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Author Topic: Tiny thumbnails  (Read 5462 times)

Deivit

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Tiny thumbnails
« on: July 02, 2006, 03:12:55 pm »

I kind of like the new tiny thumbnails beside the file details in details views. At first, I thought I would miss the file type icons, mainly in Playing Now. I added the field "Media Type" to the grid on Playing Now, and the more I am used to the tiny thumbnails the more I like them... you cannot read or distinguish anything on them... but they're kind of cute  :)
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Alex B

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2006, 06:35:59 pm »

I didn't like them before and I don't like them now. They are useless and distracting.

I would prefer to see which audio files are imported (blue vs yellow notes) and to detect the media format from the icon (audio/video/image).

An option would be appreciated, please.


Also, I have found an oddity, the "little ones" are not always where they should be:




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Mr ChriZ

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2006, 06:42:07 pm »

I agree with Alex, they're too small to be of any use,
and especially when viewing albums, where you
have one tiny image repeated hundreds of times....
it just looks silly.

Alex B

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2006, 07:12:20 pm »

In my opinion two new library fields are needed. One for the old style icons and one for the new icons.

Then we would be able to freely choose what (old, new, both or none) and where (by changing the column order).

I would place the new icons besides the Image File column in some of my "all tags" view schemes (These contain about 40-50 fields and the Image File column is usually one of the columns in the far right.)
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LonWar

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2006, 07:51:47 pm »

In my opinion two new library fields are needed. One for the old style icons and one for the new icons.

Then we would be able to freely choose what (old, new, both or none) and where (by changing the column order).

I would place the new icons besides the Image File column in some of my "all tags" view schemes (These contain about 40-50 fields and the Image File column is usually one of the columns in the far right.)

I was sad to see them go in mc11, and am very glad they are back. It's a great way to see if you have art associated with a track.
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datdude

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2006, 09:08:47 pm »

I for the most part can discern them.  I know my album covers fairly well, and this is a really nice option to have.  Please don't remove.
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marko

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #6 on: July 03, 2006, 01:29:07 am »

The one area they annoy me is, as Alex mentioned already, when I need to differentiate between imported and non-imported tracks.

Provide another way to do that, different coloured text for example, and I won't mind the little thumbs. Otherwise, they seem pretty pointless to me. If you have a list of mixed file types, say, audio + images, how do quickly, (at least as quickly as glancing at the media type icon) discern one from the other?

-marko

Marty3d

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #7 on: July 03, 2006, 04:32:50 am »

One thing I noticed just now; If a track can't be played, you don't see the warning sign next to it like in MC11. Is it possible to have those icons (warning sign, file missing etc) as overlays? That would be awesome!
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Alex B

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #8 on: July 03, 2006, 07:20:45 am »



The past




The present




The future ?
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GHammer

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2006, 08:27:01 am »

I like the little critters.

I would like to see files differentiated by text color for imported, missing, not imported.
Easy enough then to tell the status of entries.
Alternatively, a small (3 times the size of a period) "LED" type graphic that would show status by color. Red=bad, Green=good, Yellow=speed up to beat the red light. Oops, Yellow=not imported.
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Alex B

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #10 on: July 03, 2006, 08:42:35 am »

My proposition would make e.g. this possible:

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glynor

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #11 on: July 03, 2006, 09:10:45 am »

I like the little critters.

I would like to see files differentiated by text color for imported, missing, not imported.
Easy enough then to tell the status of entries.
Alternatively, a small (3 times the size of a period) "LED" type graphic that would show status by color. Red=bad, Green=good, Yellow=speed up to beat the red light. Oops, Yellow=not imported.

Same here (great idea on the LED graphic).

I don't know why.  It's irrational exuberance, but I like them.  They are mostly useless, though it does make it easy to see Album "borders" in larger lists (making scrolling through a larger list with multiple, ordered albums a slight bit easier).  That's about the only rational defense of them I can think of...

If they go, they go.  I certainly wouldn't mind Alex's idea either.  Especially if the Icons were used as the LED graphics (if you simplified and stylized the "images" icon, you could make them all into duotone images and easily apply the varying colors).  That idea really seems the most flexible...

