JRiver is a fantastic piece of software. However the Cover Art View doesn't have the feel of Albums being on your bookshelf like Apple has in iTunes or iBooks for iOS.
I never met anyone who put his albums on a shelf like that, placing labels on the shelf below each album with its name? In fact, that would very silly and space consuming
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That entire shelf view is just BS if you ask me. My albums were in crates and I flipped through them, recognizing the cover. Can I have a crate view please?
No one I know had bookshelfs with albums and no one needed labels below or on the covers and I find them more disturbing than helpful. I know they are there now, but I don't use the album view in MC and on my HTPC I run XMBC which doesn't show labels thankfully
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Let me put it this way: The "standard view" is most likely responsible for the first impression someone gets of JRiver. So the more eye candy, iTunes like experience he gets, the more likely he will stay around getting a hint of what JRiver is able to do.
Not everyone agrees on what eye candy actually is. Some like it this way, some like it the other way. And time is a big factor in what we consider 'pretty'. Google images of OS's in the 70's, 80's, 90's etc and you'll see what I mean. Remember how website design has changed? Facebook and Google, Windows 8 and the WP7 Metro interface are going to change the way how we perceive 'pretty'. Things are going back to simple, minimalistic, square and flat. The time for 3d, glow, transparency are behind us and I for one, can't wait. I HATED those 3d, embossed, relief looks. Always have.
As I said before, a first start would be to enable those white borders you have around images in the image section for albums as well...
Especially on a white background with a white album cover
Borders are unneccesary and distracting. Regardless of the background and whether or not an album blends in because it has the same color, the drop shadow actually gives you the idea there's a border around the entire image. Your brain does that, unless you focus directly on the area where the border isn't/would be. Example for this effect is big text of which only 2 sides are drawn (like top and left).
I remember I was looking for an album back in the days I still lived with my parents. I had this blue carpet and one of my albums was pretty much the same color blue, well mostly anyways. I was standing in my room looking around and I just didn't see it ... until I did
. It never occurred to me to put a frame around it so it would stand out
Now, here's what I would really like. A worn cover generator, to make album covers look 'worn', like those decades' old albums that have been slid in and out of the pile a 1000 times, with bent corners and all that. Now that woul be cool
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