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[Monkeyboy]

Now that MC 10 is out can we please get some of the Theatre View enhancements that I believe are needed. The first 2 were very popular when ideas for 10 were floating about.

1. A screensaver option would be useful, for both saving our precious diplays and having something else to look at. It would be nice if either the windows screensaver was allowed to be active or MC switch to full-screen visualisations, then when you move the cursor it goes back to playing now for example.

2. Another popular idea is MC remembering where you are (navigation wise) when you come out and go back into Theatre view

3. I have a problem using thumnails in Theatre view, in that when they are enabled, the text under them is very limited and sometimes you cannot tell specifically what you are going to play. I think it would be good if the highlighted files text scrolled so you can read the whole name, I am not sure if there is an easier solution to this.

4. A playing now button on the front panel would be nice, but if 2 is implemented this is not neccessary

Thanks very much for listening.
Rich

[Matt]

#1: It's a bug. It'll be fixed in MC 10.0.123. (only affected some screen savers)

#2: It's a good idea.  Look for it in MC 10.0.123 as well.

#3: I think scrolling text might drive me (and others) crazy.  Can you play around with the Theater View size setting or output resolution?

#4: Hopefully #2 takes care of it.

Thanks.

[Monkeyboy]

Thanks for replying Matt, I think you misread my #1 though
I would like the option to have full-screen visualisations come on after 2 minutes of idle in Theatre View (or windows screen saver).

I know scrolling text sounds bad (although just the highlighted might not be so bad), but the text has to be big to be readable but this means that the name is cut off. Maybe 2 lines of text as an option? Any other ideas?
I wouldn't have thought I was the only one with this problem.

Cheers Matt, look forward to build 123
Rich

[fatt_fill]

Agree text may be annoying but wouldn't mind just the selected / highlighted item with scrolling text - or some alternative - I also find this to be a problem

Agree also with the screensaver / visualisation.  Maybe have an option you can tick to enable some kind of "after x seconds of inacvitiy revert to full screen mode (vis / cover art), then go back to previous theatre mode screen upon keypress/mouse move.

Looking forward to next release.
Cheers
Phil

[BullishDad]

#2: It's a good idea.  Look for it in MC 10.0.123 as well.

Matt, does this mean when jumping between modes, we will no longer be presented a menu for Theatre Mode, but  go directly to the screen that was showing before (usually Playing Now for me)?

If so, that would be great! Thanks.

edit: Now that I'm using 10.123 I have found out that the answer is YES!  I've been asking for this a long time.  Thanks so much for getting this done.

[matthewmattical]

Regarding the "#3" problem, I think the best solution would be to follow Windows XP Media Center's idea instead of scrolling any text. When an item is highlighted, its full name is printed out at the top of the screen in a larger font, above the thumbnails and everything else. This seems to make the most sense, as you don't have to worry about limited horizontal space for text. Is there a way to do this with the current Theater View variables? Last time I played around with the XML, this was not possible.

[enigman]

A few things I'd like to see for Theater View (and please correct me if these are already features and I'm just too dumb to figure them out):

A "Back" button which is distinct from the "Left" button.  It would be nice if it were possible to stay on the right "File" side of the screen and still be able to jump back a level, rather than having to cursor over to the left "Actions" side before being able to go back.

Better control over "Playing Now".  In normal mode, it's possible to rearrange the order of songs in "Playing Now", but I haven't been able to find away to do this in Theater View.  Is there something I'm missing?

One-click add to "Playing Now".  Adding a file to "Playing Now" seems to require 2 to 3 clicks.  I have to select the track and then click on the "add to playing now" button.  If I've already added a track from an album, and realize that I want to add a new one, I have to unclick the previous track, select the new track, and then click on "Playing Now".  There should be an option to just have a single click add tracks to the playing now cue.

I use MC on my TV, and have been wanting to swich over to Theater View for my every-day tasks, but I don't quite feel like it is a good enough substitute for the normal mode - perhaps you guys just set the bar too high and I'm never going to be happy with anything short of the full interface.  We'll see.

