Inconsistent spacebar behaviour during playback

[getack 4]

Platform: Windows 10, probably latest update

Emby version: Emby for Windows 1.1.336.0 (installed via the Microsoft Store)

Server Version: 4.4.2.0 (Server and player are on two separate machines, networked together)

Problem: 

The spacebar is sometimes performing unwanted actions during playback. Under settings it's configured as "toggle play/pause", however sometimes this does not happen, and other things happen such as skip forward/back 10 seconds, open the subtitle menu, go fullscreen, etc.

 

How to Reproduce:

1. Locate a video (movie or otherwise) that has subtitles.
2. Play the video
3. Click on the subtitle icon in the playback-control-bar and change the subs to something else or disable it.
4. Wait for the playback-control-bar to go away
5. Press spacebar to pause the playback
6. Witness how the subtitle menu reappears instead of the video pausing

The same happens with the fullscreen toggle, the menu button, settings screen and so on. Anything that was last selected in the playback-control-bar seems to be the spacebar action. 

This seems to happen only once. Because if I cancel the action (like closing the subs menu with esc), then the default action of the spacebar is restored.

 

What I think is happening:

The spacebar is bound to the select action of whatever menu-item is selected/active in the playback-control-bar, when it's visible. This is convenient so that I can move between the controls with my arrows, and select the relevant option with my spacebar. Helpful in a mouse-free environment. And this is also the way to navigate using a keyboard while not in playback mode.

However, it seems like this binding is persistent after the playback-control-bar moves out of the way, leading to the confusing behaviour.

In my opinion (and I know my opinion does not really mean anything), the spacebar should be exclusively for toggle play/pause, and not used as a select action when the playback-control-bar is visible. I use spacebar to pause as it's the biggest key on my keyboard and my wife and I like to pause often to discuss things that has just happened. From my testing it seems like the spacebar and the enter key performs identical actions when the playback-control-bar is visible, so the spacebar can therefore safely be reserved for the above action.

That said, probably this will mess up interaction in the rest of the app, as spacebar is the select option when not in playback mode, so it makes this fix not as trivial and simple I'd wager.

 

Thanks and regards

[Luke 37008]

Hi, based on this:

Are you still having an issue or is this something new?

[getack 4]

Hello Luke

I think this is something new. The linked thread was basically a crash on going full screen, that was resolved with an update.

The fact that it was caused by the spacebar was probably just due to my own confusion. I believe that the spacebar was bound to the full screen button (even when the playback-control-bar was hidden), and then me pressing spacebar (to try and pause), would then actuate the full screen control, causing the app to crash. So it's somewhat related, but also not really? The crash is not happening anymore since that update.

The issue at hand here is more of a UX problem, where the spacebar is behaving in an annoying and unexpected way.

[getack 4]

So I've been browsing around on the forum, reading some of the other threads on here.

I noticed that in many instances as part of the troubleshooting process folks would suggest changing some random setting, such as setting video playback to GPU or whatever. I realized that I have not ever seen some these settings in my own instance of Emby, and even looking for them now resulted in a failed search.

These users also had versions of Emby Theater that was like 2 significant versions ahead of mine (3.x vs my 1.x), even though I did a fresh install this week.

Turns out, the version obtainable from the Microsoft Store is some hobbled, simplified version of the actual app that I'm supposed to be using! I prefer to use the MS Store for installs where I can, thinking I protect myself from dodgy downloads and at least I get automated updates and things. This page from the support site certainly implies that the "real" version and the MS Store version are the same thing, when they are clearly not. 

So anyway, I downloaded the standalone app from the website, installed it, and lo and behold, a ton more settings are suddenly available, and the issue as described in the OP seems to be not there!

I'm not sure how this changes the reality of this thread though, as I believe there is still a bug present in the MS Store version, and I would like to help where I can to see this resolved. 

Thanks!

P.S. Windows had an absolute fit when I tried to install the app. Edge blocked the download, claiming it "kept me safe", Windows blocked me from running it, claiming the same thing. SmartScreen blocked me, asking me if "I'm sure" like 3 times before it allowed me to continue. I'm not sure if this is because something in the binary is setting MS Defender's alarm bells off, or if it's something else, but it's a significant barrier to entry for new users interested in trying it out. Let me know if I need to create a separate thread for this.

[Luke 37008]

Ok thanks for the info. We'll take a look at this.