Topic: NEW Playing Now in Theater View (Read 8788 times)

raym · « **on:** February 16, 2010, 11:16:42 pm »

I like it! Easy to get to the list via the roller too. Nice.

I noticed that the "Playing Now" button has been removed from the main (audio/images/video) views though. Reason for this?

While this is in development, could some attention please be given to playlist management (which is tightly coupled with Playing Now). Specifically:-

1. There's still no way to arrange tracks in the Playing Now list via RC. I think Windows Media Center handles this quite well (up/down buttons etc). A similar approach perhaps?

2. You cannot edit an existing playlist without first "loading" it into Playing Now (ie Play it)

3. You cannot save the current/edited Playing Now playlist back to an exiting playlist name. Would be nice to be able to choose from an existing list of names and over-write.

4. Cannot save lists to specific playlist folders OR filter out standard view folders.

Also, removing/deleting items from the Playing Now list re-sets the cursor posi to the top. This has been a bug for quite a while now.

I look forward to any improvement in this area.

Cheers.

jmone · « **Reply #1 on:** February 16, 2010, 11:41:19 pm »

Looks good...

Quote

Just a little note that the 'Info' page in Theater View's Playing Now is linking to the first file instead of the playing file. This will be fixed next build.

FYI this is true of the PN, Info, and List displays.

Thanks
Nathan

bennyd · « **Reply #2 on:** February 17, 2010, 12:38:58 am »

And to have [Remaining Time] and [Elapsed Time] as fields to choose from which dynamically counts down/up

gappie · « **Reply #3 on:** February 17, 2010, 02:06:41 am »

Quote from: bennyd on February 17, 2010, 12:38:58 am

And to have [Remaining Time] and [Elapsed Time] as fields to choose from which dynamically counts down/up

that would be nice

also, when no file is playing, hitting play on the remote does not work on the first playing now page.

looks good.

gab

edit: and the first pn page does not change on track change...
or actually: it changes to the song just played, so it is one song behind when you leave it on the first pn page.

gappie · « **Reply #4 on:** February 17, 2010, 06:56:42 am »

i think it would be nice also if the list in playing now gets a bit better to read. since the status did change i gues it could look a bit the same as file lists everywhere else. its really hard to read the titles of the song that is not playing or selected. and a small icon?

gab

Matt · « **Reply #5 on:** February 17, 2010, 09:09:00 am »

Quote from: raym on February 16, 2010, 11:16:42 pm

I noticed that the "Playing Now" button has been removed from the main (audio/images/video) views though. Reason for this?

Could you describe this a bit more? I'm not seeing any changes. Playing Now is available on the root roller, and also on the top right of any music or video library view.

bennyd · « **Reply #6 on:** February 17, 2010, 01:10:27 pm »

And to see the difference when in Playing Now (not list view) between playing, stopped or paused.

raym · « **Reply #7 on:** February 17, 2010, 03:22:06 pm »

Quote from: Matt on February 17, 2010, 09:09:00 am

Could you describe this a bit more? I'm not seeing any changes. Playing Now is available on the root roller, and also on the top right of any music or video library view.

ok, you're right. When I did a quick test I must've been in a playlist view. The pn button has never been available there or in any of the images views but I think it should be for consistency and ease of use.

Thanks.

Matt · « **Reply #8 on:** February 17, 2010, 03:36:49 pm »

Quote from: raym on February 17, 2010, 03:22:06 pm

ok, you're right. When I did a quick test I must've been in a playlist view. The pn button has never been available there or in any of the images views but I think it should be for consistency and ease of use.

Thanks.

We don't recommend using Playing Now for images. You may notice it's not really used in Standard View either.

gappie · « **Reply #9 on:** February 17, 2010, 04:08:35 pm »

Quote from: Matt on February 17, 2010, 03:36:49 pm

We don't recommend using Playing Now for images. You may notice it's not really used in Standard View either.

but how to see all the people, places etc taged to images. and when you mix images with some short 'moving' images taken at the same moments with the same camera it shows playing now. and above that. the image zone wont play those 'moving' images so one needs a seperate zone for images any way. so why not playing now there.

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #10 on:** February 17, 2010, 05:29:18 pm »

Thumbs up on new and improved Playing Now.

JimH · « **Reply #11 on:** February 17, 2010, 06:13:51 pm »

It isn't out yet, but our dev build tonight has a great new Playing Now for Theater View. It will be available in a build released in a few days. Here's a picture:

JimH · « **Reply #12 on:** February 17, 2010, 06:17:39 pm »

This new Playing Now is shown automatically as soon as anything is played. Left arrow returns you to the previous view if you want to select more to play.

