Topic: Too Easy VII -- Things we should do because they are so simple (Read 16918 times)

JimH · « **on:** July 01, 2022, 09:20:27 am »

We've done many "small change" request threads in the past. Here's the last one.
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,126265.0.html

The rules are the same and if you don't read them, you may find your post missing.

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE POST BEFORE POSTING
Long or complex posts will be removed.

In the Too Complex thread, we were told how unintuitive MC could be.

So here's the challenge for those who want intuitive software.

Suggest a change that will make MC easier to use (but NOT a feature request).

If you can meet the following guidelines, we'll make the change.

A change needs to be:

1. Easy to implement (less than an hour of our time)

2. Generally useful to most users

3. Something that doesn't remove existing functionality and that isn't controversial

In other words, it must clearly be an improvement.

and

4. Something that can be described in about 10 lines or less (not complex to describe)

PLEASE don't post anything else in this thread (no "+1" posts or comments). Start a new thread if it doesn't fit the requirements.

Thanks!

lepa · « **Reply #1 on:** July 01, 2022, 10:11:15 am »

~~Introduce load/save preset for "Fill properties from filename" (F12). "Rename, Move & Copy (F6) already have this so it should be easy to replicate/utilize in the other tool also~~
Done, thanks Matt

comox · « **Reply #2 on:** July 01, 2022, 11:06:48 am »

Allow users to customize the source of album artwork for the "Get From Internet..." function.

To keep the development effort under 1 hour, require users to edit the source link in the registry.

Users would be responsible for respecting copyright rules.

comox · « **Reply #3 on:** July 01, 2022, 11:07:51 am »

Make data files play like image files so it's easier to read about music while it's playing.

Interesting idea

comox · « **Reply #4 on:** July 01, 2022, 12:01:08 pm »

When I select a complex view that takes say 12 seconds to render, MC sometimes does not display the spiny thingy indicating it's thinking for the first 6 seconds of that period.

I know from experience that all is OK despite MC appearing dead, but it might be confusing for new users.

Good idea

HPBEME · « **Reply #5 on:** July 01, 2022, 01:52:11 pm »

In the last year, you made view tab's user draggable to new positions. It would be great if same functionality was available for the car radio tabs.

lepa · « **Reply #6 on:** July 02, 2022, 07:04:11 am »

Function to return current user
- It would make possible to save user specific data in the after play expression

Not sure if this already exist. Couldn't find one when looked briefly
Done. Thanks

HPBEME · « **Reply #7 on:** July 06, 2022, 09:18:41 am »

The "full-screen" button (at the very far right of the tab bar) is available for every video, image, and audio view scheme, except for the one that arguably would benefit the most... Playing Now.

Full-screen button is also not shown for cloud play, streaming, and a handful of other specialty type views. For a completely consistent interface, why not make it available for every view? But if for some reason these "other" views present a problem, please at least make it available for Playing Now!

Done. Thanks

Dawgincontrol · « **Reply #8 on:** July 06, 2022, 09:57:36 am »

Let us have full editing view of the tree in Standard View.

I want to be able to leave the Action Window closed under most parameters as well as the Playing Now window. These should be set to toggle not expand automatically in every instance.

Buldarged · « **Reply #9 on:** July 06, 2022, 06:08:47 pm »

I've mentioned it sometimes before. Cover art in categories view sometimes is blurry, depending on the size slider.

Somewhere in MC is a logic that decides wether the original cover picture or one of its thumbnails is used to generate the shown cover art in MC.
This logic is somehow flawed.
It sometimes selects thumbnails that are too small and compressed, which are subsequently scaled up, resulting in a blurry cover art with lots of compression artifacts.
On my PC with a 1920x1080p screen this happens when displaying 5 series cover art per row in full screen mode. Moving the slider the tiniest amount to the right fixes the problem, but shows only 4 series cover art per row. I think it should look good at any zoom level.

Here an example. Scale is 1:1, so what you see here is what I see in MC. Left is the series cover art in a 5 element row. Right one is slightly larger, which leads to a 4 element row.

The difference is quite extreme and just needs a small calibration fix so that the left one can look as good as the right one.

