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Author Topic: Touchscreen interface on the way  (Read 3096 times)

axeme

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Touchscreen interface on the way
« on: November 12, 2003, 02:11:49 pm »
I was hoping to find that you had planned to integrate a SKIN/FEATURE for TOUCHSCREEN and LOCKDOWN capabilities.

There seems to be a lot of desire out there for this, but no one is designing any that are good.

apejukebox had the right idea, but dropped the ball.

a couple German companies tried the same, but did a bad job.

The needs are to have a simple, party lock-down interface, with the interface's button large enough to be touchscreen compatible.

We also need to be able to lock it down so that people at the party cannot delete our tracks, or even make changes to the library.

The desire is there for a simple, searchable interface (big buttons), with play queues, album art, and a protection to our libraries.

Media Center 9 allowed me to delete a track from my drive while in PARTY MODE.  Not sure how the heck that was supposed to be safe.

Anyway, please update us if there are plans for this.
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jleerigby

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2003, 02:18:57 pm »
A quick and dirty win would be to allow MC to be locked in Hairstyle Mode whereby it can only be unlocked with a password - otherwise a reboot would be required.  The Lock / Unlock functions could go on the set up page in Hairstyle.
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gpvillamil

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2003, 12:39:18 am »
This would be an easy feature to add and useful.

Most people I've shown MC9 to assume that Party Mode is Hairstyle. (As I've mentioned before, NO-ONE can guess what Hairstyle refers to - it is a lousy name for a great feature. Also Mega-Me and Mini-Me are lousy names. I work with a lot of people who have never seen the Austin Powers movies, and they don't get the joke.)
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twalls

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #3 on: November 13, 2003, 12:58:42 am »
I agree about the party mode. I was amazed at what could be done to the library while in party mode. It would also be nice if people were locked out from the rest of the system. I think the hairstyle approach could work. Meanwhile, it should already work pretty good with touchscreens/tablets.
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JimH

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #4 on: November 13, 2003, 06:36:29 am »
Quote from: gpvillamil on November 13, 2003, 12:39:18 am
Most people I've shown MC9 to assume that Party Mode is Hairstyle. (As I've mentioned before, NO-ONE can guess what Hairstyle refers to - it is a lousy name for a great feature. Also Mega-Me and Mini-Me are lousy names. I work with a lot of people who have never seen the Austin Powers movies, and they don't get the joke.)
Maybe we should change Hairstyle to gpvillamil?
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LisaRCT

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2003, 07:39:43 am »
Quote from: JimH on November 13, 2003, 06:36:29 am
Maybe we should change Hairstyle to gpvillamil?
Quote
::: sniff sniff :::
Is that sarcasm I smell?   :o

My aren't we witty for such an early hour?   :P
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gpvillamil

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2003, 08:12:04 am »
Quote from: JimH on November 13, 2003, 06:36:29 am
Quote from: gpvillamil on November 13, 2003, 12:39:18 am
Most people I've shown MC9 to assume that Party Mode is Hairstyle. (As I've mentioned before, NO-ONE can guess what Hairstyle refers to - it is a lousy name for a great feature. Also Mega-Me and Mini-Me are lousy names. I work with a lot of people who have never seen the Austin Powers movies, and they don't get the joke.)
Maybe we should change Hairstyle to gpvillamil?

Ok, ok, I'll lighten up on this. But the deal is this: I'm building media centric super-quiet PCs... in Japan. My customers already have a hard enough time dealing with English menus... trying to explain to them Mega-me, Mini-me & Hairstyle is really confusing, when everything else is relatively clear.

Don't underestimate what a problem this is, when trying to position computer audio to a broader audience. In-jokes make the software seem strange or "geeky", not something you want in your living room. iTunes & Windows Media Center have this nailed - sure, their features are nowhere near as complete, and it's not as much "fun", but the initial first impression is much clearer. Changing wording to make it clearer doesn't require any coding, and improves your positioning vis-a-vis the others.
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JimH

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #7 on: November 13, 2003, 08:17:56 am »
OK, I understand.  Try making a few changes in this file:

C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\Data\Default Resources\Resource.xml
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gpvillamil

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #8 on: November 13, 2003, 08:28:40 am »
Perfect. Problem solved. I'm happy!  :)

Same file has let me re-map the Fullscreen/Hairstyle toggle too. On Japanese keyboards the "Menu" key is mapped to Hiragana/Katakana toggle, so I've changed it to F6 and shift+F6. Still testing that assignment, it may change...

[edit] Whoops, F6 is used by Japanese IME. Will find another key mapping.

[edit] Dreamweaver is great for working on MC9 XML files, I'm working up a set of templates for Track Info, Hairstyle, etc.
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Uwe

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #9 on: November 13, 2003, 08:43:23 am »
nearly perfect...
when you change for example "hairstyle" into "gpvillamil"  ;) this has no effect in the menu of the mega-me screen. There still appears "hairstyle". I hope i am wrong ..

I completely encourage the idea of the touch screen support. When an app supports a touch screen it must be very simple and logical in handling...

Uwe
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JoshFink

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #10 on: November 13, 2003, 08:46:46 am »
You can always use the MusicLobby/Main Lobby front end with a touch screen. That's what I use and the Jukebox mode is great.

http://www.cinemaronline.com

Josh
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Uwe

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #11 on: November 13, 2003, 09:01:35 am »
yes, but i have to pay just for another front-end.
i spent money for a nearly perfect mc...(and that's ok)

Uwe
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Dave T

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #12 on: November 13, 2003, 01:13:21 pm »
What about NetRemote?    It's free, and similar to MusicLobby.  There are some great interfaces already built, and you can build your own.  To see some sample screens, go to http://www.netremote.org, click on "Gallery", and there are some there.  A good candidate for touch screen is there, too, if you click on "click here for other interfaces".  (I'd post links, but the site is session based).

There are also some other really cool interfaces people have done that aren't shown there.

- Dave
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Uwe

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #13 on: November 14, 2003, 02:12:07 am »
Dave,

thanks, i'll check that. So far i thought Netremote is only for PPC, but no! Maybe it's possible to run MC and Netremote on the same machine...

Uwe
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kiwi

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #14 on: November 14, 2003, 05:25:53 am »
You can definitely run netremote on the same machine w/o problems.  And/or on other PCs...

kiwi
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jleerigby

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #15 on: November 14, 2003, 07:19:11 am »
I don't have a touch screen or a PPC but NetRemote sounds interesting.  I currently just use hairstyle with Girder.  Would NetRemote give me the all singing all dancing sexy looking interface that hairstyle users crave?
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Dave T

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Re:Touchscreen interface on the way
« Reply #16 on: November 14, 2003, 08:49:58 am »
JLee:

I don't know what you have in mind, but if you're willing to build your own screens in NetRemote, the sky's really the limit.  Lots of people have done some neat designs using Photoshop.  Or, you can use one of the prebuilt screens.  

It's easy to install, and free.  Why don't you just check it out?  NetRemote has its own forum, similar to this one, and you can get help there, if needed.

- Dave
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