Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jmone]

Before MC, I gave MediaPortal a good go (I even donated $'s to the cause).  While everyone will have a different set of needs, my #1 criteria was a single HTPC front end prog that would play ALL my media.  The two tricky ones for me were my Muxed MPEG/DTS files (chapter rips from Music DVD's with DTS sound tracks), and home anamorphic DV-Type 1 movies.  MC is the only prog I’ve come across that lets you choose your filter including what splitters you want and mix and match them by file type.  MC wins.  Nero Home is second.  MediaPortal and Windows Media Centre are third (both use the MS Splitter).

However, I also agree that the MediaPortal HTPC Interface is far more extensible than what we have in MC, but for me I found that after the novelty wore off of using the weather, sodoku, calculator etc plugins I was really wanted was to use the IF to play content.  For me (and the family), the current HTPC Interface is not perfect, is clunky, can be inconsistent but at the end of they day it does the job.

For what it is worth, some updated comments from my original post:
TV/PVR Support: This has come a long way over the last two months, the DBV-T support being added and the bugs currently being ironed out for Timeshifting and Recording.  These features will suit my needs just fine but progs like MediaPortal are streets ahead in this area with support for EPGs, mapping of channels from multiple inputs with IR blaster support etc.
Remote Control – I’d love to see this MC support tweaks / configs out of the box like Customisable key mapping support (without using Girder) to control what the “OK”, “Back”,  “Pause”, “Stop” buttons do as I find some of this inconsistent and the ability to map a key to launch TheaterView from STDView so you don’t have to get the keyboard!
WAF – The family is almost used to (or resigned to) the fact we use the HTPC for all our media content playback.  The kids even watch the Home Videos now!
Sync – I did not appreciate this one before, but my wife has a Samsung MP3 Player, my daughter an IPOD, my son a PSP, and I’ve got a smart phone.  I’ve got all my Music on the HTPC in WMA Lossless, and can sync to ALL of these devices without a single code of additional software or the need to worry about the transcoding – try that with the others!  I will concede that this is a feature that should be added to the TheaterView so that the family can access it.
Support – MC and MediaPortal are right up there with the best with taking your feedback, suggestions and ideas and turning out changes in the product.

Thanks
Nathan

[lOth]

Sync – I did not appreciate this one before, but my wife has a Samsung MP3 Player, my daughter an IPOD, my son a PSP, and I’ve got a smart phone. 

I'd love to see the line at the HTPC in the morning! 

[zirum]

I tried that Meedio + plugin for MC (bougth both actually), but quite fast found them sucking big time on large library. Which was the initial reason for starting on MC. But i'd still love to see the plugin availibility for MC as it was on Meedio. Lot's of cool stuff to experiment with there ("TheaterView" Azureus/Bittorent integration was great).

[maxxsid]

My biggest problem with the Theater View in JRMC12 is the way it works with dual monitor setup.
Theater View and Full Screen go to large screen LCD TV.
Standard View goes to small screen LCD monitor.

MC is a great all media player and media manager. I think, however, that this player/manager part needs to be separated from the Theater View - it has to be not TOO easy to get out of Theater View - right now it's really easy to accidently fall out to Standard View. I don't want my wife to ever see the Standard View.
When MC takes a role of HTPC front end - I do not want to tag and do any fancy organizing and library management stuff. I want to be able to easily select what to play (album, artist, playlist, movie, photos from my last trip to Borneo), what to show (full screen, track info, vizualization etc), be able to switch aspect ratios, control volume and navigate DVD menu. This sort of things,
I don't care much about the weather and news - it's relatively easy to stick into Theater View.

[Matt]

right now it's really easy to accidently fall out to Standard View

Could you give a few concrete examples?  We may be able to change those areas. (you can already remove the "Exit" button from the root menu)

Thanks.

[jmone]

Hi Matt - from my perspective there is a couple of things that make TheaterView an add to the underlying STDView of MC (FYI - I have MC as auto run in WinXP with TheaterView as the default):
1) If I put in a DVD - I get the YADB diag box appearing in the latest builds - I now need to get the keyboard out to make it go away as it fail to find the DVD Info.  I'd suggest in TheaterView you DONT want to get any YADB info anyway - I just want to play the disk
2) I'd like to be able to launch TheaterView using my remote control from STDView (I somtimes leave my HTPC in STDView but getting the Wife/Kids to take the keyboard out to press CTNL/4 has nobs on it!).  The best would be to have MC allow configurable mapping for buttons internally (without the need to girder etc).

