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[locust]

First of all I don't have a great computer system, pretty mediocre. I want to build a brand new shiny htpc sometime in the future.

My specs are

CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 @ 1.80Ghz
RAM: 4gb
Video Card: Radeon X1550

Anyway whilst in Theatre view. When switching between items in the secondary roller (I'm not sure if it is the secondary roller, it is circled in red in the image at the bottom) could you change the behaviour so the bottom doesn't populate until you press the downward arrow?

I'm asking because in that particular view there are 6 items on the bottom roller. Getting from Album to All Files when the content pane populates every time you switch, can take some time. It would be quicker if you just scrolled to the option you want and then pressed down.

I haven't had the pleasure of using J River on a high spec pc so I am unsure if it is any different.

I am sure that users with high end pcs' wouldn't want this to affect their experience of mc, so if this were to be introduced it could be specific of the Hardware Accelerated Graphics: Option.

Currently I've got mines set at medium (I am not sure if that is the correct setting for my graphics card)

Or maybe an independent setting would be better because some users with medium grade cards would still not like this.

I think netbook users would definitely get a boost in usability.

Thanks

[bunglemebaby]

Personally, I would like it if there was a short delay before the view populated. If you're scrolling through quickly then nothing tries to populate and you could avoid the sometimes jerky look when scrolling through the roller. If you stop, then the view populates normally. This behavior would be similar enough to the way it is now that I don't even think most people would notice and it would help out people with slower systems. My shiny new HTPC deals well enough with this scrolling, but it would still be smoother looking if the every view didn't start loading when scrolling through a list quickly. My 2 pennies. -JB

[locust]

That's even better

I suppose the next question would be how long a waiting time to have?

I think 1 second would be too long, maybe 0.5, 0.25??

[MrHaugen]

This is both a problem for slow computers and touch screens. I would suggest two things.

1. As you suggest, set a small delay which is needed before activating the views (second roller items). 1/4 of a second should be enough I think.
2. Allow a modus called Touch screen in the options, which allows users to touch the rollers and slide the roller back and forth. The selection in the middle is highlighted, which easily shows the user what item is selected. When you release the finger or mouse the middle selection is activated, but never before that.

This would solve pretty much all roller based problems which I have encountered.

[rick.ca]

Getting from Album to All Files when the content pane populates every time you switch, can take some time.

I'm curious, do you experience noticeable delay when navigating to your Genre view (which only has 11 items), or just the others (which, presumably, are much longer lists)? I don't experience any delays, but all of my views seem to include a first category that, like your Genre view, do not have a large number of different values. I haven't done that to avoid delays in presenting lengthy lists (I don't think there would be a noticeable delay on my machine). I've done it because I normally want at least the option of narrowing my browsing to some reasonable subset of my collection.

So this makes me wonder...Can you resolve the issue by including something like Genre or Decade as the first category in your Album and Artist views (and probably eliminate the Genre view). Even if you often choose to bypass it (by selecting the 'All' value), it may resolve the delay issue and provide a more functional view.

I agree, however, if a small delay would solve the issue, that should be considered. It would probably make switching views smoother for me, even though my machine can update the views quickly.

[locust]

No the navigating to Genre feels like the most fluid of the lot.

Once a genre is selected it delves into styles, which are much larger lists. I tried to keep keep as vague as possible with genres and tried to use styles more to define my music.

I think I will still do that for Album, Artist and All Files view. It will streamline it quite a bit.

Right now theatre view works fine if I take my time pressing the left or right arrows, but if I press them too quickly or impatiently the interface sometimes freezes a little and then stutters where it's supposed to be.

I think this could resolve that. Do you think users with high end computers would welcome this or feel it as a hindrance? Do you think if it were to be implemented that it can still get disabled if a user pleases?

[rick.ca]

Do you think users with high end computers would welcome this or feel it as a hindrance? Do you think if it were to be implemented that it can still get disabled if a user pleases?

No. As I indicated, a short delay that prevented an attempt to draw a screen when the user is obviously bypassing a view should result in a smoother transition for all. There would be no need to disable it. I'm assuming a delay short enough that it doesn't even matter if the machine is able to draw the screen, it would be replaced by the next view before it could be processed by the brain. At the same time, it would long enough to register a second key press. I guess that would be somewhere between 250 and 500 ms.

Having said that, it seems it currently behaves as if there's already a delay of that order. In other words, if I do two quick button presses (like a double-click), it effectively skips the adjacent view. If the timing is more like a slow double-click, there's a slight pause as it attempts to draw the adjacent screen (but doesn't have time to). What happens on your machine? I suppose we can "click" a little faster, but maybe a delay that's already there could be made a little longer.

[locust]

I had a go. Yeah the double click thing works.

Even clicking several times will bypass un-needed screens. (Works well & handy to know but it doesn't feel intuitive that way. I could get used to counting how many spaces I want to move before I press the buttons. I would imagine people picking up the remote for the first time wouldn't feel this)

The one thing I did notice it that when I am normally browsing the movement of the secondary roller is normally my visual cue to press the next arrow button. By then it is already populating. So I still think some extra delay might come in handy but the delay must begin after the roller has moved to the next section, I think  ?

who deals with the development of Theatre View? It would be nice to hear their opinion.

[MrHaugen]

I don't find any delay. No matter how fast I click, the middle view is starting to draw...

[locust]

How good it your pc MrHaugen maybe the delay I am experiencing is due my quite low end hardware.

[MrHaugen]

It's not great. It's a new Dell Laptop. Decent specs but I suppose the GPU is less than high top of the line. I suspect the GPU is pretty much the same as in my ASRock 3D HTPC, so I would not expect much difference there. I'll test later on.