[TV] Allow Hyperlink to Fullscreen TV and to mytvhomeserver.xml (1 Viewer)

[mbuzina]

Started on: 2012-01-23
last update: 2012-01-23

Summary:
Having access via the Basic Home Menu to both options of starting TV.

Area:
TV Client

Description:
Right now users have the choice of showing either mytvhomeserver.xml (with or without running TV) or fullscreen when going to TV. I would like to have 2 options in my menu (edited basic home with avalon, but any other should do).
1. View TV (-> Switch to fullscreen TV timeshifting ON)
2. Manage TV (-> Switch to mytvhomeserver.xml with timeshifting OFF)

Option 2 would be a submenu item for me, others might prefer different.

Another side request would be to allow other screens to show the currently running recordings (if I see the recoring icon wile viewing pictures, I currently have to go to the home menu, go to TV (fullscreen!), stop TV (2 x stop) and then select the button to show running recordings).

Is this possible?

 

[JimmyBoy]

+1 from me.

(Using Avallonis Skin)

There are two .xml's of interest here;

mytvhomeserver.xml - I'll refer to it as "Manage TV"
mytvfullscreen.xml - I'll refer to this as "Watch TV"

And two mediaportal configuration settings, under the "TV" section ;

"Turn on TV"
"Force fullscreen"

I would like to reference mytvhomeserver.xml from a menu option called "Manage TV" - this would be my place to go for managing my tv recordings, searching epg etc... However, mytvhomeserver.xml currently respects the settings in mediaportal configuration. So if I want to display mytvhomeserver.xml from a menu option, and the "Turn on TV" AND "Force fullscreen" option are checked in MediaPortal configuration, then this screen does not display as it forces fullscreen.

Also, if just the "Turn on TV" option is set, then I click on "Manage TV" and then have to wait a few seconds for the TV to turn on before the screen displays. This can be somewhat annoying as all I want to do is access the screen to select one of the options (Scheduled Recordings for example) but have to wait for the TV to turn on. It would be desirable if the preview in mytvhomeserver.xml was only displayed if the TV is currently on, and not force the TV on.

Secondly, I want to be able to call mytvfullscreen.xml from a menu option and this would display full screen tv, and also display the channel mini guide (so you know what channel is currently displaying), but calling this .xml does not do anything with regard to turning on the TV.

Here's a rough video that may help explain what im going on about!
MediaPortal Avalon TV Menu Test - YouTube

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Nice ideas, really annoying if playing video and want to see upcoming recordings etc, and I like the access to now\next without tv running.

 

[corporate_gadfly]

+1.

 

[mbuzina]

Another Idea for this: Why not add Plugin parameters to the TV Plugin? It could take
a) No parameter -> Do as it does now
b) FullScreen -> Turn on TV and go to Fullscreen no matter what config setting
c) NoFullScreen -> Turn on TV and stay on mytvhomeserver.xml not matter what config setting
d) ManageTV -> Show the mytvhomeserver.xml without turing on TV
e) FullScreen(Channel) -> Turn on TV and go to fullscreen TV with a defined channel
f) NoFullScreen(Channel) -> Turn on TV and stay on mytvhomeserver.xml with a defined channel
g) ActiveRecordings -> Show the current running recordings
h) ActiveStreams -> Show the current active streams

How about that?

 

[bodiroga]

Another Idea for this: Why not add Plugin parameters to the TV Plugin? It could take
a) No parameter -> Do as it does now
b) FullScreen -> Turn on TV and go to Fullscreen no matter what config setting
c) NoFullScreen -> Turn on TV and stay on mytvhomeserver.xml not matter what config setting
d) ManageTV -> Show the mytvhomeserver.xml without turing on TV
e) FullScreen(Channel) -> Turn on TV and go to fullscreen TV with a defined channel
f) NoFullScreen(Channel) -> Turn on TV and stay on mytvhomeserver.xml with a defined channel
g) ActiveRecordings -> Show the current running recordings
h) ActiveStreams -> Show the current active streams

How about that?

i) Search EPG -> Search the selected item in EPG (interesting for finding upcoming episodes while navigating through MPTVSeries, for example).
j) Search Schedules -> Search current schedules for selected items

...

In fact all built-in plugins should allow the current implementation of "parameters launcher" as that way, skinners and plugin developers will have more options to build better and more complex systems. The awesome integration between Online Videos and MovPic (also with Subcentral) wouldn't be possible withouth DieBaggers patch, so let's give developers the same option for TV, Music, Radio, Photos,... and I'm sure that we will see a better integration between the whole MediaPortal ecosystem.

Paranoid Delusion, do you know if the Team is considering this option for future versions of MediaPortal? As I know it's not a very complex addition, so perhaps we could see it for the final version of 1.3...

Many thanks for all and best regards,

Aitor

 

[JimmyBoy]

It would be great if something like this could be implemented.

 

[mbuzina]

I am just starting to tinker with the code, I can now read the parameters. Lets see if I can find a way to do this & post a patch

 

[mbuzina]

The first things are working, searching EPG & Schedules not yet.

 

[mbuzina]

Searches need to be implemented different than all the rest (as they should call the recordings, schedules & EPG screens with parameters).

But I have a working solution. Attached are the two modified source files. The parameters supported are:

• NoCommand
• FullScreen
• FullScreen(channelName)
• NoFullScreen
• NoFullScreen(channelName)
• TVOff
• ActiveRecordings
• ActiveStreams

One remark: The file is based upon 1.2.0, since my git clone is taking forever - I don't know if much changed in these 2 files.