INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Media Center on a touch pad PC  (Read 1743 times)

armergeddon

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Media Center on a touch pad PC
« on: April 02, 2012, 05:05:06 am »

Dear list,

I'm running a Win7 Touch Pad Computer as a HiFi/HiEnd Media Player; all my music is stored in flac. Using MC17 with my fingers doesn't work very well. All the buttons and menues are far too small. Changing to Theater view, control is constrained - scrolling is nearly impossible, and you can't leave the different levels as well as this mode, as you don't have an escape button (the virtual keyboard does not appear at the side in theater view). So the solution to the problems should be another "skin" for touch pads, using bigger buttons or to make theater view "touchable" and scrollable.
Maybe someone already has a solution.

Frank
Logged

MrHaugen

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Media Center on a touch pad PC
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2012, 06:23:22 am »

You have the obsidian touch skin, which might work better.

Overall I have to agree with you. MC needs a few tweaks to work well with touch. There should be a touch option where all the scroll bars and rollers are a bit bigger, so you don't miss with the touch that much. Something should also be done with the rollers I think. Perhaps allowing to move the rollers, and only activate selected item in the center position of the screen, when the roller bar is released.

Touch is the future, and MC is falling a bit behind as we speak. Let's hope JRiver get some multi touch Win7-8 pads to play with soon.
Logged
- I may not always believe what I'm saying

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72380
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Media Center on a touch pad PC
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2012, 06:38:26 am »

You might try the skin called "Obsidian Touch Screen".

Scroll bars can be increased in size.  Tools/Options/Theater View. 

You can also increase the size of Theater View (150%, for example).

You can scroll with a "flick".  Touch and "throw the screen.

Another approach is to separate the PC from the control and use Gizmo or WebGizmo as the remote.  There is a topic on "Remotes" on our wiki.
Logged

fitbrit

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 4887
Re: Media Center on a touch pad PC
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2012, 10:22:27 am »

I too am not as satisfied with the touchscreen experience as I am with MC overall.


To "Exit" from TheaterView: I believe you can add the appearance of a
home button to theatreview: Options>TheaterView>Advanced.

Touching this will take one back to the homescreen where "Exit" is an option.

In the TheatreView options there's also the ability to make scroll bars extra wide.

I still firmly believe that MC should conform to double finger scrolling like most applications do.
Logged

MrHaugen

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3774
Re: Media Center on a touch pad PC
« Reply #4 on: April 03, 2012, 02:28:15 am »

Found the Size option for the scrollbars now. That will work for most people.

I still think that there have to be done some work on Theater View to make it good for touch users tough. I'll get my self a win tab very soon my self. I do not believe that multi touch have been used at all in MC? Zooming is one of the first things that pops in my mind. Both for video and photos. The rollers are in my opinion the most awkward thing to handle with just a mouse/touch. Being able to select roller item both with click (as today) and for example by dragging the rollers to activate the centered item, would go a long way to make this more usable and intuitive for touch users.
Logged
- I may not always believe what I'm saying

wig

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 750
Re: Media Center on a touch pad PC
« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2012, 06:59:13 am »

You might try the skin called "Obsidian Touch Screen".
Scroll bars can be increased in size.  Tools/Options/Theater View. 

You can scroll with a "flick".  Touch and "throw the screen.

Flicking doesn't work well for me. I inevitably end up opening one of the screen items instead scrolling.

Page buttons would be a great solution; my current jukebox setup uses them and my friends have zero problems navigating that way.

There is an option to add Page buttons in the Advanced section of Theater View, but checking it doesn't appear to doing anything. Is this a bug, or do the page buttons only appear in certain skins or menus?
Logged

fitbrit

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 4887
Re: Media Center on a touch pad PC
« Reply #6 on: April 03, 2012, 09:02:12 am »

Flicking doesn't work well for me. I inevitably end up opening one of the screen items instead scrolling.

You're not the only one. I used to do this all the time. I learned to be more careful, but still think there's room for improvement.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up