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[BrianD]

Hi,

I was just wondering if an improvement could be made to the online media slideshow shown in Theater View.

I have my screens resolution set at the largest possible for the TV i.e. 1920x1080 and many of the images that it grabs appear to be larger than this resolution as sometimes you only see what seems like the top left of the image.

Is it possible to be able to detect the resolution of the image & resize/rescale it to fit the current displays resolution?

[Matt]

It's not the resolution, but the aspect ratio.

We crop so that the image always fills the screen.  This means an image that's a much different shape than your screen will get a lot of the image cropped away.

[mbagge]

Will it make a better result if the image was cropped equally from all edges ?

I too tend to get only the hair and eyes of the artist.

[BrianD]

Is it too difficult to resize the image first just using one dimension (e.g. height) and then crop the remaining off the sides if necessary?
It seems like the album art resizes when shown in various windows.

[rick.ca]

Will it make a better result if the image was cropped equally from all edges ?

Not unless you consider decapitation an improvement.

Is it too difficult to resize the image first just using one dimension (e.g. height) and then crop the remaining off the sides if necessary?

That will only result in something that will fill the screen in the rare case where the aspect of the original image is wider than that of the screen.

The problem only occurs with tight head shot portraits (i.e., only a head, so nothing can be cropped without losing part of it). A solution would be to show two side-by-side and crop from the right, but that would only be better for this kind of shot. A portrait that includes a whole body or even a classical head shot will look fine—and usually better than the side-by-side solution—when cropped from the bottom.

I'm sure the problem will eventually be solved using face-recognition.

[BrianD]

It may be a better solution to only retrieve images that match the current screen aspect ratio.

Both of these pieces of information should be known.  MC knows what  the aspect of the Theater View display is and it should be able to check the aspect of the image before it is retrieved.

This sounds feasible to me anyway 

[rick.ca]

It may be a better solution to only retrieve images that match the current screen aspect ratio.

Even if there were a sufficient selection of images matching (or having similar) aspect, would we want to exclude a large number of images that crop nicely just because a few don't?

[wig]

How about making the images scroll; that's how Last.fm handles it.

[rick.ca]

How about making the images scroll; that's how Last.fm handles it.

Too distracting. A background should be passive and subtle.

[wig]

Too distracting. A background should be passive and subtle.

Agreed. But we're talking about a slideshow, not a static background image.

I think creating a local folder for artist slideshow images is the way to go, so users could crop their own photos. But that idea hasn't gotten much traction despite being discussed a few times.

[rick.ca]

Agreed. But we're talking about a slideshow, not a static background image.

You're playing with words. It needs to function as a background. The images passively change using subtle transitions.

I think creating a local folder for artist slideshow images is the way to go, so users could crop their own photos. But that idea hasn't gotten much traction despite being discussed a few times.

There's nothing wrong with this idea, but it's not going to replace online media for many users. It probably wouldn't replace online media for all artist and album images for anyone.

[wig]

There's nothing wrong with this idea, but it's not going to replace online media for many users. It probably wouldn't replace online media for all artist and album images for anyone.

It could be completely supplemental. Designate a folder in File Locations for slideshow images. If an Artist subfolder exists, have MC use the images inside; otherwise use the online media.


I really like the slideshow feature. As a (previously) music-only MC user, it was my first extended use of theater view. I think it has some wow factor, but not when I'm looking at the top of Tom Wait's hair 

[rick.ca]

It could be completely supplemental. Designate a folder in File Locations for slideshow images. If an Artist subfolder exists, have MC use the images inside; otherwise use the online media.

That's true. And I suppose it won't have to be an all-or-nothing thing. The option to use local images as a source could include specifying the total number of images desired. Then, if there were not that many images in the local folder, it would look to other specified sources for more. That way, there wouldn't be just one image used for some artists, and a slideshow of several for others.

But that won't completely eliminate troublesome images. Maybe we need a command that will add the current image to a blacklist. That might help you feel you had some control over Tom Wait's hair...