Topic: NEW: Theater View on Mac (Read 18679 times)

Hendrik · « **on:** November 14, 2016, 02:35:01 pm »

Hey,

22.0.39 for Mac introduces a first draft of a Theater View port to OpenGL. Its still a work in progress, but it works well enough to actually use, so we figured why not let you test it as well!
The long-term plan is to replace even the Windows Theater View with this OpenGL version, so we have one unified across all platforms.

Requirements:
- OpenGL 3.2
- Mac OSX 10.7 or newer

You can check the OpenGL capabilities of your hardware using a tool like "OpenGL Extensions Viewer" or similar.
Any modern GPU should fullfill the OpenGL requirements, only some medium-age Intel GPUs may be different, depending on the drivers.

Current Issues/Missing Features:
- Video Backgrounds are not implemented (ie. a skin using a video file as an animated background)
- Playing Now Visualization is not (fully) implemented (only file images work, not animated visualizations)
- Reflection effects are not implemented

Please let us know about any other issues or your thoughts so far, thanks!

Paul S.A. Renaud · « **Reply #1 on:** November 15, 2016, 01:57:17 am »

I installed the new version. All Album Cover Art are in mirror view / in reflection

robertus3 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 15, 2016, 09:36:55 am »

BRILLIANT!

Big thumbs up for the developers.

(Cover art in reverse).

Hendrik · « **Reply #3 on:** November 15, 2016, 10:06:24 am »

Actually, the cover art isn't reversed, the backside is shining through!

It appears the OpenGL window forgot to register a depth buffer (or Z buffer), so all 3D elements are painted on the same level, and the backsides can show on top.

Will be fixed for the next build, sorry about that.

dafloydman · « **Reply #4 on:** November 15, 2016, 02:52:40 pm »

Great news .
is there any way to get a logitech harmony working with it
cheers

glynor · « **Reply #5 on:** November 15, 2016, 03:32:31 pm »

Wow, Hendrik! For a v1, this is quite impressive!

It flies, pretty much just like the Windows version. The anti-aliasing differences are a bit jarring (which you noted in the build notes, of course), and yeah, the cover art is messed up, but...

Very nice. I'll probably start using the Mac version much more heavily now!

cooltype · « **Reply #6 on:** November 15, 2016, 05:00:27 pm »

Wowsers, pretty darn cool! Can’t wait for the final version. Good work gang! Now, how do I get it to my big TV?

Hendrik · « **Reply #7 on:** November 15, 2016, 06:05:50 pm »

Quote from: glynor on November 15, 2016, 03:32:31 pm

It flies, pretty much just like the Windows version. The anti-aliasing differences are a bit jarring (which you noted in the build notes, of course), and yeah, the cover art is messed up, but...

Since this was so easy on Mac (literally just a flag somewhere), I enabled multi-sampling for the next build. Now if Windows and Linux just were so easy...

jlyness · « **Reply #8 on:** November 16, 2016, 05:43:33 pm »

OK, so when I enter theater view all I get is a slowly fading in and out background photo. No cover art, menus or buttons, nothing else. What am I doing wrong?

I'm on OS 10.12.1 and my OpenGL version much exceeds the stipulated 3.2.

Hendrik · « **Reply #9 on:** November 16, 2016, 06:11:19 pm »

What kind of hardware are you running on?

We're still in the process on testing on various hardware and making sure it works there as well, in fact I made some key changes to the rendering core after this build was made due to some flickering issues on one of my test systems, which should generally improve compatibility everywhere.

jlyness · « **Reply #10 on:** November 16, 2016, 06:36:33 pm »

iMac 27-inch late 2012 (with 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and the following graphics hardware: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1024 MB

mwheelerk · « **Reply #11 on:** November 17, 2016, 12:07:06 am »

Quote from: Paul Renaud on November 15, 2016, 01:57:17 am

I installed the new version. All Album Cover Art are in mirror view / in reflection

This is also what I see with the cover artwork a mirror effect/view

bMinor · « **Reply #12 on:** November 18, 2016, 02:26:20 am »

Theater View looks great already and is especially fun when controlled with JRemote.
Unfortunately I had to block all the urls it is accessing to display extra content.
I'm in the boonies and on a 15gb/month data cap with no other option...so that's a no no for me.
I wish it would/could access subfolders for displaying photos, texts, pdf's etc of MY choice instead
of going online.

Hendrik · « **Reply #13 on:** November 18, 2016, 08:28:47 am »

22.0.41 is available now, which should fix the flipped cover art, as well as enable multi-sampling for nicer edges. On top of that some of the internal rendering has been re-worked and should hopefully be more stable.

roller · « **Reply #14 on:** November 19, 2016, 03:31:56 am »

41: Theaterview doesn´t work correct on 15" Retina macbook, very slow but on my iMac without Retina everything is ok.

Hendrik · « **Reply #15 on:** November 19, 2016, 09:01:11 am »

Please open new threads about configuration questions

Lets keep this one about technical issues and feedback on how it runs in general.

roller · « **Reply #16 on:** November 19, 2016, 10:57:41 am »

In 41 the display in Theater View starts very slow, the menu has many display errors, the covers appear flickering on different places where words should be. In 39 it was OK.

And will we have the missing Playing Now Visualization in the future? Like in Windows I would like to take off the window with customizable Playing Now informations.

blgentry · « **Reply #17 on:** November 19, 2016, 04:18:15 pm »

My Mac just came back from service yesterday and I found the new release of MC for Mac with Theater View!!! This is kind of like an early Christmas present. I got a working computer and a much anticipated new killer feature for MC on the same day.

It's very snappy and responsive on my "old" 2011 Macbook Pro running OSX 10.12 (Sierra). There are some unusual behaviors that make it confusing to use. I think what I'm seeing is NOT the intended behavior though. I'll document exactly what I've experienced soon. Probably tomorrow.

Now I have to raise a glass of beer to Hendrik. Here's to you Der Video Programmer Meister! Thanks.

Brian.

Hendrik · « **Reply #18 on:** November 19, 2016, 05:29:30 pm »

I was in the process of re-writing some of the rendering pipeline for more performance when 22.0.41 was made, so I'm not 100% sure which state of the code went into it exactly.
Testing with the very latest code (which definitely happened after .41) gives butter smooth and flawless rendering on my MacBook Pro (Retina, Late-2013), which isn't a very powerful machine anymore, so we'll see how it goes when it gets out.

A lot of changes can be expected in these first versions, as we explore the best solutions for performance and reliability - which made great advances this week, but not to say that I won't have to change it up again later.

blgentry · « **Reply #19 on:** November 20, 2016, 09:29:20 am »

I'm experiencing two unusual behaviors:

A. In Video > Movies, many of the selections don't show the name or cover for movies. For example NAME. I think Name is supposed to show me a list or maybe movie covers. But I don't see that. All I see is blank (with a background) on the left. On the right I see a summary page for whatever movie is selected. Pressing UP or DOWN cycles through movies. But I can't see what movie I'm selecting; the list is invisible. This is true in Wall, HD, and Recent also. The other selections show movie covers.

B. Theater View shows what section is active by making a highlighted rectangle around the selected section. For navigation, you see a white box around the navigation level you are at. Many times, it seems that when pressing the UP or LEFT arrow, I don't move up the navigation tree. I seem to get "stuck" below the Navigation area. Navigation never highlights. However, if I move the mouse up to the navigation area, it highlights and then I can use the arrow keys normally. So I think there's some kind of "mouse priority" that might be stealing focus or something. I'm not sure. I just know you can't use the arrows in some circumstances.

Thanks.

Brian.

Hendrik · « **Reply #20 on:** November 22, 2016, 04:11:53 pm »

For (A) it sounds like it was just using one of the view modes thats not implemented yet. Those are implemented in the next build, so if anything it should work better then.
For (B) - yes Mouse does take priority, but only if you move it. If you leave it alone entirely, it should work with arrow keys, and does for me.

blgentry · « **Reply #21 on:** November 22, 2016, 05:54:26 pm »

Thanks for the reply Hendrick. I'll wait for the next version and test with that and report if it's working as expected or not. I'm hoping that most of my (B) issues are simply that I can't see the "unimplemented" views, so I can't see what my arrow keys are actually doing.

Brian.

blgentry · « **Reply #22 on:** November 29, 2016, 04:36:24 pm »

The latest version of Theater View on MC22.0.43 for Mac is quite impressive! I think all of the missing display methods/types have been implemented now. I'll have to do more exhaustive testing when I'm less exhausted.

Positive impressions:

1. The speed of the interface is awesome. VERY snappy and responsive on my system.
2. On the Windows version of Theater View, the top level "Back" item is auto selected when you arrow over to it. This is inconsistent and VERY confusing for first time (or second or third time) users. The Mac version has removed this behavior. It's much more consistent and pleasant to use.

All of my issues from my previous post seem to have magically disappeared with this release.

I'll post more impressions after I've given it a more thorough test drive.

Thanks again.

Brian.

Paul S.A. Renaud · « **Reply #23 on:** December 16, 2016, 11:17:18 am »

In TV after choosing STOP or after the end of an album a white screen is rendered and one has to manually switch back to another View mode in order to continue to operate. I assume that that is a bug?

