Some thoughts on usability
#1
Lightbulb 
Hey,

Big fan of XBMC and currently running it on OpenElec. I have been using XBMC for ages, since it first appeared on the Xbox.

Recently I did have a Boxee box at home and while I liked some things I felt it was quite limited and I ended up getting the Asus Eee Box and installed OpenElec on that (tried Win7 and Ubuntu before that, but too much hassle compared to the Xbox). With OpenElec I like how it just boots and that's it, you're ready to go.

One major feature that I liked about Boxee and many of my other systems I use today Xbox 360 (Metro), Synology NAS etc is a global search feature, just making everything a bit more accessible.

I have tried but in the current format I will never be able to get my friends to play music in XBMC. It's just too much of a hassle; enter music library press right or whatever, choose the search button and enter your search criteria, then choose the result. To play all from one artist you have to enter a sub-menu and select play, to queue you have to enter a sub-menu. There's no option to get more tracks from the same artist, you can't instantly queue or star tracks it's all hidden.

On the Boxee I could just start typing and it started a search over all different types of media, nicely categorized and tabbed and you could take it from there.

Now when ppl come over they mostly use just spotify anyway, but I want to try and shift over from that, and with the Spotify compile it becomes even more relevant just to make XBMC an end-user product, not too advanced. Yes it plays basically everything I throw at it, but without usability, what is that good for?

Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone else experienced the same frustrations?

I'm was on the Aoen MQ2 skin, before that I was on the Xeebo (wich was as close to the user friendly features I got) and now I'm on Quartz.

Maybe just a skinning issue and I'm missing something?

Thanks.
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#2
Not skin related. You could try global search program addon. It's not exactly what you're after but it's close.
My skins:

Amber
Quartz

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#3
Yeah, the music side of XBMC really needs some TLC. In time, though, in time. Only so many hours in the day, and only so many devs. The video side of things tend to steal the attention for everyone.
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#4
On the strength of this post I'm currently integrating ronie's GlobalSearch addon into XeeBo.
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#5
IMHO XBMC is really good as a media center, but it does need alot more work on the music side. I decided when I built my interface that winamp would be a better way for me to pipe audio to the entire house. Using the webinterface and a custom skin I am able to play mp3, custom playlists, streaming radio stations, ipod contol, but the biggest was being able to control and play music without turning on any tv.

The music server is a headless usff pc running at a 1.2ghz with 768 mb of ram and Sound Blaster pci card Os is Xp Pro which boots up under a minute. I use a tablet to control everything but many friends have come over using iphones and andriod phones without hiccups.

I am working on setting up dual zones but have not had the time yet.

WHOLE HOUSE AUDIO
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#6
Sorry for not replying earlier, for some reason I didn't get email notifications. :/

I will try the global search addon (I'm on XeeBo so maybe I don't have to), seems to be in the right direction. Just to minimize the amount of clicks to get to certain parts and make a bit more graphical with big clear icons would be a big step for XBMC. As you mentioned the video (movies atleast) side is fine. But as soon as it comes to TV-series and music it turns out it is quite limited and you need to perform many steps to get to the interesting parts.

Hitcher: Excellent news! XeeBo is my favourite skin when it comes to usability! Alot of info on the first screen and easy to access. Granted there are skins that perhaps looks flashier and cooler but the functionality is limited. I don't (well maybe a little) want a skin to show of with, I want something that everyone can use!

On a side note, don't know if any of you guys have the Xbox 360, but they recently released YouTube and Muzu.tv "apps" for that dashboard and I'm impressed! Visual, easy to use, "play all" feature and a "related videos" feature. And trust me, I did not expect this from MS. But this is how plugins should be integrated. Smile)
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#7
I'm looking for a windows app to remote control xbmc so I can play my music with the big screen off. I see lots of things for iphones etc but non for windows. Does such a thing exist?
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HTPC: Motherboard: Asus F2A85-V, CPU: AMD A10 6800K, RAM: Kingston XMP BEAST 16GB, Samsung 840 EVO 250GB, LG CH12NS30 Blu-Ray drive, Samsung, and WD various 2 and 3TB for storage, Windows 8.1, one for all remote/FLIRC, Logitech z906 surround system.
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#8
The web app thing or XBMC Virtual Controller?
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#9
I found one called awx that half does what I want, but unfortunately it doesn't have access to music addons.

Does the xbmc api even support access to those?
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HTPC: Motherboard: Asus F2A85-V, CPU: AMD A10 6800K, RAM: Kingston XMP BEAST 16GB, Samsung 840 EVO 250GB, LG CH12NS30 Blu-Ray drive, Samsung, and WD various 2 and 3TB for storage, Windows 8.1, one for all remote/FLIRC, Logitech z906 surround system.
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Some thoughts on usability0