Re: [Usability] totem = video or media player ?

[Marek Peteraj <marpet naex sk>]

On Sun, 2004-02-29 at 21:39, Julien Olivier wrote:
> > Depends on what you consider as a perfect way. For example Rhythmbox is
> > overweight for my daily usage since it's not really about playlists,
> > it's more about _catalogizing_ music.
> > 
> 
> Well, I don't how much music you've got on you hard drive. But I - like
> a lot of people I guess - have all my ripped CDs (around 40) on my hard
> driver. And _cataloging_ my music is the #1 feature I need from a music
> player.

i'd just throw in a cd :) too lazy...

> 
> But, of course, your needs may differ from mine.
> 
> > AFAIK both audio and video files can contain metadata information.
> > 
> 
> I didn't know about video metadata. If you're right, this argument is
> indeed bogus.
> 
> > Visualization plugins.
> > 
> 
> >From my point of view, visualization plugins are a very example of
> broken UI due to a bad mix of different functions (video and audio
> playing) in a single application (media player). I mean, in real life,
> you don't need (or even want) to see anything when you're listening to
> music, do you ? But, well, media players had to find a solution to hide
> this useless *video* widget, so they use visualization plugins...

Disagree. See how popular visualization plugins are. I love to stare at
goom, it's incredible what it does :) It's pretty cool to use it as a
screensaver (sortof, having it in fullscreen mode) or have a look at it
while relaxing if you're working...

> > Don't force me to use rhythmbox for music :)
> > RB is cool but i just want to have my simple playlist where i can throw
> > both audio and video files. 
> > 
> 
> Like I said, your needs may differ from mine. The real question is: what
> do most users need in an audio player. And I'm pretty sure that lots of
> users really need a way to catalog their music. 

lots of users need to catalogue their music, lots of them need fancy
visualization plugins and simple playlists.  :)

> But maybe you're right,
> and it's actually the file manager's role to catalog your music...
> except if you're in an application-based model.
> 
> > It's not at all off-topic if you suggest default locations for open/save
> > file dialogs. 
> > 
> > I think having /media for all is ok.
> > That concerns 
> > /media/audio or music
> > /media/video
> > /media/pictures
> > 
> 
> What's getting off-topic is discussing whether totem is the best app to
> play music.

It wasn't about totem being the best music app. I think it was important
to point out which apps do what in order to determine default locations.
Not off-topic at all. 

Marek