[tkgafs]

I mainly use kodi for playing music randomly using party mode which works really well.

But on occasions I do create playlists, often of several hundred tracks which I then shuffle to randomise them somewhat.

I have noticed that when a playlist is playing, the currently playing screen does not get updated, in the way that it does when party mode is running

As the playlist plays, the currently playing track gets highlighted in yellow, but the media info on the screen in the right hand column of the confluence skin actually refers to whatever track the cursor is currently on

In other words it does not show the artwork etc for the track currently playing but in fact shows the artwork for the track that the cursor is currently sitting on

I am using the confluence skin and have no addons loaded it is just a out of the box kodi V17rc4 install

I would much prefer that as a playlist is worked through the artwork being displayed was by default, the correct artwork for the currently playing track.

I wouldn't care if this is an option which could be set for those who want it leaving the current behaviour for those who want that.

this has also been discussed in these posts in the past

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=261545

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=239401

I have also raised a feature request see here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=239828

hopefully this could get some consideration for the next v18 kodi release

[DaveBlake]

Thanks Tim. How about some Confluenece or Estuary screenshots to focus the mind too. I know the other threads have some images from Paul, but I don't know what skin that is.

I am not saying I can provide this new feature, which I suspect it is although for you it feels more like a bug, but it helps to have a thread that spells it all out, and gathers all the separate conversations and threads. Like I said elsewhere, personally I listen with the TV off and so I don't notice what the visuals are doing, consequently you need to point things out clearly.

[tkgafs]

Hopefully these images will demonstrate issue, although I'm far from sure how imgur works !!

watch gallery

[jjd-uk]

Current behaviour is by design and most definitely not a bug, however I've seen this request mentioned multiple times over the years so I think some selectable option, possibly in the side blade, would be good to allow the artwork/media info of the currently playing item to always be displayed

[DaveBlake]

Yes, that was my thinking too @jjd-uk. But there is probably some need for scoping too, because I don't think Tim (and the others that requested this) actually want only the playing artwork to show always.

I think those screen shots show the music nav screen listing the items of a stored playlist that also happens to be playing. The current song gets highlighted whenever we view a list that incluides that song, but the artwork stays with the focused item.

Question (@tkgafs): if you navigated to another list of songs e.g. songs on an album, or a different playlist, or by an artist with music playing in the background what art would you want to see?

Is the requirement actually for the view of the current playlist to have art locked to playing, while all other nav screens art follows focus as currently? Then again what happens if you browse that to see what is comming later etc., or what played before?

Or maybe we just stop highlighting the currently playing item in lists (when it happens to be on dispay), want to see the art for what is playing then switch to player OSD, otherwise you are browsing the lib and art goes with focus?

This is all just thinking aloud

[jjd-uk]

Poor choice of words, what I actually meant was to add the option to lock the media info to the current playing item in only in the "current playlist" window, so the toggle option would only appear in the side blade there. All other views would continue to always show the selected item.

[Uatschitchun]

What about some sort of timeout, that sets focus to current song and follows it after no user input for some time?

[jjd-uk]

I did think of that too, however if currently playing song is on page 1 of a playlist and you've moved focus onto an item on page 2 then how do you gracefully handle the jump back to the currently playing item after the timeout.

If that issue can be handled then I'd agree that could be the best option if technically possibly, however the timeout would need to be user configurable with a never option to keep current behaviour.

[Uatschitchun]

Imho a playlist shouldn't have pages. It's a list, not a book :-)

[DaveBlake]

I was wondering about a timeout feature too, but it could get messey having it leap about.

My thoughts keep going back to why look at a nav screen, and even the current playlist screen is a kind of nav screen even if the side blade has different controls on it, when what you want is a display that just matches the what is playing?

Is this actually a request for a player OSD that has more in commom with a nav screen e.g. shows the names of previous and next tracks, with a layout choice that matches the options for the nav screen when content = "songs"?

Plus having it come up immediately on play. I need to take a look at the "party mode" behaviour for compsrison.

