Yes. This isn’t end of the world stuff. I get it. Bottom line is the preferred screen was removed and they’ve promised to put it back. I’m still using Roon and love it. It has changed the way I enjoy it and that’s why I anxiously await a fix.
1 Like
Seriously. This is the kind of stuff I don’t even notice - it’s almost literally invisible to me.
So long as I press “play” and music comes out, everything else is pretty much superfluous 
PS - I can’t even with anyone who’d prefer JRiver’s UI over Roon, even with the current (apparently) completely FUBAR “now playing” screen. LOL.
1 Like
Thing is, this isn’t about bugs - my wife is a software project manager at MS so I’ve heard all about bugs - but about some really poor (in many’s opinion) design decisions. Which leave many of us scratching our heads about the future direction Roon is heading in. Hopefully they start to find a better balance between the under the hood tech and the overall user design.
Also, roon’s ui is obviously superior to jriver. It’s one of the reasons I switched to roon.
But I gave up cd ripping, file tagging, library file maintenance, superior and more advanced playlist operation, file conversion, DLNA, mobile sync, etc. And I pay a LOT more for roon.
1 Like
I meant stupid as in figure of speech, as in “what’s the big deal”
@brian , is part of this play now re-design to change the color of the bottom grey bar, which is making seeing the amplitudes/oscilloscope very difficult right now - not enough contrast?
Thanks,
Goran
Which is something you’ve configured by adding in LAST.FM; it is not the base screen that anyone who just loads the software will get.
Yes, but I can do that in JRiver. It has infinitely customizable displays.
It doesn’t change dynamically with the next track. I can also get this art by getting off the couch and pulling out the vinyl and displaying the cover for all my friends. But no one would consider that the same as an automated now playing screen. (But I do agree that stopping usage is an extreme response.)
Can’t say this is more important than nuclear disarmament. But within the boundaries of music as a hobby, how one listens to music, and what accompanies it - be it liquor, incense, friends and guests, visual displays, etc., can be very important to a user.
Case in point: check out the massive number of posts of photos of people’s audio systems and their Roon implementation. Other than mine, which is a jangly mess of wires and whatever important mail I got yesterday that I don’t want to read yet, each and every one of them is a carefully laid out, beautiful display of product design and a representation of the tastes and pride of the owners. People pay thousands on top of just the mere functional elements of each audio component for their looks. Many here have discussed the price of Roon in relation to audio components. Imagine if, one day, you walked into your listening room and the manufacturers of your prized beautiful components had (somehow, magically) changed their appearance for the worse? Would you chirp about that?
Not having album cover display is similar. People want what they want and pay a pretty penny for it in Roon. Combined with the fact that it was already there, and it is IMHO the single most obvious thing to display in relation to a track playing, and you just have to scratch your head and wonder how the heck that made it out of the sprint planning session.
Roon already has its core eccentricities – no folder browse, no drag and drop play, no recognition of custom embedded metatags – and there is only so many of those oddities you can have before you push your product into a niche of a niche. I haven’t stopped using Roon because of the album art issue…and I have really enjoyed 1.6 in many facets. But I get where people are coming from. They paid for something, it worked, then it didn’t, and there really is no explanation and no need.
Roon could just do a release adding cover art - this being such an extreme case of “oops that was a boneheaded decision.” Seems like that could have happened in a few days, and while I can live with it, I see the point of view of those who are less patient.
EDIT: case in point - while my overall audio system is a pile of stuff, I actually purchased several LCD displays and an HDMI matrix so as to be able to display visualizations on one screen, album art on another, and the artist display on another. You can argue with my aesthetic choices, but hopefully you can see why one would be annoyed when a software function that generated a purchase and configuration decision is simply removed without any good reason.
7 Likes
Unless it is a bug, Roon rarely changes and then releases things in a time frame of days.
The Now Playing Album Art screen is not the sole issue being discussed; there are several threads addressing different issues. Having seen Roon’s releases since launch, I think I’m safe to say that the devs would rather take care of a number of those issues at one time rather then fix/release in a piecemeal fashion.
This has happened before but without the forum outrage. Where was the outcry for my beloved Pawmasher interface. 
Loved the Paw Masher but accept Roon is an evolving product and not always in the way I may wish, but in the end…
1 Like
Good point. I hadn’t considered they intended it to be there and for some reason isn’t. I don’t think so, but I cannot definitively say otherwise.
My gut feeling, they got a little lazy with the design in the sense that they fell in love with the chromecast/web display layout, which has the album cover in the smaller inlay (and I do like how it looks as long as the photo crop is OK), then copied that design for the Now Playing screens.
Then, because the album art is in the inlay, they couldn’t come up with a coherent way to display the album art in the big part at the top of the screen without it looking weird also having the album as an inlay…
They could have spent the time programming to have the artist photo in the inlay when the album is the larger image. But didn’t. So they punted and hoped no one would complain. Live and learn for them, ultimately not a big deal (it didn’t destroy my hardware!), but frustrating for those who really care.
No question there.
Remind me? I’m not sure I was ever aware…
1 Like
I agree wholeheartedly with your post. And I’ve been very impatient thinking they would fix this error quickly. I imagine they are bundling a whole slew of fixes. But yeah, the now playing album art should have been fixed quicker IMHO.
1 Like
Yes I get your point, looks are important to people, but giving up a subscription to a streaming service and with that the access to lots of music just because your player has changed it’s looks makes me wonder hard if people are actually listen to music at all.
1 Like
Sure of course. I’d bet this is an exaggerated response to make a point.
And just to be clear, as I said before I’m not dumping roon and uninstalling it or anything. I’m going to stop using it until there’s a new release that fixes the now playing display.
I’m also suspending Tidal until then because I only use it with roon. So fortunately I don’t have to pay for it if I’m not using it, unlike roon.
The dilemma will be if roon doesn’t put out a new release before my subscription runs out. I won’t be able to evaluate a new release without a new subscription, which would be a waste of money if it gets even worse.
Roon is the only reason I had Tidal.
Just to be clear: You are overreacting. The change made was on purpose and not a bug.The change was visual and not functional. The reason I can say you are overreacting is that the display change is not a bug and does not affect using Roon. It will be changed so large album art is available again. There was never a reason to believe that this change would happen quickly.
The way it looks from the outside is that you are having a tantrum and are going to punish Roon for making this change and won’t use Roon again until they fix it.
Are you are going to do this with every change you don’t like in the future??
3 Likes
Didn’t say it was a bug. But I guess you could infer that from me saying I would wait for a “fix.”
Anyway, it’s not a tantrum or an overreaction to say I won’t use a product that is annoying or frustrating or does not meet expectations.
This is a feedback thread. That was my feedback. I have given positive feedback and kudos in the past, even in this thread. Hope to be able to again in the future.
1 Like