Unofficial Secret Extra v5-6 UI Features

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Something changed in this latest MaloreTest. It doesn't happen everywhere but I noticed for example in the detailed setup - customize - recordings style menu that all the radio buttons are on instead of just the one selected.

Thanks. I must have changed something that I thought was local to one place, but was used in other places too... I'll try to post an update later today.

- Andy

[spacecadet]

Originally Posted by Opus4

1. Added option to display Day-Date-Time instead of shorter Day-Time in the menu header & OSD.
2. Added category color BG to right pane of malore's menus, if a color exists for the airing's category.
3. If an alternate view's name has been customized, add it to the end of the menu's title in the menu header instead of the alternate view number. And, the view name can be reset by editing & clearing the view's name.
4. Grouping option for malore menus can be sorted in reverse order. (left pane)

Thanks! These enhancements are great!

I recently switched to using the malore layout on the Sage Recordings screen as an alternative to the stock UI and I like it so much better than what is available "out of the box".

My favorite features compared to the stock UI are:

+ Ability to display day/date/time instead of just day/time
+ Ability to hide the icons/views once everything is configured to my liking (in addition, all the features of the icons/views are accessible via the options menu and the FF2/REW2 buttons, which is also great)
+ Ability to show two rows of information in the right pane
+ Ability to play a show by just clicking (bypassing the Basic options dialog)
+ Ability to access the actions to take on a group via the options menu (that is: Delete All, Set All Watched, etc)

My only (minor) complaint is that the "Episode ID(?)" is shown in the right hand pane as a part of the show title. I can see where this may have been useful for sorting in previous versions, but now that many different sorting options are available, I am wondering if this information is still necessary? Since there is not a lot of room available on the right hand side, it would be nice if there were a way to turn the Episode ID display off (that is, to show "First Day of School" instead of "0056 - First Day of School").

Overall, I love this view and especially enjoy the new features you have added recently. Kudos for your hard work on this!

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Here's another option to test, though:

Allow double-height rows setting per view in the malore menus, and added a setting to auto-switch back to single height rows if the item count is greater than 2 x number of double height rows.

Great job looks good.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Something changed in this latest MaloreTest. It doesn't happen everywhere but I noticed for example in the detailed setup - customize - recordings style menu that all the radio buttons are on instead of just the one selected.

I've updated the test verison to fix this issue: Test version 6.2.7.3; August 19, 2007.

- Andy

[Tiki]

Andy,

Have you considered adding an option to use the malore-style screens for the imported videos? This would make things more consistant and give you the ability to sort and filter the imported videos like you can with the sage recordings.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Tiki

Have you considered adding an option to use the malore-style screens for the imported videos? This would make things more consistant and give you the ability to sort and filter the imported videos like you can with the sage recordings.

I hadn't considered that one at all... I don't plan to do that for v6.2; not sure about later. Imported videos won't have metadata to use for grouping/sorting unless the user adds it & most movies are now just put into a group called 'movies'. There are way too many things I would have to think of & test to consider it for v6.2.

- Andy

[tmiranda]

Andy,

When using the malore menus the STV has a nasty habit of having the focus jump back to "Main" after deleting a show. I liked it a lot better when after deleting a show the focus remained on the right pane (if there were more shows) or went back to the left pane (if no more shows for that selection.)

Can you change this back to the old behavior?

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Andy,

When using the malore menus the STV has a nasty habit of having the focus jump back to "Main" after deleting a show. I liked it a lot better when after deleting a show the focus remained on the right pane (if there were more shows) or went back to the left pane (if no more shows for that selection.)

Can you change this back to the old behavior?

I am experiencing the same thing and prefer it the other way.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

When using the malore menus the STV has a nasty habit of having the focus jump back to "Main" after deleting a show. I liked it a lot better when after deleting a show the focus remained on the right pane (if there were more shows) or went back to the left pane (if no more shows for that selection.)

Can you change this back to the old behavior?

I realize this may require deleting a few shows, but how do you reliably reproduce this? I just deleted several recordings after doing various things, including leaving & returning to the menu, and it never sent focus to the category bar after the deletion.

- Andy

[ToxMox]

Maybe it is dependant on the malore settings. I have the icon and alternate view bars set to off and the double height rows set to Auto Right Side.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Maybe it is dependant on the malore settings. I have the icon and alternate view bars set to off and the double height rows set to Auto Right Side.

Either I'm misunderstanding the issue or you are talking about something different because if you have the icon & category bars turned off, you have no "Main" category for focus to jump to.. since there is no category bar visible.

