Sweden
Hi!
We (me, wife, 2 kids 10 and 14) have been using WMC since the days of XP, and it has worked like a charm. But sadly ever since Microsoft decided to abandon this very special and deeply loved product (I even developed some plugins for it) things have gone from bad to worse. Recenty they seem to have done an update to netflix that caused the WMC netflix to break down at places, I figured it is time to start looking elsewhere. XBMC and MP came up as candidates and after fighting with the XBMC tv setup for a few hour, and abondoned it, a fellow developer at work suggested I should try MP.
Said and done, I downloaded it, installed it with TV support, and got it up and running in no-time. I do have a few (stupid probably) questions:
1) Is there a good skin that offer a much better layout than standard MP? I feel the WMC deign with pivot menus, galleries and a single screen start menu offer a much more streamlined and easier navigation than the standard MP plugin with involves lots of scrolling, sub-menus and list drill downs for navigation. My wife tested it briefly, and she also feels like a step back from the slick WMC layout with very simple navigation, aspecially with the WMC remote... Just look at the "internet tv" plugin in WMC to see how a really good "online tv" user interface should be developed.... surely it can be created in MP...
2) How on earth can we navigate to the "now playing" viewport that appears on the start menu if I start play a video and press "back". The most logic way is to just press Up on the remote or keyboard to focus on the viewport, then press OK or Enter to keep playing in fullscreen. But no matter what I try, I can only navigate to the viewport by using the mouse, only then does the blue border appear which suggests it is in focus. Is this a bug? If not, it is very strange design if you ask me. If there is a UI element that is put in such a central location as on the start menu, centered, on top, and you can't navigate to it, that is really bad. Do please fix this ASAP!!! I did a blind test with other family members, both those that are WMC users, and not, and everyoneof themtried to press up button to go tho this viewport to keep watching... my question was "Ok, now you have stepped back from the video, how do you go back to it to continue watching?" SOme even tried to press play directly...
3) Where is netflix? Plain and simple... we consume 2 types of media in this home, netflix and DVB-T TV... even though we live in the land of the pirate bay... And where are any other movie renting services so we can consume movies legally? I am loking for services such as magine, viaplay, sf anytime etc....
I really thing MP is an awesome product which has a REALLY big advantage over WMC: It is still under development, which mean that we all can help out to make it a really KILLER HTPC FRONTEND. Funny enough, you can't even buy a better one anymore, lol.
/H
We (me, wife, 2 kids 10 and 14) have been using WMC since the days of XP, and it has worked like a charm. But sadly ever since Microsoft decided to abandon this very special and deeply loved product (I even developed some plugins for it) things have gone from bad to worse. Recenty they seem to have done an update to netflix that caused the WMC netflix to break down at places, I figured it is time to start looking elsewhere. XBMC and MP came up as candidates and after fighting with the XBMC tv setup for a few hour, and abondoned it, a fellow developer at work suggested I should try MP.
Said and done, I downloaded it, installed it with TV support, and got it up and running in no-time. I do have a few (stupid probably) questions:
1) Is there a good skin that offer a much better layout than standard MP? I feel the WMC deign with pivot menus, galleries and a single screen start menu offer a much more streamlined and easier navigation than the standard MP plugin with involves lots of scrolling, sub-menus and list drill downs for navigation. My wife tested it briefly, and she also feels like a step back from the slick WMC layout with very simple navigation, aspecially with the WMC remote... Just look at the "internet tv" plugin in WMC to see how a really good "online tv" user interface should be developed.... surely it can be created in MP...
2) How on earth can we navigate to the "now playing" viewport that appears on the start menu if I start play a video and press "back". The most logic way is to just press Up on the remote or keyboard to focus on the viewport, then press OK or Enter to keep playing in fullscreen. But no matter what I try, I can only navigate to the viewport by using the mouse, only then does the blue border appear which suggests it is in focus. Is this a bug? If not, it is very strange design if you ask me. If there is a UI element that is put in such a central location as on the start menu, centered, on top, and you can't navigate to it, that is really bad. Do please fix this ASAP!!! I did a blind test with other family members, both those that are WMC users, and not, and everyoneof themtried to press up button to go tho this viewport to keep watching... my question was "Ok, now you have stepped back from the video, how do you go back to it to continue watching?" SOme even tried to press play directly...
3) Where is netflix? Plain and simple... we consume 2 types of media in this home, netflix and DVB-T TV... even though we live in the land of the pirate bay... And where are any other movie renting services so we can consume movies legally? I am loking for services such as magine, viaplay, sf anytime etc....
I really thing MP is an awesome product which has a REALLY big advantage over WMC: It is still under development, which mean that we all can help out to make it a really KILLER HTPC FRONTEND. Funny enough, you can't even buy a better one anymore, lol.
/H
