Topic: What features of MC are the most important? (Read 4491 times)

JimH · « **on:** January 16, 2003, 02:48:06 pm »

We're starting to work on the new web pages for Media Center. Here's a look:

www.mediajukebox.com/mediacenter
or
www.mediajukebox.com/mc (same page, shorter URL)

What did we forget? What would you say?

Thanks,

Jim

ChicoSelfs · « **Reply #1 on:** January 16, 2003, 02:55:19 pm »

One note Jim, the picture of MC on that main page have to be actualized ( http://www.jriver.com/~jriver/misc/mc.jpg ) it says Media Jukebox 9.0 instead of Media Center 9.0 but that's not a big deal, the main page for Media Center is looking very good, good joob

Polonio · « **Reply #2 on:** January 16, 2003, 04:08:33 pm »

Quote

What did we forget? What would you say?

I most like three features which very few jukebox has (if any). I like:

- The coverart's album view (just one picture per album, not the one you are actually showing).

- The "to do" smartsplaylist (incomple albums, unttaged albums, and so on).

And the most important feature to me is:

- The album type clasification in the schema. "Single artist, multiple artist, complete, incomplete, ...".

That are the pictures I would include. But I am the kind of person who is reluctant to pay, so never mind

Regards,

Polonio

10sne1 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 16, 2003, 04:17:59 pm »

You didn't mention the ability to not only look at your files in the Windows Explorer type of menu - but actually view files on handhelds, MP3 players and load your music directly from Media Center to your handheld unit. I love this feature!

Kurt Young · « **Reply #4 on:** January 16, 2003, 04:52:44 pm »

The most important part to me, that you haven't mentioned, will be TV and PVR features.

Also, I'm definitely hoping that one day Hairstyle will == Windows Media Center's front end. Hubba hubba!

zevele10 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 16, 2003, 10:19:57 pm »

My 2 shekels

You need to show/speak more about the jukebox/music part

As Polonio said.

Show also a track info template whith sleeve and lyrics

And the 'incomplete album' and all this part of the features

nila · « **Reply #6 on:** January 17, 2003, 12:17:21 am »

I agree about showing the view scheme that is album covers rather than just song covers.
To me song covers is a pointless way of looking at it. I know tracks by their name not their cover. I know albums by their cover as you buy the album with a cover.

I'd be a lot more interested if I saw a picture of MC using covers for the albums instead of seeing the same picture repeated tons of times in the screen shot.

Phil Lee · « **Reply #7 on:** January 17, 2003, 01:59:09 am »

The most important feature for me, and the reason I bought MC, is your support for the iPod.

cct1 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 17, 2003, 05:39:01 am »

Quote

The most important feature for me, and the reason I bought MC, is your support for the iPod.

That's exactly what hooked me too.

Griff · « **Reply #9 on:** January 17, 2003, 05:54:47 am »

Quote

What did we forget

DVD

KeystoneCop · « **Reply #10 on:** January 17, 2003, 06:38:40 am »

tagging and yadb lookup. the tagging works better than most other software, thats what got me to buy.

the yadb needs to grow. was a lot better for me before the change. I am still willing to wait for it to mature.

Bob in LA · « **Reply #11 on:** January 17, 2003, 05:41:26 pm »

Hello Jim (and all JRiver friends and family),

I'm still using MJ (so I can't help you with describing my favorite MC features), but I just wanted to give you some general marketing/graphics type feedback.

The first screen doesn't seem to have anything but the sample screen and two pull quotes from the reviews. If this is the first screen people are going to see on MC, I think it needs to work alot harder. Also, both these reviews are for MJ 8.0, so I think it's a little misleading to use them for MC.

The second screen is OK as far as it goes, but it seems to focus on features, and very little on how to use MC or the benefits to the user. Visually, it's not obvious if the text pertains to the image above, below or to the side of it.

Just my two cents.

Good luck with all this. Marketing and documentation seem to be more work than developing a product and sometimes don't get the attention they deserve. I think your smart and wise (as usual) to get input from the forum.

Mastiff · « **Reply #12 on:** January 18, 2003, 12:48:43 am »

Risking to sound like a broken record: multi-zone, multi-zone, multi-zone and the ability to control it all via NetRemote. Just waiting for the final selection/addressing method...

KingSparta · « **Reply #13 on:** January 18, 2003, 03:13:10 am »

Quote

Risking to sound like a broken record: multi-zone, multi-zone, multi-zone and the ability to control it all via NetRemote. Just waiting for the final selection/addressing method...

Mastiff

If your in Zone1 And if no one Is In Zone2, Does Zone2 Really Play?

