Thursday, November 08, 2007

10.5 Gripe: Finder QuickTime Controls Gone?

In Tiger (and prior iterations if memory serves) we had the ability to play Audio/Visual material within the Finder - MP3s, movie files, etc.

There was the customary QuickTime bar with the volume slider on the left, next the play/pause button as the graphic shows.



But Apple has decided in their infinite wisdom to take that away from us in Leopard.

Here's a screen shot of a generic MP3 preview in Leopard's Finder (Column View), and one with album art:











Sure we have Quick Look with the ability to play/pause, we have Cover Flow, too ... but why take away simple volume control and leave only the play/stop button?

So in order to control the volume of a file I want to play *w/o opening iTunes* I have to do finger gymnastics on my PowerBook (due to scripts and such I have volume, brightness, etc., using the Fn key with a corresponding F key) - or use the volume slider on the menu bar. But I do not want to turn down the system-wide volume - I need it for other alerts. I want to have more granular control back over individual A/V files in the Finder. Pointless to remove it, Apple.

While the new functionality/album art preview may be eye candy, it fails on functionality. May seem insignificant to some, but it was like a "Quick Look" or "Quick Listen" in Tiger without having to open iTunes.

Is there a way to get the "old" way back in Leopard?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't say I miss the volume control. Like the large play button though! :)

Unknown said...

When on the file you want to 'quicktime preview' just press space and you get all your controls back. You can then navigate through all the files with this window still open. Its really great actually....now that I have found it that is!!

Enjoy

Darren Mahaffy said...

Hi Chris- the only control that you don't get back is volume control.

The volume icon in the quicktime preview is actually only mute/unmute.

So the preference to display the old quicktime controls is still on my wish list.

Thanks for the comment!
-Darren

Anonymous said...

"just press space and you get all your controls back"

Uh yes but then you can't leave the Finder window as the music will stop playing.

The controls should definitely be returned to the preview column in Finder. It has been needlessly crippled. I particularly miss the position slider.

Anonymous said...

It seems like we are the few who find audio in quick look a massive pain. I would often preview long audio files in the finder and scrub through as needed while working on other stuff. Quick look doesn't allow that as it closes as soon as you navigate away from the finder meaning that you have to be giving the file your full attention span or not at all.

I use quick look a lot for documents - but for audio it is a massive headache and doesn't make up for the removed functionality of the preview pane.

This loss of feature was what made me plonk down $30 for path finder which not only has sensible previewing, and a gazillion other features but also allows you to search for files the 'old school' non spotlight way which means I can actually find files on my computer now.

Anonymous said...

Removing the position slider in the column-view preview sucks donkeys. I appreciate the new "preview" function, but that adds an extra step to scan through a .mov file.

Not a huge deal, but Apple just took away a feature I used a lot.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I meant "Quick Look" function, not "Preview" function.

Anonymous said...

SOS
I agree totally! It's very very bad! WhY? Apple Hello!? We need all's that quick control in our jobs! Quick look is nice for many people but for me FucK Off.. I need a lot the "old" preview! i need control in preview columns instantly ! Video and in audio files!

Apple people Please help us! SOS

c0nn0r said...

I agree - Please bring back Quicktime controls in finder preview!

Or someone make a hack that allows us to get this functionality back.

Anonymous said...

There's a few things that it would appear some desk jockey that doesn't do any practical work made these decisions about. I work in media and used the old playhead and volume controls in finder preview constantly. The spacebar into preview thingy doesn't cut it in comparison.
DUDE! Think about how users ACTUALLY use these functions. Or have the balls to ask someone who is thinking.
Just like taking the Inspector pane out of iCal has nearly killed it's usefulness. Those of us who HAVE events need to look at the details of those events constantly. Now you have to right click and menu on an event to see it's guts.
DUDE! Think about how users ACTUALLY use these functions.
Sad that they are letting someone put art before form and letting it out the door.

Unknown said...

When I installed Leopard my computer felt so much more sluggish, not to mention the additional space the OS took up, then I found out about that preview thing in the finder, which made me not too happy as I used the quicktime preview quite a bit in Tiger. It seemed like Apple traded functionality for appearance in this release, something I'm not fond of. Later I found that Gimp no longer worked as well as Inkscape, and my printer didn't even work with Leopard, I had to go driver hunting. Leopard made me feel like I was back on Windows again, a not too pleasant experience. Part of me wants to go back to Tiger, however, I know that eventually I will need to upgrade anyways eventually.

Anonymous said...

AMEN! a once instinctual process that allowed my work to flow uninterrupted has been kneecapped for seemingly no other reason than to fit in with great leader Steve's vision of what an "i" life constitutes, bring it back for gods sake!

Mitch said...

The person who thought it was a good idea to remove the position slider from the preview pane is a douchebag of the highest order.

Anonymous said...

What Mitch said.

Five years later, problem still persists.