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[brennan]

Okay, may as well throw my feature requests on the pile.  I know this thread is old, but I hate to start a new one.

ALL
1.  Do something with the lower-left visualization – maybe make it clickable to switch back/forth between fullscreen/theater view (clicking goes fullscreen, then any key goes back to theater view), or maybe make it an ever-present shortcut to Playing Now a la WinMCE.
2.  Store thumbnails on local PC, even if the files themselves are on a network drive.
3.  Transitions/animations, as with Windows Media Center Edition.  A small thing, but pleasant to look at.
4.  Single key shortcut to go back to the main menu.
5.  Ability to choose different size fonts for nav bar vs. main menus.
6.  Ability to choose list/thumbnail for each menu/level individually, if desired.

MUSIC
1.  Better “Playing Now” view.  I’d like to see the current track nailed to the top, in larger/highlighted type, maybe with small (thumbnail-size) album art/visualization next to it.  The rest of the Playing Now queue could go below this and be scrollable and maybe numbered.
2.  More tag info listed in Playing Now – specifically, “[name] – [artist]      [time]”, or at least artist - name.
3.  Jump automatically to Playing Now once play is pressed, <back> takes you back to area where you actually pressed play.

PICTURES & VIDEO
1.  Choice to jump to fullscreen view automatically when viewing.

Overall, though, I think the theater view should always take an iPod-like approach: keep the UI simple and intuitive, and focus on usability by remote control.  In my opinion, since theater view is a living room thing, you should never need to pick up either a keyboard or a manual to operate it (after setup by a semi-expert, of course).

To that end, I think the requests I’ve seen for 50 additional options in the left-side bar are misguided.  Track up/down in the playlist, 2-3 enqueue options…this is way too much.  Keep it simple, or at least give the option to get rid of extra menu items if they’re going to be included.  IMO an intuitive, remote-accessible UI, good for navigating tens of thousands of files, is of paramount concern - additional features are a far, far distant second.

The reason it’s a pleasure to use an iPod isn’t the huge number of features and options, it’s the great UI.  I don’t know why home theater programs/devices haven’t embraced this approach.

That all said, this thing is getting MUCH better quick.  Great to see the work being done on it.

[lalittle]

4.  Single key shortcut to go back to the main menu.

A good idea.  Note that you can do this sort of thing with Girder by assigning several keystrokes to a single remote control button -- i.e. it would automatically go "back" the maximum number of levels, which would always get you back to the main menu.

2.  More tag info listed in Playing Now – specifically, “[name] – [artist]      [time]”, or at least artist - name.

Some care needs to be taken with this one since there is very limited space on most TVs -- too much text requires a font size that would be too small for many people.  As long as this sort of thing was completely adjustable, it would be nice.

3.  Jump automatically to Playing Now once play is pressed, <back> takes you back to area where you actually pressed play.

I think a better solution might be a playing now "toggle" button (that is mappable to a remote control key) that switched back and forth between wherever you happen to be and "Playing Now."  This way, you wouldn't keep automatically popping to Playing Now if you were just searching around playing different songs.  A Playing Now toggle would allow you to instantly get to Playing Now, and then instantely continue back where you just were.

To that end, I think the requests I’ve seen for 50 additional options in the left-side bar are misguided.  Keep it simple, or at least give the option to get rid of extra menu items if they’re going to be included.

I totally agree with this.

I'd like to reiterate that however they implement any changes, I think it's very important to offer the option of Theater View screens that had enough room around the edges to account for normal TV overscan.

Larry

[brennan]

Some care needs to be taken with this one since there is very limited space on most TVs -- too much text requires a font size that would be too small for many people.  As long as this sort of thing was completely adjustable, it would be nice.

Agreed.  Just [Artist] - [Name], with ellipses if it would go too far (e.g. "Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains th..."), might be best.  But I think having the artist information displayed should be pretty necessary.

[brennan]

Also, here's a quick mockup of the sort of Playing Now I was talking about for the music section - I don't think I described it well.

[lalittle]

That looks nice -- thanks for showing interest in this and taking the time to do the mockup.

There are two issues that would be problematic for me with that example.  First, the text on the playing now songs is way too small for my situation.  On a 27" TV, this would just not be "comfortable" to read.  I'm sure I could make it out, but my family's prefrence is to have everything in Theater View large enough that you don't have to use any effort to read it.

Second, there just isn't enough room around the edges to come anywhere NEAR accounting for overscan.  Even with graphics cards that allow extremely precise sizing of the TV output picture, if you wanted to keep the entire screen filled, you'd have to place the text so close to the edge of the screen that it would be disconcerting.  I would put a LOT more breathing room around the edges.

