Keep in mind this was the first time I've used XBMC, and I only spent about an hour futzing with it (VLC takes about 1 minute to set up the first time).
Begin rant:
I installed XBMC yesterday.
Upon opening it for the first time, I immediately ran into a problem: A Little Snitch window appeared, waiting for me to accept or deny the connection to port 80. Although that window was on top of the XBMC window, my mouse could not get on top of it to press the button. in fact, the cursor was invisible throughout the entire screen, except a small strip at the bottom, where I could see it and was able to unhide the Dock. I tried and tried to get the mouse to appear so I could approve the connection, but it was fruitless. I I finally used ⌘+Tab to change apps, and the Little Snitch window was still on top and I was able to press Accept. I went back to XBMC and another LS window popped up. Again the cursor was hidden and I could not get to the LS window. Switched apps, clicked Accept, went back to XBMC and it happened again! Switched apps, accepted, switched back and got another one! This was really p*ss*ing me off since I couldn't simply press the button while XBMC was in use. Since the cursor wasn't visible, I wasn't able to click anything else in XBMC either. When the next LS window popped up, I switched apps and approved the connection to port 80 forever, so there wouldn't be any more requests for that port. I've never encountered this invisible cursor/LS window issue before.
Okay, after getting past that, I was impressed with the appearance of the app itself - the backgrounds are very nice. However, I quickly found that the navigation is HORRIBLE! Makes me wonder if the developers have ever actually gone through the menus. Quite often I'd get to a place where I wanted to leave, and there seemed to be no way out. Pressing the Escape button does nothing except make a sound. For example, if you click the Music tab, a window opens with several items listed. There seems to be to way to exit: there's no 'X' in the corner, no "Close" button, and clicking outside that area does nothing. The first couple times I had to quit to get out of the damn thing, then later I spotted the Home icon in the top left corner of the screen. I would prefer some sort of conspicuous button in the window. Pity that such an attractive app has such a terrible interface.
it seems that once you're in the app, you're stuck there - there is no button to minimize the window as there is in VLC and Quicktime (and almost all other other apps). You must either quit the app, or use a shortcut or Exposé to move to another app.
There appear to be no equalizer or audio settings. WTF?!
ANY app designed to play music should have some audio settings!
There should be tooltips for all buttons and settings; there are an abundance of settings in this app that are not in other players, and I don't know what some of them do. Perhaps they're described in a user manual, but that would be extremely tedious if I had to keep resorting to a manual for each these settings. Even the 2 buttons in the lower left corner are ambiguous for a new user. I hovered over them waiting for a tooltip to tell me what they were for, but of course it never came. Clicking the leftmost icon causes a window to slide open from the right side of the screen, but it's empty and I have no idea what it's for.
The Weather tab displays a nice outdoor image that suits the tab; the Video tab shows a theater, which suits the tab; Music shows a guitar, which suits the tab; but Programs shows an abstract image that does not seem to suit the tab - it has little to do with programs (except maybe Photoshop).
I managed to view one video, and after it ended text started scrolling across the bottom of the screen (if it was there before, I hadn't noticed). I found this intrusive and annoying, and then I deduced from the icon on the bottom right that it must be an RSS feed. So I went stumbling through the menus again, and never did find a setting for RSS, and the text kept going. You'd think that clicking that RSS icon would do something, but you'd be wrong.
The temperature at the top is in Celsius. May as well put it in Martian, because they mean about the same to me. There's no setting for this in the Weather tab, but wouldn't you think that since I've already set my location and it is correctly displayed, that it would appear in Fahrenheit since I'm in the US?
And while we're on the subject, why is there a weather app inside this media player?!
What's next, a tab for currency exchange rates?
There will likely be more issues to add to this rant if I continue to use XBMC, but for now this is all I could think of.
If it's intent of the developers to drive away all but the most serious users, they may have succeeded. I look forward to the ease of using VLC again, and it has an equalizer!