Thanks
Nathan

[Media Freak]

that's right, it's more like Meedio controlling MC than the other way around. Meedio can then operate as a front-end to MC and use MC's far greater database, playlists, smartlists and search ability.

I wish there was a similar plugin for MC to control Meedio's and take advantage of their addins.

After spending so many nights of sleep trying to configure and set up MC to my liking, it's quite hard for me to fully make another program the default... For now, I've spread the content of my library on all 3 programs (MC, Meedio and MediaPortal) and use them for different purpose but I really want to use one...the switching sometimes is a headache.

[lOth]

One program to rule them all, this is the holy grail of media players/HTPC. Meaning, this is just a myth, I've given up on it. I would now go the standalone dedicated box with uPnP capability + networked media server route.

[raym]

1) If I put in a DVD - I get the YADB diag box appearing in the latest builds - I now need to get the keyboard out to make it go away as it fail to find the DVD Info.  I'd suggest in TheaterView you DONT want to get any YADB info anyway - I just want to play the disk

Have you tried disabling YADB lookups?

I agree with you in general though. There are quite a few instances where Standard View popup boxes appear over the Theater View interface. For instance:- When starting TV (I've asked Yaobing about the need for this already), while attempting to play media which might be missing, and while attempting to select a DVD which is no longer in the DVD drive (Theater View doesn't auto-refresh!!).

I'd like MC to just make an educated guess on behalf of the user for this stuff rather than putting up message/dialog boxes which 1) I can't read from across the room and 2) just look bad against the Theater View interface. Ideally, a better option would be to adapt these message boxes to look the same as the selected Theater View skin.

2) I'd like to be able to launch TheaterView using my remote control from STDView (I somtimes leave my HTPC in STDView but getting the Wife/Kids to take the keyboard out to press CTNL/4 has nobs on it!).  The best would be to have MC allow configurable mapping for buttons internally (without the need to girder etc).

Can you not assign SHIFT+F11 to a button on your remote? This cycles between Display View and Theater View ONLY. You should not see Standard View if you use this.


Thanks.

[JimH]

1) If I put in a DVD - I get the YADB diag box appearing in the latest builds - I now need to get the keyboard out to make it go away as it fail to find the DVD Info.  I'd suggest in TheaterView you DONT want to get any YADB info anyway - I just want to play the disk

Sorry for that.  We'll track it down and remove it.

[maxxsid]

But why? why?? MC is SO close.. I would hate to give up on it but I am getting close.. Buy a d-linkbox and get my life back..

One program to rule them all, this is the holy grail of media players/HTPC. Meaning, this is just a myth, I've given up on it. I would now go the standalone dedicated box with uPnP capability + networked media server route.

[JimH]

It won't be public for a few days but tonight's beta build has this:

12.0.188 (03/08/07)

17. NEW: Theater View supports plugins.

and a sample plug-in for weather and for RSS news feeds.

[JimH]

And... a couple of people have made comments that sounded like they thought we didn't care about Theater View or hadn't spent much time on it.  Neither is the case.  We'd like it to be the perfect solution for you, but we're frankly puzzled about what you want.

If you could state what you want (limited to two 12-word sentences, each followed by a period) AND we can see some common requests, we'll take a swing at it.

[lOth]

And... a couple of people have made comments that sounded like they thought we didn't care about Theater View or hadn't spent much time on it.  Neither is the case.  We'd like it to be the perfect solution for you, but we're frankly puzzled about what you want.

If you could state what you want (limited to two 12-word sentences, each followed by a period) AND we can see some common requests, we'll take a swing at it.

It's perfectly fine with me if you want to rewrite history, and, personally, I don't see anything wrong with your former priorities (i.e. that at some point in the past your priority was to go after iTunes and WMP, not after HTPC software). It was to a large extent a marketing decision, this decision was only yours to be, and I find the result amazing (in terms of media player, I don't think there can be any going back to iTunes after trying MC. In terms of the priority in development that was later given to the music store area, that's another story). I'm just glad you seem to care now about Theater View and will readily forget that you didn't care that much about hairstyle (or didn't have much time to spend on it) in the past. As for the idea that you're puzzled about what users want, maybe it's a little bit disingenuous:

12.0.188 (03/08/07)

17. NEW: Theater View supports plugins.

and a sample plug-in for weather and for RSS news feeds.

