Print

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

[Jim the Noob]

Hello,

I'm a longtime user of MC11, and was thinking about upgrading to 15.  But I find the new animated theater view (rollers?) very irritating.  The text is difficult to follow as I scroll through long lists, and sometimes it disappears completely, forcing me to stop to see where I'm at.  To me, this looks like an unfortunate triumph of form over function; also a deal-breaker, as the theater view is now more trouble to use than it's worth.  I've tried to search the forums to see if there are any non-animated views still available, but haven't found a definitive answer with regard to MC15.  Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Jim the Noob

[JimH]

I'm a longtime user of MC11, and was thinking about upgrading to 15.  But I find the new animated theater view (rollers?) very irritating.  The text is difficult to follow as I scroll through long lists, and sometimes it disappears completely, forcing me to stop to see where I'm at.  To me, this looks like an unfortunate triumph of form over function; also a deal-breaker, as the theater view is now more trouble to use than it's worth.  I've tried to search the forums to see if there are any non-animated views still available, but haven't found a definitive answer with regard to MC15.  Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Please describe in more detail what problems you have with it.

In MC options for Theater View, try setting the frame rate lower and the drawing quality down.  It may just be that your video hardware is not doing 3D very well. 

Long lists can be navigated with Page Up/Page Down, or by typing a letter.

[Jim the Noob]

Hi Jim, thanks for your reply.

Please describe in more detail what problems you have with it.

It's basically not being able to see stuff as it whizzes past.  In the Artists list for example, it either gets all bunched up at the upper or lower end of the screen (depending on scroll direction), or just disappears.  The original Theater Views were obviously less sexy, but at least the text was predictable.

In MC options for Theater View, try setting the frame rate lower and the drawing quality down.

I'm afraid neither of these makes any difference with the above symptoms.

It may just be that your video hardware is not doing 3D very well. 

I've tried installing MC15 on both my netbook and desktop machines with essentially the same results.  But this serves to illustrate my point.  My desktop has no trouble playing HD video or high-bitrate audio, which are among the core functions of MC.  From your suggestion above, it almost seems like I now need more powerful hardware just to look at a list of my stuff from across the room, than to actually play it.  And even a perfect display of the roller concept would still lack the solid, easy-to-read scrolling text display and stop-on-a-dime feel that were inherent (and inherently user-friendly) in the old views.  I always find this sort of form-trumps-function thing disappointing, but I'm probably in a waning minority with this opinion.  There are some visual aspects of the new Theater View (backgrounds, for one) which are undeniably cool to look at, and it now seems to take less button-pushing to get around - which is great.  I just wish the rollers could be optional, but apparently they're here to stay, so I'll get off the soapbox.

Long lists can be navigated with Page Up/Page Down,

Until they disappear, that is...    When I hold down the Page Up/Down keys, it zips through a vanishing list of 300 or so artists in about 1 second.

Jim

[bil1010105]

Just a suggestion, but in the settings, try setting the Size level for Theatre View to around 75% (or experiment with different numbers).

I found that helped a great deal, especially on my netbook. Part of the problem is that the text is too big - which means your eye can't get it's bearing properly (if that makes sense?  ? )