getmusicbee.com

General => MusicBee Wishlist => Topic started by: Analien on August 29, 2012, 02:34:51 PM

Title: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Analien on August 29, 2012, 02:34:51 PM: I think the Now Playing-tab should be revamped into something more "useful" and more nice-looking. Maybe to somehow make it a plugin or something like that or to have it's layout editable, so that users could make their own layouts as with the theathermode and such.

I think it would be more appropriate to have the playlist at the bottom and stuff like album cover(s), lyrics & info above that.
In J.River Media Center it is possible to have vizualisations, lyrics, trackinfo, 3Dstuff in various forms at the top. It's very nice I'd say. As it is now the now playing just looks like the other modes (Inbox, Library and so on.)

And if this would become editable for users, the possibilities for nice and modern layouts are endless ...

Surely, someone must agree? :)

My Now Playing in MusicBee:
(http://i.imgur.com/QlTqnl.png)

Some examples from J.River Media Center:
(http://i.imgur.com/5oyinl.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/Ye6nvl.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/h8BeUl.jpg)
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Alexis on August 29, 2012, 10:13:41 PM: +1
I am really trying to hold back suggestions to Steven at this moment as it seems the forum have gotten quite busy from my perspective.. plus I gather that he is not likely to implement any major change until after the 2.0 release.... but man, I have to support this ;D.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: SimonBRT on August 30, 2012, 07:26:35 AM: I have to admit that this does look good. But the more I think about it the more I'm not sure if I'd use it. Theatre mode can already be used to create custom slide slows and much more besides that can look fantastic. Yes, functionality is reduced in theatre mode, but if I am setting up a mode primarily for its visual appeal, then the chances are I will not be doing much actual work or interaction with the program anyway. I can still manage the now playing list from theatre mode via the now playing assistant. These screens are very attractive but I'm not sure it really gains us anything...
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: EdBrady on August 31, 2012, 03:54:07 AM: I would like to see some improvements in Now Playing, especially since I only recently discovered it could be displayed in the main panel, a la JRiver.

I'd like to be able to change the size of the artwork displayed, and to configure the layout a little bit more... get rid of the lyrics portion, for example, if you don't want it there. I've always liked the clean look of your fist JRiver example, and would like to replicate that in MusicBee.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: SimonBRT on August 31, 2012, 05:50:37 AM: Ed Brady, you can already customise to a good extent. You can't get the artwork like in the first pic. But you can remove the right panel (with the lyrics etc.) using the collapse panel button in the button right of the screen. You can also right-click on the right panel and customise it a large amount. If you then open the bottom panel and set it to 'Playing track' you can get a comparable set-up to the top pic.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: EdBrady on September 01, 2012, 04:37:42 AM: What I have been doing is displaying 'now playing' in the main panel, by clicking on it in the left panel, under playlists. I think that's what Analien has done in the first picture. With this view, I see no way to remove the lyrics portion (see where it says "no lyrics found" in the picture). I also can't get the artwork bigger than 250 pixels or so, even though I have it set much larger in the 'track and artist view' panel settings.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: SimonBRT on September 01, 2012, 05:15:03 AM: sorry my bad. i hadn't looked at his MB set-up properly to see it was already much like i was suggesting. i don't believe you can currently create the look you want. that said, i still stand by my comments in my previous post in this topic. perhaps you could try to create a theatre mode view that suits you better or perhaps put a request out to another forum member...
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on September 29, 2012, 02:32:15 PM: I do agree that the MB Now Playing (main panel) can be improved.
I had a look at how J River does the Now Playing panel but to me it was just gimmicky and trying to entertain with flashly movements of the album images which i found distracting and tiring quite quickly.
What do others who have used this feature in J River think?
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: lnminente on September 29, 2012, 03:30:40 PM: I feel it more like a visualizer than a Now playing tab. My proposal is the following:

2) Its very difficult finding how to enable "Playing track" tab and its very related with "Now playing", so why not joining them in something like this

(http://s16.postimage.org/58eod2g3p/Now_playing_mockup.png)
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Thorbjorn on September 29, 2012, 04:17:30 PM: In my opinion moving images around in 3D etc. is just tacky.
lnminente's idea is good.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: EdBrady on September 30, 2012, 04:52:52 AM: Quote from: Steven on September 29, 2012, 02:32:15 PM
I do agree that the MB Now Playing (main panel) can be improved.
I had a look at how J River does the Now Playing panel but to me it was just gimmicky and trying to entertain with flashly movements of the album images which i found distracting and tiring quite quickly.
What do others who have used this feature in J River think?

