[peely]

Hi,

I had a quick scoot around, and have the following feedback:

1) The UI is very slow (jerky), my PC is a Core2 Duo E6700 processor with Intel G33 Graphics & 2gb RAM running XP & latest proprietary graphics drivers, it even ran Aero when I was stupid enough to install Vista! I get about 5FPS in menu transitions.

2) The refresh rate control is welcomed, I currently use the MP1 refresh rate plugin with Powerstrip and this works very well but I like the way you can explicitly map refresh rates in MPII. However, the UI is confusing as it seems to offer all colour depths but omits the colour depth from the menu options, so for example you get 1280x720@60hz offered twice, once for 16bpp and once for 32bpp but have no idea which option is which as the colout depth is omitted. Also, there is no 50hz as this isn't a Windows default depth. Could you possibly interface with powerstrip to offer more discreet refresh rates than Windows offers, as the author of the existing MP1 plugin did?

3) There are no options to use FFDShow as the h.264 or Mpeg-2 decoders, can this be offered? I have the FFDShow Mpeg-2 decoder currently running as the decoder in MP1 by allowing multiple instances in the graph and it works better than any of the others because it can resize video and deinterlace properly. By working to support ffdshow as a reliable mpeg-2 and h.264 decoder it will not only allow free support for these codecs to all users, but also greatly simplify the set-up by having less conflicting directshow codecs lying around on each system.

4) When changing from one video to another, it seemed hell-bent on playing each selected video at the same time rather than changing video, I assume this is defaulting to attempting to play picture in picture by default rather than change video? Either way it crashed MPII. The default I believe should be to change video rather than PIP.

5) Everything seemed to have a settings, rather than offer all settings in one place. This is possibly something to do with the way the various "Plugins" are arranged, but it gives the impression of a product that needs constant tweaking, having settings offered at the same level as features in the UI. In my opinion, each plugin should offer it's settings up to a closed off settings sub-option, which can be disabled / enabled to hide the configuration away once the user is happy with the operation of the product. This will give the immpression of a much more professional HTPC product.

6) The graphics seem to low-res, I assume this will be fixed in a future version? It looks more tuned to standard definition displays rather than high definition displays.

7) Media locations seem to insist on local folders, I couldn't find any way to add a UNC path as a media folder. I use a shared folder on a network storage device to hold video, and I'm sure others will too. I would prefer to be able to type in a \\servername\sharename\folder than have to browse for it.


As far as the general look and feel is concerned, I can't say I preferred it to MP1, I guess the key reason for most people wanting this product is stability, and an early previews won't demonstrate that.

Regarding point 3 and codecs in general, have you discussed and ruled-out a VLC-type approach where you manage all codecs in your product rather than use Directshow? I find in MP1 I'm constantly having to juggle directshow codec priorities to get MP working properly, as I need to use CoreAVC for TV H.264 playback and FFDSHow for Video with subtitles and various MPEG-2 codes etc, VLC simply works out of the box and this is a benefit of MythTV also, which seems to handle video playback without issue by using mplayer. I guess there's many that would disagree with this approach too, but it works elsewhere.


Thanks for all your efforts so far.



Regards,



Neil.