Topic: If MC is going to handle everything how do I ... (Read 3029 times)

RhinoBanga · « **on:** January 10, 2003, 02:04:28 am »

Get the Windows Explorer shell extension not to stop playing my music when I double click on an a JPG to view it?

Is there an option to allow multiple instances of MC?

Matt · « **Reply #1 on:** January 10, 2003, 04:20:26 am »

We still need to flush out the logic between when it's exclusively images and when it's a mix of images and music.

Stay on us until we get it right.

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #2 on:** January 10, 2003, 04:30:20 am »

Ok Matt ... but while you're thinking about it here's another one.

I was listening to an album and I downloaded a .AVI file which MC played and dumped my playing now

I think it should have suspended my playing now, played what came to it via an external source (in this case IE) and then gave me the option to resume my playlist.

Does that sound reasonable?

Matt · « **Reply #3 on:** January 10, 2003, 04:45:11 am »

Does that sound reasonable?

Sure, but I'm not totally sure how to make that obvious for users.

You wouldn't _always_ want Playing Now stored and restored, but if you have to manually do it, it loses its intuitive feel. (and no one will find it)

You're good at this stuff -- have any other ideas?

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #4 on:** January 10, 2003, 05:03:16 am »

Quote

You're good at this stuff -- have any other ideas?

Multiple instances

Seriously though I think just a right-mouse menu option "Resume Previous Play Now" and have an option that says "Automatically resume playing now" that will resume playing now after playing any music/video that comes in externally.

Of course you should still play the music if you're viewing images.

How does that sound?

ZRocker · « **Reply #5 on:** January 10, 2003, 06:07:26 am »

My 2 cents:
You can have multiple Playing Now lists by using Zones...just stop the current playing Zone, switch to another Zone and play from there...and resume the previous afterwards? I'm not sure how to auto-magically do this via Windows Explorer plays or downloads, but Zones are a pretty kewl/usefull feature that might 'help' solve the problem.

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #6 on:** January 10, 2003, 06:15:01 am »

It's hardly a user friendly solution for a software package that is positioning itself as front end for all media types.

Imagine using Microsoft Word and everytime you opened a document it closed the previous one you had opened.

I forsee this being a major issue that has to be thought thru/resolved if MC is serious in it's intentions.

Matt · « **Reply #7 on:** January 10, 2003, 09:56:17 am »

I forsee this being a major issue that has to be thought thru/resolved if MC is serious in it's intentions.

Agreed. We're still fielding ideas though.

Anyone else?

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #8 on:** January 10, 2003, 10:01:45 am »

Autoelph · « **Reply #9 on:** January 10, 2003, 11:13:51 am »

How about options to have other associated files, upon activation, default to external apps, as in that avi coming in from the internet going to WMP instead, as MC is in use with music files. Or, have the files default to a different zone as Z suggested. You could have options for certain file types to default to certain zones (that would be so cool). Just my 2 cents.

Bishop · « **Reply #10 on:** January 10, 2003, 12:34:01 pm »

Quote

Multiple instances

Seriously though I think just a right-mouse menu option "Resume Previous Play Now" and have an option that says "Automatically resume playing now" that will resume playing now after playing any music/video that comes in externally.

Of course you should still play the music if you're viewing images.

How does that sound?

I second this idea. Many times I'm listening to my playlists while surfing and I come upon a video/audio link that I want to check out. It would be great if the playlist "paused" let the new media play through (via the net or explorer) and then resume the playlist where it left off. That would make for a very smooth media experience.

RhinoBanga's method of allowing this seems simple enough to understand and use.

Marko · « **Reply #11 on:** January 10, 2003, 03:31:28 pm »

PhDSM posted some ideas on this in another thread.
Dynamic views and "show now/play now" sound neat i
ideas imo.

Quote

Hello,

I've moved to MC9 from MJ8 recently especially to have acces to image (I've loaded 6000 photos from Ulead PI album).
Overall the application is ok except a few bugs and design issues listed below.
Best Regards,

PhDSM
-----------------------------------------------------------------
MediaCenter 9.0 Feedback

Bug:
http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=beta;action=display;num=1042213146
[*Edited in the name of relevance*]
Bug or design ?
1/ Year is not initialized to 0 instead of space

2/ When updating tag in a file which is read only, the file is untouched and there is an error message which is a normal behavior.
With Image file, itis different, the read-only file is copied and the original is modified which means the readonly file has been modified !

Design:
When listen to music if you want to show image, the music stop because Image and Music
share the same playlist.

