Missing Functionality That is important to YOU

[bialio]

SO - given what we've got so far in the private beta - TV and Movies focus - what are the top 1 or 2 pieces of functionality you miss most from the other UI?

Music, Pictures, and Online Video integration are NOT answers I'm looking for here, they are important chunks that we have started on to some degree but aren't at all ready. But for what IS there, what do you wish you could do that you used to be able to but now you can't.......

[OneOfMany]

While watching a LiveTV show in the default UI, pressing the Info button brought up the dialog box allowing me to:

- View details of the show currently on (sometimes these are truncated in the viewing screen)

- Allow me to view the future airings of the show (if I want to record it later)

- Allow me to add the series as a favorite

Grant

Nevermind the last two items.. they have been found when pressing the record button. Makes sense as well. Thanks.

Also, the first item would be fine if by hitting the Guide button I was taken to the show I am currently watching. From here it is simple enough to go to the Details. However, the guide remembers where I was last looking (could be days ahead). I am presuming this is by design, however, it can be confusing, especially where a TV is left playing, and another user sits in front and takes over.

While on the guide screen, in order to view Future Airings, the user must select the Record as Favorite. Then after viewing, remove the Favorite. Sometimes this Future Airings is nice to look at when I am simply looking for an interesting episode to record. Can the Future Airings be put on the Detail screen instead?

[PiX64]

I'll just keep editing this same post,but so far for wifey and I

- comskip autoskip
-search
- see which shows are currently recording or set to record in epg
- change media browser screens per category. So for tv she would like to be able to set single list and for movies view horizontal for example.
-Sticky views for sorting,filtering, etc. on UMB.

[ohpleaseno]

I think that some of these have been mentioned before as possible improvements, but I'll put them in anyway...

-creation of views from the stv or some other webapp that is easier than editing raw .xml

-same thing for the menus

-a way to quickly change sort options within a view from the remote

Overall, the thing that I love the most is the speed of it. Scrolling and navigating are insanely responsive. After selecting a media file, it could be a little faster to begin playback.

[bialio]

Originally Posted by PiX64

- see which shows are currently recording or set to record in epg

So you want these markers down in the grid itself? ie something that is currently recording or scheduled to record has text to that effect in the description area...

btl.

[Gustovier]

I think i agree what everyone has said thus far.

Below is my list as of now

1. - Better views within UMB (we need that pizzaz!) I'm telling ya folks(including myself) will want a poster view similar to the one I posted in the UMB suggestion thread. This would flow vertically instead of horizontally, it's not exactly wall(which are purely eye candy with no efficiency), so you get better efficiency and utility out of it..
2. - Smooth FFW/Rewind buttons working
3. - If watching content and at the same time you go to the menu. We need the Ability to press "play" to return back to the content that is playing
4. - Searching working
5. - Able to show Recently viewed content (probably best to show this in info screen)
6. - Way to record a show that's been paused but no longer live
7. - If you stop a recording prematurely, be able to save the partial recording as an option
8. - In the guide if you highlight a show that is currently recording the icons in the description below will tell you. But, can you actually make the grid for currently recording shows a Redish color + a red dot. Then maybe put just a simple red dot icon in there for a future recording as well.
9. - The guide does remember where you last left off, this can be good when your not watching live TV. I can see a use case where you want the guide to be left off on the channel you are currently watching if you are watching liveTV, instead of where you last left the guide when you were browsing it. Maybe make this an option? I dunno...
10. - Persisting of the grouping and sorting settings within the UMB on tv shows
11. - I would like an easy way to be able to go view filesystems on the SageTV network. so i can view content that is not part of my import paths(this is part of the default stv, under online I believe) currently i have to go back to the STV to view these files.

[bialio]

- If you stop a recording prematurely, be able to save the partial recording as an option

I don't think this is possible in Sage at all is it? When you cancel a manual recording in the default UI there isn't an option to keep it, and there isn't a direct way to stop a favorite that is recording.

[OneOfMany]

We dont watch DVDs very often, so I missed this one on mine. I am not sure if it is an issue or not.

When I use the DVD Media Browser filter, it correctly filters all our DVDs and displays appropriate fanart. However, in the double-list view, the right-pane displays a blank entry, and once selected, does nothing.

I also agree on a recording indicator on the guide itself. Info at a glance.

Agree on the option of reopening guide to last place, or if opened from Live TV, to current time/channel.

Grant

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by bialio

I don't think this is possible in Sage at all is it? When you cancel a manual recording in the default UI there isn't an option to keep it, and there isn't a direct way to stop a favorite that is recording.

