[mythtv-users] family acceptance test.

[Roger Siddons]

On Fri, 14 Aug 2015 02:05:35 +0100, R. G. Newbury <newbury at mandamus.org>  
wrote:

>> I wonder if introducing a new term for (1) would resolve some confusion.
>> What's a standard, intuitive term for the "Now playing list" ?
>
> The 'Active Queue'.  'A playlist' as a term, should be restricted to a  
> list of pieces, or aggregation of pieces which will be played, in turn,  
> when the playlist is put into the queue.
> while read line-item; do play $line-item; done < playlist
>
> The Active Queue should be set up so that it *may* have more than one  
> item, but it always plays the first/top item *now*, and the actual queue  
> is a temporary list.
>

Well the wiki uses "current (working) playlist". Difficult to fit in a  
dialog box though...

IMO "playlist" is the right term. Bands used to have "playlists" at gigs.  
With LPs & CDs there was no need for a word as it was fixed (unless you  
played side B first). I blame the iTunes generation. Once all you have is  
tracks then "playlist" becomes synonymous with "faffing around to create a  
list just so I can listen to music for more than 3 mins".


>> An alternative (more accurate) perception is that MythMusic always plays
>> a playlist, but it will automatically create one from an album and then
>> throw it away afterwards. However I wouldn't say that's intuitive...
>
> Definitely NOT intuitive, because you *always*, it appears have to  
> select an album,,,
>

Not true. I used album as a simple example but you can select every button  
 from the filter tree.
The playlist/active queue/play queue will then be populated with all  
tracks from the button context.

So choose an Artist from the left-most column and it'll play all tracks by  
that artist, choose a Genre or Year or Rating etc. and it'll play all  
tracks of that Genre/Year/Rating.

Every button (node) also has an "All Tracks" button to the right of it, by  
which you can choose individual tracks/pieces.
Of course the left-most "All Tracks" will show a very long list to scroll  
through, so if you know the artist, album, genre or year then move right  
through those filters first to reduce the number of tracks the final "All  
Tracks" button will show.

As Gabe has commented, choosing music from a large collection with a  
remote is always problematic. IMO the filter tree is a  clever, powerful  
and effective method of locating your choices based on whatever  
information you know.

And everyone can now access their music however they wish. Dinosaurs may  
stick with their fixed "Directory" view but the rest of us may want to  
choose by Genre/Decade/Rating sometimes...

>>
>> I always play albums.
>
> And I almost never do, which is why the present method absolutely  
> skunked me. You basically cannot play single pieces.
>

You can. The 'track' buttons are different, in that being by definition  
solitary, a checkbox is used instead of the 'replace/add'. Ticking the box  
will add the track to the 'active queue' (in the order that you select  
them).

>
>>
>> Selecting individual tracks doesn't start them playing automatically but
>> moving right to the Playlist (1) and selecting the track (OK, return,
>> "P"/Play etc) does.
>

I still think this is a bug. I believe the intention is that a selected  
track/piece should play automatically when the playlist/active queue is  
empty. IIRC the dev couldn't reproduce the behaviour and no-one has  
followed it up since.

>>
>> 4. Choose "Replace Tracks" from dialog ("Add Tracks" will queue it to
>> play when current album finishes)
>
> Completely non-intuitive design. "Replace Tracks"???? Replace *what*? I  
> didn't have any tracks to replace..... So I never tried doing that, and  
> presing 'Play'. It did not appear to go where I wanted to go.
>

Replace (the) Tracks (if any, in the playlist/active queue with the ones  
defined by this button). Or "Stop whatever is playing and play these NOW"

Alternatively "Add Tracks" is:

Add (the) Tracks (defined by this button to the end of the playlist/active  
queue). Or "Queue this/these to play next"

The "Select Music" screen/view is actually called the "Playlist Editor" so  
the context is that you are creating/editing the playlist/active queue (at  
the bottom) based on selections from the tree above.


> Thank you. Roger. You have actually explained how to make the POS work.  
> I will now recompile and see if I can actually play some music. I took  
> mythmusic out of the configure script some time ago, as *mythmusic was  
> totally useless to me*.
>

Like many things it sounds complicated and is tricky to explain, although  
quite simple to demonstrate, and IMO intuitive once you 'get it'.

What is really needed is someone (else) to put together a YouTube video  
demonstrating just how easy it is to find & play tracks, albums, etc.