AlbumList 2.0: An Early Look...
junk - 9-22-2003 at 07:55 AM
You don't have to be so refreshing all the time...
Most of time, eJukebox refreshes the album list after i have entered an album, and gone back to the album list by clicking the back button. But some
times it doesn't, and in those occasions i am very relieved, since it takes two minutes* to refresh the album list on my setup. This makes me
dread entering an album at some times, or at least makes me hope that it won't refresh this time...
But if eJukebox would simply stop refreshing the album list after clicking the back button, it would make my life a lot easier...
* = The reason it takes so long for me, is the old album covers in id3-tag problem. (i use Tag&Rename to get the correct info + albumart for all
my mp3s, and currently, those images are not compressed as efficiently as when eJukebox itself takes care of the image-inside-the-tags-issue).
Audiosoft - 9-22-2003 at 09:30 AM
These problems will be a thing of the past soon....
Take an early look at the new album list view, which is currently in development for a future version of eJukebox.
Basically instead of switching between songlist and albumlist you will now be able to view both simultaneously.
eJukebox will automatically size the album list to start at the bottom of each songlist you view, too make the most efficient use of space. If the
songlist is too long to fit - it will align the album list bar with the bottom of eJukebox.
We plan to add buttons to the albumlistbar to: close the album list and make the albumlist resize too the full height. As well as, move the album
options button onto the albumlistbar and add an album search box.
In addition, you will be able to manually resize the height of the albumlist at anytime by dragging the albumlistbar.
We are also considering making the artist list use the same box used by the new album list. Please feel free to post your comments on this and on the
new albumlist view. 
junk - 9-22-2003 at 10:01 AM
Ahh... this looks lovely! 
Looks like this will solve a great number of problems, as well as add a whole new and more fluent functionality of eJukebox!
Great work, guys... can't wait to get my hands on this! Great song
you have playing, as well.
Pirk - 9-22-2003 at 12:06 PM
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Message original : Audiosoft
We are also considering making the artist list use the same box used by the new album list. Please feel free to post your comments on this and on the
new albumlist view.
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Ah, finally! That was unhoped-for...
A few days ago, I said to you my feeling concerning the current layout - i.e. "Although a very good first impression openning the albumlist, the
scrolling becomes boring once you have many albums or else the good first impression is quite diluted in the songlist..." - and now, you present
a new layout which combine both... That's terrific!
I am really delighted and so impressed by your reactivity. 
I like when you have the genius for give solid form to our dreams...
The new Album/SongList layout you plan to make seems to be... ideal!
Keep up your great work.
I am impatient to enjoy the v3.4! , oups... sorry, already 3.5!
Thank you very much.
Rich - 9-22-2003 at 03:25 PM
Audiosoft, When you have a moment, could you show us a mock-up of the artist list using the album list area? I *really* like the sshot of the
Songlist / Album list, but I'm unsure of your intentions with the Artist list. Maybe others would like to see it as well?
Thanks,
Rich
Pirk - 9-22-2003 at 03:52 PM
Good remark Rich!
Very interesting... I would be curious too, since you show through... a doubt!
Please Audiosoft,
Show us a mock-up including the artist list??? That's really a critical point...
Thanks.
Audiosoft - 9-23-2003 at 03:36 AM
Not quite ready to create a mockup for the new artist list yet. Right now we are just throwing ideas around....
We are thinking of maybe having the artistlist and the album list be the same thing. Having everything grouped up into A-Z - then allowing you to
change the list to group by genres or years or rating .
It will either, list the artists on the left hand side of the page and the albums from the same letter to the right, or list the artists for each
letter above the albums for the letter. Not sure which we should go with.
Then we would have a button to open a new large A-Z buttons display so you can jump to different parts of the artistlist and albumlist at the same
time.
This is just any idea right now - we have not decided if we should do this or not. Let us know your thoughts on this.
Sloan - 9-23-2003 at 04:51 AM
that sounds good to me, as long as you keep the option open to have everything in one listing - i love being able to just look down one column at my
1200 albums, and not having to choose A and then look then B then look etc.
but yes I do think the artist list and album list should eventually be combined.
Pirk - 9-23-2003 at 01:38 PM
Audiosoft,
Thank you for present us your early plan concerning the artist list too!
| Quote: |
Message original : Audiosoft
We are thinking of maybe having the artistlist and the album list be the same thing. Having everything grouped up into A-Z - then allowing you to
change the list to group by genres or years or rating .
|
I would prefer if ORIGINALLY the album list could be A-Z ARTISTS, with the albums of each Artist grouped by Year -> Album.
Keep the option of the actual menu: sorting the albumlist either by Artist -> AlbumYear -> Album or by albums in alphabetic order.
