Key features that MP REALLY needs...

bd2003 · 2007-04-09, 19:21

1) The ability to access filter properties while playing a movie. Sometimes you just need to do a little tweaking in order to get a movie to play right, and its a pain to have to exit out of MP in order to do so.

2) Similarily, some sort of "quick menu" during playback, akin to XBMCs, where you could access nearly everything during playback. MP lets you change aspect, and fiddle with subtitles...and thats about it.

3) An intuitive remote control/HID mapping utility in the GUI somewhere. Theres a million different remotes and devices, and configuring them through setup is far too complex. Right now, nothing works reliably for me but the udlr and ok buttons. It would be wonderful if in setup, there was a section that was like "press so and so button for up, down, etc"

Alternatively, set up a simplified control scheme that uses UDLR, and 3 buttons - Menu, OK, and Back/Cancel. This is somewhat possible already, but inevitably I have to go back to the keyboard for some reason or another.

XBMC was really elegant because it worked great with just a very few buttons. I wish I had that same amount of control with MP. Instead, I always have to break the keyboard out, and try and remember which button is "add to playlist etc"

4) The ff/rew feature is fairly cripped by the fact that you cant see intuitively how far ahead youre going. We cant use the mouse to pick an exact portion, and when we do use the remote, and say go ahead 5 minutes, we see a number, but no graphical representation of how far along the movie we'll be going etc.

5) A scrollbar for the home page. Using a mouse to navigate the list of apps from the home page is the most aggravating thing in the entire world. I really would prefer a scrollbar, scroll buttons...ANYTHING but go a little up and hope you stop it in time.

MP does everything I need it to do...it just seems like theres more focus on adding new features than really nailing whats in there already. It could certainly be a lot more intuitive to use.

Stealth1 · 2007-10-17, 12:46

Although I just started playing with MP I do see that it has alot of quirks that should be worked out. Things like not having a way to click to a certain point along when watching a video. I also cant for the life of me find if there is even any clickable controls when viewing a video. Anytime I want to stop watching video I have to close the entire program and restart as I cant find a button to pause and go back to the main screen or anything. Am I just missing something or is this just how it is?

Another annoying thing I found was when mounting an .iso file when you switch from windowed view to fullscreen it reverts back to the opening of the DVD back to the main menu. Not sure if this is just a problem with deamon tools or if its something within MP but its annoying.

Just wanted to give my thoughts from just playing with MP for a little bit. I am planning on using it for my dedicated HTPC but hoping these quirks get ironed out sometime soon.

kiesow · 2007-10-17, 13:59

Well, actually MediaPortal is designed to use as a HTPC, so you should have a remote control.
Every supported remote has buttons for puase, back, main menu, ... :-) If you are using only a keyboard, you have to use the shortcuts.

rsbrux · 2007-10-17, 19:28

@bd2003
I have to agree with kiesow here. If you use a standard MCE remote control, many of the features you are looking for are available by pressing the "info" button, which calls up a context menu with choices like "Add to playlist."

JackTramiel · 2007-10-18, 00:53

If you use a mouse, center the curser to stop scrolling of the menu and use the wheel would be a solution.

Stop, pause, back to menu... all is possible. You could have a look at the mp configuration tool for the key shortcuts.

The video settings of xbmc are probably possible because every xbmc is using the same codec.
And even i would not say "please do not add some more buttons to play around" usually you setup your mediacenter once and then it should (

) work fine for everything.
Sometimes there a some movies i would need to change some settings for a better view, but this is not mp´s fault.
Would be the same with mce or whatever.

dwoodzz · 2007-10-18, 02:34

You guys crack me up....read the manual d/a

joboehl · 2007-10-18, 12:14

Altough I generaly agree that those areas need inprovement in MP, apparently some of the missing features reported are already implemented.

Do you guys have the TopBar plug-in enabled in your config (should be by default)? You enable it trough configuration.exe/plug-ins.

Move your mouse to the top of the screen. Some contros like stop/pause/ff/rw and Home buttons are there.

Stealth1 · 2007-10-22, 06:45

I havent looked completely through the config file with the shortcut keys but I dont see why having popup for play/pause, Stop, FF, RWD would be bad. When I move my mouse to the top of the screen i believe it only schows a progress bar and thats it. Nothing for FF or RWD, I found you can jump forward with the keyboard arrows.

Also I keep getting issues with checking the weather, about every second time it freezes up. MP is great as an OpenSource program but I think it would do good to be torn down to barebones and built back up with the features alot of people ask for. Once you have something working flawlessly then move on to the next thing and work to get that working flawlessly. Right now it seems like it has huge potential and alot of features but alot of it doesnt seem to work perfectly.

