[mythtv-users] Alternatives to MythMusic in 0.25, has anyone already found one?

[Eric Sharkey]

On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 8:03 AM, Paul Harrison <mythtv at sky.com> wrote:
> On 25/04/12 04:53, Eric Sharkey wrote:
> Hi Eric,
>
> Nice to see someone doing something positive for a change :) It's
> against my better judgement but only because I'm in a good mood I
> thought I'd try to address some of these issues :)

Thanks, Paul.

>> 2.  There should be a single key press to get to the tree view, with a
>> default binding of "3"
>
> There is a move to get away from having to remember cryptic key presses
> to do things that only work on one screen. The preferred method is to
> use the menu to switch views.

Understood, but no one suggested taking it out of the menu.  I agree
completely that you shouldn't have to remember cryptic key presses,
but if there is a cryptic key press (and people have been using it for
10 years or whatever) to have that cryptic key press no longer
function is off-putting.  The goal for a user interface should be to
be hostile neither to experienced nor inexperienced users.

> It would be easy to add some extra key bindings to the 'Music' context
> to switch views. In main.cpp setupKeys() add
>
> REG_KEY("Music", "SWITCHTOPLAYLISTEDITORTREE",
> QT_TRANSLATE_NOOP("MythControls",
>        "Switch to the playlist editor tree view"), "3");

That would be perfect.

> I hated the split nodes which is why I didn't add them back. I know
> opinion is split but using the search is far quicker at finding what you
> want even when using a remote.

I'm not quite sure how to do searching without a keyboard.  But even
with a keyboard, searching isn't quite as efficient as I'd like to see
it.

When I enter a search string, usually I enter a word from the start of
the title, not a random substring in the middle of a word.  I'd prefer
to have the search results ordered such that matches that match the
start of the string are shown first, then matches that match the start
of a word, and then finally matches that match in the middle of a
word.  This should make it easier to find tracks by typing less of a
word and/or pressing next less often.


>> 5.  MythMusic should start on playlist tree view, rather than current playlist
>>
>
> I'm confused! We have two menu entries on the main menu one is 'Play
> Music' the other is "Select Music' each one shows the relevant view when
> selected why would you want that any other way?

I have my menu theme set to "default", which I would imagine many
(most?) other users do as well.

I only see one menu entry for Myth Music called "Listen to Music" with
the subtitle "Browse your music library" that takes me immediately to
the current playlist view.  The first impression for a new user will
be the statement on screen "You haven't selected any tracks to play"
with no obvious indication of what to do.  The menu key brings up a
menu with choices:

Search List...
Switch View
Playlist Options
Set Shuffle Mode
Set Repeat Mode
Player Options
Quick Playlists
Change Visualizer

And my first guess for where to go to actually select tracks was
Playlist Options.  It didn't occur to me that after picking Media
Library -> Listen to Music (Browse your music library) I would then
need to pick "Switch View" to actually do that.  It took some poking
around to figure that out, and I think that's consistent with the
negative first impression that a lot of people seem to be having with
the new Myth Music.

Most of the time when I go into Myth Music I do not want to listen to
whatever the last person to use it was listening to, so the first
thing I need to do every time is call up the menu and switch views, so
not only is starting in current playlist counter intuitive, it's
annoying as well.  But it's sounding like this isn't a criticism of
Myth Music per se, but rather the default Media Library menu.

Thanks for your patch.  I'll check it out shortly.

Eric