Done. Thanks

erniek · « **Reply #10 on:** July 08, 2022, 07:48:25 am »

Is it possible to break up the forum so that items pertaining to just audio are separated from video. I only use JRiver for audio and have no video interest with it.
Thanks

JimH · « **Reply #11 on:** July 08, 2022, 05:59:30 pm »

Quote from: erniek on July 08, 2022, 07:48:25 am

Is it possible to break up the forum so that items pertaining to just audio are separated from video. I only use JRiver for audio and have no video interest with it.

I'm sorry, but I don't think that would work well. We already have a lot of boards within the forum and doing that would probably almost double the number ... MC29 Audio for Windows, MC29 Video for Windows, etc.

You might like this though:

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

JimH · « **Reply #12 on:** July 08, 2022, 06:20:49 pm »

Quote from: Dawgincontrol on July 06, 2022, 09:57:36 am

Let us have full editing view of the tree in Standard View.

I want to be able to leave the Action Window closed under most parameters as well as the Playing Now window. These should be set to toggle not expand automatically in every instance.

You can close the Action Window now. Look for the little triangle in the upper right corner.

HPBEME · « **Reply #13 on:** July 08, 2022, 07:58:42 pm »

Allow users to control-select multiple columns in the list view so all of them can be set to "freeze" from the context menu in one shot. Have the same capability to unfreeze multiple columns. Optionally, add a new context menu item to "unfreeze all".

Not easily done

HPBEME · « **Reply #14 on:** July 08, 2022, 08:04:14 pm »

Related to the post above:

When columns are frozen and you hold down shift to scroll horizontally, the metadata shown over grouped album tracks (where in a fairly large font it says… "Album Name by Artist X" with year XXXX on the far right), is scrolled out of the content area as you bring into view columns previously off-screen from the right.

This grouped album Title metadata should remain fixed while the unfrozen columns scroll leftward.

JunoAudio · « **Reply #15 on:** July 09, 2022, 05:23:11 am »

Hi,

When resizing the main app window make the activation area slightly larger on the edges to improve quick capture.

Cheers

Good idea

JimH · « **Reply #16 on:** July 09, 2022, 07:06:33 am »

I split three threads:

Add a Line
Custom Resources
Clicking on "Play" Starts All Movies

It wasn't a clean split.

Please start a new thread for discussion.

HPBEME, you should probably start a new thread on skins.

Dawgincontrol · « **Reply #17 on:** July 09, 2022, 09:04:40 am »

"You can close the Action Window now. Look for the little triangle in the upper right corner."

It's true you can close them, but they won't stay closed.

lepa · « **Reply #18 on:** July 09, 2022, 09:16:23 am »

Change mouse cursor to finger (like when mouse is e.g. over action window text when it is collapsed) or give some other visual indication that mouse is now over "node expanding arrow" It is hard to properly aim currently as you don't know if you are selecting the node or just expanding it by pressing the mouse left

JimH · « **Reply #19 on:** July 09, 2022, 09:44:41 am »

Quote from: Dawgincontrol on July 09, 2022, 09:04:40 am

"You can close the Action Window now. Look for the little triangle in the upper right corner."

It's true you can close them, but they won't stay closed.

Try choosing "Last location" for startup in MC's settings.

drmimosa · « **Reply #20 on:** July 09, 2022, 10:32:26 am »

Toggle track links on and off in playlists. Sometimes you want to listen to linked tracks, but for some shuffles it's nice to turn them off.

Done. Thanks

HPBEME · « **Reply #21 on:** July 09, 2022, 07:29:20 pm »

Left-click and hold (AKA "long press") on a artist, album, track, from anywhere in MC launches spotlight. This would work when applying a long press to thumbnails, list items, and even directly on the currently playing track in the player bar. Launching spotlight via a long press would create a new tab, which would match the behavior of a long press on the spotlight icon.

If this approach is adopted, create a setting that allows users to hide or show the spotlight icon, since the icon's presence would no longer be strictly required.

HPBEME · « **Reply #22 on:** July 09, 2022, 08:03:19 pm »

In the Options Window, the General category page has gotten a bit cumbersome, which is due in part to all the fantastic options/settings the MC team provides us based on our input.

