Home Basic vs Home (1 Viewer)

[Nazgulled]

Hi,

I'm a new user to MediaPortal and I'm finding it confusing why there is 2 "homes"... Why is there a need to have a "normal home" and a "basic home"? What are the differences between them?

I really can't understand why and why not just one single menu fully customizable by skins? Wouldn't that be enough?

 

[Marcusb]

It does seem a bit excessive, but it also allows more customisation and references, which is mostly what MP is all about.
I prefer the basic home screen, but a lot of people like the extra selections provided by the full home menu.

Try both and see which one you prefer and stick with that. If you never want to see the other one, you can always change the mappings of the home button to go straight to the one you want.

Cheers,
Marcus.

 

[Maedhros]

I am a software developer and I have gone independent. And one of the reasons is exactly because my former bosses always thought that when we got an idea for a modification of a feature, that's what we are going to do. When I ask if we shouldn't make an option or two to make it possible to use the old ways and maybe something in between the old and the new, they almost always said no and that I should use my energy on other stuff (even though it is trivial to put an option on things like that).... I believe in giving the user freedom to do whatever he likes the best with the product.... This is also the primary reason why I use MediaPortal and don't switch. I have the freedom to configure and play around with my mediacenter like with no other..... treasure it

Rather have to many options (that you won't use) than having too few options (that you can't choose)..... And MP 1.0 has implemented a standard/advanced filter for options, which is also what I would do rather than to throw options away because some people don't mess with those options.... Treasure your freedom to choose ;-)

And BTW..... The Basic Home menu IS customizable by skins..... I run Aeon Wide and have my TV Series in my basic home ;-)

And just a note to the MP..... When I came to MP a long time ago now the Home vs. Basic Home was also a bit "WTF?" ..... It might have been better to go with Home and Advanced Home or Extended Home.... Just semantics ;-)

 

[Nazgulled]

Both of you still didn't answered one of my questions...

I'm a programmer myself and I understand what you are saying. I hate applications that do not allow me to use them the way I want because they don't have enough options to control it's behavior/looks. But still, that's not the answer...

What's the point in having 2 menus where one of them is not very customizable and the other is? There's no point... Just make one menu, fully customizable and every problem about choice/freedom is solved. You don't need 2 different menus for that. You can't go wrong like this... You can easily provide all the flexibility your users will need/want from a menu.

That's what I think.

 

[gxtracker]

What's the point in having 2 menus where one of them is not very customizable and the other is?

The answer is quite simple really: The basic home menu was designed as a more streamlined, basic user interface - mostly designed to keep user interactions simple and minimal (for those not so technically inclined). The Standard home menu was designed to be extensable and fully customizable for skinners and users alike.

IMO, some skins do a really slick job of "dressing" up the basic home screen. Xface and AEON are two examples that really work well - in fact so well that many use the basic home screen as their main menu.

Personally I agree with you though: there should only be one home screen that can be customized - but not by the user. The skinner should have full control over what their interface looks like. It's a difficult balancing act as adding in too much complexity to the UI customization can overwhelm users and generate more support issues, yet adding in too few can frustrate users with the lack of choice.

 

[Nazgulled]

Personally I agree with you though: there should only be one home screen that can be customized - but not by the user. The skinner should have full control over what their interface looks like. It's a difficult balancing act as adding in too much complexity to the UI customization can overwhelm users and generate more support issues, yet adding in too few can frustrate users with the lack of choice.

Exactly... One is enough and should be fully customizable by the skinner and the skinner is the one that should provide any type of menu customization as they feel like to the users.

We already see many skins providing their own app to change to costumize the text and order of menu items in the basic menu. We can also configure (to an extent) the order of the "main" menu. This was the main source of my confusion and I really don't see the need for two different menus. One is enough and in my opinion, provides enough (or should) customization options for both skinners and users.