Browse through Movies in Details View

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I could not find this request, but it is a hard one to search for, so I 
hope I am not duplicating one. I cannot believe this has not been 
requested!

Moving-pictures provides an excellent option for Details View.  This 
enables skinners to keep the main interface screen clean with nice large 
fanart images or posters.  However, navigation is quite awkward if you 
wish to see all details for a movie.  You must return to the main view, go 
to another movie, and then press enter again to view the next Movie 
details.  

All I would like is a simple Next and Previous button for the Details 
view.  First and Last buttons would be nice, or even a search feature, for 
large collections, but you can always page up/down!

Dadeo

Original issue reported on code.google.com by dcarson...@gmail.com on 15 Feb 2010 at 5:07

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instead of skin buttons that just make the navigation messy i propose the 
plugin to
respond to left/right, up/down actions and page up/page down.. or maybe do both 
but
no require those extra buttons..

Original comment by mitja.skuver on 15 Feb 2010 at 8:11

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Great idea. My first inclination is to bind to the Page Up and Page Down keys 
but I 
will post here again before we make a decision. 

Original comment by conrad.john on 16 Feb 2010 at 11:02

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Component-GUI, Milestone-1.1.0, Priority-Medium, Usability

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It would be nice to have some consistency in UI. Since arrow keys are not 
currently 
used for anything afaik in the Details View, I think most users are accustomed 
to 
using the arrow down/up keys for the next/previous item.  Page Up/Down could 
'jump' 
through the list, as one does normally with those buttons, or even to the 
first/last 
item in the current list.  But that is a more 'advanced' feature imo, which is 
not 
absolutely essential.

That said, any button or key would satisfy me!

I know Damien has a similar issue in the MP-TVSeries Issue Tracker http://
code.google.com/p/mptvseries/issues/detail?id=338

From a user perspective it would be nice if there was a consistent logic in the 
way 
you navigate in Details View.  So at least if our top two major plugins used 
the 
same navigation it would set a defacto standard :)

Original comment by dcarson...@gmail.com on 17 Feb 2010 at 2:25

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You definitely make a good point. Because the user is browsing through movies 
via the 
up and down buttons in the previous screen it would make sense to use the same 
keys 
on this screen as well. This is a very compelling argument.

My only concern is that it may collide with current and future functionality of 
Moving Pictures and MediaPortal. Currently the up key is used to move to the 
universal navigation / playback bar built into MediaPortal. So binding to the 
up key 
would make this component inaccessible from the details screen. Also, if in the 
future we add some more interactive content to the details view, it might 
conflict 
with up and down buttons to change the selected movie, as these buttons would 
also be 
needed to navigate on screen content.

Thats the main reason why my first inclination was Page Up and Page Down 
instead. 
Thoughts?

Original comment by conrad.john on 17 Feb 2010 at 4:34

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Thoughts? probably censored! let's use 'ARGH' as a euphemism! LOL  I think you 
have 
clearly indicated why many plugins use the annoying buttons - it avoids such 
conflicts.

I think you are 100% correct, that it is not wise to use 'standard' keys like 
the 
arrow keys which may conflict with existing or future functionality.

The only minor problem with using Page Up/Down is that it is not a 'standard' 
use of 
that button, so I would feel obliged to add an instruction to the skin screen 
saying"
"Page Up = Previous Movie, Page Down=Next Movie" or something equally as 
horrific!

Thus, I am inclined to revert to my original suggestion of using a 
Previous/Next 
button since they:
* require no documentation
* do not conflict with any other functionality
* are a standard method of navigating throughout MP

Original comment by dcarson...@gmail.com on 17 Feb 2010 at 5:03

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Well after testing, the media bar is not accessible on the details screen 
currently 
anyway, at least with StreamedMP using a remote control. But this actually got 
me 
thinking, who is the media bar for? Having a remote control I can access all 
that 
functionality much faster by just clicking the play or pause button on my 
remote. The 
people who would care about it are most likely keyboard and mouse users, and 
for 
them, up and down arrow key bindings mean very little because they can just 
grab the 
mouse.

As far as possible future Moving Pictures functionality on this screen, well we 
can 
cross that bridge when we come to it. Maybe we can change things around again 
then if 
needed.

I am not sure I agree with you on the need for on screen instructions if we 
went with 
a page up and page down binding though. These buttons would certainly be much 
less 
discoverable, but they also would not be triggering any sort of essential 
functionality. It may be a nice "gee wiz" function bound to page up and page 
down, 
documented in a "Tips and Tricks" wiki page or something.

