Proposed change to search for future BluOS
I find the search method in 4x more cumbersome than 3x. As it now stands one must select the service to search first then enter search criteria. Even if, as Andrew H. has stated elsewhere, the selection is made sticky (which it is not currently), the necessity of choosing a service (Library, TuneIn, Streaming Service) adds an additional step to what could be a straightforward process.
I propose that search might operate as follows: 1) Enter search criteria 2) press return or the seach button depending on which platform is being used 3) Search results are returned from all services that are activated for a user, so Library and Tidal and TuneIn for example.
Search for Bach or The Beatles or The Beastie Boys and get results for whatever service has them. Just my 2¢.
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Official comment
Not a bad place to put a formal request :)
We're reading and taking feedback out of the BluOS 4.0 release to keep making the product better and better. Ian has hit the nail on the head here, in that 4.0 is the foundation for the future.
Search is always a hot topic. It was a huge discussion point for definition, develop, and beta testing. We like where we're at with Search now compared to where we were, but know there's still room to improve it. One thing I don't love about how it's functioning right now is that Search isn't 'following' my browse. What I mean is, if I'm over in the Home screen browsing Tidal content and then I decide to go search something, clicking on the Search tab doesn't automatically start in a Tidal search. It starts with searching whatever service or library I searched last.
Universal search (described as the Sonos way above) is one direction we could move still. But I think something closer to what we have now, with better UI/visuals on the Search tab, and improved 'logic' for how you're actually using the app could actually be the most effective method for BluOS users. Always welcome more input on this...
Anyway, more to come. I'd encourage you to use Search a bit as it is, just to get used to it, because part of the issue is simply the learning/change from previous BluOS versions.
Thanks all!
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+1
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Yeah, I agree with this. Hate to say this, but just look at how Sonos search works. You can search by Artists, Songs, Albums, Playlists, Stations, Genres, Podcasts & Shows, and Composers. Search criteria is executed across all connected services and summary results are displayed grouped by service (and there is an option to go into full details for earch service).
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Unless Sonos has the patent for cross search, that is the way to go.
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I'm, perhaps, more conservative in my approach, but if I'm listening to music from my library and if I instigate a search, I just want as many results from my library as possible instead of having smaller lists from all services, none of which matter to me at the time apart from the library.
This is probably a reflection of differences in devices and usages. My Vault 2 is, for me, primarily the means through which I listen to ripped and downloaded music that's stored on it. My only other regular usage is to play stuff from YouTube streamed from my phone or iPad via a Bluetooth connection.
I also don't subscribe to any streaming services but, if I did, I'd just expect to search the service that I was using.
Others might correct me, but from a technical perspective, I suspect that the data storage changes, software changes, and additional processing power required to modify the Search function as suggested might all be huge.
It's also worth remembering that one can't just add memory or upgrade the processor in a Node or Vault to enable it to perform more demanding and complex processes. Give it more complex and demanding tasks to perform and it will slow down. This would mean that we'd have to start treating Bluesound devices like mobile phones, i.e. spend loads of money all the time on the latest model instead of making a one-time purchase.
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It really isn't that hard. From a search function perspective, your Vault 2 library is just another connected service/endpoint. If that's the only thing you have configured then that's the only thing that gets searched. If you have multiple connected services (say a Vault 2 library plus a couple of streaming services) then they all get searched and your library gets prioritised at the top of the search results. It would also be very easy to have a setting that allows us to specify which service(s) should be priritised in search results or even which ones should be searched or not.
None of this would require much additional storage or processing power, it's all pretty basic functionality. Yes, the search would have to trigger multiple APIs at the same time for respective services (each one potentially having slightly different calling requirements), and then collate results but, again, this is pretty basic stuff. As I mentioned in my previous post, Sonos does this very effectively and it's been there for years. Given how long the BluOS V4 dev cycle was I am disappointed that search is as rudimentary as it is. It just doesn't align with 'bring all your music together' philosophy.
