Suggested Change: SageMC Menus

[Brent]

Thanks Gerry,
I'll take a look at that one.

[MeInMaui]

You can check out the liquid theme(s) as well. They should also give you an idea of how to set a parent theme so that you don't have to duplicate all graphics files when you create multiple variants of a theme.

Aloha,
Mike

[Brent]

In the SagePro theme properties file I see a reference to this

#ImportScript=C:\\Program Files\\SageTV\\SageTV\\STVs\\SageTV3\\theme_script.xml

but don't see a file by that name anywhere. What is that reference for?

[Brent]

Newbie question related to theming: Can anyone recommend a good way to view different colors. For instance how can I see 0xFF00FF and then find the "code" for other colors?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Brent

In the SagePro theme properties file I see a reference to this

but don't see a file by that name anywhere. What is that reference for?

I think that is referenced from the default theme.properties. As you can see it is commented out but I believe it allows you to run a script to manipulate items in your theme upon import or possibly a refresh. I would have to research it but off the top of my head I am not sure. Might be useful for dynamically changing backgrounds- -not sure.

Gerry

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Brent

Newbie question related to theming: Can anyone recommend a good way to view different colors. For instance how can I see 0xFF00FF and then find the "code" for other colors?

Use this 4096 Color Wheel or if you have Photoshop you can see what the hex representations are in the color picker I believe.

Gerry

[mickp]

Originally Posted by Brent

1.
The menus saying "My XXXXXX" is kind of a fallback to the old MCE days. Would anyone be upset if the menus were more like:

• "TV" instead of "My TV"
• "Videos" or "Movies" instead of "My Videos"
• Same thing across the board. Remove "My" from the titles. A very minor and cosmetic change, but I think it has some merit. Still would like to hear what others think on this one.

I completely agree. I have gone through and removed the 'my' from all of the menus in the past though I'm over it now and my current client install still has the my. Menu wouldn't work though. I've also renamed this to 'stuff' in the past.

I don't know how easy it would be to change the My Videos or the Settings (SageMC) page. I think there is a limit to 7 menu items on a screen but not sure. Here are a few further thoughts:

2.
Add the following "internal screens" to Settings Page or Settings>SageMC:

• Video Conversions (I'm expecting some to not like this suggestion so speak up if you don't)
• RSS
• @Email

These would then be removed from the "My Menu" by default. As mentioned before, the user could of course add or create their own submenu items with these types of things on their own if they wanted to, but the initial SageMC install would be this way.

Not quite sure why you've got it in for the 'My Menu'. Personally I like having a place for seldom used features. I'd rather not clutter more regularly used parts of the system with these.

Move them to settings? Does the default menu have settings in the main menu? Mine has always been in 'my menu' though I probably moved it there.

Moving these options to settings seems an odd idea as they're not settings, they're functions in their own right. Putting them into the settings screen would be extremely confusing imho and would put them more clicks away than before (for me at least).

At the moment moving these to non dynamic menu screens would mean permanent (sans studio) changes for everyone.

3.
The main menu would then have a "Settings" or "Advanced" (not the "my menus") item on the main menu which would take the user directly to the Settings page of SageMC.

As suggested above, moving the settings to the 'stuff' or 'other' menu item (whatever my menu gets renamed to) would make more sense to me. Surely you don't need settings on the main menu. How often does this need to be used? More importantly, how often do your family and friends need to use it.

4.
Move the "Play DVD" to the "My Videos" screen. This one might be a bit more controversial so I'm looking for input from everyone on whether they think that is a good or bad idea. With the extenders, I think the "play DVD" menu item is used less and less. Further it really is just another way to play a video so it seems logical to me to put it in the video menu screen as an option for playing a video/movie.

Bad idea imho. Usability wise I don't see the reason to bury such an important feature. I tend to think of the 'My Videos' area as the 'Video Library' screen. Play DVD is pretty obvious. I'd not think to look for this feature in 'My Videos' (or whatever it gets renamed to) because this is a collection of things. Play DVD is to play the dvd that I've put into the drive, a feature that is a direct replacement for a common piece of entertainment kit.

