Version: (using KDE Devel) Installed from: Compiled sources OS: Linux For choosing a video, kmplayer brings the preferences window in which a source has to be chosen. This is really counter-intuitive, and the video choice should be removed from the preferences window. Instead, it would be clearer if there was only 4 menus : load video from file, watch tv, watch a dvd or load a video from a url. There are lots of features but in my opinion it is a pity that the most important one (loading a video) got lost in the preference dialog. Concerning the tv channels .. choosing the tv should bring a non-modal dialog for selecting a channel straight from the first menu entry. I currently have to do source->tv->bt878_long_name_of_the_tv_card->television->channel". This is not very convenient, even if the tv submenu can be put in a window (this last thing is also a bit counter-intuitive).
> For choosing a video, kmplayer brings the preferences window in which a > source has to be chosen. Slowly the preferences window becomes a control panel. The idea is to do as much as possible with, on the avarage, least of mouse clicks. I noticed that I often wanted to change the movie player for a specific movie. In the next release there is also a sub title possibility, so even more mouse clicks. Also, I noticed that I quite often play the same files/streams and recent files isn't a very comfortable menu for it (too little items, too wide). So for opening a single file the first time, there is one extra mouse click (but using the autocompletion can save that one). Preference dialog pops up much faster than the KFileDialog too. > I currently have to do > source->tv->bt878_long_name_of_the_tv_card->television->channel" Agreed, not very confortable, needs some rethinking. Just a menu 'watch tv' is too simple. What if you have multible TV cards or a (web)cam (like me). Currently I see it as a base for a quick recording or broadcasting. For watching TV I use xawtv :-) (kwintv/tvtime are also very nice). Any ideas to make it better are welcome of course. I disagree on the tear-of-menu. That's a common gui element imo.
Right, if you want to use the preference dialog as a control panel, i suggest then to change the entry "open" in the menu. The label open, with the dedicated icon suggests that the action will bring the classic kfiledialog like in every other application. This is inconsistent with the other kde apps, a change is really needed. In my view, there are already many entries in the file menu .. and i am afraid that they do not concern useful things - most of them are in the preference window ! In fact the file menu could be cut to have only "recent", "new window", "choose media", "close" and "quit". Concerning the tv feature .. providing a gui for watching both tv and videos is something difficult. The buttons be shown as disabled, to make it clear that what is seen cannot be stopped (buttons play, pause, stop, forward ..), and in the meantime, the channels have to be shown .. Instead of putting everything in one big control dialog, I see at least two solutions : A first idea could be separate control window for tv media, dvd or streams. This would allow to have only 4 entries in the main menu, and each menu would trigger a different window providing the necessary options : channels for the tv, video files and streams playlist (one may want to play a list of videos, or mp3s with visualization plugins :) and dvd control. Another possibility would be to make "modes" for the media played. The kmplayer would then be in dvd, video or tv mode. There would then be a menu entry to switch between the modes. Like in the previous idea, there would be a dedicated menu for each mode. There would be only one control window, but it will have different layouts according to the media mode. The solutions above are just ideas, in fact i use most of the time xawdecode[xdtv] (mplayer cannot play the tv - don't know why), and i have removed the tv entry from the menu of kmplayer (in the source code, by hand :). However, if kmplayer is meant to grow bigger over the time, I think that it is necessary to separate the control tools from the preferences, and make those controls available before the preferences. ++
> In fact the file menu could be cut to have only "recent", "new window", > "choose media", "close" and "quit". Sounds reasonable. Otoh, kmplayer only supports a few media types. So leaving it in the menu as a shortcut to the right tab on the control panel, sounds okay too. > Another possibility would be to make "modes" for the media played This is already the case internally. Also, TV hides the forward/backward buttons (actually I though about making these zap buttons for TV one day) > However, if kmplayer is meant to grow bigger over the time, I think that > it is necessary to separate the control tools from the preferences, > and make those controls available before the preferences Currently it all fits in a not too big dialog. Don't know how/if it will grow .. Most important is the plugin, that should be lean and play whatever is out there on the web. For 0.8.2 the TV/Broadcast/DVD/VCD tabs don't exist in the config dialog anymore.
kmplayer could also use a kmdi window ? A fileselector like in kate or in kdevelop would help a lot.
Kate's fileselector looks cool indeed (never seen it before). If it's in Qt/kdelibs, I can add it to kmplayer..
the video adding is very user unfriendly... A user has to source->open and then find that he has to press another button to go to the file selector
This project is unfortunately no longer maintained. If a new maintainer wants to step up and take care, the project is archived here: https://invent.kde.org/multimedia/kmplayer You can just clone it in your private namespace on invent.kde.org and if you have started to work on it and fixed/implemented something get it reviewed and the project unarchived. Sorry for the inconveniences.