps fans of those kinds of music enjoy seeing them. Though personally if I never see any pictures of any of the members of Fleetwood Mac again, it would be a blessing and a mercy. Anyway, I think it’s a wrong direction to take.
Better lyrics. Support for the user’s LYRICS tag would be great, but Roon seems to be (wisely, I guess, from a business point of view) moving away from hand-curated collections of digital music towards the great on-rush of streaming services. I do realize how hard this is, with all the various copyright and rights management problems, but I dream that someday Roon will be able to do something others thought impossible!
The UI changes seem to be something of a misstep (though no doubt well-intentioned) but overall minor (to me). The Qubuz integration is still a non-factor for me, as I live in California. Ditto the “new radio”, as I don’t subscribe to either Tidal or Qobuz; even if I did, I’m not sure my tastes would match those of the great mass of subscribers – remains to be seen, I suppose.
Just a note that my CCA Roon player just cut out on me because I opened another laptop elsewhere in the house; first time in six months of Roon I’ve had that kind of problem.
The “intelligent” version of Roon Radio works only if a Tidal or Qobuz account is linked to Roon. Though it won’t play Tidal/Qobuz tracks, it will at least play locally stored tracks picked by means of the “intelligent” algorithms. Without the linked account, you only get the “dumb” version of Roon Radio.
For my laptop and Android tablet, I am in the camp of NOT liking the new UI.
But on my Samsung S7 Phone, it is as you said great.
What is even better on the Phone, is the Album Art is physically bigger than my other bigger devices.
Interesting. Do you feel like you’re getting better selections from your local library using this method? My understanding is that the 1.6 Radio algorithm is really premised on having the Tidal and/or Qobuz library to select from.
Agree with this observation, from what I see on over a hundred and fifty favourites and purchases, those few where roon has assigned different metadata for the title are seen as separate / duplicate which makes sense. For e.g. almost every album with something like “XXX Live” on the title sleeve, the link gets broken when I use Roon’s metadata, which typically is the whole thing rather than just ‘Live’ often used in Qobuz’ tagging.
Using it just for 2 days now but already really like this new release. Qobuz integration is the best thing to come to roon in my view so I’m really happy with this… even more integration would be welcome eg localized reviews&bios and inclusion of "Panoramas on the overview screen…
I see a lot of critique on the new elements added like the now playing screen. Well I like the direction roon is taking but more work is still needed as the over-all design is no longer consistent across all screens.
Light mode is my preferred view so the new footer color is not that big an issue but I even found the old one to big so the added size only make it worse…
I never use radio ( real radio yes ) just not the roon-kind so updates in this area are of little importance to me.
With the new search we do get a sense of what vertical scrolling will look like it seems…
I talked about my dislike of excessive delineation of sections. Of course, the Now Playing page which was my go9d example is also a bad example when looking at text:
Why do we want white text on black background? Aside from the esthetics (and eye strain) of the negative colors — I chose the Light theme for a reason! — this serves to delineate the sections, the text from the bottom part. Heavy-handed.
Yes, if that was inverted, the white background album cover would blend in. Do we need to fix that? Don’t think so. I sometimes have the Economist lying on top of the New York Times, both white, doesn’t cause a problem. It’s true, in that situation the Economist casts a drop shadow which helps separate them visually, if ne essay we could do a minimal drop shadow.
If you don’t wish to pay to a streaming service and rent music (Almost all the music on earth at your fingertips) you have to buy music at £10 a CD new or pre owned bargains. At some point we all have to pay. Music isn’t free
No, not to have to pay for music access. What seems unfair is to have to pay more (from $12/month to $32/month) for a Roon feature that, as per @brian, is entirely run/administered on Roon resources. I’m perfectly fine not having access to the tracks I don’t own/store locally. I want the improved Roon Radio algorithm to be applied to my library. Removing the tidal credentials removes the improved Roon Radio - it reverts to the previous, “dumb” Roon Radio (significantly worse than the “intelligent” version).
Like I said above, it’s not about access to music. It’s about access to a Roon feature. I’m fine with not being able to play the tracks the algorithm picks from Tidal. One caveat: if I have that track, but Roon designates it as a Tidal track (as some folks here are complaining of), that’s objectionable.
The Roon feature needs a huge library to work correctly, they explained this. On a local library I am told it would be worse.
This means, practically, you can only take part if you subscribe. It’s just how it works.
