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[espen]

First post and all that

I have been testing the media center for some weeks and I am pretty pleased
with it. I mostly use the Theater View (for music), but there is one thing.

Let it be possible to be hard to exit Theater View. If I press Escape a few times
to leave a menu I am in the end presented with a box that asks me if I want to exit
the mode. The Ctrl-n (n=number) does it without asking. I use a Streamzap remote
and its Exit button will, as Escape, close menus and in the end leave Theater View
(and worse: even without asking the user). Both Escape and the remote Exit makes
 it harder than it should to use the View in a party setting and also in normal everyday
use.

For me, it is more than enough that the "Exit" button in the left bar is the only way
to exit the View and in a party setting it could even be password protected there.

I am a developer myself, and over the years I have noticed that I (and others) often
add functionality to make it simple to leave or exit something (often with global
shortcuts) but this is something the users quite seldom request. The options are
often added because we (developers) like to have a simple way of navigating
through a program when developing.

[gappie]

over the years I have noticed that I (and others) often
add functionality to make it simple to leave or exit something (often with global
shortcuts) but this is something the users quite seldom request. The options are
often added because we (developers) like to have a simple way of navigating
through a program when developing.

true..

and welcume to the forums and all that.

[MrHaugen]

2. A polished Theater View is a must in my opinion.

You need to be more specific than that.

Ok, I will. I belive this is something that will sell more copies of MC.

When I speak of an Theater View overhaul I'm thinking mostly of the main menu. It looks rather old compared to Apple and Microsofts Media Centers.
When the main menu is fixed, the rest of the buttons and other textures in the underlaying pages would also need some work. A more shiny and glasslike buttons and textures would go a long way I think.
Much of this could probably be done with just another great looking skin. It would also help having a new super skin to emphazise that this really is a new version, and it brings something new to the table.
Not just for TV, but also for standard view, to make it complete. This makes me think of how it is today with the very good Noire in standard View, and then Obsidian in TV (as default!). What's up with that?

I'll just copy a previous idea I had, from another thread:

Tiles would look nice, but I think it's important to have it in one line as it is to day, to preserve the left and right browsing. That's prefferable imo.
Something like this just vertical maybe:



This could also work:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x                       x
x                       xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x     Tile Art                 Tile Text     x
x                       xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x                       x                            x                      x
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       x
                           x     Tile Text              Tile Art        x
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       x
                        x                            x                      x
x                       xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x     Tile Art                 Tile Text     x
x                       xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x                       x                            x                      x
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       x
                           x     Tile Text              Tile Art        x
                           xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       x
                                                     x                      x
                                                     xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                             

More tiles on less space. Almost as todays menu, just with alternate tiles left and right. Squint if my illustration makes no sence.
The best look would be to have this, or the straight vertical tiles, expanding as you mark the tile. Zoom function if you like. Much like the picture above.

Theater View is one of the most important things of a Media Center in my opinion. If it's good looking as well, it will draw more attention from people visiting.
The first impression is something that will stick and probably make people try it out, or at least ask some more questions. IF they are impressed...

[MrHaugen]

Given that a focus for MC13 is video, I think a better way to browse info (dvd covers, plot, reviews, rip notes, etc.) associated with videos would be a major step forward. I described one idea here http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=47843.0.

There are probably other ways to achieve the same objective. I'm not married to the specifics of my proposal. Just would like a convenient way to quickly browse info associated with files (or groups of files (aka albums)).

Exactly! This also get's my highest vote. Alot of people adds dvd and HD rips to their library, and also DVD's and images of them. With the tags that are there today, mostly people will not bother to enter anything except maybe the name of the movie. A way of extracting review, covers, plot etc from another source would do a world of difference. Just look at DVD Profiler. That's a great app for DVD library.

[rjm]

It's been mentioned before but thought I'd add it to this list in the hope that MC13 addresses it...

Tabs are a superb feature. Unfortunatley I have found that tabs become unusable with large libraries (>150,000 files) because of the delay they add to tag editing. I think the problem is caused by an auto-refresh that occurs after every tag edit.

