MPC-HC GUI Discussion Thread

[bobdynlan]

tetsuo55, I agree that a benchmark is needed and I was thinking about some high-performance timer to count just until the first loaded frame, in release mode, and outputting the value in a file or in the registry. But there are far better skilled people in the team to provide that. If you ask me, "eye-o-metric" it takes the same time :) And the "eye" spends more time looking at the gui than waiting for it.

Kado, "press Alt to see the menu" is another level of regression from the "press Alt to see key accelerators". Good thing you can turn it off, not like that awful ribbon... but this is a media player and different rules apply. I don't want to look as stiff as the devs :rolleyes: so I've added an option to just hide the menubar, from the menu or by pressing the Alt key. Twice. Doing hocus-pocus like MS does in IE was too much trouble. And wrong (try pressing Alt again with the IE menu popped up). To do auto-hide, another timer is needed and I've already messed too much with the mainfrm as hiding the menubar can break calculations. Better than nothing.

The Hand(cursor) missed by djsolidsnake86 in later builds, found it's way back, on the status bar and on the volume ctrl. Good thing it was removed from the video area to make way for this.

And I've changed some of all-time wanted default shortcuts:
Framestep - Ctrl + Left/Right and Seek Medium - Left/Right.
Now it does not feel retarded anymore for grandma.
Audio delay - Ctrl + Num+/Num-
Preventing accidental press when trying to resize video window, as those keys are on the far right and quite large.
File Properties - Tab
From Shift+F10. Also changed the dialog to start with the Details sheet, as that's the primary info needed.
http://drop.io/download/public/aibakehym4xdgudx2ggl/d3594d722a0aefd82d6d5e266be3f19a27a21b98/Asset/46059233/v3/large_thumbnail
x86 2599 VS2008 build (http://drop.io/bobdynlan/asset/mpc-hc-2599-7z) and source diff (http://drop.io/bobdynlan/asset/bobdynlan-2599-src-7z)

[tetsuo55]

We actually do not have any devs willing or able to write that benchmark.
Could you do the honors? :)

[iron2000]

Thanks for adding the menu bar hide, bobdynlan!

Tried the new build.
The menu bar hides but it comes back after exiting from fullscreen.

Also the stereo icon at the bottom right of the status area is not cleaned up properly.
Or has it been like that since a long time?

[73ChargerFan]

Regarding hitting the ALT or other keys, please remember HTPC users don't have a keyboard handy. Mouse is the only way.

[tetsuo55]

bobdynlan if you could join us on IRC we could discus how to get these changes into the svn.

http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=mpc-hc

[sidi0us]

bobdynlan, would you reconsider removing the separators? I think it looks nicer.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo154/sidi0us/1.jpg

with timer
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo154/sidi0us/1-1.jpg

What do you guys think?

[Dark Eiri]

Whoa, it does look really nice!

[Tsukihime]

@sidi0us, with timer it looks very nice

[sidi0us]

With smaller and fewer buttons (increase/decrease speed removed). I think that the "step" button should be used to open files.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo154/sidi0us/2.jpg

[tetsuo55]

sidi0us are you modifying the code or using photoshop?

[sidi0us]

sidi0us are you modifying the code or using photoshop?

Photoshop :|

This is how it looks right now

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo154/sidi0us/1-2.jpg

[bobdynlan]

That would be a nice step up in terms of usability. Crossed my mind many times, but doing that would have killed the plug&play approach (on/revert at runtime). And is one of those moves that don't fit in the "moving few pixels here and there" category. I had enough problems making the volume control "transparent", but the same solution could work for this too. Later. For now, let's find a way to hide those separators (search for mfc flat toolbar separators and you will see how problematic they are).

EDIT:
Here's a new build to try out (http://drop.io/bobdynlan/asset/mpc-hc-2599b-7z-10). Changes:
- Play & Pause combined into one
- Pause replaced by Step
- Step replaced by Open. This is a new entry. I've changed the not used "volume disabled" image. External toolbar bitmaps should be modified with a changed last icon, too (you see now why are changes like this not welcomed).
- So the layout is now Play(Pause)-Step-Stop-SkipBack-DecSpeed-IncSpeed-SkipForw-|Open|-Mute
- Fixed the extra separators showing up, now it's the same as default, two around Open(former Skip)
- Volume control uses face+outline colours for the active part, not changeable darker colour for the inactive part. Looked odd in the left=face, right=outline approach
- Fixed hidden menu popping out after fullscreen
- Window's horizontal size limited to the width of the toolbar
http://drop.io/download/public/aibakehym4xdgudx2ggl/c8ea33a42a4e5263b2a3352a8d8646c314d76b78/Asset/46421251/v3/large_thumbnail

[Sem]

This is really awesome

what are the chances of it becoming the default UI

[iron2000]

Tested the new build.

