since this is a dream up new features thread...
what i really want is a "recently added" xml script for each individual section, my music, and my pictures, and my programs. it would serve as a kind of new releases feature for each area of xbmc. it could work similar to the current recently added media (ram) xml script that is there and working for my videos right now. this would make it completely configurable by skin designers, it wouldn't be forced upon any user who doesn't like the added info.
last week, i modified my default media experience skin by adding the ram script to home.xml. then i had compiled a version of xbmc in which the number of ram items shown was altered from the default of 3 to 10 and i ended up with this:
it is awesome to see my 10 most recent videos on the home screen (yes i own these dvds, so nothing illegal here). i can even pick any one of the 10 videos shown and play them directly from the home screen. it rocks!
i would love to see this extended to support my pictures, my music, and my programs. each "my" page could have an xml script similar to the current ram script, say recently added pictures, recently added music, etc. a skin designer could add a recently added music script to the my music section and there it could show the 10 latest albums. a similar script could be added to the my pictures section and it could show the 10 latest picture folders or pictures (configurable) you have added. same deal with the my programs section.
i am running in 720p hdtv mode so i have lots of screen real estate to display 10 items, but i would recommend that the number of items become configurable in the xml. in this way a skin designer could show say 3 for pal/ntsc modes, 10 for 720p mode, and maybe 15-20 for 1080i modes just by altering the xml.
i would also recommend a refresh time. right now i have to restart xbmc to force the list to update. i leave xbmc on most of the time, so as i add movies, it would be nice to see that list update every xx hours on its own.
it would be nice if one could limit the number of shares it scans for new media. i have 10 shares under my videos, stuff like dvd drive, new movies, home movies, tv shows, kids shows, christmas specials, etc. right now the ram script scans all these and looks them up on imdb. if i add a new home movie or tv show, it will attempt to look it up on imdb. imdb gets these completely wrong (as expected) so it would be good to filter out those shares completely. limiting the number of scanned shares, something like scan the first x# shares with 0 being all shares or something similar would be a welcome addition. this can just go in the xml tag in the skin, a user just needs to change that one thing for their personal situation.
lastly, it would be nice to have the recently added video/music/pictures/programs scripts be able to display the text for an item in the same place. for example right now i can show 10 movies, and i can pick any one of the 10 from the home screen. the problem is that the text for each movie appears in a vertical list (it actually runs off the bottom of my screen the way i have my skin setup right now, but it still works). it would be cool to have an option to highlight and select the thumbnail rather than the text, and then have the text for the highlighted item appear in one place on the screen. that text would just change depending on what thumbnail you have selected. this would save quite a bit of screen room and make layout of new skins easier.
