GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 549488
totem should better indicate that it doesn't play Audio CDs
Last modified: 2012-04-18 17:06:33 UTC
Forwarding https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=225968 Totem doesn't handle audio CD by design, but the interface is unclear about this since the menu makes people think totem understands audio cd (see https://bugzilla.novell.com/attachment.cgi?id=108257). So it's not clear why it's not working, for the user.
Totem should have ability to play audio CDs, since opening such big player like Banshee or Rhythmbox may be problematic and needless (unless user wants to rip CD).
They can launch sound-juicer instead. The interface is very clear to the fact that it won't play audio CDs, in that: - it will pop up an error message saying it doesn't support them - it won't allow users to select an audio CD in the "Movie" menu when there's one in a drive. If you found a way to make it play audio CDs that I didn't find, please let me know, and I'll plug that leak. If you can find a better way to show that it can't play audio CDs, feel free to let me know as well. The ability's been removed for a year (31st August 2007), so this shouldn't really appear as news...
The thing is that if you launch totem and have a CD inserted, you don't get the error message unless you called totem with the path to the CD. You just see the insensitive menu item and it's absolutely unclear why it's insensitive. What about making the item launch sound-juicer?
Apart from your premise, which seems to be "a movie player should play audio CDs", being wrong, I don't see what's wrong there. I _could_ make whatever the default cdda: handler is launch when you click on an audio CD in the movie menu, but should I also launch evince when somebody selects a PDF as a movie in the open menu? I think the premise and your expectations are wrong. Totem doesn't play audio CDs, it doesn't rip audio CDs, it's not Windows Media Player. I double-checked, and I actually removed audio CD playback from Totem in November 2005, and removed the UI bits of it (the error message, and the ability to click the menu item) a year ago. I'm not re-adding a UI for it, but I'm willing to take up whatever you think will be a good deterrent for people trying to play audio CDs with Totem.
(In reply to comment #4) > Apart from your premise, which seems to be "a movie player should play audio > CDs", being wrong, I don't see what's wrong there. Oh, no, I'm not saying it should play audio CD. However, it looks like users do expect it. > I _could_ make whatever the default cdda: handler is launch when you click on > an audio CD in the movie menu, but should I also launch evince when somebody > selects a PDF as a movie in the open menu? I think the premise and your > expectations are wrong. [...] > I'm not re-adding a UI for it, but I'm willing to take up whatever you think > will be a good deterrent for people trying to play audio CDs with Totem. The problem really comes from those things: + users expect totem to play audio CD (don't ask me why -- but I guess the fact that it can plays audio files might help make people think it can) + totem "seems" to understand what an audio CD is, according to the menu item. So if you're unsure if it can and see this menu item, it just convinces you it can but then you react with a "??? I can't click on this menu item? Bad! Bad!". The only proposal I have to make things easier is to actually propose to launch sound-juicer or rhythmbox or whatever instead of doing nothing. But then, don't forget that I'm poor when it comes to finding new good ideas ;-)
*** Bug 640819 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I registered to Gnome bugzilla specifically because of this comment. (In reply to comment #5) > The problem really comes from those things: > > + users expect totem to play audio CD (don't ask me why -- but I guess the > fact that it can plays audio files might help make people think it can) Here's why users expect it: Totem plays every audio file. wav, mp3, flac, ogg, everything. Except CD audio. Totem plays every optical disc. Video-CDs, DVDs, everything. Except CD audio. Totem used to be able to play CD audio, like every media player ever. CD-audio is the most basic media support imaginable, in existence since time immemorial. It being not supported is very counter-intuitive. It might be called "Movie Player" in the menu, but Totem acts in every possible way like a general-purpose media-player. It even has playlists, shoutcast and funky GOOM visualizations for music support. The only way in which it does not behave like a proper media player is its lack of audio CD support. That seems like a strange decision. Yes, I know about SoundJuicer. Why I have to use a CD _ripping_ program to _play_ CDs is beyond me. Yes, I know about RhythmBox and Banshee. But I don't want to _manage_ a _library_ of _anything_. I use Nautilus for that. I just want to play my music with the same program I usually use to play my music. I don't have to install F-Spot to read jpeg images or some other arbitrary format, because eog is what reads images. Likewise, the program that plays things is Totem. Except for CD audio. I do not understand why the user experience needs to be this complicated.
Totem's UI will soon be rejigged, and optical discs will only be listed if they are supported.