Ideas Collection Thread

[rsparey]

How about a record icon, that when it gains focus (by mouse or remote) it expands to show the full list of what it is recording.

[mpfrank]

Hi guys,

I don't know if my suggestions are what you've meant but I try to place it anyhow:

IMHO the TVClient for MPTVServer shlould be platform independent. Beside my windows hardware I work with a Linux System and a MacBookPro with OS X. It's really a shame that I have to start VMWare or Parallels on the non Windows Systems to get the ability to use my MPTVServer.
One solution may be to switch to MONO instead of .NET but I'm not a developer and I don't know if this is possible.

Another point is, that I'm missing support for subchannels like Premiere Direkt channels. There should be an easy way (like with D-Box and Neutrino) to get these channels in the channel list.

The OSD in TVPlugin should also show information about the signal strength and quality of the current TV channel and on which TV card the current channel is received.

Kind regards
mpFrank

[DarkWader]

I have been missing an option in the EPG for quite some time now.
I want to be able to show what's on TV the upcoming day or two, in a clean and fast way.
And not for just one channel at the time, that function is allready there..

So I made a mockup to show what I had in mind.
With a consept like this, there cant really be a timeline, so it will basically work as a browsing list.
But It should work like always, when clicking a program or channel.

Also, look at http://justnu.tv/ for another view of my idea.
Sorry if this should be posted somewhere else, just move the post

[jaeger]

Originally Posted by DarkWader

I have been missing an option in the EPG for quite some time now.
I want to be able to show what's on TV the upcoming day or two, in a clean and fast way.
And not for just one channel at the time, that function is allready there..

So I made a mockup to show what I had in mind.
With a consept like this, there cant really be a timeline, so it will basically work as a browsing list.
But It should work like always, when clicking a program or channel.

Also, look at http://justnu.tv/ for another view of my idea.
Sorry if this should be posted somewhere else, just move the post

Originally Posted by 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.

@DarkWader, Do you mean something like this? I posted this on page 3 on this same thread. There's images in the original post or you can see the images behind the link inside quote

[m0deth]

Hi guys,

While this isn't a design element idea, I do believe this should be a step toward building any new TV redesign.

Seeing as it's the wives and 'users' of the machines in question who have the hardest time adapting to MP and the way it handles TV upon first entering MyTV....maybe all designs submitted should be run by said people first to get their ideas for this.

I say this because all of us here are far too familiar with MP's operation for us to have the same viewpoint. I printed a few of the new ideas out from the collection thread, some of which are very nice I might add. I then ran them by the wife to see what she thought. This is what I got:

She likes the circle menu idea, feels "iPoddy" as she puts it....not sure what she means but hey

Her main complaint however, is still not addressed. On our cable(fios) box, when you turn on TV, you get TV, no menus(unless you want them) no options, just TV.
People are used to this setup, it's been ingrained in their TV watching ergonomics.

Another complaint is the menus, while I do not agree, she feels they could be less obtrusive, or more manageable....for instance. On our box, you can hit "guide" and it brings up the fullscreen guide which is familiar to all, a second click immediately after brings up a half-screen menu, with the guide on the right, and the TV feed takes up the left side, with a smaller description of what's on underneath that. While it's not perfect, it seems to waste less space than some current MP skins...and shows more of what you are there for while viewing TV, the TV!

Scheduling for most of the wives and users seems to be less important than having an unobstructed viewing experience when switching to the TV plugin.

I say this only because I see alot of focus on the menus, and not much to address this issue, as it's the primary one I hear ordinary, non-computer savvy people mention when using my machine. I also actually heard this from a computer gamer..."why does it take 3 actions on the remote to get fullscreen TV?"

By this he means, 1: select the MyTV, 2: flick the nav stick to the right to highlight the Live TV box, and 3: select enter to make fullscreen. I do have a fullscreen button which uses the iMon software to trigger the fullscreen command in MP, but it's down and away from the rest of the navigation buttons on the remote. This is not MP's fault, but I've noticed a few remotes that have this issue. I also know this is laziness on their part, but I think the goal here is to make this easy to use and acceptable for everyone to use, not just the geeks.

In designing mine, I've learned to abide with one protocol....."Fear the WAF, appease the Wife!"

MP does a fine job with most....but could use some improvements on usability for the less.....hrm......techno-patient crowd.

Just some thoughts, and kudos to the designers here, I've seen some cool stuff.

Also, please consider using animations to advantage when trying to get a less cluttered look to the interface....they can be used in innovative ways when onscreen space is a constraint.

thanks all!

m0

[DarkWader]

Originally Posted by jaeger

@DarkWader, Do you mean something like this? I posted this on page 3 on this same thread. There's images in the original post or you can see the images behind the link inside quote

Yes, exactly someting like that.
The possibility for horisontal EPG with multiple channels, that can be configurated with the skin engine, or plugin settings.
(For myself, I want just 3 horisontal rows for channels, since I only can recieve 3 channels..)



I did not notice your post about this..

[jernis]

i Would like a feature where i can se what my TV Cards are doing. at the moment i have no idea if CARD1, CARD2, CARD3 is viewing tv channels and if they are manually Recording ( My kids starts to record anything until manually stop) So a List of all Cards in the system and what they are doing at the moment would be sweet

[niblick]

It's pretty fundamental (we are talking re-design though) so here goes : the feature I'd really like to see is some kind of user profiles.

Basically, when a MP client connects to the TVserver it would provide some kind of credentials which are validated against a "user" table in the database to return a record which identifies a specific user or possibly a default user if the credentials don't get a match.

The user record could be linked to other tables to control most of the features presented by the MP client but in particular I would like to see :

• A link to groups which limited which "Favourites" groups were visible - so that I can restrict the channels available to my kids!
• A link to recordings which governs which recorded shows are visible - again so I know that my kids can't watch some gorefest which I happened to record recently.
• Some kind of permissions/priority for scheduled recordings so that I can override trivial stuff from my kids if I need to record eg. 4 days of the Open, but not vice versa.
• It's probably a step too far but it would be cool if the skinning engine could be database driven as well so that I could define a simplified set of menu options for say the living room htpc user but have the full set of features available if I connect as someone else.

There's loads of other stuff that could be linked to a user profile but this is probably enough to illustrate the idea.

[dmeglio]

Why is it (unless I'm stupid and can't find it) that MP still doesn't have the ability to only record first-runs? I (and I think everyone in my family) would prefer that over ideas like having the TV show play behind the guide. My Zap2It guide knows what is a first run, how come I can't set up such a recording??? That in my mind is what makes MyTV lightyears behind MCE, not the interface.

[dvdfreak]

See this thread for work in progress:

http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/ru...ce-t26158.html

I will add a rule to only record first runs or premieres.