INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: Theater View questions  (Read 11743 times)

kaiynne

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 225
  • I Changed this by choosing profile
Theater View questions
« on: March 04, 2005, 10:54:27 pm »

I really like the improvements you have made to theater view in MC 11, so much so that I have been playing around with it for the last few days.  I have a party coming up and would like to try to use theater view exclusively.

1.  Is  there any way to have an artist name in the playing now view.  At the moment the song name is displayed but there is no way of seeing who the artist is, so far as I can tell.

2. Is there anyway to get customizeable menus for mouse navigation.  I would like to simplify the mouse controls, ie left click for open when at folder level and double click to play all in that folder, left click to play a file when at the file level and double click to play all files.  the current menu could be moved to the right mouse click.  It is just frustrating when trying to quickly navigate to have to click twice to open a folder.  I understand why you have the menu as it is and I am not sure if my method would be harder or easier for people to grasp, so I would just like the option of creating my own controls with the possibility of reverting to the defaults if need be.

3.  IS there any possibilty for taking you into the playing now view after you start a playlist or album, currently it takes you to full screen display of viz.  which is fine but I am not sure of an easy way of getting back into theatreview from there?  maybe i am missing it, but double click just brings you back into standardview, which seems to defeat the purpose of having theatreview.

I just want to reitterate that I am really impressed with the theatreview improvements, but as allways when you guys improve anything we just demand more control....

thanks,
kain

Logged

kaiynne

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 225
  • I Changed this by choosing profile
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2005, 12:59:06 am »

Doesn't anyone at jriver have a response for me?
Logged

CDvd

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 208
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2005, 03:11:47 am »

3.  [...] but I am not sure of an easy way of getting back into theatreview from there? 

Maybe "Option key" (the one next to right control) is what you're seeking for? Pressing it switches between T.V and Full Screen views.

Quote
left click for open when at folder level and double click to play all in that folder, left click to ...
My opinion is that "left double click" to enter a folder and "right click" to bring down a contextual menu is far more intuitive (at least for someone used to computers).
Since it's hard to make everyone happy whith a given behaviour, having a way to cutomize mouse controls (whithin theater view skins definition files?) would be great.
Logged
A computer without COBOL and Fortran is like a piece of chocolate cake without ketchup and mustard.

cncb

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3106
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2005, 02:22:17 pm »

These are all good examples where TheaterView needs improvement.  These are my top ones which are very similar to your questions.

1) Shortcuts to various screens in TheaterView (PlayingNow, etc.) with key presses.

2) Customization of list in PlayingNow (add artist, etc.).

3) Automatic scroll to current playing track in PlayingNow.

4) Ability to toggle shuffle mode (I'm not sure why this isn't there since all the other controls are there).

5) More usable search.  Why can't I just search for all artists beginning with the letter 'D', for example?

6) Different TheaterView for different zones shown on multiple extended desktops.
Logged
-Craig    MO 4Media remote and player:  Android/TV/Auto | iOS | Windows 10/UWP

kaiynne

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 225
  • I Changed this by choosing profile
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2005, 03:09:59 pm »

I am glad I am not the only one who is looking for some improvement.  To be perfectly honest I am willing to wait for the next version to get these improvements, but it seems like a lot has been done to theatreview in v11 why not keep on making improvements.

This is slightly OT but is the goal in the beta versions to make small improvements in many areas and see what people get excited about, or do you have a set strategy to where you are taking the program... or both in some ratio?

Logged

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72444
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2005, 03:17:08 pm »

What's our plan?  To do the highest priority work as quickly and as well as we can.

Right now our highest priorities involve several large customers.  They have specific needs that don't always overlap with those of our end user customers.  Theater View is a good example of that.  The "Ten Foot" mode that it represents is a fairly advanced concept.  When it's more mainstream, we'll be pressed to work on it again, but for now it's pretty amazing what it can do.

That said, it's possible that we may be able to make some of the small changes requested.  We'll try.

Logged

dtblair

  • Regular Member
  • Junior Woodchuck
  • **
  • Posts: 77
  • Change this by choosing profile
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2005, 08:43:33 pm »

I have a question, why does Theater View exit to Full Screen rather than Standard?  What good does Full screen view do you?
Logged

raym

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3583
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2005, 10:35:35 pm »

I have a question, why does Theater View exit to Full Screen rather than Standard?  What good does Full screen view do you?

