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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 19 for Windows => Topic started by: Matt on September 04, 2013, 07:04:54 pm

Title: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Matt on September 04, 2013, 07:04:54 pm
I'd like to improve Gizmo's Playing Now screen for v19.  It's a challenging problem because it needs to work on small phones in portrait and landscape mode, and then it needs to scale up to tablet size well.

At a bare minimum, I'd like star ratings for the current track, a cleaner look in landscape mode on a phone, and optionally a volume up and down button.

The stock music player on Android does a lot of swiping actions to change between tracks, playlist vs file view, etc.  Swiping between a view of the track list, single file, and extra controls like volume, rating, etc. might be neat.  It can be a little hidden unless you put a tab control at the top or similar (like the stock News application on Android).

JRemote looks really nice and it puts the playlist next to the image in landscape mode:
(http://images.computeraudiophile.com/graphics/2012/0928/first-img2.PNG)

Any other ideas?

Thanks for any help.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: HTPC4ME on September 04, 2013, 08:19:40 pm
 :) As an android family, we're happy to hear this.:)
We've seen the cool updates to jremote, myriver etc, and thought maybe you forgot about us Gizmo users.E

Excited to see where this goes!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Castius on September 04, 2013, 10:33:43 pm
New layout would be nice.

I wouldn't mind more swiping. I don't think a tab is 100% necessary.
I think google is doing a pretty good job showing how this can work.
The google music app is a ok example. But i can see you guys putting jriver touches to it. 8)

i'd say that i'd like to see good notification and widget support.
user support
and better zone switching features.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: stewart_pk on September 04, 2013, 10:48:53 pm
I would defintely like a volume up and down on the Playing Now screen please.
Oh I'd love a Playing Now view to the lock screen option added. Many adroid media players seem to do this these days like Poweramp for example.

Thanks for asking for customer opinion's regarding this, you guys are defintely the best!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on September 04, 2013, 10:59:31 pm
:) As an android family, we're happy to hear this.:)
We've seen the cool updates to jremote, myriver etc, and thought maybe you forgot about us Gizmo users.E

Excited to see where this goes!

Ditto all of what he^^ said! :)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: toomanybarts on September 04, 2013, 11:45:08 pm
When you say "Ratings" do you also mean the ability to edit the ratings?  If so, that is what I would like the most!!
I moved from iphone to android and really miss ratings my songs when I'm out and about with JRemote.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on September 04, 2013, 11:54:38 pm
When you say "Ratings" do you also mean the ability to edit the ratings?  If so, that is what I would like the most!!
I moved from iphone to android and really miss ratings my songs when I'm out and about with JRemote.

Ditto all of what he^^ said! :)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on September 05, 2013, 02:14:41 am

JRemote looks really nice and it puts the playlist next to the image in landscape mode:

Thats a pretty common layout for landscape mode, at least on tablet-sized screens. I think Gizmo could do really well with it.
If it works on a phone screen is another question, though. I'm not too sure about how the layout would be ideal for a phone, since i don't use it on phones much.

Its not uncommon to have different layouts on phones and on tablets, though, even if more effort to maintain.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: marko on September 05, 2013, 02:25:19 am
Posted over there, before I saw this over here...

I knocked up the attached landscape mock-up this morning.

Of course, for now, I just need it on my phone, and need it to be legible when I'm driving and it's three feet or so away on the windscreen.

How you get that to scale nicely between 4.7 phone screens and 10.1 inch tablets, I've no idea. The extra space on the tablet allows for so much more functionality too

What I have learned over the years though, is that J River are second to none when it comes to bridging these kinds of divides, so no pressure, but hurry up eh ;)

-marko
Title: Re: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: struct on September 05, 2013, 04:40:11 am
Why can't there be a phone and a tablet version? There really should be as the expectations are fundamentally different.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on September 05, 2013, 05:49:14 am
I've left Plugplayer way behind now but I always thought its Now Playing screen couldn't be beaten.  It's hard to put my finger on it, it's basically exactly the same layout as shown above, I guess it's just the choice of font, spacing, and size of the cover art which is not completely filling the area. See attached pic.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on September 05, 2013, 05:51:20 am
Please make sure transport controls, volume control and seek bar are nice and easy to hit!  Too many players, especially on a tablet, have minute buttons.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: jmone on September 05, 2013, 05:54:12 am
I'm really keen on adding some more features such as streaming Radio and TV (see pic) so it matches what you can get with Library Server clients.  You can make them appear but at present they don't work.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on September 05, 2013, 05:56:46 am
Hey Nathan, how is that related to the playing now screen? No hijacking the threads! :P
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: jmone on September 05, 2013, 06:00:22 am
Woops - You noticed the shameless feature promotion!  ;D
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: jmone on September 05, 2013, 06:09:34 am
Regarding the Playing Now Screen, one thing that is worth considering is Video.  At present Gizmo hands this off to a separate video player so the controls are different from Gizmo.  It would be good to try to keep this in house but I'm guessing this is not so easy.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on September 05, 2013, 06:38:55 am
There is no real separate video players, its all handled by Gizmo itself.
The playback is done by Androids player, but the UI is all Gizmo, it has the same weird looking white-on-white buttons.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: zeusl on September 05, 2013, 09:09:21 am
Hi
I love Gizmo and often use it for music, what I miss is:

1. Controls in nofikations fields and / or Lockscreen
2. Changing the song via the headset. Double-tap the play / pause
3. Saving songs on device aka Offline mode (Like spotify)
4. Ability to see the tracklist for an album when I search, without having to play the whole album.

/Zeus
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on September 05, 2013, 09:39:12 am
Hi
I love Gizmo and often use it for music, what I miss is:

1. Controls in nofikations fields and / or Lockscreen
2. Changing the song via the headset. Double-tap the play / pause
3. Saving songs on device aka Offline mode (Like spotify)
4. Ability to see the tracklist for an album when I search, without having to play the whole album.

/Zeus

I agree with all of these points but wow #3 would really change the way I use Gizmo and how often.  I dare say I could get rid of syncing if this was a feature and replace my "local" music player with gizmo not mention making the whole " transfer some tune to my phone" process a whole lot less effort.  I likey!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on September 05, 2013, 09:55:35 am
3. Saving songs on device aka Offline mode (Like spotify)

Actually, that's something that I would love, in lieu of MC on tablet devices on anything other than Windows - the ability to cache the Gizmo *views* and playlists to Gizmo and then to download *media* to Gizmo for playing locally/offline. Basically a handheld sync I guess, to the standard Android library maybe, but using JRiver view schemes.