To avoid the problem I now use only one tab at a time. Note that simple tabs (like Playing Now, Playlists, etc.) do not add delays to editing so I still sometimes keep one of these open when editing.

Perhaps refresh could be disabled for tabs that are not displayed?

[)p(]

yeah... i know an other one. make datatype=list in a calculated field etc behave the same as a list, with nesting. 

+1 especially the nesting for calculated panes.

peter

[xen-uno]

64 bit Linux version ce vous plait.

Complete Party Mode lockdown. Off the top of my head, it's still possible to edit tags, delete files (though not permanently), and alter the interface (ie deleting panes).

[Bonex]

Hi there!

One feature I'd like to see added in MC is the support for the small LCD screens of HTPC cases. Even a very simple one, like having the screen displaying track title, author and time during play. I know that there's a plug-in that can do this, but from some posts here it seems to be buggy and not supported any more.
Some of those LCD screens can even display Japanese characters, like the one on the Thermaltake DH103. A lot of the music I listen to is in Japanese, so it would be really cool to have the title displayed in its original language without the need to transliterate it.

Another one would be a sort of screen saver during Theater Mode. After x seconds without any user input the screen goes blank so the video card consumes less power, for example when you are listening to music and the TV is turned off.

[Phydeaux]

I have two suggestions:

The first is interface: I've recently discovered the power of the navigation tabs at the top of the window. The reason that I've only recently started using it was that it took me a long time to realise that the tree on the left was specific to each tab, even though the tree appears to be to the left of the tabs and therefore a separate thing. The idea, then, is to stretch the tab bar all the way to the left so that it appears above the tree also. I understand that it will take up space. Perhaps the compromise is to only show tabs if there are more than one?

The second is to build some mutated cross between the "radio" function and a smartlist so that we can generate seeded playlists of specific types of music. I would really find this useful for handhelds and so on. Making my own playlists is tedious. The "supersmartlists" could work by updating as songs are skipped and others fit the criteria. In the case of iPods, the supersmartlists would be updated in retrospect, based on which songs were skipped.

I hope those make sense... Let me know if I can clarify anything!

P.

[Quixote]

- AAC tagging... m4a, m4b, m4p, etc. etc.... Please let us dump iTunes!

brad

Totally second this!

[alaskatu]

Please introduce a script like this one MKV muxing script:http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=46118.0
With Library integration please.
That would be very very amazing!!!

Thanks alot!

Alaskatu

[vbrook]

Hi,

Sorry if this has been mentioned before. I didn't see it.

I think that being able to have multiple cover art (e.g. front AND back covers) is ideal.

Just to illustrate - I could "thumb" through my collection on the computer monitor, if multiple cover art were available, just as easily as I could physical media on my shelf.

V

[texaganian]

I think these have all been mentioned but I'll cast my vote for them:

* Write access via Library Server: This would be HUGE (and a full-fledged relational db would be ultracool too).

* Straightforward way to display extended tag info. Better interface for entering tag info

* SmartLists based on currently playing track (& current Playing Now).

* A Linux implementation.

[leezer3]

Please introduce a script like this one MKV muxing script:http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=46118.0
With Library integration please.
That would be very very amazing!!!

Thanks alot!

Alaskatu

That one's mine 
For what it's worth, I built the script specifically to integrate into the library. If you change the autoupdate variable or select Yes, the library will be modified. If you're looking for something further (Right-click integration?), then I may be able to do something when MC13 becomes publicly available.

I agree though that this sort of functionality would be rather nice integrated, both for video and audio
Everyone has a standard format which they store each filetype in, and if MC automatically converted files to suit this would be very nice. The major problem I can see though is the possibility of data loss- If something errors out during conversion, or a format which adds loss is used, then dumb scripting can sometimes be a real issue.

Cheers

-Leezer-

[Tolga]

- write access from library server.
- synchronization of playlists of two libraries.
- Make MC an explorer replacement. More explorer like navigation in "My Computer" within MC. (i.e. click on folders etc). This would people who don't use tagging much to use MC much more easily. (also, I still care about physical organization, i.e. for partial backups).