I also think that you could be overestimating the use of extenders out there. I don't have one and none of my friends who run sage do either. Only Sage would know but I hope they've sold many more copies of the software than they have extenders.

Perhaps a way of recognising that MC is being run on an extender and removing the option would work if it's confusing for the dvd disadvantaged.

Here's another thought on menus. Othy's way of showing both Recorded TV and LiveTV on the front menu is more like the way BeyondTV does it. There are very likely others who prefer this sort of thing as well as others. My suggestion would be to come up with 1 basic "default Menu" you see at installation, but include 2 or 3 other dynamic menu layouts with differing styles that the user could just "load" from the "main menu options" - in other words have those 3 or 4 menu files part of the SageMC install so the user doesn't even have to create them themselves... they would already be there. I do this on my own by creating a "menu" subdirectory under SageTV\SageTV\ and put all of the sageMCmenu.xml files in there with descriptive file names. I then can load them in an instant to change the menu on a whim.

Live tv is fine where it is imho. You can access it directly from the main menu as a sub item of 'My TV'. It's a seldom used feature in my home so maybe I'm extra biased here . It would be nice to have the menu sub items more apparent. One of Biallo's recent screenshots looked promising.

The idea of including alternative menu xml defs sounds good to me.

Mick.

[OferL]

Several things I've done to the menu:
1. DVD - I removed the PLAY DVD and added DVD menu. Inside it are PLAY DVD, OPEN DVD and CLOSE DVD. I use wizmo to run the eject and close commands. I think these are a must. If there is a way to run the internal eject command it's better of course bu I didnt find one.

2. Also on DVD I think it's ok to put the whole thing under VIDEOS. It's a good idea.

3. I changed MY MENU to "MORE..."
I saw it somewhere and liked the idea.
DVD can go under there as well.

I suggest also: to be able to separate videos to different menu items. For instance Downloaded TV shoes, Movies, Kids Movies
all could be up in the main menu but this means to split the videos to several menus and I dont know if that is even possible.
Also d/l TV shows can be under TV menu.

[mikejaner]

I did the following:
-----------------------------------------
:TV--TV Menu

:Guide

:Media--Videos
.........--Music
.........--Pictures
.........--Online----Internet Video and Stuff
.......................--RSS Feeds
...................... --Email

:Advanced--Detailed Settings
..............--Compression
..............--Weather

-------------------------------------------
I kind of agree with others in thinking that the LiveTV option on the main menu is kind of useless, because I almost never hit that. I prefer to go to the Guide and see what I want to watch Live First.

[tchapin]

Here's how I've modified my menus:

TV (goes to My Tv screen)
Videos
Music
Pictures
Other Stuff (anything that's not one of the main four would go here)
- Online Services
- RSS Feeds
- Video Conversions
Settings

I watch Sage only through extenders or placeshifter. Due to that, I have a DVD player hooked up to my main TV, since MVPs don't support watching DVDs directly (unless ripped).

Also due to this, I always turn off the option to have the Shutdown menu item.

I'd like the menu settings (which menu file I'm using + any options that are selected) to be saved with the SageMC settings.

"My Menu" never made sense to me. Functions / activities should be split out from settings.

In terms of how TV things are handled, the left hand menu items in My TV and Recorded TV should be almost the same. Why isn't the "series" item available in My TV? Why can't you do a new search from the Recorded TV menu?

This is what I would propose:

My TV
--------
Recordings (renamed from Recorded TV)
Live TV
Series
Schedule
Search
Guide
Upcoming Movies (renamed from just movies)
Playlists
Information

Recordings
-------------
<Filter>
<Grouping>
Guide
Upcoming Movies (renamed from just movies)
Series
Schedule
Search
Playlists
Information