Ideas for several improvements (1 Viewer)

[cmdrsamu]

I have some ideas in improving the usability of moving pictures. I dont know if this is the right place to notice you about it, but I will do so

I like the thumbnail view and the biggest improvement were if you can use your arrow keys left and right in the begin and end of each line to jump in the next or the previous row. Its very annoying to watch a movie that is on the right in the next line and I'm currently located on the first element the line above.

My movie database is growing. So when I have nearly 200 movies it takes a very long time to reach a movie that starts with a M for example. What helps is the possibility to enter a letter with my keyboard or remote.

I don't know if something is realizable but I wanted to give you my little feedback about this amazing plugin.

 

[RoChess]

My movie database is growing. So when I have nearly 200 movies it takes a very long time to reach a movie that starts with a M for example. What helps is the possibility to enter a letter with my keyboard or remote.

I use SMS-style myself, meaning I can type out part of a movie by the letters on my remote keypad, such as '2' = ABC, '3' = DEF, so I can type in '5'+'2'+'6'+'3'+7' and all my "James" Bond movies will show.

But by using '0' + '6' + '6', I can jump to all movies starting with letter 'N' (2nd letter for key '6').

Then I can also use the Page Up and Page Down keys (mapped to Channel +/- on remote) to quickly browse my list.

And finally you can do filtering, based on categories, or seperate filters.

I use Poster/List view, but all the above should work fine in all the other views as well.

 

[cmdrsamu]

I use SMS-style myself, meaning I can type out part of a movie by the letters on my remote keypad, such as '2' = ABC, '3' = DEF, so I can type in '5'+'2'+'6'+'3'+7' and all my "James" Bond movies will show.

But by using '0' + '6' + '6', I can jump to all movies starting with letter 'N' (2nd letter for key '6').

Hey thats really cool. I haven't noticed that function, I'm so stupid, thats exactly what I'm looking for. Now I only have to get a different IR receiver, to send more commands to my pc.

But the first thing I wanted to explain is something different you understood.

Therefore here's a little picture

 

[RoChess]

But the first thing I wanted to explain is something different you understood.

No I understood what you meant, but I didn't answer that one. Reason being is because I don't use those views myself.

However the behaviour you request I believe is fully controlled by the skin. So if the current skin doesn't already behave like that, you should be able to adjust it. Or try one of the many other available skins out, perhaps one of them already has that function included.

Try StreamedMP skin for example. Don't forget to clear 'cache' folder when you make changes.

 

[SilentException]

For the first issue there is no "fix". It needs a change in the MediaPortal skinning engine. Since MediaPortal is in the feature freeze, chances you'll see this in 1.1 or even 1.x are very slim. Maybe MediaPortal2

 

[XAA]

My movie database is growing. So when I have nearly 200 movies it takes a very long time to reach a movie that starts with a M for example. What helps is the possibility to enter a letter with my keyboard or remote.

I use SMS-style myself, meaning I can type out part of a movie by the letters on my remote keypad, such as '2' = ABC, '3' = DEF, so I can type in '5'+'2'+'6'+'3'+7' and all my "James" Bond movies will show.

But by using '0' + '6' + '6', I can jump to all movies starting with letter 'N' (2nd letter for key '6').

Then I can also use the Page Up and Page Down keys (mapped to Channel +/- on remote) to quickly browse my list.

And finally you can do filtering, based on categories, or seperate filters.

I use Poster/List view, but all the above should work fine in all the other views as well.

Filter based on remote keypad is greate and works correctly , but:
- in Russia I was not able to find remote with Russan marking on the digital keys (all movies in my collection have Russian names). I am sure this problem is actual also for some another countries.
- it`s not always easy to use remote in the dark room (digital keys usually have no highlight)

In this situation virtual keyboard can be good addition to the remote. Good solution also can be support of wireless keyboard such Nova Mini from Logitech.



One wishes more.

I use small and slow ION based computer and huge collection (about 1500 movies) located on NAS.
The problem is: to open so huge list computer needs 30-40 sec or even more. To make life better I splited all my movies to many categories (100-200 movies each) and had swiched off possibility to refresh database from UI. Now picture is much better, but I still have one problem: to open filter menu I need the same 30-40 sec independently categoria size. This makes filter almost useless.

It seems as Movie Picture calculates something serious (list of actors?) dynamicaly every time I try to open this menu, but potentially we can fix everything just after procedure of import. For my opinion there is chance to find some balance between dynamic and static parameters to improve speed for some operation. Of course I can not be sure in my diagnosis but for ION based system problem seems as serious.

Second idea: additional filters from movie detailes window:
- all movies of the same director
- all movies of the same actors.
In case of 1000 pcs collection list of actors also is very huge and you need notable time to find requared name. These filters can make task much more easy.