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[JimH]

I'm back to playing with Hairstyle...  and I've noticed a few bugs:  
1)  With thumbnails on, there is a serious performance issue (way slow) and it sometimes locks up MC.

Hi Scott,
I just tried this with 3d visualizations on and I don't see a speed problem at all.  Could it be MC doing thumbnails for the first time?  It should be fast after that.

I assume you have a system that is fairly fast.  I've got a 3Ghz machine now.

2)  I get some hard freezes of MC, which I have to close with task manager.  The resulting error is a Media Core...

Probably a bug, but could be related to whatever is causing the speed problem.  Check what's running in the background.

About adding must-have features...  this has been talked to death.  JimH mentioned in another recent thread (the last day or two) that more work would be done in a few weeks, so it's probably not worth repeating the same things...  I assume that JRiver has a feature list they're going to work from.

I do think this interface is critical for us, and I agree it isn't right yet.  

But to just the few biggies (for me)...
1)  Play transports and play progress
2)  Round out the customization (I can't change the alphblend on the left-column or the magenta right-column text color)
3)  Add or remove left-column items

We'll take a look soon.  Thanks.

Jim

[lOth]

I assume you have a system that is fairly fast.  I've got a 3Ghz machine now.

Sure, the thumbnail display could be a little faster but I don't have as serious a problem here, with only 1.8 Ghz, as scott described.

could be related to whatever is causing the speed problem

I agree, I never had hairstyle freezing on me, with any build ever.

[lOth]

(sorry for the double message. Hit post accidentaly   )

I do think this interface is critical for us, and I agree it isn't right yet.

This is VERY good news  

We'll take a look soon.

Great. I believe you'll review this thread (and a few others) when the time comes.

[sraymond]

I assume you have a system that is fairly fast.  I've got a 3Ghz machine now.

My HTPC is a Celeron 2.0 GHz with 512 MB of memory.

Does MC have to redo the thumbnails each time is loads?

Hmm...  I guess I should have mentioned that I'm using a library and files located on a remote machine (which I connect to via 802.11b).  I'd love to use media server, but it doesn't seem to want to stream the video (instead, it has to download the entire video before starting).  If you think the wireless connection might present a throughput bottleneck, let me know - I'm just looking for an excuse to run some Cat5 cable!

I can't wait to see the next generation of Hairstyle!

Scott-

[JimH]

The server setup is probably the reason for the speed difference.  Can you try testing locally?

The wireless connection is at 11Mbps (at best) and less reliable, so it is definitely a bottleneck.

[sraymond]

The wireless connection is at 11Mbps (at best) and less reliable, so it is definitely a bottleneck.

JimH,

Thanks for the suggestions.

The server setup is probably the reason for the speed difference.  Can you try testing locally?

Are you referring to the library or the media files?  I guess it wouldn't be a big deal to keep a local version of the library (vice the one on remote computer) - especially as I save all the tags in the files themselves.  As for the media files themselves, I guess I could test with local copies of the files, but that's not a good long-term solution.  I'll do both and see what happens.

The server setup is probably the reason for the speed difference.  Can you try testing locally?

Yeah...  I'm starting to rethink the whole wireless HTPC thing.  I have a D-Link 802.11b router which advertises x4 speeds (44 Mbps over the standard 11 Mbps) - but tests reveal a peak throughput of about 8 Mbps (which is certainly better that the 4 or 5 Mbps I got with an older straight 802.11b router).  I was figuring this would be over an order of magnitude more than I needed for streaming video (I shoot for about 6 MB/minute which equals about 100 Kbps), but perhaps my problem is latency or some such.  In any event, it's probably less hassle to run a Cat5 cable through my garage to get from my "office" to my "living room".  It's just that I'm a lover of elegance!

Thanks again for the suggestions...  I'll report back.

Scott-

[lOth]

A few days ago JimH said that HS would see changes in the next two weeks. I just realized that this would more or less match the announced release of myHTPC2... Are you just trying to keep up with potential competitors or did you guys worked together with Pablo in our backs. I know you had some contact with him at some point but no news about that since then.

Tell me I guessed right and that you're preparing a surprise compatibility between Hairstyle (2?) and myHTPC2, that I'll be able soon to execute external programs from HS or something like that. That would be truly fantastic !  

If it's not the case, well, I'll just point that in my opinion this is the way you should go: better some sort of compatibility with (FREE) myHTPC than an integration where MC disappears behind overpriced musiclobby. I understand that myHTPC2 should be a lot more user friendly than the present version so it shouldn't remain for long a cons in the comparison with musiclobby.

[Eiffel]

10TH,

If you're interested in myHTPC1 and MC9/9.1 working together, check the myHTPC plugin section...

Granted, with JRiver's support, and myHTPC2 it should be possible to do much more (and be more reliable, as the current way to control MC from an external application is less than ideal), but this is at least a start

Eiffel

[lOth]

Eiffel,

I've tried the plug-in and although it's a significant attempt at bridging myHTPC and MC there are still quite a few things that it doesn't allow me to do. Obviously, the main issue is that it doesn't give direct access to MC's library. Granted, I can still use the fullscreen button to launch HS but then, why not use the external program plugin to launch MC in HS mode from the outset. Then, since the plug-in relies on the directory structure for navigation (and not on tags) there are also a few less important things that myHTPC internal music module does better (at this point, I'm still unable to display cover arts contained in tags for instance)

I certainly don't want to downplay the accomplishment here (as matter of fact, I'm so computer illiterate that I'm not even able to play a video with MC from myHTPC without the plugin), but as long as the plug-in doesn't take advantage of MC's library (not to mention its search ability), HairStyle, even with its present imperfections, seems to me to offer a better HTPC frontend to MC.

I understand from what I read on myHTPC forum that direct access to MC's library remains impossible for now. I also understand that myHTPC2 different 'architecture' should allow to solve that problem. Am I wrong about that?

[Buckaroo]

I've found another excellent benchmark for Hairstyle in a very surprising place:
http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de

The Xbox Media Player is a very powerful HTPC front end that runs on a hacked Xbox. Not only does it offer the ability to play back a *huge* number of media types, it has one of the cleanest media center interfaces I've seen.

Check it out!

[lOth]

On page 2 again!?! Well, I'll bump it again.

What to say then? Well, that I don't care much about Microsoft and that I don't mind people using WMA, but that I really regret that all that time spent in the last few builds on wma (and especially on integrating DRM management) was not dedicated to the big Hairstyle update.

Just a "menu" key toggling HS so far, and I still haven't figured how to make it work. Oh please, do something in the next build, don't let me begin to sound whiny