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[Hendrik]

You can get it here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=86868.0

We usually test the builds here for a bit before moving them to the play store.

[Mastiff]

Gotcha, thanks! Glad the bus has left the station... Maybe the next little step would be to let me into the Playing now list? Then I can start from the track I want to. Or even the full button row.

[Hendrik]

So here is what I've been working on today:



Can you spot whats new?
Its almost finished, I need to find a spot to put it on the portrait playing now screen too, though. Maybe it should blend in over the cover art like JRemote does it, to save vertical space?

[WinoOutWest]

WOW!
A LOOOONG time overdue.

Awesome!!!

[Mastiff]

Please don't let it mess up the cover art! Or is it possible to make it so it doesn't show at all if it's not set? I don't even use it at all.

[Al ex]

So here is what I've been working on today:



Can you spot whats new?
Its almost finished, I need to find a spot to put it on the portrait playing now screen too, though. Maybe it should blend in over the cover art like JRemote does it, to save vertical space?

Looks sharp!

[Hendrik]

So I've been dabbling with the rating stars in Portrait mode.

This is a early try:


I'm not happy at all with it, though. Maybe it could use a light-grey "shade" like bar over the coverart where the stars sit on, for more contrast? But thats not exactly easy, as the image is automatically scaled..
One thing I know, I can't put them anywhere else, or the cover art gets tiny.

I may also add an option to Gizmo to hide the rating stars completely, for those people that don't use the rating feature, and don't want the clutter.

[Mastiff]

I may also add an option to Gizmo to hide the rating stars completely, for those people that don't use the rating feature, and don't want the clutter.

Good man! Yes, please! That would make me very happy!

[wig]

So here is what I've been working on today:



Can you spot whats new?
Its almost finished, I need to find a spot to put it on the portrait playing now screen too, though. Maybe it should blend in over the cover art like JRemote does it, to save vertical space?

YES YES YES!

Thank You, Hendrik!

[Cereal Killer]

How about loosing the 'playing now' at the top of the screens?

[Hendrik]

The title bar has to stay, its rather mandatory for navigation, and is consistent through the whole application.

I'm still stuck on the portrait rating stars, I couldn't come up with anything that looks better then the version I posted above.
Any opinions? Maybe from those people that actually wanted the rating feature for so long?

Sadly I'm a programmer, not a designer, so any input is appreciated!

[Mastiff]

Is that a gag order to me, officer? Seriously, I wouldn't use it, but how would it be to have it vertical instead of horizontal, and on one side of the cover? Or even moving the cover off center when the ratings are activated?

[Castius]

Gizmo is pretty good. I'd say we still need a notification icon when playing. It is very easy to get off the playing now screen. But the music is still playing. The dual function of the home button is not enough. Thanks

Also if you want some other example to look at. This page may help.
http://www.subsonic.org/pages/apps.jsp#android

[WinoOutWest]

What if we did have a settings page that checked the boxes of the elements we wanted to see?
I think that would kind of be in line with the MC Windows philosophy since day one?

For example Mastiff never uses ratings and I never use the position slider bar.
Perhaps a smaller cover Art window for those that have everything visible and maximize it for those that reduce the elements they have on the screen?

"You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can't please all of the people all of the time..."

:-)

[Mastiff]

Not a bad idea, dude! I was hoping for something like that, but I thought it could be a bit too difficult to implement. Maybe I'm wrong? It would be very nice! Just like having the choice between displaying the library as a tree or as the covers that it's now. When a library has around 10 000 albums a tree with smaller letters can be a bit easier to work with.

[Mastiff]

This is my dream setup for a library tree (this is what I used NetRemote, which doesn't run on anything newer than Windows Mobile 6.5 or regular Windows 7).

Edit: Of course the font has to be larger than this to be useable for fingers, this is for use with a pen.

[Hendrik]

Please limit this thread to the topic of the Playing Now screen and the re-design/added functionality we're proposing here, not a general Gizmo feature request thread, thanks.

[Mastiff]

Sorry, shutting up about that. How about my suggestion for vertical stars?

[WinoOutWest]

Yes Mastiff - you and I both go way back with NetRemote.  I following your site and starting with some of your NR screens. - its a shame they didn't move beyond the Windows world when all the iDevices and androids hit the market.
I've pretty much got that functionality of that same library view in my Gizmo now - its just much bigger.

