MusicBee in the Living Room: Additional Layout Options for Main Panel

[clubman]

The possibility to customise Layout is already one of the much appreciated key features of MusicBee. Since I am using MusicBee as a Media Player on the big TV-Screen in the living room I have the wish for better display of what's playing and some cleaner looks. Therefore the following suggestions:

1. Display Track Information as a Tab in the Main Panel: Similar in layout to the Artist Information Tab, the Track Information Tab could show the Cover Art full size on the left in the main panel and the Lyrics/sync Lyrics beside it. Below the Cover Art could be the Display Fields for Album and Artist information.
This would give clean looks on the big TV-Screen in the living room and one could easyly see what's played and read lyrics from the couch.

2. Display Visualiser as a Tab in the main Panel: while having the Visualiser running, Track Information (Cover Art, Lyrics) can still be displayed and full control of the Player via Navigation panel and Now Playing Panel maintained.
Again this would be a nice view option for the big screen.

While playing Music (what happens actually most of the time) with these Options the busy Library View can be replaced by a simple display of what is actually played or some fancy visualisations.

[Greb]

+1

[Steven]

i done this but not exactly as asked:
- you can now configure the visualiser to be docked in a tab (set in the layout preferences)
- the Artist profile tab now includes a "Now Playing" tab which shows information for the playing track (album picture, track details info, lyrics). The additional tab is made available when the right sidebar is collapsed

[clubman]

Great! Looking forward to the next Beta.
Thanks for the quick response.

[Greb]

That sounds great! Any link, please? 

[Steven]

i've decided to make a change to how its implemented so not ready yet

[Greb]

The additional tab is made available when the right sidebar is collapsed

Why to meke it only available when the right sidebar is colapsed? If the playlist is located in the right sidebar, it's interesting to have the list there, and the Now Playing tab visible at the same time...

[Steven]

ok, fair point.
I will make it similar to the artist profile tab ie. when enabled it opens the playing track in a tab and keeps it synchronised

[Greb]

Just thinking... it could be great to have a 'configurable' now playing tab, so you can configure it in order to show (for example):

- Song's Artist/Title/Album and so
- Album cover
- Lyrics
- LastFM bio
- LastFM/Flickr pics
- Last/Next realeases

[jrlx]

This is a great feature!

It would be useful to be able to configure the information displayed, apart from the cover art and playing track details (bit depth, sample rate, audio format, etc). At least the following tags would be useful:

- Album title
- Track title
- Album artist / Sort album artist
- Track artist / Sort track artist
- Composer /Sort composer
- Genre

The number of tags displayed and the actual tags could be configurable.

[Adson]

... looking forward to this new feature 

Many thanks to Steven.

A.

[Steven]

i will post a link tonight after i add in a sub-panel for recent releases, but thats the only additional thing i am planning to add to the original proposal for now (not to say i wont add more things in the future)
So it has a new "Playing Track" tab that shows:
- album cover
- lyrics
- same details as displayed in the right sidebar track info panel minus the web-links

and the Last.fm artist profile tab will be enhanced to show recent and upcoming releases by the artist

[Greb]

i will post a link tonight after i add in a sub-panel for recent releases, but thats the only additional thing i am planning to add to the original proposal for now (not to say i wont add more things in the future)

I'll be great anyway. Thanks for it  

PS In my country we have a very popular proverb. Litterally translated to english: 'against the vice of asking, the virtue of not giving'. 

[Steven]

updated .exe
http://www.mediafire.com/?3z06k1y3pk09vj5

with these chages:
- Visualiser can be docked in a tab
- "Artist Information" panel is renamed to "Track and Artist" panel
- the panel can be configured to show a tab for the current playing track (not enabled by default)
- the "Playing Track" tab will show Album Picture, Lyrics, Track Details (same format as the now playing panel, minus the web links)
- the Last.fm tab in the panel now additionally shows recent (1 year ago) and upcoming releases for the artist
- customise fonts for each line on the Now Playing panel. These fonts are also used for the track details in the Playing Track tab

- the Visualiser and Track and Artist panel docking is set in the Layout preferences
- the Track and Artist panel is configured from the "Configure Views" button in the same screen, where you can also set the maximum size for the album picture in the "Playing Track" tab

note if you go back to a prior version of MB, you will need to remove a blank tab that will be created (for the new Track and Artist panel, and you will need to reset your Artist Information panel layout settings)

[clubman]

I just tried it and found the following issues:

1. Playing track panel configuration: Setting of max Artwork size has no impact - always displays something like 400x400.

2. If you have the Now Playing Panel set on the bottom of the Main Panel then it is overlaying the Visualizer. It also remains visisble in the Playing Track view which contradicts the target of achieving a clean look. This could be solved by making the Now playing Field colapsable or moving it automaticly to the right Panel plane, which can be colapsed.