- Andy

[ToxMox]

That'll teach me for skimming I was having issues with the focus jumping to the top item on the left side after some deletions but now I can't seem to reproduce it. If it happens again I'll try and remember what I was doing.

[Opus4]

Actaully, I did notice one thing just now: with focus on the right, simply using the Watch command caused focus to jump back to the left. That's one thing it shouldn't be doing.

- Andy

[tmiranda]

I have the malore setting pretty much stock. If I have more than one show on the right pane and I
- select either the first show or the last show, press OK (on the MVP)
- select delete show, press OK
- select delete show now, press OK
and viola, the focus goes to the "main" item on the views menu. I have just two views defined. "Main" is set to show all non-archived recordings and I have defined "Archived" which displays just archived recordings. All sorting is done alphabetically A-Z.

[Opus4]

I think I fixed this & another focus issue, so please try this update to see if it works for you and/or if there are any other focus anomalies.

A couple of the changes in this STV:

1. Some options dialogs for the malore menus place the Done and other options to the left of the sorting/grouping/category selection list, so that it is easier to figure out where the list ends & choose Done.
   
   
2. Fixed some focus issues on the malore menus.

<attachment removed>

- Andy

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Tiki

It looks like I won't be needing my "malore enhancements" STVi anymore

Yes, you will... so if I've changed something that breaks your import (quite likely), you'll have to let me know. The code is probably so different that you'll need to create a new import, however.


I really hate to do this, but I have to retract a few options, at least for now. I didn't think that some of the changes I made would affect the menu speed very much, but the Guide & Viewing History menus are intolerably slow to load and refresh for me.

Note: most of the base code to support the removed options still exists, so it might be possible to add them back via an import (keep the previous test STV for comparison; I've renamed this one), but the result will be extremely slow loading menus again. If/when the core has the support to do this in a manner that doesn't slow down the menus, I'll enable the options again.

The changes:

1. Due to slowness, the per-view double height row, auto-double row, and wrap-around scrolling options were removed from the malore menus. (Double height rows can still be used, but they are set per-menu, not per-view.)
   
   
2. Fixed the Delete command so that it won't try to confirm deletion of shows that aren't recorded.
   
   
3. Update Aug 25, 2007: Finding the correct link to a YouTube video.

Installation:

1. Make sure you are using SageTV Beta v6.2.6 or later.
   
   
2. Unzip the attached SageTV3_MaloreTest2.zip into your <install dir>\SageTV\STVs\SageTV3 directory, making sure to keep the directory structure inside the zip file. This zip file is unzipped in the same dir where your STV files are located.
   
   This will add the updated SageTV3_MaloreTest2.xml STV and a few updated graphics.
   
   
3. Inside SageTV, load the SageTV3_MaloreTest2.xml STV.

The STV will report itself as v6.2.7.5a in System Information.

<Attachment removed because of new beta release.>

- Andy

[Opus4]

The above post was updated with the fix for YouTube videos.

- Andy

[JREkiwi]

Andy, I know malore panels have been getting a lot of focus but thought I should mention that the Title Area of the mlbdude SageTV Recordings is still the old style silver focus.

John

[tmiranda]

Andy,

I just intalled the 6.2.7 RC last night and must say the work you've done on the Malore menus is very good. No more focus issues and it generally looks more polished. When you first started making the changes it took the family a little while to adjust, but now that they have I can say it's a big improvement.

Thank you from a grateful malore menu user.

Tom

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

Andy, I know malore panels have been getting a lot of focus but thought I should mention that the Title Area of the mlbdude SageTV Recordings is still the old style silver focus.

I know... It also doesn't have any of the new features on the other two recordings menus (such as customizable alternate views, category filtering, etc.) and still has an old focus issue problem. I don't really maintain that menu, other than what just happens to affect it, since I never use it & I work on the hidden features in my spare time.

I think I've offered to remove it from the default STV & let someone who uses it create an import they can maintain.

BTW: you can create a similar looking menu by setting the malore menu to use double height rows on both the left & right panes. You would then have a recordings menu with a lot more features and one that doesn't have the focus issue.

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I just intalled the 6.2.7 RC last night and must say the work you've done on the Malore menus is very good. No more focus issues and it generally looks more polished. When you first started making the changes it took the family a little while to adjust, but now that they have I can say it's a big improvement.

Glad its working well.

Note: The features in the v6.2.7 RC are pretty much it for v6.2; I don't currently have plans for more changes.

- Andy