Here is a screen shot of the PlayerPro playing now screen which I use for my "on device" content.
Its got nice cover art and everything I need.
Notice how small the progress bar is?
Does Gizmo's really need to take up that much space?  For me the progress bar is a nice visual but I next to never use it to navigate so having it small like in this player pro example is perfect... for me.

[JimH]

So I've been dabbling with the rating stars in Portrait mode.

Could you display them only for a few seconds after play or pause is hit?

[Hendrik]

Could you display them only for a few seconds after play or pause is hit?

Sure.
It could also show them for a bit of time after you tap on the cover art for example, if you want to get them back mid-playback without pausing.

[Mastiff]

Does that mean that vertical, selectable stars is not an option?

[drmimosa]

Here's a quick idea.

Touch the title of the song/artist area once (Elvenpath etc. in box above). rating stars appear, song/artist dissapears. You can rate the song. Then, after 5 seconds, song /artist text reappears, stars disappear. Cover art stays put.

It would be intuitive because the text of song/artist is already metadata (like ratings stars), whereas cover art is a picture.

Sure.
It could also show them for a bit of time after you tap on the cover art for example, if you want to get them back mid-playback without pausing.

[WinoOutWest]

Sure.
It could also show them for a bit of time after you tap on the cover art for example, if you want to get them back mid-playback without pausing.

Although I think that would certainly work for me (power user) I would think from a general usability standpoint you probably want to fit them in there so they are always visible.  Most other players seem to be able to fit all these elements in - I'm sure Gizmo can too - maybe with a little sacrificing from the other elements in terms of size?

Mastiff - I think the vertical bars are an easy way to fit it in there but I think that would really take away from the balance and finished look that is already there - so my preference again would be to adjust the other elements to fit them in horizontally.

[Hendrik]

The stars are really quite huge though, they need a full row, like the song title basically.
Even if i shrink the seekbar and buttons slightly, and the stars as well, it won't fit without taking space from the cover art as well, and since we don't want to cut the cover art, it'll open up even more space left/right of the cover art.

Vertical stars looks bad as well, since it smashes the cover art against the side of the screen and destroy the symmetry.

Many other players I have looked at only have a "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" icon, which are quite easy to hide, say at the left/right end of the seekbar (in googles music player, for example)
And they blend content over the cover art as well. Usually so that the cover art is stretched over the whole background, ie: Google Music

[Mastiff]

I guess I'm more of practicality than looks... In that case I'd vote for keeping them over the cover art and then just have the option to hide them.

[WinoOutWest]

Here's a quick idea.

Touch the title of the song/artist area once (Elvenpath etc. in box above). rating stars appear, song/artist dissapears. You can rate the song. Then, after 5 seconds, song /artist text reappears, stars disappear. Cover art stays put.

I like this idea - what if the text area (or progress bar maybe?) was a "toggle" so to speak.  Defaults to what we see now.  Tap once for ratings, tap again to switch

[Hendrik]

But the ratings can be tapped to change the ratings, how do i tap them differently to switch back to the text?

[connersw]

The stars are really quite huge though, they need a full row, like the song title basically.

Why do they have to be that big though?  Isn't something like this possible?  

I prefer the first one, but the second one may be better if the stars actually work (ie, you can actually rate within Gizmo) so you don't hit the play controls by accident.  Plus, I added a little touch to the second one since Hendrik LOVES color.

Touch the title of the song/artist area once (Elvenpath etc. in box above). rating stars appear, song/artist dissapears. You can rate the song. Then, after 5 seconds, song /artist text reappears, stars disappear. Cover art stays put.

Actually, I'd like to not do this since someday I would like Gizmo to be dynamic (ie, touch the Artist, and it brings up that Artist's view).  Not to get off topic though.

[WinoOutWest]

But the ratings can be tapped to change the ratings, how do i tap them differently to switch back to the text?

Doh! 

okay fair enuff - don't suppose we could swipe that section horizontally could we?  That would be kinda cool.

[HTPC4ME]

i prefer conners first jpg as well (artist, album, track above 5 stars, then play controls beneath.)

[WinoOutWest]

i prefer conners first jpg as well (artist, album, track above 5 stars, then play controls beneath.)

I like them both but I think the first one is definitely going to be more susceptible to mis-touches without adding much value.

[Hendrik]

If only Android wouldn't be so stubborn with scaling the rating widget.
And yes, the stars are functional, so I would rather move them over the text.

I have shaved off a bit of space here and there, but it still eats away at the cover art, so I'll need to shrink the stars as well. Oh well, was hoping to avoid that.