Looks like you know exactly what users want and have been wanting for almost three years

What some users wanted then is what other users want now: an open plugin-architecture so that all sorts of new "things" that you wouldn't have to worry about could be developped. With the kind of database MC offers, if the ability to write plug-ins could be put in the hands of users, this would be a dream come true (except in my case, since I can't write the first line of code)

To be fair, when I read back threads from then, I see that I complained that you developed the iPod part of MC rather than hairstyle. A few months later, after I got my selfish little self an iPod, I complained you worked on the media store area rather than on the iPod. A lot of users are just whiners like me, so, one way or another, they'll keep puzzling you.

[JimH]

To be fair, when I read back threads from then, I see that I complained that you developed the iPod part of MC rather than hairstyle. A few months later, after I got my selfish little self an iPod, I complained you worked on the media store area rather than on the iPod. A lot of users are just whiners like me, so, one way or another, they'll keep puzzling you.

[Griff]

limited to two 12-word sentences, each followed by a period

Slide show- another opt.- Play all 3D (Visual.) .

or Send to 3D (wipe 3D playlist/add new).

[Griff]

Hummmmmm

Was

limited to two 12-word sentences, each followed by a period

Per post

or overall ?

 

Just kidding, dont want to drive you nuts

[datdude]

To be fair, when I read back threads from then, I see that I complained that you developed the iPod part of MC rather than hairstyle. A few months later, after I got my selfish little self an iPod, I complained you worked on the media store area rather than on the iPod. A lot of users are just whiners like me, so, one way or another, they'll keep puzzling you.

Not to get off track, but I have suggested the past 3 years for cetain things like viertical split views, on the fly searching, ratings in the display view, filtering panes in both directions, gapless playback, and guess what, all of these things have come true.  There are other things I wish for like sorting panes on the fly, a dynamic party shuffle, etc.. and one day they may come true as well.  I think its just a matter of a perfect storm when JRiver has time to a) listen and b) make it happen.

[NickM]

I can’t do it in two twelve word sentences, but here are a few 8 word, or less, sentences instead…

Interface
A homogenous interface driven, with uniform status bar.
Never any need for keyboard or mouse intervention.
No pop-ups, dialogue boxes or dialogue error messages.
Ability to turn off background animations. ( For those with older PC’s & noisy fans. )
Each view should be configurable to show “All”.
Each view should be configurable to show name. ( Or not. )

Features
More commands on the remote control list.
Remote commands learned saved with library backup.
Tagging summary information a layer below file name.
Ability to save time-shifted TV

Wild side
Torrent plug-in that searches for latest show episode, downloads, imports, and a message on the title bar when completed.

[gvanbrunt]

Another dialog that kills Theater View:

If you start to build thumbnails then open theater view, you can't use the remote (mce remote control) because the dialog is over top of Theater View.

Also a suggestion, this dialog is useless. Why not have it on a status bar or window in the lower right like an ipod sync etc... No need for a dialog at all...

[jmmttu77]

And... a couple of people have made comments that sounded like they thought we didn't care about Theater View or hadn't spent much time on it.  Neither is the case.  We'd like it to be the perfect solution for you, but we're frankly puzzled about what you want.

If you could state what you want (limited to two 12-word sentences, each followed by a period) AND we can see some common requests, we'll take a swing at it.

Theater view requests:

#1:  Change the back button to function as a true back button.  In many areas, the back button sends you back to the home page.  There is already a home button for that.

#2:  I really like that you can see your Artists displayed by LARGE album art thumbnails and when you select an Album it automatically changes to the SMALL album art so you can see the files more efficiently.  However, when you have an Artist that has more than one Album, and select the "ALL" button, the album art thumbnails stay LARGE and you cannot see the song files efficiently.  It would make sense for the album art to automatically change to SMALL thumbnails here.  

#3:  Remove the moving background logo and the crazy cube.  I dont like the random movements.

#4:  Broader compatability with tv tuners.  I have a usb tuner that came with my dell and while it will work with MCE it will not work with JRiver.

#5:  An EPG.  

