here's the deal. i love xbmc, and i pretty much have it running all of the time that i am home. i think it's great, and whenever anyone comes over and sees it they are extremely impressed -- except when they actually navigate into an album in icon view. at this point i have to sit there and explain to them to switch from icon view to list view and back when they navigate my directory structure which happends to be either:
artist/album/song
artist/album/album - disc 1/song
or
genre/artist/album/song
they have to switch back between icon and list view because the covert art (folder.jpg) is a great feature but it doesn't work for a list of songs, only for artists, albums, and genres. i know a music db was implemented to get around this, but the views that it currently offers are far from perfect. with a large (~100gig) mp3 colllection there is no way perfectly organize your tags. for instance, i like tags to be accurate, but i don't want "bob marley and the wailers" to be in a different [logical] folder then "bob marley", so i put them both in my bob marley directory primarily because it simplifies navigation.
so a few weeks ago a started a thread here in hopes that this could be made better, and i've found that not only am i not the only user frusterated with the interface, it is tough to please all of the people all of the time. now i'm not a good enough c++ developer to implement any of these, but i'm sure the developers would like to know what people really want before they put any work into making a change.... so here they are:
choice 1: smart and simple
if a folder has no subfolders, show in list view, else use a preselected icon view. this choice means adding an extra config option to the music settings screen that says smart view icon size which is a toggle between large and regular. so if you are in a folder that contains other folders, they are displayed in the chosen icon size. if the folder has no other folders then list view is assumed and used. this seems the simplest to implement and it's my second favorite choice.
choice 2: ipod like
i recently got my hands on an ipod and at first i though it to be a bit awkward, but quickly got the hang of it. imho, it is the music database idea done correctly. after all, apple spends millions of dollars on ui so we should at least consider copying them. how it differes from the current 'view' choices is that once you choose a view, you are presented with a more sorted list. it makes things much simpler and easier to use, although i'm not sure how to best incorporate folder.jpg's into the mix. for those of you not lucky enough to have an ipod theapplecollection.com has a great demo of the ui here (theapplecollection.com).
choice 3: fully customizable
i propose the ability to put a folder.xml in each folder to choose the way it looks. not only am i talking large/small icons vs. list view, but the ability to choose what id3 tags are shown, and if they are shown at all. i'm sure this could be adapted for use with the movies db as well, although it is 2am and i don't want to post a half-ass idea. i'm sure this is a bit more work for both the developers and the users, but it truely would give everyone the power to make it do what they want -- and so it is my favorite. an xml file you say, how would it work you say?
code sample
the 1st example shows how i'd like an album to be displayed, once i navigate to bob marley, then legend. i want to see:
1. is this love? 3:50
2. no woman no cry 7:08
...
the 2nd example is what i'd put in my folder of folders.
for the 3rd, say you know you have bad tags in a given folder, or even worse no tags. however, since the filenames are descriptive this would tell xbmc just to display those, and sort them alphebetically.
the 4th example is where the flexibilty starts getting really handy -- notice the lack of track #'s this is because say i have a large folder of mp3's called "best of 2002". i want this music to be grouped together, but arists and titles matter much more than track #'s and album names.
if someone thinks they have a better idea, post it here, and let's hope for the best. thanks.
<update>
i just noticed i forgot to add a 4th choice to say: things are great the way they are, leave well enough alone
so if a forum mod sees this and can do so, pls do.
</update>
artist/album/song
artist/album/album - disc 1/song
or
genre/artist/album/song
they have to switch back between icon and list view because the covert art (folder.jpg) is a great feature but it doesn't work for a list of songs, only for artists, albums, and genres. i know a music db was implemented to get around this, but the views that it currently offers are far from perfect. with a large (~100gig) mp3 colllection there is no way perfectly organize your tags. for instance, i like tags to be accurate, but i don't want "bob marley and the wailers" to be in a different [logical] folder then "bob marley", so i put them both in my bob marley directory primarily because it simplifies navigation.
so a few weeks ago a started a thread here in hopes that this could be made better, and i've found that not only am i not the only user frusterated with the interface, it is tough to please all of the people all of the time. now i'm not a good enough c++ developer to implement any of these, but i'm sure the developers would like to know what people really want before they put any work into making a change.... so here they are:
choice 1: smart and simple
if a folder has no subfolders, show in list view, else use a preselected icon view. this choice means adding an extra config option to the music settings screen that says smart view icon size which is a toggle between large and regular. so if you are in a folder that contains other folders, they are displayed in the chosen icon size. if the folder has no other folders then list view is assumed and used. this seems the simplest to implement and it's my second favorite choice.
choice 2: ipod like
i recently got my hands on an ipod and at first i though it to be a bit awkward, but quickly got the hang of it. imho, it is the music database idea done correctly. after all, apple spends millions of dollars on ui so we should at least consider copying them. how it differes from the current 'view' choices is that once you choose a view, you are presented with a more sorted list. it makes things much simpler and easier to use, although i'm not sure how to best incorporate folder.jpg's into the mix. for those of you not lucky enough to have an ipod theapplecollection.com has a great demo of the ui here (theapplecollection.com).
choice 3: fully customizable
i propose the ability to put a folder.xml in each folder to choose the way it looks. not only am i talking large/small icons vs. list view, but the ability to choose what id3 tags are shown, and if they are shown at all. i'm sure this could be adapted for use with the movies db as well, although it is 2am and i don't want to post a half-ass idea. i'm sure this is a bit more work for both the developers and the users, but it truely would give everyone the power to make it do what they want -- and so it is my favorite. an xml file you say, how would it work you say?
code sample
Quote:<!--1. a nice album view -->
<folder>
<view>list</view>
<id3>yes</id3>
<sort>track</sort>
<tags>
<tag>track</tag>
<tag>title</tag>
<tag>length</tag>
</tags>
</folder>
<!--2. a nice directory of albums view -->
<folder>
<view>largeicons</view>
<id3>no</id3>
<sort>name</sort>
<tags/>
</folder>
<!--3. a folder of songs w/o tags or w/ bad tags view -->
<folder>
<view>list</view>
<id3>no</id3>
<sort>name</sort>
<tags/>
</folder>
<!--4. for a large folder of mixed music -->
<folder>
<view>list</view>
<id3>yes</id3>
<sort>artist</sort>
<tags>
<tag>artist</tag>
<tag>title</tag>
<tag>length</tag>
</tags>
</folder>
the 1st example shows how i'd like an album to be displayed, once i navigate to bob marley, then legend. i want to see:
1. is this love? 3:50
2. no woman no cry 7:08
...
the 2nd example is what i'd put in my folder of folders.
for the 3rd, say you know you have bad tags in a given folder, or even worse no tags. however, since the filenames are descriptive this would tell xbmc just to display those, and sort them alphebetically.
the 4th example is where the flexibilty starts getting really handy -- notice the lack of track #'s this is because say i have a large folder of mp3's called "best of 2002". i want this music to be grouped together, but arists and titles matter much more than track #'s and album names.
if someone thinks they have a better idea, post it here, and let's hope for the best. thanks.
<update>
i just noticed i forgot to add a 4th choice to say: things are great the way they are, leave well enough alone
so if a forum mod sees this and can do so, pls do.
</update>