[Tolga]

- support for folder navigation in theater view.

[oias.heeda]

Cover flow style viewing. Please.

[raldo]

Face tagging, por favor!

[Qythyx]

I've stated my opinion in the past that MC is not ideal for non-tech savy users, and that a better strategy would be to charge more and focus on the desires of your sophisticated users. I also know and respect the fact that the majority of people on this forum probably disagree with this opinion.

I think this is mostly true. MC definitely has a steeper learning curve than other competing software, but it offers a lot more. I think this points to one of the most important things J River could do to improve MC and increase sales...improve usablitily. By that I mean taking a long hard look at the the entire usage workflow (including settings, as others have said) and see how the UI can be improved to streamline it.

I recognize this is a difficult thing to do well. We all know lots of software that is harder to use than it should be. I can't give any really specific suggestions, but I can put forward one very general idea, although it would not be easy to implement. The idea has comes from my own workflow analysis and redesign of the product my company produces. We are still in the middle of this effort, so I can't say anything about the final results. Anyway, here's the gist of it:

If you could take the skinning concept to an entirely different level such that both you and your users could arbitrarily design and reconfigure the UI compontents of MC so that trying and sharing new ideas is easy to do then it make an opportunity of the community to evolve your UI quickly and hopefully come up with multiple solutions that work well for various people. To do this I think you'd need to do (at least) 4 major things.

1. Redesign each functional UI component to be as discreet as possible so it can be turned shown or hidden as desired.

2. Define dependency connections between these components so that the person working on a new layout knows that if some action is done on one component then this other UI bit will be displayed.

3. Create a UI framework where the components can be layed out. Perhaps something including the docking functionality the Visual Studio has would be a good starting point. The framework would also need to have import/export functionality so the layouts could be shared.

4. Document the above, especially #2 and #3.


Like I said above, implementing this would not be easy. Even worse, it wouldn't address all of the learning curve areas MC currently has. For example, learning truly effective ways to tag you media is difficult. Partly because what's necessary to tag popular music is different from what is necessary to tag classical music both of which are drastically different from tagging photos. This is where MC's flexability becomes a liability to some degree. Where the above layout idea could help in this area is if the UI elements can have some ordered workflow parameters applied to them so that someone could create a photo-tagging layout/workflow that moves the user through the steps necessary to tag photos.


You could possibly use this framework to implement some of the wizard-like walkthroughs that others have mentioned too.

[EZ22350]

Since MC12 can burn audio and audio-data files to CD/DVD, how about enabling MC13 the ability to burn all file types? Surely, this feature would increase sales. 

[carbo]

2 small ones:

• Support for animated gifs
• radio "stations"

Every time I use the radio feature, I modify the filter to match my current mood. It would be great to have predefined filters just like regular radio stations: "rock", "classical", "80s"...
Also Radio should appear in the tree.
[/list]

[JimH]

...improve usablitily. By that I mean taking a long hard look at the the entire usage workflow (including settings, as others have said) and see how the UI can be improved to streamline it.

You could help us out if you would post your thoughts on settings here.

[pank2002]

User-defined integration with services. For example, I usually use photobox as printing service for photos. I would  be nice if there was some kind of API to allow me to add upload directly to MC's right click menu. This should of course be shareable.

[carbo]

One thing that can really help the usability of MC: a search box in the options menu.

I saw this feature in Directory Opus and it works wonderfully: You have an input field in the bottom of the option window and when you enter a word in it, it filters the option tree to leave only the matching items. It even circles the matching option.

[Jaguu]

From Matt's first post:

#  Ability to use my images and videos as my screen-saver
# Ability to have my wallpaper automatically rotate using my image library

Fully support this, and it should be able to manage multiple displays, so have one screensaver on display1, another on display2 and a third on display3, also setting different rotating wallpapers on different displays.

