[mythtv-users] 0.25 Music

[Steven Adeff]

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 11:03 AM, Neil Cooper <neilcoo at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> --- On Fri, 2/24/12, Steven Adeff <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com> wrote:
>> From: Steven Adeff <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] 0.25 Music
>> To: "Discussion about MythTV" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>> Date: Friday, February 24, 2012, 8:16 AM
>> On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 7:57 AM,
>> Christopher Kerr <mythtv at theseekerr.com>
>> wrote:
>> > On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 11:39 PM, Scott & Nicole
>> Harris
>> > <snharris99 at live.com>
>> wrote:
>> >> I don't think your suggestion of using "Album
>> Artist" will do much with 0.25
>> >> (I could be very wrong).  The Navigation Tree is
>> pre-filled with
>> >> categories....All, Album, Artist, Rating.  Also,
>> it may help a little with
>> >> compilation albums, but it doesn't help much with
>> all the individual songs
>> >> that my wife has purchased from ITunes that she
>> wants organize "Like X" and
>> >> all the songs she's bought from Amazon that she
>> want "Like Y".
>> >
>> > I'll admit that I hadn't considered this case -
>> personally I'd
>> > probably fudge the Genre tag because I never use it
>> anyway.
>> >
>> > Re: making it work with MythMusic - I guess if you need
>> a feature you
>> > could ask really nicely? ;o)
>> >
>> >> Also, none of this allows me to just navigate to
>> Kangaroo Cry and just play
>> >> it.  I don't do playlists, never have, [hopefully]
>> never will.  I have
>> >> always been a jump around and listen to individual
>> songs on whims, or entire
>> >> albums in the background type.
>> >
>> > This I understand - I gave up on MythMusic because the
>> playlist thing
>> > drove me nuts. A software-Squeezebox solution has been
>> much less
>> > painful for me - some day I might even get around to
>> writing a halfway
>> > decent MythTV plugin for it based on the XML api it
>> provides.
>> >
>> > - Chris
>>
>>
>> I use Jaikoz to tag, multi-platform (java), works great,
>> ties in with
>> MusicBrainz and discogs. My music collection tags are "clean
>> as a
>> whistle" for all but my new music finds from blogs and such,
>> which all
>> are in their own separate folder.
>>
>> That said, the current MythMusic (0.24) ability to display
>> the folder
>> layout is essential for my music collection. I have music
>> from various
>> sources (various music stores, my ripped CD's, HD versus
>> non, etc plus
>> all my housemates music as well). and I want to be able to
>> see that
>> separation in MythMusic.
>>
>> The other option is to use a system like WinAmp's media
>> player with
>> it's smart playlists and such (which, in the end is my vote
>> for how
>> the on screen layout for MythMusic should look, like
>> WinAmp's Media
>> Library (minus the non-music stuff).
>>
>>
>>
>
> The problem with 'smart' anything is that it is based on one person's idea for how they like things done. Consequently it can NEVER satisfy 100% of the people all the time.
>
> Sure provide all the smart options you like, but don't drop the simple case (good ol' directory browsing). There will always be people that don't 'fit the model', or grumpy old men (like me) that just find needless complexity and computers second-guessing you badly just f***ing annoying.


have you used Winamp? Regardless, I'll assume some here have not, so
I'll explain a little further...

They actually call them Smart Views", which are designed by the user,
what is smart about them is that they are populated based on criteria
the user specifies.
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1999/smartview.jpg
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/images/winamp/winamp-smartview.jpg


If you use google images and search "winamp media library" you'll see
a lot of various layouts the media library in winamp can take on. The
one I'm thinking of in terms of how I would like to see MythMusic's
interface behave is this one:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9ynZ1LviUi0/S1RV-OGG-MI/AAAAAAAAB5w/O9NGKiUW5ns/s1600/winamp+media+fixed.JPG

The Media Library portion (ignore the far right, that is the current
playlist section) is made up of 5 panes, the far left "side bar" style
pane is the "Library" portion, it is, as you can see, the various
sections of the Library.
For MythMusic I envision this "side bar" would autohide to the left
and open when you go to it, with categories such as:
"Local Media Filtered" - what you see here with filtering options,
I'll get to this further down.

"Local Media Drive" - basically the drive layout basically how the
current MythMusic works in "directory" mode.

"Smart Playlists" - smart playlists(for only local media)

"Playlists" - user saved static playlists(for only local media)

"Remote Media" - sources on the network that are locally mounted
(could be merged into the "Local Media Drive" category?)

"Removable Media" - the CD/DVDROM drive

"Portable Devices" - external HDD, iPod, Zune, Sandisk Clip, Cell
Phones, etc. with the ability to transfer music to/from these devices
(could be merged with "Removable Media"?)

"Online Services" - perhaps not a top level in and of itself, but more
a section that comes at the end for services like Pandora, Spotify,
Rdio, MOG, Amazon, Google, etc.

Then the main space would show what is needed for what section you are in.

The screen shown in that image is how I envision the Filtered display
to look, roughly. In Winamp the three filter sections are
customizable, you can have none or up to 3, and you can choose which
tag data to filter by, with some "canned" options. Below are the
tracks that match that filter.

The main space could flip back and forth between the chosen Library
section contents, and where appropriate, the Playlist screen, which
shows the tracks currently queued.

-- 
Steve
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/User:Steveadeff
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