i-loop's design - work in progress - 2007-08-10

[infinityloop]

Originally Posted by Seidelin

How about tilting the user interface a bit towards Wellton Ways style?
That is, the numbers can be used as a shortcut, i.e. pressing "3" replaces "right"+"up"+"ok".
"4" would replace "left"+"ok".

http://www.welltonway.com/english/

The menu can still be navigated with arrows if the user prefers. The only problem is that a maximum of 9 or 12 menu points can be adressed this way (but we don't want more choices than that on a single screen anyway).

very nice idea!

[The_Stig]

I made a suggestion to the schedules section, based on i-loops current design suggestion. Have a look here:

http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/ne...pt-t26138.html

Regards

[infinityloop]

I had time to workout a new concept to improve channel tuning.

the first post has also been updated

-------------------- MyTV - Channel tuning / TV-Stream Tuning --------------------

1. Introduction:

   Generaly speaking the current tuning mechanism is allready working quite well. However i have spotted some areas which could be improved.
   
   So basicaly you have the following options to issue a channelswitch:

   • CH+ CH- buttons
   • go to MyTV Homescreen by pressing "back" on your remote and select the Channel button, which opens "mini-epg"
   • when you allready watch TV, press the "okay" button on your remote (or enter on the keyboard) to go directly to the "mini-epg"

2. Tuning a channel:

   as soon as you opened the "mini-epg" you will see the current TV-Group on the top left, a list of TV-Channels from this group and the current Status of the channel.
   
   MyTV-miniepg_Channels.jpg
   
   The Status can be:

   • available --- you can watch the channel
   • timeshifting --- you can watch the channel
   • recording --- you can watch the channel
   • unavailable --- you have no free card availabe to tune that channel

   
   You can tune a channel simply by selecting it and pressing "okay" on the remote.
   
   there is only a small difference to the current mini-epg, in this mockup i used different colors for the unavailable channels, to make that more obvious.
   the staus display is also slightly different.

3. Tuning a unavailable channel:

   If you select and tune a channel which is marked as "unavailable", you will get a new dialog window.
   MyTV-tune channel card selection dialog.jpg
   
   In this window you now see a list of cards which would be able to tune the channel you want to watch.
   but unfortunately all cards are busy atm.
   in this screen you see which card is doing what atm. and by selecting and clicking "enter" on your remote, you are able to kick out the other user and take control over the card to tune your channel.

4. Tuning a TV-Stream:

   At the time i came up with the "TV-Streams" Button idea, it was not possible/no time available to integrade it differently.
   
   Now i think i have a better solution then adding a new button which forces the user to go back to the MyTV Homescreen and select it.
   
   Lets say you are allready watching TV, and now you want to change the channel:

   1. then you press "enter" on your remote to bring up the miniepg
      MyTV-miniepg_Channels.jpg
   2. now by pressing "enter" again you can switch to the list of active TV-Streams
      MyTV-miniepg_tv-streams.jpg
   3. here you can select a stream if you like, or press "enter" again to get back to the channels list, or close the whole window

   Alternatively you can also switch between "Channels" and "TV-Streams" with the button in the middel top area of the window, or with the right mousebutton or the corresponding key on the keyboard.

[lkuech]

That is also a very good idea.
I would prefer to see also if a card is epg grabbing... is this fitting in your concept (maybe show under tv streams)?

And one additional thing came to my mind...
... you wrote:

Lets say you are allready watching TV, and now you want to change the channel:

1. then you press "i" on your remote to bring up the miniepg

In my current setup (MCE remote via IRTrans) the i key brings up the OSD (that I absolutely do not need) and when pressed a second time it comes up this the context menu (which is necessary for me to switched "linked" channels. The mini-epg is accessible via the "ok"-button with seems to be very intuitive (my wife loves this function )
I'm not sure if it is a good idea to change the function of the "ok"-button in fullscreen tv.
Maybe you have also a good idea how to make the "linked" channels a little bit easier to access.

Keep up the good work. I would love to see much of this concepts in MP.
Bye
Lars

[infinityloop]

Originally Posted by lkuech

That is also a very good idea.
I would prefer to see also if a card is epg grabbing... is this fitting in your concept (maybe show under tv streams)?

grabbing is not locking the card, so you cant tune.
grabbing is stopped if the user wants to tune a channel.

showing a card which grabds epg in the TV-Streams dialog doesnt make any sense since you cant tune it, and its not a stream

Originally Posted by lkuech

And one additional thing came to my mind...
... you wrote:

In my current setup (MCE remote via IRTrans) the i key brings up the OSD (that I absolutely do not need) and when pressed a second time it comes up this the context menu (which is necessary for me to switched "linked" channels. The mini-epg is accessible via the "ok"-button with seems to be very intuitive (my wife loves this function )
I'm not sure if it is a good idea to change the function of the "ok"-button in fullscreen tv.
Maybe you have also a good idea how to make the "linked" channels a little bit easier to access.

