More > JRiver Media Center 32 for Windows
Split Playing Now
LTMH:
I have a weird little touchscreen (1920x480) as a secondary display for various things and realized that it would be a good spot to hold mediacenter. however, after hours of messing with various settings and trying to find any sort of wiki or forum post with info, I have a useable layout, but it isn't ideal, and it would be solved easily with one simple change that doesn't seem to be an option: allow the user to choose between a horizontal or vertical split for the playlist and the now playing display...
I've tried various workarounds. Split view could potentially solve this issue with Player on both views and the list & display panes maximized in their respective views:
but as soon as the track changes, both views update to have the exact same setting, depending on which view was adjusted last (so both will be the playlist or the cover)
or
my workaround it to stick Overview in the second view:
this lets the cover art update as the song changes, but unfortunately you're stuck with a big ugly "Player (current)" header that doesn't seem to have a way to be hidden (can it?), and you have a tracklist under the cover art that just stays static (it does scroll) so the correct track is never displayed. this can be hidden with a horizontal scrollbar, but then you have a horizontal scrollbar.
so is there any way to arrange the playlist and cover art side by side instead of top & bottom AND have both update with the currently playing track that I've so far been unable to find? either to have images to the side, or have split view allow different views of player simultaneously (one view detail list, one view thumbnail list for example)
Also, it would be cool to have a more touchscreen friendly\tablet mode that's a bit cleaner, hides the tab bar at the tab, hide the spotlight button etc
EnglishTiger:
The simplest answer is that there are no options, including ones you may not have found, that can reconfigure the MC Window in a way that would satisfy your requirements.
Nor would the MC Team consider implementing what you consider a "simple change" because that "simple change" would require the designing, programming and testing of a brand new skinning engine.
HPBEME:
--- Quote from: EnglishTiger on January 26, 2024, 04:15:47 pm ---The simplest answer is that there are no options, including ones you may not have found, that can reconfigure the MC Window in a way that would satisfy your requirements.
Nor would the MC Team consider implementing what you consider a "simple change" because that "simple change" would require the designing, programming and testing of a brand new skinning engine.
--- End quote ---
Like the OP, I too have always desired 2 Playing Now windows that were independent in order to show cover art in one half, and a visualization in the other. But just as the OP described, you can set them to be different while the song is playing, but as soon as the next track begins, MC reverts both playing now tabs to be identical. However, the fact that MC can have different layouts initially in each Split View, indicates to me (admittedly not a programmer) a code adjustment that allows them to continue to remain independent as tracks advance cannot be that difficult to do. Right?
Most media players show the play queue and currently playing item side-by-side (just as the OP desires). If MC provided this familiar layout by making the Split Views independent, it might ease the transition of new users from other players, and thus more likely to convert an MC trial into a paid version. In addition, Split View in general is far underutilized IMO. If JRiver enhanced Split View with the above request and fixed its various glitches, that would put even more distance between MC and all other media players.
Hopefully Matt decides to work on the OP's request, and if he does, I have a couple more ideas that would really supercharge Split View (if Matt is interested).
And to the OP… spectacular post with all the screenshots explicitly illustrating the issue. Nice work.
LTMH:
--- Quote from: EnglishTiger on January 26, 2024, 04:15:47 pm ---because that "simple change" would require the designing, programming and testing of a brand new skinning engine.
--- End quote ---
I'm going to have to disagree here, while I'm not a programmer and have very basic programming knowledge, I do work with programmers daily and know that the play window should be more or less "just" a table, or nested tables, it is already user scalable, users can add and removed columns, and the area that displays the cover art\play doctor\search is a single cell that loads content. it would function exactly the same if it was moved to the left or right or even beneath the playlist and load the exact same background colour or image. I don't see how shifting a cell when it already dynamically scales and adds\removes columns and rows would require an entirely new skinning engine.
Matt:
Today you can pick if split view should use rows or columns.
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