Also:
1. a frame engine for images, being able to have different frames for images (type of frames, colors, thickness etc.)
2. more configurabilty for image caption (fonts, font size, fg/bg colors, screen position etc.
3. more configurability for slide shows (similar to track info system, more than one image per slide, ability to create image collages)
4. support for photo/image frame devices
5. support for container management, user defines his own container with images, audio, video, text, kind of a project folder

We not only want to be image collectors and taggers, but really want to use the images we collect in various ways.
 

[MrHaugen]

The main problem with MC today is the high threshold to start using the program.
If something was done with this, MC could easily be sold to a much wider group of users.
You can just look at the basic configuration help in Vista Media Center. It's not the best, but it's a step in the right direction.

My thoughts goes toward a wizard as a guide to the initial config of MC.
Each group is supposed to illustrate a new window. I think it's important not to make this to time consuming for the user,
but rather include only the most used options. It could look something like this:

1. You want help configuring MC?
o Yes
o No

If yes:

2. What will you use MC as?
[] Music Player
[] Video Player
[] Image Viewer
[] Data Organizer
[] TV (tuner needed)

---- When music is selected -----

1. Import Music
o  Make MC search my computer for music
o  Browse to my music directory
[] Auto import tracks in the future

2. Online cover art and tags
[] Make MC look for album Cover art online
[] Make MC search for tags online
[] Submit tags and cover art to online database

---- When music is selected -----

1. Import Video
o  Make MC search my computer for videos
o  Browse to my Video directory
[] Auto import Video in the future

2. And so on...

* General

1. Set MC as default player for
[] Music
[] Video
[] Images

2. Select default View
o  Theater View (best for TV viewing)
o  Standard View (best for monitors)

3. Portable Players
o  Add portable player
o  No player

4. And so on...

[Magic_Randy]

How about adding support for lyrics.

If this could be added, there are many users that could quickly update the database to give it a nice start.

[Peter_T]

Theater View is one of the most important things of a Media Center in my opinion. If it's good looking as well, it will draw more attention from people visiting.

I agree - Theater View needs to look simple, sharp, and be effective by default.  I have tweaked the hell out of a custom skin that I made and it's just about there, but it should kick some ass right out of the box.  Like MrHaugen said, MC's interface pales in comparison with the competition - of course, the underlying software wins hands-down (that's why I use it). 

I like MrHaugen's example, BTW... 

[JimH]

I agree - Theater View needs to look simple, sharp, and be effective by default.  I have tweaked the hell out of a custom skin that I made and it's just about there, but it should kick some ass right out of the box.  Like MrHaugen said, MC's interface pales in comparison with the competition - of course, the underlying software wins hands-down (that's why I use it). 

Without specifics, this kind of comment is no help at all.

[dmm]

my vote also for read/write library access to better enable sharing of my music on a LAN with multiple family members using it.

[Peter_T]

Without specifics, this kind of comment is no help at all.

Sorry.  I guess you wanted us to do the UI design?  Not my area of expertise.  I just wanted to +1 Mr. Haugen's comments.

[lepa]

My list so far:
1. DVB-C support. Since you already support DVB-T via BDA-drivers, that perhaps shouldn't be that big change?
2. DVB subtitles support
3. Record multiple channels inside one DVB mux with one TV card.
 - use standard .TS container for recordings
4. Theater View Should have info view for Movie, TV Show/TV Show episode, Album and for Artist.
 - For Movies/TV Shows the view would contain info for example about actors/director/imdb rating/plot etc.
 - Artist View info  -> Artist Bio, Albums in database etc
 - Album View info -> Tracks for that album, Album Review etc

[lee269]

2 things:

I know wizards have cropped up a number of times in the past - they may be a bit 20th century, but I do think there is a place for some kind of assistance to get users into MC. Ive posted on the forum before somewhere about the first 10mins post install: create my library, play music, find music, sync my ipod etc. Same goes for TV and video Im sure. So I support MrHaugen's suggestion.