Nice!
The menu bar coming back upon fullscreen exit is no longer happening.
The stereo icon is cleaned up too.

[Ger]

Nice work.

A 32x32 version of the default toolbar would be appreciated. Maybe 32x32 can be embedded in the exe, with an option on the Tweaks page to choose the button size?

The default buttons are very small on a TV when you're farther away from the screen.

[v0lt]

bobdynlan
- Play & Pause combined into one
not best solution. I vote for two buttons.

[tetsuo55]

bobdynlan

not best solution. I vote for two buttons.can you explain why you want the 2? they are mutually exclusive, thus redundant.

[sidi0us]

can you explain why you want the 2? they are mutually exclusive, thus redundant.

I agree, it should be only one button.

[v0lt]

Two buttons. Where do you press, then what will happen.

One button. If a player is frozen, you will remember how many times have clicked it? What will happen is unclear. Enrages.

[sidi0us]

Two buttons. Where do you press, then what will happen.

One button. If a player is frozen, you will remember how many times have clicked it? What will happen is unclear. Enrages.

The button icon changes from play to pause and backwards, if the player is frozen you will know in which mode it is. And besides that, when mpc-hc ever frozen?

[v0lt]

I do not remember exactly now, but the button "play-pause" in a sort of slow player really irritated me.

[tetsuo55]

it should not be a problem for mpc-hc

[bobdynlan]

I do not remember exactly now, but the button "play-pause" in a sort of slow player really irritated me. That's why I've moved the Step button second. At least in video mode, it will pause when pressed. So you can still click the first button to play, the second button to pause, until the old habit dies :) I have found it much irritating not being able to click on the already selected and poorly highlighted buttons. The frame around selected buttons should be gone too, as the change of icon is enough visual aid (paused, stopped, muted). Basically, all items to be buttons and not (group)check-boxes.
Nobody complains about the Open icon (done in VS resource editor in under five minutes) so I will keep it :rolleyes: It was made to really stand out and scratch some retina's. Will change it to ^ standard one on the next sketch.

[v0lt]

bobdynlan
Nobody complains about the Open icon
Icon is not successful. :)

[Bacon_67]

It looks like disabling the menu bar creates tiny black borders on the top and bottom between the actual video and GUI edges (appears to only be apparent after closing the playing and opening a new video with the menu bar disabled). You can make them go away but slightly adjusting the window size vertically, but so it's just a minor annoyance. :)

[phoenix_fr]

bobdynlan
your last build is really great (it's a pity that no 64bits)

but
"Open icon" would rather have a classic folder look, here "3 2 1" is not terrible depending on the color you chose in the options

However it is unfortunate that this is not built into every new build on
http://www.xvidvideo.ru/media-player-classic-home-cinema-x86-x64/

otherwise
is it possible to add a parameter of thickness of the color bar in the 'seek bar'
that it covers the part that you have "skinned" for her

BUT there must be a bug, because it adds to me of both the top and bottom of the video compared to the unmodified version of mpc hc

unless it takes the fact that there is a 32bit version, not my usual version is 64bit and I use with my ffdshow also

[_xxl]

Thanks for your work.

[DGMurdockIII]

Photoshop :|

This is how it looks right now

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo154/sidi0us/1-2.jpg

if this became the default I would give MPC-HC another try for a week to see if i would use it over vlc

[bobdynlan]

is it possible to add a parameter of thickness of the color bar in the 'seek bar'
that it covers the part that you have "skinned" for her

BUT there must be a bug, because it adds to me of both the top and bottom of the video compared to the unmodified version of mpc hc Some will find hard to understand your post, but I know french :) It's a good practice to provide a screenshot with the issues you've found, as pictures are better than words sometimes. Like:
http://drop.io/download/public/aibakehym4xdgudx2ggl/00c8eb4e7e443a081609028c2980996e7a719fdb/Asset/46907797/v3/large_thumbnail
I am aware of those issues. First one happens because you use higher DPI settings than default. In Windows 7 there is an option to disable XP DPI Scaling and you get a proper enlarged (blurred) picture. Scaling can be disabled for the seekbar. Second one, hiding of the menu bar breaks some calculations for the window size.
Wait for the next schetch, it will solve some of these issues.

