MPC-HC GUI Discussion Thread

[stax76]

Maybe it's time to drop that C and just call it MPHC.

C could also stand for Contemporary, a solution would be offering a Classic and a Contemporary theme and on the first start the user would be asked which theme to use. There are already some alternative buttons, now only the sliders and background color need work, might be doable within a day, there is some code for a custom drawing MFC slider at codeproject.

[grizzly666]

Originally Posted by tetsuo55

The current gui is not perfect, since it copies media player 6.4 it also copies some of its design faults.
i do think that we need to update the gui in some small area's,

The changes that might occur are minor, like moving things areound a few pixels, nothing huge.

We are open to a more modern looking gui, but only if its scientifically simple and usefull and improves performance (or is at least on par)

Keep in mind that mpc-hc is intended as a quick lightweight player, all the "playlist-esque" features are not the main goal.

I agree with tetsuo55 that it is only a few minor tweeks that is needed for the gui.

The biggest i see is the seekbar autohide,popup when a remote is used (play,pause,skip,ff,etc).

And also there is a part missing since the "homecinema" name was added.
I remember that when i did read about the mpchc i thought yes finally a good player with a simple browser or any other simple way of starting a file with a remote.

But ever since then i have been dissapointed since there should atleast be a simple,nice way to start files with a remote.

That is what i associate "homecinema" with (optimized for remote).

What i would like is some kind of simple file browser like the one in zoomplayer where you could browse all your hds and find the file you want to play (not like in xbmc,wmc,etc,etc) only a simple text file browser.
One wish is that you should be able to delete file,files using the file browser but that is not a requirement only a wish to be included.
When deleted if it is to the Recycle Bin or not dosen't matter at all to me, but i can see that many wants it in the Recycle Bin.

How to display the file browser like in zoomplayer or by osd dosen't matter much as long as you can see what your doing and that starting files and optionally also delete them.
It could be in black and white if it atleast get added.

What is in zoomplayer is perfect for me since i do not save 90-95% of the files i watch i do not see the need to create any playlist for them.
Only browse to the file play it (mayby a couple) then delete the file,files using the file browser with the remote.

I do now that gomplayer,kmplayer,pot and one more i can't find remember the name of have file browser in them.
I don't get any of them to play as good as zoomplayer does and mpc does play even better then zoomplayer.

So is there any other players with a file browser in them i could play with a while?

Or is there any skin,mods to xbmc,windows media center or any of all the other programs that do give me a simple file browser?
And not all the flashy useless crap that they do have from the start
I don't care about all the posters,info and have to rename or add a nfo to many,many files to get the scanners to find the right poster,info so the RIGTH movie,series show up in the gui and then after i have watched it delete that file.

Its only seems like much work and no gain at all to me.

[DrNein]

XBMC can have all the scraper stuff disabled and be set to start at the Video menu (optionally blank background) so it is a relatively simple browser. The main downside is that CPU utilization of the GUI is very high -higher than when the GPU is actually decoding BD video. Anyway, the DSPlayer build can be configured to launch MPC-HC and with some minor changes to "Keys", remote control is seemless between the two (using MCE IR receiver).

[Hypernova]

@grizzly666 Just curious, why don't you just use "open file" dialog for that? It's essentially a windows explorer. Maybe the font is not big enough?

[iron2000]

Someone at Neowin posted a seekbar and volume bar modded version:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/93...olumebar-hack/

[sidi0us]

He also posted in another thread the tutorial for the volume bar (which is easy to do).

Using a hex editor locate hex 05BF20 at offset D7342 and change to 05BF10 (I used notepad++ with hex addon and searched with ctrl-f "05BF20" and changed to "05BF10" then saved).



The only problem that remains is the seekbar slider...

[bobdynlan]

Resource hacking an open-source program like MPC-HC, that sounds like fun Well, I took a different path. Learned some stuff in the process - it's not that easy for a newcomer. So here is an image preview of my work:

Features:
- dark background, the thing I needed the most
- new volume control, interacts with mute on/off
- new progress control, active/inactive visual aid
- new toolbar buttons

It's a work in progress, but I like the current visual feel, so I will not change it too much in the future.
I will start working on the playlist and the menu also, to see how they blend in, and then provide also a binary for you to try it out.
Right now, the buttons, volume control and progress control are following the Control Panel 3D-objects colours, but I'm thinking on adding customizable colour - as the simplest "skin engine" if possible.


