New Compact Player Layout

[psychoadept]

Dang, this artist photo in the caption bar looks awesome.  Great work, Steven!

I really like the new compact mode but is there a way to have the player controls on top?

How would that work with the buttons at the top?

What crossed my mind was what if the player controls had an auto-hide mode, too?

- you can disable automatic colouring so it only uses the skin colour

It seems like this should make it use the skin's spectrum visualizer settings, too, and it doesn't.

[Alexis]

I really like the new compact mode but is there a way to have the player controls on top?

Asking out of curiosity:  Would just want the layout flipped?  I ask this because I am not sure how it would look just the controls at the top.

[be_wz]

I'm not using artist pictures   I want player controls at the top because for me are more comfortable

the main reason is that the progress bar is not very comfortable to use with player controls at the bottom

[redwing]

Actually I created a top-player-bar compact TM a while ago. Let me know if you want to try it.

[be_wz]

Thanks but I don't use TM plugin  

[redwing]

Thanks but I don't use TM pugin 

No problem 

[psychoadept]

the main reason is that the progress bar is not very comfortable to use with player controls at the bottom

I agree with this - if you're going to interact with the progress bar, having it at the very bottom of the window is unhelpful.  One of the first things I did when I started using MB was move the player to the top.   Now I have in the right panel, but never at the bottom.

[Steven]

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

- depending on the horizontal space available, the volume control starts as a button only, when enough space is free shows the full slider and if the wavebar is displayed and enough space free also shows the equaliser button
- when the panel is configured not to change colour and the artist picture is extended into the caption bar, the border colour is now based on the player panel
- tweaks to the panel auto-hide popup timing and made the hot-spot area a little wider when the right panel has something displayed
- fixes a bug for native window borders

[redwing]

- when the panel is configured not to change colour and the artist picture is extended into the caption bar, the border colour is now based on the player panel

Thanks for implementing this! Actually a little darker than panel? But it doesn't matter. Looks great.

My only remaining wish regarding this layout is windows buttons' color on the right top corner. If you have no intention to auto-hide them, please make the button bar completely transparent when "change panel color" option is unticked. With most pictures and skins, they look grey and dull, and take the whole elegance out of otherwise fascinating layout.

[ma_t14]

I like how the the musicbee icon auto-hides when the window loses focus. Since both the MB icon and the text autohide they seem as single unified element (does that make sense?). Currently only clicking on the icon opens a menu. Wouldn't it make more sense if both icon and text could be clicked to open the menu?

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

- depending on the horizontal space available, the volume control starts as a button only, when enough space is free shows the full slider and if the wavebar is displayed and enough space free also shows the equaliser button
- when the panel is configured not to change colour and the artist picture is extended into the caption bar, the border colour is now based on the player panel
- tweaks to the panel auto-hide popup timing and made the hot-spot area a little wider when the right panel has something displayed
- fixes a bug for native window borders

I might be the only one here, but I don't like this change. The wavebar looks more cramped now after the volume control has expanded in size. I almost never use the volume control and this change has made my experience worse.

I suggest that the volume slider is made to appear vertically instead of horizontally, but instead of having to click to open the control you just mouse over and it instantly appears.

Also related to the same problem, I would like to see a way to disable the equalizer icon (again never used and takes valuable space from the wavebar)

Thoughts?

[Steven]

@ma_t14, i agree about the wavebar size and for the next update i have increased the width before the volume level and equaliser button show

[VX]

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

- depending on the horizontal space available, the volume control starts as a button only, when enough space is free shows the full slider and if the wavebar is displayed and enough space free also shows the equaliser button
- when the panel is configured not to change colour and the artist picture is extended into the caption bar, the border colour is now based on the player panel
- tweaks to the panel auto-hide popup timing and made the hot-spot area a little wider when the right panel has something displayed
- fixes a bug for native window borders

Thank you so much for the changes!  IMHO, this is one of the best patches for Modern Compact Player view.

I'm glad the Equalizer button is back. As far as the Volume button, I'm happy with the latest change too, though I can understand @mat suggestions. I think vertical volume slider is worth to try out - it could be a good compromise.

The only issue I'd improve with the current development build is sth I've already reported:

While enjoying new enhancements I realized that auto-hiding could be smarter.
When Artist picture is in portrait orientation there are usually empty spaces on the sides. Then when you want to unhide Now Playing List or Bio it usually covers an Artist picture partially, leaving empty space on the opposite side.

I suggest Artist picture to be moved along in such cases, so that Now Playing List or Bio don't cover it.

Let's see:

[redwing]

While enjoying new enhancements I realized that auto-hiding could be smarter.
When Artist picture is in portrait orientation there are usually empty spaces on the sides. Then when you want to unhide Now Playing List or Bio it usually covers an Artist picture partially, leaving empty space on the opposite side.
I suggest Artist picture to be moved along in such cases, so that Now Playing List or Bio don't cover it.

I once suggested a similar wish but now think it won't work. Auto-hide is not just for compact player but for main player as well. As long as the main panel in main player does not resize with auto-open sidebars, artist picture in compact player cannot resize. I would wonder, then, why floating window feature upon double-clicking on a tab or header doesn't work for compact player. Floating now playing list and lyrics window would be a good option without affecting artist picture.

[Bee-liever]

Big thumbs up for majority of changes in latest patch.
One problem for me is the "framing" of smaller artist pics. Preferred when the background colour went all around the pic.

[VX]

I like how the the musicbee icon auto-hides when the window loses focus. Since both the MB icon and the text autohide they seem as single unified element (does that make sense?). Currently only clicking on the icon opens a menu. Wouldn't it make more sense if both icon and text could be clicked to open the menu?

+1
that would be not only comfortable but also consistent with Main Player view