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Author Topic: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?  (Read 11507 times)

robydago

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Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« on: November 26, 2015, 08:28:42 am »

Is anyone using MC standard view with a 4K desktop monitor under Win10?

Is the UI usable at that resolution or is it too small?

I'm tempted to upgrade from a FHD to a 4K desktop monitor , but I'm worried about the size of the UI elements (icons, menus, etc.) getting too small in the Windows desktop and in all software I use most.

In Win 10 one can scale up the size of the UI elements, but sometimes that would cause loosing part of the text inside menus or dialog boxes,  etc.


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Matt

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #1 on: November 26, 2015, 08:45:43 am »

Yeah, I'm developing on a high resolution monitor.  MC works great now.  It was a little bumpy a while back, but it's pretty good now.
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robydago

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #2 on: November 26, 2015, 09:42:44 am »

Yeah, I'm developing on a high resolution monitor.  MC works great now.  It was a little bumpy a while back, but it's pretty good now.

Matt, thanks a lot.
Now before I buy the 4k monitor, I'll have to check with the forum of the only other software, besides an internet browser, I use at home with Windows.
Everything else is mobile\android nowadays.
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mojave

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2016, 12:44:41 pm »

I just got a UHD monitor (Benq BL2711U) that is 3840x2160x60Hz with output color depth of 10-bits.

I scaled Windows 10 to 200%, but cannot get JRiver to scale properly. Only the playback buttons scale, but all the text is super small - even if I use JRiver's View > Size and increase the size. I have rebooted multiple times.

Note:  I have a JVC RS500 projector at home which accepts 3840x2160 and I can scale JRiver fine after a reboot.
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JimH

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2016, 12:47:21 pm »

Try changing the font in MC.  Tools > Options > Tree and View.  Restart.
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Daveyravey

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2016, 12:49:29 pm »

theaterview works brilliantly on my LG Oled
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JimH

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2016, 12:57:56 pm »

I want one.  It's got a beautiful picture.
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mojave

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2016, 01:23:10 pm »

Try changing the font in MC.  Tools > Options > Tree and View.  Restart.
Changing the font size from 5 to 10 helped significantly and it looks almost the same as before. View > Size is set to 100%.

There are still two things that don't scale right:  DSP Studio and madVR settings. DSP Studio is a super small box with the contents the correct size. This means you can only see part of it unless you maximize DSP Studio.

I have attached a picture of the issue with madVR. Notice that the bottom options are cut off and the window can't be enlarged.
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rudyrednose

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2016, 02:03:18 pm »

I'm tempted to upgrade from a FHD to a 4K desktop monitor

Do yourself a favor and go with a monitor size such that you do not need scaling.  Windows still have issues/inconveniences when not at 100%.
On the computer where I do most of my imports/tagging, I recently went from 3 24" FHD monitors side by side to a single 40" 4K.

Keeping 100% scaling, visually it is like I just went from 3x 24" to 4x 20", text is a bit smaller but very readable.

Standard view is spectacular in 3840x2160p.
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glynor

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2016, 03:54:03 pm »

Changing the font size from 5 to 10 helped significantly and it looks almost the same as before. View > Size is set to 100%.

Why aren't you using View > Size? That's how it is supposed to work...
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Daveyravey

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2016, 08:34:49 am »

I want one.  It's got a beautiful picture.

its an amazing TV Jim. Well worth the money. LG have got the Oled market sown up at the moment
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Toucan

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #11 on: March 02, 2016, 05:31:07 pm »

I'm planning on buying an OLED LG TV as part of my evil genius living room upgrade. The plan calls for JRiver using theatre view to appease the minions. Does anyone foresee any resolution problems? ...Or anything else, for that matter?
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Hendrik

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2016, 05:32:52 pm »

I'm planning on buying an OLED LG TV as part of my evil genius living room upgrade. The plan calls for JRiver using theatre view to appease the minions. Does anyone foresee any resolution problems? ...Or anything else, for that matter?

