Radio Recordings Info Missing (1 Viewer)

CyberSimian

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    I am using MP 1.9.0 pre with aMPed 3.6.2 on 32-bit Vista. I have noticed what looks like an error in the radio recordings section of aMPed. I checked Titan, and that behaves as I would expect.

    I made a couple of DVB-T radio recordings using MP. Then (after several intervening reboots -- probably not significant) I did this:

    (1) Starting on the "Home" panel, I moved the focus to the "Radio" choice, and pressed the RIGHT button on the remote control. On the next panel, I selected "Recorded Radio" using the OK button on the remote control. What was then displayed is shown in screen shot 1. The panel lists the two recorded programmes, with the focus on the first programme, but it does not show the programme info for the first programme.

    (2) Before installing 1.9.0 pre, I had trialled 1.8.0, and I was convinced that at some point I had seen the programme info for recorded radio programmes on that panel in aMPed. So I enabled the Titan skin and went to the corresponding panel in Titan, and that is shown in screen shot 2. The info displayed is similar, except that Titan displays the programme info for the programme that has the focus.

    (3) To take the screen shots, I use the "Print Screen" key on the keyboard, and then start Windows "Paint" program to copy the image from the clip board into "Paint". To do this, I press ALT-ENTER to switch MP to windowed mode. Whilst I was moving the mouse around with MP windowed, the programme info suddenly appeared on the aMPed screen! The info appears when the mouse moves off the right-hand side of the aMPed panel. See screen shot 3.

    (4) I switched back to full-screen mode, and the info still appears when the mouse is moved to the right-hand edge of the panel. I then tried using the RIGHT button on the remote control, and also the RIGHT key on the keyboard, but neither would cause the programme info to appear; all that happens is that the left side bar menu appears or disappears. Only when the mouse is used does the programme info appear.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    Attachments

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    • amped_radio_recordings_info_2.jpg
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    Dadeo

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  • November 26, 2006
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    Yep, my bad, when I made changes to recorded TV I neglected to make them to recorded radio. :(

    Try the attached and let me know if that works for you - skinning it blind again :rolleyes:
     

    Attachments

    • myradiorecorded.xml
      6.9 KB

    CyberSimian

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    Try the attached and let me know if that works for you - skinning it blind again :rolleyes:
    Yes, that works fine (see screen shot). I tried the LEFT/RIGHT buttons on the remote control, LEFT/RIGHT keys on the keyboard, and moving the mouse to the left/right extremities of the screen, and they all worked as expected.

    I really appreciate the rapid turn-around with these problems. Thank you.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    Attachments

    • amped_radio_recordings_info_3.jpg
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    Dadeo

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    Thx for screenshot - it's not perfect yet :p Missing overlay behind text :(
    Before I fix that, can you check the other layouts for me? i.e.
    • Small/Large Icons (description should display as in the main list layout)
    • Big Icons List (description displays when you press the right arrow)
    • Filmstrip and Coverflow (description displays when you press down arrow)
    That way I can try to fix everything at once if there are other issues. I really appreciate all the testing! Thx!
     

    CyberSimian

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    Before I fix that, can you check the other layouts for me? i.e.
    -- Small/Large Icons (description should display as in the main list layout)
    -- Big Icons List (description displays when you press the right arrow)
    -- Filmstrip and Coverflow (description displays when you press down arrow)
    I have attached the screen shots of the various layouts. I noticed only one error in screen layout (and that is very minor). I noticed a more obvious inconsistency in panel flow. And finally, I have a suggestion to improve the understandability of the panels (I noticed this originally on the "TV Recordings" panel, and was going to open a separate thread, but we might as well discuss it here).
    Screen Layout
    (1) Small icons (see "amped_small_icons"). No errors.

    (2) Big icons (see "amped_big_icons"). No errors.

    (3) Filmstrip (see "amped_filmstrip_1" and "_2"). This is where I noticed some missing text. On "filmstrip_1", the station name is shown below the horizontal line near the top of the screen. However, on return from the left side bar menu, this text is missing initially (see "filmstrip_3"), but appears if you press RIGHT followed by LEFT.

    (4) Big icon list (see "amped_big_icon_list_1" and "_2"). No errors.

    (5) Coverflow (see "amped_coverflow_1" and "_2"). No errors (but I forgot to check if coverflow has the same missing text as filmstrip).

    Panel Flow
    Filmstrip and coverflow both exhibited unexpected panel flow:

    (1) With filmstrip, pressing LEFT on the first item in the list does nothing. Pressing RIGHT on the last item in the list results in display of the left side-bar menu.

    (2) With coverflow, pressing LEFT on the first item displays the left side-bar menu, but pressing RIGHT on the last item does nothing. This is the exact opposite of filmstrip.

    Several points here:
    (a) I would expect panel flow for filmstrip and coverflow to be identical.

    (b) I would expect LEFT on the first item to behave the same as RIGHT on the last item.