I've used it for years and never saw any moving images... I think JRiver's basic now playing format, which is shown in Analien's first screenshot, is very nice though. All MusicBee needs is to allow you to change the size of the artwork, center it if you want, and offer more control over what is displayed.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on October 27, 2012, 04:06:16 PM: i've made some changes for the Now Playing panel - not too ambitious though but i think it is better
The Playing Track tab is gone, and in its place is a tab called Theater (although a better name might be needed).
When clicked it switches the Now Playing list into the tab ie. down the bottom of the main panel, and at the top of the main panel a high quality artist picture displays.
If enabled in the layout settings, the panel can also show
- a wave bar that can be clicked to set the track position
- and a spectrum visualiser

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Bee-liever on October 27, 2012, 11:34:50 PM: ummm... is this how it's supposed to look?

(http://pasteboard.s3.amazonaws.com/images/oe09InP.jpg)

from your description it sounded like it would swap the panels around.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: paq on October 28, 2012, 02:23:18 AM: My thoughts about the recent changes:
I actually liked the "Playing track" since it let me view track information and lyrics along with some nice related pictures.
The change made feels like it could instead have been two settings to the Photos tab, so one could see the wave bar and spectrum visualizer above them instead.

However, I really like the wave bar and I think it should be more independent than just a setting in "Theater". How about an option in the View menu to make it available at any time? So, when activated it would display just stacked above the status bar - either overlaying the content behind it with some transparency (as now) or simply being stacked under the tabs or any content shown in the main window but still just above the status bar as now.

Also, want to remind you Steven how great you are providing this great piece of software! :) If you're sticking with this idea, maybe "Showcase" is a better name than "Theater"?
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on October 28, 2012, 09:09:59 AM: Quote from: Bee-liever on October 27, 2012, 11:34:50 PM
ummm... is this how it's supposed to look?
it only swaps the panels for the Now Playing list but now i am wondering whether it makes sense to do the same for other nodes, especially as there is more chance with with chopped off pictures if its down the bottom

edit:
actually i probably am against that because i think when you have the music library panel open the main activity is searching and finding files, so it should remain the larger panel. I might just get rid of the "Theater" panel for all nodes except the Now Playing panel - its too hard to get it working well with a single artist picture on such a narrow strip
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on October 28, 2012, 09:17:17 AM: Quote from: paq on October 28, 2012, 02:23:18 AM
I actually liked the "Playing track" since it let me view track information and lyrics along with some nice related pictures.
i felt it was too cluttered and messy the way it was before and have never been happy with it. But i will definitely look to add back the lyrics as an option.
If anyone wants to do a mockup i might be willing to accomodate any ideas but keep in mind the general shape of the panel is a rectangle that is much wider than it is high
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Bee-liever on October 28, 2012, 03:42:20 PM: Quote from: Steven on October 28, 2012, 09:09:59 AM
edit:
actually i probably am against that because i think when you have the music library panel open the main activity is searching and finding files, so it should remain the larger panel. I might just get rid of the "Theater" panel for all nodes except the Now Playing panel - its too hard to get it working well with a single artist picture on such a narrow strip

I would agree. I don't think it works well when it's at the bottom of the panel

Quote from: Steven on October 28, 2012, 09:17:17 AM
Quote from: paq on October 28, 2012, 02:23:18 AM
I actually liked the "Playing track" since it let me view track information and lyrics along with some nice related pictures.
i felt it was too cluttered and messy the way it was before and have never been happy with it. But i will definitely look to add back the lyrics as an option.
If anyone wants to do a mockup i might be willing to accomodate any ideas but keep in mind the general shape of the panel is a rectangle that is much wider than it is high

Same as paq, I liked having the track info and the lyrics, but I also didn't like that any artwork displayed, obscured the picture.
Always thought the pics should have started from the RH edge of the artwork, not from the the LH side of the panel.

So in light of that, this is my two-cents worth of mock-up

IMO the waveform and the spectrum should be in the tabs at the bottom of the screen

(http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/6299/nowptab1.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/687/nowptab1.png/)

(http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5134/nowptab2.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/825/nowptab2.png/)

and the main panel could have large artwork centered, with all track details available for display on RH side and lyrics that can toggled on/off on LH side.
The artwork could have on option to do a slideshow of all embedded/saved artwork and be replaceable with an artists picture.

(http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5517/nowppanel1.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/145/nowppanel1.png/)

(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1021/nowppanel2.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/27/nowppanel2.png/)

(http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/9762/nowppanel3.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/688/nowppanel3.png/)

(http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/608/nowppanel4.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/831/nowppanel4.png/)

And Steven, I've also gotta take this opportunity to thank you again for MB. You just keep coming up with great ideas that improve and enhance your amazing software
(http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Respect/bravo-009.gif)
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: mikebo on October 28, 2012, 07:39:04 PM: Not sure how i feel about the whole theater thing, but one thing i definitely don't like is the panel swapping. It's a little confusing and when you minimize the bottom panel which now has the playing list it swaps again.

