Bug and Problem Reports (2 Viewers)

[Erixx Haxx]

Ok, I tried this and here are my results.

1. I'm getting thumbnails now in pictures and videos collections, when I wasn't before.
Except when ( Grid Mode + Filter = by Year) Maybe this is how its made, i'm unsure

2. Mouse works all times now,
Except for when switching from Any list Mode into either Grid or Cover Mode.
-Before Fix = I lost all mouse control.
-After Fix = All top row buttons will still work, Just not the Thumbs

I can regain mouse control again by selecting, Filter by All, or any other filter mode. When doing so the filter switch seems to hang also while changing.
I also noticed when mouse isn't working the whole window looks Dimmer and no background art is shown.

Last 2 logs is me testing in pictures collection. Switching from List to Grid.

 

[The Solutor]

@ge2301

Hi, nice to see your WMC Skin work.

I'm actually one of the 4/5 people who cooperated to port WMC on W10, to be exact I'm the first person in the world who had it working, I'm also the author of the WHS 2011 port and of the latest WMC 8.8.1 installer.

That said I'm not an integralist and I always hoped for a plan B on Mediaportal (or Kodi) so your work is very welcome.

Back to MP and the WMC skin I tested it briefly and I have to report few things.



The poor usability trough the mouse is IMO one of the main reason to use WMC over any competitor.

Your skin improved a lot the Mouse experience putting it almost on par with WMC,

But

1) Most important from my POV is the missing sliding orb when a video or TV is playing ( there isn't an obvious way to go back using the mouse)

2) Same as above the (CH)+ (CH)- Buttons are unreliable, sometimes are completely missing, sometimes are not clickable, and they seem not working at all on lower resolutions displays

3) Slightly less important is the mouse functionality on the guide page:

Expected:
a left click on a program should switch to that channell
a right click should bring the switch channel /recording menu

Actual behavior:
a left click triggers the menu


4) Aside those which are more stringent problems, I have to report that the skin is not well adapted to resolutions lower than full hd, and for aspect ratios different than 16/9, where the GUI of the real WMC still looks perfect. Probably not a problem of the WMC skin itself, but still something that would be nice if working properly.

5) Not tested thorougly, so I'm not sure if the problem comes from the skin or from MP2 itself but the 14/9 zoom doesnt work properly in MP2 (that's a great feature of MP1 and would be great to see it working on MP2 as well)

6) Last thing, keyboard shortcuts (a lot of them are missing, and they are very useful especially in combination with Eventghost)


In short the WMC skin is a great work which needs wery few steps to be practically perfect, and to allow MP2 to replace effectively the WMC, at least outside the US (where the latter is still mandatory because the Cable Cards)

Have a nice day, and if you need some help on testing something I'm you have just to ask.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

1) Most important from my POV is the missing sliding orb when a video or TV is playing ( there isn't an obvious way to go back using the mouse)

Known issue, see here: [Bug] - Skin timeshift slider does not work also for the technical reasons. You should be able to use left, right though on a remote, which the HTPC is primarily designed for.

5) Not tested thorougly, so I'm not sure if the problem comes from the skin or from MP2 itself but the 14/9 zoom doesnt work properly in MP2 (that's a great feature of MP1 and would be great to see it working on MP2 as well)

Please test with other skins and if still not working, open a bug report in the main Bug Section of MP2.

6) Last thing, keyboard shortcuts (a lot of them are missing, and they are very useful especially in combination with Eventghost)

The InputManager is currently reworked.

 

[ge2301]

Thanks a lot for your feedback and interest.

I'm actually one of the 4/5 people who cooperated to port WMC on W10, to be exact I'm the first person in the world who had it working, I'm also the author of the WHS 2011 port and of the latest WMC 8.8.1 installer.

Great. And I'me one of the persons, who is still using it on my Win10 HTPC Even though I developed a WMC skin for MP2 I realized, that WMC is still more user friendly in terms of navigation and some other things not beeing intuitive enough yet.

That said I'm not an integralist and I always hoped for a plan B on Mediaportal (or Kodi) so your work is very welcome.

That is also my hope. Having a simple skin like WMC without the overloaded visual stuff + intuitive navigation + a few add featuers, that were missing in WMC.
For example the Menu Editor is very helpful and something I ever missed in WMC.

The poor usability trough the mouse is IMO one of the main reason to use WMC over any competitor.
Your skin improved a lot the Mouse experience putting it almost on par with WMC,

Agree here, though I'm not a mouse user. But target was to add much better mouse support. There are still a few points I'm trying to improve, but my main problem is, that I hav basically no coding skills. I learned xaml to do my skin work, however for many things I depend on new models (sometimes even simple things), but in #C. If you have #C skills and are willing to support a bit, we can make the WMC skin what it should be

1) Most important from my POV is the missing sliding orb when a video or TV is playing ( there isn't an obvious way to go back using the mouse)

Yes, this should be added, you're right.

2) Same as above the (CH)+ (CH)- Buttons are unreliable, sometimes are completely missing, sometimes are not clickable, and they seem not working at all on lower resolutions displays

I'd need more details here, perhaps with screenshot. I'm not 100% sure, if I got it fully.

3) Slightly less important is the mouse functionality on the guide page:
Expected:
a left click on a program should switch to that channell
a right click should bring the switch channel /recording menu

Actual behavior:
a left click triggers the menu

This is something not easily achievable as skinner. Many things are deeply bonded into the system and all skins automatically refer to it.
There are many things, especially related to navigation, that I want to change, but can not. There is a way for sure, but I need #C support.

