[mythtv] Proposed MythMusic Interface Improvements

[David]

Daniel C. Casimiro wrote:

> I am looking for some feedback on a number of improvements (IMHO) to 
> the MythMusic interface.  Please take a look at the screen shots found 
> here: http://members.cox.net/dcasimiro/index.html.  I have also pasted 
> the body of the web page into this mail.
>
<snip>

I have a commercial car MP3 player, the Empeg/Rio - it's a neat little 
linux box with a couple of 30Gb drives full of mp3s - about 6000 of them.
The UI is a smallish LCD panel and we use a small remote to control it 
(see 
http://www.riocar.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Button_Guide&file=index)

There is a lot to be learnt here :)

To start with there is:
* a hierarchy of tracks/playlists
* search by artist/album/title/year/genre etc
* flag capabilities (eg mark this in the DB 'cos it's a bad rip & I'll 
fix it later)
* so called 'Wendy filters'

Very importantly there is a seperate 'offline' manager - Mythweb springs 
to mind for those whose boxes are not easily accessed via a keyboard.

The heirarchy is obvious :)
A list of playlists, some of which contain more playlists - and you can 
play at any level and all lower levels are added to the 
tracks-to-be-played list.
But the cool thing is automatic creation of lists.
You create an automatic heirarchy in 'layers'
I have one that consists of:
* A name : "A-Z"
* Range; Artist; A-F,G-K,L-P,Q-S,T-Z
* First letter : Artist
* Artist
* Album
* Tracks
Now I'd navigate:
I pick playlist : A-Z  : it shows me : A-F,G-K,L-P,Q-S,T-Z
                       : L-P :                       : L M N O P
                       : P :                          : Artists beginning P
                       : Pet Shop Boys :    : PSB Albums
                       : Introspective :      : PSB Introspective Tracks

Bear in mind you 'click' through the offered options so you don't want 
too many; I find right clicking through abcdefghijklmno to p tiresome (!)
so I have the extra range layer to navigate quickly 'cos we have no 
'pageup/down' keys on the Rio.


Search is great.
You know how the americans dial 1-800-sue-me and such like...
well, the Rio uses a similar approach.
select 'Search for artist' and press 4 (hauppagge grey for PQRS) and it 
immediately lists all the artists beginning p q r *AND* s (that's a lot)
Then, however you press 3 (DEF)
Now, only artists beginning:
PD, QD, RD, SD (not many), PE, QE, RE, SE (hmm). PF,QF,RF,SF (not many)
so maybe you get "Pet Shop Boys" and "REM" now. You can either click 
through this list and pick or...
pressing 8 (TUV) limits it right down - PET is the only match.
Not bad - and done without a keyboard...

Flagging a track is really useful for bad rips or if you notice the mp3 
flag is dodgy etc
It lets you look at it next time you're in 'admin' mode and not 'lying 
on the sofa listening to Barry' mode... (of course, flagging tracks may 
not be on your mind at that point but that's a user issue ;) )

The wendy filters are named after some guy's girlfriend who had some 
stuff he liked and she didn't.
So, instead of having different playlists, you mark tracks with an 
'attribute'  (eg :"Wendy hates") and filter these out on playback (auto 
skip)
Another use is "strong language" flag - so when your parents come over 
you click on the 'no strong language' filter :)
I have some called 'good driving' so I select all my songs and this time 
I positively filter for only those with that attribute.
Kinda like dynamic playlists :)

Hope these ideas help - they're not mine but I think they are worth 
thinking about...

David