Phoenix Screen Shot Sneak Peak

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

As for the movies - I am intending to be able to split out Movies into a different Malore view, then have that view, for instance, grouped by Sub-Category... It'll take a bit of extension to the filtering system - which if I get free time, will be the next tweak I make.

There is already a choice for grouping by subcategory. And, if you group by category, but there is only a single category, it automatically groups by subcategory instead. You could even create a view that filters to only include movies & group that by category or subcategory... which is what I do.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

More info:

[CA] means Comskip Available or something... looking in studio, it only shows up if a .txt file is there (notice, it doesn't even check for .edl - this is old bloat that has been there since Malore made it many moons ago, and could certainly be removed) It is redundant as the Comskip Playback plugin already adds a CS icon to the screen, i believe.

[CC] means Closed Captioned - but in reality, it, like [CA], is really only shown if there is an .smi file.

Please be sure you are looking at a default STV w/o any plugins. If you can find it in the default STV, I'll remove it for the next STV update, but I think you'll find the [CA] and [CC] tags are coming from a plugin you have installed. If it is old bloat, the plugin may need to be updated.

Malore was originated a long time ago, and has have no official caretaker since Malore's departure from the community - so things like this have been left in. It is also evident that it was done ages ago, as almost everything in it is text based - no extra icons, even the description is just a long string, strung together with [OA]: and such as item headers.

I've kept the 'malore' name for those menus because he was the person who created the system and I feel that giving him the credit is the fair thing to do, but I've been maintaining it, extending it, and so on for a few years now. The things you mentioned above aren't still there, as far as I can tell, so old code has been removed and much new code added.

Most of the display is text based simply because I felt text was still the best way to display a lot of letters and numbers -- I like to see lots of info about many airings at once rather than pictures about just a few items. Personally, I want to use the screen real estate to find something to record or watch rather than look at pictures about a show. But, there is a double-height row option that uses icon markers and channel logos (it can even be set to auto-revert back to single height rows when there are many items in a list). I believe the double-height row concept was modified to show the images on the left in the screen shot earlier in this topic. I'm not sure what other icons are really needed vs desired for personal preference or for customizations for things like comskip or fanart.

And, concatenating several items into the description is actually a decent way to display more info that would otherwise get cut off & not seen if they were listed on separate lines instead.

This Phoenix topic is probably not the best place to continue if there are real problems that could be addressed or improvements that could be made in the existing malore style menus -- if there really are requests for changes for those hidden menus in the default STV, please start a new topic. However, some of what has been said is user preference that can be covered by customizations or completely new implementations such as what has been mentioned for Phoenix. Not everyone wants the same thing, which is why customizations are so useful.

- Andy

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Please be sure you are looking at a default STV w/o any plugins. If you can find it in the default STV, I'll remove it for the next STV update, but I think you'll find the [CA] and [CC] tags are coming from a plugin you have installed. If it is old bloat, the plugin may need to be updated.

Yeah, looks like I found it. I think it's being added by the Phoenix FanArt for malore plugin. I just always remembered it being there from the Malore's of past, and have been using the phoenix addon for so long now, I never noticed it's removal (though, honestly, I still never really see them that often, since I've never use smi's, and havent used .txt for quite some time)

Originally Posted by Opus4

I've kept the 'malore' name for those menus because he was the person who created the system and I feel that giving him the credit is the fair thing to do, but I've been maintaining it, extending it, and so on for a few years now. The things you mentioned above aren't still there, as far as I can tell, so old code has been removed and much new code added.

Most of the display is text based simply because I felt text was still the best way to display a lot of letters and numbers -- I like to see lots of info about many airings at once rather than pictures about just a few items. Personally, I want to use the screen real estate to find something to record or watch rather than look at pictures about a show. But, there is a double-height row option that uses icon markers and channel logos (it can even be set to auto-revert back to single height rows when there are many items in a list). I believe the double-height row concept was modified to show the images on the left in the screen shot earlier in this topic. I'm not sure what other icons are really needed vs desired for personal preference or for customizations for things like comskip or fanart.