[BillT]

If you must have stars, please make them optional or at the worst fade out. For me they are completely pointless screen clutter on a screen that's already short of space.

(Never seen the point of ratings myself, though I appreciate that a lot of people use them.)

What I would like to see on Gizmo and Web Gizmo is the ability to customise the displayed fields. For instance I'd like to be able to show composer, work, movement and orchestra - track name, artist and album are pretty limiting with my music collection. You've got the wonderfully configurable database, it would be nice to be able to display those non-standard fields.

[dean70]

If you must have stars, please make them optional or at the worst fade out. For me they are completely pointless screen clutter on a screen that's already short of space.

(Never seen the point of ratings myself, though I appreciate that a lot of people use them.)

What I would like to see on Gizmo and Web Gizmo is the ability to customise the displayed fields. For instance I'd like to be able to show composer, work, movement and orchestra - track name, artist and album are pretty limiting with my music collection. You've got the wonderfully configurable database, it would be nice to be able to display those non-standard fields.

+1. Never used the rating system.

[jmone]

The other option is to just have the stars on the Horizontal Layout and not the Vertical one at all. 

[astromo]

The other option is to just have the stars on the Horizontal Layout and not the Vertical one at all. 

I like the lines of your lateral thinking, simply rotate the device from portrait to landscape mode to change a rating. I can work with that - no worries.

Great to see that user requests have been responded to. All it takes is a bit of time and patience. Thanks Hendrik.

[astromo]

Shoot!

I didn't read the Gizmo 19.0.108 release notes. I got it working on my 'droids expecting to have fun with ratings and no cigar. Dagnabbit.

That'll learn me to read.

Just give me some stars to play with Hendrik. Looking forward to that..  

[wig]

Hendrik, Here's an idea. How about supporting multiple modes (stars, no stars) using the view button (the one to the far left on the control bar).

Currently that button just cycles between album art and playlist. Could you add a third mode that includes art & stars?

[Al ex]

It could also show them for a bit of time after you tap on the cover art for example, if you want to get them back mid-playback without pausing.

+1!!

[MGD_King]

I may also add an option to Gizmo to hide the rating stars completely, for those people that don't use the rating feature, and don't want the clutter.

Please.

[robgil]

For playing classical music is it possible to provide more information?

For instance,

Song Title
Artist
Album Artist
Album

Or is this a customizable feature in JR?

[JimH]

Customize Gizmo on the server.  The wiki has a topic on "Gizmo" and another on "Classical Music".

[BillT]

Presumably robgil is talking about the Playing Now screen in Gizmo. As far as I can see this isn't customisable to any useful degree.

You can alter WebGizmo to some extent if you're any good at html editing, but I don't think that you can display custom fields in the Playing Now view.

[Hendrik]

We might bring customization for this later - first ironing out the overall design.

[dvogel1]

I'd take a volume control over stars night and day. Please add a software volume control to this screen. I realize that the phone volume works but it's clumsy and not nearly as functional as screen based volume control. Perhaps you can make a star-volume, or volume star... May I suggest spending some time with a Squeezebox app. It's not perfect but it seemed to have good ergonomics and flow.

[r_harms]

I am one user that is Very Happy about the possibility of rating stars in Gizmo. When I logged on and saw that Hendrik was working on it I was thrilled. This for me was the biggest missing feature in Gizmo, so a Big Thanks!

I hope you can make it optional for the users that don't use ratings. I know I feel strongly about having a feature I don't use 'in my face' with no way to turn it off.

On my device I have loads of screen space so smaller cover art, buttons and progress bar would be fine. I'm using a Samsung Mega 6.3.

I'm in the camp that would like the stars visible all the time, and if that means smaller I'm still good. I would be fine with a compromise like fade out or the like.

Thanks Hendrik for the great contributions, you have made a great team even better!

Rick

[Mastiff]

I agree fully with dvogel1! A good volume control would be a lot nicer then the ratings, at least for me.

[connersw]

I don't think volume control vs ratings needs to be one or the other.  Gizmo doesn't currently take advantage of swipe gestures.  Up/Dn swipes over the Cover Art would be a nice idea.  There are a couple posts farther back in this very thread with some good ideas on swipe gestures.

Hard to please everyone all the time.  I appreciate Hendrik taking a stab at it though.

[Fabricio]

Thanks Hendrik for the great contributions, you have made a great team even better!

Rick

+1

Congratulations for the work.

Friend Hendrik, for tablets, for example, galaxy note 10.1, the size of the stars is great, perfect.

Hugs ...