Roon does a great job of displaying artwork beautifully and especially when you tap on artwork on a tablet it appears larger and without any other information. Unfortunately, this doesn’t change with the music.
I’d love the option of choosing a display that is as large as the tablet/remote allows, maybe with the album and artist information, that changes as the playlist/Radio changes tracks (unless I’m missing something).
I don’t know if you are a newcomer to Roon and so I’m not sure if you know this or not…apologies if this is not what you meant.
Bring up the queue (by tapping the note on the stave symbol to left of timeline), then touch the broken square symbol on far right above radio info.
Does that do the job?
Brian
Thanks, Brian. That does, indeed, bring up the biggest artwork (that I know of) that will change with the music. But the actual artwork looks like about 25% of the real estate on my tablet as it shares the space with sound wave, up next, zone, volume, etc, etc.
I’m sure I’m not alone in using a phone as a remote by the listening chair/sofa and having a larger display opposite that is just that … a display.
On the display my preference is that the artwork/album cover/associated images is displayed as large as possible. Perhaps the 21st century equivalent of having the album cover propped up against the furniture opposite you whilst it’s associated vinyl plays on the deck above and you scour the inner sleeve for lyrics, credits and images.
We fell in love with good album covers in those days, so much so that people are rebuying vinyl just to put on the wall. It would be great to be able to get back to a similar interest in todays artwork that diminished with the advent of CD.
I suppose it could benefit from the same feature as in the normal album screen, where you can temporarily make the album cover bigger still via an extra tap/click and lose everything else.
First, thanks Roon for all the nice adds/fixes on your new Xmas upgrades.
Like others in this thread, I love the artist and album artwork features in Roon. I love more that you can enlarge them on an iPad - enlarge 2-3x with album art and display a pop up of the artist photo.
But…I REALLY want the flexibility to display full-size album or artist art (or as large as possible, like currently available for album art) AND have it change to reflect each Now Playing track as it changes.
While this would be great just on an iPad, iPhone or desktop, it would show off Roon in all its glory on a TV/monitor. I mirror an iPad to a 60 inch TV screen and the when album covers are displayed at their largest size, it looks FABULOUS!! The problem is the artwork has to be manually selected and enlarged to its max size each time the track changes.
If anyone else out there would like to see this add-on, please pile on!! And if we could also do the same with artist photos, it will better leverage the emotional link between user and artists most Roon users love.
Thanks for considering.
What is the problem with current “Now playing” screen?
Why is it not sufficient for you?
To have the “normal” album art change with track is not a good idea. I often want to see a cover of a not playing album and that would not longer be possible.
One question: how do you mirror you iPad to the TV? If I do that I have black borders on the left and right, cause of the 4x3 aspect ratio of the iPad. And this is everything, but not
It looks really ugly, like an old TV show and not a modern UI.
I agree. See this other similar thread I started. Re-design Playback Screen - The let-down of Roon
please understand I’m not suggesting a completely different way to display album art when playing tracks. I’m suggesting more flexibility so the user could view the album art with progress bar etc. just as your screen captured shows. I’m suggestin another way users could select should they choose to, just as Roon is adding more user flexibility in how volume controls work, etc. (see new just released Xmas upgrade version).
You said what I’m suggesting will somehow prevent a user from viewing album art from artists not currently being played. As far as I know, you can’t do that now- not at the same time you’re viewing the screen capture in your post. You have to close that window and go find the other album you want to see.
Roon would just design what I’m suggesting similar to how it’s done now, but applied to a new, alternative viewing option. For example, when a a user is ‘Not Browsing’, you might be able to select ‘Large Album Art”, ‘Album + Progress Bar” or “Artist Art”, for example, that would display your selection when viewing Currently Playing Track. Large Album Art, Artist Art would then change with every track-just as it would continue doing for Album + Progress Bar (current).
And Just like the current navigation, a user could select the “x” close icon and revert to all the other navigation available for browsing your library.
In my scenario Roon doesn’t take any features or navigation away, it is just adding options to better display the album art and/or artist art that lots of users curate to make sure album art is the correct version OR the original album art is shown even if the files have been remastered. Same thing with artist art. I add/change Roon’s artist art a majority of the time to use much better photos of the band (more intetesting or original band photos vs. the now-really-old band member photos, or pixel sizes that fill the entire screen).
The artwork and artist photos are inherently critical to the music and music listening. Both need to be present and accessible in flexible, hi quality formats to allow each to enjoy his/her own way. For me, displaying the fabulous album art Roon served up in large format on a 60 inch tv monitor while listening to Toon’s great sounds is when it’s best. The music is front and center. I don’t have to pass around the iPad to share. When thete’s A party. Roon can then become the DJ with everyone benefitting from the graphics of the art work or artist.
This is a no brainer. Everyone wins.
So what’s wrong with the current “now playing” screen? You just want an alternative view where the artwork is larger?
Roon already provides large and extra large versions of album art vs. what is displayed in the now-playing view along with the progress bar. etc.
My request is to enable the existing large/extra large album art to change as the tracks playing change. This is an ‘add’, no current features lost. My wish list would also include doing the same thing for artist art. Enable the flexibility to show artist art that changes with each track.