That's what's absolutely frustrating about every other media player, on PCs, tablets, OS, Android, whatever - the extremely limited Artist/Album/Genre menus. Sometimes not even Genre.

I would like the experience of MC but on a mobile device. JRemote is the best interface so far - Gizmo is lagging way behind. But no local play when out and about or in the car.

But hey, this is a Now Playng thread...

Double-tap on cover art to play/pause.
Swipe left or right to change songs, swipe up or down to change volume - as well as the transport buttons, seek bar and volume control slider.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Fabricio on October 17, 2013, 08:30:11 pm
I have hope. New design.

Thanks for asking users.
Title: Re: Re:
Post by: nitephlight on October 17, 2013, 09:26:12 pm
A feature that I've long desired but eventually produced using views from gizmo home screen is navigation from a playing now track to

a)  playing now playlist (the current feature blocks the cover art and is difficult to  select)
b)  jump to artist or full album from playing track,  much like the button on the pc application in file list view

c) add to On the Go playlist- currently im using MCWS to playlist edit the top of recent played to bookmark playlist but it is not as reliable due to lag in server updating gizmo views and smartlists
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: carbo on October 18, 2013, 11:05:16 am
My requests:
- Ability to control amplifier volume
- Ratings
- More control on the information displayed (fields selection)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: contium on October 18, 2013, 01:45:17 pm
I'd like to improve Gizmo's Playing Now screen for v19.  It's a challenging problem because it needs to work on small phones in portrait and landscape mode, and then it needs to scale up to tablet size well.

It would be nice to be able to lock the display to portrait or landscape as well.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: fitbrit on October 18, 2013, 11:27:41 pm
Please make sure transport controls, volume control and seek bar are nice and easy to hit!  Too many players, especially on a tablet, have minute buttons.

Yes, my Android tablet's volume buttons are ridiculously hard to find. Please let's have a slider.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: flac.rules on October 19, 2013, 07:05:32 pm
Sounds great!

I dont know how feasible it is, but would it be possible with some kind of customization? I would like some custom buttons in the gizmo interface, that can run custom commands (like mcc-commands and so on)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: toomanybarts on October 19, 2013, 09:12:37 pm
My requests:
- Ability to control amplifier volume
- Ratings
- More control on the information displayed (fields selection)

+1 for ability to rate songs
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: flac.rules on October 20, 2013, 03:49:42 am
My requests:
- Ability to control amplifier volume
- Ratings
- More control on the information displayed (fields selection)

Yes ability to control the amp and fields selection would be great.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: syndromeofadown on October 20, 2013, 04:12:13 pm
I would like to see most or all buttons removed from the playing now screen and replaced by one button that switches directly to the commands screen. But...
the command screen could be more like a remote instead of a list like it is now. here is an example an android remote that works nicely on all sizes of screens:
I find digital knobs really nice to use on touch screens.


(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s635/bucket__of__photos/android%2001/remote_zps1ea6a1a2.png) (http://s1309.photobucket.com/user/bucket__of__photos/media/android%2001/remote_zps1ea6a1a2.png.html)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Fabricio on December 06, 2013, 03:54:29 pm
Anything new?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Matt on December 06, 2013, 08:12:01 pm
Anything new?

Baby steps.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=85766.0
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: marko on December 07, 2013, 03:07:31 am
The new buttons and progress handle are welcome, but in landscape, they are demanding even more screen real estate, resulting in a thumbnail so small it's hardly worth the bother...

(http://www.theganghut.co.uk/pics/ia/Gizmo88landscape.jpg)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Fabricio on December 07, 2013, 05:10:00 am
Baby steps.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=85766.0

ahahaha  :D :D :D :D :D

Thanks,

Fabricio, from Brazil.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: nitephlight on December 20, 2013, 04:23:27 am
The new buttons and progress handle are welcome, but in landscape, they are demanding even more screen real estate, resulting in a thumbnail so small it's hardly worth the bother...

(http://www.theganghut.co.uk/pics/ia/Gizmo88landscape.jpg)

super this. i lock rotation when gizmo is open just to fill the screen with album art (even if its sideways), other than that loving the new buttons- especially for those of us with inverted themes, it is MUCH appreciated
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: AndrewFG on December 20, 2013, 04:47:39 am
My requests:
- Ability to control amplifier volume
...

This would be nice but maybe it is not possible (??) The phone would need to send a separate i/r command to the receiver (and I'm not sure if phones even have i/r transmitters). But at least in the case when you are playing at fixed volume to a receiver, then Gizmo should not display any volume slider or up/down buttons.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on December 20, 2013, 02:34:17 pm
The new buttons and progress handle are welcome, but in landscape, they are demanding even more screen real estate, resulting in a thumbnail so small it's hardly worth the bother...

(http://www.theganghut.co.uk/pics/ia/Gizmo88landscape.jpg)

Ditto this.  In landscape mode on my phone the cover are is pretty much useless.  Can we not have the cover art on one side of the screen and the details on the other when in landscape mode?

Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: stewart_pk on December 22, 2013, 08:46:19 pm
Oh I'd love a Playing Now view to the lock screen option added. Many adroid media players seem to do this these days like Poweramp for example.

Although Gizmo has a "lock screen" option, this has yet to be implemented as I requested :(
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 14, 2014, 01:23:23 pm
I've been thinking about the playing now screen, and in landscape mode it truely is rather ugly right now.
Given that a phone is rather small, I'm not sure if i can shrink the buttons much.

So how would you envision it to look?
I can shrink the buttons a bit, maybe make the seek bar take less space...

Much room is taken away by the header line. Maybe instead of the "Playing Now" text it should include the artist/album/track information, so there is more room for the thumbnail?

I wonder how it would look if the track list is also shown in landscape mode.

Maybe I'll put a few mock-ups up later.

PS:
Primarily thinking about phone right now. May create a separate playing now page for tablets once this one is done.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 14, 2014, 01:42:35 pm
So how would you envision it to look?

I've actually been thinking about this!

