i agree with topfs - it should be simpler than before, unneeded buttons are a waste of time.
guides/miniguides are too complex and difficult
there should be a simple miniguide that shows now and next with further show info at press of button, and a simple main guide similar to now.
all navigation should be possible simply through remote control (e.g. its too difficult to change day/week without a mouse and too easy to accidentally enter a different menu, so...
reduce the number of control keys - have 6 or 7 keys that can easily be programmed on remote that allow you to do _everything_ _anywhere_ within the program contextually (primarily cursor and enter, ff, rw, stop, play, record, guide, info)
f6, f7, f8, y, i, o, p etc etc etc currently is good for keyboard but some keyboard combinations are too difficult to assign to remote e.g. f3 for retrieve artwork.
All of these keys should be based on actual keyboard commands so its easy to program any remote (most common seem to be microsoft and imon - if the same keys are used throughout within different contexts in different areas then life would be great
www.soundgraph.com new imedian beta has some nice ideas e.g. holding down buttons for longer period of time performs different function e.g. 1sec click left moves left, hold down 3secs (with simple onscreen timer) goes all the way home
1 click record, 2 clicks records series - the advanced record section is really good, but there should be a simpler way.
mildly off topic simple virtual keyboard for remote users so searching is easier from remote (as could be used throughout mediaportal e.g. music, videos etc
also timeshifting needs to be transparent - quite often i want to leave tv/videos/mediaportal for a minute to do a search on google or whatever - wherever you are in videos/tv/music should remember last position and auto pause/timeshift so that when i maximise i can go straight back to whatever i was watching/listening to without crash - optionally even if i closed mediaportal frontend completely