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[Matt]

I think we've made some nice strides in Theater View with Media Center 11.

I want to bring another thread around to discuss changes people would still like to see.  Try to be as specific as possible.

Thanks for any feedback.

Here's my list:

• Enter to show Theater View from Full Screen View is great -- but don't process it when inside a DVD menu or else you can't navigate the DVD
• Don't nest the "Display Options" in the "Controls" menu because I use them all the time for DVD playback
• Don't show the mouse / control bars when switching to Full Screen View from Theater View
• Rename 'Exit' because it didn't resonate with the wife at all

[AnalogRoaming]

Ok... here we go:

1. Make Theater View come back when video playback stops
2. Make Theater View stay up when external programs are launched, or implement a way to make the THeater View come back into focus once external program is done (Could be done easily with batch files if there was a -mode fullscreen commandline switch)

3. my usual plug for left/right navigation option. (Matt, sorry... you're losing hair cos of this aren't you?). I still think it was the best user interface I've seen, and I'd love to see that as a *non default* option.

4. Version 10 made the resolution of FullScreen mode the same as Theater View... if I set the Display Options to 640x480, both FullScreen and Theater View displayed at 640x480.  

That's really it.. I think you guys have built a lot of great things into this version... I'm just worried that it's not as easy to use as v10.... yet.

But it will be.

[CDvd]

1) Let the location bar display where you are:
while browsing theater view, I can sometimes end up with just something like "Unassigned", without knowing what it can mean.

I could know that it means "Unassigned Album", or "Unassigned people" if I could go deeper in my browsing but it's not really intuitive and sometimes just don't work (if it's the last node of the view scheme's tree)

The location bar should show "Album" or "People" underlined (or with a different color) to let the user know where he is.


2) I have difficulties to configure T.V. in order to have the view sheme I want

- I don't understand why the parent view of a view scheme have to be showed in theater view. (and I don't want that)
- Elements of the parent view scheme come along with the view scheme I choose to view in T.V. (and I don't want that)

I need to empty the default Audio view scheme in order only make visible the view schemes I choosed in theater view. That's not really practical....

[bennyd]

- In Playing now (when there are more files in the queue that can fit on the screen), when the last song on the screen is selected and the next one is going to play, the green triangle (which shows which file is playing), is out of the screen, the playing now queue doesn't shift so it will be viewable.

- Is there a possibility to hide the first level of view schemes ? Like in Audio, I don't want to have them in Theater View, but I do want them in Mega-Me for easier searching.
The option "Show in Theater View" doesn't do anything on that level. Same for images, video etc.

[CDvd]

- Is there a possibility to hide the first level of view schemes ? Like in Audio, I don't want to have them in Theater View, but I do want them in Mega-Me for easier searching.
The option "Show in Theater View" doesn't do anything on that level. Same for images, video etc.

My explications weren't very clear... It is excatly what I want with my "2)". thanks benny

[Dragyn]

Playing Now I liked better because it was always accessible.

How about doing something like a split screen but not split. Playing Now button would move the entire screen down and show 'Playing Now'. Then when in 'Playing Now', it would rename to Library' and when clicked, move back up to previous position.

I like the new 'Page Up/Down' buttons. Trying to scroll the list was very hard using just a mouse unless it had a mouse wheel attached. Even those arrows were hard to use because they were too small for me.

Not really liking the popup menu. Before you could just do a double click and it would go in. Now, it's been changed (or a bug) to always show the menu.

[slikvik]

- Is there a possibility to hide the first level of view schemes ? Like in Audio, I don't want to have them in Theater View, but I do want them in Mega-Me for easier searching.
The option "Show in Theater View" doesn't do anything on that level. Same for images, video etc.

My explications weren't very clear... It is excatly what I want with my "2)". thanks benny

I agree with these two guys.

'Show in Theatre View' should work at the first level, and be independant for each VS. Maybe a 'Hide from Normal View' option would be cool in the View Scheme properties.

If these few things were done you could totally customize your T.V. and, if wanted, make it 'appear' independant from Normal View!  Note - Having a 'Show Hidden' option somewhere will allow you to get the hidden VS's back so you can modify them (as they would automatically dissapear when you set them to hide!)

Few more things...

1) Could we have some precise control over image size and font size (style?) I run on a plasma at 848x480 and cannot get it as I would like with the defaults. Even if this could only be done in XML it would be great.

2) 'No image available' instead of a question mark would be nice.

3) I'm not sure about the 'All' (Albums, etc, etc.) It works great in Nornal View, but doesn't feel right in T.V.