Thanks for asking!  You da man!

[raym]

I can't do it in 2 12 word sentences either but I'll be brief...

1. Ability to burn playing now content to CD/DVD.
2. Ability to browse filesystem, simple tagging and renaming (using OSD), and delete capability.
3.

No pop-ups, dialogue boxes or dialogue error messages.

Thanks

[jmone]

Here is what would be my priority list for TheaterView (sorry dot points not sentences!)

• TV: Stabilise the support for digital tuners, recording, timeshifting (well underway)
• IF: Suppresion / Replacment of STDView Dialoge boxs that need a keyboard response
  
• TV: Add support for scheduled time/date recording
• DVD: Navigation Support for DVD's with Multiple Titles & Chapters (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=38074.0)
• Remote Control: In built configurable support/button mapping (for me the MS IR Remote)
• TV: Combined Timeshift and Record (eg use the ms-dvr steam for both functions)
• Sync: Letting you sync from TheaterView
• TV: Support for 3rd party Set Top box pass through using ir blasters with selectable channel mapping
• TV: EPG integration (good luck!)

I think the plug in approach like the weather is a great way for the community to also continbute to the development of the TheaterView.

I would also recomend that all the configuration settings, etc stay in STDView

Thanks
Nathan

[Twit]

when clicking a song in THV then clicking on play (remote only) , IT SHOULD ONLY PLAY THE SONG I PICKED, not all the songs on the screen. Thats what a 'play all' button is for?

[raym]

when clicking a song in THV then clicking on play (remote only) , IT SHOULD ONLY PLAY THE SONG I PICKED, not all the songs on the screen. Thats what a 'play all' button is for?

I totally agree (though, I'm afraid to say, this has been strongly contested by many on numerous occasions).

A new Theater View behavioural option would solve this. I hope this could be a possibility some day...

[Matt]

I totally agree (though, I'm afraid to say, this has been strongly contested by many on numerous occasions).

A new Theater View behavioural option would solve this. I hope this could be a possibility some day...

If I view an album, I often go to my favorite song and play it. (double-click in standard view, remote control play button in Theater View)

I like that the rest of the album keeps playing after this.

I suppose the menu could have two choices "Play" and "Play (only this file)" or something.

[JimH]

Another dialog that kills Theater View:

If you start to build thumbnails then open theater view, you can't use the remote (mce remote control) because the dialog is over top of Theater View.

If you or anyone else can start a thread on "Theater View Show Stoppers" like this, we'll get them all.  It would be nice to have a good clean list.  Thanks.

[globetrotters1]

I'm somehow a newbie, but from what I know as of now I want to say a few things to this topic:

1. The Theater View makes only sense for just choosing and playing content (music, video, TV) but is no replacement for the whole Media Center Standard View
2. It should be freely configurable by a programmer (background, buttons, button placement etc.pp)
3. Animations should be switchable (on/off)
4. Configuration changes should be done in Standard View and make no sense in Theater View (and should be kept consistently and over installation changes too)
5. The button/IR commands should have always the same effect
6. It shouldn't be too easy to fall out of Theater View into Standard View (hitting <ESC> on a keyboard is too easy)
7. Great would be to have a stand-alone Theater View program (just the already existing functions) as a read-only player in the same system for externally chosen content playing (which I assume shouldn't be that much of a problem because you already have all the program modules ready; it's more of a access rights problem for the DB); like that someone can work in Standard View at the computer (tagging, ripping and so on) and have a playing ability throughout the house...

those ideas was just 1 cent, not 2 cents...

[maxxsid]

One example - when in Full Screen (playing avi from Theater View) - hit "esc" - goes right to Standard View. Same thing - double click on the video/coverart in Full Screen - goes to Standard.
There should be at least an option to hide the Standard View altogether, like the Party Mode, there should be a protected Theater View Mode - No Way To Go To Standard unless enter a password or press a 10-button combination or something like that.

Could you give a few concrete examples?  We may be able to change those areas. (you can already remove the "Exit" button from the root menu)

Thanks.

[maxxsid]

Hooray!

And... a couple of people have made comments that sounded like they thought we didn't care about Theater View or hadn't spent much time on it.  Neither is the case.  We'd like it to be the perfect solution for you, but we're frankly puzzled about what you want.