Will the change sell more copies of MC? Yes, I think, by word of mouth and ease of use.
Is the change of general interest? Yes for triallers, non experts etc I think. I usually avoid wizards once I become familiar with a program - as long as the wizard just repackages commands/options and doesnt take away the detailed functionality thats OK.

• radio "stations"

Every time I use the radio feature, I modify the filter to match my current mood. It would be great to have predefined filters just like regular radio stations: "rock", "classical", "80s"...
Also Radio should appear in the tree.

I posted the same thing here too, glad Im not alone.
Will the change sell more copies of MC? Not worth $40 on its own, but a simple addition (I think)
Is the change of general interest? Yes, probably everyone at some time wants to just press the play button and hope MC matches their mood.

[Temeryx]

1) Like previously mentioned, grabbing meta data for movies form an outside source.  Couple of ways would be able to import data from an xml file that programs like DVD Profiler, Movie Collector, etc... create.  It is my impression that a commercial program such JR Media Center would need to pay a fee to IMDB to grab their data. An open source, free alternative would be movie-xml.com, which is user maintained.
2) Just like movies, it would be nice to grab meta data for TV Shows as well, there is a free open source website for this as well called thetvdb.com.  The data is also user maintained, and it has a rather large community as well.

I do not know what kind of issues would have to be dealt with using those websites, Those two websites are very popular for the open source and free HTPC programs such as Media-Portal, but being a commercial program might make it more difficult then just using their API, for whatever legal reasons.

Theaterview:

1) I think the best way to describe it is this;  A Skin designer should be able to create any number of pages that could contain any buttons, any data from tags, and any graphics, and backgrounds anywhere on a page they want.  Basically theaterview should be completely customizable.  That is a big reason the HTPC frontend Meedio has been kept alive 2 years after the last update is because people are still creating completely new and original skins, it is so open people have figured out how to do pretty amazing things with it.
2) For the out of box experience though, Theaterview should have a few things.  The now playing page should contain more data for the song that is playing, possibly lyrics, bios, that type of information.
3) If there is data for movies, and tv shows, there should be page for each movie that shows, actors, overview, ect...  TV shows should list each episode, and show the same type of info.

It is hard to describe so though I am sure you guys probably have done this, look at the some of the skins for mediaportal, xbmc, and meedio, there are some beautiful skins out there, Aeon for xbmc, is one of the most amazing.  The interfaces are very nice they just don't have the power behind them like Media Center.

I really think a fancier theaterview, with movie and tv show data, could attract a lot of the HTPC crowd.            

[melkiades]

So I'd love it very much if we could define profiles in MC:

- super light MC
- medium
- heavy

You could define various profiles, each one having more or less plugins/features/options, thus giving you much more control over the resources.  I'm asking this because I want to start offering playlists to restaurants and we don't want MC to crash in the middle of a tune or start having hickups on a track like my version has started doing since my last patch upgrade (version 12.x.x.x). 

Cheers
melkiades

[Caezza]

Real easy request here...

Please include one simple dialog box attached to the "Exit" button of the "Record Sound" menu such that if a recording is in progress, "Exit" prompts you to "Save" OR "Discard" the recording. At present Exit dumps any active recording without so much as a whisper.

As we use this feature regularly with guest operator of our projection machine - it's proving to be a real gotcha! Ouch.

Thanks heaps.

[Twit]

I'd like the ability to drop in a playlist (given to me by someone else) and MC would search my music to try and 'fill' the playlist with my music.

[boydn]

Make CD burning easier..  My son used to use Nero where he could build a folder structure in the bottom pane and then drag and drop files into the folder and hit burn.  In the MC case we would also need to convert file type before burning.
The current system uses a "rule based" folder structure that is too difficult for normal people to set up and burn one cd.  Then have to reinvent the wheel next week to burn the next one....
Thanks

[DaremoS]

• More complete support for .mka files (chapters, tagging, internal images, attachments)
• OSD based quick TV channel selection - I may be missing something here, but at the moment trying to move 10 channels is a slow, tedious and frustrating business)

Count me in this too 

and also full support for WavPack (.VW)

[benjamin000]

And one more just to don't forget it: more upnp compatibility with xbox 360, ps3 and wii.
thanks a lot

[thenoob1]

I think wavpack decoder is already included in MC12, but maybe I'm wrong.