4) Can we please we have an option in each VS to 'default' to Thumbnail or Name Only. Pleeease! It can still be changed on the fly in T.V. but do you know how much I would love to be able to have an Album cover for the Album and then when I enter the Album I get a list on track titles only. Great.

I think thats it for now. Thanks for listening.

Vik

[Michel Lefebvre]

Hello Matt,

I just started playing with Theather View, so this may have been covered...

Is it possible to reformat the main screen to use two columns of buttons instead of only one? I've already added a few buttons and I'm pretty sure that my main screen will soon not fit on my TV which can only handle 800x600.

Thanks.

Michel.

[Doof]

A couple of things I'd like to see:

1. Hotkeys to do the following:

• jump straight to Theater View's Playing Now no matter where I am in Theater View
• jump straight to Home
• select a file/album iin a list

2. Some way to configure Theater View so that it will jump to full screen when the playing file has a display (images, video), but stay in Theater View if it doesn't (audio).

3. Some way to save the current Playing Now list as a playlist. Either have Theater View automatically name the playlist, or allow a name to be typed. Even better, pop up a box that allows a typed name, but have a default name (timestamp) already in there.

[cncb]

Overall it is looking very good but here is my list (some repeats):

1) Have shuffle mode toggle in "Controls" menu.

2) Improvements to Playing Now.  Some detail of current track information on top plus list of tracks below would be nice (someone did a mock-up just like this a while ago).  Also, please automatically scroll to the current playing track in the list of tracks (it currently goes off screen).

3) Control of font size for image captions in full-screen view.  This is currently so small I can't see it on my tv.  Also, it would be nice if we could have the caption always be shown instead of dissappearing after a few seconds.

4) Way to give focus to integrated browser window so that we can scroll web pages with a remote.

[bennyd]

To be able to see what's playing at all times (like in mega-me) with the time counting up/down.

[Matt]

...do you know how much I would love to be able to have an Album cover for the Album and then when I enter the Album I get a list on track titles only.

This automatically happens in the latest build.

[IlPadrino]

I don't seem to be able to add a root-level View Scheme (i.e. something just off of Medial Library) to Theater View.  Assuming I haven't found a bug, I think this would be a useful addition...  especially in conjunction with this, my other suggestion:

As Theater View now lets us display webpages, it would be great to be able to put the wepages in a View Scheme.  This way, we can organize things like News sites, etc.  I was thinking of adding a NewsFeed to go along with the WeatherFeed I wrote - but there would have to be a handful of wepages for things like "World", "Local", "Sports", etc.  The current method of adding each webpage to the root node of Theater View becomes too much.

Finally, if the wepages (media items) in a View Scheme could be "played" (i.e. when I play an .htm it opens it up in IE in the Playing Now. in both Theater View and Standard View, all this would come together.

[salsbst1]

Matt, I think it would be better to table Theater View for a while until v11 is sort of in the middle of its beta stage (you're still calling it alpha).  The reason I say this is that I suspect alot of the biggest theater view users are, like me, very conservative about upgrading their HTPCs.  For whatever reason, I still get the sense that it's not time for me to upgrade, yet.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I'll be waiting until the warnings on the release post become significantly less dire.  I am starting to get an itch, though.

[Matt]

Matt, I think it would be better to table Theater View for a while until v11 is sort of in the middle of its beta stage (you're still calling it alpha).  The reason I say this is that I suspect alot of the biggest theater view users are, like me, very conservative about upgrading their HTPCs.  For whatever reason, I still get the sense that it's not time for me to upgrade, yet.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I'll be waiting until the warnings on the release post become significantly less dire.  I am starting to get an itch, though.

Once a version becomes completely stable, it's no longer feasible for us to make many changes.

If you want much buy-in, you'll have to be willing to endure a few speed bumps.

Also, remember that MC 10 and MC 11 can run side-by-side.

[salsbst1]

Fair enough, and far be it from me to say anything that would slow down the progress of Theater View, I'm all for its forward progress.  I do think you'll hear a whole bunch of new ideas (which I guess will have to wait for v12) once the HTPC-as-appliance folks migrate to v11.

All I know about v11 is that it has new goodies for theater view, it may or may not have aspects of a relational database, and my settings are lost when I upgrade.  Do you mean to tell me that 10 and 11 can safely share the same library and music files?  I'm a bit confused now about settings and side by side.  Seems hard to imagine that there can be database changes and that databases can be shared between versions.

Thanks!

EDIT: sorry, I know I'm straying from the topic now, please no responses in this post.