What good is standard view? Theater View is designed to be a lounge room media center interface. Standard view should not be needed. Ctrl-1 will get you to standard view if you really need it....
Logged
RKM Smart Home - www.rkmsmarthome.com.au
Z-Wave Home Automation

raym

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3583
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2005, 10:37:09 pm »

I am glad I am not the only one who is looking for some improvement.

You're definately not the only one!! I've been pleeding for similar things for months. I hope Jim's last comment (ie, "we'll try to make some of the small changes requested") is true but I wouldn't hold your breath....

The most annoying thing about Theater View (which I think you've touched on) is the fact that the options provided to control the way files are added to Playing Now in Standard View are not obeyed in Theater View. In other words, if you select to Play a single song from your library, it adds the entire album to Playing Now even though you have told MC in the options to not do this. The annoyance is increased if you've spent a while building a Playing Now playlist and happen to accidently hit play on a song instead of add. This blows away all your hard work by clearing Playing Now.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=25134.0

I think (and have said this numerous times) that Theater View is the best HTPC front end I've tried - and I've tried heaps of them. It just seems to me though that it still has some very basic loose ends.
Logged
RKM Smart Home - www.rkmsmarthome.com.au
Z-Wave Home Automation

kaiynne

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 225
  • I Changed this by choosing profile
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2005, 01:07:00 am »

Thanks for the reply Jim, I certainly understand that there are many directions that you guys are heading in, some we are unaware of obviously.  I also agree with you theatreview is amazing, and hopefully it will become a little more customizable and everyone will be happy.  For a little while at least, you really have spoiled us all you realize.

Logged

Matt

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 42385
  • Shoes gone again!
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2005, 10:00:09 am »

You're definately not the only one!! I've been pleeding for similar things for months. I hope Jim's last comment (ie, "we'll try to make some of the small changes requested") is true but I wouldn't hold your breath....

The most annoying thing about Theater View (which I think you've touched on) is the fact that the options provided to control the way files are added to Playing Now in Standard View are not obeyed in Theater View. In other words, if you select to Play a single song from your library, it adds the entire album to Playing Now even though you have told MC in the options to not do this. The annoyance is increased if you've spent a while building a Playing Now playlist and happen to accidently hit play on a song instead of add. This blows away all your hard work by clearing Playing Now.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=25134.0

I think (and have said this numerous times) that Theater View is the best HTPC front end I've tried - and I've tried heaps of them. It just seems to me though that it still has some very basic loose ends.

My reply in that thread still holds.  If you explicitly pick an item called 'Play' anywhere in MC, it'll replace Playing Now.  To optionally make 'Play' not really play seems confusing.

Am I missing something?
Logged
Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

raym

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3583
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #11 on: March 09, 2005, 05:04:43 pm »

I'm going to take this opportunity to raise this item once again since a new thread has been started.......

One other annoyance that I and many others have brought up before is Theater View's inability to manage individual items in Playing Now. The context menu appears but the options offered are uesless, ie, cannot select, move or delete.

Various suggestions and alternatives were also proposed here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=25134.0

Thanks again for listening..
Logged
RKM Smart Home - www.rkmsmarthome.com.au
Z-Wave Home Automation

ja

  • Regular Member
  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 17
  • Opinion? I Got One!
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #12 on: March 10, 2005, 04:14:15 pm »

Quote
Right now our highest priorities involve several large customers.  They have specific needs that don't always overlap with those of our end user customers.  Theater View is a good example of that.  The "Ten Foot" mode that it represents is a fairly advanced concept.  When it's more mainstream, we'll be pressed to work on it again, but for now it's pretty amazing what it can do.

There it is!

That's the quote I refered to in my A FEW QUESTIONS thread, but I couldn't find it to quote it directly.

As I stated there, the 10 ft display is THE most important feature to me.  And how this application will surely be mainstreem SOON, not in the distant future.  I also ranted a bit about how I refuse to use Windows Media Center Edition and how MC could climb to the top of the heap if Theatre mode is perfected.