Otherwize I agree with you, maybe the artist list could be also more detailed, being an image of the albumlist:
Artist -> AlbumYear -> Album
or even:
Genre -> Artist -> AlbumYear -> Album
Then I think the BEST would be if the user could FILTER the whole album list using a multichoice list which combine the different genres, years (chose
into a precise range, i.e: 2000 -> 2003) and ratings.
These "personal" settings could be stored in order to be reuse the next time eJ start.
Maybe you could also add a menu which store several settings for multi-user use or corresponding to different situations (listening, party...).
| Quote: |
It will either, list the artists on the left hand side of the page and the albums from the same letter to the right, or list the artists for each
letter above the albums for the letter. Not sure which we should go with.
|
Concerning the other possible approach using the artist list:
I think that would be great if you could, also there, prevente any "boring" scrolling by split the list up grouping the artists by genre.
Unless you prefer stretch the previous personal settings also to the artist list?
Besides I trust you to choose the best location for the artist list as I can't figure out enough precisely your second option!
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Then we would have a button to open a new large A-Z buttons display so you can jump to different parts of the artistlist and albumlist at the same
time.
|
I agree, that will be handy to satisfy any intuitive use of eJukebox!
Thanks.
perf - 9-23-2003 at 03:19 PM
My view is: Don't make the lists necessarily "album-centric". I like to pick an artist and then look at all the songs by that artist,
no matter what album they are on - I have a lot of songs from singles, from compilations, from "Greatest hits" albums etc., and often (most
of the time) I don't care what album they come from. I also like to browse the artist list, without necessarily seeing the albums.
/Per
Pirk - 9-23-2003 at 04:57 PM
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Message original : perf
My view is: Don't make the lists necessarily "album-centric". I like to pick an artist and then look at all the songs by that artist,
no matter what album they are on - I have a lot of songs from singles, from compilations, from "Greatest hits" albums etc., and often (most
of the time) I don't care what album they come from. I also like to browse the artist list, without necessarily seeing the albums.
/Per |
Obviously... it's another view! Quite at the opposite of the current work! But I respect yet.
In my case, almost all my songs come from full albums. That's ripped CDs! So more often, I think in albums.
eJukebox is very good for display the album covers. Even, it has been made for that, especially!
And I paid for that!!!
I think it's a bit a pity if you don't use images for your songs while you use eJukebox. But in your case, I understand that don't
favour an optimal use of eJukebox.
However, the basic use you want should be still possible in future versions, I think!
junk - 9-23-2003 at 09:40 PM
Hehe... once again, we are agreeing, Pirk. It's almost becoming boring. As i have mentioned many times, and especially when i brag about eJukebox to others, i talk a lot about how it makes me feel like having a great,
almost physical album collection.
It's the only program that has ever done that for me, and has made me re-evaluate my view on having physical CD's compared to having the
same album as mp3's on your hard drive.
So, to sum up a bit from, I love the album listing, and the ability to just browse up and down the album list must be forever kept sacred. (hm, this is starting to sound a bit religious... scary. )
Dyno Don - 9-24-2003 at 05:59 PM
OK, I'll jump in here. I find it fascinating that you use the album view. Never use it here. Way way WAY too big, hundreds and hundreds of
albums. Takes too long to load to be useful. I do like the covers everywhere else. No one in our group thinks of albums, it is artists. Want some 311?
Click 311 in artists and pick your songs. I can't imagine waiting for the album list to load, then pick an album, then pick songs. Just cut the
album step out. Do you guys play the whole album at once? We haven't since we first got jukebox. Just commenting. Interested to know how you use
the album list easily.
Don
Sloan - 9-24-2003 at 06:50 PM
I'd have to disagree. I on the other hand, never use the artist feature For me, looking at a list of over a thousand albums all in one listing is what makes me feel satisfied. Something about the collecting aspect of
it.
The speed though is an issue, you're right. i think once audiosoft irons out that issue of the compression of images already within the ID3 tags,
then the loading might go a bit faster for you. Maybe then it will be a reasonable wait time and it will become useful for you once again.
Pirk - 9-24-2003 at 08:36 PM
Well, it's interesting to notice that there are 2 kind of users: those who have albums feeling and the others!!!
Yes of course, I often listen a whole album, all at once! So that's good!
I think the others miss something even though! However it depends what kind of music you listen...
I love the Album list, and Audiosoft is on form to do a great work on it.
Anyway I think Audiosoft should reach to satisfy both kind of users, so they are good!
Rich - 9-24-2003 at 08:36 PM
If the Artist list is incorporated, I would like to see just the selected artists' albums in the album area. I'll put more thought into
this and elaborated at a later time.
To assist with Dyno Don's issue with the Album list taking too long , why not revisit the past requests of limiting the number of albums per
"page" (number of albums determined by user in Options), with page forward / back navigation?
In any event, I would hate to see the album list go away.
