Direct Channel Access (1 Viewer)

[Anonymous]

I am advised over in "Bugs" that my Direct Channel Access 'bug' isn't a 'bug' but rather a feature (reminds me of the old software joke if you can't fix it feature it

So, here I am in Feature Requests to request that some mechanism be provided in MP so that when in TV Fullscreen or Preview pressing the channel number actually selects the channel not the corresponding item in the channel database (i.e. pressing "35" selects channel "35" not the "35th" item in the database.) The present method requires the entering of the database item's index number not the channel ID which is counterintuitive to me, and perhaps others, in North America. And it is impractical with a channel list of several hundred cable and satellite channels --- the workaround of adding dummy channels is equally impractical in this situation.

As there is apparently a community of enthusiasm for the present index method, I propose that a checkbox option be provided in the configurator to select which method is to be used to select "Channel ID or Database ID".

Thanks

 

[LastMar]

I agree. The opinions of "crazy foreigners" (j/k) notwithstanding, the channel number you enter in should match the channel it takes you to....

At any rate, there should be a choice between ways to pick channels.

 

[sporktastic]

At least giving the option to allow it to either tune to the 35th channel or channel 35 would be good. That way everyone can get the behavior that they are use to.

 

[Anonymous]

I have 160+ channels in my database and absent this being "fixed" MP is essentially unusable to me. This is of sufficient gravity to me that if no one else is looking at it I might try my hand at "fixing" this. I'm not a C programmer but I learned everything else I know maybe I can learn enough to "fix" this.

Can one of the developers tell me in which module(s) the current channel-by-index is handled?

 

[MrMario64]

I really cannot understand the system you use there.
You also have this for radio?
So you enter 108.5 to tune ot do you have preset s there/
How do you handle a sat frequency?

I really fail to see the logic of entering the frequency of a station.

but, if it's a generally used system out there who am I to question it.

 

[Casper]

I really cannot understand the system you use there.
You also have this for radio?
So you enter 108.5 to tune ot do you have preset s there/
How do you handle a sat frequency?

I really fail to see the logic of entering the frequency of a station.

but, if it's a generally used system out there who am I to question it.

It probably is this way due to the fact that many TV-stations in the USA are named after the channel they transmit on, i.e. News Channel 34 is transmitting on channel 34, which makes this way of selecting a channel very intuitive over there. Here in sweden (and probably most of europe) the name of the channel has very little to do with the channel they transmit on and the same tv channel is often transmitted on different channels in different parts of the country to avoid interferance. This makes the mediaportal way of selecting channels more practical over here, and all our TVs, VCRs etc works this way.

 

[Anonymous]

Casper has described it fairly well. In the US TV stations are generally locally owned so the NBC affiliate in Denver is owned by a company in Denver, they just carry the services of the NBC network. For the most part the major broadcast networks only own their own stations in larger markets, thus NBC owns their own station in NY, LA, etc.

As in anything else there are exceptions to this. In our cable system for example the local NBC station, channel 6, is carried on channel 9 because the antenna array is in the same area as the cable system and their broadcast signal is so powerful that it was interfering with the cable when carried on cable channel 6. So to get channel 6 we select channel 9. But that's only one exception out of several hundred channels and easy to remember, especially since it is still directly accessed by channel number.

If the only TV we had was the 6 or 7 local broadcast channels then it wouldn't make much difference. But we have "grown up" doing it this way and with several hundred channels it would be difficult to do it any other way now.

And it seems simple enough to have the option of "access by index" or "access by channel ID" so we can each have it the way we each want it to work.

 

[bionicdonkey]

If you are talking about the using the 'Logical Channel Number' to access the channels thenyou may be in luck. I've written the code to grab that info from autotune, as for using within MP, that will still need to be done

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'logical channel number' in this context.

What I, and I suspect other North American users, are seeking is a way to display TV channel 35 by pressing "3" and "5" on the remote when in fullscreen. As it is right now pressing "3" and "5" will result in displaying the TV channel which occupies 35th element in the database.

If that's the 'logical channel number' then that's what I am looking for. In deference to the non-North American users I had proposed that there be a configuration option to determine that action: set one way it select the channel based on the "actual" channel number as I seek; set the other way it selects the channel based on the database index number as is preferred by others.

 

[bionicdonkey]

It seems we talking about the same thing, execpt LCN's are for bda digital.

Anyway, since i want this aswell, i have a look at selecting the channels by ther channel number. it shouldn't be too hard to change.