Thanks,

--Tim

[Matt]

A "Back" button which is distinct from the "Left" button.  It would be nice if it were possible to stay on the right "File" side of the screen and still be able to jump back a level, rather than having to cursor over to the left "Actions" side before being able to go back.

Done next build.

Better control over "Playing Now".  In normal mode, it's possible to rearrange the order of songs in "Playing Now", but I haven't been able to find away to do this in Theater View.  Is there something I'm missing?

That's tricky to do well with only a few buttons.  Let us think on it.

One-click add to "Playing Now".  Adding a file to "Playing Now" seems to require 2 to 3 clicks.  I have to select the track and then click on the "add to playing now" button.  If I've already added a track from an album, and realize that I want to add a new one, I have to unclick the previous track, select the new track, and then click on "Playing Now".  There should be an option to just have a single click add tracks to the playing now cue.

Play button (on your remote) / space bar will play the currently selected item.

Thanks.

[enigman]

Cool.  

A few thoughts for how to implement #2: Have a playlist toolbar that defines actions for the currently selected track: Move Up, Move Down, Delete, Play.  

For #3, does this automatically start playing the selected track, or just put it in the "playing now" cue?  I'm looking for a way to add things to "Playing Now" without interrupting the current playlist.

Thanks again,

--Tim

[sixdoubleo]

Cool.  

A few thoughts for how to implement #2: Have a playlist toolbar that defines actions for the currently selected track: Move Up, Move Down, Delete, Play.  

I second this idea!  This would be awesome, as there currently is no way to delete a song from "Playing Now" or move it up or down in the order.    Even if you don't add these to the interface, at least enable the DELETE key so it works in Theater View and add a "Move Up" and "Move Down" keystroke command.  Then we could assign them to our remotes.  My "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down" buttons are patiently waiting to be "Move Up/Move Down"....  

For #3, does this automatically start playing the selected track, or just put it in the "playing now" cue?  I'm looking for a way to add things to "Playing Now" without interrupting the current playlist.

Tim,

I usually tag the songs, then move to the left and select "Enqueue".  This does what you're asking.  Although I would like to see a one-keystroke equivalent called "added selected songs to playing now" that I can assign to a remote button.  Sometimes I'll select say 4 songs, then cursor left and accidentally go too far left and cause it to go back out.  Then I gotta reselect the album, and retag the songs.  It's a very minor annoyance, and I could probably fix it with some additional anti-repeat wait in Girder, but a one-button "Add to Playing Now" would be sweet.

[Monkeyboy]

Regarding the "#3" problem, I think the best solution would be to follow Windows XP Media Center's idea instead of scrolling any text. When an item is highlighted, its full name is printed out at the top of the screen in a larger font, above the thumbnails and everything else. This seems to make the most sense, as you don't have to worry about limited horizontal space for text. Is there a way to do this with the current Theater View variables? Last time I played around with the XML, this was not possible.

This sounds like a really nice idea, and if you were able to customise what was displayed it would be even better (like playing now is at the moment, eg [name] - [artist]).
Rich

[bennyd]

Other features that would be nice are:

- That you can select a seperate track info to display (different from the one you're using in Mega_me)

- When playing TV that the left menu shows the timeshifting & recording options without having to navigate to the display options.

[lalittle]

The "Playing Now" screen in Theater View does not update streaming radio station info for the station that's currently playing.  If you want to see the current song, you need to go to another station and come back.

Larry

[lalittle]

Matt,

I finished modifying the Theater View skins to account for overscan.  Are you still interested in these?

Larry

[Urrri]

Hi!
Media Center looks very very interesting program. I'm searching now for one of the similar program for my Media center computer. I use it with TV and Remote Control (without Keyboard and Mouse) and I need Theater mode. Most of found programs works well with DVD and CDDA, but I need program, that also works with data CD, that contains miscellaneous multimedia files (video, audio, pictures of different formats and in worst case texts, documents, power point and other office files).