SageMC has this option. I think it does it for live TV by calling ManualRecord( Airing ), and then setting the end time of the recording to Now before stopping playback. Changing the end time is the key so that the SageTV core will not throw it away as a partial recording.

Aloha,
Mike

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by bialio

So you want these markers down in the grid itself? ie something that is currently recording or scheduled to record has text to that effect in the description area...

btl.

I personally would like to see some sort of icon indicator in the EPG itself so that i wouldn't have to actually have an epg timeslot selected in order to see the "recording" icon.

Diamond does this now with stars for favorites. I believe the default STV does this with BOLD text and italics...maybe.

I would really love to see the scheduled recording icon that you have so nicely incorporated into the epg detail at the bottom of the screen be placed in the grid of the guide itself.

hope that makes sense.

[bialio]

Makes perfect sense. What is funny is there was already an icon there - it was just invisible! In the next load it'll be a blue version of the Rec button that is in use everywhere else (turns red once it is actually recording)

btl.

[bialio]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

SageMC has this option. I think it does it for live TV by calling ManualRecord( Airing ), and then setting the end time of the recording to Now before stopping playback. Changing the end time is the key so that the SageTV core will not throw it away as a partial recording.

Aloha,
Mike

That's fancy. We'll have to do that. If only there was a way to stop Sage from recording a favorite (without marking it watched, disliked, etc....)
btl.

[Gustovier]

Originally Posted by bialio

That's fancy. We'll have to do that. If only there was a way to stop Sage from recording a favorite (without marking it watched, disliked, etc....)
btl.

There's also another plugin out there that allows you to do this as well. It's called stop options or something like that.I think it might work a lil differently

[Gustovier]

Originally Posted by bialio

Makes perfect sense. What is funny is there was already an icon there - it was just invisible! In the next load it'll be a blue version of the Rec button that is in use everywhere else (turns red once it is actually recording)

btl.

You guys didn't like my suggestion (#8) ? A simple dot instead of that icon.. I like the shading it red(like on the info pane for recent recording) if it's recording as well. Just don't want it to look so busy, and keep it clean and simple. This is why I love your guys guide now

[wayner]

Context sensitive Fanart in the guide
A built-in Folders view - i use folders exclusively for my video library
A way to disable/rename/add menu items in the UI
Can you start conversions in the current version of the UI - if not that is a request.

This might be far-fetched but in the same way that some folks want all TV shows together, whether they are recorded in Sage or ripped/iported, and all movies together, in the long run it would be great to be able to integrate online content into these views as well. In other words when you clicked on The Simpsons it would show Sage recordings, imported video files, and shows available on Netflix, Hulu, etc

[bialio]

I'm not clear what you mean by a 'built in Folders view' - this is different from what Gustovier is asking for in a 'browse the filesystem' capability right?

Combining online and offline content won't be a problem - as soon as we support online it'll just be there.

btl.

[bialio]

View details of the show currently on (sometimes these are truncated in the viewing screen)

I'm assuming you are talking about in the OSD (while watching the show). There will be a button in the options menu in the next release that launches the detailed info window.

Allow me to view the future airings of the show (if I want to record it later)

This will be supported independently of the 'Favorite Settings' screen - so you can find future airings of the same episode, as well as future airings that match the Title of the show.

Allow me to add the series as a favorite

I think you found this one already, but yes hitting Record will bring up options and this is one of them.

comskip autoskip

We'll get there eventually.

search

Searching is something we are going to implement more fully as time goes, but there are in general two types of search that we will have:

1) Global Search - will search everything it knows about for the search string - so you search for 'Simpsons' we'll search all import paths, recording directories, and the future EPG for airings that match.

2) Focused Search - there are a few ways to do this currently, although you have no documentation to that effect so you probably don't know about them.

In the UMB you can hit CTRL-F (skip forward) to open the action menu - and from there enter text into the 'Find' field. This searches the currently loaded view for a match. Very useful if you have for instance have 75 episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and want to find the one with 'Sir Goofy' in the title.

Also, in the UMB, if you have the list search type set to RegEx you can enter in numbers to find matches in the current list. This is a good way to get to a show in the list without scrolling - if you are looking for "Fringe" you'd type 374643 - as you type you'll see it narrowing in. If you get more than one hit, the Stop key cycles through all of the matches.

see which shows are currently recording or set to record in epg

The next release will have a blue recording icon in the grid for shows that are scheduled to record, which turns to the red version of the icon that you are familiar with once it starts recording.

change media browser screens per category. So for tv she would like to be able to set single list and for movies view horizontal for example.

We will do this eventually - I think the best way is once you have a view that you like saved in xml (manual process currently) you can create a short cut in the Global Menu ('Home' key once) that will launch the specific UMB that you want rather than the default.

