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tkgafs · 2015-09-22, 20:00

Again I'm happy to help in anyway I can, to improve the music player in kodi. But likewise my classical collection is tiny in comparison to the other music only a handful of albums.

What I do with them at the moment is to tag them all using mp3tag setting the Album Artist field to be "Classical - Various" so when browsing the library of albums they are all grouped together. (I do similar with Reggae and Christmas albums).

**scott967** · 2015-09-22, 21:06

(2015-09-22, 09:44)DaveBlake Wrote: Paul, I notice you have classical music in your collection

I will have a look at this playlist issue for you - I'm not in the Dev Team but I have my sleeves rolled up looking at the code.

However, could you do something for me? Could have a look at my test build for processing composer tag etc. It needs some real world testing before it can be considered for release. Discussed here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid2108091. I can give you clearer instructions for use if you are interested in testing, let me know.

There is much more to do of course. And if you need it for a different OS, one of the dev team might be able to do a build if we ask.

This playlist vs party mode playlist question seems to me a requirements issue. That is, what is the propose of the playlists (MyMusicPlaylist.xml) window? In the skin I maintain (Aeon MQ5), the window works very much the same as the music library (MyMusicNav.xml) window. It opens with the collection in a container and the user navigates the container like any other. The video playlist window (MyVideoPlaylist.xml) works the same way.

It seems like some skins (see Transparency) use the music playlist window as an overlay to now playing music, sort of an alternative to the music visualization window. In this usage scenario the user doesn't really interact with the music playlist window.

From what I see, using the "party mode" of playlists allows the second usage of the window to work logically (because in party mode, the container is updated after each song completes so the currently playing list item is always the first in the container and keeps the container focus, unless the user navigates away (and after a song completes, focus returns to the first list item again).

My inclination is that nothing is broken in the current implementation. It allows for both usage patterns. Maybe the only thing that isn't available it that if you queue up a bunch of songs or music videos manually there isn't an option to view in party mode.

I also believe that there should be consistency between music and music video playlist handling.

scott s.
.

WelshPaul · 2015-09-22, 22:40

Just to clarify Scott, we're not talking about playlists per se. We're talking about general navigation. If you just go to an album in the library and start playing it the artwork, track no, etc, will all stay on track 1. Unless, as I think tkgafs is finding, you are using a platform with a mouse, in which case what is shown is whatever the mouse hovers over. I only used a playlist to illustrate the point as the change is more noticeable in various artist compilations (as opposed to anthologies, which are apparently now prohibited).

You may well be correct that this is intended behaviour, which is why we've been seeking answers rather than reporting a bug, but it doesn't seem to make much sense to me in real world usage. I admit to not really understanding the party mode playlist, but doesn't that stop playing what you'd previously chosen and start a new random list.

Anyway, I go back to the point that everyone is on this kick that music should operate the same as video. Well, if that were true then millions would be flocking to the cinema to listen to the latest Katy Perry cd. By the very nature of the fact that when music is playing there is no video occupying the screen we could at least try to get album art, etc, changing in time to the music. However, let me stress again - it's a minor irritation not the end of the world and not something worth people going all North Korean over.

**scott967** · (This post was last modified: 2015-09-22, 23:30 by scott967.)

There is the music visualization window. You <tab> back and forth from Music Viz to MyMusicNav or MyMusicSongs, or <esc> from those windows back to the home window. Many skins provide fanart or extra fanart as a background on Music viz, or you can run a visualization addon like Vortex. Many skins also run the addon Artist Sldieshow on the Music Viz window, and/or overlay lyrics from cu lrc lyrics addon.

What I understand you want seems like a skin issue.

scott s.
.

WelshPaul · 2015-09-22, 23:27

So fed up of being talked down to on these forums. Gonna give up on it once and for all.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2015-09-23, 04:18

Put in a feature request in the feature request forums to "change focus in GUI when next song plays".

tkgafs · 2015-09-23, 08:29

(2015-09-22, 23:27)WelshPaul Wrote: So fed up of being talked down to on these forums. Gonna give up on it once and for all.

Paul please dont give up you are the only person who seems to understand the issue, I have to presume most people dont use the music player otherwise they'd feel exactly the same as us.

If its ok I'll cut and pas the post you did with the images into a feature request

**DaveBlake** · 2015-09-23, 08:52

(2015-09-22, 23:27)WelshPaul Wrote: So fed up of being talked down to on these forums. Gonna give up on it once and for all.

Paul, hope you don't feel talked down to by me! If you are going to give up should I not bother to look at what you are asking about? I'm up for trying to find answers if you are up for a conversation.

Scott you could be right, or it could be a requirements issue, or it could be a bug.

tkgafs, good idea to raise a request. Music player does get used, just not by so many here. Problem is we all have different priorities, e.g. I use music lib every day but don't use playlists.

tkgafs · 2015-09-23, 09:35

Feature request raised at http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=239828

tkgafs · 2015-09-23, 09:41

(2015-09-22, 21:06)scott967 Wrote: <snip>
Maybe the only thing that isn't available it that if you queue up a bunch of songs or music videos manually there isn't an option to view in party mode.

I also believe that there should be consistency between music and music video playlist handling.

scott s.
.

But that is it precisly if you queue a bunch of specific songs or even albums as each one plays you should see the correct artwork for the currently playing track.

Not the one at the top of the list. I am unable to see any usage case where I would wish to be displayed artwork for the first track in the list rather than the currently playing one.

**Hitcher** · 2015-09-23, 11:17

(2015-09-23, 09:41)tkgafs Wrote:
(2015-09-22, 21:06)scott967 Wrote: <snip>
Maybe the only thing that isn't available it that if you queue up a bunch of songs or music videos manually there isn't an option to view in party mode.

I also believe that there should be consistency between music and music video playlist handling.

scott s.
.

But that is it precisly if you queue a bunch of specific songs or even albums as each one plays you should see the correct artwork for the currently playing track.

Not the one at the top of the list. I am unable to see any usage case where I would wish to be displayed artwork for the first track in the list rather than the currently playing one.

No you shouldn't, you should see the artwork for the currently selected song.

tkgafs · 2015-09-23, 15:59

Which if you scroll about you do, but by default it makes far more sense to see the artwork for the currently playing song

**Hitcher** · 2015-09-23, 16:07

Not when you're in an actual list view it doesn't, at least to me anyway. The visualiser is what you want for that.

**scott967** · (This post was last modified: 2015-09-23, 21:58 by scott967.)

(2015-09-23, 16:07)Hitcher Wrote: Not when you're in an actual list view it doesn't, at least to me anyway. The visualiser is what you want for that.

This is why I think the "party mode" feature is actually kind of useful. It gives you an option of how the now playing playlist gets displayed. The thing is, even in Confluence you can change the viewmode for the playlist and some might make more sense (from actual useability) than others. Based on my understanding of the discussion (and at the risk of going "North Korea" or "talking down") I could see a use case for a toggle control to switch the now playing playlist between party mode and standard mode. But right now I don't think there is a way for a skin to detect which mode the now playing playlist is in, so having a bool Playlist.IsPartyMode would allow skinner to do some interesting things. As it is Aeon MQ codes its own CustomNextTracks window with a panel containing a bunch of MusicPlayer.Offset(n) as content to create an ersatz party mode playlist.

scott s.
.