In about another week, we'll be announcing a major new feature for our Pro Player. But there's a bunch of smaller improvements and changes that have been in the works for several months, so we're publishing all those smaller changes today.
Introducing TXBA Pro Player V4
V4 of the Pro Player adds several small new features and a few changes. Here's a list:
What's New In V4?
- Viewing History Browser
- Timeline Chapter Markers
- Viewing Location Saved
What's Changed From V3
- Chapters moved into sidebar
- New look for control buttons
- Keyboard shortcuts for opening sidebar panels
- Labels for looping buttons
- "Exit" button removed
Above are screenshots of the V3 and V4 players side-by-side. Below is a breakdown of the new features and changes.
Viewing History Browser
The new viewing history browser shows you a list of the 10 most recent things you viewed in the Pro Player. These could be videos, backing tracks, or tablature items from a course. When you click any item in this list, the Pro Player will load that item (and the course it belongs to) into the Pro Player.
Note: The viewing history only "remembers" what you've viewed on your current computer/device. Each computer/device you use will have it's own history list.
Timeline Chapter Markers
You will now see lines drawn on the timeline where chapter markers exist. This isn't a huge new feature, but can be useful if you just want to quickly skip to the next section without opening up the chapters browser.
Viewing Location
The Pro Player will now remember the last position in a video that you were watching. So when you return to that video in the future, it will start playing from the exact spot you left off.
Chapters Move To Sidebar
The chapters menu has been moved from the control buttons area into the sidebar. You can open the list of chapters by clicking the Chapter icon in the top left of the player.
This button will be hidden if there are no chapters available for the video that is currently playing.
New Control Button Look
The player control buttons have a slightly more refined look than before. Now there is a bit of space between them, and the looping controls are slightly offset from the playback controls.
Keyboard Shortcut Changes
There are new keyboard shortcuts for opening and closing the different panels in the sidebar. The new shortcuts are:
- 1 - Toggle Segments Browser
- 2 - Toggle Chapters Browser
- 3 - Toggle Viewing History Browser
New Looping Button Labels
The looping controls are now use "A" for the loop start, and "B" for the loop end, rather than "Start" and "End". The term "A/B Looping" has been the standard way of referring to a loop region in other software programs for many years.
Exit Button Removed
The "Exit" button found in the top right of the V3 player has been removed in V4. The V4 player launches in a new window when you open it, so this button doesn't make sense anymore. You can simply close the player tab/window when you're done using it.
As I said at the beginning of this post, I'm launching the new player today so that users can get used to the new layout before we launch a MAJOR new feature in about another week.
If you're not sure what the Pro Player is, you can read more (and see demonstrations) on the overview page for the TXBA Locals program.