SageTV interface suggestions

[malore]

I like the SageTV interface, but have notice a few things that I think could be improved. The following is a list of user interface quirks that I don’t think qualify as feature requests, so I made a separate thread.

1. The search pages with the virtual key board don’t have the navigation tool bar, which makes it harder to know how to exit out if you change your mind about doing a search. I know keyboard shortcuts work.

2. The tool tip on the system tray icon provides a quick and convenient way to check if SageTV is currently recording. So why not always have it in the system tray, even when the program is awake?

3. Certain sizes of the SageTV window cause the Favorites Manager to create outlines that are too narrow (draw over the text) for favorites that take up 2 lines.

4. I think the default for creating a favorite from a program that is a rerun, should be to record reruns & first runs. I can’t really think of a situation were I would only want reruns, even if there are some, I think most of the time recording both would be correct more often.

5. The pop up menu for recordings that are planned based on favorites should have the same options as for a regular recording. Is doesn’t seem logical that one of the first options on an item found in the Recording Schedule would be to record (I know there are reasons why you might want to turn a favorites recording into a specific recording). If I want to cancel a recording I first have to select record and then bring up the pop up menu again to cancel it.

6. The Favorites Manager is found under Setup while all other scheduling options are found under the Guide. It seems more logical to me to have the Favorites Manager group in with the Guide options. Also, it would be nice if the pop up menu on a favorites recording had a option to bring up the settings popup menu for that favorite.

7. When I wanted to record the last half hour of a movie, SageTV asked me about a conflict with a show that had already finished recording a half hour earlier. SageTV needs to use the current time if it is later than the start time, for its conflict detection.

8. The pop up menu doesn’t scale like just about every other interface item, which is fine, but I think that the white space between items could be easily be reduced, so that all the popup menu items can be seen without scrolling on a 640x480 window size.

9. Why does the text for favorites recordings have the name of the show at the start and the end of the text? It adds unnecessary clutter. I guess it might be useful in the future if you could make favorites based on key words, but then it should only be useful in such cases.

10. It would look nicer and be more consistent if the items under Sage Recordings item in the Guide looked the same as the sage recordings listed in the SageGuide.

11. Shows, that are more than 2 hours long, don’t display the right side of the outline in the Recording Schedule and probably elsewhere. Since these listings aren’t proportionally sized by program length, they should all look the same for consistency.

12. In the SageGuide, if you tell SageTV to delete the last item in the sage recordings listing section, SageTV scrolls the live guide to the top of the screen.

[malore]

13. I would like to change the text color of the detailed info text. I tried both default text color and the selected text color, but they didn't affect the detailed info text. I find the gray text too hard to read on my TV.

14. I also would like the selected text color to work for the selected program in the program guide. Another setting would also be fine. The darker color of the selected item is a nice effect, but the color on my TV varies, so it would be easier for me to tell what is selected if I could make the text a different color.


If you anyone agrees or disagree with any or all of my suggestions, I would like to know.

[jmeeks]

I like your ideas for #'s 2, 4, 6.

Still evaluating the others to make sure I understand what you mean.