If Features, which itself expands into a very long list, were carved out as its own standalone Category/Page instead being one of many items on the General page, that would help streamline things a bit. Having to scan so many items on a single page makes it hard to find what you're looking for.

To my mind, having Features as a standalone category/page just makes sense purely from an organizational standpoint anyway, regardless of the above comments.

Dawgincontrol · « **Reply #23 on:** July 09, 2022, 08:13:26 pm »

"Try choosing "Last location" for startup in MC's settings."

That's how I have it. It works for everything in the tree except "Playing Now" which expands any time you select "Play" and "Action Window" which opens and closes automatically when making certain selections.

There's information there, but it should be an option for them to stay closed unless selected if the user prefers.

JimH · « **Reply #24 on:** July 09, 2022, 08:36:29 pm »

We'll take a look.

marko · « **Reply #25 on:** July 09, 2022, 11:09:15 pm »

Quote from: HPBEME on July 08, 2022, 07:58:42 pm

Allow users to control-select multiple columns in the list view so all of them can be set to "freeze" from the context menu in one shot. Have the same capability to unfreeze multiple columns. Optionally, add a new context menu item to "unfreeze all".

and... "Unfreeze" should really put the column(s) back where it was before being frozen?

Done. Thanks

antenna · « **Reply #26 on:** July 11, 2022, 12:36:24 pm »

When I upload a new playlist for Cloudplay, i get an email showing all the playlists I uploaded.

An excerpt:

Quote

These are the playlists you have uploaded:

Last uploaded Links
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
14 Jan 09:02 Download link: The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming! ('63 - '67) Link to copy/paste into station file: https://s3.amazonaws.com/content.jriver.com/users

Please add the year to the date.

Quote

These are the playlists you have uploaded:

Last uploaded Links
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
14 Jan 2020 09:02 Download link: The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming! ('63 - '67) Link to copy/paste into station file: https://s3.amazonaws.com/content.jriver.com/users

Will be fixed

Thanks!

Sept 27, 2022 - I saw this fixed on a recent playlist I uploaded.

Thanks!

avpman · « **Reply #27 on:** July 11, 2022, 04:23:04 pm »

When I'm listening to a random playlist and I come across a track I like, I would like a way to insert the entire album that the track came from - and have it inserted next in the playlist. Not at the end. Might be easy enough?

Done. Thanks

Matt · « **Reply #28 on:** July 11, 2022, 07:13:17 pm »

Quote from: avpman on July 11, 2022, 04:23:04 pm

When I'm listening to a random playlist and I come across a track I like, I would like a way to insert the entire album that the track came from - and have it inserted next in the playlist. Not at the end. Might be easy enough?

The whole album including or excluding that file?

avpman · « **Reply #29 on:** July 11, 2022, 07:22:27 pm »

My druthers would be to exclude that track. But I can live with repeating it if it's easier to implement.
Thanks!

leezer3 · « **Reply #30 on:** July 12, 2022, 04:50:16 am »

In the large-field tag editor, add a Close button next to the Edit in Popup button.

Done. Thanks

Whilst you can close the field via keyboard shortcuts or clicking on other fields, this doesn't seem as logical as a button at the bottom.

Matt · « **Reply #31 on:** July 12, 2022, 07:54:25 am »

Quote from: leezer3 on July 12, 2022, 04:50:16 am

In the large-field tag editor, add a Close button next to the Edit in Popup button.

Good idea

Whilst you can close the field via keyboard shortcuts or clicking on other fields, this doesn't seem as logical as a button at the bottom.

The popup blocks any input to Media Center. That's why the close buttons are on the popup.

EnglishTiger · « **Reply #32 on:** July 12, 2022, 08:58:29 am »

Fix "double-clicking" in the display window/panel - at present it uses White Text on a Black Background for every Skin - it should be using the skins own colour scheme

We think black for display view is good. If you feel strongly, please start a thread to discuss. Thanks.

leezer3 · « **Reply #33 on:** July 12, 2022, 09:30:24 am »

Quote from: Matt on July 12, 2022, 07:54:25 am

The popup blocks any input to Media Center. That's why the close buttons are on the popup.