[stax76]

Difficult topic I know, I've spent weeks to make StaxRip fully high DPI aware, would be nice MPC-HC getting there too.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd464660%28v=VS.85%29.aspx

[tetsuo55]

High DPI awareness would be great.
If either of you could write a patch? we have an old ticket about it http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/mpc-hc/ticket/311

[73ChargerFan]

With smaller and fewer buttons (increase/decrease speed removed). I think that the "step" button should be used to open files.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo154/sidi0us/2.jpg
Can Play/Pause be the same button?

[73ChargerFan]

And besides that, when mpc-hc ever frozen?
It happens when there is a problem with one of the filters.

Happens with me all the time (dts over spdif), at which time I switch from one audio-out filter to another and restart the player.

Also happens when Haali matroska splitter doesn't like a file.

[sidi0us]

Can Play/Pause be the same button?

Yes, try bobdynlan's latest build, see post #162 (http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1445202&postcount=162).


It happens when there is a problem with one of the filters.

Happens with me all the time (dts over spdif), at which time I switch from one audio-out filter to another and restart the player.

Also happens when Haali matroska splitter doesn't like a file.

Never happened to me, but it's good to know.

[phoenix_fr]

hello

for me

http://nsa20.casimages.com/img/2010/10/02/101002040104873750.png (http://www.casimages.com)

for "thicker" via option "%" of X
X no determinate actually... X = height of video ? ... if 0 (music) then value defaut
or "nb pixel"

[phoenix_fr]

http://nsa20.casimages.com/img/2010/10/02/mini_10100204164052836.png (http://www.casimages.com/img.php?i=10100204164052836.png)

left:

1) pb back stripes
2) seek bar no centered at height

right:

1) no pb back stripes
2) seek bar centered at height (Modified 2 pixels high in the skin)
3) thickness current bar (yellow here) increased

_________

bobdynlan
you prevent me from sleeping with the work you do on the interface

http://tesson.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/reve-voler-1-160.jpg

[bobdynlan]

phoenix_fr, next sketch will have the option to enlarge the controls, and maybe autoswitch depending on DPI. Menus are looking great in any DPI settings with just a small .manifest patch, but the bitmap controls must be recreated at different sizes. About the seekbar, it can be made ticker, but the above and below borders will have to be made ticker as well, reason for this is not only cosmetic, it's an usability feature (too crowded will generate not wanted clicks on the video window or on the toolbar, and will be even worse on audio mode when autozoom).

In the following days I will have more time for working on this. Last time, I've fixed the hide menu adding black borders, made a 20pix toolbar, removed all the separators and cured that frequent need to press Ctrl+5...

http://drop.io/download/public/aibakehym4xdgudx2ggl/bad702807b4379bdaa17737733e7f6291e25bcc9/Asset/47401753/v3/large_thumbnail

[Dark Eiri]

Wow, this last screenshot looks beautiful! It looks awesome, I think it's well balanced in size, thickness of the time slider and everything. Congrats, man! You're doing an awesome job! I can't wait for it to be merged to the SVN.

[Keiyakusha]

Is is possible to replace anything that is bitmap with... lets say svg?

[burfadel]

Photoshop :|

This is how it looks right now

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo154/sidi0us/1-2.jpg

That would be a nice step up in terms of usability. Crossed my mind many times, but doing that would have killed the plug&play approach (on/revert at runtime). And is one of those moves that don't fit in the "moving few pixels here and there" category. I had enough problems making the volume control "transparent", but the same solution could work for this too. Later. For now, let's find a way to hide those separators (search for mfc flat toolbar separators and you will see how problematic they are).

