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[nuke2000]

As a disillusioned Vista MC user i have been trialing other HTPC front ends. XBMC, SageTV, Medios, Beyond. MC13 is my front runner and i have been most impressed with it's handling of video files and playlists as well as its visualisations. The ability to queue music and video together is as far as i know unique amongst front ends. Music visualisations are excellent and its customisation outside of the Theatre View interface is impressive especially the tagging of all file types and all other options (all of which should stay outside of the Theatre View interface IMHO).

A few issues are apparent in MC13 however if like me you want to use it as your HTPC front end.

Tagging video by any catagory under options, theatre view has no effect when viewing in theatre view
Remote control (keyboard shortcuts) do not function in theatre view making navigation via remote in theatre view a bit of a pain and not usable by others in the hosehold ;-)
DVD library functions seem absent
Playing now is difficult to retrieve in theatre view when viewing video, especially when using a remote

In every other way MC13 is far superior to Vista MC and indeed the next MS offering in Windows 7

I would gladly stump up the cash for MC13 if we could improve the Theatre view remote control navigation issues, get those video tagging issues sorted, include some way of seperating dvd's from videos in a proper library (akin to MyMovies) and perhaps introduce the one thing i like in Vista MC - Transparent menu overlay when playing video with a simple press of the esc on the remote to quit the overlay and return to now playing

In all other ways MC13 has everything that Vista MC is lacking, in general i love it but it's falling short in a few key areas as a HTPC front end.

SageTV is a strong contender but seems stuck in the 90's and needs some serious eye candy and simplification for jo average to take it up

Any chance of some improvements to MC13 Theatre View navigation and playback on the horizon guys?

Cheers me dears 

[JimH]

Welcome to Interact.  Thanks for the kind words.  If you haven't done so, update to the latest build of MC13 and try the Obsidian skin in Theater View.

Remote controls should work fine with any of the Theater View skins.  Maybe you could provide more detail on what you're attempting to do.

We expect to add more "eye candy" in the DVD area.  (Display of metadata and covers)

[imugli]

First of all, welcome to the board!

Tagging video by any catagory under options, theatre view has no effect when viewing in theatre view

Could you please explain what you mean by this?

Generally, if you create a Tag value in Standard View, you can sort by this value in Theater View and even nest view schemes. If you can let us know what it is you're trying to do, there may be a solution someone can advise...

[datdude]

We expect to add more "eye candy" in the DVD area.  (Display of metadata and covers)

?

How does this differ from what can already be shown?

[datdude]

include some way of seperating dvd's from videos in a proper library (akin to MyMovies)

Just make a custom library field under Tools -> Options -> Library and Folders -> Manage Library Fields -> Add New Field and then call it 'Video Types'.  Assign one for DVDs, etc... then make a custom view and set the 'rules for file display' as just DVDs under the Video Type field you created.

[nuke2000]

Welcome to Interact.  Thanks for the kind words.  If you haven't done so, update to the latest build of MC13 and try the Obsidian skin in Theater View.

Remote controls should work fine with any of the Theater View skins.  Maybe you could provide more detail on what you're attempting to do.

We expect to add more "eye candy" in the DVD area.  (Display of metadata and covers)

Thanks for your welcome and reply

What i mean re the remote issues is that although left, right, up, down, play, pause, next and previous function in theatre view, all other shortcut keys only operate in standard view and perform no function when in theatre view. I have mapped my remote buttons to the keystrokes (video, music etc) and they work in standard view but not theatre view

DVD library functions seem absent - good to hear this is being worked on although it seems this may be possible already, just i don't know how to do it despite the advice  ?

Transparent menu overlay when playing video with a simple press of the esc on the remote to quit the overlay and return to now playing - possible you think? Go on you know it makes sense 

Sorted my video tagging issues - I am a novice and have just found the menu editing functions i needed to display by artist etc under theatre view - MC13 is looking better and better 

Thank you very much

[nuke2000]

Just make a custom library field under Tools -> Options -> Library and Folders -> Manage Library Fields -> Add New Field and then call it 'Video Types'.  Assign one for DVDs, etc... then make a custom view and set the 'rules for file display' as just DVDs under the Video Type field you created.

