Learn something from MCE 2005 (1 Viewer)

[dpopovic]

I want to suggest few things that would certanly improve WAT of MediaPortal. I used MCE2005 for year and I really miss few litle things. All this could be categorized as "remote control usage improvements".

MSE2005 assumes that you use remote control and MediaPortal is better tuned for keyboard and mouse usage. Few examples:

1. When you click something in MCE2005 you can see animated gif in middle of the screen which says to you that command is accepted. When you click something in MediaPortal nothing happens. You do not know that PC is busy.

2. Lot of actions in MediaPortal assume that you have right mouse click available. Try to delete recorded tv item. MCE 2005 has additional menu in when you pick recorded tv item. There you can choose whether you want to play, delete, archive, ... particular item. Same goes with music, video, ... items.

3. I think that Play DVD/CD command deserves to be on Home page. I find it very difficult to explain to my wife to go in My Videos/Play DVD ...

Any comments !?

 

[Chimen]

About play DVD, I think it's disturbing with too many items in home screen.

"I find it very difficult to explain to my wife to go in My Videos/Play DVD ..."
You've got to be kidding me!

 

[mama]

1. When you click something in MCE2005 you can see animated gif in middle of the screen which says to you that command is accepted. When you click something in MediaPortal nothing happens. You do not know that PC is busy.

On my system there´s no need for this. I click and it´s there. What exactly makes you wait in MP?

2. Lot of actions in MediaPortal assume that you have right mouse click available. Try to delete recorded tv item. MCE 2005 has additional menu in when you pick recorded tv item. There you can choose whether you want to play, delete, archive, ... particular item. Same goes with music, video, ... items.

Tried the "i" or the coloured buttons on the remote already? There are a lot of additional menues.

3. I think that Play DVD/CD command deserves to be on Home page. I find it very difficult to explain to my wife to go in My Videos/Play DVD ...

I fully agree with Chimen! Too many options on the home screen aren´t that good. This was discussed already ages ago here. But that´s why you can modify it in the plugins settings.

 

[bigj]

1. When you click something in MCE2005 you can see animated gif in middle of the screen which says to you that command is accepted. When you click something in MediaPortal nothing happens. You do not know that PC is busy.

On my system there´s no need for this. I click and it´s there. What exactly makes you wait in MP?

I agree with the OP on points 1 and 3. I have a remote key bound to the alternative-menu button, so point 2 I don't think is really an issue.

The benefit of instantaneous feedback is a well understood and accepted user-interface design concept. It's why most OS's cursor/mouse are asynchronous and context sensitive (think of clicking fingers, hourglasses etc).

In the world of PC based media centres - with eg. DVB channel changes in the multiples of seconds range, disk access that prefix many operations with seemingly random and unpredictable delays etc - its even more useful.

But.... was I imagining things or did one of the recent CVS builds have some sort of spinning 'wait' icon? I assumed it was a wip for just this feature.

BigJ.

 

[wortelsoft]

But.... was I imagining things or did one of the recent CVS builds have some sort of spinning 'wait' icon? I assumed it was a wip for just this feature.

BigJ.

It's in the my weather screen

 

[Smirnuff]

It's in the my weather screen

Its use will become more widespread given time, at the moment My Weather is/was the guinea pig for the new wait cursor and was very easy to integrate, other areas will require more thought and effort on the part of the developer so that'll be why it isn't used elsewhere as yet.

 

[dpopovic]

About play DVD, I think it's disturbing with too many items in home screen.

"I find it very difficult to explain to my wife to go in My Videos/Play DVD ..."
You've got to be kidding me!

This is tipical reaction from guy who uses PC 18 hours a day (I am one too. It might be shocking for you but average people put CD/DVD in machine and they expect it to play without any further intevention. I think that if MediaPortal wants to reach average people it should be more adoptable to people's habits. Every 100 USD worth DVD player works that way.

Btw, my wife can find My Videos/Play DVD feature but she finds it extremely stupid and un-necessary to do it that way ...

 

[dpopovic]

1. When you click something in MCE2005 you can see animated gif in middle of the screen which says to you that command is accepted. When you click something in MediaPortal nothing happens. You do not know that PC is busy.

On my system there´s no need for this. I click and it´s there. What exactly makes you wait in MP?

Nothing in particular. But sometimes in some situations it happens. At the end, it is PC and it can happen no matter which hardware you have.

Tried the "i" or the coloured buttons on the remote already? There are a lot of additional menues.

I use SoundGraph Imon remote. Only menus I found are on right mouse click. Are there any more or how can I replace those coloured buttons ....?

I fully agree with Chimen! Too many options on the home screen aren´t that good. This was discussed already ages ago here. But that´s why you can modify it in the plugins settings.

How ?

 

[Callifo]

DVDs should autoload when you insert them so you dont need to go into MyVideos to select play dvd.

I also have a plugin laying around (dont know who from) that puts a "Play DVD" button in the homescreen.

While MP does rely on right click, a lot of remotes have this function already. The MCE2005 remote has a little yellow button which simulates the right click.

 

[mama]

I thought you´re using the MCE remote, that´s why I pointed to the extra buttons. I can recommend this remote 100%.

DVDs/CDs are autoplaying, as already written. A nice feature that should fit your needs if activated. If not, please search the forum for the "Play DVD" (or something like this) plugin.

The menues can be customized by clicking the settings of the "Home" plugin in the configuration.exe -> plugins. I don´t know how to do it exactly, because I don´t need it, but play a bit around and you´ll find it almost all.