New Compact Player Layout

[endeavour1934]

Another two concepts...

[Steven]

the pictures dont show.
I do plan to consider your other suggestion but i will not be able to look at it until the weekend

[KissCool]

Could the "always display progress bar" be set as an option plz?
Or maybe something like this:
settings = auto-hide the player panel AND progress bar on bottom -> auto-hide the player panel but not the progress bar
settings = auto-hide the player panel AND progress bar in middle -> auto-hide both
This last setting was the one I used until now and I was fine with it.

A visualiser background? Was fine without!

@endeavour1934
I really like what you did here:

Another version, based on your original concept...

[Iasc]

one issue i would like to raise is with the spectrum visualiser.

I havent changed the algorithm to select the colous - the pictures dont look the same size which can affect the colours selected.
Is that a medium or large size album cover?

Also the first image looks lighter - one thing i was planning to change back was the ability to extend into the windows caption bar even when 'overlay panels' is not enabled, which i suspect is what you were using before.

the album cover size is medium, i only use local pictures for rotation so its defiantly the same picture. i don't know why its lighter now. i have posted another example below and my settings. on a side note i have circled a small display bug on the settings picture.

before


now

[KissCool]

@iasc
It's 'cause of the new Visualiser background.

With the "old" compact player, if you're playing with those settings:
 - overlay panels onto the picture (Display a solid color background behind the visualiser if ticked, hide it if unticked)
 - change panel color for each displayed picture
You end up with different visualiser colors.

With the "new" compact player, you can't display or hide this solid background anymore. Instead, you have this new grey gradient background, whatever your settings are.

This new background can look really ugly with some pictures (click to enlarge):

[Alexis]

 @KissCool

Ah, so that's what it is!!  I  felt we had resolved this, but I thought I was mistaken.

[endeavour1934]

Two suggestions:

- The artist picture attenuation layer shoud use the window bg color, this way we can have light and dark skins. An alternative is changing the attenuation slider to " white ----------- none ----------- black"

- Buttons background / EQ background should use a color obtained from the image (the same which is currently used to fill the rest of the background when the picture uses a different aspect ratio). Alternative: Black/white using the attenuation slider, just as above.

[Steven]

@iasc, I expect you used to have "overlay panels" not ticked and "hide caption bar" ticked - i have put back in support for that combination along with the way the track information is displayed and the artist picture sized for medium sized album covers. You will need to redo your settings. As mentioned the colour picker is unchanged but it is sensitive to the cropping on the picture.

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_3/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

@redwing, i have incorportated endeavour1934's suggestion for the shuffle/ repeat buttons. If you still have problems with the menu refusing to popup then let me know, but i will need step-by-step instructions

[redwing]

@redwing, i have incorportated endeavour1934's suggestion for the shuffle/ repeat buttons. If you still have problems with the menu refusing to popup then let me know, but i will need step-by-step instructions

Thanks! I appreciate it. Can't check it right now since i'm away. I'll be back in a week.

[Iasc]

@KissCool - i realise that. as i said in my original post it has been discussed before. what i was asking was to have this option back.

the visualiser colours are already near maximised for saturation and brightness when drawn on the picture.
Perhaps some who knows more about colour handling might be able to add some comments but i think your only choice will be to either increase the panel opacity or set the opacity to less than 0.5 with text shadowing disabled so the black band displays (thats one of the reasons why i prefer to have the black band displayed)

@Steven - thanks for that, the spectrum is now back to its beautiful best.

[Steven]

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_3/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

has the following changes:
- new player layout (when displayed directly on the main picture, that is not final - see below)
- button to open/ close the right panel - hovering on the right panel to pop up the panel is no longer supported
- you can now hide the windows caption bar even when the right panel is not overlaid onto the picture
- visualiser now extends into the spectrum visualiser when the right panel is not overlaid onto the picture
- tweaks to the picture sizing and borders when the right panel is not overlaid onto the picture - i am really happy now with how that looks

to be done:
- i will look at displaying the player panel onto the main picture similar to how its done with Zune as i do think that layout makes the most sense, especially when you have the spectrum displayed and the player panel is not auto-hidden.
However with Zune, they use heavy tinting of the main picture and so the controls are clearly visible. In MB's case, i dont think people would want heavy tinting, so i will experiment with drawing shadows around the controls but not sure how well that will work out and look.
- search button to display library directly onto the main panel rather than open the Now Playing Assistant

@iasc, with your config the picture now extends into the visualiser - i think it looks much better, but it does mean the cropping size has changed and hence the colours may change, and additionally because in that config the visualiser is not drawn on a solid colour the contrast might not be as great.

[Bee-liever]

- button to open/ close the right panel - hovering on the right panel to pop up the panel is no longer supported

I must say that I'm not liking this change.
My set up was to have the lyrics only displayed. With a quick hover on the RH side I could bring up the now playing panel or artist bio. If I was playing a classical/instrumental work, there was nothing but the image displayed. It was clean, elegant and intuitive. Now, if I want to be able to access now playing or bio quickly from the RH side, I have to have the tab headers always displayed.

Everything else looks good, especially the overlay of the player onto the background (although the progress bar isn't showing up ?)

Please re-consider the RH pop up panel removal.

[Steven]

i will see what others say. At minimum i will change the button to toggle between showing the default (eg. lyrics), then alternative (eg. now playing/ bio), then hiding the panel

[Bee-liever]

Thank you. That would be a fair compromise.

[KissCool]

I must say that I'm not liking this change.
My set up was to have the lyrics only displayed. With a quick hover on the RH side I could bring up the now playing panel or artist bio. If I was playing a classical/instrumental work, there was nothing but the image displayed. It was clean, elegant and intuitive. Now, if I want to be able to access now playing or bio quickly from the RH side, I have to have the tab headers always displayed.

Everything else looks good, especially the overlay of the player onto the background (although the progress bar isn't showing up ?)

Please re-consider the RH pop up panel removal.

I'm using the same set up.
So +1

But I like this new button for hiding quickly lyrics when I don't want 'em
Why not a toggle between hiding panel, then showing the default.
Hiding Panel = hovering on the right panel disabled
Showing the default = e.g. showing lyrics but with hovering on the right panel enabled (would work like the previous compact player version)

Few bugs:
 - The auto-hide scroll bar feature for sync. lyrics doesn't work everytime. If you change the layout (e.g. only displaying the lyrics, then adding bio and/or now playing list), then the scroll bar isn't auto-hidden (same if you hide/display the sync. lyrics with the new button). Restarting MB solves the issue
 - when 2 tabs or more are displayed in the right panel and "overlay panels onto background feature" is enabled, you can't click the minimize, maximize and close buttons.