Thread: MediaBox Media Center V0.95
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pycage is offline pycage
2008-11-30 , 18:59
Posts: 3,404 | Thanked: 4,474 times | Joined on Oct 2005 @ Germany
#220
Thanks you for so many suggestions.

Originally Posted by stl1859 View Post
Just downloaded the latest SVN version - it is getting better with every release - thanks for that.
Thank you for trying the SVN versions.

Originally Posted by stl1859 View Post
1. I like the transparency and dark backgrounds in the latest release. Would it be possible to provide an option to have a dark background and white lettering, or light background and dark lettering ( like now) ?
Yes, you will be able to change the theme. I think 0.96 will come with at least 3 themes. One with dark backgrounds and white lettering.

Originally Posted by stl1859 View Post
2. Would it make sense to make it configurable whether the application should re-scan at startup and scan on demand. Right now it always scans on startup, delaying the startup time.
The initial scanning at startup makes sure that MediaBox has an up-to-date list of media files.
Other players scan once and keep the results in a database. But the problem with this is that
the database index can get easily outdated or would have to be updated at application startup as
well.
How long does this initial scanning take for your media collection? And how large is the collection?
It would be possible to store the index between sessions and only update it on demand.


Originally Posted by stl1859 View Post
3. Right now you have two levels of menus - A higher level at the bottom panel ( music / videos / photos etc. ) and a finer level on the side ( YouTube, WorldTV , Videos ) on the side. Would it make sense to have all options only at the bottom 'pull up' panel , thereby releasing some screen real-estate that can be utilized for something else.
I think the "pull up" panel would get quite cluttered with so many icons. Afterall, YouTube, WorldTV, and Videos are all "storage devices" listed in the video player. There are different categories of storage devices and "video" is one of them. The video player lists all storage devices of category "video".
New storage devices can be added as well.

Originally Posted by stl1859 View Post
4. A software volume control would be good - Among all the other things, this seems to be something obvious that is missing. I am aware that the volume can be controlled with the hardware buttons.
The reason why MediaBox doesn't have a software volume control is because it would take IMHO
unnecessary screen estate. What should the software volume control look like?

Originally Posted by stl1859 View Post
5. Right now the artist option rescans every time the app is run. Why is that ? Isn't it cached, like everything else ?
It's scans every time the app is run (or a MMC has been inserted/removed) in order to be up-to-date.
The artists list requires scanning the ID-tags of the audio files. This is more time-consuming than
just scanning for the presence of files, so the tags are being cached. The first time scanning takes
a little longer than subsequent scans.

Originally Posted by stl1859 View Post
6. Would it make sense to have pictures of artists just like album covers ? I am wondering what would be a good way for an user to supply their own pictures just like they can for album covers.
This would make sense. But I'm also wondering what would be a good way for supplying pictures.
There's no common standard for storing artists pictures.

Originally Posted by stl1859 View Post
7. For the music player - right now clicking on an album expands the tracks along with the list of the albums. Instead of merging the track list with the album list , would it make sense to expand the track list in a separate window, leaving the main album list intact ?
This was done to minimize the amount of clicks needed to switch between albums.

Originally Posted by stl1859 View Post
8. For the track list, is there any point in showing the same cover art for each track of the same album ? Instead just show the cover art, and then have a condensed list of tracks that can be quickly navigated ( for example fit on a single screen and scroll only if absolutely necessary)
Can you explain this a bit more?

Originally Posted by stl1859 View Post
Once again I am just looking at it from a usability perspective - I am not sure how complex it is to implement all this. Regardless, I would like to say that you are doing a wonderful job with this application, and it is great to look forward to frequent updates. Many thanks for that.
Usability feedback like yours is very important for me to push the UI in the right direction.
The current SVN version already implements a lot of suggestions made by other users. Nice features
that wouldn't have existed otherwise.