But I have a suggestion for the wave bar and visualizer. Maybe a better place for them would be in the player bar. This could be similar to itunes, with a button that switches between different views (seek bar > wave bar > visualizer).
(http://i.imgur.com/Vy6nv.png)
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on October 28, 2012, 09:05:42 PM: i also am not happy with the way the panels switch when the Theater tab is selected and i think what i will do is return the older "Playing Track" but with some changes to how the artwork and track info displays.
for the new "Theater" tab, it would be available as a tab when the Track And Artist panel is docked as a separate tab - it would look pretty much how the Theater tab looks how it does now in the Now Playing list node and would include a small list of files in the Now Playing list.
@mikebo, that is a good idea for the wave bar
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Bee-liever on October 28, 2012, 11:03:02 PM: maybe the navigation bar could be extended across the entire screen, same as the player.
the LH & RH panels reduced slightly in height so they come in under the navigation bar, and the bit of space gained used for the wavebar/spectro à la mikebo, itunes and winamp

(http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3075/mainpanelfinal.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/43/mainpanelfinal.png/)
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: mikebo on October 28, 2012, 11:28:50 PM: I think this would be a worse layout. I have highlighted the panels to show you why

current layout:
(http://i.imgur.com/uBpTJl.png) (http://imgur.com/uBpTJ)

your layout
(http://i.imgur.com/MCezIl.png) (http://imgur.com/MCezI)
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: paq on October 29, 2012, 12:48:09 AM: If the "Theater" tab would show the Theater Mode in a tab, it would open up for more flexibility and customization regarding the look.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Bee-liever on October 29, 2012, 12:58:32 AM: Quote from: mikebo on October 28, 2012, 11:28:50 PM
I have highlighted the panels to show you why

but, if your idea of keeping the tabs over the main panel is implemented, your layout would like this

(http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/760/mikeboalt.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/801/mikeboalt.png/)

very similar to how having a side-panel open in a browser works
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: mikebo on October 29, 2012, 01:12:58 AM: No that's not what i want. I only want the tabs to be aligned with the main panel.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Bee-liever on October 29, 2012, 01:25:05 AM: Quote from: Bee-liever on October 29, 2012, 12:58:32 AM
if your idea of keeping the tabs over the main panel is implemented, your layout would like this

Quote from: mikebo on October 29, 2012, 01:12:58 AM
I only want the tabs to be aligned with the main panel.

I included that because, unless your idea is implemented, the tabs in the caption bar won't always line up and keep the central blue section together
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Nixander on October 29, 2012, 08:14:50 PM: Quote from: Bee-liever on October 28, 2012, 11:03:02 PM
... and the bit of space gained used for the wavebar/spectro à la mikebo, itunes and winamp

it looks very nice with the spectrum/wavebor in the now playing panel
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on October 29, 2012, 10:36:39 PM: i havent had time to consider the wavebar, but this includes (i think) a much improved Playing Track Details tab that changes the layout when the Track and Artist panel is docked as a separate tab. It currently only displays the wavebar and spectrum visualiser when docked in the bottom panel.

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Bee-liever on October 29, 2012, 11:26:24 PM: Looks good.
Artwork in bottom LH corner when as a tab, IMO works better than the original

(sigh...had my fingers crossed for the album art slideshow, guess I'll just have to keep wishing ;) )
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on October 29, 2012, 11:37:47 PM: Quote from: Bee-liever on October 29, 2012, 11:26:24 PM
(sigh...had my fingers crossed for the album art slideshow, guess I'll just have to keep wishing ;) )
remind me how you think that would work - all pictures in the music folder?
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: cartman005 on October 30, 2012, 01:33:55 AM: It looks really cool with the album artwork at the bottom overlapping with the artist picture.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Bee-liever on October 30, 2012, 01:37:07 AM: Quote from: Steven on October 29, 2012, 11:37:47 PM
remind me how you think that would work - all pictures in the music folder?

no, just for the playing album.

if you right click on the album art

(http://pasteboard.s3.amazonaws.com/images/rpqSv47.jpg)

you can already manually cycle thru any embedded/linked artwork.