All work was done with custom draw - GDI stuff.

[tetsuo55]

thats just amazing......


So you didnt resource hack that? its a real code patch?

[leeperry]

Originally Posted by bobdynlan

It's a work in progress, but I like the current visual feel, so I will not change it

it doesn't look like windows 95 anymore, the "Classic" team will whip you for that

together w/ the hack to get a real volume slider and a nicer looking seeking locator, MPC might actually start to look posh...well done!

[Keiyakusha]

Wow it would be nice to see actual binary! Looks good!

p.s.
hey, I can see volume slider now!

p.p.s.
I don't think this is hacking. looks too great to be it. But even if so - it should be possible to transform changes into patch :Р

[Px]

Originally Posted by bobdynlan

So here is an image preview of my work

Looking good

[burfadel]

The dark background does look ok, but the buttons are too small and don't suit it. I think the 'blue crystal' theme from earlier in this thread looks good, the buttons are of reasonable size. The modifications to that I would suggest is to have the dark background feel, and to have the play button green, stop button as red, pause as orange, and the step/speed buttons as something else anyway...

The progress bar in the dark theme looks good, does the end bit light up when the mouse cursor is over it? It makes things easier when doing things quickly The volume button from the 'blue crystal' theme is good, and good in the current colour, although the volume level should be changed to that showed in the dark background theme.

btw, the other day I had to convince someone it was a good player, as they thought it was really old (and all old things are apparently crappy!). I then gave her the exact same version but with the two files for the blue crystal themes, and apparently the player was much better. The picture and sound quality was also better

Psychology plays a big part in what people think of things, the old interface of MPC-HC just makes people think its old.

[khagaroth]

The blue crystal buttons wouldn't suit this at all, and they are ugly on their own anyways. And colorful play/pause/stop buttons? Yuck. It's perfect as it is. It doesn't look like something from the dark ages, but it's still simple and clean.

[Steveo08]

i really asking me for what a new gui, because i always start my movies in fullscreen mode.

[Superb]

@bobdynlan: the first one looks great!

[jeremy33]

Yes the first one is very good !

[burfadel]

Originally Posted by khagaroth

The blue crystal buttons wouldn't suit this at all, and they are ugly on their own anyways. And colorful play/pause/stop buttons? Yuck. It's perfect as it is. It doesn't look like something from the dark ages, but it's still simple and clean.

I hope you were referring to the dark background one, as the interface for MPC-HC really is from the dark ages at the moment! It truly looks like something from early Windows 95 days, or even Windows 3.1. The truth is, it is! and in terms of computing that is the dark ages! The original MPC (and current look) was an aesthetical copy of the original Windows Media Player that shipped with Windows 95. Windows 95! So the interface design in MPC-HC is at least 15 years old... (not saying MPC is that old, the design, since it was a direct copy of the original WMP design).

On looking back at the options, now the blue crystal changes do sound a little bright. I wouldn't say yuck though, I do like it at the moment because they're decent size buttons and modern. I hate small buttons, I'm sure people hated that about winamp The actual button icons themselves shoudl be about the diameter of the standard mouse pointer IMO, and spaced nicely. it makes for easy clicking, and easy to see what you're doing. A gui is not about just about looking nice, its about ease of use too.

The dark one with bigger buttons would be nice.

[Keiyakusha]

Originally Posted by Steveo08

i really asking me for what a new gui, because i always start my movies in fullscreen mode.

Answer: for those who don't start movies in fullscreen mode. And gui is used in fuliscreen too, you know...

[Steveo08]

Originally Posted by Keiyakusha

Answer: for those who don't start movies in fullscreen mode. And gui is used in fuliscreen too, you know...

well, i would say not really, just a little......

[Roobaj]

Is there a skin support in MPC-HC? instead of changing the GUI I thought maybe adding support for skins would be better.

Anyway, my perfect GUI is WMP12 now playing mode, clean and simple.