VLC ain't pretty, but it's straightforward.
End rant.
Begin rant:
I installed XBMC yesterday.
Upon opening it for the first time, I immediately ran into a problem: A Little Snitch window appeared, waiting for me to accept or deny the connection to port 80. Although that window was on top of the XBMC window, my mouse could not get on top of it to press the button. in fact, the cursor was invisible throughout the entire screen, except a small strip at the bottom, where I could see it and was able to unhide the Dock. I tried and tried to get the mouse to appear so I could approve the connection, but it was fruitless. I I finally used ⌘+Tab to change apps, and the Little Snitch window was still on top and I was able to press Accept. I went back to XBMC and another LS window popped up. Again the cursor was hidden and I could not get to the LS window. Switched apps, clicked Accept, went back to XBMC and it happened again! Switched apps, accepted, switched back and got another one! This was really p*ss*ing me off since I couldn't simply press the button while XBMC was in use. Since the cursor wasn't visible, I wasn't able to click anything else in XBMC either. When the next LS window popped up, I switched apps and approved the connection to port 80 forever, so there wouldn't be any more requests for that port. I've never encountered this invisible cursor/LS window issue before.
Okay, after getting past that, I was impressed with the appearance of the app itself - the backgrounds are very nice. However, I quickly found that the navigation is HORRIBLE! Makes me wonder if the developers have ever actually gone through the menus. Quite often I'd get to a place where I wanted to leave, and there seemed to be no way out. Pressing the Escape button does nothing except make a sound. For example, if you click the Music tab, a window opens with several items listed. There seems to be to way to exit: there's no 'X' in the corner, no "Close" button, and clicking outside that area does nothing. The first couple times I had to quit to get out of the damn thing, then later I spotted the Home icon in the top left corner of the screen. I would prefer some sort of conspicuous button in the window. Pity that such an attractive app has such a terrible interface.
it seems that once you're in the app, you're stuck there - there is no button to minimize the window as there is in VLC and Quicktime (and almost all other other apps). You must either quit the app, or use a shortcut or Exposé to move to another app.
There appear to be no equalizer or audio settings. WTF?!
ANY app designed to play music should have some audio settings!There should be tooltips for all buttons and settings; there are an abundance of settings in this app that are not in other players, and I don't know what some of them do. Perhaps they're described in a user manual, but that would be extremely tedious if I had to keep resorting to a manual for each these settings. Even the 2 buttons in the lower left corner are ambiguous for a new user. I hovered over them waiting for a tooltip to tell me what they were for, but of course it never came. Clicking the leftmost icon causes a window to slide open from the right side of the screen, but it's empty and I have no idea what it's for.
The Weather tab displays a nice outdoor image that suits the tab; the Video tab shows a theater, which suits the tab; Music shows a guitar, which suits the tab; but Programs shows an abstract image that does not seem to suit the tab - it has little to do with programs (except maybe Photoshop).
I managed to view one video, and after it ended text started scrolling across the bottom of the screen (if it was there before, I hadn't noticed). I found this intrusive and annoying, and then I deduced from the icon on the bottom right that it must be an RSS feed. So I went stumbling through the menus again, and never did find a setting for RSS, and the text kept going. You'd think that clicking that RSS icon would do something, but you'd be wrong.
The temperature at the top is in Celsius. May as well put it in Martian, because they mean about the same to me. There's no setting for this in the Weather tab, but wouldn't you think that since I've already set my location and it is correctly displayed, that it would appear in Fahrenheit since I'm in the US?
And while we're on the subject, why is there a weather app inside this media player?!
What's next, a tab for currency exchange rates?There will likely be more issues to add to this rant if I continue to use XBMC, but for now this is all I could think of.
If it's intent of the developers to drive away all but the most serious users, they may have succeeded. I look forward to the ease of using VLC again, and it has an equalizer!
VLC ain't pretty, but it's straightforward.
End rant.
