Quinto Black CT - New Winamp Modern skin

[Victhor]

By Peter's request, I'm posting this as a sneak peak of his upcoming skin:
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Hello Community!

Exactly one year ago I asked Victor to post a short article about my Modern Skin Quinto Black. He did it and I was very happy to share my work with you.

Today I am very excited to present another update of my Modern Skin Quinto but this time on my own.

Here it is: Quinto Black CT.

But before I start I would like to say THANK YOU to Victor for pointing out to all those "weird-looking" bitmap files and to martin.deimos for his very useful coding tips.

Now let me guide you through all the new, exiting features which I implemented in this version.

Without any doubt, the bitmap files - and I mean all of them - got improved. I spent months changing, altering and trying new colors, gradients and alpha values. And I must admit, I am very pleased with the end product of my efforts. Are you?

The Playlist Editor was the biggest challenge and made an enormous transformation journey from Just-Frame in Quinto, through Just-Frame-with-Buttons in Quinto Black - into fully equipped container window, which easily can replace the Main Player now.

Once Quinto Black CT is installed, you will find the Playlist Editor in its "native" look showing pure simplicity in its appearance. If you like it this way - keep it. But there is more!

You will notice a vertical divider which, once moved to the left, shows the album cover of the current playing song...

And if you resize the window, a SWITCH button will appear. And this is the point where it gets interesting...

One click on the SWITCH button and a brand new PLAYBACK area is loaded! In here you will find additional:

- progress bar
- volume bar
- playback buttons
- eject button
- mute button
- two displays
- and two LED lights which indicate whether a click was made on Main Player's REPEAT or SHUTTLE button.

And if this was not enough I added FILE INFO area which can be toggled by clicking on the FILE INFO button. (I have to make a short remark regarding the labels in this area though. Not all of them are translated (Winamp related issue) so I decided to keep all of them in English. In case you insist upon having them in your native language, open the player-groups.xml, find the translate="0" commands and change them into translate="1").

The FILE INFO area changes its looks into this once a stream is loaded:




And since I found it very handy to have this PLAYBACK area in the Playlist Editor container window I also implemented this in Video and Visualizer container. You will never ever again have to switch between Video and Main Player in order to pause a video or start a new one. Now this is handy, is it not?

Video container window:




Visualizer container window:

Color Themes have their own window which as well provides a SWITCH button. Now you have the choice: Just-Frame or Frame-with-Buttons?

While adding Color Themes to the skin it was not my intention to make Quinto looking too "candy-like". So I decided that just a minor amount of bitmaps change their color after a Color Theme was chosen:

And for all of you who are Equalizer fans I have just THE THING! Not only you can switch the Equalizer on and off, where all sliders "jump" automatically into "0 dB" position, no, you also have an additional display on top of that, which shows values of every single equalizer band and preamp!

And while listening to your favorite songs you can click on the timer on Main Player which shows then the remaining time. Please remember: You cannot toggle this option by clicking on the additional display on Playlist Editor, Video or Visualizer. And during a stream this option is disabled.

I really hope you will find the new update not only good looking on your desktop but also useful. The download link will come soon...

Stay tuned...

Thanks.

Peter

[ariszlo]

Quinto has been one of the best modern skins since its first release and it is getting even better!

[Aminifu]

For the past year, I've been using Quinto Black when I want a small UI while just listening to my music.

The updates to the Playlist Editor and Equalizer are amazing. Sorry Victhor, but if Peter is able to work his magic on the Media Library as well, I will have to think hard about selecting a new favorite skin.

[Victhor]

For the past year, I've been using Quinto Black when I want a small UI while just listening to my music.

The updates to the Playlist Editor and Equalizer are amazing. Sorry Victhor, but if Peter is able to work his magic on the Media Library as well, I will have to think hard about selecting a new favorite skin.

And what magic is that? Switch skin without worry, but you'll come back soon, I also have a trick under my sleeve..

[Aminifu]

And what magic is that?

The magic of presenting the core Winamp features in new and useful ways, similar to what Komodo X Touchscreen does. Komodo also adds useful stuff from the cPro code, so it still has the edge imo.

Switch skin without worry, but you'll come back soon, I also have a trick under my sleeve..

Promises, promises. Seeing is believing.

[Victhor]

The magic of presenting the core Winamp features in new and useful ways, similar to what Komodo X Touchscreen does. Komodo also adds useful stuff from the cPro code, so it still has the edge imo.

