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[park]

Maybe something for MC13, but I've been thinking recently about the way I browse.

Although I've spent a long time carefully tagging all my movies, and want to be able to use as many groupings as possible to filter my files, I'm finding that having lots of panes makes general browsing in tiles view and theater view really hard. A typical browsing viewscheme for me consists of about 6 panes with "Filter in both directions" on. I only really use [Type], [Genre], and [Album] for most browsing, but I use [Country], [Keywords], and [Rating] often enough for it to warrant making panes for them.
I consider these latter 3 panes more of "Secondary" panes, hence putting them furthermost right. That way I can filter with my most useful three panes and just select something from the files list below.
The problem is, that when I am in Theater view or tiles view and i get to the [Album] level, I can keep on entering the next 3 panes which aren't really very useful at that point.

If you're still reading, thanks. 
Anyway, here comes the suggestion.
How about combining all of your secondary type panes into one! In this mockup, a pane contains a series of grouping buttons, that when clicked upon, launch an overlay tickbox list. When you tick one, that list entry could be placed underneath the button to show you how the list is being filtered, with a little "x" to the right of it, to clear that selection. At the top of the pane, you could have a "Reset pane" list entry.
I think that these "Pickers" inside a pane are similar to using the search bar at the top of the program, but better because they would always be there in front of you and need less clicks to quickly make selections.

The way I figure, they would only be useful when "Filter in both directions" is on, or if they act globally to filter/overide all the normal panes.
I guess that this pane could also be ignored by tiles and theater view, thus making a very simple viewscheme when browsing that way.

The images I linked to:
A typical Viewscheme
One pane with pickers

[hit_ny]

I think that these "Pickers" inside a pane are similar to using the search bar at the top of the program, but better because they would always be there in front of you and need less clicks to quickly make selections.

I'm not getting why this is any different than the currently existing panes. It seems like another way to do the same thing.

What does your method *add* ?

[Mr ChriZ]

Screenspace, and the ability to filter only by what's in
your mind at one time, rather than some very static view you
made a view months ago.

I like the problem, but I think
the soloution needs more thought, it looks confusing.

You're sort of looking for a quick pane selector.
Which might be better coming off the Right Click Pane Menu?

[hit_ny]

OK, and i guess execution time, as MC does not have to filter for another 3 panes.

Thing is currently i would have just used the 3 panes and the search bar to narrow further. Clunky but i'm at a loss for something better.

I think there is maybe the inherent desire to be able to point and click here a la theater view, less dependence on the keyboard.

is theater view the final destination for such a view scheme, park ?

[park]

Everybody is always asking for quick searches, or search history, since they often use the same search queries. This is kind of like that, in that you set a bunch of groupings that you use often (but not so often that they need to be a pane in their own right), and then you have quick one click access to filter out all the panes to the left. (Eg. In my picture, I would click "America" and all the panes to the left, and the bottom files list would only show American content.)

The bonus, like mrChriz said, is that you save on 3 panes worth of screen space, without losing out on search options. You also get to do it more quickly and easily than using the search bar at the top (which gets cleared easily, or is a pain to modify if you add more than one rule). And finally, it saves you having to whack a bunch of "secondary" panes (panes you use sometimes, but not always) to the right of your [Album] pane.

I cant think how this pane would work in tiles view, or theater view. Since each button in the pane launches an alpha blended menu, I dont think it would really work in those views. They should ignore it when they see it. Thus striking the balance between having a powerful viewscheme in "Panes" view, and a simple (only 3 panes) viewscheme in Tiles/Theater view; all using just one viewscheme.