I also use JRemote and there are elements of the Now Playing screens on both Gizmo and JRemote that are great and others that are not so great. Can we think about doing a unified look for both??  (Requires LesPaul inpiut I guess!)

The portrait Now Playing of JRemote looks brilliant, with the cover art filling about 2/3 its area, slanted and with a reflection. It also has a sensible landscape view with the cover art again, not filling the entire area, that looks ungainly, but the controls are on the bottom line with the left of the screen taken up by the playlist. JRemote also has a problem in that the playlist is not accessible from the portrait view.

But I prefer the controls of Gizmo - they're more attractive, easier to hit and especially the progress/seek bar fills the entire width which is very useful for seeking within a movie as the resolution is higher, as opposed to JRemote's seek bar which is miniscule.

Do you want screenshots or do you have access to JRemote?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 14, 2014, 01:46:36 pm
I'd like to see on both apps:

PORTRAIT

Cover Art and Track Info as JRemote, but with the controls of Gizmo.  Playlist accessible from this view.

LANDSCAPE

Cover Art and Track Info as JRemote, but on the left with controls of Gizmo on the right. Playlist acessible from this view (but not immediately shown).
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 14, 2014, 01:49:46 pm
I don't have an apple device at hand, no.
But I also wanted to avoid blatantly stealing too much. :)

I think the portrait playing now in Gizmo is OK, maybe not perfect, but certainly usable.
It might also benefit from moving the text inside the header line, I think i'll simply try that tomorrow and see how it looks.

Landscape is another matter entirely.
I love the new buttons, but they are rather huge and take away a lot of space from the thumbnail, leaving a lot of grey background without much use.

Personally I prefer the centered buttons even in landscape mode, but that way they take up more space

Following your idea, wouldn't the right of the screen be a bit...empty? with just the controls there?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: HTPC4ME on January 14, 2014, 01:53:44 pm
mentioned this in the the theaterview request thread... a theaterview/gizmo view that's sync'd together would be stellar. :)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 14, 2014, 01:54:59 pm
Well, we'd have to see how agreeable LesPaul is! But I know he too has struggled trying to get the Now Playing screen right, with people requesting different things and trying things out. From a user point of view, I don't see the problem with unifying these, they're not really competing products, JRemote fills a gap that is not provided out of the box, and there doesn't seem to be much point in several developers trying to work out different schemes and operating procedures and if different apps do end up being different then that ends up confusing the user if they do happen to have both.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: fitbrit on January 14, 2014, 02:45:28 pm
I would really love to see Gizmo's Playing Now screen implement an MC volume slider too. Some Android tabs have AWFUL volume buttons that are not easily accessed in the dark.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: mhwlng on January 14, 2014, 03:05:17 pm
I don't mind that you need to scroll the screen to view everything. (playlist,metadata etc.)

This is how I organized the playing now screen for various device sizes :

>> Screenshots of Playing Now Phone (Galaxy S4) << (http://www.flickriver.com/photos/mhwlng/sets/72157639769716756/)

I.e. on smaller devices, the whole screen always scrolls in both landscape and portrait orientation.


>> Screenshots of Playing Now Tablet (Nexus 7) << (http://www.flickriver.com/photos/mhwlng/sets/72157639769689296/)

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7311/11953316434_0de122b329_z.jpg)

I.e. on bigger devices, the whole screen only scrolls in portrait orientation.
In landscape (when there is enough room), there is a single plage where only some windows scroll (playlist, bio etc.).


Also there can be 1,2 or 3 columns in the playlist depending on if you are playing a single album or not.

Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 14, 2014, 03:05:48 pm
Following your idea, wouldn't the right of the screen be a bit...empty? with just the controls there?

See this very, very, hastily patched together screenshot.

The Track Info above the controls could be more like the JRemote one below.

I think Playing Now needs to be clutter-free. You need all the essential information and controls to hand, anything more can be provided by popup/slide-in screens.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 14, 2014, 03:07:41 pm
I guess that could work.
I have seen other requests about the metadata, that would accomodate it nicely. Would also leave some space in the landscape view to put a volume control even.

Playlist could scroll out from the side then over the coverart, instead of from the top which is next to useless right now in landscape.

Moving things around is pretty quick, I'll try to post some actual mockups tomorrow.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: jmone on January 14, 2014, 03:35:14 pm
Gizmo looks good to my eyes on a Portrait Phone but on a Landscape Tablet the utilisation of all that screen space is relatively poor.  So what I'm not sure about is if there can be one design to suite both or if you end up needed two skins one for a Phone and one for a Tablet.

Looking forward to seeing some mock ups!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: robgil on January 14, 2014, 05:13:41 pm
Gizmo is really bad to use when JR is in theater view, unless I am using it wrongly?
To navigate through menus shown on my telly requires a swiping action on my Nexus 7 and it is very hard to control, most times it will overshoot the desired catagory. Is there a way to slow it down?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 15, 2014, 07:02:54 am
Here is my first attempt for Playing now in Landscape:

(http://files.1f0.de/jr/images/android/playingnow-landscape1.png)

And with playlist:
(http://files.1f0.de/jr/images/android/playingnow-landscape1-playlist.png)

The buttons are still a bit too small. Trying to find the perfect size to fit in there for them.

If i assume the cover art is a nearly square image like this one, a 50/50 split also isn't ideal, and wastes a bit of space as borders around the image.
May try 40/60 or so, gives a bit more room for the buttons and text. Long artist/album already doesn't fit.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 15, 2014, 07:18:35 am
Here is another one with 40/60 width and improved button size:
(http://files.1f0.de/jr/images/android/playingnow-landscape2.png)

As you can see, the cover art didn't get any smaller, it just moved slightly to the left (because its centered in its area), and the buttons/text get more space.
In before someone questions the symetry of not having 50/50? :)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: JimH on January 15, 2014, 07:31:17 am
Could you move the thermometer under the player controls so the only thing on the left is the cover art?

Cover art will look a little better if it isn't pushed against the left side, in my opinion.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: wig on January 15, 2014, 07:33:26 am
Here's a screengrab from my favorite android media player.

Collapsing the top menu really opens up area for the album art.

Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 15, 2014, 07:36:18 am
Could you move the thermometer under the player controls so the only thing on the left is the cover art?

