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[AllanM]

Hello all,

I'm a long time iTunes user (from when it was released), and decided to try MC. MC has tons of features I would like to take advantage of, but after using it for just a few days, some the UI is really getting frustrating. The most glaring aspect of the UI is the obvious port from windows. The menus (the ones at the top of the screen) just don't function the way Mac menus are supposed to.

First, I prefer reduced transparency and increased contrast (System Pref: Accessibility: Display). MC doesn't seem to respect these settings. Menus are transparent and scroll bars are low contrast.

Second, the menus just don't act right. If I move the mouse to the top if the screen (all the way to top, touching the actual top of the screen), above the File menu, and click, nothing happens. The menu should expand. If I do this with the "Media Center" menu, or any other menu in any other application, it works. For MC, I have to put the cursor directly on top of the menu. This may seem trivial, but it's making selecting stuff from menu's frustrating.

Third, these should be able to select one menu, then drag the mouse to the next menu and it should open. MC doesn't so this. The user has to click on the menu to open it.

Also, the user should be able to click on the menu and drag the mouse down, then let go on a menu item. The MC menus require two clicks: one to open the menu and one to select the item. Frustrating, and non-Mac like.

Am I missing something? Any help resolve these (hopefully) easy to fix issues are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Allan

[JimH]

MC's source is the same for Windows and Mac and that's not likely to change any time soon.  I'm sorry if it is bothering you.

[AllanM]

MC's source is the same for Windows and Mac and that's not likely to change any time soon.  I'm sorry if it is bothering you.

Thanks for the reply. The non-standard (for Mac) UI is probably enough to keep me from using JRiver for now. If Apple keeps reducing features from iTunes to the point it becomes a streaming only tool, or stops supporting the 5 star rating system (like Photos did for images), I will look again at JRiver. JRiver has a great set of features.

[blgentry]

AllanM:

I was put off by the "not Mac" interface of MC at first also.  It felt weird and wrong... almost transplanted.  It's a long story, but you should know a few important things:

1.  MC for Mac comes from the same source as MC for Windows (and linux, etc).  This is actually a good thing because it means the developers are working on 1 set of code and not 2 or 3.  So features come to the Mac version right about the same time as the Windows version.

2.  MC for Mac, for me, has been very stable.  It doesn't behave like other OSX programs in terms of window placement and things.  It's a rebel.  But it works well.  It's not buggy or strange.

3.  ITunes is being discontinued in favor of 3 new apps, one of which is a Music app.  I'm not hopeful for anything good to come of this in the short term.  I expect it to be a work in progress for a while.  MC, on the other hand, has a very long history and has not had any radical changes in a long time.  In 5 major versions I've never had any real changes to my listening or workflow with my music.  It just keeps on using the same way that I know to use.  Unlike ITunes which kept changing it's interface every few versions.

4.  You will quickly get used to the "non Mac-iness" of MC. 

I recommend that you just try it for a while.  You've got a 30 day free trial.  So try it.  Maybe it's not for you.  Maybe it is.

Good luck with your music playback decision.

Brian.

[AllanM]

Thanks Brian. I'm trying it.

I understand it has the same code base, which is great for simultaneous releases. I'm not even asking for "mac only" features. I was just hoping for a basic Mac feel. I was hoping whatever tool MC uses for cross platform development (mono?) would support/respect some underlying OS settings and standards. 

[tyler69]

This is also an area that I don't love (https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,115676). Interestingly enough, although it's about sharing the code, the behavior is different. In windows, the top menus open up as soon as you hover over them when one is already open (as it should happen in macOS) but in the macOS version you need to click on each menu item when moving the cursor.

[Awesome Donkey]

It's worth pointing out MC uses its own system for drawing windows and controls and whatnot on all OSes, so that's why it doesn't use the Mac menus, stoplight buttons, etc.

[blgentry]

I'm not even asking for "mac only" features. I was just hoping for a basic Mac feel. I was hoping whatever tool MC uses for cross platform development (mono?) would support/respect some underlying OS settings and standards.

I agree.

To add on to what AD said:  JRiver wrote it's own window drawing, menuing, etc routines for each OS, using the base OS toolkit as I understand it.  Very basic, below the level of most integrated environments.  So they have very fine control over what happens.  But I don't think they spent a large amount of time tooling the Mac version to conform to Mac standards for look and feel.  I do not know the technical details.

I'll bet it was a long endeavor to start with.  I continue to hope they will make it more Mac-like, but I have a feeling that the cost to benefit ratio doesn't seem high enough for them at the moment.  Maybe that will change at some point.  Maybe not.  Seems like a man-month or more of development time to me, but what do I know? 

Brian.

[Awesome Donkey]

I don't know, other than the menus not being "Mac-esk" setting MC in retina mode at 110% size looks pretty nice, especially with either the ModernCards Grey Edition or the ModernCards Dark Edition skin being used.

[tyler69]

Well, the full-screen mode is another thing that is not "Mac-esk". The modern cards skins are the only ones that somehow fit into macOS imo, however, all the skins do not look/behave like all the native MacOS applications (rounded edges, icons on top) but as I said: these things come up from time to time and I am with blgentry on this, JRiver does not seem to see this as a necessary change.

[Awesome Donkey]

ModernCards Grey Edition was purposely made for MC for Mac and styled on macOS in general... well, before Apple added dark mode to macOS, which the ModernCards Dark Edition skin fits pretty well.

Adding support for the native Mac menus likely isn't easy to do, or else it would've been done by now. It's probably as close as it's going to get for the current time at least.

[HaWi]

I am quite happy with how it works on my iMac. However, being fairly new to MC, I haven’t figured out skinning yet. How can I get skins?
Many thanks,
Hans

[Awesome Donkey]

There's a good number of skins included with MC, go to the View menu then select the Skin sub-menu and there's a list of skins listed there, including several ModernCards skins.

[HaWi]

Great, got it. Thank you!

[blgentry]

You can also download more skins and add them to MC.  Once you download a skin and unzip it, you'll have a directory.  You can install it by putting it in:

<your user directory/Library/Application Support/J River/Media Center 25/Skins/Standard View/<name of skin as a directory>

I really like:
Black and Blue Too (HC SB):  https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=98476.0
Onyx:  https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=94329.0

Modern Cards is good too.  But it looks like Windows to me.

Brian.

[HaWi]

Thank you Brian!
That’s brilliant. I’ll check out a few.
Cheers,
Hans