Wow, you certainly gave me a lot to think about (and I greatly appreciate the feedback, thanks!).
Manni wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2019 5:23 am
Yes, I know some of the examples above can be done in two steps or more in CMC, but that's precisely why I have filters/categories: so that I can apply a complex filter that I often use in one step.
I think you've convinced me that a solution is needed. This is not something I was previously planning, so it will take me a while to figure out how to integrate this into the overall GUI plan.
Manni wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2019 5:23 am
I work in film and I also teach a lot. So my collection is for pleasure, but also for work/research. I watch lots of films when I'm attached to a project or to prepare a lecture/workshop to get the best clips to illustrate some points, so I also have complex filters by genre etc. This is why I need the fastest possible access to a film / TV Series. I can watch five films a day or ten hours of series content during some periods of intense work. I also do some testing for madVR for example to help with the development, so I need to get to the specific clip I'm looking for in a specific film as quickly as possible. I guess this is why speed is of the essence, and why I use so many categories/filters: it's not just to watch a film once a day or once a week, it's to do that and do hours of research during the day and often hours of testing at night as well. Not all the time, of course, but when it's like that, CMC is very slow compared to CM.
Wow. You are a power user, far beyond me. Sometimes I have dreams of being able to watch multiple films in a day, but what you're describing sounds like work (pleasurable work, hopefully). I never imagined that CMC would be used for professional or academic purposes (even if only behind the scenes). I think this is very cool. And yes, I agree that CMC is not optimized for this type of workflow.
Manni wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2019 5:23 am
I'm aware that my needs are very specific and I don't expect you to taylor CMC to them . It would just be great for everyone if CMC could get closer to the level of efficiency of MyMovies in MCE in this area. As long as you expect the user to go all the way up a list that takes half the screen to check a box and go all the way down to apply a filter/category, it will take a lot longer (twice on average, sometimes a lot more!) than the MyMovies way, which is a simple select and click. Another example: to go faster in MCE, I use the first letter of a category/filter to force a filter/category to be first accessible (using @ in the name if necessary). It works in MyMovies because the first category/filter alphabetically is the first selectable in the list, but it doesn't work in CMC because the first in the list in the furthest away (you have to go all the way to the top, then all the way back down). So all the tricks I created to get faster become moot in CMC...
I try to treat all my users the same - I treat functional requests equally and on a case by case basis. If fulfilling a request doesn't negatively affect other users (especially me, I'm always #1. no, seriously, I'm user #1), and can provide benefit to users in general, then I'm game to make it happen. This is no different - you have spoken and I have heard you. This morning I made some last minute changes to v3.0 that should hopefully alleviate some of your navigation pain, and I think everyone will benefit from these changes:
For Genres, if no Genres are currently selected when opening the Genres filter panel, then the starting point will be the middle Genre, instead of the bottom 'Clear...' option. By putting you in the middle of the Genres list, navigation in general should be quicker. If Genres are already selected (from previously applying a Genres filter), then the starting point will be on the bottom 'Clear...' option.
For Categories, I'm doing something similar, but instead of starting at the middle Category, it will start at the first. That way your alphabetical tricks will not be for moot.
But wait, there's more!
You can now use the [PLAY] button on your remote/keyboard to simultaneously select the Genre / Category you have highlighted and immediately apply the filter using the 'Match All Selected' option. You can still select multiple Genres / Categories before hitting PLAY, and they will all be included in the Match All Selected filtering. So if for example you want to filter on Musical Animations, you would first toggle Musical on, then navigate to Animations and hit PLAY, which will toggle Animations on too and immediately apply the Match All Selected filtering.
These changes don't remove any of the power of the current filtering (multiple selections and the Match Any Of method), while hopefully approaching the navigation speed of what you enjoyed with WMC. I look forward to hearing your feedback on this approach after you've played with it firsthand.
And to allay any worries, I don't see these improvements as negating the need for Combo-Filters in CMC.
Manni wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2019 5:23 am
By the way, a minor request if it's easy to implement: I have four NAS boxes and a dozen of shares (I rip my discs in different shares depending mostly on the disc type, but also other factors, such as how often I need to access them: one box is on all day, others are on occasionally, others are mostly off). While I can add them all manually to the CMC config, they can't all be seen during a sync. Please could you centre the shares list vertically during a sync so that we can see as many shares as possible on that screen? Also it would be nice if at some point we could add a share without having to edit the CMC config, but that's really not a priority, so that can be as low done on your list as it needs to be. Thanks!
Wow, a dozen synced folders. Another use case that I just never imagined. And not being able to see that status for all of them all during the sync, yeah you surprised me on that one. I can see how that would be a problem.
You're using CME, right? If so, then let me propose an alternate solution to your challenges.
Now that CME can export the metadata, only for CMC to import it right back in, parsing it and creating the local CMC database, it's become painfully obvious that a more efficient solution is possible. The plan is to enhance CME to create the CMC database directly. This will completely eliminate the scanned media folders sync.
Instead, you would have CME running in the background on one 'master' PC, always looking for changes, and updating the master CMC DB image as changes occur. Then when you run CMC on any individual PC, it would check to see if it's DB copy is the latest, and if it isn't it would then ask the 'master' for the latest copy. Because the data flow is MM_DB > API > CME > CMC_DB > CMC, none of your NAS servers would even have to be online, and the Sync step becomes obsolete.
This approach should get really close to how My Movies in WMC behaved, while at the same time keeping the local data repository that makes CMC so fast (that MM API can be painfully slow at times).
Hopefully you'll agree with me when I say 'request denied', as I think what I have planned will be so much better. But feel free to challenge my proposal if you see issues with it.