Ok. Got some time now. I've not had the time to explore the underlying system much here, but it looks pretty much as usual except that we now have the ability to set the main caption and the advanced/selection caption based on the file info panel templates. This is good. The TV Show captions are very much improved on on the 65 build compared to 64. Nice! I'd still like to add a few suggestions though.
It's to late on the night for me to figure out how this Watched Expression and Is mixed list or [AllSameSeries] and [AllSameSeason] works. But generally, I think there needs to be something more than this to accommodate for similar situations. For instance, we need to figure out if playlists are of the same artist, or if there is lots of different artists. In cases where there are a mix, the Artist name should be added.
There's also the question of calculating data for several items in a list. For instance counting number of items in seasons or in TV shows. A number watched/not watched counter. This would be especially useful the day we get the ability to show the small file info pane on categories above the file level
Also, does the Watch expression take into account things like bookmark and number plays? I just think it's very little trustworthy to just base this on number plays.
I ran the 64 build this weekend, and showed it to 8 of my friends during a two day stay. They all asked me to get back my previous caption system
So, I think I'm at least on to something right. I think the new build would make them less negative though.
Over to some simple suggestions.
MusicThere's nothing but [name] tag on these captions today. This kind of works for lists of a single artist and single album. People still expect to see ratings on these tracks though. And it takes a heck of a long time browsing through them all to find the high rated tracks. Hence it needs to be in the caption line one, not line two when you've selected the track.
So, I would suggest the following:
- Mixed lists of music or other media types/sub types: [Name] by [Artist] [Rating Stars expression?]
- Homogeneous list of music [Name] [Rating Stars Expression?]
A subtle tone on the "by" to differentiate between the Name and Artist makes it easy to separate the two. The rating is needed because people often look for the good tracks of for instance an album. Having rating only as part of the second caption line or at the file info panel makes it very time consuming to pick out the favorite songs.
MoviesI would suggest the following:
- [Name] [Rating Stars expression based on theMovieDB ratings]
Most people have a single title for most movies. They usually know what they have. But people often want to know what rating the movie have gotten. So, rating should be added here. Taken from MC's default theMovieDB ratings. Half star rating should be used. 1-5 is just way to little when we're dealing with 10 ratings from the theMovieDB, WITH decimals. Plenty of people want to look at their best movies first, and rating is one of the primary things they look for. that's why this have to be added on the primary caption for Movies.
Also move the Seen icon to the left of the caption, so it's easily spotted.
TV showsI would suggest that a "E" is placed in front of Episodes and "S" in front of seasons. People are just so incredibly used to this from all internet sources. Especially lists with multiple seasons are not good imo. 5.15 is just so wrong to my eyes.I'm starting to wonder if it's a date or something. Adding S in front of the Season and an E instead of the . would make if much faster to read, and only add one character.
When you have the Season and Episode in place, I do not think that the actual dates are needed as the primary caption. It's just noise imo. People know the order and approximately release time from the episode numbering, and they can easily get the full date from the file info panel. I would drop ratings on episodes. Just as you have. It's just considered as noise for most people. As people usually like a show, or not, and does not skip an episode even if it's rated badly. But this is actually about the only place I would drop it.
TrailersTrailers need the same caption as Movies.
Music VideosThose need the same rules as music
SeasonsI would suggest that you add a special caption rule for seasons, so that Season is placed in front of the number for the Season category caption and the roller text. It's so much easier to read and interpret.
Overall very good changes from build 63 to 65. I hope you keep this going some more builds until we nail this caption formula that most people expect to find in such a powerful app.
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Topic: Theater View Captions -- Let's Make a Deal (Read 13564 times)