Charted At 10 In 1983 'Twilight Zone'

Listening to: 'Twilight Zone' from 'The Best Of Golden Earring' by 'Golden Earring' on Media Center 9.0

phelt · « **Reply #14 on:** January 18, 2003, 07:42:56 pm »

I will second what Bob in LA said, and go a bit further.
When looking at any marketing material I try to forget any prior knowledge of the product and see if I understand what it does and why I should buy it. I don't think that 's necessarily going to get across with those pages.

If I understand the basic principle of MC, it's something like "organize and experience all your music, photos, and video your way - all from one program"
So while feature specifics are important to cover, there is room to focus on how MC can be used and be useful, IMO. Last, no offense to anyone intended, but some better layout/graphic design might go a long way.

Mastiff · « **Reply #15 on:** January 19, 2003, 12:36:11 am »

Quote

Mastiff

If your in Zone1 And if no one Is In Zone2, Does Zone2 Really Play?

That depends on if Schrodinger's cat is a alive or dead, and also if a butterfly flaps it's wings in Moscow or not.

lee269 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 19, 2003, 02:49:26 am »

I think Bob and phelt have hit the nail on the head, and I like phelts quote in particular. The organisational features and the all-in-one nature of MC are its main strengths for me, and I think that should come across up front.

Heres a blurb to illustrate. It will be obvious that Im no advertising copywriter, but it was a fun exercise for a Sunday morning.

Organise your media your way. Want to arrange your pictures by subject, date, and location? Categorise your music by artist, album, genre and assign a star-rating to your favourite songs? Or sort your videos by director, cast and year? Do it easily with the most powerful, flexible media library there is. You can add as many custom categories as you want.

Play your media your way. Create a slideshow of your holiday snaps, and add a music soundtrack from your song library. Get the party started with a playlist of hot tunes. Or let MC do the work with an Auto Smartlist. An hour of random music, a CD of MP3 favorites, an audio CD of recently played tracks. This and more are what "Auto Smartlists" are about.

Integrate your media into your life. Copy music from MC onto your portable digital audio player. Make a CD of music for your car. Record your favourite shows with MC and watch them on your TV. Got more than one soundcard? Play different music simltaneously in different rooms, or the same playlist from every speaker. Use Media Server to stream your music to your PC at work.

Tolga · « **Reply #17 on:** January 19, 2003, 08:52:35 am »

I think external tool support will also be important. Although maybe not in this release, unless more support is added.
(See: http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=beta;action=display;n um=1042150189)

Jaguu · « **Reply #18 on:** January 20, 2003, 01:20:35 am »

Once a product reaches a certain amount of features it becomes more and more difficult to sell individual new features.

It is here that it comes in handy to think in selling szenarios. In what context is MC going to be used:

Media Jukebox
Home Theater
HiFi Replacement
TV Integration
Family Photo Album
etc.

When you set up MC there should be a wizard that ask in which context the user is going to use MC, ask a couple of questions (about how MC is going to be used, about attached hardware and maybe software to integrate automatically under external tools!
Then MC would set it up accordingly.

This is similar to set up a Windows2000 Server, where you are asked for what purpose you are using it for: Web-, File-, Print-, AD, DNS, RAS Server etc. and then the system sets itself up accordingly.

Jaguu · « **Reply #19 on:** January 20, 2003, 01:31:43 am »

I feel the hardware integration is really important!

Before my PC crashed I managed to successfully attach my Video Recorder to MC and copy a video tape to disk.
Well, this is a function that I could imagine would be possible, but was it really obvious? Don't think so!

Is it obvious that you can redirect the screen to a TV and control MC with a remote tool? Don't think so! Have not tried it yet!

Is it obvious how to use Media Server? Don't know!

Is is obvious how to set up and use MC in a networked home environment. Maybe the cracks know how to do it properly.

To use MC is still a lot of trying and finding out on your own. This takes a lot of time, so the benefits of MC are there, but the user has to dig deeply for them to be discovered.

Autoelph · « **Reply #20 on:** January 20, 2003, 05:31:03 am »

The Dbase functions tied right into player:

Can't say enough about this, I've tried MM (sloooooooow with my size DB) WMP (please!) Realone (not too bad for Real, but it aint MC) and I won't even mention Winamp's DB (what were they on that day?)

The album art view (yes, the individual album view, not each song, and I wish there was a way that the toggle view button didn't show me the single song album art listing).

The connectivity to my Nomad. The software that came with it (was it Playcenter?) was a joke, and didn't work correctly (I forget the issue, I just d-loaded the MC plug and never looked back.)

Autoelph · « **Reply #21 on:** January 20, 2003, 05:38:15 am »

(Pulling a Columbo) Just one more thing.

Now that I've discovered hairstyle (I'm actually completely bald, btw

) that one is right up near the top of my list, now.