Remember, the primary use for Theater View is to display on TV screens, and TV screens cut off an average of 5% of the edges due to overscan.  This means setting the text in even further in order to place it a comfortable distance from the sides.

Some other things that occur to me are:

1) The fact that I wouldn't want to waste space with both the ablum art AND the visualization -- one or the other would be better for me.

2) There seems to be a lot of wasted space both below the left hand items and in the Playing Now area.  I'm not sure how to do better -- I'm simply pointing out what strikes me.

One thing that bugs me about the current Theater View is that the album art does not fully utilize a great deal of the corner square -- it always has huge black borders around it.  Making the corner area square, and sizing cover art so it fills this spot might help out quite a bit.

Larry

[brennan]

the text on the playing now songs is way too small for my situation.  On a 27" TV, this would just not be "comfortable" to read.

Agreed 100%.  However, I just copied the text size on the actual theater view, with font size set to "normal" at 800x600 - if I set the font size to "large," the menu/nav items on the left side were way too big and thus cut off.  This is why I requested that they be set individually.

there just isn't enough room around the edges to come anywhere NEAR accounting for overscan.

Agreed again.  As this is a screenshot of the program (I didn't mock it up from scratch), it really goes back to the overscan issue being a feature request.

I wouldn't want to waste space with both the ablum art AND the visualization -- one or the other would be better for me.

I tend to agree with you here, but it seems like a difficult problem given that some people like album art and others like vis.  Overall, I think I like the idea of making the lower-left box a shortcut to Playing Now (presumably it'd disappear if you're already in PN) using album art, with vis. used as a screen saver.

There seems to be a lot of wasted space both below the left hand items and in the Playing Now area.  I'm not sure how to do better -- I'm simply pointing out what strikes me.

I for one actually like some wasted space - it looks cleaner/nicer to me.  But the fonts could always be bigger, there'd be room for more info (album name, year, etc. etc. of the currently playing track) if desired, or whatever.

thanks for showing interest in this and taking the time to do the mockup.

Well, I just hope discussion/input like this is useful to the devs.  I've been a Media Center/Jukebox customer for a number of years now, but before this, I never felt the need to speak up because the program did what I wanted so well.  It's only recently that theater view has gotten close enough, IMO, to really perk me up and give me enough interest to register on the forums.  Now, it's like "boy, wouldn't it be nice..."

[JimH]

bump

[Monkeyboy]

That mockup looks good to me and I agree with all the points made apart from the wasted space which I agree with brennan, I think it looks tidier with some gaps.
something I have been on about for ages
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?action=display;board=3;threadid=21249;start=0#msg148402
a screensaver style visualisation thingy  
(goes to full screen visualisation after x minutes of inactivity)
Rich

[CDvd]

2 great features that can be added to T.V. :

1. I realise that with the little space provided by a TV, things must be kept simple, but I often feel "lost" when browsing view schemes in theater view. Never knowing where I am, where I came from and where I'll go

I propose to let the "navigation" be more intuitive which will allow neewbies (and I ) to feel more confortable,
so let's turn :

into


(bigger : http://mario.bross.free.fr/mc_theater_actual.jpg into http://mario.bross.free.fr/mc_theater.jpg

2.

(from Jaguu) Ability to define view schemes for standard view only, theather view only or both. Some view schemes in standard view simply do no make any sense in theater view.

Simple Views Schemes adapted to this mode are in my opinion welcome should be different of the often complex ones used in MEGA-Me.
I'm thinking at the V.S. I use for my shots :
Date (Year) / Country / Date (Month) / Date (Day) / City / Places / Events / People / People
I have to go through the 9 levels in order to reach a photo!!!

Just a checkbox "Show in Theater View" when creating/editing
 view schemes would be perfect for me


Hope you found this insteresting... and thanks for asking
David.

[CDvd]

Oh I forgot one I didn't see until now (I've perhaps missed it)

When browsing a View Scheme, let's say Genre/Artist/Album, be able to choose "All" for any level (like an ipod)
For example, choosing :

Genre  : Jazz
Artist : All
Album  : All

will allow selecting all jazz songs whithout the need to add a new V. S.

This can be done easily in standard view but not in T.V. (unless
 I missed something too here)

David.

[Matt]

Oh I forgot one I didn't see until now (I've perhaps missed it)

When browsing a View Scheme, let's say Genre/Artist/Album, be able to choose "All" for any level (like an ipod)
For example, choosing :

Genre  : Jazz
Artist : All
Album  : All

will allow selecting all jazz songs whithout the need to add a new V. S.

