Feature Requests and Request for Updates on Previous Requests :D

[Shadow Lord]

Hi Paul,

So after failing to get CMC 4.x to work way back when I was able to get CMC 7.x up and running without too much issue. The setup seems to be much smoother and fool proof with this version. At least this fool didn't screw it up I am still fine tuning things and have questions regarding performance but I want to make sure they are not issues caused by me before posting. I did want to make a few feature requests. I am not sure how feasible these would be though. Hopefully, some would be more easily accomplished then others:

• Lossless Audio Format Support: I am thinking non-DRM stuff like FLAC, AIF (ALAC), M4A. I think all of these are supported by your Codec already but the CMC program won't add those extensions in.

• More Sections: Compared to WMC, CMC does Audio and Movies, but is lacking the Pictures and Videos section. Would it be possible to add that in as well ? In the same vein would it be possible to add sections for pod casts and audio books? I am strictly thinking a menu option (just like WMC) where the files/media shown would be a separate folder then the general Music section (i.e. Folder w/ MP3 Audio Books which would be presented as sorted by Author in cover flow).

• More customization for external programs: for example I can not get the Amazon Prime app to be in the list of external programs like the Netflix app (of course this could be straight user error).

• In fact going back to the "more sections" request I would love to be able have an interface closer to WMC where one could edit (with the help of third party programs) the top level menus and sub-menus in WMC.

I was also wondering if there was any updates regarding implementing Cover Flow (I know it had been requested before but I can't get it to work) or using the posters from My Movies as background for the currently selected disc?

Thanks again for the wonderful program. I am hoping using your program and VLC to keep my media centers going for a long while to come!

[Pauven]

Please provide a full list of audio extensions for me to double-check. Sometimes it's as simple as me adding the text into the search filter string. Sometimes it requires me adding new libraries. And sometimes there really is no support.

I believe Jamie already uses the audio library for pod casts and audiobooks. I recall adding some functionality in there for him related to non-music tracks. It's been years since I did that, so my memory is foggy, and it's not a feature I use myself. I suggest poking around, you might be surprised. Or maybe I'm misremembering... I recall it being a separate mode in the music library that you can slide into. Let me know what you find.

I few years back, I added support for Google Photos library slideshows. It was working great, until it wasn't. Google is always changing how their API's work and how security works. It seemed like a feature that only I was using, I never even heard from anyone else trying to use it, and no one complains that it's broken. My intention was always to expand this to local sources, but I haven't seen much in the way of requests for it, so it's been a really low priority, backburnered basically. Videos would be an extension of that - this would be possible, but again it's been a low priority.

When adding custom apps, it's quite a lot of work to figure out the app id and add it in. I haven't done one of these myself in years, so remembering how to do it at the moment is eluding me. I think it is possible to do it, you have to add the id's to the config files. But typically, I add them for users when they request it. I know you can add custom exe targets in the launcher, but I think Windows apps are a special beast. If you have a few apps you want included, please list them.

It's been on my wishlist to redesign the CMC GUI from scratch. When I started programming CMC, around 8-9 years ago now, I had next to no experience creating GUI's, and the original bones of that first version still underpin and hinder the current CMC version. When you go into certain areas, like the Similar Movies section, the GUI is more advanced and fluid, showing my skills had advanced quite a bit. I'd certainly like to take what I've learned in a decade of programming and start with a clean design, and in the process I would make it more skinnable and customizable.

But the flip side of this is that the current design was really poorly executed. Sure, it works okay, but it's nearly a nightmare even for me to make changes, so making it more customizable really isn't achievable.

The cover-flow and backgrounds would be part of a new GUI, not something I would wedge into the current solution.

While a clean-sheet redesign is really the way forward, the truth is that I've been saying this for years and have yet to find the time to do it. I've currently got my plate overflowing with projects and life, so while I'm still using and maintaining CMC, at the moment it's a very low priority for me. Occasionally I find some free time and do work on it, but I don't want to make any promises only to let you down.

I'm glad you've finally found success with CMC v7. And while updates are long overdue, v8 is still in the works as time permits, so definitely provide more info on the stuff I listed above, and I may be able to include it.

One last teaser I'll share is that over the past 6 months, I've begun using AI to help me with programming. Think of AI what you will, but it has turned into the most powerful tool for me. Previously, when I've had a programming challenge, I could spend days/weeks/months/years researching how to do something, and fumbling around with solutions cobbled together from random sources online. Often my research would only result in failure - I've had so many features that I spent countless hours trying to implement, but could never figure them out. Now with AI, I can describe what I want to do, and it can guide me in my research and even provide some starter code for me. Usually, the code is buggy and imperfect, but it's made tasks that were essentially impossible to me just a year ago now fairly easy to implement. For example, I currently programming some advanced motor control libraries for a robot with complex geometry - crazy math stuff I really don't understand myself - and with the help of AI I'm able to churn out working code using complex math formulas that I can barely even read much less understand. And if I'm troubleshooting a bug, I can even have AI analyze my code for issues, and it can catch my mistakes faster than I can. It's really revolutionized my workflow. I've yet to really put this new methodology to work on CMC, but in the coming years I foresee some massive improvements to CMC once I'm able to dedicate more time to it.

I share this insight because I know right now the future for CMC looks bleak from the outside view, yet I'm hopeful that the future has never looked better. I just don't have an ETA on that...

[Jamie]

For podcasts I use the Grover Pro windows app. Paul created an external link for it under the movies setup.

For audiobooks, I setup an audiobook genre and to separate them from my music, I check spoken word in the genre setup under the music setup. The main reason for the spoken word checkbox is because most of my audiobooks and spoken word titles have no covers and I have tons of them. I looks ugly in the screensaver and my music covers. If you have all the covers for your audiobooks you can create the audiobook genre but don't check spoken word. Also audiobooks in cmc don't keep the their place for the audiobook unless you keep cmc open all the time. I wish it could, but I don't think it is able to have that feature like itunes did.

I use apple m4a lossless for most of my music so cmc music should be able to recognise that audio extension. I also believe flac "FLA" should be recognized too. I believe it should be easy for Paul to add new extensions if he can remember how to do it. CMC does support most lossless music and it also supports surround sound audio. I tested it

I am sorry that the music part of cmc may seem to be somewhat convoluted because he added it as a favor to me and I think I am the only one that uses it and maybe I was the only one to give him input for it and also tested it

[Pauven]

Hey Jamie, thanks for chiming in.

I don't think you've ever mentioned that audiobooks lose their spot when you close CMC. It never even occurred to me that this is something that is needed. I always think of this as the music library, and don't save position data when playing music. But for audiobooks, this seems like a big deal.

Please go ahead and open a new feature request for this, so I can track it.