New Compact Player Layout

[Bee-liever]

IMHO just the darkened stretched image is too distracting by itself

stretched to fit - 80% darkened

but if it could be blurred or altered in some way

diagonal blur - 66% darkened

otherwise a texture or pattern, as suggested by 9cupsoftea gives good results

dried mud - 80% darkened

brown paper - 80% darkened

bricks - 80% darkened

Just don't know how easy (or hard) they are to implement

[Alexis]

IMHO just the darkened stretched image is still to distracting by itself

stretched to fit - 80% darkened

How about something like this one, but instead of using  a stretched image, maybe a random 'confetti-like' display of artists album art that one has in one's library, dimmed similar to what is done here?

[Alexis]

So, something like this, but the background images would be dimmed like above.
Envision as Steven mentioned earlier that it may go all the way down to the play-bar.
(I know this looks relatively ugly and busy as is, so some imagination is required here)

[Steven]

i think the gallery of album pictures is working ok - its going to take some time to get everything working properly

[KissCool]

Steven, still no plan to theme fonts colors too?
]

+1. I'd really like to get this too!

One of the things we discussed earlier was  how to handle the image display when they do not fill out the screen.  The solution was geared towards avoiding clipping and filling out the sides with a similar color.  Obviously, we arrived at a conclusion, evident in current build.

However, I have been  struggling with this a bit and wondering if I would prefer the magnification of the image, keeping it in proportion, and allowing some clipping.  I have not been pleased with images results like what is seen below with the color on the sides..   I think I may even prefer an image that is not proportionate instead ofthis, but I am not sure.  Just thoughts.

Well, I'm not really concerned since I'm using only local pictures (with a 16/9 ratio for all the pictures). But in your case, I think it would be nice to have few options about this in the setting panel of the compact player. Something like this:
- default option: Auto (work like it does ATM)
- then options like in Win8 (Sorry, French Win8 Edition):

That way, everyone could choose what's better for him.

[Steven]

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

i think the gallery of album pictures is working ok - its going to take some time to get everything working properly

i will listen to feedback on this change works as i am not 100% convinced about it - also keep a copy of your current musicbee.exe in case there is an annoying bug (i have tested and should be ok)
It only adds the gallery of album pictures for the small album cover layout. For large album covers it just has a colour fill like, except in the compact player the artist picture is more aligned to the right when it is too narrow for the whole window.
Also if you like a dark tint effect, the 'overlay right panel' option now supports not showing any of the right panels.
Additionally when the overlay panel option is selected, the picture is extended so the spectrum visualiser displays over the picture
I still plan to do an layout where the player controls are overlaid in the picture (zune like)

[Alexis]

 That was quick.  I think this is a major improvement over the blank sides.  I think it would  have a better effect once the artist image is extended down as you  mentioned.  Additionally, maybe if the album covers were softened by the dominant color from the artist picture, it would look more uniform.

For later on, if this works out for all, I suppose that one would also like to see relevant images in the background, so that it not only looks good but is relevant... one may notice an artist image that they had not played in a while or something like that.

[Bee-liever]

i will listen to feedback on this change works as i am not 100% convinced about it

1.)  I don't like the left-align of the artist picture with the album cover mosaic on the RH side. I think it detracts from the artist picture.
Centered (as in previous .exe) and overlaid over mosaic of album covers - quite possibly a yes

2.)  when not using 'extend pictures' but using small artwork, artist pic is still left-aligned, but RH side just fades away - no album cover mosaic.  Maybe this 'fade away' effect could be used on the smaller artist pics, rather than using the proposed album cover mosaic, allowing the pic to flow into the surrounding colour, rather than having a sharp contrast edge

3.)  I do like the placing of the artist pic to the RH side when using large album cover

[Alexis]

I think I also agree with centering the image

[Steven]

1.)  I don't like the left-align of the artist picture with the album cover mosaic on the RH side. I think it detracts from the artist picture.
Centered (as in previous .exe) and overlaid over mosaic of album covers - quite possibly a yes

thats how i feel as well but if the picture is centred having the album covers on the left detracts from the current album cover. I might try with heavier background colour blending as suggested by Alexis

2.)  when not using 'extend pictures' but using small artwork, artist pic is still left-aligned, but RH side just fades away - no album cover mosaic.  Maybe this 'fade away' effect could be used on the smaller artist pics, rather than using the proposed album cover mosaic, allowing the pic to flow into the surrounding colour, rather than having a sharp contrast edge

can you confirm your settings - it should always show the mosaic for small album covers unless you are overlaying one of the right panels

edit:
i dont think the heaver background blending really works - i'll try one of the earlier suggestions of using a shaded heavier cropped version of the artist picture as background

[Bee-liever]

can you confirm your settings - it should always show the mosaic for small album covers unless you are overlaying one of the right panels

I didn't have 'overlay' on when testing with large artwork, but I did have 'show lyrics' selected

edit:
i dont think the heaver background blending really works - i'll try one of the earlier suggestions of using a shaded heavier cropped version of the artist picture as background

maybe a mosaic of artist pictures would work? It could look as though the current playing artist pic has been selected from a 'wall' of artist pics.

edit:
maybe with a thin border around the pic that is generated like the visualiser colours

[VX]

Well, I'm not really concerned since I'm using only local pictures (with a 16/9 ratio for all the pictures). But in your case, I think it would be nice to have few options about this in the setting panel of the compact player. Something like this:
- default option: Auto (work like it does ATM)
- then options like in Win8 (Sorry, French Win8 Edition):

That way, everyone could choose what's better for him.

+1

[KissCool]

Well, I'm not really concerned since I'm using only local pictures (with a 16/9 ratio for all the pictures). But in your case, I think it would be nice to have few options about this in the setting panel of the compact player. Something like this:
- default option: Auto (work like it does ATM)
- then options like in Win8 (Sorry, French Win8 Edition):

That way, everyone could choose what's better for him.

+1

BTW, here an english version:



About compact player, could we have this feature: auto-hide the player bar (like it does for the left and right panel)? IMO, would be perfect for a show off mode:

One click on the visualiser will show up the player bar. Another click will hide it. (would be faster than mouse over bottom then pin the bar)

[Iasc]

sorry if i have missed it but is there a way to disable this option. i have spent a lot of time downloading my own artist pictures which for the most part fill the compact player so i have rotate web pictures disabled but in some cases im getting results like this.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

i realise that this option is a work in progress and will only get better but i would hope that it would be optional.

thanks

[VX]

@ KissCool - Thanks for the great idea!

IMHO, an option to auto-hide the player bar (as shown at the picture above) would be very welcomed