Carminat support improvements

[wolfgar]

I open this thread to discuss about improvements regarding the support of carminat.

I has already been suggested to implement the following by some users :

- Modify the selecting square in a circle? I think is nicer
- The back key of car controls works only during the playback, it should be nice if it works always as exit button (i.e. form the audio menu to main menu)
- Press a button for a long time to switch between navigation and tomplayer

Please post your ideas to improve the carminat support.
No bug report here !

[CaesarAug]

It would be useful to improve the up/down movement into the menus.
At the moment up/down key of the joystick work as confirmation.
Only in the file list they work properly.
Thanks

[wolfgar]

i can easily avoid up/down to act as confirmation yet it would be trickier to navigate with them on the main menu...

[tim]

Hi Wolfgar,

Is it possible to make the currently selected button more clear?
I mean, it's difficult to tell what button is selected when driving. (i'm talking about the movie options screen)

cheers

[wolfgar]

Hi tim
I can try yes : What would you expect ?
Maybe i could display the selected icon in the center with a kind of magnifying glass effect ?

Besides, I add this other feature from another thread :
-> It would be very usefull to have the clock (the current time) is some place (in initial screen or also while playing music) because in Megane the only way to see the time is in this display.

[tim]

yes, that would be nice.
It doesn't need to be something super fancy, but just more visible.
I find it hard to see which button i have selected right now, it's shown by a small thin red line i believe.
Especially while driving, although i shouldn't be doing that at all

[tim]

For the screensaver, well, i find it a bit annoying to be honest. You go from everything to nothing.
It would be better to dim the screen halfway instead of completely in my opinion.
I don't know how other users think about that?

[CaesarAug]

Maybe a great solution could be to have the following information on the screen:
File name
Id3Tag information (Artist and song)
Time of song with progress bar
Selected icon with magnifying glass effect as Wolfgar's proposal (but not in the center, just over the selected icon)
Obviously, this is my dream

[MARCOSOFT]

Hello Wolfgar,

I would like to contribute with the following ideas:

- The Carminat has a function that gives more or less brightness on screen (light) as it is day or night. I think that would be cool if the brightness could adjust itself acording if if is day or night and so have a better vision of the movie.
- Can the problem of the screensaver be solved if we have some photos to show in a slideshow? I must create the folder photos?
- Also I think is a good idea the possibility to show the information of the current time and outdoor temperature, while the TomPlayer runs.

Best Regards

Marcosoft

[wolfgar]

Maybe a great solution could be to have the following information on the screen:
File name
Id3Tag information (Artist and song)
Time of song with progress bar
Selected icon with magnifying glass effect as Wolfgar's proposal (but not in the center, just over the selected icon)
Obviously, this is my dream

- You are right : It is high time i add support for id3tag information support in tomplayer...
- Time of song was submitted as a patch a few weeks ago : I have not merged it because i feared it breaks some skins and i wanted to try to make it work on all skins. The function is easy to add but i don't know how to handle it properly for all existing skins

For the magnifying glass effect : I fear that it will not be very nice if i let the effect over the selected icon. Besides as the coordinates are not very exact, the effect may truncate the icon ...
My current idea regarding this is :
- Find nice generic icons (volume+, volume-, brightness+ , brightness-, contrast + , contrast -, play, pause forward .....) and display them for 1 or 2 seconds in the center of the screen when the corresponding control is selected and then hide this central icon and only keep my current selection effect with a thicker line( with a circle instead of square when appropriate).
That way, it would be very easy to see which button is currently selected when navigating among the controls.
Besides this solution is not very difficult to implement...

[wolfgar]

Hello Wolfgar,

I would like to contribute with the following ideas:

- The Carminat has a function that gives more or less brightness on screen (light) as it is day or night. I think that would be cool if the brightness could adjust itself acording if if is day or night and so have a better vision of the movie.
- Can the problem of the screensaver be solved if we have some photos to show in a slideshow? I must create the folder photos?
- Also I think is a good idea the possibility to show the information of the current time and outdoor temperature, while the TomPlayer runs.

Hi,
- I will have a look to check if i know how to read the light sensor to add this function as an option ...
- I don't know, maybe ... I have to investigate the reported issue : I have never blocked the screen saver on my own tomtom
- OK, i know where to find the time (From GPS NMEA frames) but i have to reverse CAN frames format to find the temperature (it is very certainly in them but i have to guess where ... I will try to find this information...)

Regards

[123ant123]

Yes,
I think to have the hour is vey important. Usefull to have it while playing musci and in intial screeen.
Very usefull, if you find, the outdoor temperature.

This thing is very important to avoid to extract the SD card just to see the actual time....! ...even if possbile !



Thanks a lot

[wolfgar]

Another good idea from another thread:
- Use back or escape key to come back to the previous window on the initial GUI

EDIT : Sorry i have already posted this one...

[amaze1]

Hi Wolfgar

I have to say still have to read the manual, maybe something is already implemented, sorry.

Now that Tomplayer works on (my ) carminat, would be nice have access to the USB stick where I have all those songs ...
I tried to explore the folders but "usb" is empty.

Also the joystick interface the player in a somewhat different way than the navigator, so it is distracting, but indeed I don't know how to improve ...
Maybe using the joystick knob as a volume control when playing, short click on left and right to skip to the previous and next song (or video), while keeping the knob on left or right to go fast back and forward inside the song.

On a Renult forum I suggested to see this video before use intensively the player while driving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcdE0wdo41A

That's all for now, thanks for good job !

[wolfgar]

Hi amaze

It would be great to access USB key but i don't know whether the USB bus is connected to the tomtom ...
Generally speaking, are you able to access USB key from the tomtom (for navigator updates or to install maps for instance) ?

You suggestion regarding interaction are interesting : I still have a little issue with BT remote but as soon as i have solved it i will try to provide a better way to interact with tomplayer from the joystick ...

Regards

Wolfgar