[mythtv] Proposed MythMusic Interface Improvements

[Daniel C. Casimiro]

You bring up some very good points.  I especially like the idea of 
treating albums as "special" play lists.  With the database backend, it 
should be trivial to attach an image file to a particular play list.

Steele Price wrote:

> I am doing alot of work on the Playlists in MythMusic.  I really want 
> to work with you on the NEW interface.
> I just released the preliminary Autoplaylists patch and am working on 
> the UI for entering these now.  Hopefully Thor will get around to 
> commiting that patch soon.  The idea is to be similar to  iTunes 
> autoplaylist, but with one added feature, grouping criteria.


I have never used iTunes, but I think that RhythmBox draws heavily from 
it.  I definitely prefer that type of interface over the current 
MythMusic.  IMHO, I feel that input via the remote's numeric keypad 
would be easier to use than an "on-screen keyboard."  I have been wrong 
before though...
An optional on-screen keyboard wouldn't hurt anybody.

>
> I am also working on revamping how regular playlists are created!  
> Slogging through the hierarchy just doesn't cut it with 20K tracks.
> Search is vital in this regard, I want to be able to browse the whole 
> system to "add song to THIS playlist" as well as add current playing 
> song to Playlist X via popups.  Whatever the interface, it needs to 
> allow me to hook in to the current selection (both song and playlist) 
> , it also needs to support the current skin.  Drawing too far away 
> from the common interface of MythTV would be a bad thing, but music is 
> surely a little different than video.  Slight modifications to the 
> Program Finder could work well, but at the same time I'd like to see 
> another screen that supports keyboard driven systems more fully.


The screen shot that I advertised earlier represents a new browser.  
Although it only shows three different albums, I envision being able to 
select songs in the following hierarchy:  Artist -> Album -> Song.  This 
is simply the way that I look for music in "browsing mode."  I would use 
this interface when I don't have a particular song in mind.  In other 
words, I would make this the default organization scheme.  I would use 
the search capabilities ("keyboard-driven interface) to filter tracks....

I would like to make this a "live search", so that the browser is 
updated as the user enters information.  The browser would display the 
individual songs that match the search criteria.  It might be a good 
idea to display any saved play lists that contain the tracks also...

To search in Rhythm Box, you enter search terms into a generic text 
entry box.  Results are narrowed with three list boxes that allow the 
user to select genre, artist, and album.  This method works very well 
with a keyboard, but is probably sub-optimal with a remote.  Entering 
search terms would work fairly well, but selecting artists through a 
list box puts us back where we started.  For the first go-a-round, I may 
try to implement the text box, and return any tracks that fit the bill, 
filling the browsing area with the returned tracks.  We can work on an 
interface to narrow down results later.

> Albums are just a special kind of playlist and should really be 
> treated that way.  So in light of this, many people have told me they 
> really don't store their tunes in a hierarchical form, artist/album, 
> etc.  I am proposing that I can get away from the need for this in 
> MythMusic altogether by making Albums a specially handled Playlist.  
> Then you can lump everything in various folders of your choosing and 
> just throw them all together with the interface and database.  Forcing 
> people into a specialized hierarchy is just not needed (or even 
> practical) anymore with the power of the pcs and networks we have 
> today.  This becomes more important in a system with multiple 
> frontends sharing drives with the backend to increase storage.  For 
> example kids may keep all their tracks on their own pcs but want to 
> share them across the network to play them in the living room.  
> Forcing them into a centralized storage is not needed or wanted, 
> centralized database however is very nice.  The current method of 
> importing songs into the database needs to be revamped for this to 
> work, when I add an album/group of tracks, I currently have to refresh 
> the database and its dumping everything thus loosing any changes in 
> the database and all the playlists.


I displayed cover art to represent the folders, but the cover art could 
be attached to play lists.  That may actually work better, especially if 
play lists for the albums are automatically created, or are easy to 
create and associate.   I would like to group  albums into "directories" 
when possible.  This would maximize the available screen real-estate.

I would like to display icons because they are easier to identify from 
the couch....  I got the idea from Windows Media Edition.  It seems to 
work fairly well...  (the icons, not the search/grouping).

>
> I want to see a 2 way interface between tracks, albums, playlists and 
> the ID3v2 tagging system.  I will be working on this as well, I want 
> to be able to make a boatload of changes in the database and write 
> them out to the ID3v2 tags in each track, then I don't have to use 
> some external tag editor to bring tracks into the system or to synch 
> the file changes with MythMusic.


This would be great.  I would probably like map a key to this function, 
and allow the user to tag problem tracks through the interface  (browser 
and/or playlist).  That way, the user can go fix the broken tags later, 
at his/her convenience.


Thanks for ideas.  I am going to spend some time this week familiarizing 
myself with your auto-playlists.  Then I will try my hand at interfacing 
to it.   I cleaned up the code from the screenshot a bit.  If anyone is 
interested, I uploaded the tarball to my website.  I also updated the 
webpage to provide a link. (http://members.cox.net/dcasimiro/index.html)

~Dan