4) Aside those which are more stringent problems, I have to report that the skin is not well adapted to resolutions lower than full hd, and for aspect ratios different than 16/9, where the GUI of the real WMC still looks perfect. Probably not a problem of the WMC skin itself, but still something that would be nice if working properly.

In the past we had as MP1 different skins for 4:3 and 16:9. I think the decision was not to support old displays anymore. Skins are automatically scaled.

5) Not tested thorougly, so I'm not sure if the problem comes from the skin or from MP2 itself but the 14/9 zoom doesnt work properly in MP2 (that's a great feature of MP1 and would be great to see it working on MP2 as well)

Hmm, I never tried it, because I don't use the skin in an operative environment (Still WMC used). What exactly does not work?

6) Last thing, keyboard shortcuts (a lot of them are missing, and they are very useful especially in combination with Eventghost)

I know. This is one of the last things I want to touch. Some people work on a new input manager for key mappings. This might strongly effect many areas, so I prefer to wait to avoid double effort. Additionally it's currently not understood well, so I hesitated to touch this part.

 

[The Solutor]

Known issue, see here: [Bug] - Skin timeshift slider does not work also for the technical reasons. You should be able to use left, right though on a remote, which the HTPC is primarily designed for.

No, I'm not talking about the slider, I'm talking about the sliding button(s) in the top left corner, which slides in moving the cursor on there.

In mp2 it works everywhere except where is most needed (while playing a full screen video/TV)

You should be able to use left, right though on a remote, which the HTPC is primarily designed for.

I keep reading such replies since the days of ShowShifter, and it isn't the right answer.

A good coder should write a good code, not decide what/when/where/how a definite program should be used that's an UX problem and should be managed by people who understand it well

Probably the poor mouse navigability is the single thinks that managed to keep the people away from many alternate programs, not just MP1/2 but also Kodi, MythTV and so on.

The point is that they are all great using a remote, but many people don't use it at all, personally my main usage scenario is on dual monitor.

One with the work and one with the TV program.

Please test with other skins and if still not working, open a bug report in the main Bug Section of MP2.

I did, still broken, I'll report that in the main bug section, thanks.

The InputManager is currently reworked.

I guessed that, so I placed that in the last position, I hope it will resolved quickly given that affects heavily the usage even on the HTPC usage scenario mentioned above .

 

[The Solutor]

For example the Menu Editor is very helpful and something I ever missed in WMC.

There is a third party "mce reset toolbox" for that, but isn't free, and not that easy to use.

Agree here, though I'm not a mouse user. But target was to add much better mouse support. There are still a few points I'm trying to improve, but my main problem is, that I hav basically no coding skills. I learned xaml to do my skin work, however for many things I depend on new models (sometimes even simple things), but in #C. If you have #C skills and are willing to support a bit, we can make the WMC skin what it should be

Same here, I'm not a coder (well I wrote my last program in the Sinclair QL days, then I moved to different IT areas )

Yes, this should be added, you're right.

Thanks

I'd need more details here, perhaps with screenshot. I'm not 100% sure, if I got it fully.

I mean the two buttons between the miniguide and the stop ones (this is taken from WMC, but not relevant here)

This is something not easily achievable as skinner. Many things are deeply bonded into the system and all skins automatically refer to it.
There are many things, especially related to navigation, that I want to change, but can not. There is a way for sure, but I need #C support.

Then it's a regression, not just aginst WMC, but also MP1

In the past we had as MP1 different skins for 4:3 and 16:9. I think the decision was not to support old displays anymore. Skins are automatically scaled.

I understand that, but is still a sad decision, pheraps 16/10 displays are still current (thanks God) and the skins looks slightly odd also there

Hmm, I never tried it, because I don't use the skin in an operative environment (Still WMC used). What exactly does not work?

wrong zoom, "zoom 14/9" is enlarged more than "zoom", which is not how it should work

I know. This is one of the last things I want to touch. Some people work on a new input manager for key mappings. This might strongly effect many areas, so I prefer to wait to avoid double effort. Additionally it's currently not understood well, so I hesitated to touch this part.

Ok, already wrote about that in the previous message.

 

[HTPCSourcer]

A good coder should write a good code, not decide what/when/where/how a definite program should be used that's an UX problem and should be managed by people who understand it well

Your third posting and you got nothing better to do than to offend people who spend their free time to offer a solution? MediaPortal is not WMC. There is no army of paid developers behind but a handful of dedicated people whom you just qualified as bad coders.

Constructive remarks and comments are OK but what you wrote is unfair and inappropriate.

 

[The Solutor]

Your third posting and you got nothing better to do than to offend people who spend their free time to offer a solution? MediaPortal is not WMC. There is no army of paid developers behind but a handful of dedicated people whom you just qualified as bad coders.

Constructive remarks and comments are OK but what you wrote is unfair and inappropriate.

First of all that's not my third post. Probably your DB decided to forget my previous posts (I'm subscribed here since 2012 and I use MP since the beginning).

Second, nothing personal and I really don't understand what problem you have.

I reported few small bugs that have a big impact on the UX, that's all.

Perhaps I never got a cent for what I've done on the internet, I do what I do because I like what I do, because the fun, because the improved skill I got in change.

If you don't like to share your free work, just look for an employment, don't blame me because I said that the "king is naked".

Like it or not MP is a great program ruined by such kind of approach: non listening and/or not understanding user's exigences, they are as important as C#


Have a nice evening!

 

[TheBatfink]

PS, how come my posts are needed moderator approval?? Never seen that before!

 

[HTPCSourcer]

Preview picture for Dark Theme in Settings is missing: