Description: This is an idea for a program that would integrate different media programs in a way like Kontact does with KDE PIM programs. At the same time this is a suggestion for KDE programmers about how that program could be.
It may integrate the following programs:
Pictures -- Gwenview Video -- Kaffeine TV -- KdeTV Music collection -- JuK Audio CD -- KsCD CD burning -- K3b
The "Resume" area might contain something like:
Welcome to KDE Media Center
212 pictures in your picture collection _View_ ---- a link to the last opened picture directory 134 songs in your music collection _Play_ ---- a link to start playback from the song it sounded the last time 34 channels in your TV card _Watch TV_ ....
I think KsCD wouldn't integrate very well so you could create a new program/module/component to play audio cd's that integrated better into a KDE Media Center.
The screenshots have been made with GIMP, taking screenshots from Kontact, Kaffeine, Gwenview and JuK and modifying them.
I have little knowledge about KDE programming so I can't start this project myself but I could help in the graphic design of the application and the spanish translation.
It would be cooler still if there was a way run something like this from a 10 foot interface. I there are mythtv and freevo but they seem to be specifically made for computers with tv cards on them. I just want to be able to see all of my media from my tv. I'd also want to be able to syncronize my playlists, albums, etc. with the ones from my favorite programs while on the desktop.
I'm actually thinking about making a program that would use kimdaba's database from a 10 foot UI so that I can control a slideshow from a remote control. If that goes well, maybe I'll try to do it for other media applications.
J. River makes Media Center for windows. It's a terrific piece of software, although getting bloated, whose functionality is not found in a similar program for linux.
The all-in-1 solution works well in this situation, no doubt.
You get your media (songs, movies, pics, etc.) and you get it all in one place for easy manipulation. With an intuitive layout.
machiner
All of those ideas are quite good. And microsoft has already have them before. I'm not here to talk about their Longhorn project, of an entire media black box, totaly user friendly, but totaly not configurable...
I just remember why i came on linux. With it, i was able to do exactly what i want, by the way i want. The simple idea of a all in one apps go against that idea. It's sure that it brings some complications, it is less "user friendly" to have to create a playlist, to export it, and to burn it, with to separated apps, for example, but there are also some inconvenients to use such an apps as iTunes or Winamp... They do all, but they do it bad...
A last point; the "media center" project by microsoft is perhaps not a bad idea, but a home dvd player and a TV could even do the same thing (playing cd's,dvd's, ripping and burning it...), is sometimes cheaper than the microsoft OS... and you won't get any virus with it!
;-)
Why not sketch further your ideas (currently there are some inconsistencies between the buttons which I do not like).
An idea from Outlook 2003, the left view is divided in two part. An upper part containing a tree view (the directories) and a lower part containing a list of "thematic icons" (MAIL, CALENDAR, TODO,...).
Probably they did this because sreen sizes are getting bigger.
I just wanted to add my total support for the idea. I only wish I were a programmer to help move it along.
Perhaps also, if only to avoid any battle over what to include (gwenview vs. digikam, for example) the tool could allow user choice where it makes sense and is doable.
The anticipation is killing me. :)
I thought about giving the user the choice to change between the applications (s)he prefers and I agree. I don't know if it would make it more difficult to be implemented but as it would be using KParts I don't think so.
I haven't used Digikam so I can't say anything about it. But letting you choose between Digikam/Gwenview/other application would be cool.
Much like kontact you could still use the applications seperately, if that is what you wanted. I originally used my kontact apps seperately but now I am very, very please to have them integrated. I think an application like Apollen should be included (for media downloads.)
Absolutely, though of course it would not be possible to include Apollon in the main KDE distribution (this has been discussed at length), it would as in the case of aKregator be possible to simply add another item in the sidebar...
As mentioned before, the applications would all run separately as well as inside the media centre, just as is the case with Kontact now. The idea is great, and I don't understand those who say the usability doesn't make sense here. What would make more sense than having all your media managed in the same place?
I would, however, suggest GwenView is replaced by Digikam in the pictures section, as Digikam is more of a management tool (plus with the camera integration, that is of course good), where GwenView is rather more a poweruser tool.
I am ranting here, so I shall stop now ;) Anyway, great idea, would love to see it happen :D
Shouldn't be to hard because (I believe) all the applications you mention provide KParts.
However, I prefer seperate applications that do their job well.
this would be good from a marketing perspective, as it was invented by business.
This is a bad proposal from a usability perspective. How are these apps related to each other? Why should you want to use it. Koffice also created this carrier framework. I never used it, it only eats screen. Kontact may be different. Why shall we need something like that?
I don't agree. What about integration? Think you have an audio cd and you want to rip it, compress it in mp3/ogg and add it to your music collection in JuK. What if you had a button in the CD player that automatically did all that in one click? You could also want to burn an album from your music collection. What if you could click "Burn folder" and the K3b tab opened with the burning dialog where you choose the burning device and the speed so you just needed to click "Burn" and you're done? One of the big advantages of KDE is integration between the different components. I think this might be very interesting. And remember this is free software: don't use it if you don't want it. But let others use it if they like it.
No, this is not Free Software, this is just a suggestion. And of course it would be a key structural component in the desktop operating system.
Perhaps you are right with the different issues, but perhaps a segusoland type of approach suites this better.
"Integration" on a structural level only causes harm. It was propagated in the late nighties. Think of Mozilla. Think of StarOffice 4.0. They reversed that painful decision. Integration has to happen but not that way that "visualises integration" but does not care about usability.
What happens with Mozilla and Star Office is different. I'm not suggesting to create a new whole application with all that functionality. What I'm suggesting is to take the already existing applications and integrate them. That means you would be able to run them sepparately if you want. KDE Media Center would only act as a frame to load the applications inside it. So it's like creating an application that allows you to change between Firefox and Thunderbird: you can still run Firefox or Thunderbird independently. It's not monolithic. It's modular, so it's not a problem in complexity and programming terms and is not a problem in freedom because you can run those applications sepparately.
Well, actually I'm thinking more of something that replaces the Windows Media Player. Allthough I prefer Winamp on Windoze, I think that the main idea of WMP was better - burning CDs, viewing videos and managing playlists in one app is really nice. You don't have to create and export a playlist if you want to burn a CD, just select the tracks you want to burn and that's it.
But actually, I don't like the idea of having an extra mode for playing audio cds - CDs should be integrated like an artist in the media library. And if you pull a track from the CD to another folder of the media library, it automatically starts ripping. THAT would be a cool thing!
I find very interesting the idea of integrating the audio cd's with the music collection. I suppose that would require a new application or some changes to JuK to support it. Anyway if it would be possible to implement it without much pain I agree. We shouldn't forget the user must play an audio cd without much complications, so that integration should not make it more difficult just to play an audio cd. Remember CDDB gives you all the track names without needing to enter them manually. It's cool and we should also take advantage of it.
Ratings & Comments
22 Comments
Hey. I discovered that gwenview do this easier. Images, sound, movies,and archives too. Good.
I think this would be an excellent program for the kde4 team to develop!
It would be cooler still if there was a way run something like this from a 10 foot interface. I there are mythtv and freevo but they seem to be specifically made for computers with tv cards on them. I just want to be able to see all of my media from my tv. I'd also want to be able to syncronize my playlists, albums, etc. with the ones from my favorite programs while on the desktop. I'm actually thinking about making a program that would use kimdaba's database from a 10 foot UI so that I can control a slideshow from a remote control. If that goes well, maybe I'll try to do it for other media applications.
I think the playlist have to manage by amaroK! It's the best music manger I've found!
with the new kaffeine 0.5 u can do just that, there are tabs and you can add just any kparts you want in it and even undock them
J. River makes Media Center for windows. It's a terrific piece of software, although getting bloated, whose functionality is not found in a similar program for linux. The all-in-1 solution works well in this situation, no doubt. You get your media (songs, movies, pics, etc.) and you get it all in one place for easy manipulation. With an intuitive layout. machiner
All of those ideas are quite good. And microsoft has already have them before. I'm not here to talk about their Longhorn project, of an entire media black box, totaly user friendly, but totaly not configurable... I just remember why i came on linux. With it, i was able to do exactly what i want, by the way i want. The simple idea of a all in one apps go against that idea. It's sure that it brings some complications, it is less "user friendly" to have to create a playlist, to export it, and to burn it, with to separated apps, for example, but there are also some inconvenients to use such an apps as iTunes or Winamp... They do all, but they do it bad... A last point; the "media center" project by microsoft is perhaps not a bad idea, but a home dvd player and a TV could even do the same thing (playing cd's,dvd's, ripping and burning it...), is sometimes cheaper than the microsoft OS... and you won't get any virus with it! ;-)
Why not sketch further your ideas (currently there are some inconsistencies between the buttons which I do not like). An idea from Outlook 2003, the left view is divided in two part. An upper part containing a tree view (the directories) and a lower part containing a list of "thematic icons" (MAIL, CALENDAR, TODO,...). Probably they did this because sreen sizes are getting bigger.