Keep up the good work. I would love to see much of this concepts in MP.
Bye
Lars

hmm... i have to think about that again......


*edit 1*
when you are watching Tv in FullScreen then,

• back button (ESC) --- brings you back to the MyTV Homescreen
• Okay (enter) --- opens mini-epg and switches between channels and switches between Channels and TV-Streams view
• info button --- first time pressed shows timeline and EPG info, 2nd time pressed shows the ChannelProperties which also include the subchannels section

So it would stay pretty simmilar to the current, well working mapping


*edit 2*


Tuning a sub-channel:

Some PayTV providers use a "portal channel" from where you are able to select a sub-channel you want to view.
the tv-server is supporting that with the "Linkage scanner"

currently you select the subchannel from the channel properties dialog box, i think that could be improved.

1. In miniepg select the "Portal Channel" and tune it
2. as soon as the channel was tuned you see a window which displayes the available sub-channel
3. you can select a subchannel or close the window and watch the portal channel
4. to restore the subchannels list, press"okay" 2 times. which opens the channel selection window and "tunes" the channel again

[Nicodemuz]

Originally Posted by infinityloop

have you actualy tried the skipsteps?
as far as i know, TVCentral is not useing "skip steps" as we do.

the skipstep is not only "one" fixed amount of time as your "small / big" skipstep makes it look like.

i.e. press "right" on your remote/keyboard once means "+15sec"
press "right" 2 times and you go forward +30sec
press "right" 5 times and you go forward 5minutes

just watch the right part of your timeline when you press the <- -> keys on remote/keyboard to see the "skipstep time" which will be used once you stop pressing the direction key(s).

I use mplayer (gmplayer) on my PC for watching movies/recordings and what I like with that applications that when pressing the right/left buttons INSTANTLY moves me +/- ~10 seconds and directly continues playing.

That gives me, the user, a direct feedback where in the movie I have moved.

When to I use this?
When I want to skip commercials in recordings, depending on channel and time of day the commercials length vary between less than 30s and over 5 minutes and then get instant feedback makes it quick to skip through the commercials and continue watching the movie.

With MP and skipsteps I have to wait after the click to see where I have moved and it takes annoyingly long time to skip through commercials.

So skipsteps can be improved.

What I miss in mplayer is an accurate time indicator that shows how far into the recording I a moving if I for some reason say want to resume viewing from where I last stopped, say after 40 minutes....then I just hold down the right arrow on my keyboard and it will quickly take me through the recording but easily too far since I am relying on discovering the parts I don't recognise and thus haven't seen.

I don't like welltonways UI because it is too much info on the screen with 12 hoices.

I like the infinityloop design with a round menu for quicker access with few keys.

However, I want these changes/additions to I-loop´s design:
1) A configuration option to set MP to enter My TV at startup
2) A configuration option to set TV to start in fullscreen on last tuned channel without any menus - only the the bottom channel info banner should be shown
3) A configuration option to set how long the bottom channel info banner is displayed
4) A configuration option to switch off displaying TV station logotypes, especially in EPG/mini-EPG
5) Adding a current time (clock) in the bottom channel info banner
6) Adding SNR/BER values in the bottom channel info banner, could be optional via configuration setting
7) Channel Proprties: Back moves you out to "main" TV menu
8) "main" TV menu: Back exits the menu and shows current TV channel
9) Another feature I would like is to be able to configure different resolutions between "MY TV"/"My Movies" and rest of the MP features. This is because I can set pixelmapped resolution of my TV but only at 60Hz and playing TV/movies at 60 Hz stutters a lot since they are for 25/50Hz and there are no smooth way of displaying that at 60Hz. So I prefer 720p or 1080i for those modes but watching the Weather or my pictures or listening to Radio or just viewing MP menus is best done at pixelmapped resolution.
10) And I would also want to be able to configure external players for specific file formats but that is off-topic

[GetWell]

This is a nice idea!

But you looses the wifes and girlfriends when switching between TV-channels and TV-streams...

Can't you mix it together? Maeby with some kind of symbol showing if its a channel or stream?
The same with sub-channels..

Why not make the channel selecting window looking like the Channel Properties Section?
In the horizontal we have the groups, and down we have the channels?
If only one group, the channels will just been shown...

[kiesow]

I know that you, me and most people here don't need any buttons for "exit", but think of older people or your wifes.

E.g. at the screen "Tuning a unavailable channel:". I can already hear my girlfriend cyring "holy shit, what have I done?", now she's pressing some buttons ... "darling, uhm, well, I think I did something wrong ...". "Yeah, you stopped all recordings :-/"

[GetWell]

kiesow LOL you got a point there

infinityloop have you thought of inworking touchscreen friendly design??
Maeby its something you can turn on/off in options...

[The_Stig]

Originally Posted by GetWell

But you looses the wifes and girlfriends when switching between TV-channels and TV-streams...

I have to agree with GetWell. This is indeed a problem.