Thanks,
Rich
Audiosoft - 9-24-2003 at 08:44 PM
| Quote: |
To assist with Dyno Don's issue with the Album list taking too long , why not revisit the past requests of limiting the number of albums per
"page" (number of albums determined by user in Options), with page forward / back navigation?
|
I would think adding this ability would no longer be neccessary because the albumlist will remain loaded/visible when viewing an album's
songlist. Thus eJukebox will only need to load the list once (the first time you click the albums button in the eJukebox session) and not after every
songlist you view.
If your prefer, you do not have to view use the album list. The album list will only appear after clicking the albums button at the top and you will
be able to close it at anytime. If you liked using the albumlist before this new feature should make it faster and easier to use. If you did not use
the album list before you will still be able to use eJukebox like you did before... However, you may find that you may want to use the albumlist now
because its easier to use...it is your choice.
Pirk - 9-24-2003 at 08:56 PM
QED!
Thanks Audiosoft.
Dyno Don - 9-24-2003 at 09:42 PM
I like seeing all the albums too! Just it takes so long to load. The bar moves slowly across and then the list appears. But it is still loading so if
you try to scroll down, you can't. Keeps snapping to the top while loading. If it only loaded once, then I would try that out!
Still everyone here is Artist based. "Let's play some zepp", etc. Usually only one song or two is picked from any one artist. Four or
five guys pick 10 tunes each then we randomize. Nice mix. Beatles, then Rage, etc. No radio station would play our mix.
The new 1024 display shows little bars on how many time each song has been played. That is great, we can find which songs have never been played and
give them a spin. I guess if you listen to albums, popularity by track is not important, eh?
Don
stsirois - 9-25-2003 at 02:20 AM
eJukebox is kinda like my brain; I've got an artistic right-side & a logical left-side. The album view gives the warm fuzzies as I view all
of the lovely album artwork - definite eye candy to me (still) & provides the biggest wow! factor to my guests.
However, it seems that after I wipe the drool from my chin after viewing the album view, I resort to the artist view to choose my playlist as my
guests or I think of artists or songs we'd like to hear.
eJ is the best of both worlds which makes it the best jukebox available!
Steve
Rich - 9-25-2003 at 03:10 AM
As I've admitted before, I can be a bit thick at times...
Now I get what you propose to do with the album list / artist list. I agree with the pointlessness of setting 'x' number of albums per
page.
Loading the Album list once is pure sweetness! Sorry for throwing my confusion in the mix. (That goes for the "only displaying selected
artist's ablums" too.)
Thanks,
Rich
Audiosoft - 9-25-2003 at 09:46 AM
Have some good news regarding the first time loading of the albumlist....
Under v3.5, you will now be able to see the covers that have been loaded so far....while the progress bar is still moving. This is because eJukebox
will graphically write each individual row of albums to the screen while it is loading. Before v3.5, eJukebox figured out all the albums first then,
after that was done, it would write the whole list to the display. Now, you will be able to see the first couple rows of albums IMMEDIATLY after
clicking the album button...and the rest of the albums will continue to load in the display as you browse the list.
This also means that you will now be able to click and view album songlists while the list is still loading and even while eJukebox is looking up
missing cover images.
After that first time album list loading eJukebox will never need to re-load the list unless you switch between EDV and normal view (because it needs
to change the number of albums per row).
junk - 9-25-2003 at 09:51 AM
Great news! And good work! Things are really beginning to get excellent around here...
Pirk - 9-25-2003 at 12:41 PM
| Quote: |
Message original : Audiosoft
Have some good news regarding the first time loading of the albumlist....
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I'm glad of this improvement!
However, do you still plan to compress the images which come from ID3 Tags, specially for the display, as the ones automatically looked up?
In order to not wrong those who use almost exclusively ID3 images...
Because even if that will waste more time only during the first loading of the albumlist,
That will still occur EACH TIME eJ START, for us who use a lot of ID3 images!
Thanks.
PS: Sorry if I am a tough nut!
Sloan - 10-1-2003 at 03:29 AM
Any word on when 3.5 will be out?
You know.. so i know when to skip class?! 
Audiosoft - 10-1-2003 at 04:31 AM
v2.5 should be out sometime this weekend.
Sloan - 10-8-2003 at 03:47 PM
*anxious checking of the audiosoft site every four hours for the new version*
ochristmas - 10-8-2003 at 05:58 PM
word on the street is that its due for release tomorrow (Thursday 9th)
Sloan - 10-8-2003 at 06:22 PM
Woohoo!! Can't wait. This release looks to be significant based on the comments by Audiosoft around the forums.
ochristmas - 10-8-2003 at 07:07 PM
definitely. Although sadly the tea-making facility wont be implemented - so we still have to wait for that perfect all-in-one piece of software 