[JimH]

Here are some screenshots that may help:

http://www.jriver.com/~jriver/2004/theaterview/

[JimH]

The databases are different, but you could preserve your old install (if it's 10.0.161 in one location, copy your data to the newly installed MC11 and when you start MC11, it should convert the copy.

[Michel Lefebvre]

One other thing I've been meaning to ask for in Theatre View:

Would it be possible to display the date as well as the time? Maybe as an option.

Thanks.

M.

[salsbst1]

The databases are different, but you could preserve your old install (if it's 10.0.161 in one location, copy your data to the newly installed MC11 and when you start MC11, it should convert the copy.

Great.  Are the file formats and tags fully compatible?

[JimH]

I think you'll have to try it to find out what the differences are, but you can always use MC10 if you don't like it.

[bennyd]

Show Artist - Name in the list in stead of Name only

[salsbst1]

I think you'll have to try it to find out what the differences are, but you can always use MC10 if you don't like it.

Not if my files get corrupted.  Sounds like you guys aren't quite ready for my level of conservatism.  I'll be here when you are.  Thanks, Jim.

[Jaguu]

Matt,

Congratulations! I think you have fulfilled one of my longest outstanding requests in Theater View - the graceful termination of a slide-show and return to the place it was started - works flawlessly now, if the two options
"Hide when playback starts" and "Show when playback stops" are set.

I am just wondering why one would need to unset those two options anyway? You often complain about too many options! To me those two are simply superfluous.  There might be some reasons for them, but I don't catch it

[JimH]

I think you'll have to try it to find out what the differences are, but you can always use MC10 if you don't like it.

Not if my files get corrupted.  Sounds like you guys aren't quite ready for my level of conservatism.  I'll be here when you are.  Thanks, Jim.

You DEFINITELY do not need to worry about corrupted files.  But, as with any data, you need to be careful.

[Alex B]

salsbst1,

If you want to play safe:  http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=23311;start=msg163755#msg163755

[NaTeDoGG]

Is it possible to change the font size of the text under the thumbnails in theater view? Currently only the first 8 or so characters are shown before the ellipsis. I can scale the thumbnails but the text scales too, so I don't actually get to see any more of the text! If we could change the text size independantly from the thumbnail size then the people with blurry TVs can have the text large and the people with monitors/projectors/etc can have the text smaller so they can see more of it.

I don't really like the menu you get when you select a file. I do think there are many actions to do to a file, I just don't think it should be the default behavior. With a mouse it could be left click open, right click menu. With a remote it could be two different buttons. A touchscreen presents a problem though.

This might work for touchscreens... if the mouse goes down on the item and then is dragged off the item, then the menu appears. Adobe Photoshop has this sort of behavior for tools in its toolbox that have multiple modes. I have a touchscreen and I think this could work.

I have another thought I'll share... I haven't demoed it yet (I plan to within the next few days), but I see that MainLobby has an interesting way of presenting albums and tracks. Here is a pic...



Its a small pic, but I think its a neat view. It may not be ideal for TVs, but monitors/projectors/touchscreens could use it.

Most of all, where I want to see theater view go is to be super customizable. I'd like to be able to create my own album/track views, customize the buttons, menus, text size, colors, background, write plugins for new behavior, etc. Is there documentation for creating new theater view skins?

[AnalogRoaming]

An option to turn off the dropdown menu for us TV users would be nice... I haven't found a use for it, other than confusing my 4 year old.

And of course, my usual plug for an option to use the old v10 navigation.

But hey, I can use this now and so I'm super happy anyway.

[BullishDad]

I like the new Theatre View.  Great job.  

My use is mainly the Playing Now screen for audio tracks.  A couple of ideas that I would like to see are:

1.  The top line should display the track name and some kind of indicator how far through the song we are.  (Like in Standard View).

2.  When an album list is shown, display the Album Art somewhere on the screen.  I like that the list is shown automatically, but the art reinforces you are playing that album.

[DWAnderson]

...do you know how much I would love to be able to have an Album cover for the Album and then when I enter the Album I get a list on track titles only.

This automatically happens in the latest build.

Not for me. If I've selected the view of list earlier its stays as the view of a list even upon drilling down to teh album level. Did you mean something different?

[Matt]

...do you know how much I would love to be able to have an Album cover for the Album and then when I enter the Album I get a list on track titles only.

This automatically happens in the latest build.

Not for me. If I've selected the view of list earlier its stays as the view of a list even upon drilling down to teh album level. Did you mean something different?

Go one level deeper to files.  Or remove "Album" from the view scheme.

[DWAnderson]

...do you know how much I would love to be able to have an Album cover for the Album and then when I enter the Album I get a list on track titles only.

