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[benn600]

I have been thinking that it would be nice to have some new views for albums and their cover art.  Recently, I noticed after using iTunes for the first time in 6 months that it has its own type of display which I think WMP11 mimics.  It shows the cover art on the left to be scrolled vertically with songs listed on the right.  That would be really handy.  Also, something like cover flow on the iPhone and iTunes.  That isn't as appealing, though.  I am mainly looking for the first view.

I feel that the first view is the best because it really gives you, at a glance, info on what songs fall under each album.  In the standard Album view with covers at the top and songs below, it's not very easy to see what songs are on each album specifically.  Plus, I have noticed by watching my family members that they are a bit confused at the beginning of where to actually view songs--they have to hover and click Files.  The iTunes view described provides a very clean view incorporating both cover art and files.

I would greatly appreciate this view.

[Osho]

I highly commend this suggestion. I find the same problem when setting view to display album covert art. I don't like to see the details all the time though because the covert art display is really nice for going through tons of albums. However when I select a particular album or only one album is selected a combined "covert art + details" view is what I would like to see instead of just the covert art of one album that I have selected.

thanks,
Osho

[datdude]

I definitely like the current way it is, but I always thought some sort of pop up box with details and selectable files would be really nice when the mouse is hovered over for a few seconds. 

At the very least the 'view' link should auto open when hovered over, I think that would eliminate some of the confusion.

[datdude]

A nice idea would under the wiew link to have a top level 'Details' link that shows a complete page view of the album.

[benn600]

I'll be honest: I'm not a big fan of hover features, ever.  I want the info to be there.  In fact, I have this inherent, built in automatic feature of ME that I tend to move the mouse somewhere where popups won't occur because they: 1) cover important info, 2) clutter up everything 3) are annoying 4) rarely needed.

That's just me.  That's why I would like a view like iTunes.  I was hoping that someone would respond and say it's already built in...just click here and there..because there are so many features that some get hidden.

It might work to just add a Combination mode or something like that to the drop down where you switch views.  Some nice, easy to understand word which basically means the most efficient view...the best view.  That seems like a good way to integrate it.

[Robert Taylor]

You can do the view album art thing on the left view now (if I'm reading your description correctly).

Edit your view scheme.

Under Columns To Show

Add Field -> Image-Large Thumbnail

(or Small Thumbnail; whatever suits)

Move that field to the top of the list (ie. the leftmost column)

There ya have it...

Notes:

The cover art size will be defined by the number of tracks to a degree.

ie. two album covers @ 500x500 pix

One album has 4 tracks, the other has 16 tracks. The 4 track album art displayed will be shrunk to fit vertically into the 4 track list, making it smaller than the one shown for the 16 track album. You'll see what I mean soon enough.

I am still experimenting, but this view does seem to bog down when viewing an MC library off a network share.

[AustinBike]

What would be great for views is a way to import/export them.

I would love to have a library of views to choose from and be able to send views to friends instead of having to tell them the 37 steps to take in order to get exactly what they want.

If MC had a dozen or so views that shipped default it would be great.  I'd rather delete the ones I don't use rather than try to build new ones.

[benn600]

OMG!  That is what I was talking about.  I told you that Media Center was probably already capable.  Now the only requirement is that you sort by album or it will not size the cover art correctly.

Now I do notice that the cover art is limited to a smaller than really neat size.  It seems to only cover 30%-50% of track listings.  I'm surprised it doesn't increase in size if you widen the width of the title bar.  Is there a way to allow the covers to get larger?

In any event, I'm amazed to see that.  Is there a way to add a line break between each album?  So at album change, add line break.

[benn600]

That would be great if there was a right-click on views and then Export and it could be to some proprietary J River format since I don't know of another program that could even touch the features.

[benn600]

How does MC determine where to put the thumbnails?

I album view sorted by album, it works great.  The covers show up at the top of a changed album.  They could be a little larger, but in any event...I'm wondering how it works in images.  I turned that on in images and it seems to randomly place a large thumbnail in some areas and not others.

[Robert Taylor]

You can SAVE and LOAD your view scheme columns and sort order from the Customize dialog window (look under Preset).


People have been asking for some sort of view scheme export facility for a while I think.

JRiver, when you save a list of columns in the Customize current view dialog, where do they get saved? To the registry?