    (c) Since UP takes you to the left side-bar menu, I think that LEFT/RIGHT should either do nothing, or wrap round to the other end of the list. One of the aspects of Windows Media Center that annoys me is that it wraps lists only on a very few menus, and so some long menus (with many items) require repeated scrolling to get to the end. So on balance I would vote for wrapping round to the other end of the list (but I am not sufficiently familiar with MP panels and conventions to know whether this would fit in with MP's overall "look and feel").

    Suggested Improvement
    A couple of days ago I was completely flummoxed (yes, flummoxed) when I got to the recorded TV panel and could not see how to sort the list so that I could find the recording that I wanted to watch. Eventually I discovered the "sort" setting in the left side-bar menu, but I think that it could be more-clearly presented. We already have the "Layout: xxx" setting, and the "View by: yyy" setting, so why don't we have a "Sort by: zzz" setting? ("amped_sort_by" shows what we have at the moment.) The "sort" setting behaves in the same way as the other two settings (select the setting to get a drop-down menu of choices), and so should be presented on the panel in the same way as the other settings. Note: if you agree with this change, it should be done on all panels that have "sort" settings available (Radio Recordings, TV Recordings, Scheduled Recordings, probably others).

    The other aspect that I found confusing was the meaning of "View by: Recordings". When the menu of choices is displayed (see "amped_view_by"), it is clear what the other choices do, but it is still obscure what the "Recordings" setting does. I think that it needs a better name, but I don't know what a better name would be.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    Attachments

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    Dadeo

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    Re Navigation - MP Skin Engine is supposed to go to the nearest focusable control (i.e. menu button in this case) so I have no clue why it works on arrow right and not arrow left (logically the opposite should be more likely!). :( I've added explicit controls to go to the menu now - let's see if it works. ;) Skins that support filmstrip and coverflow layouts in Recorded Radio/TV (Default and many other skins don't but Titan does) usually set onleft/right to not go to anything (i.e. focus back on the filmstrip/coverflow control). If you think that is preferable, I can do that instead.

    Re Channel name disappearing - actually it is supposed to display program time!. So I changed that. The display issue may be related to the navigation issue. Let's see if that fixes it. If not I can try some workaround.

    Re Suggested improvement - Sort by - unfortunately that is hardcoded, i.e. cannot be changed by skin. TBH I agree with you, and have raised the issue with the Team in the past but couldn't get enough support to get it changed. :( (among several other UI reelated issues that are not consistent with the rest of MP). You could raise the issue in one of the MediaPortal 1 forums like the Newcomer's forum (which gets read a lot), or the Improvement Suggestions forum.
     

    Attachments

    • common.facade.recordings.xml
      2.7 KB
    • myradiorecorded.xml
      7.2 KB

    CyberSimian

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    Re Navigation: I've added explicit controls to go to the menu now - let's see if it works.
    Re Channel name disappearing - actually it is supposed to display program time!. So I changed that. The display issue may be related to the navigation issue.
    I will try the updated files and report back.

    Re Suggested improvement - Sort by - unfortunately that is hardcoded, i.e. cannot be changed by skin. ... You could raise the issue in one of the MediaPortal 1 forums like the Newcomer's forum (which gets read a lot), or the Improvement Suggestions forum.
    Yes, I wondered whether this was fixed by MP and not controllable by the skin.:( Maybe I will open a thread in "Improvement Suggestions" (less likely to get lost than in "Newcomers", I think), although I am sure that there are always more improvements to be made than time available in which to make them!

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    CyberSimian

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    Re Navigation - I've added explicit controls to go to the menu now - let's see if it works.
    It does! This time I did not notice any inconsistencies in the flow between panels, and I checked both "Recorded Radio" and "Recorded TV".

    I did notice one inconsistency in the flow within a panel, on the "Small Icons" panel. I had only one row of icons, so this observation is not conclusive, but using UP moved the focus to the first icon in the list, whereas using DOWN appeared to do nothing. On the "Big Icons" panel, I had two rows of icons, and UP from the top row moved the focus to the same column in the bottom row, and DOWN from the bottom row moved the focus to the same column in the top row. The behaviour of DOWN in "Small Icons" is consistent with "Big Icons", so the anomalous behaviour is UP from the top row in "Small Icons".

    Skins that support filmstrip and coverflow layouts in Recorded Radio/TV (Default and many other skins don't but Titan does) usually set onleft/right to not go to anything (i.e. focus back on the filmstrip/coverflow control). If you think that is preferable, I can do that instead.
    I think that wrapping round provides a functional benefit when navigating long lists (this is how "List" and "Big Icon List" behave). But if MP does not offer that for the other layouts, then I think (having tried it) that I prefer the way you have coded it now -- LEFT from first item or RIGHT from last item takes you to the side-bar menu (it makes it clear that you have reached the end of the list).

    Re Channel name disappearing - actually it is supposed to display program time!. So I changed that. The display issue may be related to the navigation issue. Let's see if that fixes it. If not I can try some workaround.
    This time I noticed a different screen-content problem, and I encountered it on both "Radio Recordings" and "TV Recordings" (I am sure that these panels must have a lot of panel definition files in common, so it is not surprising that they exhibit the same behaviour).