EDIT:
Here's a new build to try out (http://drop.io/bobdynlan/asset/mpc-hc-2599b-7z-10). Changes:
- Play & Pause combined into one
- Pause replaced by Step
- Step replaced by Open. This is a new entry. I've changed the not used "volume disabled" image. External toolbar bitmaps should be modified with a changed last icon, too (you see now why are changes like this not welcomed).
- So the layout is now Play(Pause)-Step-Stop-SkipBack-DecSpeed-IncSpeed-SkipForw-|Open|-Mute
- Fixed the extra separators showing up, now it's the same as default, two around Open(former Skip)
- Volume control uses face+outline colours for the active part, not changeable darker colour for the inactive part. Looked odd in the left=face, right=outline approach
- Fixed hidden menu popping out after fullscreen
- Window's horizontal size limited to the width of the toolbar
http://drop.io/download/public/aibakehym4xdgudx2ggl/c8ea33a42a4e5263b2a3352a8d8646c314d76b78/Asset/46421251/v3/large_thumbnail

I much prefer the top one over the bottom one. The bottom one is, no offence, very bland. The top one look great, and IMO looks more Windows 7ish, whereas the bottom one looks more XPish :)

[Keiyakusha]

burfadel
I don't see much difference between 2 images you quoted. If you don't like buttons - use your own. AFAIR toolbar styling wasn't removed.

[burfadel]

The first pic has shaded 3d-like buttons that look in place, the second one is just white blocks, people may think the button icons aren't working and be turned off. The volume icon on the second one looks better though :) If you make the interface too bland its not going to be attractive for people too use, and they may be turned away like they are with the current Windows 95 style interface. Its just like buying a car. The car could be great value for money, have all the features you could ever want, be high powered, really economical and cheap for service and repairs, but if the styling is too plain, bland, and/or boring people won't buy it. The same car with nice, modern styling that isn't over the top could end up with many times more sales. The interface needs to be a balance between being nice and clean enough for the enthusiasts to be partial to, and interesting/impressive enough for people who don't know anything about the capabilities of MPC-HC to be enthused enough to give it a chance.

[Keiyakusha]

burfadel
Oh you don't need to explain why shaded buttons can be better, yes they can look nice. However in this case I don't agree that buttons on the 1st image looks "in place". The buttons on 2nd image looks way better for me. Maybe because I tried both of this variants in action. The buttons on 1st image needs to be redone to really fit to current look.

[phoenix_fr]

Ok


http://nsa19.casimages.com/img/2010/10/04/10100401114840735.png (http://www.casimages.com)

otherwise,
compared to your screen just above

would it be possible to have the time elapsed at the same height as the seek bar

there I began to right, but it might be more logical left?

the idea is that if you hide the button bar and use the seek bar to navigate, it has at least an indication of time

[nevcairiel]

Splitting the time into two positions seems rather confusing.

[sidi0us]

I much prefer the top one over the bottom one. The bottom one is, no offence, very bland. The top one look great, and IMO looks more Windows 7ish, whereas the bottom one looks more XPish :)

You can use one of these (http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/mpc-hc/wiki/Toolbar_images) buttons, or make your own.

Ok

otherwise,
compared to your screen just above

would it be possible to have the time elapsed at the same height as the seek bar

there I began to right, but it might be more logical left?

the idea is that if you hide the button bar and use the seek bar to navigate, it has at least an indication of time

That doesn't look too good, I agree with nevcairiel.

[Keiyakusha]

phoenix_fr
Agree with nevcairiel. Also when subresync active, there is also milliseconds on the timer. You probably should take this into account.

[iron2000]

Splitting the time into two positions seems rather confusing.

Yup, I agree too.

Maybe thare can be 2 versions of seekbars available at the View menu, one with the 2 time values and one is just the seek bar.

[phoenix_fr]

or the "total time" is at the right volume on the button bar.
like that when we display the two bars it's been "clean"

http://nsa19.casimages.com/img/2010/10/05/101005082422424307.png (http://www.casimages.com)


Note: the drawing of the speaker is not necessary I think,
just the appearance of red ring strikethrough (and green ring if sound ON ? ... to made "clic" )

[73ChargerFan]

phoenix_fr, next sketch will have the option to enlarge the controls, and maybe autoswitch depending on DPI. Menus are looking great in any DPI settings with just a small .manifest patch...

If the toolbar can be resized under software control (vs compile time) please have an override setting, even if it might be registry or ini file only at first. That way others can play with it or adjust it.

I use a 20" lcd & 58" tv and sometimes the buttons are too small at 10 feet using the mouse.

Thanks for what you're doing!