Heck, I even got an "amen" :-)

Let me add, it is pretty amazing now, but don't stop there!
Logged

godavego

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 130
  • Change this by choosing profile
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #13 on: March 11, 2005, 02:12:38 pm »

Rather than start a new thread on Theater View, I will ask here.  Like ja and others, TheaterView is the main view I will use.  Right now, I don't even have a keyboard or mouse hooked up to my machine, so usability is very important from a remote.

Is it possible to get the WM_COMMANDS for the TheaterView buttons (home, back, etc.)?  Without a mouse, it's a bit of pain to keep clicking through left, left, down, down, ... to get over to the buttons.  If there were direct commands available to girder, I could add items to my Pronto remote.

When selecting an album, is there a 'page up/down' command?  When you have hundreds of albums or artists to search through, clicking down one line at a time takes a while.
Logged

modelmaker

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1531
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #14 on: March 11, 2005, 06:36:47 pm »

Quote
From godevego:

When selecting an album, is there a 'page up/down' command?  When you have hundreds of albums or artists to search through, clicking down one line at a time takes a while.

A lot of us have thousands of albums and it's an even bigger pain!
Logged
Jay.

"Life is what happens when you're making other plans"     John Lennon.

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72444
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #15 on: March 11, 2005, 06:38:46 pm »

You could make a view scheme that has albums grouped alphabetically, so you'd see A-C, D-F, etc.  You would need to use the Album field a second time ungrouped in such a scheme.
Logged

rpalmer68

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 2639
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #16 on: March 13, 2005, 12:11:17 pm »

Can I add my vote for the importance of Theatre View.

I run a client MC11 in my living room that only uses Theatre View for the wife to browse music and look at our photos. It doesn't have a keyboard or Mouse, just an IR remote control.

So direct access to buttons like godavego suggested would be FANTASTIC.

MC11 is a great product and has huge potential, and I think thretre view is going to become more and more importat to people as they start using MC not only for rippping/managing their library but also for serving up their music/images/videos in their Home Theatre setups.

Keep up the great work guys

Richard 
Logged

Matt

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 42385
  • Shoes gone again!
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #17 on: March 14, 2005, 09:06:05 am »

Is it possible to get the WM_COMMANDS for the TheaterView buttons (home, back, etc.)?  Without a mouse, it's a bit of pain to keep clicking through left, left, down, down, ... to get over to the buttons.  If there were direct commands available to girder, I could add items to my Pronto remote.

You can use Backspace for back.

When selecting an album, is there a 'page up/down' command?  When you have hundreds of albums or artists to search through, clicking down one line at a time takes a while.

The keyboard buttons Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down all work.  There are also Page Up and Page Down buttons on the left of the screen with MC 11.
Logged
Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

rpalmer68

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 2639
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #18 on: March 15, 2005, 02:44:57 am »

Matt,

I think what godavego was saying was that without a mouse OR keyboard a command that we could call directly from an IR remote for "Home" or "Back" would be very useful.

Also direct commands to for things like Open, Cancel, Select rather than having to select item scroll down and select the next option.

So in other wods with a remote control scroll to the desired item and press "Open" button rather than click and then click again for open.

You have to remember we use Theater view to make life simple for those not quite as technical as those of us setting the system up!  So the fewer button presses and the more options we can provide on a remote control like a Pronto, the better for the end user.

Cheers
Richard
Logged

godavego

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 130
  • Change this by choosing profile
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #19 on: March 15, 2005, 11:37:28 am »

Exactly!

With Girder, however, I should be able to map some unused IR command to a key.  I haven't tried it yet, but it should work for navigating all the albums.   Direct commands for the buttons on the left side of the screen are still needed though.

In general, I think TheaterView (like MCE) should be designed more with a remote in mind rather than a keyboard/mouse.  Like I said, in my case I don't even have a keyboard and mouse connected.  Most people using my system don't realize they are interacting with a PC.  It's more like a dedicated system.
Logged

Matt

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 42385
  • Shoes gone again!
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #20 on: March 15, 2005, 02:13:35 pm »

How would it work if 0....9 mapped to functions like "Play", "Select", "Open" etc.

We could even add "Button 0", "Button 1", etc. in the menus like we do for Standard View menus to help teach the buttons.