Personally I think the seek bar is really useful when its so nice and wide.
Additionally, if the cover art gets more vertical space, it also gets wider again, and takes up more space from the buttons/text fields, which already struggle a bit to fit in there.

Of course I could also re-think the text layout here. The album and artist on one row sure does make for long strings.

I suppose i can wip up a quick image how it would look, though.

Cover art will look a little better if it isn't pushed against the left side, in my opinion.

Not sure what exactly you are referring to. The cover art has plenty space to each side, nothing is "pushing" it.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: wig on January 15, 2014, 07:46:07 am
Personally I think the seek bar is really useful when its so nice and wide.
Additionally, if the cover art gets more vertical space, it also gets wider again, and takes up more space from the buttons/text fields, which already struggle a bit to fit in there.

Is removing the stop button an option? I've never missed it on my phone, but I could see if being necessary for controlling other zones, etc.

Quote

Of course I could also re-think the text layout here. The album and artist on one row sure does make for long strings.

I suppose i can wip up a quick image how it would look, though.

Not sure what exactly you are referring to. The cover art has plenty space to each side, nothing is "pushing" it.

Unstacking album and artist is a great idea!

This is really promising, Hendrik. Your mockups already look much better than the current setup.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 15, 2014, 07:48:49 am
I think this is looking really neat. I too think that the seek bar is better across the whole width, I don't think it looks out of place in aesthetic terms and it increases usability a great deal. Cover art is certainly better with a blank border, like a picture would be framed, rather than filling up its entire space from margin to margin. But style is very subjective! The album and artist could be split onto two lines and I think possibly the playlist font could do with decreasing a bit, and/or a neater font, and like the cover art would look neater with a border of some description rather than filling up its space.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: FastKayak on January 15, 2014, 07:50:11 am
I agree with Jim on both points.  Maybe "pushed" in the wrong word...whatever, the cover art is too far left.  


Could you move the thermometer under the player controls so the only thing on the left is the cover art?

Cover art will look a little better if it isn't pushed against the left side, in my opinion.

FastKayak / Larry
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 15, 2014, 07:57:37 am
I can't exactly center the cover art, or it eats up too much space.
I can move it slightly to the right, but only so much until it starts taking up space from the text and buttons again.

How did it look on the first images? It was more to the right on these.
(http://files.1f0.de/jr/images/android/playingnow-landscape1.png)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: marko on January 15, 2014, 08:29:21 am
Great stuff. Very similar to my own vision....

(http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=83301.0;attach=10073;image).

Is it possible to increase the size of the [artist] • [album] text a little too?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 15, 2014, 09:10:32 am
If i split it into two lines, then yes, i can change it. Otherwise it already overflows the current width on many of my albums. :D
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: AndrewFG on January 15, 2014, 09:32:13 am
If i split it into two lines, then yes, i can change it. Otherwise it already overflows the current width on many of my albums. :D

I think that if the text overflows the available space, it should rotate through the space "Times Square" banner style.
I also have the same request concerning the playing now screen in TheaterView.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 15, 2014, 09:36:51 am
If every text overflows the line, the line is too short or the text too long, though. =)

Here is another version:
(http://files.1f0.de/jr/images/android/playingnow-landscape3.png)

I kinda like the separation of the text and the buttons. I also moved the cover art a bit to the right again, hopefully taking away that "pushed left" feeling.
If the artist and album would now be split into two lines, and some of the empty space maybe used by something new ... ratings? media metadata?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: JimH on January 15, 2014, 10:01:31 am
I just sent you a drawing.

Playing Now
Playing here (tap to change)

could be

Playing Now (Here -- Tap to change)

and the artist album could be split into two lines

the thermometer could move under the text on the right

rating stars could be shown under it
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: AndrewFG on January 15, 2014, 10:05:59 am
If every text overflows the line, the line is too short or the text too long, though. =)

Yes.

But there are always some extra long cases, particularly with classical music e.g. title = Symphony No. 9 // artists = Ludwig van Beethoven; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Herbert von Karajan; Anna Tomowa-Sintow; Agnes Baltsa; Peter Schreier; Jose van Dam ...

Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 15, 2014, 10:13:28 am
I just sent you a drawing.

Playing Now
Playing here (tap to change)

could be

Playing Now (Here -- Tap to change)
One thing to note is that the title bar is consistent through the entire app, so while it may make sense to say "Playing Now (Here -- Tap to change)", it might cause confusion to say "Red Hot Chili Peppers (Here -- Tap to change)" when I'm browsing the library.
In landscape mode, there is plenty space though, so maybe it should just be both the complete lines in one line to save some vertical space, without shortening the text, ie: "Red Hot Chili Peppers (Playing here -- Tap to change)"

and the artist album could be split into two lines
Yes, most likely going to do that.

the thermometer could move under the text on the right
I'm still liking the "thermometer" where it is, because it gives more control over seeking, especially if you're trying to control something with a longer duration, like a video or audio book.

rating stars could be shown under it

Without moving the "thermometer",  i would've placed them between the text and the buttons on my last image.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: JimH on January 15, 2014, 10:16:25 am
OK
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 15, 2014, 10:19:24 am
Quote
the thermometer could move under the text on the right

LOL, I still like the whole width seek bar though. It's not too bad for music but when you're trying to seek through a 2-hour movie for a particular point on a bar that's like an inch wide with a fingertip that's half an inch wide it becomes difficult to do it with any degree of accuracy whatsoever, and in-car use also suffers when it's narrow, on a phone-sized screen reached at arms length (you're using a hands-free kit aren't you?). The wider the seek bar the better.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 15, 2014, 01:02:16 pm
So here is another one, most likely the last one for today:
(http://files.1f0.de/jr/images/android/playingnow-landscape4.png)

- Artist and Album are now on separate lines (and with an increased font size!)
- The title bar is a bit thinner in landscape, to open up some extra space

Personally I'm pretty happy with it. Still some space to add new information here, although not sure where I would put them in portrait mode then. :)

PS:
The slightly cut-off font (on the g and y) has already been corrected locally.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: HTPC4ME on January 15, 2014, 01:24:12 pm
just noticed (havent used gizmo in some time) you guys added gizmo to the lock screen..Thanks for this! nice to just power on and skip tracks without needing to unlock!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: jmone on January 15, 2014, 03:07:08 pm
They all look good to me! 
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: dean70 on January 15, 2014, 03:39:04 pm
Would you need to have a button for the track-list? Could it be a swipe right to a separate screen (and swipe left to go back to cover-art view) ?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 15, 2014, 04:27:34 pm
I built a new Gizmo version with my last version of the new landscape Playing Now page, and posted it here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=86715.0

