[mythtv] improvement to MythMusic RIP location

[Mark Friedgan]

So the remote problem is a big one, but lets look at how other limited
interface things have solved that problem, I'm looking at iPod for
example. You have two choices when you're browsing whatever i pick
(artist/album/song/genre) becomes the currently playing thing, or if i
hoild down the middle button thingy it gets added to currently
playing/on the go playlist.

It's ok, i'm not the biggest fan of this but i think a lot of people
like it. On a a remote you have more buttons so you can make two
different buttons, one is Play(which wipes out the current playlist)
the other is Add to Playlist (actually maybe use 3, add to playlist at
bottom and add to playlist next, i'd use that at parties), this way
you're in control of whats going on when you're browsing ???


On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 15:38:27 -0500, Isaac Richards <ijr at case.edu> wrote:
> On Friday 10 December 2004 03:17 pm, Colin Guthrie wrote:
> 
> 
> > WARNING: Big Email Alert!
> >
> > I've not had the time to re-read this email as much as I would have
> > liked, so apologies if I describe things unclearly at times!!
> >
> > Isaac Richards wrote:
> > > I really don't understand how the current interface makes selecting a
> > > specific album difficult.
> >
> > I sps you could say that I should have cleared my playlist first, but
> > I've got some tunes playing in the background and I just kinda browsing
> > and not really doing anything in particular and WHOOP! Yeah I've got to
> > hear that album right now (probably Darkside of the Moon ;)).
> 
> Why would you be browsing the playlist if you had no intention of changing
> things in the first place?  If you _had_ thought about changing the current
> queue, why not just clear it to start off with?  It wouldn't be hard to add a
> keybinding to clear the current queue, though, or just use the play button
> there to indicate 'play now'.
> 
> 
> 
> > I guess you could say that I should show the full tree on the playing
> > screen and browse about that way but I may have started off casually
> > making up a playlist or something and changed my mind.
> >
> > I'm not complaining about what's there, I was just sympathising with
> > someone else who finds it slightly lacking, and winding up to actually
> > doing something about it!!
> >
> > For what it's worth I've tried to do precisly what you ask, which was to
> > provide some ideas on how to improve the current system:
> >
> > How about combining the playlist selection and the player screens more
> > seamlessly...
> > Effectivly set the "show enitre music tree" option as fixed ON.
> 
> I like them separate.  Listening is a different task then selecting, to me.
> 
> > Alter the split tree in the player such that when you go "far right" it
> > grows to full size and fill the available width for a more attractive view.
> >
> > Going left once from here will cause the list to split vertically as it
> > does currently.
> 
> That's not consistant.
> 
> 
> 
> > Pressing the info button at any point would "popup" a little statistic
> > about that entry, e.g. If it's an artist, how many tracks by that
> > artist, total length, how many albums by that artist. etc. It could
> > perhaps even bring up an album browser at this point? Back in the list,
> > if the highlighted entry is an album then try and correlate the track
> > metadata and files in the album's folder to bring up cover art etc. and
> > perhaps a tracklisting with times or something maybe auto scrolling past
> > slowly??
> 
> I don't see how that'd help playback selection at all, but, a good idea..
> 
> > A "menu" key pressed at any time would give you a popup like the one
> > that appears when pressing "i" on the "Active Play Queue" entry in the
> > playlist editor as it stands currently. This would give you buttons to
> > save the active play queue as a playlist, clear the active play queue etc.
> 
> Don't see the point of that - getting to the active play queue item is fast
> enough.
> 
> 
> 
> > The tree that appears here would have to include the CD/DVD drive and
> > any saved playlists as these are only currently available through the
> > playlist editor.
> >
> >
> > Allow fast switching of modes in this tree. e.g. from
> > artist,splitartist,genres etc. Perhaps have them all available as
> > different paths of the "All My Music" root node? I don't really know the
> > memory implications of this? Probably not too much if the tree class can
> > support nodes in mutliple locations, probably 4x if it can't! If it
> > can't could it be impoved?? If not this way then definatly by a couple
> > of key presses, e.g, "menu" -> popup -> first option is a select which
> > alters which view you want -> enter takes you back into your tree, and
> > if possible on the same element you were on before you switched views.
> 
> Fairly easily done.
> 
> > The ability to define on a per playlist basis, which layout to use use,
> > e.g. splitartist, artist, genre etc.
> 
> Too complicated, UI wise.
> 
> >
> > Phew!
> >
> >
> >
> > OK those are my suggestions for improving the current setup. Now for a
> > small suggestion for a new feature.
> >
> > * Regexp based auto playlists. The ability to define a playlist that can
> > use all the different metadata components along with a regexp to match
> > certain tracks. This could be automatically built at startup or when the
> > "scan for new music" thing runs (e.g. on demand or after ripping a CD).
> 
> At one time, someone was working on sql-based rules for playlists, but never
> finished.  This wouldn't be very useable from a remote, though.
> 
> 
> 
> Isaac
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