Application by: Nick Kirkpatrick
UPDATE 1.2 Adds an option to hide the application title, to give a more streamlined UI
Magic Slideshow for Media Center
Magic Slideshow for Media Center offers an alternative to the standard slideshow that you can view whilst playing music in Media Center.
Rather than taking it's selection from all of your photos, it will display photos taken in the year that the song was released.
There are a host of options available (show images randomly, tweak the displayed information, only show highly rated photos etc.) to mould the application as desired.
How does it work?
It works by caching a file list of images found in the folders you provide, but it does this in the background (whilst the application is running) so it isn't intrusive.
It updates this cache on a regular basis (option to control the refresh rate is available) - and you can force a refresh in the application.
The year comes from the date the photo was taken (in the Tag information) or the file modified date is no Date Taken can be found.
There is also a "standard slideshow mode", which removes the link between song years and pictures, so you can ditch the built-in Media Center slideshow for good, and enjoy a fun, flexible slideshow experience every time!
Magic Slideshow for Media Center runs on Vista and Windows 7 platforms - you will find it under the Extras menu strip on Windows 7 systems and additionally under the Music & Pictures menu strips on Vista.
It's also on the More with this... menu for all music contexts (song/artist/genre/playlist/album) - so wherever you are, Magic Slideshow is never far away!
The Application in Detail
Main Screen - No Music Playing
Loading the application without music playing will show you this screen:
Here you can adjust the options, but no pictures will show until music is playing.
Options Screen
The options screen looks like this - accessed by clicking the "Options" text at the bottom of the main screen:
By default, the application will look for pictures in your Pictures folder, and will work in "magic" mode (showing pictures related to the song's release year), but you can change these and the following other options:
* The types of image you want to include in the slideshows - comma-separated list. Default: JPG, BMP and GIF.
* The folders to look in for images - comma-separated list. Default: the user's Pictures directory.
Changes to either of these two options will automatically trigger a renewal of the image cache - it will tell you when it's finished (you can carry on using Media Center during this time).
* The image to show if no matching pictures can be found in the specified folders - there is an application-default that can be overridden here - enter the path and file name. Default: empty (uses application-default).
Some simple tick-boxes:
* Show images in order (year, rating, title) or show random images. Default: In Order.
* Ask if the user wants to go to Music Library if no music is playing (when application starts). Default: No, don't ask.
* Show details of the current song (the "Now Playing" information) on the screen (bottom-left corner). Default: Yes, show details.
* Show rating of the picture currently being displayed (if available) - taken from the Tag information in the file. Default: Yes, show rating.
* Show the title (file name and month/year taken) of the picture currently being displayed. Default: Yes, show title.
* Show the year of the song currently playing. Default: Yes, show the year.
* Enable standard slideshow mode - rather than showing year-specific pictures, works as a normal slideshow. Default: No, work in "magic" mode.
And finally some numbers...
* How long should the list of images be stored before automatically refreshing it (in days) - reduce this to keep a more up-to-date list, increase it to limit the times it refreshes the cache. Default: 7 days.
* How long to show each image on the screen (also how long it takes to react to a change in year of current song etc.) - in seconds. Default: 5 seconds.
* Restrict the images shown to a specific minimum rating (between 0 and 5) - want to limit the slideshow to show just your best/favourite photos - specify an inclusive minimum here. Default: 0 or above.
From here you can also manually trigger a refresh of the image cache - if you've added new pictures and want to include them straight away... Click the text and you can continue to use Media Center as normal.
Main Screen - Slideshow Active
With music playing, and the image list populated, you'll see something like this:
Here, depending on the options you've set, you will see the year of release of the current song, the title and rating of the photo currently being shown, the "Now Playing" information, and some controls that will allow you to interact with the slideshow as it is active.
These controls, in the top-right corner will allow you to manually skip to the next image ("Next") and toggle the state of the slideshow ("Pause" which changes to "Play" when paused).
If you don't want to see these controls - untick the box next to them, and they'll be hidden - tick it again to bring it back.
They will also be hidden when music is stopped, and Play/Pause will be hidden when music is paused (the slideshow pauses in this case).
So...
...put on some music, sit back and enjoy a different view of your Media Center Picture Library.
I hope that you try it, and like it - any problems or feedback please let me know.