[kambala]

I've just released v1.8.1 on the appstore

[Buschel]

In the meanwhile I was able to work on several bugfixes for issues reported by users and found during testing:
- Sort option lost for items filtered for genre or movie sets (regression of 1.8)
- No fallback thumb shown in NowPlaying screen (regression of 1.8)
- Fallback thumbnails not using rounded edges (was overseen during initial implementation)
- Jewel case shown on top of scrabbing popup
- Searchbar shown in addition to "No items found" in Live TV when no PVR add-on ist installed
- Searchbar shown when open/close a section in episode view

In addition, I prepared some new features and optimizations based on your feedback from here and from the AppStore:
- Separate Radio and Live TV main menus
- Videos main menu
- 2D design with light/dark mode for section headers
- Better readability for section headers and navigation bar items
- Better readability and automatic layout for NowPlaying for devices with bigger screen
- Easier access to Remote and NowPlaying screen (1-click, from nearly anywhere)
- Pan gesture support for full remote screen as long as gesture zone is inactive

You can have a look at the current open GitHub PullRequests for screenshots.

[UlfSchmidt]

Hi @Buschel,
Thanks again for your work.
Some recent thoughts I had, maybe you can incorporate some of these at a later point in time:

• There is currently no update functionality implemented for TV recordings. Instead, one has to close and reopen the recordings list. Especially for recordings, where updates are most likely, this is an important but missing feature.
  
• I still find the access to wake-on-lan and the Kodi commands, as it is currently implemented, rather strange. I would like to see the power button in the Kodi server selection and the remaining (not power related) Kodi commands on the lower right Kodi menu (where nowadays the copyright info is shown).
  
• Talking ’bout the copyright info: is it really true that the app itself is able to download artwork directly from fanart.tv? When will it download such information and where will it be used? (And can we please get rid of the nerd in the corner wishing us fun? )
  
• I really miss split view support on the iPad. Is this a big thing? Since the app should already be able to deal with various resolutions, why not with split view?
  

Thanks in advance for future consideration - if possible and if you agree (obviously) !

Cheers,
Ulf

[Buschel]

Hi @UlfSchmidt,

with some of your comments you are pointing to concept issues with the iPad version of the App. As we discussed a while back in this thread the layout was obviously first done for iPhones and then ported to iPad. As I am personally not using an iPad, I am only coming across these uses cases while testing changes in the simulator. So please continue sharing your thoughts.

There is currently no update functionality implemented for TV recordings. Instead, one has to close and reopen the recordings list. Especially for recordings, where updates are most likely, this is an important but missing feature.

Valid point. This would just require a timer to refresh the list, like it is done for the channel list. I will look at this.

I still find the access to wake-on-lan and the Kodi commands, as it is currently implemented, rather strange. I would like to see the power button in the Kodi server selection and the remaining (not power related) Kodi commands on the lower right Kodi menu (where nowadays the copyright info is shown).

Well, here we are again: On iPhones the power button is part of Kodi server menu. You suggest to have two buttons: one for the power related functions and another one for rescan/clean, right? The App info would be homeless then (On iPads. On iPhone this is no problem). All of this can be implemented, it is all about how this should look and behave.
 

Talking ’bout the copyright info: is it really true that the app itself is able to download artwork directly from fanart.tv? When will it download such information and where will it be used?

To my understanding the App downloads from the web, only if the Kodi server is sharing an URL for some metadata. I have seen this for tv show and movies covers, and not only from fanart.tv, but also from tmdb.org.
 

(And can we please get rid of the nerd in the corner wishing us fun?)

I even do not know who this really is, possibly the founder of the App. Without him asking for removal I will just keep this like it is.
 

I really miss split view support on the iPad. Is this a big thing? Since the app should already be able to deal with various resolutions, why not with split view?

The iPad layout needs to be reworked. But without a clean concept on how to do this, I cannot even tell if split view will be worth looking at.

[UlfSchmidt]

There is currently no update functionality implemented for TV recordings. Instead, one has to close and reopen the recordings list. Especially for recordings, where updates are most likely, this is an important but missing feature.

Valid point. This would just require a timer to refresh the list, like it is done for the channel list. I will look at this.

While I like the idea, I was in fact not wishing for a timer or automatism but simply for the ability to force a refresh the same way as it is implemented for music or movies, by pulling down the entire list, forcing an update on user request.

