Author Topic: Now Playing panel config enhancements  (Read 25307 times)

Greb

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I realized that the 'compressed' format affects the 'now playing' list that is showed in the mini player.

It's possible to select the miniplayer, to dock at the top and then to configure the now playing list with the compressed format, that way.



I think that this is even more confortable than the old 'winamp' style.


Last Edit: April 01, 2011, 08:24:05 PM by Greb

Steven

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i'm not sure what you mean. You can already set the configuration you have displayed. The now playing window for the mini-player is the same as the now playing window as used when set floating from the main application, minus the player controls. You can configure this window differently between when its docked in the right sidebar vs. when its floating.

Greb

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Yeap, of course, this has not been photoshopped. MB can work that way right now.

What I was just telling: if somebody misses the old winamp/aimp style, perhaps using the miniplayer docked and configuring the now playing list to show the compressed format (the way in the image) could be quite a good alternative.

VX

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Yeap, of course, this has not been photoshopped. MB can work that way right now.

What I was just telling: if somebody misses the old winamp/aimp style, perhaps using the miniplayer docked and configuring the now playing list to show the compressed format (the way in the image) could be quite a good alternative.

Very interesting idea, Greb  :) Thank you very much for the suggestion. Yet another very useful and unique feature of MusicBee  8)
The only drawback of this solution is that a good command of MB configuration options is needed to set this layout. (You have to know what to configure and where, what to hide and what to dock...).

I think the Steven's proposal:
i will make the now playing window a detached window and also add a new menu item in the View menu
View Micro Player (if anyone has a better name please suggest it, but that seems to a common name for an "in-between" player)
is exactly what newcomers need. This'll make Music Bee absolutely the best alternative to all music players and organizers  8)

Thank you all for a very constructive discussion  :)


Greb

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Very interesting idea, Greb  :) Thank you very much for the suggestion. Yet another very useful and unique feature of MusicBee  8)
The only drawback of this solution is that a good command of MB configuration options is needed to set this layout. (You have to know what to configure and where, what to hide and what to dock...).

Yeap, configuring the layout is kind of hard if you are not used to the program.  :-\

Until that is fixed, I opened a thread (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=3137.0). The idea is posting screenshots with different layouts and how to get this layout. It could help  :)

Nixander

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is there a way to make this to be the miniplayer? i think its much prettier than the current layout because of the artwork and the docked playlist

http://getmusicbee.com/images/forum/CompressedFormatExample.jpg

Steven

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yes that is what i am looking at now - the existing mini-player will stay, it will be an additional way to view the mini-player


Steven

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i've added a new mini-player view. For now is called a very unexciting "View Mini Player with Playlist" and is available from the Views menu
it runs as a separate window and defaults to being top-most but can toggled
- there is a menu in this window that can be opened by clicking the musicbee icon (i will do the same for the main window later)
  which allows you to open playlists, switch skins, play the library shuffled etc
- there is a status bar which can be hidden. It shows the summary info (# files and total playlist duration) and also when the mouse is over the bar, it has a button to hide/ unhide the playlist
- you can configure the player controls to include all the controls that you see in the main player (show equaliser, scrobble status, repeat and shuffle) - right click/ Configure Layout/ Player Controls/ Show All Player Controls
- you can now display track rating and last.fm love status in the info panel. The rating and love status can be clicked and changed from the panel
- as with the immediate prior version there is a new layout to view track information in a compressed format with player controls
- but you can show the player controls and the existing track info panel if you want
- i've also changed the existing track info layout in the now playing window so it stretches across the window and looks much better i think
- there are still some things that need to be done eg. invoking this window from a hotkey...

http://www.mediafire.com/?aqaw28w497218wk

again i've done a lot of testing and it should work fine but this is really complex with the number of variations that need to be tested so i suggest you keep your current version of MB handy in case you want to revert

edit:
link updated with fix to minimise to taskbar tray

Last Edit: April 03, 2011, 10:57:00 PM by Steven


aidanw

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Love it a lot!

Feature requests:
- One-click button to swap from Mini-Player to the new "Mini-Player with Playlist" view and back
- Add tab for Lyrics

Bugs:
- Add "track rating" in "Customise panel settings": Screen doesn't update until track is changed, until then the artwork is split and rating isn't shown.
- When rating is changed it is updated in the playlist but not in the top song information panel.
- Changed "<Title>" to 1 row span instead of 2. Didn't update in screen, but now the Song information panel is cropped by the play controls which have moved up about 10px and go overtop of the bottom line "MP3 44.1kHz 160k VBR etc".

Suggestion:
- Rename "Mini-Player with Playlist" to "Playlist Player"

Cheers for this great new feature!

Greb

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Not a bug but a strange behaviour.

This player is too big to be at the top constantly. When minimized, it disappears as a tray icon at it's necessary to look for it everytime you want to maximize the window.

Would be interesting the possibility of being able to minimize it to the taskbar.

Steven

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This player is too big to be at the top constantly. When minimized, it disappears as a tray icon at it's necessary to look for it everytime you want to maximize the window.
as long as you used the last link i posted:
http://www.mediafire.com/?bc14be2i9a7c9tc
it should, when minimised respect the "minimise to..." settings in the main preferences screen.
i am also planning to change the default so it doesnt always stay on top
Last Edit: April 04, 2011, 09:20:39 AM by Steven

Greb

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it should, when minimised respect the "minimise to..." settings in the main preferences screen.

It was that way.

I was rummaging through just now. In windows settings I had the miniplayer's option 'always on top' on. I checked off and then the 'miniplayer with playlist' minimizes to taskbar. When I check it 'on' again, it minimizes as a icon tray (besides being always on top).

By the way, the 'window setting' options only appear in the old miniplayer, but they affect the new one's behaviour too.

Steven

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- When rating is changed it is updated in the playlist but not in the top song information panel.
i just tried by change the rating in the playlist and in the panel - in both cases its ok for me. Can you re-confirm this bug and where did you change the rating?
also make sure you are using the last link i posted:
http://www.mediafire.com/?bc14be2i9a7c9tc
Last Edit: April 04, 2011, 09:45:22 AM by Steven