-- I think you can download it here:
http://mcplugins.sourceforge.net/

[skeeterfood]

• radio "stations"

Every time I use the radio feature, I modify the filter to match my current mood. It would be great to have predefined filters just like regular radio stations: "rock", "classical", "80s"...
Also Radio should appear in the tree.
[/list]

Totally agree with these!

Something like the way "Web Media" works under Audio.
Audio
  Radio Mode
    Station 1
    Station 2
  Web Media

-John

[Matchbox]

I'd like to see the concept of "virtual albums".  Think of creating a playlist that looks just like an album mixed in with all the other albums.

Right now, playlists are separate entities, what if we could mix them in with the albums with their own artist/albumName tags?

[Peter_T]

2. A polished Theater View is a must in my opinion.

If you need some inspiration, XBMC has some great skins... AEON, for one.  And I love how XBMC grabs album & artist info from allmusic to incorporate into the UI/menus.  It makes it feel like your collection is maintained & supported by something big... MC could use this approach or use it's own database (like it does for cover art and track info).

http://www.aeonproject.com/

[Alex B]

I'd like to see the concept of "virtual albums".  Think of creating a playlist that looks just like an album mixed in with all the other albums.

Right now, playlists are separate entities, what if we could mix them in with the albums with their own artist/albumName tags?

MC already has the needed functions internally. I explained how virtual albums can be created in this post three years ago: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=29082.msg201123#msg201123

Only a usable user interface is missing.

[thurston]

Sorry.  I guess you wanted us to do the UI design?  Not my area of expertise.  I just wanted to +1 Mr. Haugen's comments.

And I agree with Peter.  Mr. Haugen's example is exactly the direction I'd like to see Theater View's interface design headed.

[GreggP]

I'd also like to see improvements with Theaterview (don't currently have the time to offer specific exampes - sorry). As it is now, I rarely use it. In fact, for most things my wife and kids much prefer using Vista Media Center. The main reason VMC is superior is the interface for watching and recording TV and the integrated EPG. We also own SageTV and still prefer the VMC interface. For watching movies in VMC, we use the MyMovies plug-in. I especially like the separate MyMovies application for adding movies to the database and editing related info/tags.

When I want to listen to music, I exit VMC and use MC. However, my wife and kids still prefer VMC. I explain that there are all sorts of great Auto Smartlists that depend on the play stats, etc., and none of that syncs between VMC and MC.

So, like MyMovies, would it be possible to create a plugin for VMC that ran off the MC engine? This way you could use the VMC interface, but any play stats would update your library database.

[justsomeguy]

There are some great ideas here for the next major version of MC.  I'm excited to see how it progresses.  There is one feature that I have mentioned in another thread here (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=48026.0) that I would love to see implemented in the next version.  Basically it would be the ability to have MC physically apply the replaygain value directly to the mp3 file so that the advantage provided by players with replaygain ability built in (ipod) could be enjoyed on players that don't, like most car stereos.  At the moment it requires a multi step process and multiple programs to accomplish this.  It could be done by MC on the fly as it sync'd the external device.  Another option brought up by Alex B would be a plug-in that might accomplish this as well.......  So what do others here think?

[dees_74]

I know you said focus would be less on music, I'd love an additional visualization in Theater view that offers customizable tag info.  In other words, the rotated cover art view + tag info only (no extra graphics).

I love the clean look of the rotated cover art view on my TV when music is playing, but there is no info visible (track, year, etc.)

[p7389]

Xbox 360 and (but I guess MC already does this since it's upnp..?) PS3 streaming. This has been requested before.

However, here's something of interest that I stumbled upon: http://a8t8.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2518DD508BB713E8!156.entry

I didn't read it to carefully since I obviously don't use WMP anyway, but what it seems to be saying is that you can stream FLAC to the 360/PS3 (I assume it will convert on-the-fly..).