Ideas Collection Thread

[bakra]

First I like to say MP rocks!
I do have a few suggestions:

-I think the banners Willith is talking about is a good idea.

-I think starting in fullscreen should be an option in the setup. When the wife selects TV, she wants to see TV and zap with the channel-up and channel-down buttons.

-I would like to see Joost.com integrated in MyTV.

-Furthermore I think the TV and Radio section in the homepage should be more transparent. Everything that is TV (TV-card, IP-TV, Joost.com) should be under the TV button in the homescreen. Same goes form the radio-channels.
What I mean by this is:
-When I select MyTV in the homescreen I can select TV channels. These channels are a list of favorites, regardlesly if they are from the TV-card, IP-TV or Joost.
Then I can zap through my favorite channels, wich is a mix of TV-card(s), IP-TV and Joost.com. So again the only thing the wife has to do is use the channel-up and channel-down buttons.

That way it is easier for the wife (and ofcourse all other MP users :-)) to understand. TV is TV, and for the wife it doesn't matter where it comes from. Also there are less separate buttons for TV, IP-TV, etc.

[jaeger]

Topfield PVR has a TAP (plug-in) called PlasmaEPG, which has quite nice EPG layout. I'd like to see something like this as a option to more standard EPG view. You use left/right/up/down to navigate channel and programs and ff/rew to change days. Some button is dedicated to showing program info and record button brings a pop-up window with recording options.

Here's a link for the PlasmaEPG web site.

Best recording options window (when you hit rec button in EPG and maybe in live tv too) I've seen so far is in the Meedio TV (Never matured to be a good TV program...). I can't find a screenshot of it anywhere. I've attached a scetch of how it looked (use your imagination to add eye candy).

Buffers are added to the recording time before and after the program start and end times. Soft buffer (or was it called padding?) is something that is optional and can be skipped if other recordings require that. Hard buffer is something that has to be recorded even if it causes conflicts with other programs.

[fab70]

Do yuo remember 'Back to the future part II'?

If I remember exactly, there is a scene in where McFly's children enters in the living room and started a multichannel preview. Somenting like 'computer, I'd like to see channel 4, channel 3, channel 8..', all in the same screen.

I think two solutions are possible: up to 9 channels with identical size in one screen, or one big box with some other smaller boxes in the bottom (a solution similar to the one we already have in MP).

Zapping is very efficient now, but I think we should use all the real power available in a pc solution, with some innovatives ideas that are able to change and improve the way you use the tv.

I usually look at Rai1, Rai2, Rai3 than are on a the same frequency and Canale 5, Italia 1, Rete 4, that are on another frequency. So with two satelite cards I'm theoretically able to preview 6 channels.. not bat!!

Ciao

[J-B-N]

From my perspective the most common response I have got from non-HTPC aware users are that there are too many steps before the TV. It of course boils down to wheter or not the HTPC is mainly used for TV (as in my case) or as something else. From my perspective I would like to be able to configure MP to enter full-screen live-TV at start up, tuned to last seen TV-channel (or channel 1 in the selected tv-group). At that fullscreen live-TV there could be an OSD showing for configurable amount of seconds (say 10 s). That OSD could be a combination of the TV-OSD and My TV home. I just did a crude mock-up (in Swedish (sorry)) from my HTPC. I am currently using SpinSafe Revolve (with some personal changes to My TV for instance) so tnx to Mirk for the layout.

The idea is to show information about the programme viewed and some common operation. I tend to select a channel, or enter the EPG-guide when first entering TV. Otherwise I look in Recorded TV. In the mock-up I let "Planned recordings" remain, likely that option can be removed and be accessable from the recordings and/or the EPG.

Well, just my few cents...

[garmpe]

I'd definitely like to second (or third or fourth - I lost count) the option to start TV in fullscreen - or even better to be able to start MP in fullscreen TV as suggested in the autostart plugin thread. Apart from that I like the way MyTV works although I (unlike others here so maybe my 2 cents only counts for 1 cent) never record TV, I just have no need for it.

Cheers and thanks for all the hardwork.

[Rhys.Goodwin]

I'd like to see a new option in the "Keep Recording until" for "keep for x number of days" That way you could have the last fews days of a specific news or current affairs program you wouldn't have to worry about always cleaning up up old recordings.

You could even create create custom preset programs. e.g. Go to my TV and select "News" and it would simply start playing the very latest news bulletin. In this case when you went to schedule a recording you just you could have a schedule called "Add to Preset Program"

These types of schedules could even maintained be in a separate area than the normal recordings?

[Rhys.Goodwin]

People are starting to talk about PIP and multichannel preview. (Which I'm really keen on) but doesn't this require a re-write of the internal player? And is this something that is likely to happen as part of this "My TV" re-vamp?

[bfrye26]

The thing i would be really keen on seeing would be it function more like a set top box in some areas. One thing i would LOVE to see in the tv would be a theme look. to see all the movies on or what have you. many set top boxes have this and i always use it.

Another thing i would be interested in seeing would be the start in tv full screen so my comp just starts up as a set top box does.

EPG grabber downloading if i am on the channel with a epg on it. That would be nice.

signal meter would be lovely so i can see why my chanel is comming is pixalated becuase of a animal moved my dish or what have you

Another thing i would love to see would be a more intergrated tv setup so that the tv cab be ajusted within MP...

and of corse North American Sat settings... for all us in NA

That is all i would like HAHA yes a long list!
If only some of them get put in i would be pleased as punch!

[bigj]

Carosel view would work nice (think glossy apple-like 3D)

MP could channel change through current group in background and grab frame from tv show on each channel. Then that would be available to skinners as an object. When the frame is not (yet) available the channel logo is returned as the default.

Where any channel lists are shown - eg. multichannel preview and/or select lists - all channels currently being recorded should be tagged (e.g. have the 'recording' icon overlayed).

[StaticMan]

I'd love to see the client have the ability to quickly switch TV3 servers.
I have 2 servers (and I don't want to master/slave them) so an easy way to toggle between servers would be awesome.