If you could state what you want (limited to two 12-word sentences, each followed by a period) AND we can see some common requests, we'll take a swing at it.

[raym]

If I view an album, I often go to my favorite song and play it. (double-click in standard view, remote control play button in Theater View)

I like that the rest of the album keeps playing after this.

Thanks Matt... Yeah, but that's just the thing, I dont'!  The first thing I do when I setup MC on a new PC for STANDARD VIEW is to set the double click behaviour to "Add to Playing Now (to end)". This adds one song at a time to Playing Now and this is the same behaviour I'd like for Theater View. It's the whole PLAY vs ADD debate. I know ADD is there on the Theater View context menu but it's that extra couple of remote presses youknow? And it's too easy for someone to come along and accidently replace your entire playlist. I've always thought that it's very easy in Theater View to play stuff, which continuously replaces Playing Now, and too hard to queue stuff.

I'd like to be able to drill down to the file level, find my favourite song, hit enter on my remote, select PLAY and know that this is the only thing MC will add to Playing Now. If I want the whole album, I'll simply select it (one level up), hit the APPS key on my remote and press PLAY. There's a million other ways to play material as you've described (ie, which includes all songs within the album). Oh, and we're talking ADUIO ONLY here right?! This probably only makes sense for music - not for images and video.

There's no need for more selections on the Theater View context menu or even extra behavioural settings for this neccessarily... a simple user option which allows the order of PLAY and ADD on the Theater View context menu to be reversed would be a perfect solution as far as I'm concearned. Ie:-

   ADD
   PLAY
   ..
   ..
   ..
   CANCEL

 Thanks.

[maxxsid]

I personally oppose this kind of things. Why would one want to burn a CD being in Theater View? Well, I don't have any experience with TV watching and time shifting - I suppose burning CD/DVD maybe handy there.
Browse filesystem - yes. I need/want that. I don't really want to add all my 100,000 photos to the library to be able to play them.
Tagging/renaming - I don't need that. IMHO, that's for Standard View. I mean, if we start adding all the features to the Theater View then it would be just the Standard View with larger buttons.
IMHO, the Theater View should be just for playing/watching/browsing/(recording - TV shows, time shifting and such)

I can't do it in 2 12 word sentences either but I'll be brief...

1. Ability to burn playing now content to CD/DVD.
2. Ability to browse filesystem, simple tagging and renaming (using OSD), and delete capability.
3.
Thanks

[raym]

Well, I don't have any experience with TV watching and time shifting - I suppose burning CD/DVD maybe handy there.

Bingo!

Besides, we're talking Theater View - a HTPC front end. All the decent ones on the market offer this functionality. It's not such a big deal.

Tagging/renaming - I don't need that. IMHO, that's for Standard View. I mean, if we start adding all the features to the Theater View then it would be just the Standard View with larger buttons.
IMHO, the Theater View should be just for playing/watching/browsing/(recording - TV shows, time shifting and such)

I'm not suggesting Theater View should mimic these STANDARD VIEW functions. Just provide a subset of it's overall power. That's why I said "SIMPLE" tagging. Refer MCE.

I personally oppose this kind of things.

If you have no need for these functions then fair enough... This was a "wish list" and these are the things I would wish for.

[maxxsid]

Exactly.. Like I said - I don't watch TV (only movies off dvd or avi) so I wouldn't know - I agree there the burning makes sense. And I guess once you recorded something you might need to tag that. OK - you convinced me.
Never tried MCE...

If you have no need for these functions then fair enough... This was a "wish list" and these are the things I would wish for.

[jmone]

Thanks Matt... Yeah, but that's just the thing, I dont'!  The first thing I do when I setup MC on a new PC for STANDARD VIEW is to set the double click behaviour to "Add to Playing Now (to end)". This adds one song at a time to Playing Now and this is the same behaviour I'd like for Theater View. It's the whole PLAY vs ADD debate. I know ADD is there on the Theater View context menu but it's that extra couple of remote presses youknow? And it's too easy for someone to come along and accidently replace your entire playlist. I've always thought that it's very easy in Theater View to play stuff, which continuously replaces Playing Now, and too hard to queue stuff.

