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[Grenache]

If you have a better idea, then please post it.

Consolidate all the existing and confusing options - JRemote, Gizmo, WebGizmo, OneRemote (I don't even know what that is), Panel… - into one interface that can be both full-featured and pretty, simple and easy to use (with "Minimal buttons, minimal choices").

May I specifically suggest to concentrate on JRemote and ultimately have a version for both iOS, Android and Windows (including on ARM).

[thorsten]

+1

Btw, interesting discussion 

[jachin99]

Play Doctor is good for re-discovery of old music you have.

I was using that as an illustration more than anything but your right. 

+1 for the consolidating the options, or at least give a clear description of the purpose each one serves.   

[jachin99]

I have one more question, lets say I come up with this great idea, and decide to build my own webpage for JRiver that essentially does the same thing as panel, or I replace the background image in panel.  Lets say I do all of this, and JRiver updates.  Will my background/modifications still be there after the update or will JRiver replace my changes with the factory/out of the box webpage that comes with JRiver?  I ask this because giving users a chance to build their own interfaces and share them might solve some of the "Pretty Face" problems.

[JimH]

I was using that as an illustration more than anything but your right. 

+1 for the consolidating the options, or at least give a clear description of the purpose each one serves.   

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Remotes

[jachin99]

The setup you have now is fine for me but I still don't entirely understand the big difference between all of the remotes.  From what I can tell they are all web pages with MCC or some other kind of commands bound to them packaged under different names.  That is, aside from the differences between gizmo for android, and JRemote for IPad.  I personally think from purely a media (Music, TV, Movies) remote control perspective, you do pretty good. 

[JimH]

Which remotes should we eliminate?

[Grenache]

Which remotes should we eliminate?

You could make a poll asking which remotes people are using.

[Hendrik]

I think in a perfect world there would be one single mobile remote application that runs on the major phone platforms, so at the very least Android and iOS. That way you can focus all available energy into that, instead of having it split between multiple apps.

Developing a new app like that is a huge project though, and unfortunately due to some rather drastic differences between those systems, the "cross-platform" development kits that would enable something like this are all a bit lacking, so its not only a long way, but a bumpy road as well.

[JimH]

That's an argument for using an HTML5 solution, isn't it?

[JimH]

You could make a poll asking which remotes people are using.

Yeah, it will probably come to that.

[Hendrik]

That's an argument for using an HTML5 solution, isn't it?

Well, yes and no. Web solutions are popular because its easy and web devs are a dime in a dozen - and the perfect alternative solution just doesn't exist, so its easy to compromise.
Most of these cross-platform frameworks like Apache Cordova are HTML based, and you can probably do "OK" things with that, but its not perfect - it lacks a bit of the feel of a "native" application.

Anyhow a really good modern web-based interface like JRemote that works on both PCs, Tables and Phones seamlessly would probably be quite a nice thing to have either way.

The Flutter framework you posted about a couple days back is one of those "perfect alternatives" that promises to be a "native" app on all platforms. But then again its still under development and until its finished and has proven itself its hard to know if it'll ever be what it aspires to be.

[jachin99]

you can also ask yourself, "Which two or three remotes accomplish the same thing?" and start there.  It looks like your headed in the direction of Panel/OneRemote so maybe you can roll the most used features into those.  i think at the end of the day, each user will get the same core functionality no matter what they choose, its just a matter of giving users the best (A really touchy/subjective term) experience.  It looks like your headed in a positive direction, and you have the right goals. 

For me, its hard to beat the good 'ol MCE remote complimented by amazon echo/name your assistant.

[drmimosa]

Consolidate the remotes is a great idea...but I don't think it's entirely a software problem. Big picture is everyone has too many remotes.

Most AV systems have 5 remotes and one universal remote and one ipad etc. Suddenly you get to the point where only the babysitter can figure out how to watch movies.

I've been building a personal solution for about a year now, the goal has been that one click turns on the music. I ended up using Windows 10 desktop as my interface, HDMI CEC to wake up the display, Eventghost to route commands to an IR blaster, all packaged with custom icons that launch batch file scripts. The .bat files turn on the stereo, stop current playback, route the audio correctly, and play music viola. It was a fun project, but the end result is complicated. Lots of moving parts. IR blasting isn't always reliable, for example. So after 1 year my system still in beta, when it works it's great. I was surprised how complicated it was to get one click playback, and I'm not sure it's better than having a stack of remotes. A friend suggested rebuilding the entire system using Python scripts. That has some promise for better reliability, but that's a few too many summer projects for me.

One part that has been solid in this system has been Z-wave and Engen. What if this was the hardware basis for your remote control?

Something like this hardware, https://www.amazon.com/ZRC-90US-BW8510US-Remotec-Cert-ZC10-15100007/dp/B016YTTIVW, with Engen launching scripts. Press one button, everything turns on via customizable sequence of events, then you are watching the next movie in a movie night playlist. Or launching a streaming service, or internet radio feed.

Alternatively, a button from HTML5 Panel app that launches control scripts and sequences. It looks like you have a lot of the moving parts built already in JRiver and Engen, it's just a matter of connecting them in interesting and useful ways.

[mattkhan]

consolidating the remotes in this context is jriver having a minimal set of remote control applications rather than any individual home system having a single remote control device that orchestrates many things

[drmimosa]

consolidating the remotes in this context is jriver having a minimal set of remote control applications rather than any individual home system having a single remote control device that orchestrates many things

In that context, Panel and JRemote are my top current remotes.  Panel for quick and easy controls, JRemote for search etc.

