Feedback on a great app

[mandrews79]

Hi,

First just want to say that overall this is a great app! Works well out of the box and is easy to use and configure. There are some things I'd like to provide feedback so you can continue to make it better:

1. I'm using JRiver Media Center as the playback device. It supports SMTC in Windows, but for whatever reason, BetterLyrics does not detect the album name nor the duration. I'm wondering specifically what would need to be done to make that work. I posted on their forum to let their developers know about the issue: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,143205.0.html

2. This leads to the overall issue of trying to get accurate lyrics that sync up correctly. I tried grabbing a bunch of lyrics files using the LRCGET tool, but BetterLyrics is hit or miss trying to find the local file. When I click the link to see which file it chose, It often thinks it is a different song within the same album folder, or thinks its a different artist entirely. And yet, if I disable find the local file and just use the online sources, it often finds a better more accurate version. So it seems the local search is not as accurate for whatever reason. But, LRCGET does seem to get more accurate results, so if Betterlyrics could then pull those local file, that would be a better overall experience.

3. When the app does use an accurate lyrics source for a song, oftentimes the timing is off, just a bit, maybe a half second or less. I've tried adjust the timing offset, but it only works for some files, and for many others I would need to set a totally different offset time. I'm wondering if there could be a way to automatically adjust local lyrics files allowing the user in real time via keyboard shortcuts to adjust the lyrics plus or minus until the app perfectly syncs up. I think the problem usually starts and the beginning of the song, and once I change the offset timing, the rest of the song is perfectly synced. If there was a way to automatically update and save the lyrics file in real time based on user input while listening to the song, that would solve a lot of problems.

4. I'm using this on a 4k Samsung QD-OLED television and it looks amazing, but there are a couple of issues. a) The color gradients that move around in the background have a lot of banding in them. I'm not sure why but if they could be of a higher quality to produce smoother color effects, that would be great. b) OLEDs are notorious for burn in. It would be great if there was a way to automatically flip flop the location of the cover art and lyrics from the left to right and vice versa to prevent burn in, essentially a mirror image. Maybe it could be two different layouts that could be controlled via keyboard shortcut, and/or flip flop on start up so that each day I use it, they are opposite of each other. c) Finally it would be great if the cover art could be larger than 400 in the settings. I think it be 600 or higher maybe. There is a lot of empty screen space.

Thanks again for making this great app and I hope you can continue to improve it.

[pratikrath126]

Hey, thanks for taking the time to write such detailed feedback! This is exactly the kind of thoughtful input that helps move a project forward.

On the JRiver SMTC issue: that's a tricky integration point. BetterLyrics relies on system media sessions, and if JRiver's SMTC implementation doesn't expose album/duration correctly, the app can't see it. The JRiver forum thread you linked is a good start—sometimes those implementations need tweaks on their side.

Local lyrics search accuracy is a known pain. The matching algorithm likely uses filename heuristics; fuzzy matching or acoustic fingerprinting could improve it. The offset adjustment idea is solid—having a real-time Learn As You Listen feature that writes back corrections would be awesome.

For OLED burn-in, dynamic layout flipping is clever! Could even store user preference per layout and auto-cycle. And larger cover art (600+) makes sense; maybe make it configurable or dynamic based on screen real estate.

Again, great suggestions! The maintainer will appreciate this actionable list.

[jayfunc]

Thanks for your detailed review.

1. BetterLyrics relies on SMTC, so any software that does not pass all the necessary info to the system will lead to a failure of having a perfect lyrics experience on BetterLyrics. And that is great, you have posted a thread to let them know this issue (kinda).

2. The main algorithm for lyrics matching is powered by Jaro-Winkler. For each comparison, we calculate 4 components: title, artist, album and duration. They have their own weight, and the total score will be the matching quality. I have tried LRCGET. The reason the matching quality isn't as good is that the downloaded lyrics file lacks metadata.

The standard format for LRC file is as follows:

[ar:Chubby Checker oppure  Beatles, The]
[al:Hits Of The 60's - Vol. 2 – Oldies]
[ti:Let's Twist Again]
[au:Written by Kal Mann / Dave Appell, 1961]
[length: 2:23]

[00:12.00]Naku Penda Piya-Naku Taka Piya-Mpenziwe
[00:15.30]Some more lyrics ...
...

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRC_(file_format)

If an LRC file doesn't contain any metadata, the only way to match it is by its filename.

3. Setting the offset for every song needs a change for the database; this is somehow dangerous, so I need to make sure the user experience will remain the same before I take action.

4. I'm not quite sure about saving the life of OLED on this kind of software side, but maybe automatically moving 1 px in one direction and moving back from time to time can be an option?