This automatically happens in the latest build.

Not for me. If I've selected the view of list earlier its stays as the view of a list even upon drilling down to teh album level. Did you mean something different?

Go one level deeper to files.  Or remove "Album" from the view scheme.

If I go one level deeper, I just get a list of tracks.

I don't understand what you mean by removing Album from the view scheme?

Can you describe the behavior that is supposed to happen automatically?

[Matt]

...do you know how much I would love to be able to have an Album cover for the Album and then when I enter the Album I get a list on track titles only.

If I go one level deeper, I just get a list of tracks.

Then isn't it doing just what you wanted?  Sorry if I'm being dense.

[DWAnderson]

Matt,

When I click Change View I either get lists at all levels or Icons/Cover Art at all levels. What is supposed to be done automatically?

Ideally for audio, I'd like lists at every level except one where multiple albums are shown, in in which case I'd like the icons to be shown. For Photos and Video, I'd like icons to be shown only when actual files are being listed.

I can imagine others preferences might be different, however, so that's why people have been asking for the ability to set the default type of view differently for different levels as they drill down.

Am I missing something?

[NaTeDoGG]

How about animated scrolling when we page down or use the mouse wheel? Its currently very disorienting.

I like DWAnderson's idea about being able to set the default view for the various levels.

Maybe I'm missing something, but... How do I easily switch from theater view to fullscreen and back? Can I do this with a touchscreen?

[cncb]

2) Improvements to Playing Now.  Some detail of current track information on top plus list of tracks below would be nice (someone did a mock-up just like this a while ago).

Ok, I take this part back.  I was able to reposition and resize the visualization window and track list to give me what I want.  Then, I can have whatever I want in the visualization window - it's much more flexible this way.  I would request, however, that there is an option to hide the visualization window when browsing the library.  Since it is always shown, I sacrifice significant screen space that could be showing more of my library.

[Quixote]

I just started playing around with Theater View (this is the main reason for using Media Center).  Here's somethings I would like to see.  I've used it for movies/tv shows that I have archived.

-- A way to disable the drop-down list!!! (Very annoying in a HTPC environment)

-- Make Clicking (or Key-Press) on a track configurable (i.e. Single Click (or Enter) is 'Open', Right Click (or Spacebar) is 'Add")

-- Auto-Hide bars needs "time to hide" that can be customizable.  Right now they take too long to autohide.  Also disable customization for top/bottom bars  (the bottom bar doesn't have any use for me)

-- If there is only single items through a structure tree then have an auto-jump to go to the view with multiple choices (make configurable on/off or maybe view specific).  For example if I only have 1 group in the 80's with Techno genre, I don't want to click "Techno" then "80's" then "Erasure" when there is only one choice in each of those.  It should just be able to go directly to Techno\80's\Erasure with one click.

-- I would also like a customizable Back keypress.  Or allow the Left key to go back when the left navigation buttons have focus.

This program gets better and better weekly!  I've almost moved from Meedio.  Thanks for all the updates, J River!!

[slikvik]

I still think selecting a default view for each scheme would be best. The List View listing when entering an Album is great (sorry I forgot to update to the latest build,) but it will not work for my Singles as an automatic option just for Albums.

I also think the Hide/Unhide of VS would be wicked!

Thanks

Vic

[AnalogRoaming]

I just started playing around with Theater View (this is the main reason for using Media Center).  Here's somethings I would like to see.  I've used it for movies/tv shows that I have archived.

-- A way to disable the drop-down list!!! (Very annoying in a HTPC environment)

-- Make Clicking (or Key-Press) on a track configurable (i.e. Single Click (or Enter) is 'Open', Right Click (or Spacebar) is 'Add")

-- Auto-Hide bars needs "time to hide" that can be customizable.  Right now they take too long to autohide.  Also disable customization for top/bottom bars  (the bottom bar doesn't have any use for me)

-- If there is only single items through a structure tree then have an auto-jump to go to the view with multiple choices (make configurable on/off or maybe view specific).  For example if I only have 1 group in the 80's with Techno genre, I don't want to click "Techno" then "80's" then "Erasure" when there is only one choice in each of those.  It should just be able to go directly to Techno\80's\Erasure with one click.

-- I would also like a customizable Back keypress.  Or allow the Left key to go back when the left navigation buttons have focus.

This program gets better and better weekly!  I've almost moved from Meedio.  Thanks for all the updates, J River!!

I agree 100%. Can this be done?

[Ingo]

Things are realy improving...