And, concatenating several items into the description is actually a decent way to display more info that would otherwise get cut off & not seen if they were listed on separate lines instead.

True, it does make things more compact - though I think I'd prefer a bit more structure to the data... common fields always displaying at the same location on the screen - aids in seeing differences as you scroll through the lists.

Originally Posted by Opus4

This Phoenix topic is probably not the best place to continue if there are real problems that could be addressed or improvements that could be made in the existing malore style menus -- if there really are requests for changes for those hidden menus in the default STV, please start a new topic. However, some of what has been said is user preference that can be covered by customizations or completely new implementations such as what has been mentioned for Phoenix. Not everyone wants the same thing, which is why customizations are so useful.

Correct - i only brought Malore up sort of tongue in cheek, showing my tweak - but it did seem to spark some design discussion for Phoenix itself, so i just went with it. I don't feel anything really needs to be changed with the core Malore screens - at least nothing that would be easy to change - the addition of a secondary filter setting is about all I can think of, but that's no small task.

[bialio]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think I understand the 'allure of malore' now. Interestingly enough, the double pane view is really all phoenix was lacking.

Stay tuned, we are getting close to a private beta.

btl.

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by bialio

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think I understand the 'allure of malore' now. Interestingly enough, the double pane view is really all phoenix was lacking.

Stay tuned, we are getting close to a private beta.

btl.

Oooh. I like private betas!

[bialio]

One more glimpse of the two-pane view (ie malore).

This one has watched bars and banners. Both will be configurable.

btl.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by bialio

One more glimpse of the two-pane view (ie malore).

This one has watched bars and banners. Both will be configurable.

btl.

I like it. Nice work.

Gerry

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I like it. Nice work.

Gerry

Ditto...private beta...too bad I'm not in that group...

[bialio]

Just a quick screen capture - we're still here. I suspect that the holidays will interupt a good bit of the Phoenix Momentum, however we are all still on board and workin' on stuff. I'm even able to use Phoenix at home now

Look for the private beta to kick off early in the new year.

btl.

[rtrski]

drooooooooool

[ChaOConnor]

Thank you to Team Phoenix, as always, I can't wait!!!

[panteragstk]

no banners...shame shame...j/k nice job so far. I hope this does for v7 what sagemc did for v6. I expect it to...and more...so much more...

[setherd]

Soooooooo public release in about 330 days?

[bialio]

This is one last Main Menu (we call them "landing zone" in Phoenix) - it is modeled loosely on the PS3's Xcross Media Bar.

This is not an attempt to emulate it exactly (for instance, to work with the global phoenix header up there it made more sense visually for the 'cross' to be in the lower left hand corner of the screen, rather than the upper). And currently there's not much "cross" ing going on, more of a T than an X. But so far this one is by far the most usable (in my opinion anyway) - very easy to get to where you are going.

btl.

[Skirge01]

It's probably the background, but I felt like I was tripping when I first looked at that.

Without seeing how it flows visually, it's tough to make any reasonable observation on it's usability. But, I am wondering... does this replace SageTV's main menu or is this another menu we'd get to FROM the regular SageTV main menu?

[bialio]

In a perfect world you will never see SageTV's V7 menu.

Our world isn't perfect of course, but that's the goal.

btl.

[jaminben]

I had high hopes for this but alas I don't think this is going to be for me.....sorry, each to his own though

To quote a quote:

Originally Posted by bialio

In the words of Ron Burgandy, "I'm going to be honest with you, that smells like pure gasoline."

[bialio]

Isn't that actually a quote of a quote of a quote?

I bet you'll find something in phoenix that you like. Even if you have to write your own landing zone (which is ridiculously easy for anyone studio savvy).

btl.

[calypsocowboy]

Any update?

[bialio]

Not really. We're all more or less back from vacation mode now, and working on stuff again.

Here's a quick peek at the current home screen. This has Weather Backgrounds enabled, which of course updates the background to match the weather conditions.



And here's a work in progress on the Music OSD screen. This is by no means finished, just a glimpse of the direction we are headed. Music will not be part of the initial private beta.

Video

btl.

[bialio]

And yes, I really do record Thundarr the Barbarian.