2007-04-09, 19:21	#1 (permalink)
bd2003 Portal Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Age: 28 Posts: 6 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Key features that MP REALLY needs... 1) The ability to access filter properties while playing a movie. Sometimes you just need to do a little tweaking in order to get a movie to play right, and its a pain to have to exit out of MP in order to do so. 2) Similarily, some sort of "quick menu" during playback, akin to XBMCs, where you could access nearly everything during playback. MP lets you change aspect, and fiddle with subtitles...and thats about it. 3) An intuitive remote control/HID mapping utility in the GUI somewhere. Theres a million different remotes and devices, and configuring them through setup is far too complex. Right now, nothing works reliably for me but the udlr and ok buttons. It would be wonderful if in setup, there was a section that was like "press so and so button for up, down, etc" Alternatively, set up a simplified control scheme that uses UDLR, and 3 buttons - Menu, OK, and Back/Cancel. This is somewhat possible already, but inevitably I have to go back to the keyboard for some reason or another. XBMC was really elegant because it worked great with just a very few buttons. I wish I had that same amount of control with MP. Instead, I always have to break the keyboard out, and try and remember which button is "add to playlist etc" 4) The ff/rew feature is fairly cripped by the fact that you cant see intuitively how far ahead youre going. We cant use the mouse to pick an exact portion, and when we do use the remote, and say go ahead 5 minutes, we see a number, but no graphical representation of how far along the movie we'll be going etc. 5) A scrollbar for the home page. Using a mouse to navigate the list of apps from the home page is the most aggravating thing in the entire world. I really would prefer a scrollbar, scroll buttons...ANYTHING but go a little up and hope you stop it in time. MP does everything I need it to do...it just seems like theres more focus on adding new features than really nailing whats in there already. It could certainly be a lot more intuitive to use.

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2007-10-17, 12:46	#2 (permalink)
Stealth1 Portal User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 3 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	Although I just started playing with MP I do see that it has alot of quirks that should be worked out. Things like not having a way to click to a certain point along when watching a video. I also cant for the life of me find if there is even any clickable controls when viewing a video. Anytime I want to stop watching video I have to close the entire program and restart as I cant find a button to pause and go back to the main screen or anything. Am I just missing something or is this just how it is? Another annoying thing I found was when mounting an .iso file when you switch from windowed view to fullscreen it reverts back to the opening of the DVD back to the main menu. Not sure if this is just a problem with deamon tools or if its something within MP but its annoying. Just wanted to give my thoughts from just playing with MP for a little bit. I am planning on using it for my dedicated HTPC but hoping these quirks get ironed out sometime soon.

2007-10-17, 13:59	#3 (permalink)
kiesow Portal Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 567 Thanks: 35 Thanked 11 Times in 10 Posts Country: My System	Well, actually MediaPortal is designed to use as a HTPC, so you should have a remote control. Every supported remote has buttons for puase, back, main menu, ... :-) If you are using only a keyboard, you have to use the shortcuts.

2007-10-17, 19:28	#4 (permalink)
rsbrux MP Donator Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 398 Thanks: 41 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country: My System	@bd2003 I have to agree with kiesow here. If you use a standard MCE remote control, many of the features you are looking for are available by pressing the "info" button, which calls up a context menu with choices like "Add to playlist."

2007-10-18, 00:53	#5 (permalink)
JackTramiel Portal Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Age: 30 Posts: 454 Thanks: 24 Thanked 8 Times in 8 Posts Country: My System	If you use a mouse, center the curser to stop scrolling of the menu and use the wheel would be a solution. Stop, pause, back to menu... all is possible. You could have a look at the mp configuration tool for the key shortcuts. The video settings of xbmc are probably possible because every xbmc is using the same codec. And even i would not say "please do not add some more buttons to play around" usually you setup your mediacenter once and then it should ( ) work fine for everything. Sometimes there a some movies i would need to change some settings for a better view, but this is not mp´s fault. Would be the same with mce or whatever.

2007-10-18, 02:34	#6 (permalink)
dwoodzz Portal Member Join Date: May 2007 Age: 44 Posts: 102 Thanks: 20 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Country: My System	You guys crack me up....read the manual d/a

2007-10-18, 12:14	#7 (permalink)
joboehl Portal Developer Join Date: Jul 2006 Age: 32 Posts: 423 Thanks: 3 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts Country: My System	Altough I generaly agree that those areas need inprovement in MP, apparently some of the missing features reported are already implemented. Do you guys have the TopBar plug-in enabled in your config (should be by default)? You enable it trough configuration.exe/plug-ins. Move your mouse to the top of the screen. Some contros like stop/pause/ff/rw and Home buttons are there.

2007-10-22, 06:45	#8 (permalink)
Stealth1 Portal User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 3 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country:	I havent looked completely through the config file with the shortcut keys but I dont see why having popup for play/pause, Stop, FF, RWD would be bad. When I move my mouse to the top of the screen i believe it only schows a progress bar and thats it. Nothing for FF or RWD, I found you can jump forward with the keyboard arrows. Also I keep getting issues with checking the weather, about every second time it freezes up. MP is great as an OpenSource program but I think it would do good to be torn down to barebones and built back up with the features alot of people ask for. Once you have something working flawlessly then move on to the next thing and work to get that working flawlessly. Right now it seems like it has huge potential and alot of features but alot of it doesnt seem to work perfectly.