Increase skip forward from max. 30 sec. into ?? minutes

[Peter Nent 50]

The max. skip forward time is 30sec., could you please increase this into the minutes or even a free choice ? (same for backwards)

I remember that in MCE, I was using 1 minute as a standard (or sometimes 5 minutes)

Thnx. Peter

Edited November 19, 2023 by Peter Nent

[softworkz 3349]

Do you know that there's a better way for making larger steps?

It works as follows: 

• Enter fast-forward or fast-reverse
  so you see the shuttle moving
• Then press one of the skip buttons (forward or backward)
  You can then move from one skip-marker to the next. If a movie has chapter markers, then it corresponds to chapters, but otherwise they are in 5 minute intervals
• The automatic moving stop and you can conveniently move between the markers
• The video keeps playing while doing all this, so you won't experience the usual interruptions when skipping
  (and if the video has thumbnail images, they'll help you find the right position)

Here's how it looks (without thumbnails):

 

WMC had the same feature (even though widely unknown). It could be activated by long-pressing fast-forward or fast-rewind. Since we do not have long-press key handling on all platforms, I chose the way above.

Edited November 19, 2023 by softworkz

[Peter Nent 50]

Dear Softworkz,

Your solution should work perfectly, except that after using fast-forward (on Windows keyboard: CTRL-SHIFT-F, or on RC the fastforward buttons), pressing the play or OK button doesn't stop the fast-forwarding....idem dito for fast backwards...thus this is not usable in Emby Theater WMC gui in Windows 11.....

Alternative: increasing the skip-forward time: increasing it to 60sec would make it MCE compatible (or even make it flexible to enter a flex. amount of second)

Grtz.Peter

Edited November 21, 2023 by Peter Nent

[softworkz 3349]

 

1 hour ago, Peter Nent said:

except that after using fast-forward (on Windows keyboard: CTRL-SHIFT-F, or on RC the fastforward buttons), pressing the play or OK button doesn't stop the fast-forwarding....idem dito for fast backwards...

Thanks, I could reproduce. Created a new item here: https://github.com/EmbySupport/Emby.WMC.UI/issues/36

1 hour ago, Peter Nent said:

Alternative: increasing the skip-forward time: increasing it to 60sec would make it MCE compatible

WMC has 30s skip time.

1 hour ago, Peter Nent said:

(or even make it flexible to enter a flex. amount of second)

You can configure it in the settings already.

 

Thanks

Edited November 21, 2023 by softworkz

[Peter Nent 50]

Thanks Softworkz,

1. That should fix one of the keyboard+RC issues

2. WHy not make it as-much-as-possible MCE compatible and increase that value to 60sec. (or even make it flex.)

3. In the settings, you cabn shoose between 5sec - 30sec.....not 60sec, nor flex.

Thnx.Peter 

[softworkz 3349]

2 minutes ago, Peter Nent said:

2. WHy not make it as-much-as-possible MCE compatible and increase that value to 60sec.

Because Windows Media Center uses 30s, not 60s.

2 minutes ago, Peter Nent said:

3. In the settings, you cabn shoose between 5sec - 30sec.....not 60sec, nor flex.

Added here: https://github.com/EmbySupport/Emby.WMC.UI/issues/35

[sydlexius 245]

One alternative would be to support the WMC/Remote feature where during playback, you could enter a number via the remote, then hit the skip forward button...it would then skip n * skip duration.  Also, entering something like 230 then pressing Fast-forward would then jump by 2 minutes and 30 seconds.  There were similar macros for rewinding, as well as starting from specific positions (cf: TGB Forum Discussion).  Replicating this functionality would be awesome!

[softworkz 3349]

1 hour ago, sydlexius said:

One alternative would be to support the WMC/Remote feature where during playback, you could enter a number via the remote, then hit the skip forward button...it would then skip n * skip duration.  Also, entering something like 230 then pressing Fast-forward would then jump by 2 minutes and 30 seconds.  There were similar macros for rewinding, as well as starting from specific positions (cf: TGB Forum Discussion).  Replicating this functionality would be awesome!

I see two issues with that idea:

1. Entering a number while watching (TV) must be reserved for entering a channel to switch to
   and when it can't be done for TV, then it doesn't make sense to provide it as feature for non-tv only
2. It's neither intuitive nor effective
   How often does it happen that you know the exact time difference to where you want to jump to? Practically, you can only estimate and you'll almost always be off  - sometimes more, sometimes less. But it doesn't matter how close you get, because regardless of that, you will need to use another mode of operation for getting to the target point. 
   And then, it won't be a cool feature anymore, but an annoyance. Think it through:
   • You sit on your couch, watching (or starting to)
   • You want to skip to a certain position.
     With  the method you are proposing, you need to activate your eyes and your brain (can be quite inconvenient at times  )
   • You need to read the current time position 
   • You also need to read the total duration , so that you can consider all in proper relation
   • You need to estimate the position where you want to go, in possibly as a fraction of the total duration,
   • then you need to calculate to an absolute position 
     again, this might not be easy, because you cannot calculate with the values you see - like  1:45 - you need to convert it in your mind into minutes before you can calculate, and in your example, you would need to convert minutes back to hh:mm for entering with the remote...
   • Finally subtract the current time position to get  to the time delta value
   • and enter it via remote control.

So, all-in-all, I don't believe that this would be practically useful for many. I rather think that the best ways of interaction are those, where you can leave your brain switched off..

Edited November 23, 2023 by softworkz

[softworkz 3349]

To set this in relation, I've created a short clip demonstrating the seek and skip capabilities of the WMC UI. 
In order for you to see what I'm doing, I 'm using a mouse to operate. It's a movie of almost three hours. Now see, how quickly and easily you can get from one end to the other:

 

So, I would say that before you have even figured out, which duration you want to enter for seeking, I'm already there  

(I mean: "you can already be there")

Edited November 23, 2023 by softworkz