This thread has come about due to many users still not satisfied with the recent GUI 2 offering. The GUI 2 firmware is not an ideally suited UI for a network streamer.

The purpose of this thread is to constructively put together a working and practical specification which A.C Ryan can review and consider for implementation.

Anyone is welcome to contribute to the thread and I will update the main post with good requests and input.

I'll also add that I don't work for A.C Ryan, I'm just a user of the device like you might be, but since I bought the device, I wouldn't mind having it actually be a pleasure to use. I write this spec in the hope A.C Ryan will take notes and give us what we want in an interface. So please contribute, it might be the only way to see real change.

This spec will only cover the most important aspects of functionality, not every menu or setting!

SPECIFICATIONS FOR A.C RYAN MINI HD NETWORK STREAMER.
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1. Boot up
2. Start up commands
3. Main Menu and Navigation
4. Thumb nails and movie info
5. Music Player
6. Conclusion


1. BOOT UP
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Boot up works as expected. No complaints here.
- Would be really nice to customize the boot logo (but not essential)
- Would be nice to see firmware version (but not essential)


2. Start up commands
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Start up commands need to be utilized to bring out the best user experience. There are 2 categories of start up commands:

2.1 System Start Up Commands

System start up commands are not accessible by the user, instead these are created to assist the user experience, they are system generated start up commands.

These commands should include (but are not limited to):

2.1.1 Automatic Network logins
Network locations are automatically mounted and the user is logged on (behind the scenes), while this might take a little extra wait time upfront, from this point on, these connections are maintained and no waiting is required while the user browsers network locations. The typical user does not have 50 NAS devices, but only 1, and because of this we are (mostly) talking about a small delay to get the user logged on.

Should power users have multiple NAS devices, such as PC's or NAS servers around the house, then it would be possible to have a MAX_NAS_PRE_Connect setting, which would only automatically log on the most frequently used devices, based on this setting. For example if you set this to 5, the system would remember the 5 most frequent NAS devices, but for the most part (as mentioned) most users have just 1 NAS device.

2.2.2 Menu preparation start up command
This is another system command that gets run as the device boots which customizes the users initial menu based on his usage.

2.2 User Defined Start Up Command
The user should be given the ability to run certain tasks at startup. There shouldn't be a great amount of flexibility here but a few examples are:

2.2.1 Automatically load up a network folder path in the file manager

Why not have the option to do this? It is a great idea, if the user has most of his collection sitting in a share somewhere called MEDIA, and has sub folders beyond this called Movies, Documentaries, TV Series, and Music, then it would be great to just auto load this location as the device starts up using a script.

2.2.2 Automatically load up an internet radio station
Some users might want their devices to primarily play a radio station when turned on, give them that option.

2.2.3 Automatically load up an internet feed or site
While I wouldn't personally use this feature, I am sure some people would.

3. Main Menu and Navigation
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The main menu should consist of a series of customizable buttons, and the firmware should come with defaults set, but it should also be possible to add more, or disable certain buttons.

Each "button" or "menu item" or "nav link" should contain 3 elements,

1. A Picture
2. Some short text
3. An action

The user should be able to customize the picture, text and action. This could be done by editing RAW XML on the mini, and uploading images to a certain location (on the mini or via USB thumbstick or drive). Less experienced users are welcome to continue using the default "buttons" the base firmware has to offer. Resetting the menus should be an option too.

3.1 The picture
The picture should be a fixed sized JPG, Gif or PNG that the user uploads. Should the picture not be of the correct dimensions it should be stretched to fix the space it has in the menu button.

3.2 Short text
This is the link description, the GUI designers will decide exactly where this text will be placed, and what font it will be displayed in. The designers themselves will decide the max length of this text to keep the design from "breaking" and to keep things anesthetically pleasing to the eyes. Mainly when the user has selected a "button" or "link" this text will be visible on the screen.

3.3 The link action.
This is the exciting part for the user, the link could infact point to a location of files on the network, but it could also point to an internet feed, a file, radio station, or a system menu. The link could even be extended to run a script, this way links could perform multiple actions at once.

Each link should be executed in the context of the players capabilities, for example if you link to a file, the player should by default try to play this file. Should you link to a folder the player will need to open the file browser container. Should you link to an internet feed, the player will need to open this feed. If you're linking to an htm file, and set the link type to YAML, the player should assume you're opening a Jukebox.

There are a finite amount of link types available some examples are:

<Menu>
<Link type="MusicFolder">\\MyNas\MyMusic</Link>
</Menu>

or how about:

<Menu>
<Link type="YAML">\\MyNas\MyJukeboxes\Movies\index.htm</Link>
</Menu>

Internet feeds are a bit tricker but you get the idea. The player can only view certain feeds, hence you need to operate within the players ability, but all these options should be documented for the user.

4. Thumb nails and movie info
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It is clear the YAMJ for the mini isn't quite working out. Lets maybe just get back to basics, how about quick and decent Thumb nails with movie name (defaulting to file name).

Explaining how this can be done is beyond the scope of this spec, but it should work to the point where the end user is given a reasonable thumbnail of their movie / movies. And a text description, possibly even a short write up about the movie.

5. Music Player
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Music (when loading up a playlist or folder) should be played in a special music player that can read in mp3 tags, and possibly offer visualizations. It should also be possible to skip through tracks quickly and order by artists, album etc.

6. Conclusion
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This would solve the usability of this network streamer. It would make the player far more fun to work with, and I think most users would have enough control with just this, I am sure more great ideas will follow.

please ask questions if anything is unclear.

A few suggestions
-YAMJ itself works nicely on a PC - where it suffers is the Jukebox implementation in the firmware - so a better or full YAMJ implementation in firmware that allows handset use rather than keyboard / mouse - and skin changing if possible. All file paths should be either absolute or relative within the jukebox - makes it more usable

-The Jukebox in the GUI should load up the last known index file with no prompting. Reloading or changing jukeboxes should be via a button on the handset

-Any media library or indexing of content should cover all defined shortcuts - with no mesing about adding volume mount points to a local USB drive

-A Music julebox would be good - but browsing should puck up the default album artwork - folder.jpg - which GUI2 seems ti have slipped up on

- And as for a 'nice to have' - a music jukebox and decent playlist functionality


I'm sure I can come up with a few more if I try. Haven't even started on Photos yet

I look forward to see where this thread is going!

I have some thoughts on YAMJ that I'd like to add to the discussion:

According to Omertron (Overlord of all things YAMJ), the current implementation of YAMJ is limited because of the lack of browser.
But according to http://www.mpcclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25822, the SDK 4 includes Opera so that "should" mean that this limitation is mitigated and that custom skins and normal behaviour should be available.

I mentioned this to Omertron in here: http://www.acryan.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=11688 but there's still no final confirmation on the subject.

With regard to this positive comment from AC Ryan Staff member Roger:
viewtopic.php?p=87042#p87042

I look forward to a good discussion in this thread.

And if this needs to be approached in some kind of incremental fashion, I think we should start out with network share save + making it accessible very early in the UI.
(When going to "movies", I should get to my movies no matter where they are)

hi

i love how this topic has gone so far. perhaps this topic should serve as a fundamental designs in GUI and network path locations issues.

implementation of YAMJ is great yet the issues that come along with it are just unbearable sometimes. thanks to andya for kind and quick response to many users' grieves and pains. same goes to omertron. i look forward to read more from this topic - either progress reports or ideas to improve user experience, network issues and more.

thanks guy.