[mandrews79]

Hi, Thanks for the reply. If there is any other information I can provide to JRiver, please let me know. No response so far, so probably not high on their list of priorities to look at. I don't think moving it 1 pixel would make much difference in that case. If you do end up making any changes to how lyrics are matched locally, please let me know and I'm happy to test. Thanks,Mike On Saturday, 28 February 2026 at 01:03:55 pm GMT-8, Zhe Fang ***@***.***> wrote: Thanks for your detailed review. - BetterLyrics relies on SMTC, so any software that does not pass all the necessary info to the system will lead to a failure of having a perfect lyrics experience on BetterLyrics. And that is great, you have posted a thread to let them know this issue (kinda). - The main algorithm for lyrics matching is powered by Jaro-Winkler. For each comparison, we calculate 4 components: title, artist, album and duration. They have their own weight, and the total score will be the matching quality. I have tried LRCGET. The reason the matching quality isn't as good is that the downloaded lyrics file lacks metadata. The standard format for LRC file is as follows: [ar:Chubby Checker oppure Beatles, The] [al:Hits Of The 60's - Vol. 2 – Oldies] [ti:Let's Twist Again] [au:Written by Kal Mann / Dave Appell, 1961] [length: 2:23] [00:12.00]Naku Penda Piya-Naku Taka Piya-Mpenziwe [00:15.30]Some more lyrics ... ... Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRC_(file_format) If an LRC file doesn't contain any metadata, the only way to match it is by its filename. - Setting the offset for every song needs a change for the database; this is somehow dangerous, so I need to make sure the user experience will remain the same before I take action. - I'm not quite sure about saving the life of OLED on this kind of software side, but maybe automatically moving 1 px in one direction and moving back from time to time can be an option? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[mandrews79]

Hi, JRiver replied back in regards to SMTC. Here is their response: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=143205.msg994281;boardseen#new "There seems to be no way for us to set the Album title so the ones that aren't working might not be found due to an unmatched Artist or Track Title. Implementing the timeline functionality would take some work so we'll think about it. There seems to be no timeline in the default Windows SMTC popup but is there one elsewhere in Windows?" Please let me know if there is any additional information I can provide them that would help. Thanks,Mike On Saturday, 28 February 2026 at 03:23:34 pm GMT-8, NA ***@***.***> wrote: Hi, Thanks for the reply. If there is any other information I can provide to JRiver, please let me know. No response so far, so probably not high on their list of priorities to look at. I don't think moving it 1 pixel would make much difference in that case. If you do end up making any changes to how lyrics are matched locally, please let me know and I'm happy to test. Thanks,Mike On Saturday, 28 February 2026 at 01:03:55 pm GMT-8, Zhe Fang ***@***.***> wrote: Thanks for your detailed review. - BetterLyrics relies on SMTC, so any software that does not pass all the necessary info to the system will lead to a failure of having a perfect lyrics experience on BetterLyrics. And that is great, you have posted a thread to let them know this issue (kinda). - The main algorithm for lyrics matching is powered by Jaro-Winkler. For each comparison, we calculate 4 components: title, artist, album and duration. They have their own weight, and the total score will be the matching quality. I have tried LRCGET. The reason the matching quality isn't as good is that the downloaded lyrics file lacks metadata. The standard format for LRC file is as follows: [ar:Chubby Checker oppure Beatles, The] [al:Hits Of The 60's - Vol. 2 – Oldies] [ti:Let's Twist Again] [au:Written by Kal Mann / Dave Appell, 1961] [length: 2:23] [00:12.00]Naku Penda Piya-Naku Taka Piya-Mpenziwe [00:15.30]Some more lyrics ... ... Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRC_(file_format) If an LRC file doesn't contain any metadata, the only way to match it is by its filename. - Setting the offset for every song needs a change for the database; this is somehow dangerous, so I need to make sure the user experience will remain the same before I take action. - I'm not quite sure about saving the life of OLED on this kind of software side, but maybe automatically moving 1 px in one direction and moving back from time to time can be an option? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[jayfunc]

"There seems to be no timeline in the default Windows SMTC popup" it's true and I believe that there is no one elsewhere in Windows. In Windows App SDK, there is a method to set the timeline property as https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/windows.media.systemmediatransportcontrols.updatetimelineproperties?view=winrt-26100#windows-media-systemmediatransportcontrols-updatetimelineproperties(windows-media-systemmediatransportcontrolstimelineproperties) Maybe this can help.

[jayfunc]

And album title can be set via Windows App SDK like this https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/windows.media.musicdisplayproperties.albumtitle?view=winrt-26100#windows-media-musicdisplayproperties-albumtitle

[mandrews79]

Got it, thank you. I will pass this on to them. On Wednesday, 4 March 2026 at 02:18:26 pm GMT-8, jayfunc ***@***.***> wrote: And album title can be set via Windows App SDK like this https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/windows.media.musicdisplayproperties.albumtitle?view=winrt-26100#windows-media-musicdisplayproperties-albumtitle — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>