I'd like to be able to drill down to the file level, find my favourite song, hit enter on my remote, select PLAY and know that this is the only thing MC will add to Playing Now. If I want the whole album, I'll simply select it (one level up), hit the APPS key on my remote and press PLAY. There's a million other ways to play material as you've described (ie, which includes all songs within the album). Oh, and we're talking ADUIO ONLY here right?! This probably only makes sense for music - not for images and video.

There's no need for more selections on the Theater View context menu or even extra behavioural settings for this neccessarily... a simple user option which allows the order of PLAY and ADD on the Theater View context menu to be reversed would be a perfect solution as far as I'm concearned. Ie:-

 

Choice is great!  For me I'm in the other camp - I want MC to keep playing the next item in the list untill it is finished or I press stop, which is perfect functionality for Home Videos, Pictures or TV Series.  Say a TV Series is all in one directly sorted by Season/Episode - we select where we are up to and away we go - if we selected the folder we would always start at S01E01.

[gvanbrunt]

I also want to se JMRC be more of an HTPC. One thing sadlly missing in from ANY decent HTPC is DVB-S. FTA in Europe and Asia is huge, and most people buy set top boxes because the software available is so dismal.

I'm hoping that once DVB-T is working correctly, they will work on DVB-S. Everything is virtually identical except that BDA doesn't support DiSEqC switching or motor support. Most of the programs on the market use BDA for tuning, but resort to supporting third party driver calls to do the switching. I really don't know why MS hasn't updated the BDA spec to support this.

The program guide data is available in the stream, but again there are differences between some of the providers so this is a small hurtle as well.

If they do support DVB-S, it would be nice if they supported the plug in structure of current apps such as Mytheatre, ProgDVB, etc so that other components can be added such as descramblers, etc

[raym]

Two more things (sorry, I can't help myself  )

1. A selecteable "JUMP ON PLAY" setting based on media type. Currently it's one setting for all but here's how I'd like to configure Jump On Play:-

For Music = none
For Video/Television = Display View
For Images = Display View

2. The ability for MC to remember where I was within a given view so that when I jump out and then back in again, I'm returned to where i was. I believe MC10's Hairstyle used to do this?? I'd have to check, it's been a while but basically, here's an example of what I mean:-

1. From HOME I naviagate to Audio->M->Metallica->Ride The Lightning
2. I add some songs and then hit the HOME button
3. I take a look at Playing Now for a second and then select HOME->AUDIO once again
4. At this point, I shouldn't have to find my way back to the "Ride The Lighnting" file list. I'd like to be placed back there automatically.

Likewise for all the other views too.

As a rule, if I hit HOME from a given point within a view's hierarchy, MC should remember this point. In my opinion, BACK could then continue to function as it does today.

Thanks.

 

Thanks.

[JimH]

Two more things (sorry, I can't help myself  )

1. A selecteable "JUMP ON PLAY" setting based on media type. Currently it's one setting for all but here's how I'd like to configure Jump On Play:-

For Music = none
For Video/Television = Display View
For Images = Display View

2. The ability for MC to remember where I was within a given view so that when I jump out and then back in again, I'm returned to where i was. I believe MC10's Hairstyle used to do this?? I'd have to check, it's been a while but basically, here's an example of what I mean:-

1. From HOME I naviagate to Audio->M->Metallica->Ride The Lightning
2. I add some songs and then hit the HOME button
3. I take a look at Playing Now for a second and then select HOME->AUDIO once again
4. At this point, I shouldn't have to find my way back to the "Ride The Lighnting" file list. I'd like to be placed back there automatically.

Likewise for all the other views too.

As a rule, if I hit HOME from a given point within a view's hierarchy, MC should remember this point. In my opinion, BACK could then continue to function as it does today.

Thanks.

 

Thanks.

Good day, sir.  Do you know how many sentences and periods you were just doing?

[Griff]

Good day, sir.  Do you know how many sentences and periods you were just doing

 

raym

Im in your Ball Park

but look at the posts above.

Jim made a statement and look what happen.

[raym]

Good day, sir.  Do you know how many sentences and periods you were just doing?

Ok, sorry Jim. I did say I couldn't help myself. Just finding it hard to explain this stuff with such limitations.

Let me revise my post:-

1. A selectable "JUMP ON PLAY" setting based on media type.
2. The ability for MC to remember where I was within a view.

[lOth]

Better, but your second one is still one word too long (look above, 12 is the maximum).