Otherwise, we'd need to invent new commands with obscure keyboard shortcuts.  These are hard to get working with MC or Girder's remote system.

Any feedback or advice?
Logged
Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

godavego

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 130
  • Change this by choosing profile
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #21 on: March 15, 2005, 03:49:20 pm »

I could live with that as long as the numbers were consistent.  Would you do this a "1" or "alt-1"?  Another option is to treat the buttons as somthing like a regular windows menu.   For example, Play could be "alt-p".  As long as we know the alt-key combination, we can use Girder to map an IR command to it.
Logged

rpalmer68

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 2639
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #22 on: March 15, 2005, 05:56:09 pm »

Yup, that could work.

I wasn't planning on using grinder, just the MC IR plugin, so as long as the comamnds/buttons can be set through the plugin options in MC I think we'd all be right.

BTW: Play already exists and works (if I hightlight an item and press Play, it plays without having to select it and then scroll to play.)

Another request: I think this has been requested before, but an easy way to switch shuffle on/off and have the status diplayed on the screen all the time would also be useful.
I guess this links th this request:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=25967.0


Keep up the great work guys,
Cheers
Richard
Logged

glynor

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 19608
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #23 on: March 15, 2005, 07:45:05 pm »

I posted my comments separately (it pays to read the forum a little before you post, but oh well), but I would really like to be able to define which fields are displayed in the "file listing" view inside Theater View.

See this thread: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=24604.0

Oh, and...

an easy way to switch shuffle on/off

Gotta give the big thumbs up on this one (though I don't really need the status displayed all the time - it won't bother me if it is).
Logged
"Some cultures are defined by their relationship to cheese."

Visit me on the Interweb Thingie: http://glynor.com/

Griff

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 710
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #24 on: March 16, 2005, 01:34:58 am »

Well

Been holding my mouth shut, for a long time on Theater view/ Hairstyle.

So Jim could get caught up on the main things.

Been around for a long time

Remember dvd ?

But

Its slowly changing to video.

Love you guys

Mc10:

Theater view/ Hairstyle

TOP Shelf

You people will never know how much enjoyment in life you have given us.

Matt

I was so impress with Mc10/144 Theater view and you know your wife had some input on it, that was top shelf.

I dont know what to tell about the above post ??

Ya know a long time ago, I said keep it simple.

and you did.

And now here we go again with Girder.

You Are being nickel/dimed

Well do what you have to.

I have some prob. with Mc11/ Theater view

Its not a fast mean mach., like MC10

But if this is the route

I will try to help you, When I can.

So thanks for some for the enjoyment in life that you have given us and our friends.

Ya, know there was only three compeditors in the HTPC field.

JRiver, Pablo software and Media Portal.

Pablo went off on tha Corp. adventure.

Medio portal is top shelf, chimming new vers. all the time.

But there one thing that the J-Team has on them.

So Ill let the " Herd of cats " figure that out.

So

Since This was org. a music forum , I will leave you with this:

When you know the notes to sing,

You can sing most any thing.

Love Ya

Good Night


Logged

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72444
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #25 on: March 17, 2005, 06:07:27 pm »

Build 218 has a few Theater View changes.  Please let us know here what you think.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;topic=26550.1#msg184037
Logged

bennyd

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1307
  • Project Leader
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #26 on: March 18, 2005, 12:55:05 am »

Almost perfect, the only thing that's missing is that it should (like in the MEGA-ME playing now) automatic scroll down when the playing song goes out of screen.

Now only the green arrow follows the song (after a few seconds), but also the list should shift down
Logged
may U live 2 see the dawn

bennyd :-)

bennyd

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1307
  • Project Leader
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #27 on: March 18, 2005, 01:04:26 am »

Can't we have a seperate visualisation style in Theater view then in MEGA-ME ?

I created a special one that shows nice on my TV (so in theater view), but doesn't look nice on PC (MEGA-ME mode).

If it would remember the chosen style for Theater view and Mega-me mode that would be nice
Logged
may U live 2 see the dawn

bennyd :-)

udeups

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 141
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #28 on: March 18, 2005, 01:25:39 am »

Is there a good way to have commands (up, down, left, right) sent via girder to go to theater view without using the "Keep Focus" option? I messed around with the Target option in Girder, however, if theater view opens the submenu on Select (the one with Open, Play, etc), the focus remains on the background in theater view. So, with a submenu open, the up/down/left/right commands still go to the list that is behind the submenu. What am I doing wrong?

