There have been some good changes in relation to viewing files in theatre view, and I know customisation of the file info panel for theatre view is in the works.
I just had a few questions/comments about how all of this might come together, with particular focus on movies.
I think there are two levels at which we want to see information, and no single model can work well with both:
Browsing files - At the moment, the files (whether a list or thumbnails) are on the left half of the screen, while the right side is broken up into art (on the top) and information (on the bottom). Some have commented this isn't much room to display much information (if you have more than a couple of fields filled out you need to do a lot of scrolling - it isn't all that user friendly and ends up looking a bit messy). Also, it has been noted that the need for clicking/hitting enter on a file is just one extra unnecessary step when this info could be displayed simply on selection. Furthermore, the coverart appears twice if we're using thumbnails in the scroll list. I think this method of browsing is better suited to file lists (eg individual song names etc) rather than thumbnails.
Proposed alternative model: Rather than scrolling up and down a grid-like view of thumbnails, with art and info squished on the right, we could scroll left-right across a coverflow-style view, with basic metadata displayed at the bottom. Such a view allows you to see a few movies to the left and right, but the focus is on the selection. You have a basic 3D view which hasn't really been properly integrated into the program thus far... this could be extended to accommodate just a single row of movie posters, for example, with information like Year, Director, Genres and maybe Tag Line underneath. Once the user has seen the poster and this basic information, they may ask for...
More details please - So I have paused over a file, had a cursory glance at the basic metadata available in the file info panel. Now I want to see more about the file - synopsis, reviews, extended metadata etc. There is no mechanism for this anywhere in MC at the moment, unless we open the Tag AW which isn't really appropriate for theatre view. The file info panel is too small to show this stuff in any meaningful/useful way. What I think could be really beneficial here is an "Information Card" for the item. The card would contain the poster/coverart and fields/information for the file in question (customisable per view scheme maybe) and would take up the entire screen. Anyone who has used PVD will know what I mean. Maybe this could be useful in standard view as well (right click on file: show Information Card) to get a detailed summary of all the relevant information related to the file. Think track info - but fully customisable from MC itself and available outside of playback as well. [Note: We can't use track info plugins with video]
I don't know if anyone's aware of the PvdImport plugin raldo is
developing, but it's almost finished and will allow MC to import tons of information for our movie/tv shows. All that remains is for MC to catch up a bit and provide some useful ways of accessing and displaying the data.
Another point worth making is the status of skin development/supoort for theatre view. I've never tried (and have a lot of respect and gratitude to those who have), but Daydream made a very good post
here. Users have very little control over the interface and much of the documentation is old or no longer relevant. When you look at competitors like xbmc and media portal, much of their cool functionality/slick design has come from user generated skins. Have a look at Aeon... Some screens:
1 /
2. None of these programs have anywhere near the organisation capacity of MC but, without wanting to sound too critical, the info panel we have in MC does not compete. Spending a bit of time making things easier for skinners and plugin developers can only help the program and its user base grow.
One final consideration... MC14 is in development - I think it would be a very good idea to have something which really stands out
visually from MC13... you do, afterall, need to persuade the user that an upgrade is worth their money - and, keep in mind, there are free alternatives out there which offer both of the suggestions proposed above.