"Switch Media..." option on white button context-menu

i've been able to fix the problem.

all features in xbmc have a purpose, what is the purpose of a view differentiation between media types

i can think of only one...if you have lots of different media types in one share or folder. (i doubt this represents any user)

if there is another reason i'm missing please educate me as i know nothing about programming.

(friendly debate... please, i am still in utmost admiration for what you've accomplished, m$ with all the money in the world is still playing catchup with you guys)

Quote:the other views are simply refinements based on a specific media type, designed to work well with that type of media.

examples:

my pictures is optimized for viewing pictures: folders are assigned thumbs based on what images are in the folder, thumbs for images are assigned based on the exif data (if present) for fast loading.

my music is optimized for viewing music: id3 tags are read, and files can be sorted based on artist, album, genre, title, length etc. furthermore, the music library view relies entirely on tags, which obviously only works for music.

my videos is optimized for viewing videos: imdb data can be obtained, and the database views rely on this information (ie it will only work for videos.)

my programs is optimized for viewing programs: directory structure is flattened so you see only the xbe's (which are named by the actual title of the game, not the filename) and trainer overlays are displayed if a game has trainers etc.

it's obvious really. if you just want to use xbmc as a listing of all the files you have, then use the filemanager.

thanks for educating me, i was thinking from just a file viewing frame of reference, not realizing how each view behaves so differently making it seemingly more complicated to combine them...

i appreciate your patience.


another question if you can indulge me... what is the purpose of having settings in the white buton menu as well as the main menu?

the white button brings up a context menu (like right clicking with a mouse)
it's just convenient to have a quick way to get to video settings from "my videos"

Quote:i've been able to fix the problem.

all features in xbmc have a purpose, what is the purpose of a view differentiation between media types

i can think of only one...if you have lots of different media types in one share or folder. (i doubt this represents any user)

if there is another reason i'm missing please educate me as i know nothing about programming.

(friendly debate... please, i am still in utmost admiration for what you've accomplished, m$ with all the money in the world is still playing catchup with you guys)

because my girlfriend does not have any idea wich file to play. when see wants music, see gets music. see wants a movie, see get one.

even a better reason i can think of:
like the way it works you dont have to organize your files. just drop it all in one dir.

now my girlfriend gets really happy.

sollie.

ps: xbmc is not only for it-nerds.

Heaps of times when I go to the xbox and it's browsing a folder from the pc and I want to find a song, I realize the folders are empty from songs. Then I realize that I'm in video-mode and therefore can't see the files, so I've got to press back and enter music-mode and find the folders in the network again.

This happens ALL the time, and I guess it happens to lots of others as well
My solution would be that when you discover you're in the wrong media-mode there should be a button one could press to change the media-mode while you're doing the browsing, instead of going back to the menu and doing it all over. Either as a tag saying "Media switch" or an easy combo(always explained at the bottom of the screen so you don't need to read a manual you never read anyway). This would ease ALOT of irritation for me and hopefully others!!!! Love xmbc over every other program otherwise!!!!!!!!!

Good idea. I have pictures and videos from my cam in the same folder. XBMC doesnt support playback of video properly from My Pictures, so this option would make it easier to also play back the video recordings

Actually, it would not be difficult to add this functionality. Most of the code to support this is already in place. It would be a good project for someone who wants to learn.

The easiest solution would be to add a new button or context menu option to the "file based" media windows. As a button, I envision something like the "Switch View" button which cycles left and right. It would say "Switch Media" and then you choose Programs, Pictures, Video, Music (minus whatever media window the user is currently in.)

This would then just need to call an internal function to change windows.
m_gWindowManager.ActivateWindow(iDestWindow, m_vecItems.m_strPath);

iDestWindow would be the window ID of the media type that the user is switching to.

There is just one wrinkle in this, though its by design... When you "quickjump" to a window, the destination path has to be a valid source for the destination window. If its not, you get the root listing.

This should also work for folders on harddrive in Xbox and not just network shares

Of course. The type of share is irrelevant.