Please direct any Gizmo feedback not directly related to the new playing now page there. :)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: HTPC4ME on January 15, 2014, 05:23:49 pm
much much nicer! thanks for doing this!
ratings, add to genre, add to playlists around the corner? :D
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: JimH on January 15, 2014, 06:07:03 pm
Very nice.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: HTPC4ME on January 15, 2014, 07:37:48 pm
idea... ability to always see covers...when playing now, if one clicks on the playlist icon, the album hides, maybe it could jump to the right hand side above the control buttons.. that way we could see our whole playlist and cover and controls without having to touch anything... basicaly we could trigger the album to the right and shrink it above the tag info and when done just click album cover or playlist icon and we would go back to the state it is now.

possible bug... when lock screen turns on i have play controls and large black box... cover art is missing. i'm using galaxy s3.

idea...Ran across this a while back - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17021940/android-how-to-implement-control-in-notification-area perhaps instead of lockscreen player, there could be a notification player built in? by doing so at anytime in any app one could just swipe down, to play, pause, rewind, move forward, open player/Gizmo.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: jmone on January 15, 2014, 09:28:26 pm
The new Playing New Screen looks good on a 5" phone ;D but looks kinda "empty" on a tablet (as does the other screens).

Also I'll balance out some of Hendrik's heavy metal with some Asia!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 16, 2014, 01:37:28 am
Tablets are another matter entirely. They'll need some separate tuning for the larger screen sizes.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: jmone on January 16, 2014, 01:40:54 am
I agree - I don't think there is a "one size" fits all.  Looks great on a 5" screen.  Everything looks small on a 10"
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Scolex on January 16, 2014, 03:26:49 am
Would it be possible to have the option to hide the buttons and track info or album art with a tap.
Example: tapping album art would make it full screen, tapping again would revert back to split screen and vise versa.

What about using a gesture for seek similar to how the Theater View remote works.
Swipe left to right for move forward with hold to repeat with one addition that being after you hold moving vertically
changes the seek speed/time per step.
When I was testing out media player I came across one that had something similar but for the life of me I can't find it again.
How theirs worked was if you tapped the current position marker and then drag up and right the player advanced the further
you drug up the faster it advanced. Tapping anywhere on the track position bar other than the marker would cause playback
to move to that position.

Other gestures that would be nice. (full screen album art mode)
bottom half single finger swipe left/right = rewind/forward
Bottom half two finger swipe left/right = previous/next track
double finger up/down = playing now list
upper left side single finger up/down = volume
upper right side single finger up/down = brightness

Just some food for thought.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 16, 2014, 04:12:40 am
When I was testing out media player I came across one that had something similar but for the life of me I can't find it again.

The iOS app Leech Tunes has a great gesture-controlled interface to Now Playing, which is user-configurable (you can decide which gesture invokes which action).

I have a very simple, and I think intituive, swipe right/left for Next/Previous track, drag up or down to change volume, drag left or right to seek, two-finger swipe left or right to jump forwards/backwards, tap to play/pause, double-tap to bring up playlist.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 16, 2014, 04:16:30 am
The new Playing New Screen looks good on a 5" phone ;D but looks kinda "empty" on a tablet (as does the other screens).

I haven't yet tried the latest version (can't wait to do so though!) but was a bit surprised - I was expecting the screen to scale appropriately so that it looks the same regardless of what size screen or resolution you've got. Can't the sizes, spacing, positioning etc be relative to the screen rather than absolute, or do you have to have different apps and/or coding for different screen sizes?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 16, 2014, 04:18:39 am
the further you drug up the faster it advanced.

Yes, I find that too.  ;D
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 16, 2014, 04:24:54 am
I haven't yet tried the latest version (can't wait to do so though!) but was a bit surprised - I was expecting the screen to scale appropriately so that it looks the same regardless of what size screen or resolution you've got. Can't the sizes, spacing, positioning etc be relative to the screen rather than absolute, or do you have to have different apps and/or coding for different screen sizes?

Android is actually trying to be somewhat smart, which means it tries to keep the buttons around the same physical size, no matter how big the device screen is.
We could change it to simply scale up, but that might look weird too.

Instead, I would rather spend another few hours to simply come up with a tablet optimized version of the screen instead.
Maybe the tablet version could always show the playlist, since it has so much room. But I can see how someone might not want that because it disrupts the clean layout a bit.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: AndrewFG on January 16, 2014, 04:25:50 am
I have a very simple, and I think intituive, swipe right/left for Next/Previous track, drag up or down to change volume, drag left or right to seek, two-finger swipe left or right to jump forwards/backwards, tap to play/pause, double-tap to bring up playlist.

I would like to add "tap and hold" to bring up a context sensitive menu to navigate to related media e.g. other albums by this artist / other tracks on this album / other albums in this genre / etc.

Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Fabricio on January 16, 2014, 05:37:08 am
I agree - I don't think there is a "one size" fits all.  Looks great on a 5" screen.  Everything looks small on a 10"
+1
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Cereal Killer on January 17, 2014, 01:19:43 pm
I just sent you a drawing.

Playing Now
Playing here (tap to change)

could be

Playing Now (Here -- Tap to change)

and the artist album could be split into two lines

the thermometer could move under the text on the right

rating stars could be shown under it

This I like, better than 19.0.107
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mr. Odd on January 17, 2014, 04:48:41 pm
It'd be great to include "track number/track total" so you can see how far you are into an album or playlist.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: marko on January 18, 2014, 12:56:02 am
This is just great in the car now. Brilliant work Hendrik, thank you.
Title: Re: Re: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: nitephlight on January 18, 2014, 03:49:53 am
Android is actually trying to be somewhat smart, which means it tries to keep the buttons around the same physical size, no matter how big the device screen is.
We could change it to simply scale up, but that might look weird too.

