Winamp-, Foobar2000-, WMP11-skins etc.

[magicalpig]

I second that. If MM gets as flexible as foobar and as efficient resource wise, it will be a killer app.

Victor.

[rovingcowboy]

roving cowboy is crazy...
that being said, I've install foobar2000 and found it has really good UI customization.. but I cannot work out how to install a theme like that.

...to the point where I think something's getting confused and it's not possible.

Dale.

so you think I'm crazy well test the skin out with foobar,
test out foobar, and if you like that then get out of media monkey and go use that. stop trying to make media monkey look like some other cheap a... media program that does not do anything but ramp up the cpu cycles with fancy unneeded code to make a mirror effect. there are already mirror effect codes for html that can be used on your art work if you so wish to view it in a mirror effect. just view it in the ie and leave the effect out of monkey.
its useless and provides no usefulness in monkey at all. i don't know of any other media player program that would even consider making their program look act and feel like any other one. what makes you think media monkey should be a copy of boo bar or any other media player.

when you change the media player you use to media monkey toss out all the stuff you did with that other program and use media monkey find areas that need fixed in media monkey and get them fixed then if there is something that will benefit media monkey suggest it but don't suggest media monkey look like another program that is just wanting your old program to be like media monkey, so go back to it and try to get them to make theirs like media monkey. you more then likely will be told to come to media monkey if you like it.

trying to make mediamonkey work act feel and smell like any other media player program is just trying to make mediamonkey loose its identity.
if you want to do that then get someone to make a script for mediamonkey you can download and muck up your copy of mediamonkey.

i use to use jriver's musicjukebox until they screwed it up and told everyone to get their mediacenter. i then found media monkey, and am staying with it strickly media monkey i try to make different looking skins so media monkey does not look like any other player in the market. name me one with a light show?
you can't none have been made like that until i made my concert skin for monkey.

how many skins are there for jet audio? not many why? because they want 10,000 images changed for thier skins.

how many can send things in to jriver mediacenter ?
anybody as long as you're aproved by them to send in things.?
i made about 10 av effects for them when i was using it. they took them and tossed them out. and kept changing how they were made with every update to their skin because they did not want user submits back then. if they do now i don't know and don't care to send to them.

i use to use quicktime until they got to big for their britches.
same thing with wmp i still have them though so i can play wma files with out trouble in monkey.

i use to make skins for winamp but they wanted cookie cutter skins that all looked the same just different colors.. then they went to the modern looking players. and had too much to do to make those skins. then sold out to aol. so i am not going back to them either.

so why would i want to use skins that look like those or other media players on mediamonkey?

you call me crazy for wanting mediamonkey to be mediamonkey?

i call you crazy for trying to make mediamonkey some other program then mediamonkey.

[Big_Berny]

Well I personally don't want MM to look like Foobar but it would be nice if it would also have all these skin-capabilities...

[spacefish]

Well I personally don't want MM to look like Foobar but it would be nice if it would also have all these skin-capabilities...

Totally agreed!

[Lona]

Wow...never expected reactions like these..Rovingcowboy, relax please I admit, the line like 'who can resist' is a way of getting people to respond and make people think about a better interface.
I agree copying an interface is sort of loosing identity, but by looking at an other interface and implement some of the things is evolution. I know it's a narrow distinction, but I think you shouldn't stick to an interface because you think you'll loose your identity if you don't.

The only thing I - and if I understand correct others - would like to see is an improved way of skinning MediaMonkey. In my case the ability to dock windows or to to get window presets you can customize. I mentioned Office, but you can also think of Adobe's programs. There you have the opportunity to grab an item (for example the library) and but it in the same box as the now-playing list. Trough some hot switched you would be able to either select 'play' or 'select' mode which brings up one of the two windows.

And no, I won't leave MediaMonkey because I love some scripts too much. And no, interface isn't that important, but if it's possible I would like to have...after all this is the art-part of mediamonkey.
Top of the list are improved (output)plugns and improved response, in the end, it's a music library and player, not a digital picture frame which is able to play music through a horrible speaker.

[Morten]

Foobar is THE most customizable program. But it is, as some has mentioned, a very difficult program to install skins and such - and actually, MM is NOT going to approach skinning that way. MM will have a much more user-oriented and friendly approach for skinners and users.

I'm sure mirroring album art; even WPF-effect will be possible in MM in the future, but as rovingcowboy points out it's important that this doesn't ruin the performance too much.

