WMC design for MP2 skin (1 Viewer)

[gilesp]

WMC user here of many years, mostly for live TV. Appreciate most the simplicity and naturalness of WMC's navigation, and the fact you can't get lost in many levels of menus etc. The OSD showing timeshift position is the best in the business - I'm still looking for anything like that on MP2.

I'm also a developer, but have no XAML experience (yet...)

What is the process for getting hold of pre-release skins to try them out?

 

[ge2301]

WMC user here of many years, mostly for live TV. Appreciate most the simplicity and naturalness of WMC's navigation, and the fact you can't get lost in many levels of menus etc. The OSD showing timeshift position is the best in the business - I'm still looking for anything like that on MP2.

I'm also a developer, but have no XAML experience (yet...)

What is the process for getting hold of pre-release skins to try them out?

Thanks for your interest! I have completely the same opinion about simplicity of WMC. Thats why I still use it on my HTPC.
However WMC has many missing features, so the idea to build something simple with additional features was born.

Currently we are in heavy development of the WMC skin. If you are interested, I can invite you to use a test version to get your first impression. Official test versions will be offered later, I do not want to release something with missing features. Please contact me by private message in case of interest.

If you are interesting in contributing to MP2 and WMC skin, you are very welcome!
Ps: Do/Can you use Visual Studio? What are your main skills?

 

[gilesp]

Do you have a progress bar in the OSD that behaves like the WMC one?
- you can move the current position with the mouse
- it shows how much of the program is present in the timeshift buffer, giving feedback of skips
- forward/back skips work whether or not the progress bar is visible

That's what I'd like in MP2, and I'm not seeing it anywhere so far. Is there any way to represent it in a skin, or does it require deeper programming?

 

[ge2301]

- you can move the current position with the mouse

This was implemented recently and is working

- it shows how much of the program is present in the timeshift buffer, giving feedback of skips

I think this is working, though not sure about the skips. They are not shown visually, if you mean that.

- forward/back skips work whether or not the progress bar is visible

Yes, this should work already.

Is there any way to represent it in a skin, or does it require deeper programming?

It can not be realized by xaml for sure, so somehow deeper coding is necessary when changing something. But as most features of WMC are already available, only a few improvements at some points are necessary.

Are you interested to try a test version? Are you using VS2013/15?

 

[ge2301]

@morpheus_xx
Can you perhaps also comment on above. In case something is missing @gilesp might have interest to help adding it. He is highly interested in WMC skin and is a developer

 

[gilesp]

- it shows how much of the program is present in the timeshift buffer, giving feedback of skips..
I think this is working, though not sure about the skips. They are not shown visually, if you mean that.

Are you interested to try a test version? Are you using VS2013/15?

By "visually" I just meant that the current position moves when you skip fwd/back, and shows where you are in the T/S buffer.
Would love to see a test version when convenient for you. No hurry.
(yes I have access to VS2013. my main experience is driver/embedded coding in C/C++, but now retired.)

 

[morpheus_xx]

@ge2301 I started a conversation with @gilesp

 

[ge2301]

@ge2301 I started a conversation with @gilesp

I've already a longer discussion with him can add you as well

 

[ge2301]

After longer silence I'll present a few updates showing the development status of WMC skin. Indirectly you'll also see first effects of the coming MIA rework on the improved visual apperance. Perhaps you've read quite often about the MIA rework, but in the end are not 100% sure what is behind it. One thing is clear, the main changes are deeply in the Backend of MP2, you'll see just the tip of the ice cube.

Firstly there are new skin settings in WMC skin. The customization of MP2 was not enough from my point of view. There are people loving visual eye candies and others, who like it more simple or do not have the needed high-end PC for that. The skin settings in home Menu look like following when focused.

After selection a lot of configuration options are offered and more will follow. A new feature is the free selection between banners and posters in grid-views for "movies, movie collections, series and seasons". The list and coverflow view will remain additionally of course. Here how the setings look like for example:

Next the 3 views from the media libraries. Please keep in mind, that actually almost no movie-banners are available (at least in my collection), so the movie banners look a bit poor in the screenshot.

Movie (Banner):

Series (Banner):

Series (Poster):

The effects of the MIA rework are already visible in above screenshots:

• series know, how many seasons and episodes they have
• a series also has a description and further information
• There are "watched" flags, that can be activated in skin settings. Those indicate alos, if a media item was watched only partly (see movie banner screenshot). The hole thing works also generally, means a series is "partly watched", if at least one of the contained episodes is "partly watched". A series knows consequently what is happening to its seasons and those know whats is happening to their episodes.

The new info screen is almost finished, but still work in progress. It will show a lot of additional information for media items as technical details for video, audio and subtitle streams, as well artists, directors, ... everything is only possible due to MIA rework. Target, gut not yet implemented is, that stream information are scrollable and selectable as well.
Here some screenshots how it looks like at the moment (remember, it's work in progress):

Shown are

• If subtitles are included or not
  
• If the file is a 3D movie and the type (SBS, TAB, HSBS, ...)
• Video format
• Video size and (SD/HD info)
• Aspect ratio category and exact aspect ratio
• Video bitrate and frame rate

The symbol with the arrow is not finalized yet, but indicates, that the subtitle is embedded into the mkv container.


Also the player controls were slightly overworked. I shifted the current time indicator from a static position to a flexible positiion on top of the progress indicator. This allows a much clearer indication compared to before:

 

[Helios61]

Big Thanks for these great news. I hope, there will be a testversion with wmc and mia soon.