Instead, I would rather spend another few hours to simply come up with a tablet optimized version of the screen instead.
Maybe the tablet version could always show the playlist, since it has so much room. But I can see how someone might not want that because it disrupts the clean layout a bit.

a very popular ui pattern these days is the Google inspired Navigation bar:

http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation-drawer.html

it would actually offer some elegant solutions for navigating back to top level views such as Home, Search(now accessible at any level of the application!) , Mode,  etc.. maybe  Remote. it can also potentially shuttle you between  Playing Now activity and perhaps a Playlist activity which could be home to new features like tag editing (ratingsss :-))

IMO the pattern optimizes both landscape and portrait user interaction (especially when car docked it is impossible to consistently hit the Home button or even my hardware back button for that matter haha)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: MGD_King on January 18, 2014, 10:35:47 am
Also I'll balance out some of Hendrik's heavy metal with some Asia!
There's not a thing wrong with Hendrik's tastes!  8) Nightwish FTW!!!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Fabricio on January 18, 2014, 07:11:13 pm
This is just great in the car now. Brilliant work Hendrik, thank you.
+1
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 20, 2014, 06:55:11 am
So, in another thread someone was asking about the stopped state on the Playing Now screen, and the "Resume Playback" button.
He, and I, wonder why this button even exists.  If you have no file loaded, it doesn't do anything, and if you had a file loaded which was just stopped, its just a "Play" button, so why not simply show the playback controls?

Anyone else got any opinions on this, or perhaps knows the history of this button, if there is any to know?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 20, 2014, 07:14:05 am
I suspect that it's just a bit of "intelligence", i.e. the app responding and reacting to the current state of play and telling the user what the options are. You could achieve the same thing with just the play button, yes, but I suppose "Resume Playback" is more user-friendly in that it has spotted that you have previously paused playback and is telling you that you can resume from where you left it.  If you had stopped the file with the stop button instead of a pause then you would just get normal playback controls? My view is that if it's not doing any harm then redundancy is fine as long as it's adding something to the user experience! But then again, we don't really expect this level of user friendliness and probably all computer users, whether tech-savvy or not, are used to second-guessing what an app is doing or what it will do.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 20, 2014, 07:19:32 am
That someone Hendrik's talking about would be me! ;) I mainly (well, almost exclusively) use Gizmo as a remote to my multi-zone setup both home and at the cabin. And I do not see in any other way what's playing anywhere, if I don't pick up a computer and use VNC to log on to the media server. And that's really defeating the purpose of having the possibility to control it with a phone. To me it's not redundancy at all, it's just a message saying I'm connected to the server. Which isn't a problem to know because if you're not connected to the server it will error out! So here's a bit more of my explanation:

All I see when playback is stopped, is the "You're on the bus" and below that there is a button with "Resume playback" on it. When I press that I see the name of the playing track and the button, and I would like to see that without starting playback first. Come to think of it I would like to see all the transport buttons, just like when playing, instead of a rather unhelpful message telling me I'm on the bus. If I can see the track name and other info I think it would be rather self-evident that I'm on something! Just like a lot of people in Colorado are now...legally! ;)

Another thing that can be very annoying, at least to me, (OK, a bit outside the Playing Now screen part, but still...) is that a short press on a track in an album logically should have added that track to Playing now (or at least play that track), but that it does is to play that full album, starting on the file you click. That can be rather annoying, especially when it's a Podcast series with 500 short podcasts or when I have spent ten minutes adding tracks to a Playing now by clicking and holdning on separate tracks from a bunch of albums and then touches a single track by accident... For me it should work like double clicking in MC, so I can choose either in Gizmo or MC a setup to interpret a short click on a file in Gizmo as "add to playing now" or "play", and with that track only. Would that possible?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 20, 2014, 07:34:44 am
I have to admit I responded to the question without really seeing this button or what it does - I don't use Gizmo that often as I started out with an iPad and so I use JRemote mostly, but would like to start using Gizmo as an alternative and for multiple handhelds.  It doesn't sound like the Resume Playback button is doing what I imagined it would be doing, so yes I do think that it either needs to go or it needs to be revamped a bit. But if it went it would probably leave some patching up to be done so why not just try implementing it a bit better?

With regard to adding tracks to the playlist, JRemote has a default action on tapping an item which you can define, whether it's to add the individual track or to add the entire album, or whether to add to playlist or play now etc.  So if a single tap was user-definable like that in Gizmo then people could change it to something "safer" as they wish.  If you press-and-hold you always get a popup menu of all the possible actions so there's no problem if you want to do something differtent from the default.

I had a running battle with the author of Plugplayer (which is what I used before JRemote came along) trying to get him to revamp the absolutely awful counter-intuitive and awkward selection method (you either have to go into Select mode and highlight each individual item you want by checking a box against the item, or use "tap-to-play" in which case a single tap will clear your current playlist and add the entire album) but I failed and I eventually ditched it!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 20, 2014, 07:38:05 am
Seems we're not disagreeing that much after all! ;) Except for probably in our views on any electronics that startes with a small i...but if I say anything about that it will turn into a shouting match, which is pretty counterproductive for this discussion!  ;D
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 20, 2014, 07:47:04 am
It's OK, I have no Apple allegiance! It's just that I'd been waiting years for something like an iPad for handheld touchscreen media control so jumped at the chance when it came out as there was nothing else. But I really don't intend to get another iOverpricedProduct when upgrading or getting more devices, hence my new-ish interest in Gizmo and trying to help get it into a polished state.,
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 20, 2014, 07:52:50 am
Well, then we agree on a lot, it seems. Hope more people chime in on this nonsense with the "on the bus" button and choosing actions for the lists! It would really make Gizmo almost as handy as my old favourite NetRemote (which fell with my WinMo 6.5 HTC HD2). What would make it as hand would be a view similar to that, with no covers (I'm more for efficiency than eye candy) and something like a panel with a tree, so clicking on a genre would open the next level like using the tree in MC. :) But that would be a whole new view scheme and probably too much to go for right now.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 21, 2014, 08:56:21 am
Small steps ahead, the new Gizmo version I posted will at least still show the title of the track playing, similar to "Pause" mode.
Still thinking about the button there.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 21, 2014, 08:58:45 am
A step forward is a step forward, so thanks for a nice beginning! :) But it's not up on the Play store yet. Is there like a wait period before it surfaces?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 21, 2014, 09:00:17 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 21, 2014, 09:05:17 am
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. :)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 23, 2014, 09:17:28 am
So here is what I've been working on today:

(http://files.1f0.de/jr/images/android/playingnow-rating.png)

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?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on January 23, 2014, 09:53:03 am
WOW!
A LOOOONG time overdue.