Peter is actually stuck there (among one other bug), so I guess I'll have that edge for a little longer.. heh

[jetaro]

This is one of the best skin I used it .. excellent and comfortable.

[PeterK.]

Hello again,

I finally managed to get rid of a nasty bug (Runtime Error messages) and implemented a playback area with an additional display in the Media Library container window:



Please remember: Clicking on the PLAY button in the Media Library window plays the item from the Playlist Editor. In case you would like to play a song from the playlist in the Media Library just double click the item.

And another small preview of the MainPlayer:



Stay tuned ...

[ariszlo]

Amazing!

[PeterK.]

A short update:

Meanwhile both displays (on MainPlayer and MediaLibrary) are synchronized. Hence, you will see all notifications on both container windows. And since every click on a button or slider (on MainPlayer or Equalizer) will send a message to both displays, you will gain full control over all your settings.

[PeterK.]

Hello again ...

Today I would like to introduce a new feature which I spontaneously implemented in the container windows. From now on every container window has three modes:

NoFrame-Mode
Frame-Mode
Frame w/ Playback-Mode



Since all three modes are linked to each other (and Playback Area "demands" more than 280 pixel in the width), you have to resize the window first in order to switch between the modes. As soon as the SwitchButton (on the right side) is not grayed out anymore, the feature is activated and you can choose one.

This extension will give you all three possible "surroundings" a container window content can have. I really hope you will find it useful.

And while I am at it, I would like to ask you some short questions:

1) Should we leave one button design/looks for all three modes or should I make three different ones? Currently the SwitchButton has two horizontal lines.

2) Right now the Playlist Editor features not only the Playlist content but also the AlbumCover. (which you can make visible by grabbing and dragging the vertical divider from right to the left side).



Should we keep it that way or remove the AlbumCover and leave the Playlist "alone"?


Please bear in mind that the border of the NoFrame-Mode is just 1 pixel wide/heigh. Hence it might be a little bit tricky sometimes to "get" the "double-headed-resize-arrow". Be patient ...

To be continued ...

[Aminifu]

1. The one button design for each mode looks fine to me.

2. Keep the AlbumCover panel in the Playlist Editor. Can you add it to the Media Library panel?

I very much want to try this skin. Can you provide an ETA for it's release?

[PeterK.]

Hello Aminifu,

Thank you for your reply.

Being honest I cannot understand your request for having an additional AlbumCover panel in the MediaLibrary since ML Container already has that functionality.
Is this not enough?



(By the way: this would be the NoFrameLook on MediaLibrary window).

If you convience me that additional AlbumCover panel would bring some adventages I would agree to put it on my To-Do-List.
Deal?

The ETLD (Estimated Time of Landing on your Desktop ) should be in October. Normally my release statements are very unreliable since I constantly come up with new ideas/features/options. And do not forget the fun I have had! A release means End of Fun!

Here is one of my struggles I had in the past few days. I just could not decide which color the side panels should have: brown, black or even dark red. So I added a SP button to the Equalizer drawer and now we can switch between the colors:



Once again, I could imagine that the project could see the final compilation and upload in October.

Thanks ...

[ariszlo]

1) Should we leave one button design/looks for all three modes [...]?

Yes, that is fine.

2) Right now the Playlist Editor features not only the Playlist content but also the AlbumCover. [...] Should we keep it that way [...]?

Absolutely. It is one of the distinctive features of your Quinto skins.

Please bear in mind that the border of the NoFrame-Mode is just 1 pixel wide/heigh. Hence it might be a little bit tricky sometimes to "get" the "double-headed-resize-arrow".

I wonder how you are going to do that. Will it be an invisible layer partially covering the list area that will become visible when you hover the mouse over it and grab it?

[Aminifu]

...
Being honest I cannot understand your request for having an additional AlbumCover panel in the MediaLibrary since ML Container already has that functionality.
Is this not enough?

...

Indeed it is. My request was triggered by the screenshot in post #8 above. I didn't realize that all of the standard Media Library displays would still be available, in addition to the playback area you have added.

Release this update when you're ready. It has been said that good things come to those who wait. However, a release doesn't have to mean the end of your development fun. A project like this is never really finished, imo. New ideas/features/options can always be added later.

BTW, the side panel colors option is a great idea!