Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Moe]

As much as I loathe iTunes, it does have one feature that I like a lot.  It displays a thumbnail of the current playing track in the header of the program, it looks like this.



I am a pretty visual person and I have a large collection.  Sometimes when something is playing I don't recognize the artist/album but as soon as I see the album cover I remember what it is.

I realize that not everyone would want this, so it should be optional.

End result would look something like this.



I, like I am sure many other people, listen to music while importing/tagging their music/movies/images and there currently is no way to see the cover art of the current playing track (at least not that I am aware of) unless you're on the playing now screen..

[Matt]

I like that idea!

Just mocked it up:


What do other people think?

Thanks.

[bwaldron]

This is an excellent idea

[Awesome Donkey]

What size is that thumbnail in that mockup? 60x60 or 70x70? IMO, it could be a tad larger (80x80 or 90x90) but I suppose it'd get larger with skin size? Making it optional (like the spectrum analyzer and ratings) might be good too, for those who wouldn't like that (but WHY?!? It looks cool!).

Could double clicking on the thumbnail function like you can the thumbnail in the display near the action center? That'd be so neat!

I really like this idea!

[JimH]

I like it, too.  I agree it could be bigger.

[swiv3d]

I use detach view to see the cover art while I am doing other work in the standard view window. I can even have a mini video window playing while I work. If I don't do that, the cover art will automatically display at the bottom left of the standard view screen anyway. It is probably a case of re-inventing the wheel.

[Awesome Donkey]

Hmmm, that brings up another idea, should I post it to the Too Easy thread?

- Have a setting to set/define the behavior of the double click on thumbnail action; a) always launch it in Display View (the current default) or b) always launch it in Detach Display.

I personally would favor Detach Display myself (also iTunes does this by default last I checked) but what do you think, would this be one to post in the Too Easy thread?

EDIT: Posted it there.

[swiv3d]

That sounds like an excellent idea AD.

[Moe]

I use detach view to see the cover art while I am doing other work in the standard view window. I can even have a mini video window playing while I work. If I don't do that, the cover art will automatically display at the bottom left of the standard view screen anyway. It is probably a case of re-inventing the wheel.

That is a viable option, one I hadn't considered.  I have some issues with it though.

Detached display seems a bit excessive to display the cover art, it's also taking up screen real estate (granted you can make it tiny and stick it in the header).  Additionally, if you do a lot of alt tabbing, it's another window to contend with.

The cover art will show up at the bottom of the sidebar, but that's only if you don't have the tag window open.  I use the tag window extensively.  It also only displays the cover art of the tab that's playing, so if you use multiple tabs, it doesn't work. 

[swiv3d]

OK I will scrumble about and see if I can find my magnifying glass! I would have thought that the playing now thumbnail in the header is what is playing now and is independent of which tab you have open?

[Moe]

What if you hovered over or single clicked the thumb in the header it got bigger?

I would have thought that the playing now thumbnail in the header is what is playing now and is independent of which tab you have open?

I was referring to the thumbnail that shows up in the sidebar, like in your screenshot.

[swiv3d]

I'll just use the magnifier option in windows - can't find my magnifying glass and anyway that would take too much screen estate.

Sorry JimH my meds are kicking in again ?

I would prefer that the dev teams time was used on sorting out some of the more important problems for MC such as hang-ups and random crashes (epecially related to cloudplay).

[Moe]

And I have absolutely zero interest in Cloudplay, but I don't go posting snarky messages in those threads because I realize that different people want different things.

[swiv3d]

Why not use detached display - it is what it was designed for. And like I said my meds are kicking in big time!

[JimH]

And I have absolutely zero interest in Cloudplay, but I don't go posting snarky messages in those threads because I realize that different people want different things.

Thank you.

[JimH]

I would prefer that the dev teams time was used on sorting out some of the more important problems for MC such as hang-ups and random crashes (epecially related to cloudplay).

If you're still seeing crashes, please start a thread with details.  I think Cloudplay is working pretty well now.

[Moe]

Just noticed that this got added.  Thank you fellas!

[Hendrik]

MC seems to show an image even if no file is currently playing, ie. the one of the last file played. Just started MC fresh and there is already an image there.
Maybe it should only show during actual playback, like the other file information?

[marko]

Interesting...
For as long as I can remember, I have the current track details in the "Status" line of the display text when in "Stopped" mode, so the image doesn't look out of place here.

Sometimes (often perhaps) we make these changes away from default and as time passes, have to keep reminding ourselves that not everyone's MC looks the same.

I imagine this would look a bit disjointed with just "Media Center" up there along with a thumbnail image.

-marko

[JimH]

MC seems to show an image even if no file is currently playing, ie. the one of the last file played. Just started MC fresh and there is already an image there.
Maybe it should only show during actual playback, like the other file information?

I agree.  It would also be nice if it was a little bigger.

[Matt]

MC seems to show an image even if no file is currently playing, ie. the one of the last file played. Just started MC fresh and there is already an image there.
Maybe it should only show during actual playback, like the other file information?

Coming next build:
Changed: Made the cover art in the player only draw while playing (so it's not there when stopped).

[Moe]

I've been playing with the size on a modern cards skin.

I've found that if I modify this bit of code

Code: [Select]

<Entry Name="Display" >
<Colors TitleText="d9d9d9" StatusText="e6e6e6" />
<DisplayFont TitleSize="125" TitleWeight="800" StatusSize="95" StatusWeight="400" />
</Entry>

Changing the TitleSize and/or StatusSize I can make the thumbnail bigger.  Of course, this also makes the text size bigger as well.

A nice fix would be to be able to add either a line-height property or padding to Title/Status.  I have no idea how easy/hard that would be to implement though.

[Matt]

Next build tunes the drawing so it's the full height of the player window and the progress bar moves over.  Give it a try once it's out.

[AJSchmidt]

The release of MC 25.0.48 relocated the thumbnail image to display over on the right side of the header, where it can be larger, which is good.  However, it seems a little out of place over there, so I'm wondering if you could give us the option to display the thumbnail image on the left side, similar to how it originally appeared in version 25.0.45.

I have attached a mock-up of my Mini View display to show how it might look.

Thank you!

[Matt]

Next build will have the right-click option "Left Align Image".  Thanks for the suggestion.

[leezer3]

Can we turn this off when playing full-screen video?

Movies aren't too bad if it's a poster, but TV gives a random thumb from somewhere in the episode (depending on your settings and what was submitted to the TVDB).

Seems to me this is something that works reasonably well when you're browsing a random view with something playing, but not necessarily if you're in playing now (turn off here automagically if large cover?) or full-screen.

[phoenix91]

Any chance you can display a larger image when I hover the mouse over the thumbnail?

[Matt]

Any chance you can display a larger image when I hover the mouse over the thumbnail?

Good idea!

Coming next build:
NEW: When doing mouse over the new cover art image in the player window, the full artwork will be shown in the tooltip.

[AlanDistro]

Good idea!

Coming next build:
NEW: When doing mouse over the new cover art image in the player window, the full artwork will be shown in the tooltip.

Instead of full artwork (I have some cover art as large as 3000x3000) can it scale to a max of like, 800x800 or something manageable?

[Matt]

Instead of full artwork (I have some cover art as large as 3000x3000) can it scale to a max of like, 800x800 or something manageable?

It will be capped at a percentage of your monitor height.

[Awesome Donkey]

Hey Matt, can we please have customizable sizes for the artwork tooltip? Here's mine right now on a 1440p screen.



Looks kinda small at that resolution. I should be able to display the original 1000x1000 size in that tooltip with size to spare. Worth noting that none of my album art goes past the 1000x1000 size.