I don't have any "not imported" files (I'm not fully sure of what that means... Do you just mean removable media, eg DVDs and CDA files?), but it would be nice if the LED graphic or Icon (whichever option is presented) would use a color (maybe yellow too or maybe blue) for media marked as "Removable".  I have lots of XviD AVIs in the library that are burned off to DVD (old TV show seasons, movies, and the like) and no longer available on my network drive.
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GHammer

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #12 on: July 03, 2006, 09:59:25 am »

I don't have any "not imported" files (I'm not fully sure of what that means... Do you just mean removable media, eg DVDs and CDA files?), but it would be nice if the LED graphic or Icon (whichever option is presented) would use a color (maybe yellow too or maybe blue) for media marked as "Removable". I have lots of XviD AVIs in the library that are burned off to DVD (old TV show seasons, movies, and the like) and no longer available on my network drive.

Sometimes I just drop things into Playing Now and do not import them into the library.
Blue is a nice color for removable media. These are way bigger than I have in mind, but you get the idea.

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hit_ny

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #13 on: July 03, 2006, 01:39:15 pm »

I like alex's idea about the column for images, for checking attached album art that would be very quick to see. This prolly the only time i would really want to see them tho.

But maybe it's quicker to make a smartlist that can show missing image file instead for this purpose.

Hammer's idea about the dot's is interesting and i would like to take that a bit further, allow user configurable art to be used in this case.

Hammer mentions red, blue, yellow dots

red = missing
blue = ok
yellow = not imported

or a simple mapping table

this would be incredibly helpful to make graphical indicators of various states instead of having to read the state itself.

how many times do we hear ppl wanting to use another column of stars only to be told that it's not possible :)

Tho this is taking the idea even further in the sense the custom field can now also accept user input instead of only passively displaying state info.
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datdude

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #14 on: July 03, 2006, 02:13:45 pm »

My proposition would make e.g. this possible:



Rather than adding an adiditonal column, which takes up more space and would look really lame with both the 'status' column and cover column together, I would like to see this as an options setting to turn on or off for each view  scheme.
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jgreen

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #15 on: July 03, 2006, 02:20:55 pm »

I like ham's first idea of text colors.  The LEDs seem a little much, and take up way too much room.  But text color is a freebie, space-wise.  I thnk it's time jriver led the way in this.
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Alex B

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #16 on: July 03, 2006, 02:55:03 pm »

Rather than adding an adiditonal column, which takes up more space and would look really lame with both the 'status' column and cover column together, I would like to see this as an options setting to turn on or off for each view  scheme.

That is exactly the idea. Both columns would be available items in "configure current view > columns to show". You would be able to choose if you like to see them (none, only one or both) and also be able to change the column order.

This "Tiny Thumbnails" column could be the first column by default as a gimmick for newbies.
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modelmaker

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #17 on: July 03, 2006, 11:50:32 pm »

I agree here totally with Alex. Personally I would like the "notes" back, the thumbnails, which you mostly can't make out anyway, make things look too busy.

However, being able to choose one or the other or both (as columns) in "Customize Current View" would be the better solution.
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GHammer

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #18 on: July 04, 2006, 01:28:23 am »

The 'note' is not clear at first. At least I didn't know why this one was blue and this one orange.
Blue and orange aren't normally used to show status.
Red. green, yellow are.

I like the text color idea, and threw out the LED thing as an alternative if you like flashy stuff.
Anyone who uses a computer knows if they see red text, something needs looked at.
I would leave 'normal' items at the skin default.

But you know, a tiny status light is appealing to me too. I can't quite figure how this is SO large a waste of space when the mockups I see have scads of space devoted to columns showing dimensions, filenames, types, etc. I'd rather my display give me a quick status of the files and leave in depth info to the seperate area MC has for Tag/File info.

And be cute/cool doing it.
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glynor

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #19 on: July 04, 2006, 10:50:30 am »

I like the text color idea

Not a huge fan.  Multi-colored text is harder to read.  Particularly on a TV screen.
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hit_ny

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Re: Tiny thumbnails
« Reply #20 on: July 06, 2006, 02:39:23 pm »

Hmm..>:(

not seeing anyway to disable the tiny thumbnails that have replaced the musical note in the seq column in 12.0.31.

Looks very busy.
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