Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Livin]

MC is a very nice media player/organizer but as I'm seeing as I try to use it with my 23" touch screen (PC connected), the UI is made for a mouse or, in Theater View, for an IR remote control. The web ui is decent but lacks much functionality and is made for small touch screens, not anything over ~5".

As the age of touchscreens is upon us and the need for a good client front-end on tablets and such that JR seriously put some effort into this, and fast, if they want to capture the market. Otherwise they will quickly lose it to many others who are already putting out interfaces. If the MC UI is HTML/CSS (prefer HTML5) then it will be cross platform and a main built-once design. To start for layout ideas, I suggest looking at XPtunes and some commercial examples...

Sonos...


Control4...

[JimH]

Did you try the Theater View skin called "Obsidian Touchscreen"?

Or WebRemote?

The use case you're thinking of would also help.  Are you thinking of the touch screen as a remote?

[fitbrit]

Hi Jim, as you may have seen me mention in this and other forums, I've been using MC15 with a touchscreen for a couple of months now. It's a setup I intend to duplicate elsewhere in my home too. I use the touchscreen Obsidian screen, and currently am trying to do so without a keyboard or mouse. I use it as both a local and remote control centre. I have a number of requests, annoyances and comments that I think would make it quite a bit better.
I shall compose a post later with these observations, but the number one thing is the lack of an "Exit" option on EVERY screen. The "esc" key is available to keyboard users at any time; it would be great if we could just hit Exit on a touchscreen, at any point, without having to go "back" many times to the home screen. Sometimes I just want to put the PC into sleep and pick up where I left off earlier at a later time. Is this configurable in TheaterView views? If not can it be considered?

[JimH]

Sometimes I just want to put the PC into sleep and pick up where I left off earlier at a later time. Is this configurable in TheaterView views? If not can it be considered?

Have you tried putting it into sleep without exiting?  I've often done it with not problems.  I believe you need to stop playback first.

If you have other suggestions about how it can be made easier, please let us know.

[fitbrit]

Sometimes I just want to go back to standard view, so again the multiple "back"s until "Exit" is displayed makes it somewhat painful to use, especially on an Ion nettop with a large library. Maybe the problem is that you've spoiled us with how much can be achieved by simply hitting the "esc" key on a keyboard in TheaterView?

[Livin]

The best UI for a touchscreen is usually opposite of how you'd use it with a keyboard and a tweak on how you'd use it with a mouse... that is not even considering multi-touch, which adds a completely different aspect. Again, look at XPtunes... it is very good, albeit very basic (no eye candy).

Every screen should have option to show/hide direct access to any other area the user needs (other sections, home, exit, etc)

In my case, I only want it for the Audio Library but would like to have one-touch access to multiple views... Genre, Newest, Artist, Album, etc.

The way the normal screen in MC works is actually very close to usable with touch. We'd need to remove the left-side panes, make the buttons a bit larger, and allow the tabs with the view types (genre, etc) "sticky" (not reset when closes/relaunched.

I'm sure several of us could give some input and a great touch screen UI could be designed... but JR would need to be serious about doing it and getting it done soon. If

[JimH]

Did you try the Theater View skin called "Obsidian Touchscreen"?

Or WebRemote?

The use case you're thinking of would also help.  Are you thinking of the touch screen as a remote?

[globetrotters1]

Well, in our house we work with two different touchscreen solutions, one with older touchscreens with overlay structure (which generate remote control commands) and with a real touchscreen which is connected by USB and works like moving a mouse. The first solution works, the second is a pain where the sun never shines...  ?

Especially scrolling through long lists of for instance artist names in a group (200 or more artists) is a real pain as the up/down scrolling area is so thin that we have to use our fingernails at the very outer edge of the screen - which only sometimes works - in most cases it just opens an artist and shows albums you didn't want to select! Some time ago I posted a request to be able to make the scrolling area wider, to no avail, too few people seem to use touchscreens...

And yes, Jim, we use the "Obsidian touchpad" and tried almost everything, but it's not a really working solution, at least not with our 7" touchscreens.

Thanks
 

[glynor]

I thought you could flick to scroll.  Or does this require a capacitive multi-touch enabled touchscreen?  Or am I just crazy?