For those (few) of use who are trying to make MC the premier HTPC playback program, total control of all the functions is highly desireable.
The mjextman control switches are a great step in the right direction--letting us choose playback zones, playlists, & various modes is fabulous!
However, I want MORE
Ideally, I'd like to have a full-featured Girder plugin that can pass Windows messaging paramters to (& from) MC. The plugin would be able to send every command that MC understands, from the basic (play, pause, stop, etc.) to the complex (sort ascending/descending on column #x, jump to visualization plugin "CrazyBeautiful, locate by "Album" "artist" "playlist", etc.) to the insane (control of DSP effects, and so on).
The two main problems I'm having now are that I have to jump through hoops in order to activate commands that are only available through toolbar button presses or that are buried deeply in the menu structure. Also, keyboard control of applications is not always the most reliable.
The program "ZoomPlayer" (
http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/) is supposed to be a great model for external control options. It has commandline switches, a fully customizable keyboard interface, the ability to export most (if not all) of its commands into a Girder-readable files, & best of all--documented Windows messaging parameters that let the users do the work of integrating.
What do you think?
Brad