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Then maybe V4 is intended to provide the right foundation upon which to build such functionality.
(I get the sense that, underneath, V4 is a fundamental rewrite of some core software but little else at this time, thus making it an enabler for future enhancements.)
Just speculating..... :)
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@ Ian
Search results could be prioritized so Library > Streaming Sevices > TuneIn results show up in order.
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This is starting to sound like a self-propelled requirements gathering process. :)
We already have an overall requirement plus more detail about how to display search results.
Obviously, some GUI design changes would also be needed to support the display of search results from multiple sources, but that's software development for you.
Has anyone formally logged a request for this? If not, then perhaps @Brian could consider doing this. That would get this formally onto Bluesound's radar.
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I'm not aware of a formal request procedure other than posting here.
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Can you just give me a 'search all' alongside the specific options ? That would be great. Or.maybe 'search yours' where I can define what 'yours' means in settings e.g tidal and.library.
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I use a streaming service, at the moment Deezer. I don't have any libraries. All I want with search is from within Deezer. When I'm using Deezer, I just want albums or artists, within the Deezer library. Why do I have go out of Deezer, to search for that?
I have not upgraded to 4.0 yet.
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... and here is how it's done in the newly updated HEOS app:
https://youtu.be/NiLcExhcqoA?si=xEFHkjdrteM0x4pT&t=235
Global search across all services and user library. Just like I described it above. If Bluesound wanted to retain the existing approach whereby a user has to select the search context first (e.g. Tidal, Spotify, Qobuz, etc) they could simply add another option - 'All' - to the existing dropdown, which would search across all connected services. If this option is remembered (as it is now) this could be the best of both worlds as the search context would always default to the user's preferred setting.
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That looks great! And shows how archaic BluOS is :(
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Unfortunately I did upgrade to 4 and now have problems, Amazon search does not work most of the time.
Search should be really easy, if I'm in say Tidal, I should be able to search within Tidal for music.
Crazy to have to leave the service, to search for music, then select the service, you were in and go back into it.
Why does Amazon have a split of Amazon Music and My Music?
What is My Music? Hardly anything in there.
If I go into Amazon Music, there is nothing I use there, Playlists, Recommended Music, New, My Music etc. Why is there not a search function there?
There are alot complaints from users about this change, people are baffled by how this has been designed.
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Hi, we have a Valt I. Does anyone know if there is a way to setup the controller so that artists and composers are sorted alphabetically by last name rather than the first name? I can’t find a way in the controller to change sorting preferences.
Thanks.
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There's probably a good reason for this and it relates to metadata. Are you familiar with the concept of metadata?
For now, it might be sufficient to say that Artist Name data as stored in FLAC files is stored as a single string of characters, and the exact format of that string will normally depend upon the choice made by the person who created the data in the first place.
You might find "The Beatles" on some tracks, and "Beatles, The" on other tracks.
You might find "Hall and Oates", "Hall & Oates", "Daryl Hall and John Oates", "Daryl Hall & John Oates", "Hall, Daryl / Oates, John" on different tracks.
You might find "Stevie Wonder" and "Wonder, Stevie".
"The Isley Brothers", "Isley Brothers, The", "Isley Brothers".
Etc. etc.
On some compilation albums, you might find "Various", or "Various Artists", or even "Several" as the Artist Name on all tracks, with the artist listed in the title field alongside the track title, e.g. "Marvin Gaye / What's Going On".
You might even find a featured artist listed in parentheses as part of the song title instead of as part of Artist Name, e.g. "Mad World (feat. Gary Jules)".
In short, the formats are so varied that they're almost unmanageable.
As a consequence, I've spent and continue to spend many happy hours (lol) fixing rubbish track data on my own Vault 2.
Fortunately, the Bluesound search function will find all occurrences of something like "Oates" wherever it occurs.
That's my unofficial answer. :)
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