Anyway, I am rambling a bit. I am leaning towards a simply up and down arrow 
key 
binding now though. The MediaPortal conflict is a non-issue and the possible 
Moving 
Pictures conflict is hypothetical and something we'd have control over anyway. 

But I would like to wait to hear what some of the other developers think first. 
travistx, apondman?

Original comment by conrad.john on 17 Feb 2010 at 5:19

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Original comment by conrad.john on 17 Feb 2010 at 5:48

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I think the mediabar is for mouse users. I already thought about adding 
prev/next
keybinds to the details screen some time ago, the keys I would have chosen are 
left
arrow and right arrow because I use the filmstrip view and this would keep it
consistent for me. Maybe make it configurable or dependent on the selected view?

Original comment by shuku...@gmail.com on 17 Feb 2010 at 9:45

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A great suggestion, funny that noone thought about this until now... Regarding 
the
keys vs. buttons dilemma: I would propose to allow the skinner to add a button 
if he
chooses to do so but also provide an option to bind a key to this action
(customizable via config/skin setting?).

Original comment by bgmei...@gmail.com on 17 Feb 2010 at 10:18

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some suggestions for the buttons / key:

1) let the skinner have the option to include buttons in the skin
+ 2) have the functionally always mapped to following remote/keys:

|<< (replay) = first movie
<< (rewind) = previous movie
>> (forward) = next movie
>>| (skip) = last movie

see image (these four buttons are around the play button in this example):
http://img.hexus.net/v2/internationalevents/ces2008/nick/harm_large_1.jpg

Original comment by apond...@gmail.com on 17 Feb 2010 at 11:39

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since there are conflicts about which keys to bind for the previous/next 
action, the
logical solution is:

* for plugin to respond to two buttons which are not required (skinner can 
choose
weather to include them or not)

AND

* to have them configurably mapped to standard mediaportal action like in some
existing plugins (worldmap for example). with possibility of choosing no action.

Original comment by mitja.skuver on 29 Mar 2010 at 9:15

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Maybe in the future we can setup various actions that can be bound via the key 
config 
in MediaPortal, I'd definitely consider this a separate enhancement though. 

Mitja, I am not sure what you mean when you are talking about the skinner. This 
feature is really unrelated to the skin.

And as for the keybinding, apondman, I like your suggestion to use the next and 
back 
buttons, however I think this would conflict with existing keybindings. If the 
user 
is listening to music in the background for example, the next and back buttons 
on the 
remote have relevant functions that we should not override. Thoughts?

Original comment by conrad.john on 29 Mar 2010 at 9:37

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Well, two buttons on the detail screen (if added) should have something with 
skin,
don't you think? This first point was actually the same as apondman's 1).

Original comment by mitja.skuver on 29 Mar 2010 at 10:12

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About the second point (for the two configurable actions), i have mentioned this
since it's obviously hard to decide which two buttons should be used for
previous/next movie in details view (users can have different remotes or 
setups). So
it could possibly be better to leave these two bindings for the user to 
configure. 

For this reason I think it's reasonable not to consider this as separate 
enhancement.
It could certainly be separate enhancement if you expand idea to other actions 
in the
Moving Pictures plugin, as you have said already.

As for the apondman's 2), i like the idea but that will certainly interfere with
existing actions.

Original comment by mitja.skuver on 29 Mar 2010 at 10:27

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Well I think you have all made it clear why I originally proposed the Next 
Previous 
skin buttons - maybe it is messy navigation as mitja calls it, but it is clear 
and 
what users are used to in MP.  Configurable key bindings are a nice feature, 
and I 
like the idea, but I agree with john, not essential for getting navigation to 
work 
in Details View.

I just don't want to delay implementation by complicating the issue, and I see 
no 
reason why configurable buttons could not be added later. Then you could 
consider 
configurable buttons for other screens/functions as well if you wish.

Original comment by dcarson...@gmail.com on 30 Mar 2010 at 5:36

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I thought a lot about this and my preference would be for up/left cursor = prev 
movie down/right cursor = next movie.

If in the future if there were additional options accessable on the details 
page, they would most likely be in the form of a sliding side menu or pop up 
menu.  In this case, either

Up/Down keys for next/prev movie and right/left (+/- info/F9 key) to access 
additional menu.

The alternative being that enter accesses the additional menu with the default 
option being play.  If user doesn't want to access the additional menu then 
they must hit 'p' or play buttons.

Original comment by kiwijung...@gmail.com on 15 Jun 2010 at 9:45

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Original comment by conrad.john on 31 Jan 2011 at 1:22

• Removed labels: Milestone-1.1.0