Roon has invested in creating libraries for album and artist art. Roon also touts those as differentiating features music enthusiasts want to see and enjoy. (We do) Currently, artist artwork can only be browsed, when for me artist artwork and the much larger album art should be able to “travel” with the tracks as they play. The user decides whether to display the current mode, the larger album art or the artist artwork while they are listening to music. Of course, you can always return to browse mode.
Hope that helps better explain my wishlist.
David, one more thought. With spectacular album art and fabulous, memorable artist photos, the larger the display device, the greater the user engagement and the more compelling the Roon Experience.
For this reason, I mirror Room from my iPad to a 60” monitor. Of course, I’m focused downward on the iPad when navigating or searching regrettably even when midis Playing. When I enjoy the music, however, I am looking up, totally focused on the monitor. Here I can simultaneously appreciate the music and album art together (when manually configured to its largest Gallery size).
The ability to view album art or artist photos in a large Gallery size that auto-changes images to corrrspond with changes in the Track Playing is what I believe will greatly enhance the Roon product and experience.
If you haven’t yet seen what this looks like on a large monitor. I hope you will check it out.
Thanks again for your consideration.
Could you please tell me how you get rid of the ugly black borders left and right on the TV while mirroring from an iPad?
I could provide better feedback, if I could see a photo of what you are seeing when you’re mirroring. But I’ll try without it just based on what I’m doing and seeing with my set up.
As background, I’ll just say I’ve been involved in graphic design and website design for a long time, so am not insensitive to UI and good design.
Roon presents itself in horizontal format, but does not perfectly sync with today’s TV ratios. So if you’re mirroring, the Roon display will never completely cover the width of the monitor, which you already know.
The good news is that on my monitor the bars on either end that the Roon display does not cover are black. So I set Roon to display with a black background. This way type reverses out in white and all artwork and graphics colors jump vividly off the screen. Roon’s display does not go all the way across but because black is the base color for Roon and the monitor, everything looks cohesive with black running across the entire width with the amount of black space used by Roon varying depending on which Roon page you are looking at.
For example, if u start from the Roon queue page and clack on the now-playing album cover, it enlarges. Click it again and it enlarges again. The album cover fills completely the height of the iPad and it fill the entire of my monitor. The width enlarged to the appropriate proportion.
The entire tv monitor is black except for this huge album cover in the middle of the screen, top to bottom. Really, it looks fabulous. If Roon were to enable the album cover to switch to whatever was playing it would be awesome.
Same thing if they would enable the artist photo to display and change with each track (they’d meet to make artist name much smaller so could actually enjoy the photo)
Currently, much of the artist art Roon delivers is terrible. The large format pix are fine, but when they stick a photo in that looks to be a thumbnail, nothing looks good or displays the way Roon intended them to (see Roon-provided Beatles photo as an example of the way all artist photos should look). I replace every one of those thumbnails with a better photo that is sized to run the width of the iPad.
Hope this helps. If not and you want to share a photo of what you’re trying to improve. I’m happy to check it. I’m out of the country now so can’t show you a photo of mine.
Completely agree, Bruce. Immersion in the music, I find, is greatest when you are doing absolutely nothing except listening. And for that to happen I want to see what’s playing via the display opposite, not on a remote next to me that I have to pick up.
The ability to show off album artwork beautifully was what sold me on Roon and I’m sure it will get there. But currently the best display for immersive listening and showing off to guests is less than it could be. I really want other people to be wowed by Roon but no one has actually commented about the display they see.
I was surprised, when I first got aboard, that there wasn’t a ‘show artwork at its largest’ option that changes with the music. ‘All’ it needs imho is another clickable square from the current now playing to expand the artwork to as big as the display device will allow. With the minimum amount of information about the track, artist and album.
And if the artist font can be increased it would help me. From 10 feet away I can’t see the artist information which is necessary when Roon plays something from a compilation.
First, merry Christmas!
Graeme- it’s so great to hear someone echo thoughts at what would be a relatively easy-to-implement, but very significant upgrade to the Roon viewing/listening experience:
enabling user flexibility to choose ‘gallery’ size album art or artist photos that ‘travel’ with (auto change) each track while listening.
It would be a GREAT Christmas to hear that Roon is serious about adding this feature and is putting it on their 2018 to-do list!
+1 on this. Having a full screen display of the album art of the currently playing track would be the number one improvement for me.
Closely followed by having art for individual tracks rather than the same for the whole album.
Is this what you are looking for?
1st - Find your album. Select Play Now if you wish or not.
2nd - Click on album image to enlarge
3rd - Click on album image again for Full Screen
MD
Yes, except it needs to be the currently playing track.
i.e. it needs to change as the track changes.
Put simply - a lot of people like to have a display which shows the currently playing track - artwork plus track name and artist name - which they can have showing on a large screen, which anyone listening can glance up and see quickly and easily what is playing.
The ‘Now Playing’ screen displays this information, but not ideally for the scenario above
Agree with this.
Currently it only displays the Entire Album Artwork. I have several folders with hundreds of different songs with just a single song or 2 from any particular album and it would be very nice if it would pull the associated Album Art from the meta-tag of that particular song that is currently playing.
MD
For greatest hits type albums, I have the single artwork saved in the individual track file.
It would be great if there was an option in Roon to display the artwork saved in the currently playing file.
A lot of other media players already work this way
