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[HomeyJay]

I just want to advance to the next track in the playlist when the slideshow is on but I cant find any way of doing it. The only way I can do it is to stop the SS, go to the Audio section and then move to the next track. Once I do this, there appears to be no way of resuming the SS and the only option is to start a new SS!

I'm using a MCE remote btw and when the SS is running, the skip, next & FF buttons all work only for the pictures.

Is there any way to do this or is it impossible?

[Matt]

I just want to advance to the next track in the playlist when the slideshow is on but I cant find any way of doing it. The only way I can do it is to stop the SS, go to the Audio section and then move to the next track. Once I do this, there appears to be no way of resuming the SS and the only option is to start a new SS!

I'm using a MCE remote btw and when the SS is running, the skip, next & FF buttons all work only for the pictures.

Is there any way to do this or is it impossible?

You will have to stop (and restart) the slideshow to control audio. 

You could use Media Center's multi-zone system to use a different zone for images and audio if you need full control.  This is a little more complicated.

[Alex B]

As Matt said, the best option to separately control the audio queue and slideshow is to use separate playback zones.

In addition to using the Zones feature from the menu you can add the Zones button to the top or bottom Toolbar (right-click the toolbar area to customize it). Here's a screenshot of mine:




EDIT

Just don't use the name "Images" for your saved image display zone. MC uses it internally.


Matt,

Could you explain how the the automatic "images" zone is supposed to work? It used to be a temporary zone that disappered when it was not used, but now it seems to stay in the zones list. Is this behavior intentional? Sometimes it also difficult to make the saved names stick. They may change when MC is restarted and need to be renamed/reconfigured one or more times before they stay.

[HomeyJay]

Thx
Not sure how I can use this as I use the program only in theater mode on a HTPC. The only time I even see the standard interface is when I'm configuring podcasts etc. The rest of the time the program stays in Theater mode and even sleeps and wakes in that mode!!
New music & pictures are added by wifi to a monitored folder so even then I dont see the normal interface.

I cant help thinking that a significant part of this program is really for 'normal' computer users - those who use TM (like me) are perhaps not benefitting from most of the features!

[gappie]

i think you can. im using Theater View nearly all the time. made a zone for image playback as suggested above, and have a button on my remote to switch zones.

there is an other solution. you can switch tracks in the audio zone when you are watching images. but again you need to set up special buttons on your remote for that with mcc commands. i do that for volume when watching images. look here for the commands http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Media_Center_Core_Commands#Zones

when you have problems with them, just ask..

 
gab

[HomeyJay]

Thanks Gappie but all that stuff in that wiki page just goes straight over my head!Where do I type the MCC commands? Where do I get this special remote? etc etc.
I'm not a tech person, I just want to be able to plug & play!! I really like MC13 but there's a few things about it that put me off. The  product is complicated and I can't afford to spend 3 hours looking for an answer to a question when it should be in a manual!
Anyway, enough complaining!!

[gappie]

Thanks Gappie but all that stuff in that wiki page just goes straight over my head!Where do I type the MCC commands? Where do I get this special remote? etc etc.
I'm not a tech person, I just want to be able to plug & play!! I really like MC13 but there's a few things about it that put me off. The  product is complicated and I can't afford to spend 3 hours looking for an answer to a question when it should be in a manual!
Anyway, enough complaining!!

you dont have to look for three hours, just do a search, and when that does not help, just ask here.. and imo a manual wont help. mostly they say what things do, but not how to get something done. that would be undoable. so many users so many wishes and setups... and not to be rude, but you are able to plug and play, its when you have a special request for your setup, that you have to do something outside plug and play. like switching tracks for music while you watch images. and i think there are enough people here who like to help. its not a problem when you think you are not so techie.

as you said in your first post, the next and skip etc work for the images only when you are watching images.. gues that is what most people would want it to do. now you have a remote. how are you using it with mc. is it working out of the box with mc (plug and play   ) or did you assign buttons via a programm that came with the remote?
the next question is, how would you like it to work.. should the next button always play the next track of music, which could be an idea, since you could go to the next image when in full screen, using the arrows on your remote..
now when you want that.. you can use mcc commands when you use the remote with an external program.. that is what that page is about.
now when you use an program that came with the remote, it might be possible to add commands like the ones on that page

for instance
mc13.exe /MCC 10003,0
would be the command for next track. now i assume you only have one zone. and that is where the music is playing. you want to switch the track in that zone (the images are played in there own zone).
now use:
mc13.exe /MCC 10003,16777216

i know that this explanation might not be clear, but when you post a bit about how your setup, so how the remote works, it might be possible to get things working.. when it is possible..and you dont need a special remote.

have fun


 
gab

[HomeyJay]

Sorry,
I should have stated what I had.
I just bought a Fujitsu Siemens Media Centre which has XP MCE pre-installed on it. It came with a remote (MS Media Remote) but that had no extra software with it at all. For a while I just used it with Win Med Centre XP and that was great but it reduces picture resolution and quality for slideshows. As I'm a semi-pro photographer, this is not acceptable!

I downloaded MC13 and the remote worked right away without any problems but I missed only 2 things from XP MCE:

1) The ability to advance the audio track and slideshow independantly at any time. In MC13, as far as I can see, If you are listening to music and watching a slideshow, the only way to advance to the next track is to go to the music tab and then hit the <skip> button on the remote. Now, the problem is that there's no way to go back to the slideshow - you have to start it all over again and this is a real pain!

2) Secondly, MC13 doesn't show me what song is playing when you're doing a slideshow. This is, for me, a real nuisance. I have around 10k songs and sometimes, I forget the song I'm listening to and once again, there's no way to find out unless you stop the slideshow!

Apart from these 2 points, the program is great. I'm just being picky because this is a $50 program and everything else is free, so need this thing to do 100% of what I need!

[gappie]

ok.. now try this.. as a test. when you playback some music, and you start playback of images. when in fullscreen, hit ctrl t. when the song has coverart you see the coverart of that song, and you can skip to the next song. hit ctrl t again and you are in your slide show again.

now the coverart might not be what you want, but when you right click on the coverart choose for instance trackinfo>noire. now with ctrl t you can switch between audio and images and use the remote for those zones..

when it works for you, you could try to set a button on your remote to switch zones (because that is what ctrl t does). i guess that that is not to complicated in options>remote. but i have another remote and use an external program to do that..

what you think

 
gab

[richard.e.morton]

I've not tested it recently, but gappies response is how I remember it.

You can reprogramme a button on your remote to complete the CTRL+T.

As an alternative you could look at ditching your remote for a cheap WiFi PDA (Pocket Windows) and the netremote software (google it)... it works out of the box with MC and allows you to control both zones (picutres and images in your case) independantly and simply from the PDA.

Rich

Rich