This can be done easily in standard view but not in T.V. (unless
 I missed something too here)

David.

Just a heads up that this is in MC 11 already.

Thanks

[DWAnderson]

Ability to define view schemes for standard view only, theather view only or both. Some view schemes in standard view simply do no make any sense in theater view.

Can't this be done now in an somewhat kludgy way? You can just create a new View Scheme group at the top level of the Media Library and put all your non-theaterview view schemes in here and leave the theaterview view schemes in the standard Audio, Video and Images groups? Sure, modes don't work as elegantly this way, but theaterview works much better.

[CDvd]

Just a heads up that this is in MC 11 already.

Thanks

  .... it would be nice to see it in 10 too  


...feels like I'll have to upgrade once again  

[JimH]

Our new work tends to go in the new version once we've decided a previous version is complete.

[CDvd]

Can't this be done now in an somewhat kludgy way? You can just create a new View Scheme group at the top level of the Media Library and put all your non-theaterview view schemes in here and leave the theaterview view schemes in the standard Audio, Video and Images groups? Sure, modes don't work as elegantly this way, but theaterview works much better.

Interesting solution.... I didn't think of it
But doing so will mean that I'll be stick to "All Media" mode in standart view since I don't have a lot of "simple" view schemes. In my opinion making two steps backward (returning to what was done with MC 9) to make one forward. Not the ideal solution for me.

David.

[Matt]

Next build of MC 11 will let you hand pick whether a view scheme will show in Theater View or not.

[IlPadrino]

1. I realise that with the little space provided by a TV, things must be kept simple, but I often feel "lost" when browsing view schemes in theater view. Never knowing where I am, where I came from and where I'll go
teresting... and thanks for asking
David.

The single greatest complaint I get from new users (i.e. friends who get the remote and are told to figure it our) is just that...  getting lost in the navigation.  This stems from the fact that going back on the right pane is done by going "through" the left pane but it would be fixed by having what CDvd suggests.

[Matt]

We're incorporating many of the suggestions here into MC 11 now.

Some changes already there:

• Left / right won't go into and out-of levels
• Location clearly printed at top with Hairstyle skin
• Ability to add custom webpages and programs
• Ability to customize which view schemes show in Theater View

Any suggestions or feedback would be welcome.  Thanks :)

[JimH]

Any suggestions or feedback would be welcome.  Thanks

Could you bring back the name "Hairstyle".  I really liked it.  Maybe as an option?

[Uwe]

i posted this in another thread also. But the top 3 things ( i will limit myself) are

1. Bigger bars when in list mode, or user can set the size (and rembering if album is thumnails, and songs are list ect)

2.  Bigger forward back buttons and a page down button ect.

3. Full screen spectrum analyzer when monitor goes to screen saver or idle timer built into MC which will make a full screen Spectrum Analyzer.

My reasoning for #1 is I am using a touchscreen LCD monitor. It is not the easiest to select things, such as a song name when its in list or to go back a menu. I don't know if it would be harder to use if i was at a higher resolution also, going from 1080? to 1200. Just my input. (I do not use the mouse or keyboard at all really)

Bump.

See also here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=21969

Thanks, Uwe

[Monkeyboy]

I don't think anyone has mentioned having this before, but I could imaging it would be pretty easy for the J River guys to implement.

I think it would be good if you could add a custom button to Theatre View, that allows you to launch external programs with command line parameters specified. This would be a very powerful feature.
For example, I am designing a carputer and it would be great if I could launch Autoroute from within MC.
But it could equally be a web page with weather information on it or something.

Thanks for listening
Rich

[JimH]

... add a custom button to Theatre View, that allows you to launch external programs with command line parameters specified. This would be a very powerful feature.
For example, I am designing a carputer and it would be great if I could launch Autoroute from within MC.
But it could equally be a web page with weather information on it or something.

That's in the works now.  You can see a news button in the latest build.  It will become more flexible in a few builds.

[Monkeyboy]

ahh ok, thats what gave me the inspiration, but I thought you would be limiting it to web pages.
Cheers Jim, I look forward to it  
Rich

[JimH]

More flexibility in loading programs and web pages in tonight's build:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=23225;start=msg161569#msg161569

[lpr]

Hello,

- How about the ability to change zones from within the Theater View mode with a button.

- The ability to completely exit MC from Theater View when you hit the Exit button. Not just an exit to the standard view.

Thanks.