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[NickM]

Theatre View - Improvements

I have now been using the latest MC12 for a week and thought I would comment on the new (and improved) Theatre view.  I was going to do a comparison to Front Row, but then thought better to try and take on the best points of each and make some suggestions.

1.   Opening view


Front Row is fairly difficult to configure, and it’s not possible to add menu items, so let’s look at the interface.  The 4 options; music, photo’s, video & DVD are accessed through a rotating icon menu.  Pressing the left or right button revolve the icons and shows the selected on at the base with the icon title.
The fact that the icon titles for the non-selected icons are not displayed makes the display easier to read.
All the icons appear as if they are reflected above a shiny black base.
To select one, use the left or right buttons then press enter.
For MC, once you scroll to the bottom of the list, that’s it.  The focus button should wrap back up to the top.

2.   Music

Does it make sense for MC to have a full screen option?  Surely whilst in Theatre mode, it is by default always full screen and all other views are not necessary.

 
3.   Now Playing

By this stage of the menu, MC would have flipped to a “play screen”, showing cover art, visualizations etc.  MC is far ahead, in this respect.  But, for the appeal to mass market ( do I hear an echo ), why not include a “play screen” that emulates Front Row’s basic summary.

4.   Moving display

The Front Row screens scroll smoothly.  Whilst the moving menus in MC are great, more thought needs to go into what looks good.  Sometimes too much movement, just for the sake of it, doesn’t necessarily improve the experience.

 
5.   Photos

The inclusion of two effective smart lists, together with photo group names, shows an insight into how the majority (of lazy) people use their photo viewing programs.  For those who don’t tag, edit, arrange, there needs to be a default view set that will still allow a use to navigate through the Theatre view.
Note the reflection under the picture.

Summary
So here’s what I would do to improve the interface.
1.   Simplify it.  The default Theatre view and options should appeal to the mass market and be more limited (more like Front Row).  Expert users should be able to chose a new default set of Advanced Theatre view options from which to make their inevitable customisations.
2.   Remove the Full Screen concept – it should always be full screen in theatre view.
3.   Calm down the screen movements to achieve consistency of navigating hints rather than just displaying technical capabilities.

And lastly, for those who have not already used it, experiment with Front Row.  There are some subtle user interface ideas that greatly help the inexperienced user.

[Mr ChriZ]

I would love to see something more like a rotary interface.
While the new T.V. is much nicer, it still feels too "computery"
I want it to feel like something I want to have in my front room.
Something thats much easier and more obvious to use than it is now.
Definitley some huge improvements happening here, but I feel theres some
way to go yet.... I like Nicks ideas...

One thing I noticed in the new T.V.
If you open an album you get pressented with all the tracks.
It's not immediatley obvious how you can get it to play the album.
There is in fact two options,
x You press play on the first track
x You select Play All from the menu to the left, which requires moving back to the menu.

Would it be more intuitive/less clicks to move Play All to the top of the tracks list?

[raym]

I would love to see something more like a rotary interface.

Yes it does look nice but not at the cost of losing the flexibility MC offers today in terms of adding custom menu items etc..

Does it make sense for MC to have a full screen option?  Surely whilst in Theatre mode, it is by default always full screen and all other views are not necessary.

The fullscreen option really means "Display View". The ability to toggle between fullscreen/Display View and Theater View is absolutely necessary and in a way, the two views work very closely together especially when viewing images and watching movies. I agree though that the button probably doesn't really need to be on the main menu as you can configure when and how Theater View jumps to Display View and back again. I personally like to control this myslef so I've mapped Shift+F11 to a button on my remote control.

Calm down the screen movements to achieve consistency of navigating hints rather than just displaying technical capabilities.

Yeah, I like the animated buttons and thumbs but I think it's still a little much. Remeber though that it's all still in early development. What I'm personally not that keen on is the background viz. It  chews a lot of CPU cycles for my liking but again, it's early days.

[NickM]

RayM, I am not so much in favour of rotating menu's, just a more simple interface.  Custom menus are, of course, together with library functions a pivotal part of MC and it's ability to be customised beyond the requirements of a basic user.

I suppose that I am requesting the best of both worlds... Front Row is basic and uncustomisable; BUT, it can be used with no help file and a 6 button remote control.

What we need for Theatre view is a beginners mode that is equally unsophisticated and remains simple to use.
If then, users decide to delve into the guts of the program, they can customise to their hearts content.  I've said it before, and with risk of incurring the wrath of the senior developers, I'll try again; If MC is to expand it's user base and become a mainstream product, it has to appeal to the mass market, which may not necessarily be those that contribute to the forum.

Ideally we could have the best of both worlds; the ultimate customisable and controllable media program combined with an idiot proof button to start people off in the right direction.

[JimH]

If MC is to expand it's user base and become a mainstream product, it has to appeal to the mass market ...

Nick,
Try searching for "Media Center" at google or yahoo.  It's in the top 5.  It holds its own with XP Media Center Edition.