    The problem occurred on returning from the side-bar menu to the "List" layout, after having changed the layout from some other setting. What happened is that the list was missing from the panel, but the programme info was still displayed for the item that had the focus (see screen shot). I could move the focus up and down the list, and the programme info changed accordingly, but the list still did not appear. It was only when I used the LEFT or RIGHT buttons that the list appeared briefly, to be replaced almost immediately by the side-bar menu. Unfortunately, this does not happen every time, but it did happen several times during my testing tonight. However, I could not spot any pattern in the occurrences.

    The only other content-related observation is with respect to the arrows at extreme left and extreme right. If the arrow is intended to indicate that using LEFT or RIGHT in the direction of the arrow takes you somewhere else, there are quite a few places where the arrows are missing. I have listed them below. Also, the arrow pointing down ought to be flatter (more "squashed") to make it more similar to the left/right arrows. And there is a complete absence of up arrows!

    Missing left/right arrows
    "List" layout, right edge
    "List" side-bar menu, both edges
    "Big Icon List" side-bar menu, left edge
    "Big Icon List" programme info, right edge
    "Filmstrip" and "Coverflow" programme info, right edge
    "Filmstrip" and "Coverflow" side-bar menu, left edge
    "Icons" and "Big Icons" layout, right edge
    "Icons" and "Big Icons" side-bar menu, both edges

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

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    • amped_radio_missing_list.jpg
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    Dadeo

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    I had only one row of icons, so this observation is not conclusive
    Yep, behaviour differs if you have one or more rows of icons. If you have two rows of small icons (or only one row of large icons), it should behave the same. FYI it's actually only one control with different settings for large/small icon size, so skin can't change navigation for the different icon sizes.

    But if MP does not offer that for the other layouts, then I think (having tried it) that I prefer the way you have coded it now --
    I've tried and they don't wrap around. :( If you ever see a skin that does let me know and I can try to duplicate their workaround!

    The problem occurred on returning from the side-bar menu to the "List" layout, after having changed the layout from some other setting.
    Yes I've seen a few cases in MP where that happens. I'm not a developer so don't really understand the code issue. All I can tell you is that aMPed menu buttons are all set to focus on the facade (layout) control so I don't know why it works sometimes and not others, or for some layouts and not others. :confused:

    The only other content-related observation is with respect to the arrows at extreme left and extreme right.
    I made the right (and down) arrows conditional - they only display IF you have details/info for the item, i.e.if no description, no arrow. It saves you pressing a key to display nothing :p It doesn't display on list or icons layouts because the details are already visible.

    The left/right arrows should never display on the left side bar. And the right arrow doesn't display when you are viewing details because it is to navigate to details.

    Also, the arrow pointing down ought to be flatter (more "squashed") to make it more similar to the left/right arrows.
    Yeah and it may be more intuitive if the right arrow had the 'i' for info. But I struggle with the lack of screen real estate and I haven't come up with a design that both looks good and leaves enough space. I don't want to reduce the number of items that display, or make them smaller, and the right arrows are already almost too far right.

    And there is a complete absence of up arrows!
    Yep, I have thought about it many times and tried to fit them in. I'll keep working on it! As you may have noticed I try not to cover the screen with text etc. I want my TV to look like a TV as much as possible, not a web page or computer app (even though MP is :p)
     
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    CyberSimian

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    Before I fix that, can you check the other layouts for me?!
    I used Windows Media Center for several years, during which time I accumulated a collection of DVR-MS files, which I have for the moment placed in MP's "Video" section. DVR-MS files have the programme info embedded within the file, and this is not accessible to MP. So the "Video" panel does not show any info for these files.

    As an experiment, I copied to a "Video" folder a TV recording and a radio recording made within the last few days using MP. When I viewed the folder, I realised that the "Video" panel suffers from the same problem as "Radio Recordings" -- the programme info is missing in the "List" layout (see attached screen shots). "video_list_1" shows a folder containing a recently-recorded episode of "The Simpsons", but no programme info is displayed. "video_list_2" shows what is displayed when RIGHT is pressed. This time I checked both "Titan" and "DefaultWide", and they do show the programme info for the item with the focus in the "List" layout.

    I checked the other layouts (and took screen shots -- not included here). They looked OK, but there is a panel flow problem with "Filmstrip" (but not, curiously, with "Coverflow"). On "Filmstrip", RIGHT from the last item displays the side-bar menu, but without any menu item highlighted. In this state, LEFT and RIGHT do not take you back to the "Filmstrip" display, and sometimes UP does nothing too. DOWN seems to cause one of the entries in the menu to become highlighted, and then it is possible to return to "Filmstrip" by using LEFT or RIGHT.

    In general, I would expect "TV Recordings", "Radio Recordings", and "Videos" to have a good deal of commonality in their appearance and behaviour.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK

    PS: Apologies about the long discourse in my previous appends relating to WMC; I realised afterwards that I ought to have started a new thread. If you have the necessary power, please feel free to move those posts to a new thread in a more appropriate forum. Thanks.
     

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