Awesome!!!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 23, 2014, 09:55:12 am
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.
Title: Re: AW: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Al ex on January 23, 2014, 02:01:45 pm
So here is what I've been working on today:

(http://files.1f0.de/jr/images/android/playingnow-rating.png)

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!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 24, 2014, 07:00:18 am
So I've been dabbling with the rating stars in Portrait mode.

This is a early try:
(http://files.1f0.de/jr/images/android/playingnow-rating-portrait1.png)

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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 24, 2014, 07:02:21 am
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! :)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: wig on January 24, 2014, 07:23:49 am
So here is what I've been working on today:

(http://files.1f0.de/jr/images/android/playingnow-rating.png)

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!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Cereal Killer on January 24, 2014, 07:34:54 am
How about loosing the 'playing now' at the top of the screens?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 24, 2014, 08:59:10 am
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!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 24, 2014, 09:06:36 am
Is that a gag order to me, officer? ;D 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?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Castius on January 24, 2014, 09:46:09 am
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
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on January 24, 2014, 09:52:01 am
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..."

:-)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 24, 2014, 09:55:21 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 24, 2014, 10:01:56 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 24, 2014, 10:15:50 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 24, 2014, 10:16:38 am
Sorry, shutting up about that. How about my suggestion for vertical stars?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on January 24, 2014, 10:17:07 am
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.
(http://dartek.net/images/playerpro.png)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: JimH on January 24, 2014, 10:42:32 am
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?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 24, 2014, 10:46:54 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 24, 2014, 10:50:54 am
Does that mean that vertical, selectable stars is not an option?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: drmimosa on January 24, 2014, 10:53:24 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on January 24, 2014, 10:54:27 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 24, 2014, 11:06:34 am
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 (http://files.1f0.de/share/img/googlemusicplayingnow.png)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 24, 2014, 11:08:15 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on January 24, 2014, 11:22:20 am
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
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 24, 2014, 11:23:49 am
But the ratings can be tapped to change the ratings, how do i tap them differently to switch back to the text? :)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: connersw on January 24, 2014, 11:24:36 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on January 24, 2014, 11:30:45 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: HTPC4ME on January 24, 2014, 11:43:06 am
i prefer conners first jpg as well (artist, album, track above 5 stars, then play controls beneath.)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on January 24, 2014, 11:46:06 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 24, 2014, 11:49:51 am
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. ;)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: BillT on January 24, 2014, 11:55:10 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: dean70 on January 24, 2014, 04:25:35 pm
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: jmone on January 24, 2014, 05:12:12 pm
The other option is to just have the stars on the Horizontal Layout and not the Vertical one at all. 
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: astromo on January 24, 2014, 05:54:15 pm
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: astromo on January 25, 2014, 12:50:44 am
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..  ;)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: wig on January 25, 2014, 09:06:10 am
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?


Title: Re: AW: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Al ex on January 25, 2014, 11:58:55 am
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!!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: MGD_King on January 25, 2014, 08:23:31 pm
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: robgil on January 26, 2014, 06:44:35 am
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?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: JimH on January 26, 2014, 07:04:27 am
Customize Gizmo on the server.  The wiki has a topic on "Gizmo" and another on "Classical Music".
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: BillT on January 26, 2014, 09:00:52 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 26, 2014, 09:05:02 am
We might bring customization for this later - first ironing out the overall design. :)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: dvogel1 on January 26, 2014, 06:32:26 pm
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: r_harms on January 26, 2014, 08:26:15 pm
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
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 27, 2014, 03:48:03 am
I agree fully with dvogel1! A good volume control would be a lot nicer then the ratings, at least for me.
Title: Re: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: connersw on January 27, 2014, 06:01:33 am
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.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Fabricio on January 27, 2014, 09:02:32 am

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 ...

Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: robgil on January 27, 2014, 03:20:48 pm
Foobarcon does that, you can swipe the cover art and it changes to the track listing, swipe again and it changes to biography. Another neat trick is the progress bar, one touch and it changes to a volume control. Its a good way to get more options out of a small space.
Title: Re: AW: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Al ex on January 27, 2014, 04:06:18 pm
Foobarcon does that, you can swipe the cover art and it changes to the track listing, swipe again and it changes to biography. Another neat trick is the progress bar, one touch and it changes to a volume control. Its a good way to get more options out of a small space.

Sounds very nice! Hoped, Gizmo could do similar!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 28, 2014, 05:11:03 am
After fidling with the ratings for two days to get them to look good on high dpi screens as well as older phone screens, in landscape and portrait, i posted a new Gizmo version here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=87063.0
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 28, 2014, 05:31:02 am
Very nice! The bit in the options, that is! ;) Thanks a lot for letting me opt out, Hendrik!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: AndrewFG on January 28, 2014, 05:45:58 am
i posted a new Gizmo version

Many thanks Hendrik. I will take a look at it later.

Gizmo (and TheaterView) still do not support dynamic banner scrolling of long track name, or artist name texts. Presently if you have such a long text it is truncated which looks awful. So for me this would be the next improvement request for the now playing screen. (PS also for TheaterView).
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 28, 2014, 05:53:06 am
Android supports this natively, so adding it should be easy. Theater View would probably require some work, since its an animation and requires timers and whatnot.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on January 28, 2014, 06:04:20 am
I would very much second that wish! It would look much better. Btw has there been any discussion of the font size? For me the track number could very well be a bit smaller, maybe 25 %. It looks unnecesary large, at least on my S4. Something in between what it is now and the size of the second line would be very nice, I think. :)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: astromo on January 28, 2014, 06:48:10 am
The stars look seriously pro on my Galaxy S3. Sweet work.

Thanks
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: wig on January 28, 2014, 06:53:31 am
The screen updates are great, Hendrik.

You are setting the bar high for your future JRiver endeavors  ;D
 

Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: InsaneRC on January 28, 2014, 07:20:27 am
Very nice a long awaited feature. It looks awesome. ;)
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: AndrewFG on January 28, 2014, 11:06:07 am
Theater View would probably require some work, since its an animation and requires timers and whatnot.

Understood.

