A couple of minor annoyances with the new Playing Now and Info Panel...
I've been waiting some time now for the ability to display video information in Theater View. Development has been progressing nicely, so I keep telling myself to be patient, but I can't stand it anymore!
Raldo has created
PvdImport—a plugin (we're still testing) for importing information directly from
Personal Video Database. (Thanks, raldo!) Now I have all my video information in MC, perfectly synchronized with PVD. Fabulous! Except I can only use about 2% of it in Theater View. I assume it's still a work-in-progress, and I'm sure I made some of theses suggestions before, but here's what comes to mind based on my recent experience.
...it would be great if we could select which fields are displayed, and in which order.
1. This is essential. Despite a reasonably complete set of standard fields for video, I needed to create many custom fields. Of the 30 fields I'm importing, 18 are custom. Six of those are one's where a standard field is provided, but is not the right type (e.g., string, list, numeric) or format (date, rating). In a number of cases, I've had to use expressions to combine and/or manipulate custom fields to get the desired result. Consequently, I need the ability to use custom fields and expressions in a Theater View information panel.
2. I like how the current version combines a file list with file information, but the space provided for the information (less than 1/4 of the screen) is inadequate—even for abbreviated information. That area should be made larger by making the poster smaller, moving the field names from the left to the top of the field data, and the file list narrower. Then there should be an additional view for displaying the full details for one file. This too should be configurable, but the default could be a large poster on the left, with the full details (perhaps in collapsible fields) in a scrolling list on the right. That way, all the information—no matter how long—could be displayed. The way it is now, 300-word descriptions are getting truncated at 30 words. I don't mind a long list of actors (for example) being truncated, but the current width is not enough to handle my
[actor] (role) field.
3. There should be a file caption setting for each view (or at least each root view), rather than one setting for all. The way it is now, I need to use a hopelessly complex expression to construct a caption that is appropriate for each file type.
4. The simple fact PvdImport is invoked using
Send To has awakened me to the potential of having that command available in Theater View. Not only would I be able to update the information for new items, I could jump to the same item in PVD (maybe to update the data by downloading from internet sources, and then re-import to MC), run a variety of web searches, run a utility or alternate media player for problem files, etc. In short, a giant leap toward my goal of never having to leave the couch!
While I'm thinking specifically of video media, I don't think any of these things are inconsistent with other media types. I believe an additional panel is required for video "details." That may not be necessary for other media types, but it won't interfere with them. And if one collects things like musician bios and album reviews, the same panel (if configurable) could be used for those.