And thanks for your other valid explanations…
Maybe part of version 2 series of the app?!

[Buschel]

True, the pulldown menu is another option. I will check this first as it is in line with the other menus.

Another question: You once asked if it is possible to show clearlogos in the artist or album infos, as it is done for movies. I think I found a missing configuration for this, but I currently have no music/artist with clearlogo metadata. I even tried to rescan with „Universal Artist Scraper“ and Clearlogo and Cleart from fan.tv enabled. But no success on my Kodi 19.1 system. How can I scan and add such metadata? Do you have such in your database? If so, do you see the clearlogo when showing the codec info while playing?

[UlfSchmidt]

True, the pulldown menu is another option. I will check this first as it is in line with the other menus.

Another question: You once asked if it is possible to show clearlogos in the artist or album infos, as it is done for movies. I think I found a missing configuration for this, but I currently have no music/artist with clearlogo metadata. I even tried to rescan with „Universal Artist Scraper“ and Clearlogo and Cleart from fan.tv enabled. But no success on my Kodi 19.1 system. How can I scan and add such metadata? Do you have such in your database? If so, do you see the clearlogo when showing the codec info while playing?

Yes, clearlogos are working in the "now playing" view:

Since I use MediaElch to maintain all my libraries, and never use any of the Kodi scrapers despite "local info only", I cannot answer how to add these automatically. I am in strong favor of having full control of my library content and don’t like the idea that others or strange algorithms decide what’s the best album cover or fan art

[Buschel]

Finally I could resolve this. I simply did not configure Kodi right... Screenshots can be found in PR#425. The track shown/playing is back from old times. It was one of the hardest audio tracks to encode with lossy codecs which I came around.

[UlfSchmidt]

Finally I could resolve this. I simply did not configure Kodi right... Screenshots can be found in PR#425. The track shown/playing is back from old times. It was one of the hardest audio tracks to encode with lossy codecs which I came around.

Great news!
But what the hell is the mpc7 codec?
:-|

[Buschel]

But what the hell is the mpc7 codec?

"mpc7" is an abbreviation for "musepack stream version 7" -- good old times

[Buschel]

True, the pulldown menu is another option. I will check this first as it is in line with the other menus.

Implemented (as part of the Radio/TV splitup). It requires a kind of workaround to not mix up Radio/TV. Maybe I will find a better way to resolve this, but it works.

[UlfSchmidt]

But what the hell is the mpc7 codec?

"mpc7" is an abbreviation for "musepack stream version 7" -- good old times

My apologies especially since you already know that my archive mainly contains aac, mp3, and flac
I was forced in the good old times to use mp3 due to the mobile music players me and my family used then

[Buschel]

Another feature I just made available in a draft PR: PR#426 (filter for album/song artist and update icons). Especially for the icons (eye/ear vs. unchecked box) I would like to hear your opinion.

[UlfSchmidt]

Another feature I just made available in a draft PR: PR#426 (filter for album/song artist and update icons). Especially for the icons (eye/ear vs. unchecked box) I would like to hear your opinion.

Thumbs up! Finally just a simple and clear (un-)checked box. I really like and support this modification. This brings the UI one step closer to a sleek and modern look and feel.

[Buschel]

Thanks, @UlfSchmidt. This is also my favourite solution. Let's see if someone else also shares an opinion.

A technical question: While working on the separated Radio/TV menus and the latest artist view mode I figured out that for PVR recordings you can also filter for non-watched and watched recordings. The current Remote App version will always show all recordings as not watched as the property "playcount" is not taken into account and is always assumed to be zero. This is a bug. But when processing "playcount" properly I see this reported as zero. Always. Even though I just played a recording (VU+ add-on).
Is the support for a correct "playcount" depending on the PVR plugin used? Does anyone know if there are PVR plugins wich correctly support "playcount"? And is it possible to check for this function via the JSON API?

Three choices (1 and 3 are simple configuration changes):
1. Let the Remote App read and process "playcount" (code change needed). If the PVR plugin reports correct value, everything works as expected. If not, all recordings will always show as not watched.
2. Check for the PVR plugin's capability to report "playcount" and only support the filter then. Might be difficult for users to understand why there are combinations which have the filter and others do not. This would require at least an error popup or something like this.
3. Remove the filter for PVR recordings.