A big improvement would be to separate "now" list for Image(show) and Music(play).
> we will have 2 lists: Playing Now for sound and Showing Now for image

When right click on element, enable Show and/or Play depending on the media type
When right click on an album or other grouping
if Play is presses all sound/video items are moved to PlayNow,
if Show is pressed all Image or Video are moved to ShowNow.

In such case, as we can have concurrently 2 files "processed" (i.e. one MP3 and a JPG),
it is important for visualization/track info to have access to field of both files

Also to improve image shows, it would be good to have transition mode as
a possible field in the image tags

For slideshow have the option:
when 2 consecutive images are "Portrait", show them side by side altogether

Other nice improvement in the browser
Create Dynamic View scheme:
> i.e. in the View editor add a "Dynamic" Check box
> then when you click on the the scheme it doens't open, but let you choose dynamicaly the next level of detail (from the list defined in view scheme)
So this way you can change the order without needing to define multiple schemes
-----------------------------------------------------------------

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #12 on:** January 11, 2003, 12:48:43 am »

The more I think about it the more I suggest MDI is the way to do ... people are familiar with how it works and there is the standard "window" menu item to switch documents.

Playing now would become a list of MDI windows and each MDI window would contain what is curently shown in the playing now window, i.e. the currently playing file at the top and the list of contents at the bottom.

Have a right-mouse menu option to switch to another playing now would be a good convenience UI.

When an external image/video/audio file is passed to MC it is shown in a new MDI window.

lee269 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 11, 2003, 10:53:35 am »

Im not clever enough to think through a perfect solution here, and Im not going to go toe to toe with the coding Gods in this thread, but...

Slightly related to this is the Undo feature, which is one of my issues with MC9. At the moment Im not clear on what it actually does (or undoes). I think it should at the very least modify the menu item to tell you what you are undoing. So Edit/Undo Replace Playing Now would go part of the way in this case. This would be still valid even if you implemented MDI, which would be interesting, BTW, because it implies a view of playing now and the library simultaneously, which a lot of people have asked about.

Time for a kebab now (and viewers in the UK will realise that that means take all the above with a pinch of salt because the poster has had a few drinks on a Saturday night...

)

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #14 on:** January 11, 2003, 10:58:11 am »

lol ... don't forget the chilli sauce on that m8!

(Rhino loves kebabs)

Matt · « **Reply #15 on:** January 13, 2003, 11:09:18 am »

How's this for a solution that doesn't require big changes:

Right now, "Play" from external sources replaces Playing Now.

Instead, "Play" could add new stuff after the current item, and hit the "Next" button. That way, when the clip finishes, MC would naturally move on to what you were playing before.

Could that be a workable solution?

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #16 on:** January 13, 2003, 11:30:41 am »

Not really as I would want it to listen to what was currently playing while I view, say, a JPEG.

How about allowing multiple instances but make any subsequent MC instances read-only, i.e. disallow DB updating, burning, etc?

matthewmattical · « **Reply #17 on:** January 13, 2003, 12:55:58 pm »

Multiple instances and/or MDI as a solution is no good. That just adds unnecessary complexity to a program that is supposed to intuitively handle all media types. Three separate playing now views (as someone above suggested), one for each media type, seems fine to me. Depending on the media type played from the library, it would automatically load into the corresponding playing now...running entirely independently of the other playing nows.

This would allow simultaneous image viewing and music listening...although video and audio at the same time may be a bit confusing. Nevertheless, I'd much prefer a seamless setup like this to anything having to deal with multiple instances of MC or even multiple floating windows inside MC. The separate media types also need their own corresponding media icons to show in the library as well.

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #18 on:** January 13, 2003, 08:51:02 pm »

The problem with that solution is that it wouldn't allow you to compare two JPEG images together.

Also just because something is MDI doesn't mean it has to be "complicated". For example you could have a list of open windows as tabs at the top of the screen. One click and you have changed views ... how can that be complicated?

matthewmattical · « **Reply #19 on:** January 13, 2003, 09:33:39 pm »

Alright, true...so that'd basically be the same as having 3 playing now views listed in the tree view to switch between. Hence, multiple documents. I just don't want any extra interface elements when it could be integrated seamlessly into the current setup. What do you mean by comparing JPEGs together. Both open, side by side?

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #20 on:** January 13, 2003, 10:20:18 pm »

Yes or even tab'ing between multiple ones just like you tab between web pages, etc.

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Author Topic: If MC is going to handle everything how do I ... (Read 3029 times)

Autoelph

Marko