Sticky views for sorting,filtering, etc. on UMB.

We have to work out how we are going to do this - but we are going to do it.

creation of views from the stv or some other webapp that is easier than editing raw .xml

This is not something that I'd hold my breath for - views are very complex, and creating them from the UI is almost out of the question. A web app might show up one day, but it's not something that is high on the current list.

same thing for the menus

Menus however we will be supporting modification and creation from the UI. We haven't started the actual implementation on this, but we have worked on the back end side that makes it possible.

a way to quickly change sort options within a view from the remote

The Action menu does provide a way to change the sort. Whether or not this is 'quick' is subject to discussion. There is also a 'quick change' menu that you can access (sometimes) by hitting Skip Fwd 2. This one has a way to apply a new sort, so try that out if you get a chance. It's pretty self explanatory. I know for sure that it works in the Single List UMB. Won't promise for any others.

Better views within UMB (we need that pizzaz!) I'm telling ya folks(including myself) will want a poster view similar to the one I posted in the UMB suggestion thread. This would flow vertically instead of horizontally, it's not exactly wall(which are purely eye candy with no efficiency), so you get better efficiency and utility out of it..

The next release will have a couple of new Browsers (we are not going to be able to call them Universal, cuz they aint gonna support any view you through at them).

Smooth FFW/Rewind buttons working

These will be working in the next release.

If watching content and at the same time you go to the menu. We need the Ability to press "play" to return back to the content that is playing

This is not something we are going to do right away - it's a good suggestion, and a good candidate for a Phoenix plugin.

Able to show Recently viewed content (probably best to show this in info screen)

This is something we'll look at, but no promises on when.

Way to record a show that's been paused but no longer live

Fixed in the next release.

If you stop a recording prematurely, be able to save the partial recording as an option

We'll port the SageMC functionality in, but not necessarily soon.

The guide does remember where you last left off, this can be good when your not watching live TV. I can see a use case where you want the guide to be left off on the channel you are currently watching if you are watching liveTV, instead of where you last left the guide when you were browsing it. Maybe make this an option? I dunno...

The EPG will continue working how it currently does by default. What we'll do is add a way (probably in the options menu) to 1) goto the currently playing airing and 2) goto 'Now'.

I would like an easy way to be able to go view filesystems on the SageTV network. so i can view content that is not part of my import paths(this is part of the default stv, under online I believe) currently i have to go back to the STV to view these files.

We do support VFS views for filesystem, but don't have any created by default. And there is a bug in the current release that makes them not work. But this will be there soon.

When I use the DVD Media Browser filter, it correctly filters all our DVDs and displays appropriate fanart. However, in the double-list view, the right-pane displays a blank entry, and once selected, does nothing.

This is a bug, it'll get fixed.

Context sensitive Fanart in the guide

This is a feature we'll add eventually (along with channel logos)

A built-in Folders view - i use folders exclusively for my video library

There are currently folder based views that replicate in a VFS view the hierarchy of your file system. IF you want to start a thread on this and we'll help you create the view you need.

Can you start conversions in the current version of the UI - if not that is a request.

This will be supported eventually. Probably as one of the ''Advanced' options in the Detailed Info window.

This might be far-fetched but in the same way that some folks want all TV shows together, whether they are recorded in Sage or ripped/iported, and all movies together, in the long run it would be great to be able to integrate online content into these views as well. In other words when you clicked on The Simpsons it would show Sage recordings, imported video files, and shows available on Netflix, Hulu, etc

This will be possible, although for performance reasons it might not be desirable. But look for future releases to make large strides on the online front.

btl.

[OneOfMany]

Grant

[Gustovier]

Quote:
If watching content and at the same time you go to the menu. We need the Ability to press "play" to return back to the content that is playing
This is not something we are going to do right away - it's a good suggestion, and a good candidate for a Phoenix plugin.


Are you sure you dont want to do this right away? I was able to basiclly implement by copying the play button listener widget to different parts of the stv. It's incredibly efficient. Besides, this way the only way to get back to your currently playing video is pressing back. Now this can cause a problem if your watching a video, go to the main menu, go to umb to browse videos, make a change to the umb view. Now to get back to my playing video I have to press back like 5 times and then my umb changes got reversed. Makes sense?

Kudos though to you addressing all of our comments! It was getting kinda quiet round here. I love this stv. Is a newer release around the corner?.. I've grown so used to always adding something new to my sage setup, I dunno what I'm gonna do after the final version comes out... Maybe actually watch some content

[wayner]

Regarding the folders view - stuck less did help with this in a post. What I meant is to have a folders view that doesn't require editing and works very much like the SageMC folders view, or even the default UI folders view.