Theater View should work just fine on 4K, and if it doesn't, we would fix it.
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Toucan

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2016, 05:56:03 pm »

Cheers, Hendrik, that's what I wanted to hear. I've just raised a glass of Stella to your stellar answer.
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mojave

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #14 on: March 02, 2016, 06:28:19 pm »

Why aren't you using View > Size? That's how it is supposed to work...
The reason I posted in this thread is because it doesn't work. Here is what it looks like on my display at 3840x2160x60 Hz. You can see that the buttons are huge, but the text is tiny.

The View > Size does work on my HTPC with my projector when sending it 3840x2160 so I'm not sure why it doesn't work with my monitor. That is what I'm trying to figure out. It seems like a bug in JRiver.

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mojave

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #15 on: March 02, 2016, 06:30:15 pm »

If I change the size back to 100%, but increase the font size, then it looks much more normal.
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Hendrik

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #16 on: March 02, 2016, 06:34:26 pm »

mojave is right, something seems off, it does that here too. Increasing the size doesn't scale up the text, just everything else, which looks very weird.
Works on my other system better to some degree, although not perfectly, as if the fonts don't scale up endlessly, though.
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glynor

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #17 on: March 02, 2016, 06:40:31 pm »

The reason I posted in this thread is because it doesn't work. Here is what it looks like on my display at 3840x2160x60 Hz. You can see that the buttons are huge, but the text is tiny.

Gotcha. I saw your previous post but either misread it, or completely misunderstood it.

mojave is right, something seems off, it does that here too. Increasing the size doesn't scale up the text, just everything else, which looks very weird.
Works on my other system better to some degree, although not perfectly, as if the fonts don't scale up endlessly, though.

Probably useless, but it works fine here. I don't have a super-high resolution monitor though...
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Hendrik

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #18 on: March 02, 2016, 06:42:41 pm »

Probably useless, but it works fine here. I don't have a super-high resolution monitor though...

Don't need one, just changing the size to 150% should increase both the graphical elements and the text to match, so that everything stays in equal proportions as it would on 100% - which for some reason it doesn't do here right now.
Should look into that tomorrow, maybe.

I wonder if it happens because I once overwrote the font choice, and now its stuck to my selected size instead of scaling it with the selected size? That would be odd, wouldn't it?

Its probably a non-issue when the system scale is different like it would be on a 4K display (at least when you do set your system scale, some people apparently like to keep it tiny?), since thats handled a bit differently. Otherwise all those 4K users might have complained already. :)

PS:
Note that multi-monitor setups are a bit weird to handle when the monitors have different scales.
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Hendrik

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #19 on: March 02, 2016, 07:00:18 pm »

Looks like it was broken sometime in the spring last year, no clue why. The user selected scale is just flat out ignored for fonts.
Seems like a attempt at "fixing" problems for users that previously increased their font size manually and complained about huge text. So..
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glynor

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #20 on: March 02, 2016, 08:46:39 pm »

Don't need one, just changing the size to 150% should increase both the graphical elements and the text to match,

Yeah. Actually, now that I look at it more closely, the font isn't changing (obviously, since you found the issue). It "tricked" me because it made the spacing around the text larger, but not the font itself. When I only checked going to 120% (as I did before I posted that) it optical illusioned me. But, when I just went to 175%, it was blatant.

Oops, my bad.  :-[
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glynor

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #21 on: March 02, 2016, 09:00:27 pm »

I wonder if it happens because I once overwrote the font choice, and now its stuck to my selected size instead of scaling it with the selected size? That would be odd, wouldn't it?

On that note... This just happened to me last night, and bothered me: There's no simple way to reset the Font choice, if you go in there and mess it up, unless you know what the original settings were. Or you reset the key in the registry, of course.