At the bottom of the screen are four lines. They are:

1. [Artist] [Track]

2. Volume

3. Position. This pearl moves.

4. Rating. The one shown is unrated.

Navigation with a remote uses the down arrow to get to any of these lines, then right and left arrow to adjust. Right and left do the following:

1. Next and last track

2. Volume up and down

3. Position forward and back

4. More or fewer stars

jmone · « **Reply #13 on:** February 17, 2010, 06:18:53 pm »

New Version looks good but I don't think the view in "List" is updating properly. It appears to have both the current track and the first track highligted with the details of the first track being displayed.

Thanks
Nathan

JimH · « **Reply #14 on:** February 17, 2010, 06:21:04 pm »

Basic instructions and a screenshot for the New Playing Now (on the MC14 board).

jmone · « **Reply #15 on:** February 17, 2010, 11:53:35 pm »

FYI it also seems to (sort of) work when using DLNA & Zones to control playback between two MC. You can see the details in the PN, Info and List screens. When I say "sort of" I had cases were there was only data in the PN screen (the Info and List were blank), this was when using Plug Player and also after having to restart the MC "Controller" after it crashed (still plenty of instability and weird stuff when running DLAN / Lib Srv together)

rick.ca · « **Reply #16 on:** February 18, 2010, 01:34:58 am »

Wow! Stream titles! (For MP3 streams, at least.) Thanks!

Some rough edges...

1. The first item is missing from the list. There's a blank entry at the end of the list that doesn't do anything—it's just a standard icon, with nothing else.

2. The last item selected remains highlighted when the cursor is moved out of the list—leaving that item and the one playing both highlighted.

3. On returning from the Big Screen or restarting Theatre View, all the PN screens are blank. They can be only be refreshed by selecting the zone in PN and re-navigating to the desired screen (more likely to be the list than PN).

gappie · « **Reply #17 on:** February 18, 2010, 02:34:39 am »

there are two different instances of playing now (actually much more then 2). when going from the root to playing now the theme images ar shown that are in the playing now folder, when entering from audio, the theme items from audio are used. but also, i use a skin with the time shown in playing now. when comming from the root its there, when coming from audio, its gone. i checked the location. for root to playing now its:
Home>playing now>display
for audio to playing now its
Home>audio>Playing Now>display

Where audio can be any root library item a user might be using in Theater View.

an other small thing. it would be nice if the play command would work when nothing is playing in the display. altough it does not show the title, it shows the cover and when changing the rating its changing that for the song apparently under the play button, using the arrow on the empty songs title field changes the focus to the next/previous song. guess the title should be shown and play should play the song.

gab

gappie · « **Reply #18 on:** February 18, 2010, 02:58:11 am »

one other small request. it is nice that the 'pearls' and stars are skinable. i guess later on skinners would like to give the volume and the position 'pearls' a different look, but now they both use
<PositionHandle Bitmap="PlayerControls\PositionHandle.png" />
it might be an idea to give them there own.. like
<PositionHandleVolume Bitmap="PlayerControls\PositionHandle.png" />
<PositionHandleTrack Bitmap="PlayerControls\PositionHandle.png" />

gab

gappie · « **Reply #19 on:** February 18, 2010, 04:05:31 am »

also one small thing.. but imo the title under the cover should use the size used for titles in the info panel, now it uses the size used for normal text. i find myself zooming in when im on the disply panel..

gab

kurushi · « **Reply #20 on:** February 18, 2010, 04:13:59 am »

Oh yeah that's exactly that i wanted!
Really good job.
Maybe a view for the next and before tracks to the two sides of the big covert art (ala i tune) cause there's some screen space that is not used.

MrHaugen · « **Reply #21 on:** February 18, 2010, 05:42:39 am »

This is smashing! Thanks for giving Theater View a nice upgrade. I think a lot of people appreciate this.

neFAST · « **Reply #22 on:** February 18, 2010, 06:13:19 am »

Do you plan to improve playing now within the standard view?

Bonex · « **Reply #23 on:** February 18, 2010, 12:48:36 pm »

Can you add an option to show/hide the volume button/line? I only use the spdif out to my ampli, so they're not needed.

Anyway I like the new screen. I hope the first line can be customized using formulas.
Why not moving the cover image a bit on the left to make space on the right to add some other informations and/or a visualization? Like the current and remaining playing time.