Logged

zeltak

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 494
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #29 on: March 18, 2005, 02:53:07 am »

i agree with bennyd " automatic scroll down when the playing song goes out of screen" is a good choice!. another thing which im not sure will ever be possible is to somehow speedup the display in the thumbnail view. my machine is a 2.8 1 giga ram machine and its a bit slow.

love the new improvments!

Zeltak
Logged

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72444
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #30 on: March 18, 2005, 07:35:38 am »

Is there a good way to have commands (up, down, left, right) sent via girder to go to theater view without using the "Keep Focus" option? I messed around with the Target option in Girder, however, if theater view opens the submenu on Select (the one with Open, Play, etc), the focus remains on the background in theater view. So, with a submenu open, the up/down/left/right commands still go to the list that is behind the submenu. What am I doing wrong?
You might have better luck with that question on the Girder forum: www.promixis.com
Logged

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72444
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #31 on: March 18, 2005, 07:41:59 am »

another thing which im not sure will ever be possible is to somehow speedup the display in the thumbnail view. my machine is a 2.8 1 giga ram machine and its a bit slow.
Are your files on a network drive? 
Logged

udeups

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 141
Re: Some questions re: Theater View
« Reply #32 on: March 18, 2005, 09:46:34 am »

You might have better luck with that question on the Girder forum: www.promixis.com

Yes, I'll definitely give it a shot over there, but I posted the question here as well because my issue seems to be that I'm defining the target as theater view too specifically. I.e. the target still points to the theater view main navigation window, and not the drop down submenu, which apparently has a different Name, Class, or Child Class. There's no way for me to check this, since if I click over to girder to see what Media Center is calling this submenu, the submenu goes away due to the loss of focus.

Does anyone have hints on a good combination of the Name, Class, etc parameters to use when sending a girder command to Theater View? In my experimenting, I either make them too specific or too general...

I was hoping that I wasn't the only MC user who's running Theater View off a second display from their main computer, and doesn't want Theater View to have the focus all the time

thanks
Logged

udeups

  • Regular Member
  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 141
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #33 on: March 18, 2005, 09:47:55 am »

Having said all that, all the improvements made to Theater View over the past few weeks have been awesome. Love the Theater View playing now!
Logged

Griff

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 710
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #34 on: March 22, 2005, 01:43:55 pm »

Hi

A lot of great improvements for Theater View in 216 and
 
218.

Thanks.

MC11/216:

Quote
10. NEW: Added remote control buttons for jumping directly to most Theater View pages. (also available from Girder as MCC_THEATER_VIEW)

I must have missed something.

But where are these?

Is there one for playing now.

Since I would like to have a direct route to playing now and back to where I was, like MC10.

Quote
15. NEW: Added 'Remove' to the commands menu inside of Theater View's Playing Now

A big Thank You there, Ive been waiting on that one for a long time.

MC11/218:

Quote
1. NEW: Integrated Theater View options into the main program options.
2. NEW: Added Theater View option to configure the text shown for a file.

Now this is really nice.

Quote
6. NEW: Added Theater View option to allow left / right arrows to go into and out of pages

This is the one that made my day!

Speeded things up greatly.

Thanks.

The new Playing Now, I dont know what to say.

I feel the space could be better used to disp. whats in

there and not the Visual.

Ok, one last thing.

Now:

Dont forget ya got me spoiled with MC10, its speed and
slickness.

So:

The first time I looked at MC11, back when.

I seen all these drop down menus. DBL. enter to get thru all of them. What a pain.

But when I though about it, these are needed for new users.

So, can there be a compromise between the old and the new?

Say a single enter = old way and a rt clk or something else = drop down menu.

or

Since I like the new config. box, maybe an option to turn off and on these drop down menus.

Well these are just some thoughts

Thanks 
Logged

glynor

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 19608
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #35 on: March 22, 2005, 03:02:13 pm »

As I mentioned in the build thread for .218-219...