This is whilst not in popup mode

I click on a large field edit type, and it expands. The attached image therefore shows what I see when editing a large tag.
In order to 'close' this large edit, I have to do one of the following:
* Scroll and click into another field. (Can't just click into another field, as it fills nearly all the available space)
* Use the tab key to move to the next field.

The popup mode could do with tweaking too, now that I look at it (not something I normally use).
When this is closed, we come straight back to the open large edit as per my screenshot.

I'd (personally- others may have different opionions) put it back to the contracted state.

Basically, a clicky button to the left of Edit in Popup in my first image would to me at least give a nice trigger and visual cue to deliberately close / save the edited tag. I'd likely avoid the confirmation dialog you see when using the popup, would want to double think that though.

Done. Thanks

EnglishTiger · « **Reply #34 on:** July 12, 2022, 09:39:00 am »

Leezer - Clicking just above, or below, above the large edit box, the pink area in your image will close that edit box.

Matt · « **Reply #35 on:** July 12, 2022, 09:54:51 am »

I'll add a close button today. It's a good idea.

whoareyou · « **Reply #36 on:** July 12, 2022, 09:56:23 am »

In convolution, there is now option for reload and the combobox for filters.

What would complete the new options is a "reset" button for when you've designed a new set of filters, or just want to clean things up. Not done very often, but IMHO it would be very nice.

(I've found myself resetting by going to registry a couple of times).

Thanks!

Done. Thanks

marko · « **Reply #37 on:** July 12, 2022, 11:58:10 am »

Quote from: leezer3 on July 12, 2022, 09:30:24 am

This is whilst not in popup mode

I click on a large field edit type, and it expands. The attached image therefore shows what I see when editing a large tag.
In order to 'close' this large edit, I have to do one of the following:
* Scroll and click into another field. (Can't just click into another field, as it fills nearly all the available space)
* Use the tab key to move to the next field.

The popup mode could do with tweaking too, now that I look at it (not something I normally use).
When this is closed, we come straight back to the open large edit as per my screenshot.

I'd (personally- others may have different opionions) put it back to the contracted state.

Basically, a clicky button to the left of Edit in Popup in my first image would to me at least give a nice trigger and visual cue to deliberately close / save the edited tag. I'd likely avoid the confirmation dialog you see when using the popup, would want to double think that though.

I wondered why I was struggling to grasp what you were talking about as I have no trouble closing these large edit fields when open for editing, and upon seeing your picture, I know why...

After editing, ie. typing, hit Alt+Enter and your edits are saved and the field is closed. Since it was introduced, I do it without thinking about it. It's especially easy as your hands are already on the keyboard.

-marko

leezer3 · « **Reply #38 on:** July 12, 2022, 12:24:00 pm »

It's interesting the little things you never notice in 15 years

Two different methods of doing the same thing I've not found.

Suppose I never noticed ALT+ENTER is because my primary use of large edit fields is unediteded copy + paste data from elsewhere. (My stuff is esoteric enough to not be in any databases)

Clicking on the red bit is also not especially logical- There's no tool tip, cursor change etc to show something happens when I do

IMHO the button I propose is still a good idea- The red space is 'wasted' and a button here provides a clear prompt.
YMMV though.

HPBEME · « **Reply #39 on:** July 14, 2022, 01:06:26 am »

The change to the large edit fields for the modern tag window were desired by many many people for a long long time. And I'm so happy that Matt made these changes.

That said, the legacy tag window for large edit fields is still better. You never end up with a double scrollbar, and the header bar changes to the title of the large edit field itself with a built-in close button to return to the full list tag window. Below is a side-by-side comparison. Is there any reason that the modern tag window (left pic) cannot be made to match exactly the legacy tag window (right pic) for all the large edit fields?

leezer3 · « **Reply #40 on:** July 14, 2022, 04:40:19 am »

Button is lovely, thanks

---

Another one, which I think may well have been in the last of these threads.

Add .rm as a default video extension for import.
So simple, but a massive irritation every time I'm importing and forget it itsn't

Done. Thanks

EnglishTiger · « **Reply #41 on:** July 15, 2022, 12:35:40 am »

Quote from: HPBEME on July 14, 2022, 01:06:26 am

The change to the large edit fields for the modern tag window were desired by many many people for a long long time. And I'm so happy that Matt made these changes.

