Update (1/18/2013 8:30 EST): This release was just approved and so it should show up in the store shortly!
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Here it is! The update I know a lot of you have been waiting for. As I discussed in my previous post, playlist support is now here! Along with it is a complete overhaul of the media player code base. It's now in a much better place and going forward it will be much easier to add additional features without introducing as many problems. The new code should also get rid of some unusual behavior relating to the Pause and Stop functionality. As with any overhaul of code this large, there is the possibility I missed something in my testing, even though I was working on it all day trying to handle every possible scenario. If you come across any bugs, new or ones that are lingering from before, please let me know so I can fix them as soon as possible! I'm committed to a good user experience and I strongly dislike buggy software. I test everything as thoroughly as I can before releasing it. Microsoft also tests it so a smaller extent as well. App resource usage is again reduced due to this code overhaul so less memory is required on startup and while the app is running as well.
Also wrapped into this update is more information being displayed on what you are playing. This applies to both video and audio. If your media is tagged with things like Titles and Dates you should see them now in both full screen and standard viewing modes. This became required (and is just nice to have) when playlists were introduced so you will know what you are watching, especially in full screen. Also added is the ability to navigate the playlists from either viewing mode. Another item of note is background audio support! You can now alt-Tab out of this app and use other apps while keeping your media playing. Interestingly enough this does NOT work when using other modules within the LCARS Interface (yet). I am working on a solution to that, but as it sits right now the Media Player module needs to be open for this to work.
Some more notes on the playlists themselves:
As I mentioned in my last post, playlists are somewhat of an unusual beast in Windows 8. Support for them is there, but due to file access limitations that are put on Windows Store apps, the app is unable to read media files from anywhere but your Music Library and your Video Library. This means that even if you use this app to select the files from another location, and then save the playlist, you may not be able to open it again! I find this very annoying sometimes, but there isn't really anything I can do about it currently except work within their limitations. If you find yourself having issues with this, you can go set other folders to be included in your music library (other than just the My Music folder) and thus the program will be able to open those files. I apologize for this restriction Microsoft has put on, but in the end it is for your safety and always being aware of what your apps are able to access at any given time.
I hope you enjoy the new functionality, and as always keep requesting more stuff so I will keep working on it!
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