A
Anonymous
Guest
Here's my suggestions/wish list for things to add to MP after 0.1 is released. Sorry if any of these have been mentioned before, I'm new here. :roll:
1) TV card configuration setup
I have tried out several HTPC apps with TV plugins and none of them have particularly "user friendly" to setup. There are just too many settings which need to be tweaked before you can get a basic system working. I realise that the ability to change all these is great and necessary, but I think most of them should be "hidden" in an advanced button. If a user wants to poke around and change things they can, but it shouldn't overwhelm a newcomer.
What I suggest is the ability to select from a drop down box your TV card's manufacturer and card name (and maybe video card details if required) during the initial install. This would set you up with basic config which would give you a good default. Naturally you could go into the settings later and change things (or set it back to the default if you really screwed things up). As more and more users here tested their own cards, we could submit a "config" file giving best settings for that card. Each manufacturer could have a "generic HW card" and a "generic SW card" for cards that had not been tested but would give users something to pick until the best settings for that card had been determined. Obviously, this would not work in every situation (i.e. if you had two cards, etc) but would probably get 95% of users up and running straight away. Those with more complicated situations would probably understand the inner works more anyway. If WMI did what it should, then this could be automatic, however I know from my own card that it just doesn’t pickup which card it actually is.
2) A connect/disconnect plugin for dialup users. This should be easy enough to code. Unfortunately there are still quite a few of us dialup users about
and this would make this much more "remote-control friendly". Just push the connect button, the script dials up to the connection listing in the MP config. Once the connection is active you could have a small telephone icon in the top right corner on all screens to remind you that you are still connected. You could then carry out any online tasks (i.e. refresh weather module) and when done click the disconnect button to disconnect and drop the telephone icon.
3) Answering machine plugin. Several people have previously suggested a callerID plugin, but if you have a modem installed why not have an answer-phone plugin as well. I am sure there is some source out there somewhere which someone could give a TV friendly front to.
4) Sunbird integration. Lots of people have talked about an Outlook plugin, however what about one for Mozilla Sunbird. Its OSS, far more "family friendly", doesn't include email (email is just not an HTPC friendly app in my opinion), has support for ics/ical diaries for syncing online to your favourite sports team etc, and it relies on open standards (which Outlook certainly doesn't).
5) Freespace plugin. myHTPC had a great plugin, which would give you pie-chart diagrams of how much free space you had left on your HDD, and what that meant in minutes, which you could record TV to. Very simple but it worked really well. Unfortunately it relied on perl. Could we not do our own?
6) MBM/temps plugin.
7) Browser plugin.
Just my humble 2 cents.
Thank you everyone for this great app. As soon as I can get this work nicely with my AIW card then I'm ditching myHTPC forever. Long live Media Portal.
1) TV card configuration setup
I have tried out several HTPC apps with TV plugins and none of them have particularly "user friendly" to setup. There are just too many settings which need to be tweaked before you can get a basic system working. I realise that the ability to change all these is great and necessary, but I think most of them should be "hidden" in an advanced button. If a user wants to poke around and change things they can, but it shouldn't overwhelm a newcomer.
What I suggest is the ability to select from a drop down box your TV card's manufacturer and card name (and maybe video card details if required) during the initial install. This would set you up with basic config which would give you a good default. Naturally you could go into the settings later and change things (or set it back to the default if you really screwed things up). As more and more users here tested their own cards, we could submit a "config" file giving best settings for that card. Each manufacturer could have a "generic HW card" and a "generic SW card" for cards that had not been tested but would give users something to pick until the best settings for that card had been determined. Obviously, this would not work in every situation (i.e. if you had two cards, etc) but would probably get 95% of users up and running straight away. Those with more complicated situations would probably understand the inner works more anyway. If WMI did what it should, then this could be automatic, however I know from my own card that it just doesn’t pickup which card it actually is.
2) A connect/disconnect plugin for dialup users. This should be easy enough to code. Unfortunately there are still quite a few of us dialup users about
and this would make this much more "remote-control friendly". Just push the connect button, the script dials up to the connection listing in the MP config. Once the connection is active you could have a small telephone icon in the top right corner on all screens to remind you that you are still connected. You could then carry out any online tasks (i.e. refresh weather module) and when done click the disconnect button to disconnect and drop the telephone icon.3) Answering machine plugin. Several people have previously suggested a callerID plugin, but if you have a modem installed why not have an answer-phone plugin as well. I am sure there is some source out there somewhere which someone could give a TV friendly front to.
4) Sunbird integration. Lots of people have talked about an Outlook plugin, however what about one for Mozilla Sunbird. Its OSS, far more "family friendly", doesn't include email (email is just not an HTPC friendly app in my opinion), has support for ics/ical diaries for syncing online to your favourite sports team etc, and it relies on open standards (which Outlook certainly doesn't).
5) Freespace plugin. myHTPC had a great plugin, which would give you pie-chart diagrams of how much free space you had left on your HDD, and what that meant in minutes, which you could record TV to. Very simple but it worked really well. Unfortunately it relied on perl. Could we not do our own?
6) MBM/temps plugin.
7) Browser plugin.
Just my humble 2 cents.
Thank you everyone for this great app. As soon as I can get this work nicely with my AIW card then I'm ditching myHTPC forever. Long live Media Portal.