A reset to default there would be really nice. I realize you're probably showing the system font picker (which might be a PITA to subclass and add a button), but instead of that, you could add a new:
Tools > Options > Tree & View > Reset font and scaling

That, when selected, puts size at 100% and resets HKCU\SOFTWARE\JRiver\Media Center 21\Properties\Font and the View Size? Or, perhaps simpler, just change the elipsis button for the existing Select font item to be a pop-up with Use picker and Reset choices?
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glynor

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #22 on: March 02, 2016, 09:02:02 pm »

Looks like it was broken sometime in the spring last year, no clue why.

I think I actually, now that I consider it, remember grumbling about having to reset my sizing again a while back on the HTPC. Probably last year. I use a custom font size on that one to make the text legible. Probably won't have to anymore if this is fixed.
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Hendrik

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #23 on: March 03, 2016, 02:55:23 am »

Matt worked on all the scaling things, I asked him to look into it.
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Matt

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #24 on: March 03, 2016, 07:11:59 am »

The font size is independent from the scaling size.  But you can set the font size to anything you want in Options.

Hendrik was questioning the logic of that decision, but I feel pretty comfortable with it.  I dunno.
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blgentry

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #25 on: March 03, 2016, 07:32:14 am »

The problem with the fonts selection and sizing is that it's inconsistent.  There can be 3 different sizes of fonts in one MC view.  When you select a new font, they ALL get changed to the same size.  Then, you can't change back! Because the default font is undocumented.  Even if you could choose the original font again, the size of the font over rides the sizes of the fonts in the various sections.  For example, the title font (up top in the center) is generally much larger than the fonts in the rest of the interface.

I tried to discuss this quite some time ago and it was glossed over.  I'm now reluctant to test it because I've had to restore backups (system file backups) in order to restore the default font and sizes.

Brian.
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Hendrik

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #26 on: March 03, 2016, 07:41:03 am »

All fonts used in the interface should scale relative to the one you select in the options, there is no different behavior when its set to default or another choice, really, as it just falls back to the default when none is chosen. The default for Windows is Sergeo UI 9, btw.
If something doesn't behave well with a different font choice, then thats a bug and we should fix that.
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blgentry

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #27 on: March 03, 2016, 07:54:47 am »

^ Ok.  I was reluctant to test, but you seem so sure, I decided to test anyway.  You were right.  :)  Fonts *do* scale relative to each other, so the title font IS bigger than the others, even when you pick a new font and size.

However, the other problem still remains, that I can't seem to get back to the original font.  I'm using the Mac version and Sergeo does not exist there.  Interestingly, restoring a Library backup (settings only) does not restore the font.

However, restoring a (file) backup of User Settings.ini *does* restore the original font.  But, because I don't know what that font is, *and* it's not highlighted in the interface, I have no way to change font sizes and retain the original font.  I suppose if I knew what that font was, all would be well.  It just seems odd that the font is never shown.  I'd also have to guess at what the original font size was until it looked like I remembered.

Brian.
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Hendrik

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #28 on: March 03, 2016, 07:59:12 am »

We tend to ask the OS which default font it suggests, both Windows and Mac have an API for that. I don't know the Mac font choosing dialog, so can't comment on why nothing is shown there.

PS:
Just tried on the Mac, and I had a font pre-selected and everything. Apparently Helvetica size 24 on a Retina MBP.
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glynor

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #29 on: March 03, 2016, 08:44:16 am »

All fonts used in the interface should scale relative to the one you select in the options

+1
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blgentry

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Re: Going 4K - is MC UI usable?
« Reply #30 on: March 03, 2016, 09:18:33 am »

PS:
Just tried on the Mac, and I had a font pre-selected and everything. Apparently Helvetica size 24 on a Retina MBP.

I guess I should open a new thread on this in the Mac forum.  I feel bad for hijacking this thread.  Sorry.  The above behavior doesn't happen on my (non-retina) Mac.

Brian.
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