And please keep insulting comments for yourself guys. Future rude comments will be deleted; regardless if they have interesting information or not.

[DaledeSilva]

The only thing I - and if I understand correct others - would like to see is an improved way of skinning MediaMonkey. In my case the ability to dock windows or to to get window presets you can customize.

Lona's put it well. Most of us aren't looking to be able to make MM look exactly like another program. What we want to be able to do is adopt some of the layout and possibilities that we see working well in those other programs.
I don't even like MM to look like another player myself, I like a non-descript, understated look.

That being said, Cowboy, some people do want their Monkey to look like other things.
Just like the way you want your Monkey to look like a Jungle, or a Concert, or a Diner or a Truck..
You wouldn't go to a Jungle, Concert, Diner or Truck to listen to, or to organise your mp3's... cause they don't do what you want. Just like the other programs don't do what we want - but we still might like the aesthetics of them.

so while we personally don't want MM looking like another player, it should be easy to understand why someone does.

Dale.

[aidan_cage]

hear here

[monkey hi fi]

in the end, it's a music library and player, not a digital picture frame which is able to play music through a horrible speaker.

i'll see your theme.mskn and raise you 4 player.mskn's


rovingcowboy/ keith hall / monkey hi fi.

[Guest]

You wouldn't go to a Jungle, Concert, Diner or Truck to listen to, or to organise your mp3's... cause they don't do what you want. Just like the other programs don't do what we want - but we still might like the aesthetics of them.

so while we personally don't want MM looking like another player, it should be easy to understand why someone does.

Dale.

dale? the jungle is like a forest or like a park?

i find that statement funny.
why because i drove semi truck where i did go to diners, parks, and the truck, to listen to my music and i been to concerts and know other drivers that haul the stage lights around to them and sleep in the truck, or work on their computer in the truck while the concert is going on, so they might organize their mp3's there at the concert.

so that is a funny statement to me.

i do understand why some want it to have some different options. which is why i make the different skins. different strokes for different fokes.

lona i forgot to say in the other post that the stage light show is not a picture only. it is the volume meters for left and right so that is how the light show is controlled.

rovingcowboy / keith hall / monkey hi fi

[kemie]

Stepping a bit aside from the discussion, I'd love to see a minimalist, light skin in MM:
example 1
example 2
example 3

I could actuallly make graphics for such an interface if anyone was interested in coding it....

[dreifach]

Stepping a bit aside from the discussion, I'd love to see a minimalist, light skin in MM:
example 1
example 2
example 3

I could actuallly make graphics for such an interface if anyone was interested in coding it....

Oh wow. That would be beautiful. I wholeheartedly second this suggestion.

[Sblast]

I second that. If MM gets as flexible as foobar and as efficient resource wise, it will be a killer app.

Victor.

SAME THOUGHT HERE.

it will be a killer app.

[stankovic]

Hmm! It is always o.k. to take a look into other programs to see innovative things. I as a foobar user did that with Media Monkey - i use very often the feature to burn data cds and the tagging iconsistencies script. But if you take a look so please open your eyes! All the people are wrong who are praising foobar for its customizabilty: foobar was never meant to the most customizable player - take a look into winamp preferences and you will see hundred times more options. That misunderstanding was provoked by some third party components and by a bad designed Ui component "PanelsUI" wich won't work anymore with the newest versions of foobar. Foobar never supported and will never support skinning - PanelsUi was just a big hack to give the illusion of skinning.

I just can second what roving cowboy said: it is nicer to see new skins than to have a copy of an already existing skin.
If someone is interested: In Media Monkey i disabled the skinning - very cool option!

[Lona]

Darling I have to confess something. I did pay the neighbour a visit one day, but it didn't make me feel good. But now I'm more determined you're the one I'm looking for and I'm sure we can improve together.

It could have been the lines of a scene in a cheap soap story, but they are true.
I did install foobar2000 on my computer (in fact it's still on it, but the library is f*cked right now because I changed the driveletters) and implemented the foolars skin which is nice and clean. It works perfectly and...ah well...let's get on with the but:
but you need to learn how to use foobar. each search ended up in the playlist, even though I didn't want it to (intuitivity 0.1)
but the nice interfaces (elegance, fooXXXX, ..) are just hacks and unsupported in the most recent version

I really, really hope the next version of MediaMonkey will focus on excellent output plugins and the opportunity to have a more clean interface (ribbon implementation as used in office 2007 or switch workspaces as used in adobe products)