Now, features and behaviors I need for Theater mode:
(may be some of them already implemented)
1. Of course DVD, CDDA, VCD(SVCD...) playing
2. TV with time shifting and capturing (also from video input like VCR, Camera, etc.). Nice to have Radio from TV card.
Support for famous TV cards. (see ShowShifter for reference)

3.When I insert disk, player should recognize it and attach to list. If player does nothing it should open appropriated section and, optionally, start to play content.
In case of data disk it should show content (optionally by folders or all in one list) filtered by supported formats or by user defined filter(s) (if directory is empty after filtering it should not appear in list)
3.When I start playing, player should automatically switch to full screen mode (but not in case of error like 'nothing to play')
4.When playing (pause is also playing mode) should be possibility to switch between theater and full screen modes (only 2 modes. I NO need window mode on TV ). In general switching should be between window and theater modes. Inside this modes you can switch to full screen and back.
5.Nice to have: Remember (and restore) for disk/file last playing position and bookmarks(e.g. digits 0-9. shortcut + digit after it saves bookmark)
6.I want to see in some way (bar or/and time stamp) playing position, when I seek forward or backward.
7.When seeking, nice to see (for video) picture where we are now (see MPlayer for example).
8.Very nice to have: when I pressing seek shortcut for long time seeking should accelerate (for Remote control shortcut will be called multiple times in short time).
9. Very nice to have: possibility to jump to position by entering time (shortcut in full screen opens edit box for 4 digits. Entering last digit makes jump)
10.Nice to have: possibility to see position, remaining time, total remaining time on screen corner like 'display' mode in regular DVD players (can be switched by one shortcut in loop). In the best case this option can be customized by user (what to show, list of possible items, etc)
11.Should be shortcut to change (when playing) aspect rate in loop (show selected one on the screen corner for short time).
12.When playing finished (stopped, end of list, disk ejected) player should restore previous screen and mode.
13.When disk ejected, player should stop playing (only if it playing item(s) from disk) Without any dumb Messages and should clear information about disk (list of files, etc). If there are items from another media in playlist, player should skip to first available item in list instead of stopping.
14.Must be possibility to choose subtitles file for video file (remember for next time) and nice to have automatic subtitle choosing if exists file with the same name + "_***.ext". e.g for 'video.avi' can be files 'video_eng.crt' or 'video_fr.sub' or 'video.sub' etc. (See BSplayer for reference).
15.Please, don't show message boxes in theater and full screen modes. The best way - ignore problem and continue or make most logical actions to pass the problem.
 e.g.
 - Disk ejected - close player, clear disk info.
 - Disk inserted - scan and show content.
 - Cannot play - skip or do nothing (mark as wrong or hide).
 - Error when playing - try to recover, if cannot skip (see MPlayer - it shows all possible even you have 5% of file alive and this data fragmented)
16.For video files nice to have some additional options like video filters, brightness, contrast, zoom in/out, etc.
17.In theater mode: screen items, that you cannot reach by keyboard (navigation arrows) should not appear on the screen - it confuses user. You have 4 arrows and Enter buttons under thumb preview, that are unachievable.

And, please, catch exceptions.

Thank you.
Urrri

[Monkeyboy]

Thats quiet a big list you have there.
Installing Vobsub will fix your subtitles problem.
I personally like the following and have been meaning to suggest such options.

6.I want to see in some way (bar or/and time stamp) playing position, when I seek forward or backward.

10.Nice to have: possibility to see position, remaining time, total remaining time on screen corner like 'display' mode in regular DVD players

11.Should be shortcut to change (when playing) aspect rate in loop

one more thing that gets me, when you are at the top of a list in Theatre view, pressing up does not goto the bottom of the list, meaning you have to navigate the whole way down. I think this would be a major improvement.
Rich

[Urrri]

For now when I insert disk with mm files in theater mode I cannot reach even one file in case of VCD, disk contains directories or non-multimedia files or there are no mm-files in root directory of disk.

I can reach files only if they placed in root directory or in window mode.

[Monkeyboy]

Sorry, I cant help you in the case of VCD, I have never tried them in MC. I would have thought they played very much like dvds. try right clicking on the drive in MC and clicking play
Rich

[Urrri]

I try, but it do nothing. It even not recognize disc as VCD, but as simple data disk. In window mode it shows tree of the disk but dont want to play DAT files. I theater mode it shows ? sign and do nothing like with another data disks, that have directories and no mm entries in the root