Polonio · « **Reply #22 on:** January 20, 2003, 11:03:26 am »

Quote

I wish there was a way that the toggle view button didn't show me the single song album art listing

I vote for that.

I don't think any sober person would like that pointless list. But I can be wrong: In fact, it occurs me millions times a day.

phelt · « **Reply #23 on:** January 20, 2003, 12:27:42 pm »

Album Artist

JimH · « **Reply #24 on:** January 21, 2003, 12:06:13 pm »

Thanks to everyone for a great list of omissions. I've added most of them. A few exceptions where I thought the feature was too complex to explain in the space available.

Thanks especially to phelt and lee269 for your wordsmithing. I stole pretty freely.

Here's the page again. It still needs tuning.

http://www.mediajukebox.com/mediacenter

nila · « **Reply #25 on:** January 21, 2003, 01:11:27 pm »

I like the general gist of the page now with the images and text. A picture speaks a thousand words is a very good saying and counts well in this case.

The page itself though, using this format, needs some tuning. Right now it looks very basic and spread out.
It needs to be nited together more closely and tightly to make it look more professional and consise.

Just my opinion though

JimH · « **Reply #26 on:** January 21, 2003, 01:40:34 pm »

I agree. It needs work on layout and on words.

10sne1 · « **Reply #27 on:** January 21, 2003, 03:59:41 pm »

Jim it is MUCH better. You're on the right track. There are so many great features of MC that must be pointed out because the program shoppper doesn't know what to look for! So many of the available features go above and beyond!

Autoelph · « **Reply #28 on:** January 21, 2003, 06:17:57 pm »

It's rather convincing and to the point. Very nice.

Rudy · « **Reply #29 on:** January 22, 2003, 02:21:48 am »

my ¤0.02....

MC does so much, having everything together on one page can be overwhelming. There is a piece of software I use for music called Acid (still amusing when my 10 year old says "hey dad, can i use acid tonight?"). Anyways, it also does lotsa stuff and I like the way the page was laid out and presented. Maybe some ideas for MC.

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/Products/showproduct.asp?PID=704

lee269 · « **Reply #30 on:** January 22, 2003, 08:53:19 am »

I think this is much more on the right lines. Text and layout needs tweaking of course.

I know there are Flashphobes out there, but seeing as you use it on the site anyway, have you considered producing some Flash demos? I think things like use of zones/Media Server in particular would lend themselves to a graphic tutorial. Im thinking stylised rather than detailed, eg a floorplan with speakers in different rooms flashing on and off to illustrate zoning, etc.

phelt · « **Reply #31 on:** January 22, 2003, 08:54:59 am »

Much better content. Still needs layout, as Jim pointed out.

More thoughts, all IMO:
If you address the fact that it handles more HW devices, it's probably good to show more than one HW device.

Thumbnails: Better to have zoomed-in screencaps that do not show all described options but can be understood at a glance. It supports the verbiage better, looks better, and is more likely to be clicked on for the full-size version.

Showing transitions (as an interstitial still, not animated) sells transitions better than a dialog box. Maybe that's sub-page content.

Because MC has so many features, it's tempting to throw a ton of stuff on the page. I think a fast-loading overview page which links out to more detailed feature pages is something to consider. (I know, I know, that IS the overview page

)

A nice note: I haven't had time to play with MC as much as I would like, and the new page informed me about features I had not noticed.

JimH · « **Reply #32 on:** January 22, 2003, 09:04:13 am »

Here's another version:

http://www.mediajukebox.com/mediacenter

Autoelph · « **Reply #33 on:** January 22, 2003, 10:21:45 am »

Design wise, it has a lot of white space, which is not really necessary in a web situation. It would be nice if it could be tightened up. Rudy's suggestion wasn't bad, I personally own quite a bit of Sonic Foundry software, and although it wasn't necessarily the web design that brought me in, they do very well and certainly have some pretty good marketing techniques.

urlybird · « **Reply #34 on:** January 22, 2003, 01:09:17 pm »

Important Features of MC

a) Interact forum .....

b) Slideshow plugin - I love it (especially the find on internet option) - even mismatches are fun

c) AutoUpdates - check for updates feature works well, don't know why you don't use it for Betas (as an option)

urlybird · « **Reply #35 on:** January 22, 2003, 01:20:52 pm »

Will MC have

a) support for Dishnet and Directv broadcasts ?

b) scheduling of recording from Dishnet and Directv
to computer or digitial recorder (eg JVC DH-30000) ?

c) support for HDTV features (aspect, HD/SD resolutions etc) ?

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: What features of MC are the most important? (Read 4491 times)

zevele10

nila

phelt

Autoelph

Autoelph

phelt

nila

Autoelph

phelt

Autoelph