AoXoMoXoA · « **Reply #24 on:** February 18, 2010, 02:35:35 pm »

wOw

very nice

Sheugel · « **Reply #25 on:** February 19, 2010, 12:03:04 pm »

Amazing! Looks really great. Thanks for that.

maxxsid · « **Reply #26 on:** February 19, 2010, 04:36:40 pm »

Hello,
I like it! However, I personally prefer the "List" view. Is there any way to make it default? as an option.
I'd like to see what's coming next while in Playing Now.

Also, this new Playing Now is awfully similar to the Big Screen mode - large cover plus some info, progress bar and volume control.

In the Big Screen mode the same stuff pops out when one moves the mouse over. This pop-out bar is nice but not useful at all in the Theater View mode (too small).

Isn't it time to rework the Big Screen for Theater View to make it touch-screen and RC and 10'-interface friendly?

Basically, what I suggest is:
-- revert Playing Now more or less back where it was before - i.e. the current List mode of Playing Now
-- change the new Playing Now to the Big Screen mode

Does it make sense?

Thanks!

--max

rick.ca · « **Reply #27 on:** February 19, 2010, 07:58:53 pm »

Quote from: rick.ca on February 18, 2010, 01:34:58 am

2. The last item selected remains highlighted when the cursor is moved out of the list—leaving that item and the one playing both highlighted.

To elaborate: These items aren't actually highlighted—it's that all other items are dimmed. This seems unnecessary, and can make those items difficult to read if background images are used. This view should look the same as the file list view. There, no list items are dimmed and the selected item is framed by a window (as it is in the PN list). The item currently playing is indicated by an "Play" icon. I don't find this a bold enough indication of which item is playing. It would stand out better if the font color were changed as well. Using the same color as the icon might look nice, and reinforce the meaning.

Whatever changes are made, I think the file and PN list views should look the same. Their top rollers remain distinct, so there's no risk of becoming "lost" because they look the same.

brossmac · « **Reply #28 on:** February 25, 2010, 10:46:34 am »

After doing a quick search I can't find anything about how to change the images that show up in the background of Playing Now in Theatre View. I can see that they do some sort of image search based on the song titles, but I find these completely distracting (why do I want to see some random girls' hockey team?) and can't find a way to turn them off or select local images.

Sorry if this is obvious and I'm just missing it.

gappie · « **Reply #29 on:** February 25, 2010, 10:51:28 am »

Quote from: brossmac on February 25, 2010, 10:46:34 am

After doing a quick search I can't find anything about how to change the images that show up in the background of Playing Now in Theatre View. I can see that they do some sort of image search based on the song titles, but I find these completely distracting (why do I want to see some random girls' hockey team?) and can't find a way to turn them off or select local images.

Sorry if this is obvious and I'm just missing it.

hockey.. lol.. i sometimes get slaughter and dead people, and no im not a heavy metal fan. i turned it of under options>theater view>appearance>theme>options, you can disable it there.

gab

JimH · « **Reply #30 on:** February 25, 2010, 11:04:52 am »

Quote from: gappie on February 25, 2010, 10:51:28 am

hockey.. lol.. i sometimes get slaughter and dead people ...

Where's your sense of humor? Your sense of irony?

rick.ca · « **Reply #31 on:** February 25, 2010, 11:50:47 am »

Quote

Where's your sense of humor? Your sense of irony?

They both fade when I think about how easy it would be to use user-provided sources. The existing Web Media URL could be used to point to an appropriate web source or a local path.

gappie · « **Reply #32 on:** February 25, 2010, 12:14:01 pm »

well, jim, i got backgroundimages that really gave me nightmares. bodys with some bodyparts blown of and laying beside..etc. you get the picture? yes, bands sometimes have silly names. but here i sit with the best media program with a very good database, and i get images from the sniff department of the net as my backgrounds, not the nice images i already have on my machine in mc.

gab

Sheugel · « **Reply #33 on:** February 25, 2010, 01:37:52 pm »

I also think that images shown in the background of Playing Now should be more "artists related".
Those images would better be fetched from Last.fm (only).
Anyway it's really a great improvement aesthetically speaking.

Matt · « **Reply #34 on:** February 25, 2010, 01:47:59 pm »

If people know of good sources for music and video related backgrounds, please let us know.

Thanks.

gappie · « **Reply #35 on:** February 25, 2010, 03:26:30 pm »

Quote from: Matt on February 25, 2010, 01:47:59 pm

If people know of good sources for music and video related backgrounds, please let us know.