Hi and thatnks for the advice

I understand the first part and have added a new field called video types but am lost beyond that. What i am attempting to do is have a main menu item under theatre view that i can call DVD's or whatever, or if thats not possible a way of separating my dvd iso's from regular video's under the video menu in theatre view. Any chance of an idiots guide to how i can achieve this if indeed it is possible.

Thanks

[imugli]

Absolutely possible and quite easy once you know how.

If no-one else beats me to it, I'll post some instructions when I get home tonight (I'm in Oz).

[MrHaugen]

Almost all of what you ask for can be done. It's just not done with the click of one button.

As it goes for DVD database, you have to make you're costom field. I have used "Video Type" field my self, and use it for Music Videos, divX movies, DVDs and HD movies, Series etc. The biggest problem today is that we can't include iso, img etc (data files) under Video in theater view. You can do this in Standard view, but not in Theater View. This is hopeless imo, and J River have told us they will look into it. Now we have to change the data type to video for it to show under Video in Theater View.

If you want to have it in a totally different view, this might be very possible though (*edit* not having to change the data type).

[datdude]

Almost all of what you ask for can be done. It's just not done with the click of one button.

As it goes for DVD database, you have to make you're costom field. I have used "Video Type" field my self, and use it for Music Videos, divX movies, DVDs and HD movies, Series etc. The biggest problem today is that we can't include iso, img etc (data files) under Video in theater view. You can do this in Standard view, but not in Theater View. This is hopeless imo, and J River have told us they will look into it. Now we have to change the data type to video for it to show under Video in Theater View.

If you want to have it in a totally different view, this might be very possible though.

That's right, I forgot, you need to change the data type to video.  Pretty simple and then you are good to go in Theater View.

[imugli]

OK Here goes...

You have your custom field and in your custom field you have your tag values (Home Movies, TV Series, DVDs, AVIs - whatever) and you have assigned a value to each of your files.

You want Theater View to show these different categories when you select the 'Video' option...

Go to Tools > Options > Theater View > Video > Edit.

* Create a New View in the left side box and give it a relevant name. This is the parent view, so perhaps stick with Movies.
 
* Create a new view and call it DVDs. You should see the "Nest" button activate. Nest the scheme.

* With that scheme highlighted, click the 'Set Rules for File Display' button.

* In the top section you want your Rule to be (Your Field) (is any) (DVDs)

* In the Modify results, you can sort your DVDs in in whatever fashion you like. I use Name (a-z) to sort them in alphabetical order.

Follow the same method for your other tag values and you should be right to go in Theater View.

Good Luck.

PS: This is a VERY simple example of nesting. Others here have far more elaborate view schemes set up. It's way above my head, but from what I gather your only real limitation is your imagination 

 

[nuke2000]

Thanks to all I am getting sorted. Had the chance (and time) to play a little and am well impressed with customisations and all that MC13 has to offer.

I'll take the plunge and purchase and post any suggestions for improvement in relevent sections of the forum (although it's pretty much my ideal HTPC front end already)

Thank you to all 

[JimH]

This is coming in a few days:

Theater View Customization

In Tools/Options/TheaterView, you've been able to add and remove items from display.  You will now be able to add new items with complex views to the root view (starting view) of Theater View.

You can add items under that, and specifiy the views in detail, including media types to show.  This includes multiple media types, so you can, for example, create a single view that has both images and video.

This should also satisfy users who want to add TV Recordings by series and episode.

If you run another program from TheaterView, you'll find a new setting to "Hide MC" when you run it.

[MrHaugen]

Sounds great Jim! I would like it a bit better to collect all my movie stuff under a single "Video" view, but this sounds like a good middle way. Looking forward to the release.

[nuke2000]

Great to see this is imminent - The improvements keep on coming 

While i'm here, are there keyboard shortcuts to theatre view Video, Music, playing now etc? I see they can be accessed by remote but it seems only if the remote can be configured using the learning option. I have an imon pad remote which has all the regular MCE remote buttons but can only be used to control MC via configuring keyboard shortcuts.

Many thanks and keep up the good work

ps Any thoughts on a transparent menu overlay option in theatre view with playing now full screen in the background?  Also the ability to lock the program in theatre view mode would be good as it has a tendency to revert to standard view when using the shortcut to get into full screen playing now

[JimH]

The Theater View changes are available now in build 114 at the top of the board.

[nuke2000]

The Theater View changes are available now in build 114 at the top of the board.

Perfect, perfect. Thank you very much