[JimH]

One part that has been solid in this system has been Z-wave and Engen. What if this was the hardware basis for your remote control?

Something like this hardware, https://www.amazon.com/ZRC-90US-BW8510US-Remotec-Cert-ZC10-15100007/dp/B016YTTIVW, with Engen launching scripts. Press one button, everything turns on via customizable sequence of events, then you are watching the next movie in a movie night playlist. Or launching a streaming service, or internet radio feed.

Alternatively, a button from HTML5 Panel app that launches control scripts and sequences. It looks like you have a lot of the moving parts built already in JRiver and Engen, it's just a matter of connecting them in interesting and useful ways.

What you're describing is close to what we're working toward.  You're the lead customer!

[MikeO]

Can get very confusing Engen to me is a petrol station 

And I get eBucks even better

I love the comment above about the babysitter. There never a 12yr old whiz kid when you want one

Mike

[Listener]

Consolidate all the existing and confusing options - JRemote, Gizmo, WebGizmo, OneRemote (I don't even know what that is), Panel… - into one interface that can be both full-featured and pretty, simple and easy to use (with "Minimal buttons, minimal choices").

May I specifically suggest to concentrate on JRemote (I still don't understand why the development has been more or less abandoned) and ultimately have a version for both iOS, Android and Windows (including on ARM).

I just hate posts where someone says "Get rid of everything I don't want to use."

You don't speak for everyone, and your needs and preferences aren't the same as those of other people. Your "(with "Minimal buttons, minimal choices")" probably doesn't include the few features that are essential for my needs.

I have used JRemote, WebGizmo, Gizmo, Panel and the old, simple WebRemote.  WebRemote is the only one that doesn't truncate tag names to the point that they are useless.   Here is a screenshot using Panel that illustrates my problem: the album thumbnails are usually not distinct or are missing and the tag names are truncated to the point where they don't distinguish different choices.



Your suggestion would probably leave me without a usable remote.

If JRiver allowed me to customize the display to control how many thumbnails (and the text under them) were displayed in a row, I could make WebGizmo, Gizmo, Panel or JRemote work and not truncate my tag values. I have described my problem to JimH and Matt in an email but as far as I know, they have not responded in any way.

[Grenache]

I just hate posts where someone says "Get rid of everything I don't want to use."

You don't speak everyone and your needs and preferences aren't the same as those of other people. Your "(with "Minimal buttons, minimal choices")"

Could you please read the thread before posting something like this? Jim asked me for a specific suggestion, and this is how I feel. I don't claim to speak for "everyone". Nor do I want to impose my "needs and preferences" on other people. And regarding the "Minimal buttons, minimal choices", this is not my idea but something envisioned by JRiver for the new interface.

[Listener]

Could you please read the thread before posting something like this? Jim asked me for a specific suggestion, and this is how I feel. I don't claim to speak for "everyone". Nor do I want to impose my "needs and preferences" on other people. And regarding the "Minimal buttons, minimal choices", this is not my idea but something envisioned by JRiver for the new interface.

I did read your post.  The prettyface interface was not described by Jim as a replacement for panel/Gizmo.  That is your idea. If all we had was a prettyface interface simplified for beginners, most people using any JRiver interface would lose features that they need.  You might too.

Your real problem seems to be that you like JRemote and JRiver doesn't seem to be continuing to develop it.

[Listener]

Jim, if you are still reading this thread, I don't care which remote you settle on going forward as long as it these features are supported:

- the same process for browsing and selecting music files to play as provided in current remotes.  At each step, the remote displays a list of thumbnails and tag values for the current category.  You select one and the remove displays a list for the next category.  At each stage an option to "play all" should be present.

- a playing now screen that shows what's playing now.  That screen should have play/pause/stop/fast forward/rewind controls.

- Customize views for use by the remote.

- Number of columns of thumbnails and tags displayed can be adjusted so that tag values are not truncated or are truncated at a length that keeps the values distinct.

- ability to select which computer running MC the remote will connect to.

- ability to select an output device - either on the remote or on the computer that the remote is connected to.

- ability to control output volume.


A few options that would be nice:

- custom views that displayed tag values without thumbnails.

- ability to select font sizes (and possibly thumbnail sizes) to make reading the text and selecting values easier.

- ability to customize the playing now information.

[Grenache]

I did read your post.  The prettyface interface was not described by Jim as a replacement for panel/Gizmo.  That is your idea. If all we had was a prettyface interface simplified for beginners, most people using any JRiver interface would lose features that they need.  You might too.

If you read my post, where did I suggest "a prettyface interface simplified for beginners"? On the contrary, I wrote that if we wanted "simple", we wouldn't be using MC in the first place.

Your real problem seems to be that you like JRemote and JRiver doesn't seem to be continuing to develop it.

So you think my "real problem" is that I like JRemote? Well, actually I'm not using JRemote at all. I only own Windows devices, including a Windows Phone and several tablets, PC's and laptops running MC, the exception being an old, slow Android tablet where I use EOS. So why would I recommend Jim betting on JRemote when I can't use it myself? Basically, from what I've seen and heard from very happy people using JRemote I believe this is where they should allocate their scarce resources. If I was being selfish, I couldn't care less about JRemote and I should be thrilled by some HTML5 solution that I can use on my Windows devices, but to me it just doesn't seem like the best idea. I'm sorry if you think my posts are way off, but please don't "hate" them. That's a bit harsh.