Give user option to go into Mythtv LiveTV or just another Mythtv menu

[indulis]

Now I have LinuxMCE going, and its use of  Mythtv is driving me up the wall.

The problem is that if all tuners are used, LinuxMCE keeps trying to set Mythtv to LiveTV mode, and 'cos it get a bad return code from Mythtv it just keeps trying.

Could it please
1) just give up immediately instead of retrying
  or
2) Not try to go directly into LiveTV- Mythtv main menu should be good enough
  or
3) Give the user a configurable option as to whether they want it to go to Mythtv LiveTV or Mythtv Menu (maybe even which menu?)

There is another horrible side effect that if you choose the option in MythTV to always go to program schedules instead of LiveTV (ie with PIP display of LiveTV and rest of screen is program guide) then LinuxMCE loops.

It is also possible that this is my problem , not LinuxMCE's.

[tschak909]

I have planned for 0904 for the majority of MythTV's UI to be expressed in Orbiter. So this problem should be completely negated.

-Thom

[darrenmason]

indulis,

Don't have much for you except that I agree it can be quite annoying. I have found that if you accept the first notification that all tuners are busy and then quicky start something from stored media then it halts the retrying loop.

thom,

What are your thoughts around recordings navigation given that the mythTv menus would effectively disappear.
I was think that implementing a view that looked very much like the mythtv stored media screens (ie; where the left pane lists the program title filters and then the right pane gives a chronological view of the recordings) would be achievable inside the orbiter interface.
Would this just involve implementing alternate datagrid renderers and the creation of the corresponding design objects?
It would be like a pre-filtered view (on a subset of videos - perhaps just recorded ones) with filters selected as part of the UI.
Perhaps the different view could be launched with a different front menu scenario button (other than videos)
Our family currently rarely use the livetv functionality, but still launch into MythTV as the interface for finding TV programs that are just recently recorded (or still recording) is much easier.

Anyway, I would like to hear your thoughts on the above and I definately think its a great item to be on the development roadmap.

Regards
Darren

[tschak909]

i will respond to this more fully soon...but yes..this is about what i'm thinking. I want to provide a complete enough system for scheduling, while keeping the file browser etc for navigating recordings.

-thom

[indulis]

Thom,

Are you going to just reface the scheduler? 

I actually like the Mythv user interface with its hierarchy.  It is Tivo-like and simple.  If only the mythmusic was based on the same sort of UI :-P

So if you ARE going to rewrite a UI for recordings, why not make it common with music files and photo files.  So it sorta looks like the Myth one, but instead of "All Programs" and then program listings below, you start with "Videos", "All TV recordings", "Music" and then when you slide onto that option the next level of scrollable menu appears.

It always seemed to me that the same sort of UI would be good for music. 

e.g

Music
 -> Add to playlist
    -> New playlist
    -> Current playlist
    -> Play once playlist
        -> Albums
        -> Artist
        -> Genre
        -> Songs
        -> Year
        All of which go to
            -> Remove from playlist (removes all matching songs oor artist name or genre from selected playlist)

Same sort of deal with photos.  Just treat everything as playlists.  Same structure all through.

It is similar to the current "pop up a list" UI2.

Is it difficult to populate and scroll a list?

Just an idea!

[tschak909]

No, the hierarchical menu system is at odds with LinuxMCE and Orbiter. I prefer the unified file list for picking what I want to see...

with that said, I will be giving serious thought to improving that part of the system as well.

-Thom

[indulis]

OK yes understand why it does not map to the UI as it is (now that I have a working UI2 and have managed to get my video files resync'ed into the DB and can see them and navigate them properly :-) ).

One thing that I would like is when I pick the video file that I want to play, if I press PLAY on the remote it should play, instead of me having to navigate to a play button on the screen.  Trivial I know but it is a bit annoying.

And the LMCE UI is interesting.  Though the "slide right" and "slide left" of Tivo is pretty easy to learn and control.  With few buttons needed apart from the cursor buttons.

I need to give myself more time with the LMCE UI (of course)!