I was hoping that could be automated to a slideshow, either in small artwork as is, or preferably in a larger artwork view
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: beeing good on October 30, 2012, 01:38:25 AM: +1 for that if it is possible
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Spiron on November 02, 2012, 09:26:13 AM: One thing that I think would work well is to have the right panel as JUST a dedicated lyrics panel without all the track details/Album art WHILE in the now playing. This solves a number of problems as it means that:
A) track details/Album art isn't unnecessarily duplicated in the Now Playing view;
B) The lyrics have somewhere concrete to go rather than being awkwardly placed in revamp mockups; which also leads to
C) it partially solves the lyrics scrolling and space problem that MusicBee currently has: if you have the lyrics in the bottom-panel then they are most often both in a cramped space and you would have to scroll to get all the lyrics of a normal length song, if you have them in the right-panel then they have to share the space the the track details/album art box, which can't be removed without removing it from the right-panel totally (which can be inconvenient when if other parts of the MusicBee UI), which thus ALSO give the scrolling dilemma. It only partially solves this problem though because lengthy songs (I'm talking American Pie length) will almost always need to be scrolled.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on November 03, 2012, 10:11:10 AM: i have added support in the album picture that is displayed to rotate any embeded pictures. I am considering also including that in the artwork that displays in the right sidebar (the rotation only happens while the song is playing, and rotates every 20 seconds so it shouldnt be distracting)

Also i have added support for displaying a wavebar in the Now Playing panel (top or bottom) but for now not in the player controls panel.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on November 04, 2012, 08:38:44 PM: i've added a Wave Bar configuration option to the Now Playing panel (displays at the top or bottom)
Also the Playing Track tab has been tweaked and improved - i think it looks quite good now and should handle most tab proportions well (except of course if the tab is very long and very narrow).
Lastly if you music file has muliple pictures embeded, each picture is displayed in a 30 second rotation period

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: jistme on November 04, 2012, 09:06:27 PM: That's great and looking very nice indeed!

Let's wait how long it takes for a skinner requesting color elements for the wave....
(ah, no more waiting ;-)
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Bee-liever on November 07, 2012, 04:16:56 AM: Quote from: Steven on November 04, 2012, 08:38:44 PM

Lastly if you music file has muliple pictures embeded, each picture is displayed in a 30 second rotation period

big "thank you" for implementing this! I've linked some pics of tour posters I have with my 'live' albums so they display as well.
Love it!!!! 8)
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: paq on November 10, 2012, 12:45:12 AM: Quote from: Steven on November 04, 2012, 08:38:44 PM
Lastly if you music file has muliple pictures embeded, each picture is displayed in a 30 second rotation period
Is it possible to turn this off? For me it's a distraction because...
* I have MusicBee maximized on a secondary monitor so it's always in my peripheral vision.
* I have lots of music files where I haven't organized/"cleaned up" the embedded artwork.
So, every 30 seconds when a large picture in my peripheral sight changes, it catches my attention. This makes it a little bit distracting (human eyes are very sensitive to sudden change in the periphery).

I would like to see a checkbox for enabling/disabling this rotation feature, maybe in two places:
* When right-clicking the artwork (for me it would be in the Playing Track area in my Left sidebar where it is together with track details)
* In "Now Playing Layout Configuration".

Thanks in advance!
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on November 11, 2012, 08:10:42 AM: i've added a general setting in the right click menu to disable rotation
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on November 11, 2012, 04:34:02 PM: this has the change:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Alexis on December 06, 2012, 01:48:03 PM: Maybe i am not clear on anything that was done here :(.. but looking at my now playing list in the main window.... I really thought something was going to be implemented for that. As it is, I do not use that window at all because it has nothing but tracks in it.. unless I am missing a functionality. Please help if I am.
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Steven on December 06, 2012, 06:56:52 PM: its a bug with your config settings thats now corrected for the next update
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Alexis on December 06, 2012, 06:57:31 PM: ok, thank you very much!
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Alexis on December 06, 2012, 08:19:18 PM: Great! The debug version resolved this issue indeed!
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Alexis on December 07, 2012, 09:24:32 PM: when the pane is opened to a certain height, the album art goes to the lower left which i think is great. Is it possible though to have it anchored to maybe the last line of text or something so that the amount of space shown below it in the image is less?

edit: Also, I have image rotation checked but the image stays the same throughout.

(http://i49.tinypic.com/iz3k0g.jpg)
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Bee-liever on December 07, 2012, 11:25:41 PM: Quote from: Alexis on December 07, 2012, 09:24:32 PM
edit: Also, I have image rotation checked but the image stays the same throughout.

"image rotation" is for any other album art you have embedded or linked to the track, not the artist image background.

Quote from: Steven on November 04, 2012, 08:38:44 PM
Lastly if you music file has muliple pictures embeded, each picture is displayed in a 30 second rotation period
Title: Re: A revamp of the "Now Playing".
Post by: Alexis on December 08, 2012, 12:01:38 AM: doh! thank you bee-liever. I guess I am trying to catch up on too many things at once.