[raym]

Better, but your second one is still one word too long (look above, 12 is the maximum).

I feel like I'm back in high school sitting for my english exam!

Forget I ever said anything..... 

[raym]

Choice is great!  For me I'm in the other camp - I want MC to keep playing the next item in the list untill it is finished or I press stop, which is perfect functionality for Home Videos, Pictures or TV Series.  Say a TV Series is all in one directly sorted by Season/Episode - we select where we are up to and away we go - if we selected the folder we would always start at S01E01.

I agree with you also and this is why 1) I proposed that the reversal of the PLAY/ADD option on the context menu be a user option and 2) if some other approach were to be adopted to handle this problem, it should only relate to audio, not images or video.

Thanks.

[Jaguu]

1. Want to add root view schemes to the Theater View main menu*.
2. Change Theater View skin on the fly (according to mood!).

*) Tools>Options>Theater View>Add Theater View Item should allow to add view schemes besides programs or webpages.

[jmone]

OK here are some more from my testing on the DVB-T stuff for Yaobing!.  These are my impressions of what would make TheaterView's remote control usability better (note: I use the MS Home IR Remote Codes) specifically for TV Control:
1) Record Button - It is waaaay tooooo much to ask the family to currently navigate to initiate the recording function in TheaterView - instead can we just have the "Record" button on the remote work?
2) Recording Indicator - Can we have a small red dot in the top right of the picture to indicate that recording is active
3) TimeShifting Indicator - Note sure how to represent this but an indication that it is active and where you are at in the programme stream would be good (the slider visual in STDView is good but it would need to be made TheaterView friendly without being distracting – sorry not much help!)
4) Forward/Back Buttons: These currently perform the same function as the CH+ CH- buttons (change channel) when I was expecting them to take me to the START or END of the Timeshift
5) Recorded TV Categorisation:  At the moment all TV recordings are grouped under “Unassigned”.  I would suggest that the be categorised under “TV Recordings” and that a button for this be available under both the top level “TV” and “Video”
6) Back Button: When watching TV (or other media for that matter) pressing the “Back” button does nothing.  I have to press the “ENTER” button to go “back” – Can it be changed so that the “Back” button always go back even during media playback?
That’s it’s for now
Thanks
Nathan

[raym]

... I use the MS Home IR Remote Codes) specifically for TV Control:

Hi Nathan. This is purely an observation but MC doesn't formally support this remote device - at least not as far as I'm aware. This is why some codes simply don't do what you are expecting. The remote you are using is obviously designed for MS MCE. A suitable plugin would be required here I guess.

Cheers,
Ralf.

[jmone]

Hi Nathan. This is purely an observation but MC doesn't formally support this remote device - at least not as far as I'm aware. This is why some codes simply don't do what you are expecting. The remote you are using is obviously designed for MS MCE. A suitable plugin would be required here I guess.

Cheers,
Ralf.

Hi Ralf - you could be right but I've never configured a thing and it works "out of the box" perfectly so I'm guessing it is more of how MC handles the RC codes more than needing a new plugin.

[jmone]

Some "other" suggestions under the "TV" that don't seem to make sense (at least to me):
- Play All
- Search
- Control --> Playback --> Reshuffle
- Add

Also under Controls there are three options:
- Display (lists all the Channels)
- Display (with TV / Web)
- Channels (lists all the Channels again)

[sdgrizdan]

The "print...", "delete...", and "set as desktop background..." under the controls for images should be removed b/c these are functions that should be done through the MC interface.

(Unless, the dialogs that appear w/ these commands are more compatible w/ the theater view look and feel and we can use these commands across the living room. right now the dialogs that come up w/ these commands (i.e. print) are way to small/unpractical to use in theater view mode)

[Chili-Jam]

Request:
- select playlists to be shown in theater view

in detail:
i'd like to be able to select which playlist should be shown in theater view. Something like you already do for the views.
How about giving a playlistgroup the option to be shown in theater view?

reason:
- performance: while in theater view it takes a real long time when i select 'playlists'
because too many smartlists get calculated (i guess)

- confusing: i have a lot of playlists i use only for organizing the library, checking my tags,
some special playlists to calculate what will be on my IPod etc.
Now while i need to work with these playlists they are NOT meant to be played.
I also want to be able to NOT show playlist groups like Audible, AudioLunchbox etc.