* glynor does the dance of joy!

Thanks so much to all of JRiver.  It was quite obvious from the progress over the last week or so that you were taking all of these comments very seriously.
Logged
"Some cultures are defined by their relationship to cheese."

Visit me on the Interweb Thingie: http://glynor.com/

interbeat

  • Regular Member
  • Junior Woodchuck
  • **
  • Posts: 54
  • Change this by choosing profile
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #36 on: March 25, 2005, 01:03:40 pm »

Hello, I've some theatre view questions:

1. Is there any way to get round the menus? I use a remote and seem to spend ages with the remote building playlists. It would be really handy if pressing a button on the remote would either open, play or add whatever was selected, instead of needing to navigate the menus. Initially I used Girder to achieve this, but it's messy as the menu options change in certain locations.

2. Is there any way to not have the "all" groupings in lists? I never use them and find them confusing.

3. Is there a keyboard shortcut or some other way to clear all from playing now withing Theatre View? Suppose there are 50 tracks in playing now. I want to replace them with 10 different tracks from 10 different albums. Can this be done without having to manually remove lots of tracks?

4. Is there a keyboard shortcut to change view from thumbnails to list? Also, are there keyboard shortcuts for going directly to TV / Audio / CD etc? I know there are remote commands, but I use my remote through Girder.

5. Why don't lists in Theatre View sort the same as the corresponding view scheme? For example, my audio view scheme sorts files alphabetically, but in Theatre View the same files are sorted in track number order.

Finally a feature request:
It would be great if it was possible to choose the view for each view scheme "column" in Theatre View. What I mean is I'd like to see the Genre in list view, artist in list view, album in thumbnail view, then finally the file list in list view again (regardless of media type).

Many thanks for such an incredible program!!

EW
Logged

bbrip

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 441
  • Change this by choosing profile
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #37 on: March 25, 2005, 01:36:57 pm »

i rellay like these improvements made over the last few versions to Theater View.

waht would be useful in addition:

* The ability to show the album playing in Playing Now mode in the header line, rather than just showing "Home > Playing Now".  laso, it would be useful to show total time / time elapsed in the right upper corner rather than just the clock time.

* what is very much missing is an on screen display for volume change, ie for me to see a bar going up or down as I press the respective volume keys.

But agian. Super job on this and i love using it on my TV Screen !! Particulary the Acajou skin fits beutifully to my furniture  ;D
Logged

NickM

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 630
  • Simplicity isn't always best, but it's easy to fix
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #38 on: March 27, 2005, 08:33:24 pm »

One more minor suggestion.  The context menu choices that are now used, sit above the existing list buttions - same alignment, same colour etc.  It may make it easier to see the difference between these and the buttons behind by offsetting them or using a different shade of colour.
nick
Logged

raym

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3583
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #39 on: March 31, 2005, 03:32:07 pm »

you explicitly pick an item called 'Play' anywhere in MC, it'll replace Playing Now.  To optionally make 'Play' not really play seems confusing.

Am I missing something?

Hi Matt,

Let me try to explain this again ........ YES, pick an item called play and it'll replace Playing Now, but..... what I wish for is an option which adds files to the end of the playing now rather than replacing it. Sort of like the configurable double click behaviour in standard view.

I find it's just way too easy for someone to accidently blow away your playing now list by hitting PLAY on an item while browsing your library. Very annoying especially during a party!! 

I hope you can see the benefit of this feature/option??

Thankyou once again for the recent great improvements to Theater View!!
Logged
RKM Smart Home - www.rkmsmarthome.com.au
Z-Wave Home Automation

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72444
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #40 on: March 31, 2005, 03:40:29 pm »

Couldn't you solve this with a yellow post-it note that said "Press Add not Play"?

Maybe a second one at the bar?
Logged

Griff

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 710
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #41 on: April 01, 2005, 01:53:56 pm »

Quote
Couldn't you solve this with a yellow post-it note that said "Press Add not Play"?

Maybe a second one at the bar?

 ;D

How about reversing add and play on the audio menus ?

I can understand raym problem.

Theaterview/audio is used heavily in my home.

When first started, play is used the first time, after that

we are always "ADDING" to playing now.

