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Touch Screen Support in MBC


lucasbuck

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lucasbuck

I'm using an Asus ET1611 touchscreen (cool little cheap touchscreen btw) to play music in my kitchen. I'm using Mediaportal, but it doesn't have great themes for touch screens. I like that I can have big fanart as the background when something is playing, but the track names are really small and the main issue, scrolling is a pain. It just isn't very responsive because you have to flick it.

 

Could anyone suggest a theme for MB3 that might work well? It's nice having it stand alone on a swing out mount and not have to mess with a mouse or keyboard.

 
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You said theme so I guess you're talking about MBC which is the only thing themable at the moment.  MBC is not designed for touch, however.  It is designed for the 10' experience (remote control).

 

All of our mobile clients are designed for touch so, if it is a windows box, I would suggest installing the 8.1 App.  Or you could replace it with any tablet and use the Android or iOs apps.

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lucasbuck

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I did mean classic. I'll have to look at updating the computer, it's still just on Win 7. Thanks again!

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SilentAssassin

The Win 8 app is the way to go, especially all the other features of Win 8 you will get which work perfectly with touch. The MB Win 8 app was recently updated which greatly improved music playback. I recommend you enable the alternate music view.

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AgileHumor

It would be nice if the WMC/MBC Classic supported touch. 

 

Instead of allowing swipes, it selects the first thing you touch (even if moving your finger and not pausing).  All other parts of WMC work great with touch....just MBC is hosed.

 

Would really like to see this fixed for those of us that do use MBC with touch screens (a growing population).  

 

My touchscreen is split via an HDMI splitter from my HTPC.  So I could use the touchscreen in the kitchen while using a remote in the living room...if only MBC supported touch.

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swhitmore

Would really like to see this fixed for those of us that do use MBC with touch screens (a growing population).  

 

Aren't most people with Windows touch devices using the Win8 app? It sounds like a lot of work to make MBC with with touch when there is a good option available. 

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AgileHumor

Aren't most people with Windows touch devices using the Win8 app? It sounds like a lot of work to make MBC with with touch when there is a good option available. 

 

No!  App great option for a tablet...not a great option for a HTPC without a keyboard.   

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If one of you guys with a touch screen and MBC will update to the dev version I just put up (146) and let me know if the Chocolate CoverFlow view behaves any differently with touch now I'd appreciate it.

 

Again, only Chocolate Coverflow view would potentially have any impact.

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AgileHumor

OMG, I can touch in MBC!!! :)

 

Couple tweaks needed.

  • Little sensitive to selecting vs swiping...preferring selecting
  • Swiping only "scrolls" one item over.  Typically scrolling "scrolls" a few at a time depending on speed.
  • Can't seem to select the configuration menu with via touch in chocolate.   Had to use the keyboard.

It's a brilliant start for a POC.

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Glad it helped some.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much more I can improve it but I'll try tweaking along the way.  Thanks for testing.

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AgileHumor

The web client is fairly touch friendly.

Sadly, not when you just want to select something different in the the living room via handheld remote...and then touchscreen in the kitchen.

 

I have a unique case where my HTPC is sent to a 8 port HDMI splitter with HDCP...and then distributed via HDMI to 3 x Bedrooms's, Living Room, Kitchen, 2 x Bathrooms, 1 Wireless HDMI for outside display.   Switching from a remote with MBC...then switching to a web page or win 8 app for touchscreen the kitchen...breaks the WAF in my case.

 

Though I have a unique case, anytime someone uses MBC on a touchscreen or splits MBC to a touchscreen as a second display would have this issue.

Edited by AgileHumor
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Agile - I'm curious, did you try any views other than Chocolate Coverflow?  I don't expect any others to be affected, but would like to confirm.

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AgileHumor

Sorry for the long delay, I forgot to test this yesterday in between the movies being played.  

 

Yes, it now works in Neo main screens.  Not so much on the headers, but the main content is swipeable.

 

Thank you! Thank you! Thank You!

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lucasbuck

Okay, good.  Thanks.

Sorry for the late reply, I'm a teacher and finally had spring break to mess with getting things going and testing. Thank you so much for working on it and I will install and test it out in the next few days. I did have a couple questions beforehand if you didn't mind. I'm still learning how the server system works.

1) I have a media center PC, and that's where the MB server is installed. I'm lame, and all my music is on the PC in the kitchen (I don't stream anyplace else). Do I need to move all the music to the media center PC that runs the server?

2) If not, can I leave the music on the Kitchen PC, link it to its own HD, but not have the music show up on the other clients? I'd never stream music anywhere else, but figure it would be less clutter.

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The answer to 1 is yes and the answer to 2 is potentially yes depending on how you set it up but please ask those questions in a new thread in the Server forum as they have nothing to do with plug-ins or touch.

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  • 5 months later...
AgileHumor

A few months ago, EBR made some changes that made touch UI possible in MBC.   However, it still doesn't allow fast swiping to page right in the theme...it moves one arrow key a time.

 

Also, the navigation bar on the top doesn't allow swiping like the main UI now allows (albeit slowly).  Trying to swipe the navigation menu will just select the first item touched (doesn't allow a delay for the swipe).

 

I know MBC is on the way out with official support ending by MS in a few years...and any investment in it has no future.  I understand if this is a 'no fix"

 

However, I'd say that with MBT/MBC unscriptable with home automation or task scheduler (I can't use a telnet or http command line to play Channel 7 at 7am in the morning, which I can do with VMCController)...I just wanted to at least mention it as one persons desired scenario. 

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AgileHumor

This is more than likely a no fix from us but it would be a great project for a new contributor to work on.

Thanks Luke...completely understandable.

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