- autosync folders (autoimport is already in kingsparta's folder sleuth)
- delete a file form it's popup menu
- maybe even a configurable popup menu, enabling the user to add his own items that call external programs
- a TV readable position slider or even better a real on screen display

Ingo

[NaTeDoGG]

-- If there is only single items through a structure tree then have an auto-jump to go to the view with multiple choices (make configurable on/off or maybe view specific).  For example if I only have 1 group in the 80's with Techno genre, I don't want to click "Techno" then "80's" then "Erasure" when there is only one choice in each of those.  It should just be able to go directly to Techno\80's\Erasure with one click.

This one is a brilliant suggestion! This would be extremely useful!

[pipsqueak]

-- If there is only single items through a structure tree then have an auto-jump to go to the view with multiple choices (make configurable on/off or maybe view specific).  For example if I only have 1 group in the 80's with Techno genre, I don't want to click "Techno" then "80's" then "Erasure" when there is only one choice in each of those.  It should just be able to go directly to Techno\80's\Erasure with one click.

This one is a brilliant suggestion! This would be extremely useful!

not quite the ideal solution but if you know that for example french rap includes only mc solaar, then you can save time and just choose "show files" rather than drilling deeper and deeper into sub menu's.

Things i'd like to see added:

. album thumbnails option
. ability to change the text eith displayed under the thumbnails or in the list view
. scroll bar indicating how far i have to scroll - i get so lost inside 10,000+ file lists i have no idea which way to go
. small images instead of boxes with options (play / home etc.) would make it more user friendly / pretty!
. ability to rate songs from within album view

cant remember anything else currently

pip

[Quixote]

I just started playing around with Theater View (this is the main reason for using Media Center).  Here's somethings I would like to see.  I've used it for movies/tv shows that I have archived.

-- A way to disable the drop-down list!!! (Very annoying in a HTPC environment)

-- Make Clicking (or Key-Press) on a track configurable (i.e. Single Click (or Enter) is 'Open', Right Click (or Spacebar) is 'Add")

-- Auto-Hide bars needs "time to hide" that can be customizable.  Right now they take too long to autohide.  Also disable customization for top/bottom bars  (the bottom bar doesn't have any use for me)

-- If there is only single items through a structure tree then have an auto-jump to go to the view with multiple choices (make configurable on/off or maybe view specific).  For example if I only have 1 group in the 80's with Techno genre, I don't want to click "Techno" then "80's" then "Erasure" when there is only one choice in each of those.  It should just be able to go directly to Techno\80's\Erasure with one click.

-- I would also like a customizable Back keypress.  Or allow the Left key to go back when the left navigation buttons have focus.

This program gets better and better weekly!  I've almost moved from Meedio.  Thanks for all the updates, J River!!

I use Theatre View mainly with use of a remote control and a TV.  A lot of useful features are only available through keyboard shortcuts which is sometimes difficult.  I'd like to see more visual buttons on the the left (rather than the small video preview window), best case would be if this was customizable  

Some optional buttons may be:

-- "Clear Playing Now" button
-- "Playing Now"
-- maybe a button to "toggle video preview"

[kaiynne]

I just started using theatre view in v11 so i don't really know the history behind some of the settings so forgive me if i ask some stupid questions.

First of all I cannot seem to get theatre view to abide by my current tree structure.

basically i have my full albums split up from my random files, it looks like this.

Audio
         All Albums
       +Ape Files
         Incomplete Albums
       +Mp3 Files
         My Music
         New Albums
         Rating View
         Wav Files

Is there anyway for this to show up in theatre view when i click the audio tab.  It seems like this is what should be displayed as this is how i organize my music, but all i get is a long list of what appears to be every album.

Is there anyway to get a scroll bar on the side as an option,  I use a wireless KB mouse to control my HTPC so it would be a nice addition. I am guessing this would not be on by default, but i find that scrolling through 600 albums can be really slow.  Maybe there is some way to get there faster but i think that a scroll bar on the right when in list style view would be nice.

The other question I have relates to defining hotkeys.  My rating system consists of an album rating which is the same for all files in an album and a track rating which can vary.  Is there any way to set a hotkey to allow me to do this: when the track is currently playing i can press the hotkey followed by a number say 65 and it will input that number into the track rating filed?  This functionality would be worth a lot to me, as in I would pay extra on top of my upgrade fee which I have allready paid.

Thanks,
Kain

[Quixote]

Kaiynne,

To get your custom views to show up in Theatre View you must Edit View Scheme (right click on view), then select the "Show in Theatre View" option.

[kaiynne]

thanks quixote I will give it a try.