Thanks
 
Logged

raym

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3583
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #42 on: April 01, 2005, 05:55:26 pm »

;D

How about reversing add and play on the audio menus ?

I can understand raym problem.

Theaterview/audio is used heavily in my home.

When first started, play is used the first time, after that

we are always "ADDING" to playing now.

Thanks
 

Thanks Griff. Switching the menu options around is a great idea!! Maybe this is a more realistic request?
Logged
RKM Smart Home - www.rkmsmarthome.com.au
Z-Wave Home Automation

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72444
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #43 on: April 01, 2005, 07:31:14 pm »

It isn't a bad idea.

Play [the existing add]
Play Now [the existing play]
Logged

risingdamp

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 419
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #44 on: April 03, 2005, 06:01:39 pm »

It isn't a bad idea.

Play [the existing add]
Play Now [the existing play]

That is a nice idea but it would be better if Play Now were to do what Play does from the shell interface i.e. play now but leave all the previous tracks in place e.g. when you hit play now to play 'my new track' this:
Quote
track 1
track2 (playing)
track3
track4
becomes this:
Quote
track 1
track2
my new track (playing)
track3
track4

I agree with the others that it's far too easy for people to mistakenly wipe out the playing now list in MC.  The only action that should do this is Play (Replace).
Logged
JLee

raym

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3583
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #45 on: April 05, 2005, 04:47:48 pm »

It isn't a bad idea.

Play [the existing add]
Play Now [the existing play]

Brilliant!!! Now we're talking!

Perhaps this may be more intuitive:-

    Play
    Play (and replace)

I look forward to this !!!  ::)
Logged
RKM Smart Home - www.rkmsmarthome.com.au
Z-Wave Home Automation

risingdamp

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 419
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #46 on: April 06, 2005, 05:22:51 am »

Exactly: Play, Play Now and Play (Replace) as per my post above.
Logged
JLee

RandyR

  • Regular Member
  • Junior Woodchuck
  • **
  • Posts: 99
  • I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #47 on: April 06, 2005, 09:33:35 am »

Help, please.

1.  What does "select all" do?  It doesn't seem to do anything that I can tell.

2.  What does "add (selection)" do?  Note: I see what it does while browsing, but the choice appears in the "playing now" section when a song is selected...yet it doesn't appear to do anything THERE.

Neither seems to do anything in build 223

(Sorry, I posted this elsewhere but got no response, so posting in this thread).
Logged

RandyR

  • Regular Member
  • Junior Woodchuck
  • **
  • Posts: 99
  • I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #48 on: April 07, 2005, 08:27:06 am »

Ok...maybe I'm not being clear...so I'm going to try one more time....

When in the "Playing Now" sub-menu of theatre view...

1.  I click on a tune and choose "select".  I then choose "Add (selection)".  Nothing happens except the song begins to play as if I had chosen "Play (Selection)."  What does Add do differently than Play?

2.  I then choose "Cancel (Selection)".  No effect...selection remains in effect.

3.  If I "select" multiple items (repeated selects), "Cancel (Selection)" doesn't work...items remain selected...and "Add (selection)" and "Play (Selection)" start the highlighted song playing, regardless of whether that song is part of the selection or not.  In other words, add and play seem to operate completely independant of the selection...and there doesn't appear to be any difference between them.

4.  In addition, if I first select a song in the list, then choose "Select ALL", the selection does not appear to change - no additional songs are selected and "Remove (Selection)" only operates on the single song selected before "Select All" is clicked.

Maybe I'm missing something, or maybe I'm just dumb.

Either way, I would appreciate some guidance as this behavior is not intuitive to me at all.
Logged

raym

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3583
Re: Theater View questions
« Reply #49 on: April 08, 2005, 02:26:01 pm »

Help, please.

1.  What does "select all" do?  It doesn't seem to do anything that I can tell.

2.  What does "add (selection)" do?  Note: I see what it does while browsing, but the choice appears in the "playing now" section when a song is selected...yet it doesn't appear to do anything THERE.

Maybe these options shouldn't be appearing in the Playing Now view if they don't work or are not intended to be used there? Development on this area is probably still in progress.
Logged
RKM Smart Home - www.rkmsmarthome.com.au
Z-Wave Home Automation
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up