What is normally suppose to have when pressing STOP or after an album is over? I assume the previous menu screen.

BartMan01 · « **Reply #24 on:** December 16, 2016, 04:57:10 pm »

Just tested this in my hackintosh system. It currently has an NVidia GTX 260 in it which is a very old card but does support Open GL 3.3 and lower. The graphics are glitching pretty badly in theater view (see screen shot below).

I have a GTX 970 on the way (should be here next week) that will need to use the NVidia alternative drivers since the drivers from Apple don't include that card. I will let you know how that one works when I get a chance.

johnnysix · « **Reply #25 on:** December 19, 2016, 12:21:27 pm »

I can back up the white screen thing after playback finishes, where you have to Cmd+Tab toggle to another app and back again to restore the Theater View.

I believe this only occurred after I updated my late-2012 Mac Mini to OSX Sierra.

BartMan01 · « **Reply #26 on:** December 21, 2016, 08:52:24 pm »

The GTX970 gives different glitches, but they are still there. The screen does redraw properly after a long period of time.

I also got a random 'white screen' while MC repeatedly spawned multiple icons in the dock. I had to force quit to stop it.

BigHiker · « **Reply #27 on:** December 29, 2016, 03:33:23 am »

The severe glitches I experienced on build 43 seem all to be gone on build 54, great!

BartMan01 · « **Reply #28 on:** December 30, 2016, 02:17:00 pm »

Quote from: BigHiker on December 29, 2016, 03:33:23 am

The severe glitches I experienced on build 43 seem all to be gone on build 54, great!

Same here.

cccip · « **Reply #29 on:** January 08, 2017, 11:17:12 pm »

Got a hack with 10.12.2 and GTX 980 connected to Dell 4K screen with latest nVidia web driver.
Build 54 installed, everything is working fine in Theater View except interface locks in 15-30 minutes (as well as sound on external USB DSD DAC) and system goes to login screen (not rebooting, just logs off everything). It is not happening when I'm in Normal player mode

freddiejohn · « **Reply #30 on:** January 28, 2017, 01:13:01 pm »

Installed latest version Media Center 22.0.54
IMac late 2007
4g RAM
Mac OS 10.11.5

ATI Radeon 3.3 ati 10.0.48 open GL version

Whenever I click on Theatre View Media Center turns into white screen and shuts down.

Do you think this is related to old hardware?
Thanks,
Fred

bob · « **Reply #31 on:** February 14, 2017, 10:38:10 am »

Quote from: freddiejohn on January 28, 2017, 01:13:01 pm

Installed latest version Media Center 22.0.54
IMac late 2007
4g RAM
Mac OS 10.11.5

ATI Radeon 3.3 ati 10.0.48 open GL version

Whenever I click on Theatre View Media Center turns into white screen and shuts down.

Do you think this is related to old hardware?
Thanks,
Fred

You could turn on logging, try it and post the log here. There will be info in the log about the initialization of OpenGL.

freddiejohn · « **Reply #32 on:** February 14, 2017, 09:45:02 pm »

Quote from: freddiejohn on January 28, 2017, 01:13:01 pm

Installed latest version Media Center 22.0.54
IMac late 2007
4g RAM
Mac OS 10.11.5

ATI Radeon 3.3 ati 10.0.48 open GL version

Whenever I click on Theatre View Media Center turns into white screen and shuts down.

Do you think this is related to old hardware?
Thanks,
Fred

You could turn on logging, try it and post the log here. There will be info in the log about the initialization of OpenGL.

Please see Attachment re: White Screen after starting theater view.

winlavay · « **Reply #33 on:** May 26, 2017, 10:17:50 am »

Quote from: Hendrik on November 14, 2016, 02:35:01 pm

Hey,

22.0.39 for Mac introduces a first draft of a Theater View port to OpenGL. Its still a work in progress, but it works well enough to actually use, so we figured why not let you test it as well!

Please let us know about any other issues or your thoughts so far, thanks!

On my machine it doesnt work at all :-( Loads some dim background image, thats it. Nothing clickable, nothing else to see.
I am on a 2008 iMac with OS 10.11.6 and a ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB.
Must I forget it or do I have any chance to experience Theater View?

Ah - and while I'm at it: I run Version 22.0.108. On the app-bar on the mac screen the symbol says "Mediacenter 23" but when I open it it says "Mediacenter 22" ...

Hendrik · « **Reply #34 on:** May 26, 2017, 11:00:27 am »

Your graphics card may be too old. 9 years old and only 256 MB of graphics memory is quite pushing it there.

winlavay · « **Reply #35 on:** May 26, 2017, 05:51:29 pm »

Thank you - so I stop trying ...

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Author Topic: NEW: Theater View on Mac (Read 18679 times)