suggestion: music "wall" (1 Viewer)

[spoonyluv]

Hi, just an idea I want to throw out there in case its possible/desirable.

Since many people have a large music collection, maybe music could have an icon view that covers more of the screen, like a wall of albums/artists etc? I know that I have many views with over a hundred items and such a view would be an impressive and useful way to navigate.

Thx

 

[armyofme]

I made a mod of the music screen, I don't know if this is any use to you. Here's the link...
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/350352-post48.html

 

[spoonyluv]

That's great, thanks.

I don't supposed you can also add a label to indicate which item is selected? a lot of my music doesn't have icons, so I just see a big wall of folder icons with no idea what's selected. Also, how hard is it to extend the same concept to the list view? at least allow the list to span the entire screen and make more efficient use of the screen real estate.

 

[armyofme]

Hi there, I'm not sure what you mean about the label. Surely the label is top right? So for example in my screenshot on my original post you can see 'Blondie' at the top right of the screen.

As for the list view, I've had a play with the skin and image files and produced this...(see screenshot) Is this what you mean? If so, let me know and I'll post the files too.

 

[spoonyluv]

That looks pretty good, but if I can get the icon view working, that would be great. I don't have that title label at the top as you do on your first screenshot.

actually, scratch that. I just noticed that you're using 'shares' view. If I use that view, I see the title label but none of my artist or album cover art shows (I've used Audioscrobbler to add the art to the MP3 tags). If I use the genres view, I don't see the title label.

Great, making progress. I copied the code for the title label to the mymusicgenres file and now I get the label correctly (I had to lower the top of the icons 20 pixels but it looks great).

I'm now working on the list and have it the way I was it except I can't figure out how to get the background shade to move up to. Do I need to edit the png file (mainoverlay.png)? If so and you have one modified already, I'd appreciate a copy.

In short, I'm using the list view for the genres and the tracks and the icon wall for the rest. It looks nice but I'm sure the skin folks could polish it up if we can sell this as a worthwhile addition.

Thanks for your help.

 

[armyofme]

Hi Spoonylove, I love the streamedmp skin but like you think the music section needs a little improving

Yes I used an edited version of the overlay (attached) which I placed in the Media folder and, of course, you will need to reference to this in the 'mymusicsongs.xml'. I did this by changing 'streamedoverlay.png' to 'streamedoverlay2.png' @ line 30.

You could simply rename this file to streamedoverlay.png and just drop it in the media folder but I'm not sure if this will impact on other areas of the skin so wouldn't recommend this.

 

[spoonyluv]

couldn't agree with you more. In fact, music seems to be the bastard step child of media portal in general with no database editing and minimal improvements in new versions. Maybe someone will write a new music plug like moving pictures and improve the system.

Thanks again for the png file, it did the trick! I'm still playing with different configurations but I feel that I have much more control now that I understand the xml files a little bit.