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[Zardoz2293]

Dear Media Center Gods,

I have been using your product since version 7 and have enjoyed the many new and exciting features that have been added over the years.  However, I continue to experience a missing enhancement that would provide a more productive experience.  I am requesting that you seriously consider adding positive feedback in the search area for 'playing now' items.  Currently the only visual cue you receive is if a song in the search criteria is actively playing (yellow/orange right arrow).  All other songs have a blue glyph (eighth note).  If the songs in the search criteria were in the "playing now" list matched had a green with arrow glyph (or otherwise) you could easily tell the items were already in the 'playing now' list.  Frankly, I don't know what others experience is, but since my exposure to Media Center (Jukebox) this has remained a "major" and frequent discomfort to using the product.  As a long time Windows developer and having implemented similar functionality in various products and evaluating the elegance of your design, I am confident that your developer experts would be able to implement such an enhancement with minimal effort (less than 30 minutes).  Below is a detailed image and example of the “Playing Now” and “search criteria” relationship that I am referencing:



(click image to enlarge)
 

Thank you for you attention and serious consideration of this UI enhancement.
Lars

[Matt]

There's nothing particularly hard about implementing this, but could you explain why it's important to you?  It's not a request we hear often.

Thanks.

[Mr ChriZ]

Interesting idea, i like it!

[Zardoz2293]

Dear Media Center God Matt,

Often I am adding songs from my search criteria to the ‘playing now’.  There are several things that keep making me desire this feature (not in any order).

• Most of my time is spent in the search criteria;
• It isn’t unusual that I am interrupted from my own personal multitasking and when I return it isn’t clear to where I was -- having a visual cue would clarify what my last activity was without having to click to ‘playing now’ and then back again and performing the search again (assuming I knew what it was).
• Performing or changing the search criteria often results in many of the same songs that are in the ‘playing now’ -— this isn’t a problem and is desired.  Having the visual cue would allow me to select the additional songs I desire instead of often adding songs that already exist (in the 'playing now') as well as adding the same song by the same name (different cut for various reasons – artist, year, etc.)  Not having this means that I eventually need to go to the ‘playing now’ select ‘remove duplicates’ and then hunt down the duplicate songs of other types.
• I have noticed that often when I double-click to add to playing now list that I can’t tell if the item was in fact added (I use a wireless mouse and although almost perfect it isn't, including not factoring in my 36 hours at of double-clicking and the two gallons of coffee). 
• I also believe that while selecting songs and adding them to the ‘playing now’ list that having a visual cue for those added would enhance the selection process from the available search criteria — more of a qualified list in your mind where you add additional criteria beyond the displayed items.

Matt, I know there are other observations I have made regarding this, but at this time that is all that comes to my mind after a long run on that coffee.  I hope this clarifies my experience and observations.  I appreciated your immediate reply and consideration.

Thanks,
Lars

[Doof]

I never really thought about it much, but this would be kind of cool to have. Currently, while we browse the library, we can easily see what file is currently playing, but if we saw a song we liked and wanted to hear, it would be nice to know that it's already in Playing Now so we don't need to add it.

[jeffspl311]

OK, in the spirit of collaborative brainstorming, let me take this idea and offer what I think is an improvement that builds on it.

• The main problem I have is adding things to the Playing Now that are already on it, or that I played last week at the club (I have a no repeats policy from week to week). I currently handle this by saving my playlist from last week and creating a view which excludes the tracks from that playlist... I can't pick them if I can't see them. This solves half the problem, BUT, there is no way to eliminate songs that are on my current Playing Now. Thus, I would like to see Playing Now appear in the list of playlists that I can include/exclude from my custom view.
• An alternative to excluding songs from the Audio view would be to mark songs in the Playing Now with a different glyph, just as Lars suggests. BUT, that doesn't address my no repeats policy issue, which I would like to handle in the same way. Thus, I would like to see the special glyph being applied to the songs from whatever playlist(s) I want, including the Playing Now. In this way, If I get a request for a song from last week that I want to honor despite my policy, I can see it and select it without having to change my view scheme.

Thanks,
Jeff

[hit_ny]

BUT, there is no way to eliminate songs that are on my current Playing Now. Thus, I would like to see Playing Now appear in the list of playlists that I can include/exclude from my custom view.[/li]

Create a playlist "playing Now" which has ~d=t (database location playing now) and then exclude it.

I think it only works if tracks in PN have been imported already.

[dcwebman]

I'll chime in and say I like this different icon showing in every details view to let me know it's in Playing Now already. A lot of times I go through trying to build up my playing now list for 4-6 hours worth from either the tree or library view and it would be nice to know I had already selected a file.

[jeffspl311]

Create a playlist "playing Now" which has ~d=t (database location playing now) and then exclude it.

I think it only works if tracks in PN have been imported already.

Thanks hit-ny, that's pretty close... I created the playlist you suggested and modified my view scheme to exclude it. I played a song and refreshed the pane with the view scheme in it and poof... the song vanished like I wanted it to. BUT, when I cleared the playlist and then refreshed the view scheme pane, the song DID NOT RETURN to the view scheme. Is this a bug or do I need to do some other magic?

Also, even if I get this working as it should, I still would like to see Lars original idea implemented too!

Cheers,
Jeff

[EpF]

the song DID NOT RETURN to the view scheme. Is this a bug or do I need to do some other magic?

The Playing Now database retains all tracks played from any MC session; when you close MC and open it again, the database only shows what is currently in the list.

[hit_ny]

Yep, cos its still in the cache..only way is to restart to clear it. I'm not sure if this a bug or not. Hmm, i wonder if you can clear PN w.o a restart.

You said when u delete the track in PN it did not show up in your viewscheme, is that track still in the ~d=t playlist ? If so, would selecting all in that playlist and deleting clear the cache ?

I like zardoz idea, i see its value particularly if you have a loong list in PN.

[jeffspl311]

Because the ~d=t playlist is a SMARTlist, deleting from there makes MC think I want to delete the track from my library...  Good thought though.

Cheers,
Jeff