[mythtv] MythMusic Redux Proposals WAS: Proposed Change to MythMusic

[Joseph Caputo]

On 7/11/07, Steven Adeff <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com> wrote:
> Starting a new thread, read comments below....
>
> On 7/11/07, Justin Hornsby <justin.hornsby at gmail.com> wrote:
> > It's not even as if you *can* use a mouse with mythmusic yet - none of
> > those buttons do anything when clicked.
> >
> > The one thing I think everybody agrees with is that mythmusic needs to
> > be improved.  The thing is, I've yet to see any positive input on
> > precisely how to improve it.  There's little use saying "oh it needs
> > to be more like X with a bit of Y" since not everybody is familiar
> > with X or Y.
> >
> > What we really need are mockups, functional descriptions & the like.
> > Anything a developer can really work towards.
> >
> > As far as I know there aren't too many existing apps which make it
> > easy to deal with large collections of music other than the now
> > ubiquitous albumart browser - but then those don't suit people whose
> > music collections aren't based entirely around albums.
> >
> > Some have said Amarok is a good model for a music player but last time
> > I looked at that it didn't seem at all viable for mythtv - it relies
> > on small fonts & cramming a lot of information on screen, and it's
> > hardly very remote friendly.  That part is very easy to forget.
> >
> > XBMC, on the face of it, seems 'cooler' but I can't see how it makes
> > dealing with large collections any easier - plus its 'transport
> > buttons' popup seems antiquated & cumbersome - not to mention it
> > duplicates buttons on a remote.
> >
> > AppleTV, Ipod et al - they sure look spiffy but I've yet to speak to
> > anybody who can describe how they operate in detail - I've certainly
> > not experienced them for long enough to make a subjective study.
> >
> > If we had $1 for everybody who said mythmusic could bear improvement
> > we'd have been able to pay a professional to write a whole new music
> > plugin already.  What's needed is more constructive input & much more
> > detailed suggestions for a solution to the problem.
> >
> > Have a think about it - how would you change the way we choose tracks
> > out of thousands in our collection?
> >
> > Let's see less of 'mythmusic could be better / mythmusic sucks' & get
> > some case studies down if you really want to help.  Out of the legion
> > of mythtv users there must be somebody who has had experience working
> > on such a thing somewhere at some point.  There's a real opportunity
> > here for people to contribute in a big way IMHO.
> >
> > Ok, so say we do away with the music transport buttons & make viewing
> > them (on top of the UI, say) optional so that those with mice /
> > touchscreens can use them.  That'd be a start.  We'd still need a
> > button to make the controls visible/invisible - or maybe a 'kiosk
> > mode' where they'd always be visible.  That'd mean we can devote much
> > more screen space to the playlist & music tree.
> >
> > An album art gallery view would be very handy, and as far as I know
> > that's 'on the to-do list'.
> > You could use that for genres, years.. any other classification too -
> > all in addition to the existing list / filtered list views.
> >
> > The improvements to the display model needn't only apply to mythmusic
> > either - I've thought about it in the past & implimenting a new
> > 'browser' might work well for recordings & videos too.  Let's face it
> > if we're going to get new UI classes why not let the rest of the
> > project benefit?
> >
> > Anyway, I've got some ideas I'm going to get down in the form of
> > still-frame mockups.  It'll at least be a *start*, and maybe I can tie
> > still frames together in video form to give an overall impression of
> > how the new stuff will work in context.
> >
> > None of this, by the way, will make any bearing on how to play music
> > in the background - but I think we can all agree that the methods we
> > use to pick music to be played need some attention.
> >
> > Regards,
>
> Ok, since I've been a big proponent of MythMusic needing a rewrite,
> but not having the basic skills to do it, I'm going to do some hand
> drawn markups of how I would like to see MythMusic behave on an HDTV
> and how I think it could work on an SDTV. I'll scan them in and post
> them on my web space. Perhaps we can get some dialog moving like with
> the website revamp thread.
>
> Please note, I'm not a "computer scientist"/programmer. Don't expect
> me to implement this. All this is for is to help those, like Stuart
> and theme designers have something to "work towards". I've thought a
> lot about this and have what I think are some good ideas. Hopefully
> when Justin puts together his drawings we'll have some good ideas to
> mesh together.
>
> Now, in doing this I will assume a few things,
> 1) non-static interface. the current interface is static, one screen
> that shows everything. this is obviously not ideal and having an
> interface that changes depending on what is going on will make things
> easier for the user.
> 2) remote control use will be limited to very few buttons. I *hate*
> having tons of buttons on a remote to do simple tasks. So beyond the
> normal playback buttons (play, pause, stop, ff/rew, skip+/-) I will
> only use directional (up down left right), select and one, perhaps two
> menu buttons.
> 3) that this will be for a "complete mythmusic rewrite". meaning I
> will include "features" not yet included, stuff on the wish list, etc.
>
> Let's use this thread to post and discuss mock-ups. This is not a
> "wish list" thread, use the wiki for that and those of us creating
> mock-ups will use that list to create our ideas. Use this thread to
> comment on the mock-up. Also, please wait for mock-ups to be posted or
> create your own instead of just adding comments like "I'd like to see
> things work this way...".

Cool.

RE: my ideas posted in the parent thread
(http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/dev/278708#278708)

I've done a little mockup in Qt Designer.  It's not themed, and of
course we'd use the appropriate MythUI controls, etc., but it gives
the general idea of what I'm envisioning.  NOTE: I used a QTabWidget
for the bottom pane, only so that you can have the ability to switch
views in the mockup.  In the real thing, we'd use a QWidgetStack or
something similar.  It's designed at 800x600.

Comments?

-JAC
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