2234 - the UI has no Stop Media Playing control

[Barry4679]

There should be a Stop control on the Player panel.

I have Tools|Options|Player default actions set to:

• When Playback Stopped: Edit Properties

• When Files Are Playing: Play Now

If a track is playing, I have no UI control that moves me to a state of "not playing" ... ie. so that I can double click a track, and the Track does not start playing, as per my settings.

These actions do not work; ie MM5 playing stops, but it seems to remain in a "Playing" state:

• Use the pause control in the Player panel

• clear the queue from the Now Playing panel

The only thing that does work seems be is to use the Stop Media Playing option, from the main menu, or the context menu in the Player panel.

[Lowlander]

Stop button depends on Skin you're using. You also have right click on Player > Stop.

[Barry4679]

Stop button depends on Skin you're using. You also have right click on Player > Stop.

I just tried three of your other skins. None of them appear to have a Stop control.

I know that not all play clients have a Stop control, but MM4 does have a Stop control in its UI.

I did refer to the context menu option in my original post. ... That's convenient in your new Touch mode? ... I can't test, because I have no touch device.

IMO it would be better if MM5 had a Stop button too.

And clearing the queue should move MM5 to a "Stopped", not a "Paused" state IMO.

[MiPi]

In case skin supports this control, you can display it using context menu on player - Layout (Player) - check "Stop" control.

[Barry4679]

In case skin supports this control, you can display it using context menu on player - Layout (Player) - check "Stop" control.

Thanks Mipi, that works.

I suggest that the option be defaulted to On. This will align MM5 with MM4 experience.

Also the Stop control is useful ... it resets the track back to the beginning, and it makes the Default Actions settings, at "Tools|Options|Player, easier to understand.

And I still think that clearing the queue should be equivalent to a Stop action, for the "Default Actions" settings.

[Lowlander]

As for clearing queue, are you emptying Now Playing? What state was it before as here with it Playing it continues playing (like MMW) and then stops at end of file.

[Barry4679]

As for clearing queue, are you emptying Now Playing? What state was it before as here with it Playing it continues playing (like MMW) and then stops at end of file.

Thanks for the followup Lowlander.

I just retested, and it seems that I got confused somehow. I thought that I saw that I could stop playing from the Now Playing panel, but I now see that I can't. Sorry about wasting your time.

Coming back to the Stop UI control, and the Playback settings in Tools|Options|Layout|Player:

Two of the skins that you ship don't support the Stop control, and one (Monkey Groove) doesn't even support the Tools|Options|Layout|Player menu at all. ... Expected?

Also there is a Stop option in your MicroPlayer, but none in your MiniPlayer. That makes no sense., does it?

[Davo]

Thanks for raising this Barry. I'd been wondering why there was no stop button on the player. Now I know why. I agree the default should be on.

[Ludek]

Two of the skins that you ship don't support the Stop control, and one (Monkey Groove) doesn't even support the Tools|Options|Layout|Player menu at all. ... Expected?

I see Stop button in the Monkey Groove skin: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iz874pq3gn989 ... 6.png?dl=0

[Lowlander]

Right click on tray icon has Stop button and you can set a hotkey as well.

[Barry4679]

I see Stop button in the Monkey Groove skin: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iz874pq3gn989 ... 6.png?dl=0

You sure that you are running vanilla version 2234? .... I am not seeing that, see here .. press the play button

One other thing about that skin (Monkey Groove) ... it doesn't support Switch To MiniPlayer either.

Right click on tray icon has Stop button and you can set a hotkey as well.

I think that you misread what I tried to say.
I said that I could see a Stop control in the Microplayer, but not in the Miniplayer.

Also I was just saying that it was inconsistent.

My (admittedly small) Use Case for a visible Stop Control is only in the main UI:

• I don't use MM as a player, because I have Sonos.

• I have sound on my PC turned off, to avoid distraction when browsing the Internet.

• I like it that MM5 allows me to configure a track double click to not play, because accidental (silent) plays, stuff up my play stats, which stuffs up my active playlists

• It also like it that MM5 allows me to configure the UI, so that on the limited occasions when I am using MM as a player, a track double click is auto-recognised a as a player action, just in this limited context

• So in this Use Case, it is desirable to have a Stop button, to terminate, rather than just Pause, playing

I think that I will stop posting about this now. Now that MiPi has explained that there is an option which turns visibility on for the invisible Stop button, in most skins, much of this has gone away for me.

• support is missing from Golden Monkey, but I seriously doubt that anyone would ever chose to use that skin

• it is missing, for me, from Monkey Groove, but that seems to be due to a bug

• I think that it would be best if the Stop button visibility was defaulted to ON, to ease migration from MM4, and because it has a useful function for people who object to hearing partial tracks when they resume playing, after a lengthy break ... ie. Classical Music people

[Ludek]

Your 'Monkey Groove' skin is really broken, not seeing this on clean install of 2134.

I think it is caused by one bug that when you installed 2234 on top of older builds then the skins in your skin folder should not longer be presented as plain folders, but as zip packages, this is fixed in 2235+

For now workaround should be:
- install 2234 to separate folder (not to a folder where previous MM5 build was)
OR
- go to /Skins/ folder and remove the versions of skins that are not in ZIP package.
i.e. if there is only 'MonkeyGroove.zip' then it is OK, but if there is also 'Monkey Groove' folder then remove the folder.

[Barry4679]

I think it is caused by one bug that when you installed 2234 on top of older builds then the skins in your skin folder should not longer be presented as plain folders, but as zip packages, this is fixed in 2235+

My procedure is always to create a clean install, and to always install in portable mode.

• rename the prior MM5 folder .. in case I need to do a comparison

• install MM5 in portable mode into a new folder

• allow importation of data and settings from MM4

• start testing

I am confident that I did this for 2234 also, because:

• the MM5 folder creation date is 23rd March ... date 2234 released

• I can still see the renamed folder, from the previous install ... its creation date is 14th March, which was when version 2232 was released ... I didn't install 2233 as real life intervened ... I have install exe's for 2232 & 2234, but none for 2233

• here is my skins folder

There is a folder at C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Roaming\MediaMonkey5, but it is empty.
I am starting the MM5 portable install, and can't think of anywhere else it would be finding old files from.

btw ... the skins folder in the 2232 version is just zip files also

?

[Ludek]

Really strange that it does not work same way as on my PC.

If you right-click the white area in the Options > Layout > Player and select 'Inspect Element', does it include div with data-id pnl_LayoutPlayer in the DOM like https://www.dropbox.com/s/dfeonmyolj8t2 ... 9.png?dl=0
?
Or the pnl_LayoutPlayer isn't there at all ?

[Barry4679]

2238 resolved my problem with Monkey Groove skin, except for the fact that it does not support the optional Stop button.

While testing, I managed to trigger a MM hang twice while changing skins.

Notes:

• One time I was changing from Black Monkey to Golden Monkey, and the other time from Golden Monkey to Material Design (dark)

• Each time I had toggled to|from the Miniplayer in Golden Monkey, and also visited Tools|Options|Layout|Player

• each time I am left with just this, shows the colour of which skin I was going to (ie. yellow or black)

• I have to terminate MM5, using the Task manager, from the "Background Services" area, because it is not listed in the "Apps" section ... MM5 has three active processes in the Background Services area

PM'd link to Debug Log, to Ludek, with some notes ... PS. tried to raise a ticket, as per your recent post, but issues at you end, see here