Ease accessing multiple channels on the same mux (1 Viewer)

[risu]

I just tested newest TVserver svn (12815) and it actually works most of the time now! Client freezes at times but I never had success with tvserver on my HTPC before (Sempron 2800, Technotrend C1500). I have server and client on the same machine.

As recording multiple channels on the same mux is a new feature, there are few things to improve. I know this should have gone to bugfixes also but here are few feature requests also so it's here.

Bug:
When recording a channel you can't stop it anywhere else than from the timing's menu. Normally in full screen TV you could just tap back and select stop recording. Now it always says record.

Suggestion:
Pressing stop on remote could open up a dialog where it would confirm stop recording. If there's multiple recordings on it could open a dialog where you could select which recording you'd want to stop.

Bug:
ConflictManager tells selected recording has a conflict although recording is at the same mux. It shouldn't do that.

Suggestion:
When recording and you change up or down channels it should automatically skip the channels that cannot be accessed at the time (now it jumps back to the last accessible channel).

Suggestion:
When tapping OK on full screen TV it opens miniEPG. It would be good if it showed all the channels there, but the ones you couldn't access at the moment would be greyed. The ones beeing recorded could be red. Color coding could exist in real EPG too instead of the red button.

 

[chenks]

some good suggestions there

 

[tourettes]

MP GUI is still work in progress relating to the multi-channel recording feature. Same goes for the conflict manager.

 

[Roberdin]

I think that from the UI point of view if anything is "greyed out" it should be clear why - not everyone understands the concept of a multiplex. I do like the idea of being able to see what channels are watchable/recordable within the guide, but maybe the other channels should be selectable also. If you select a channel which is not available for watching/recording, maybe you could get a message (slightly tailored dependent on whether you want to watch or record):

"MediaPortal cannot watch this channel at the moment, because it is recording other channels. To view this channel, you must cancel one group of the recordings below:

On Hauppauge DVB-T Nova-T #1:
* blah blah on BBC One
* blah blah on BBC Two
Cancel these

On Hauppauge DVB-T Nova-T #2:
* Something fascinating on More 4
Cancel this

Skip recording"

Or,

"MediaPortal cannot record this channel at the moment, because it is recording or viewing other channels. To record from this channel, you must stop watching your current programme and cancel all of the recordings below:
..."

If you have more than one tuner, then the UI is going to break down into a bit of a mess; mentioning the name of the card is probably unnecessary. Perhaps the multiplex could be put there in its stead. But IMHO, it is important to tell the user why he cannot watch a certain programme so that he can make up his mind as to whether he would like to cancel a whole batch of recordings on one card, another programme on a second card, or perhaps neither. I think it is within the scope of MediaPortal to lead the user through this.

 

[risu]

MP GUI is still work in progress relating to the multi-channel recording feature. Same goes for the conflict manager.

I realize that, that's also the reason why I didn't actually post this on bugs as the only real bug was that recording thing and I read on the forum now that Frodo did something about it, haven't tried the newest SVN yet. I'm not even expecting all new stuff to work right away, after all it's not a release yet

I think channel changing has always shown next channel on OSD when pressing up/down even if it's not available. It would feel more right if it didn't even show next channel data if not possible to change channel. So that suggestion goes even beyond multi-channel recording gui.