What should I add to MyPictures? (4 Viewers)

[alexchini]

Hi all,
I'm an old user of the pinnacle showcenter, maybe someone know it. Years ago the hardware was more expensive and this "tools" was used like an "cheap htpc" but due to the graphic hardware inbuild it became soon old.
A part of this showcenter had a good software for database managing and one of the thing i miss from it is the ability to use photo playlist.
Whit this software u could add ur preferred photo in several playlist like for istance "red sea summer 2009" as u do with a music playlist, this is really usefulf becouse u don't need to move any pics around but only to manage several playlist, it was also possible assign to a photo playlist a specific music playlist.
I think should be really nice to have something like this in the mediaportal.

 

[Atramhasis]

What is this thread for? Is someone working on a better MyPictures plugin right now? Or is this collecting ideas for MPII?

 

[Spragleknas]

TS created patches for MP before feature freeze.
thx:, btw)

 

[noxx2]

AW: What should I add to MyPictures?

Looking to add features to MyPictures. What is everyone looking for?

RAW Support

 

[Dadeo]

Ideally it would be nice to create groups i.e. Photo Albums. However, I assume this would require a new field in the Pictures DB for Group or Album. And then users would have to tag all their pictures. If that sounds impractical, then I vote +1 for Playlists. At least then users could group photos in a playlist regardless of what folders they are stored in, and produce a slideshow from the results.

IMO the worst part of Pictures is that it displays poor quality thumbs (until you "show" the picture), especially when displaying the Windows folder.jpgs which are not designed for MediaCenter display. The second worst thing is that you cannot apply borders to the images, so as a skinner you have to define a separate image control for the frame. Since pictures are of variable sizes, it is almost impossible to get a great looking display.

 

[sgatke]

Here are my input on how to improve Photo-viewing in MediaPortal.
Most have been mentioned before.

1) Ability to select a playlist as background music when you view a slideshow.

2) Ability to use my photos for MediaPortal screensaver.
2a) Like a giant photoframe (like my 7" Philips´photoframe) - pictures should be selectable by folder, random or one-by-one.
2b) I really really like the screensaver from Windows 7 Media Center. The one with the panning black&white photos where it focuses on one photo and slowly build the colour. Very elegant. - Pictures should again be selectable by folder, random or one-by-one.

3) Regarding EXIF data.
I would prefer to be able to press some button on the keyboard (I use the Logitech MiniDiNovo) and then the EXIF information should elegantly slide from top/left/bottom/right (selectable). I am using the Blue3Wide skin, and I would prefer the EXIF information to be shown on a background that is NOT transparent. Also, if it could be possible to configure in the options WHICH EXIF fields I would like to see, that would be awesome.

4) Perhaps a few improved transitions. I don't know much about transitions, I just like them if they are well implemented

5) The way I use My Pictures is not as a main repository for all my photos (they are on my NAS). On MediaPortal, I copy seperate folders like "Trip to California - month/year", "Someone's birthday party - month/year", "Trip to Egypt - month/year". I would like a top view that showed my folder names and then a line of text taken from the EXIF data that automatically showed the dates of the pictures taken in the folder.
Perhaps something like this:
California (Aug. 20. - Sep. 9. 2009) ----> the dates in paranthesis should be entered automatically by My Pictures.

6) Someone mentioned being able to watch the videos that some cameras can take. I agree that these video clips belong in My Pictures. Perhaps an on/off toggle to tell if I want to watch them while I watch the slideshow?


Thank you for improving My Pictures.

 

[kiwijunglist]

IMO the worst part of Pictures is that it displays poor quality thumbs (until you "show" the picture), especially when displaying the Windows folder.jpgs which are not designed for MediaCenter display. The second worst thing is that you cannot apply borders to the images, so as a skinner you have to define a separate image control for the frame. Since pictures are of variable sizes, it is almost impossible to get a great looking display.

I think that borders feature is in latest MP SVN.

 

[Dadeo]

I think that borders feature is in latest MP SVN.

Yep, and I am SOOO happy! That patch was very confusing about when it got approved, but Mr. Hipp clarified that now.

 

[kiwijunglist]

Now all we need for skining is

1. Patch for image mask for images/thumbnails

2. Fix the now playing list controls gaining focus (has anyone lodged this as an official bug?)

 

[mbuzina]

Ideas for my Pictures:
1. Picture import:
- Allow quick selecting of ranges of pictures ordered by date, pre-select useful ranges automatically (e.g. camera has pictures from April 27th from 14:00 - 19:00 and pictures from May 1st, group by day. If camera has pictures every day from Jan 3rd to Jan 10th, select all of them, since they will be a holiday session)
- Allow custom renaming scheme (e.g. my scheme is YYYY_MM_DD BatchName IMG_####.jpg, others will do differently)
- Allow tagging during import (of each batch)
- Start downloading of pictures as soon as card/camera is connected and continue importing during time user enters data for import (saves time). Discard import if not needed to be imported later
- Allow Geo-Tagging during import
- Define existing/new folders for the image to be placed
- integrate picasas people recognition feature already on import (e.g. start picasa in the background and let it do it's work)
2. Picture management / views
- Views should be Folders, Date Taken (Year, Month, Day depth selectable), Album Date Taken (sort Albums/Directories by date taken range), Tags (as in EXIF or other Metadata), People (as from .picasa.ini), Location (Map View?), Location (Text?), Stars Rating, EXIF Metadata like Camera, ISO, Flash, F, etc.
- Allow filtering by all the data defined above
- Add search capability searching all data for pictures (dates, people, filename, tags, folder names, etc.)
- Include Video (and maybe rename the myPicture plugin to the MyLife Plugin ;-) ).
- Sync properly to changes made outside of MP (esp. on NAS). Update local database if needed using a watcher.
- Allow taging, people tagging, rotating, starring & geo-tagging within MP and be compatible about that (store to EXIF Metadata). But also make this an option, since some people are paranoid about SW modifying their pics even if it is in the metadata section (which is what it is for...)
- Overall try to do the picture management similar to picasa, since it is one of the best. Use picasas metadata where possible (like people recognition)
3. Display
- Good thumbnails is everything for picture display, so increase quality
- Provide better looking album/directory/group thumbnails. Maybe not use 4 pics, but just one and allow user to change.
- The Ken Burns effect is one of the best ways to show pictures. It can be enhanced by using the people metadata (provided by picasa). It contains rectangles of peoples faces. The Ken-Burns should use these either as starting or end point references.
- Speed: Showing pictures needs to be a speedy experiance so good caching is needed esp. if pics reside on NAS
- RAW is nice but only viable if we use external SW to handle RAW format (every model changes format, so even large picture driven SW like picasa is having a hard time keeping up). So either use the CODECS provided by manufacturers or use external conversian program to provide jpg copy for display

I know feature freeze, so these suggestions go to MP II.

Thanks!