That said, the legacy tag window for large edit fields is still better. You never end up with a double scrollbar, and the header bar changes to the title of the large edit field itself with a built-in close button to return to the full list tag window. Below is a side-by-side comparison. Is there any reason that the modern tag window (left pic) cannot be made to match exactly the legacy tag window (right pic) for all the large edit fields?

There's only 1 Slight Problem - The Legacy Tag Window version does not have the Close Button so you have to use Ctrl+Edit for any changes to take effect

lepa · « **Reply #42 on:** July 15, 2022, 04:25:08 am »

Add collapse to tree item right click menu

Done. Thanks

HPBEME · « **Reply #43 on:** July 15, 2022, 08:14:41 am »

Quote from: EnglishTiger on July 15, 2022, 12:35:40 am

There's only 1 Slight Problem - The Legacy Tag Window version does not have the Close Button so you have to use Ctrl+Edit for any changes to take effect

As I noted in my post and you can see in the screenshot, there is a close button right in the title bar of the legacy large edit window - when I edit a large field and click the close button the edits are accepted.

The legacy edit approach for large fields is to temporarily "take over" the entire left panel, instead of making it an expanded field within the tag list, which is why you never get the dual scrollbars… It is only displaying a single item while in edit mode. This approach, allows for more space both in width and height, as you can see in my previous post's screenshots.

LilyAarseth · « **Reply #44 on:** July 15, 2022, 09:09:30 am »

The ability to add/change album art when connected to a remote library with authentication, editing the tag works like it was a local file but I've never been able to add album art without going on remote desktop and do it on the computer mc is running the library from and it is super inconvenient.

Matt · « **Reply #45 on:** July 15, 2022, 02:17:40 pm »

Quote from: whoareyou on July 12, 2022, 09:56:23 am

In convolution, there is now option for reload and the combobox for filters.

What would complete the new options is a "reset" button for when you've designed a new set of filters, or just want to clean things up. Not done very often, but IMHO it would be very nice.

(I've found myself resetting by going to registry a couple of times).

Thanks!

Could you explain what you're shooting for? You can already turn convolution off. And now you can pick another filter easily. So what would reset do and how would it help? Thanks.

whoareyou · « **Reply #46 on:** July 15, 2022, 06:10:14 pm »

Quote from: Matt on July 15, 2022, 02:17:40 pm

Could you explain what you're shooting for? You can already turn convolution off. And now you can pick another filter easily. So what would reset do and how would it help? Thanks.

Sure. This request is to clear out the combo box of all filter entries.

I go through a process where I narrow down my choice of filter to the ones sounding best to my ears.

At some point after I've narrowed filters down to smaller set of final candidates, I no longer need a handful of the filters.

At that point I've been going into registry editor and deleting the two keys persisting the combobox entries. So the combox is now empty and I reselect only the filters that I've decided are my "keepers".

I usually do this a couple of times until I have my final filter selections, and end result is that combo box only contains my "active" filters.

lotushomerun · « **Reply #47 on:** July 17, 2022, 02:34:35 am »

Enable an option to ignore (or entirely remove) date truncating to just the year when a file's tags are edited and saved to the file. This would prevent conflicts with other music players and having to manually revert tag edits that MC has done.

Matt · « **Reply #48 on:** July 19, 2022, 11:40:25 am »

Quote from: Buldarged on July 06, 2022, 06:08:47 pm

I've mentioned it sometimes before. Cover art in categories view sometimes is blurry, depending on the size slider.

Somewhere in MC is a logic that decides wether the original cover picture or one of its thumbnails is used to generate the shown cover art in MC.
This logic is somehow flawed.
It sometimes selects thumbnails that are too small and compressed, which are subsequently scaled up, resulting in a blurry cover art with lots of compression artifacts.

Right now we switch from using the big thumbnails to the full size render at 400 pixels. That's the size of the large thumbnail.

But the large thumbnail quality isn't the best so maybe we could try using 300 pixels next build.

Please test and let us know what you think. Thanks.

vulture_g7 · « **Reply #49 on:** July 20, 2022, 12:40:41 pm »

Ability to move up/down and remove tracks from playlist in web panel

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Too Easy VII -- Things we should do because they are so simple (Read 16918 times)