We can also get radio list thumbnails by setting show_list_images for channel in the browser settings, though I'm not quite sure what governs the decision to add that or not.

Several other classes already have grid layout with show_list_images, so I'm not sure why some would have that combination and others not.

  album: { icon: mdiAlbum, layout: "grid" },
  app: { icon: mdiApplication, layout: "grid" },
  artist: { icon: mdiAccountMusic, layout: "grid", show_list_images: true },
  channel: {
    icon: mdiTelevisionClassic,
    thumbnail_ratio: "portrait",
    layout: "grid",
  },
  composer: {
    icon: mdiAccountMusicOutline,
    layout: "grid",
    show_list_images: true,
  },

That is great - being able to read the station names is a huge step forward!

Is it possible (or easy) to add other values from the radio browser data base? An indicator of the bitrate would allow differentiation where it isn't included in the station name and there are multiple versions available.

I haven't actually looked at what metadata is available to the list renderer or how it works. This was a pretty simple PR as the list renderer already existed, and I just need to flip a boolean to turn it on. But I haven't actually delved into yet how it operates.

I think I will leave further enhancements to list rendering to another PR; don't have any immediate plans to personally delve into it, but maybe someday.

Fair enough. This is a really helpful improvement for anyone using Radio Browser!

I like this a lot, but for the UX, I think the list should have 3 options, Auto, Grid, List.

@matthiasdebaat What do you think?

I like this a lot, but for the UX, I think the list should have 3 options, Auto, Grid, List.

@matthiasdebaat What do you think?

I started with this, but then I gave up trying to find an mdi icon for auto that looked good. Let me know if you have suggestion.

I started with this, but then I gave up trying to find an mdi icon for auto that looked good. Let me know if you have suggestion.

Hehe, yeah not easy... Don't really have a good answer, these might work, but not the best 🤷‍♂️

Letter A for auto...

Combo of list and grid

Random dashboard

Added auto mode to the selection list:

There was some discussion about this PR, regarding UX, that adding these options could cause confusion, as it is not clear what Auto does.
It might be better to solve this on the side of radio browser for example, choosing a better default view option.
But that needs some more thought probably...

I agree that an Auto option really isn't clear - what decision is being made automatically? Why is this better than just having a well chosen default that can be overridden when it doesn't work for the user?

For Radio Browser the grid display leaves the feature barely useable since it isn't possible to differentiate between different options. A grid view is most useful where the most specific information is at the start of the media title, unless the image used in the grid tile shows specific information. In a well curated music collection where track numbers are at the start of the filename, grid view may work well. For Radio Browser this is definitely not the case, and users have no way of changing how Radio Browser (or thousands of individual radio stations) have decided to make entities - so it isn't something a user can resolve.

Being able to switch between grid and list view is a better compromise, and at least makes Radio Browser more useful immediately.

Never dealt with radio...
Here my thoughts for other content (with assumptions that HA can read music files' embedded tags & HA can show thumbnails for images, music & video files):

1. If a folder has a mixed content: "Auto" = "Grid".
2. If a folder has images only: "Auto" = "Grid".
3. If a folder has music files only and "Album" is different: "Auto" = "Grid".
4. If a folder has music files only and "Album" is same: "Auto" = "List".

I improved the list view a bit so it works better for all use cases instead of only the use cases it was previously used for, screenshot from the OP now looks like this:

@bramkragten I'm confused what the status of this is. Your initial comment sounded like a reject, but then you pushed additional changes to the PR, so I'm not sure what we're doing with this.

@bramkragten I'm confused what the status of this is. Your initial comment sounded like a reject, but then you pushed additional changes to the PR, so I'm not sure what we're doing with this.

Haha 😅 I'm going to discuss this with UX, will get back to you tomorrow.

Personally I think it is a great feature, we just need to get the UX right :-)