[tkgafs]

I have always consider a playlist as a single continuous list which can be scrolled up and down never thought of them as having pages

I would like to be able to set an option so that by default, that as the playlist progresses the media info block simply displays the artwork and information of the track which is currently playing

BUT If I move the focus to another track or perhaps navigate to another album to queue some additional tracks, I'd expect that artwork and info to be displayed and to remain displayed until I move the cursor again, although I can see the argument perhaps for re-displaying the artwork for the currently playing track when the track changes to the next one in the list, but I reckon you'd get as many complaints about that behaviour as people might find it confusing.

IF I have moved focus surely its my responsibility to move the focus back to the currently playing track.

essentially the way party mode display artwork and track info but for a predetermined playlist.

I had wondered if it made sense that as the tracks played the playlist scrolled up disappearing from view, but were still there if the user wished to scroll up and replay from a particular point in the playlist.

I'm really glad this is at last getting some constructive discussion and I am more than happy to test out various options if it helps

[tkgafs]

Current behaviour is by design and most definitely not a bug, however I've seen this request mentioned multiple times over the years so I think some selectable option, possibly in the side blade, would be good to allow the artwork/media info of the currently playing item to always be displayed

Just for my own interest does anyone know why this was designed in this way, I'm sure the original coder had a good reason to come up with this behaviour.

Certainly not to create any arguments or discussion as its all away in the past simply to understand the thinking and design choices

[DaveBlake]

Just for my own interest does anyone know why this was designed in this way, I'm sure the original coder had a good reason to come up with this behaviour.

It makes sense to me, my question as a designer is more why would anyone want it to behave differently? That "why" is not to say you are wrong for wanting, but that to know why you want what you want will lead to better design. In my experience users often don't actually want what they initialy say they want, but something else.

Here is how I see the current behaviour. When in the music library all the screens that you see (except the info dialogs) are "navigation screens", looking at different content - genres, artists, albums, songs etc. or menu items - and filtered in various ways e.g. from a stored playlist, by genre etc. They are actually all based on the same code. They display the art and extra data about the item in focus, useful as you move about looking at things. If you happen to be playing something that is on view then it gets highlighted. If you click on something then that starts playing instead.

When playing in "party mode" I do not see the display behave any differently to playing any other stored playlist. Tim if there is some difference please point it out.

You have clarified that what you would like is for the display to track the currently playing song until you interact with it in some way. That sounds to me like making the nav screens in general track playback until the user interrupts. But that way the tracking is going to be so easily broken and not restored, I still have to wonder if there is not a better way to give you the kind of visuals you want but in a way that can be switched on and off.

Would a player on screen display that looked like the nav srcreen in layout, info shown etc. not provide a better feature? You could switch to it or away at any point.

[jjd-uk]

Current behaviour is by design and most definitely not a bug, however I've seen this request mentioned multiple times over the years so I think some selectable option, possibly in the side blade, would be good to allow the artwork/media info of the currently playing item to always be displayed

Just for my own interest does anyone know why this was designed in this way, I'm sure the original coder had a good reason to come up with this behaviour.

Certainly not to create any arguments or discussion as its all away in the past simply to understand the thinking and design choices

Because it's presumed if you've moved focus to an item, then you want the media info for that item and that media info will remain displayed until focus is moved, in this regard Kodi is no different from any other music program I've tried in that details for the focused item is always displayed. The big difference is desktop type programs such as Windows Media Player and Kodi is that as well as the playlist view there will be a Now Playing area with the playback controls along side which will sit the cover and info of the currently playing track.

If you know of any program that already does it for how you wish it to operate then please tell us, this might help guide us to a solution.

[jjd-uk]

I have always consider a playlist as a single continuous list which can be scrolled up and down never thought of them as having pages

One question I've got is why do you sit in the Current Playlist view? why not switch to the full screen music view where you can always see the fanart and covers for the currently playing item, is because you like seeing what's coming up next from the full track listing.

Would a player on screen display that looked like the nav srcreen in layout, info shown etc. not provide a better feature? You could switch to it or away at any point.

Depending on tkgafs answer to the above, I wondered if you could add an overlay to the full screen music window that could be toggled on and off to display the playlist track listing.