Thanks.

yeah.. E:\artist images\ etc..
but all sarcasm aside. im not sure what keeps you from using the sources the users have them selves, is that technical, or about the poweruser/powerlessuser thing, or some legal isue.

i think all the plugins for mc for collecting movie information are also collecting backdrops. for what? those backdrops just scream "use me as background. use me as background!!". i would love it for artists. its a bit more work but who knows somebody is smart enough to make something to scrape last fm etc. and the user can go though it when he want to. mc is very powerfull when you want to organise pictures. you know that.
now for backgrounds of images... its a bit of a candy store there. i mean images.. why not use images from the album you go through as background...

gab

brossmac · « **Reply #36 on:** February 25, 2010, 03:58:04 pm »

I'll put in a vote for the ability to select a local folder for these images. Maybe choosing randomly for a folder of images. I'm fine with that.

But the idea of images related to an artist could work as well. Even if it took the album covers/images from the local Artist folder (and Album subfolders).

But I imagine it would be easier to just pick a single folder that users can specify for rotating random images.

Thanks for the help (and now I feel glad that I didn't get any of the violent images you saw...).

MrHaugen · « **Reply #37 on:** February 26, 2010, 04:30:23 am »

A "Background media link" tag on each media file could do the trick. Linked to a local folder would give random images from the folder, a specific target would only show that image or video background. If nothing is written in the tag = get from internet.

Movie backdrops in movie folders, series backdrops in series/season directory, and images (other than folder.jpg) in each artist/band albums folder, should be definitely be used if it exists.

gappie · « **Reply #38 on:** March 06, 2010, 07:35:13 am »

i do really like the new playing now, with the info just beside it. i have one request though. could the characters in the info fields be as big as the ones used for title in the info panel. at this moment the letters 'playing now' at the top are bigger then the once telling what is playing now. i know im in playing now, i dont know what is playing now, now i sometimes have to zoom to read it acros the room, where playing now (and the whole roller) really gets blown out of proportions.

thanks

gab

JimH · « **Reply #39 on:** March 06, 2010, 09:13:00 am »

gab,
Try the resize option in MC's options for Theater View. It defaults to 100%. Try 125%, for example.

Jim

gappie · « **Reply #40 on:** March 06, 2010, 02:28:42 pm »

Quote from: JimH on March 06, 2010, 09:13:00 am

gab,
Try the resize option in MC's options for Theater View. It defaults to 100%. Try 125%, for example.

Jim

i know that jim, i have it standard at 150 and programmed my remote to zoom thv. what i was reffering to is that the characters in the roller are big compared to the info under the cover and that it would be better imo if the info would use the size used for titles in the info pannel. the result would be.
the original:

Playing now
[cover]
big joe and the ever changing info 6:49

the result:

Playing now
[cover]
big joe and the ever changing info 6:49

gab

MrHaugen · « **Reply #41 on:** March 07, 2010, 07:22:05 am »

Are you not supposed to be able to change the rating from playing now?? This would be THE obvious place to rate songs imo. Maybe there's something I'm missing here?

gappie · « **Reply #42 on:** March 07, 2010, 07:25:34 am »

Quote from: MrHaugen on March 07, 2010, 07:22:05 am

Are you not supposed to be able to change the rating from playing now?? This would be THE obvious place to rate songs imo. Maybe there's something I'm missing here?

but you are? does not work with a mouse yet, but with a remote or arrows it works..

kurushi · « **Reply #43 on:** March 07, 2010, 04:37:42 pm »

or it works too with a keyboard shortcut but don't refresh automaticaly...

MrHaugen · « **Reply #44 on:** March 07, 2010, 05:03:16 pm »

Ok. My remote arrows did not work... I'll try with more control peripherals next time then

laerm · « **Reply #45 on:** April 24, 2010, 06:14:10 pm »

Ahh, the dreaded "guy who replies to an old thread"!

Quote from: gappie on February 25, 2010, 12:14:01 pm

well, jim, i got backgroundimages that really gave me nightmares. bodys with some bodyparts blown of and laying beside..etc. you get the picture? yes, bands sometimes have silly names. but here i sit with the best media program with a very good database, and i get images from the sniff department of the net as my backgrounds, not the nice images i already have on my machine in mc.

Quote from: Matt on February 25, 2010, 01:47:59 pm

If people know of good sources for music and video related backgrounds, please let us know.

Wait, it isn't just using Google image search? Where do the images come from then? I don't mind irrelevant images, except when they're porn. I love this feature, but the occasional boob makes it rather not family-friendly, some would say. Would it be possible for it it to use Google image search but with our account logged in, so that we can choose a filtering level?

That being said, I'll take the occasional boob to keep this feature, because I really think it pushes MC to the next level.

Thanks!
Micah

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Author Topic: NEW Playing Now in Theater View (Read 8788 times)