IMHO there could be a "quick and dirty" way to do it, and a "proper" way to do it.


PS personally I did not try the quick and dirty approach, but it could at least be worth a try...


Edit: concerning the quick and dirty approach, perhaps two static labels are better, so that the second control chases the tail of the first one...
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on January 28, 2014, 11:10:08 am
No native controls in MC anymore, its multi-platform now. ;)
TBH I don't even know how theater view is all drawn yet, since I think it even uses D3D to some degree. Didn't poke my head in there yet. :D

But enough off-topic in the Gizmo thread.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: AndrewFG on January 28, 2014, 11:14:25 am
No native controls in MC anymore, its multi-platform now. ;)

Sic transit gloria
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on January 28, 2014, 11:19:22 am
Update looks great Hendrik.
Nicely done and great accommodation of diverse interests.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: David R. Williams on January 28, 2014, 12:13:36 pm
As mentioned above, enabling the scrolling of long field information or the ability to adjust the font size would help.

I listen to a lot of classical, and in almost every instance, the track name, artist name and album are all too long to fit within the screen. 

I'd prefer to be able to have the text wrapped with a smaller font size, as I find scrolling text to be distracting, but any solution that would enable visibility of longer data field values would be very helpful.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on January 28, 2014, 12:17:13 pm
Would it be too complicated to automatically reduce the font size for a long title, down to a predetermined limit and then scroll when it can't go any more??
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: dvogel1 on January 31, 2014, 09:31:13 am
I just noticed that both Gizmo and JRemote have a playing time bar graph. Is it possible to convert this object into a volume control and use a simple countdown timer for displaying the playing time (like the JRiver MC application)?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: HTPC4ME on January 31, 2014, 10:05:27 am
Quote
I just noticed that both Gizmo and JRemote have a playing time bar graph. Is it possible to convert this object into a volume control and use a simple countdown timer for displaying the playing time (like the JRiver MC application)?
+1 love the idea of volume control within Gizmo... on many of our devices the way the kickstands work, our volume control is actually on the table side (WHO DESIGNS THESE THINGS!?!)

https://www.google.com/search?q=seidio+++kick+stand+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#q=seidio+++kick+stand&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=shop&spd=17578337257137455117
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: HTPC4ME on February 01, 2014, 12:22:20 am
Perhaps a control botton on the right hand side of the next track icon? that would give us these types of options/commands...

*Send To/Share Option:
trim option give 2 markers, and allow to trim our vid/audio files (could use same two arrows a s a crop tool for large photos? ) and then instantly send them to...(compression could be done from server)
Zone/PC
email
facebook
Network Drive folder location (for editing that particular file at that station)
sms/mms

*play all of this artist
*show all albums from this artist
*show all films this director directed
*shuffle whole library
*add to playlist
* and a slew more of customizable commands :D
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Mastiff on February 03, 2014, 02:04:19 am
I for one would like to keep the position bar, I have more use for that (especially on longer audio books and podcasts) than a volume bar. Both would be nice, of course, but I'd prefer to keep the position bar if I have to choose. It's always possible to use Commands and volume up/down there.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Fabricio on February 03, 2014, 04:36:17 am
I like the work of Hendrik. Very good. I believe and I admire your ability. Thank you.

But I also think this very beautiful layout:

(http://images.computeraudiophile.com/graphics/2012/0928/first-img2.PNG)

This layout was forgotten? Need only add a star rating.

Hugs,

Fabricio, from Brazil.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on February 03, 2014, 04:46:17 am
That's an old JRemote screen??
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on February 03, 2014, 05:01:44 am
Yes its just a screenshot of JRemote, and its also tablet-sized, which is something we have not even started to touch yet.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: csimon on February 03, 2014, 05:08:24 am
JRemote's changed since then, it looks better!

WRT tablets, I'm actually using Gizmo on 7" tablet and the design is working well, were you pitching it at 4" phones up to now? I guess there's a point at which a phone becomes a phablet and then a tablet!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on February 03, 2014, 05:18:02 am
I used a 4" Nexus S/Nexus One as the minimal size it should work on (because the Android tools come with test-presets based on the Nexus phones), and tested mostly on my Nexus 5. A 7" still has plenty more room, and my 10" Samsung Tablet looks kinda empty on the playing now screen. So there is still some room for improvement here.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: BillT on February 03, 2014, 07:36:07 am
Can I make a plea to keep it simple! It works very well as a remote for MC, which is all that I think that it needs to be. Editing stuff should be done on the Media Center machine.

The trouble with adding functionality is that it becomes difficult to use, cf JRemore, which started out as a prettier Gizmo for iThings and is now so complex that it is completely unintuitive to use. If you don't use it all the time you spend 5 minutes prodding various bits of screen to find out how to play an album.

It would be nice to make a display that auto adjusts with screen size, so you could have the playlist displayed with cover art on a big device as suggested above, and just works as it does currently on small devices, but that's just eye-candy.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Hendrik on February 03, 2014, 07:38:33 am
There are no plans to add any complex editing functionality. The only "editing" functionality is the ratings, which are already available now and you can even disable if you don't want them.
I guess some people might want a lot more, but I don't have any plans for that.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: WinoOutWest on February 03, 2014, 09:45:36 am
Hendrick - I love the changes.  I am curious if these changes are going to make their way to the WebGizmo interface as well?
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: toomanybarts on February 15, 2014, 02:18:33 pm
A few weeks late to the news but stumbled upon the fact that Ratings are now on Now Playing screen - LOVE IT!
Thank you, thank you...it's sometimes the simplest things that make all the difference!
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: MusicBringer on February 16, 2014, 04:52:17 am
Editing stuff should be done on the Media Center machine.

I agree with you BillT.

I find gizmo too complex to use now. It gives me hassle whenever I try to use it.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: Zhillsguy on February 16, 2014, 01:07:46 pm
I love Gizmo, have only been using it a short time.

Is it possible to have the option of "Show Files" when an album is found using search?

For example, doing a search of "Desperado" brings up the album front and song, but you cannot drill down into the album similarly to going in through Audio>Artist then highlighting an album.
Title: Re: Gizmo playing now screen
Post by: HTPC4ME on February 16, 2014, 01:14:25 pm
perhaps we could implement saving to cache, and playing from cache instead of from a server in the play to here dialog?

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=87464.msg598991#msg598991