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[knickelfarz]

I'm sad to see that "Album Thumbnails" are still quite useless, because you have to switch between "Details" view and "Album Thumbnails" view again and again to see the tracks of an album. Wouldn't it be better to handle "Album Thumbnails" in a different way?

• 1. If you select an Artist A with one album, you should see one album thumb (with text for album name)
  
  
• 2. If you select an Artist B with three albums, you should see three album thumbs (one for every album, with text for album names)
  
  
• 3. If you select the one Album from the Artist A from example 1., you should see an album thumb for every track of that album (with text for track names)
  
  
• 4. If you select one of the Albums from the Artist B from example 2., you should see an album thumb for every track of that album (with text for track names)
  
  
• 5. If you select two or three of the Albums from the Artist B from example 2., you should see an album thumb for every track of these albums (with text for track names)

I think "Album Thumbnails" view would only be consistent if 1. to 5. are working (now only 1. and 2. are working).

For those who don't want to look at the same thumbnail for maybe 30 times, it would be even better if MC had the option to revert to "Details" view when it's on album level (points 3. to 5.)...

Anybody out there who would like a solution like that?

[nila]

I started work yesterday at 8am and left the office at 11pm, had to go home and eat then sleep and be up for 7am so I'm half asleep and brain dead but if I follow it (not too sure I do) then I agree.


I also REALLY want to be able to customise the text that displays - not that we see album name - but that we see X.

And we can customise X just like in Album View2 - perfectly done example of it.

[Buckaroo]

I agree. This was more or less the way album thumbnails worked pre-pane.

[knickelfarz]

I agree. This was more or less the way album thumbnails worked pre-pane.

The "pre-pane" view showed thumbnails for tracks only when there was only one album for an artist. This was changed (people asked for it (including me...)) and it was good to change it...but the system like it's now is not working the way it was expected, I think  

What I'm suggesting is quite different from the "pre-pane" view, but I don't know how to describe it better...maybe I should make some pictures?

[knickelfarz]

Maybe a more simple way to describe it:

"Album Thumbnails" view should behave like "Thumbnails" view if one or more album(s) is (are) selected.

It's already behaving similar like that in "Playing Now" View...

And it would be nice to have an indicator for showing if a thumbnail represents an album or a single/loose track (similar to the "current track indicator" that overlays the thumbnail in "Playing Now")

[Yangus]

I don't see the point of displaying album thumbs for each track once you're inside an album. As far as I'm concerned, opening an album should default to details view or, at least, you should have the option of making it that way.

[knickelfarz]

...As far as I'm concerned, opening an album should default to details view or, at least, you should have the option of making it that way.

Yes, that would be my favorite view in this case, too...I now made that part of my request bold in my first post  

[phelt]

I'm with Yangus here - I'm not so hip to points 3 through 5. I'd like a detail view with a column for album image. Album image cell vertically spanning its associated tracks, or something  

[Doof]

I'm with Yangus as well. An album thumbnail for each track is kind of pointless in my mind. I've already seen the album cover when I navigated here. Now that I'm here I want to see the list of songs and their properties.

It's kind of analogous to browsing your CD's. You look at the covers to find the one you're after, then you flip the CD over and look at the track list and song durations, etc.

[Wobbley]

Actually, I'd like a graphical view of my library that replicated the real-life view I have of my CDs.  You know, stacked on vertically on a ribbed edge with the informational spine showing...you'd scroll horizontally (or press the first letter of the artist's name or album name to be taken directly to that artist or album) through the collection (and there'd also be an auto button with a timing feature, so that you could set the scroll timing and MC would automatically scroll through your CDs).  When I click the "spine" of the CD, the front AND back cover art shows in the pane beneath the library pane.  The back cover art is the track listing, for which each track listing is a single-click link to start the song playing...a double-click link opens the property pane for that particular track.  Double-clicking the front cover art of the album opens the properties pane for the entire album.  The back cover art can either show the actual back cover art (if you can find it), or it can just be white or something when the actual back cover art is not present. Another view would be "Artists" with scrollable thumbnails that are pictures of the artists (like the ones in an AMG bio), with the artists' names underneath the thumbnail.  You click an artist, the pane below shows the front album art of all the albums you have by that artist.  Double-clicking an album in the bottom pane changes the top pane to a split-pane view, the left pane showing the track list (just as MC does now in the bottom pane) in the left pane, and a thumbnail view of all the artist's OTHER albums, and the bottom pane changes, as I said before, to show the front and back album art for the selected album.  This way, you could drag tracks from the left pane to the right pane if, say for example, you had inadvertently named a track with the right artist but wrong album.

[knickelfarz]

Yeah, there could be done much more exiting stuff with thumbnails...

I once suggested to add more list styles and to link them with the view schemes (similar to that what phelt mentioned above), for example, and the discussion that followed up was quite interesting...

There exists a Mac application named "mp3voodo" which uses cover art as the center for navigation (similar to that what Doof mentioned above) - take a look here.

SONY once made an interface study for a mp3 player software that looked almost exactly like that what Wobbley suggested...I saw a little demo some years ago and some pictures in a book about SONY design. Sorry, I don't have a link for that, and as far as I know that software was never released...but it was really an impressing conception...

But I'm afraid that this all would be quite too much to implement it all already in version 9.1 - There has to be something left for 9.2 (or maybe 10?)

At present, I would be already very happy to see "Album Thumbnails" revert to "Details" view if an album is opened  

More votes for that?

[Polonio]

I also think an album thumbnail for each track is kind of pointless in my mind.

I dont like eighter album thumbnail switch to detailed view when just one album is selected, or by any other reason. I like predictability. I dont like the view keep changing while I browse the library.

I like what we have now. But... I agree it can be annoying switching "Details" and "Album Thumbnails" view again and again to see the tracks of an album. It is annoying because we need to look for the "List style" menu, we need to click, we need to look for the correct item, and we need to click again. Why not a on/off button to switch between "Details" and "Album Thumbnails" view? It would be a lot easier...

[Tolga]

I posted my two cents in a different thread:

http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=MediaCenter;action=display;num=1058414819;start=0

because I felt it provides a significantly different approach that could also deal with some of the problems discussed here.

[gkerber]

I'm sad to see that "Album Thumbnails" are still quite useless, because you have to switch between "Details" view and "Album Thumbnails" view again and again to see the tracks of an album.

If you just want to see the tracks, you can turn on options->tree->show track info tooltips

Then putting the mouse pointer over the thumbnail shows all tracks in a tooltip.

This may not be all you want, but if does let you "see the tracks of an album".

[knickelfarz]

If you just want to see the tracks, you can turn on options->tree->show track info tooltips

Mmh, of course I just want to see them to do something with them

If it was not only a tooltip but something you could select tracks from...

Well, I'm looking forward to the next version of MC