I just wanted to add my total support for the idea. I only wish I were a programmer to help move it along. Perhaps also, if only to avoid any battle over what to include (gwenview vs. digikam, for example) the tool could allow user choice where it makes sense and is doable. The anticipation is killing me. :)
I thought about giving the user the choice to change between the applications (s)he prefers and I agree. I don't know if it would make it more difficult to be implemented but as it would be using KParts I don't think so. I haven't used Digikam so I can't say anything about it. But letting you choose between Digikam/Gwenview/other application would be cool.
Much like kontact you could still use the applications seperately, if that is what you wanted. I originally used my kontact apps seperately but now I am very, very please to have them integrated. I think an application like Apollen should be included (for media downloads.)
Absolutely, though of course it would not be possible to include Apollon in the main KDE distribution (this has been discussed at length), it would as in the case of aKregator be possible to simply add another item in the sidebar... As mentioned before, the applications would all run separately as well as inside the media centre, just as is the case with Kontact now. The idea is great, and I don't understand those who say the usability doesn't make sense here. What would make more sense than having all your media managed in the same place? I would, however, suggest GwenView is replaced by Digikam in the pictures section, as Digikam is more of a management tool (plus with the camera integration, that is of course good), where GwenView is rather more a poweruser tool. I am ranting here, so I shall stop now ;) Anyway, great idea, would love to see it happen :D
Shouldn't be to hard because (I believe) all the applications you mention provide KParts. However, I prefer seperate applications that do their job well.
this would be good from a marketing perspective, as it was invented by business. This is a bad proposal from a usability perspective. How are these apps related to each other? Why should you want to use it. Koffice also created this carrier framework. I never used it, it only eats screen. Kontact may be different. Why shall we need something like that?
I don't agree. What about integration? Think you have an audio cd and you want to rip it, compress it in mp3/ogg and add it to your music collection in JuK. What if you had a button in the CD player that automatically did all that in one click? You could also want to burn an album from your music collection. What if you could click "Burn folder" and the K3b tab opened with the burning dialog where you choose the burning device and the speed so you just needed to click "Burn" and you're done? One of the big advantages of KDE is integration between the different components. I think this might be very interesting. And remember this is free software: don't use it if you don't want it. But let others use it if they like it.
No, this is not Free Software, this is just a suggestion. And of course it would be a key structural component in the desktop operating system. Perhaps you are right with the different issues, but perhaps a segusoland type of approach suites this better. "Integration" on a structural level only causes harm. It was propagated in the late nighties. Think of Mozilla. Think of StarOffice 4.0. They reversed that painful decision. Integration has to happen but not that way that "visualises integration" but does not care about usability.
What happens with Mozilla and Star Office is different. I'm not suggesting to create a new whole application with all that functionality. What I'm suggesting is to take the already existing applications and integrate them. That means you would be able to run them sepparately if you want. KDE Media Center would only act as a frame to load the applications inside it. So it's like creating an application that allows you to change between Firefox and Thunderbird: you can still run Firefox or Thunderbird independently. It's not monolithic. It's modular, so it's not a problem in complexity and programming terms and is not a problem in freedom because you can run those applications sepparately.
Well, actually I'm thinking more of something that replaces the Windows Media Player. Allthough I prefer Winamp on Windoze, I think that the main idea of WMP was better - burning CDs, viewing videos and managing playlists in one app is really nice. You don't have to create and export a playlist if you want to burn a CD, just select the tracks you want to burn and that's it. But actually, I don't like the idea of having an extra mode for playing audio cds - CDs should be integrated like an artist in the media library. And if you pull a track from the CD to another folder of the media library, it automatically starts ripping. THAT would be a cool thing!
like audiocd:/ ioslave does already
I find very interesting the idea of integrating the audio cd's with the music collection. I suppose that would require a new application or some changes to JuK to support it. Anyway if it would be possible to implement it without much pain I agree. We shouldn't forget the user must play an audio cd without much complications, so that integration should not make it more difficult just to play an audio cd. Remember CDDB gives you all the track names without needing to enter them manually. It's cool and we should also take advantage of it.
I disagree It's a good idea to be worked ! Its the same concept that the HTPC distribs/desktops but at the window level.
Yes, Windows usability is crap, too much inconsitency. Unfortunately so many people are used to the MS usability experiment field.