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#81
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An even better option would be to install basic menu items for TV and Video only and then dynamically add main menu items for music and pictures based on the media you have imported. If you don't have pictures imported, pictures wont automatically show up but you could enable the menu item manually, even if empty or you could manually disable an item even if populated.
Last edited by S_M_E; 01-05-2009 at 12:46 PM. |
#82
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I just want to say that agree or not with the content, this is exactly the type of post a lot of us who have "defended" the stock UI (against the "it sucks" brigade
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#83
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For example, if I were to answer your question with answers like "watch Live TV", "record TV", "Watch DVD's", "Play MP3's", "Internet Radio", "Imported Video Files", "Pictures", "Online sources", do we add menu items for each one of those? What happens if Sage works out a deal with NetFlix and officially supports them? Does that become a new menu option? At what point do we wind back up where we're at? |
#84
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Speaking of widgets on the main menu, since its come up a few times in this thread, * I really enjoy the SageMC weather widget. Since I'm usually watching TV just before I go out, the last thing I do before I shut down is go to the main menu and check out the temp. I'm fairly certain I wouldn't bother to do this if I had to go into the weather screen. At least to me, this is just as useful to know as the time. In fact, adding optionally adding the temp to the date/time wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. * I don't think the "Recording Space" bar belongs on the main menu, but it should be always there by default when I'm viewing my recording list. Additionally, if my space is getting into the red, it could pop up in the main menu just as a warning to let me know to either delete stuff manually or Sage will do it on its own. * I'm also not a fan of the Upcoming/Recent recordings widget on the main menu. If I'm interested enough in that information it'd take me less clicks to get to the actual recording menu which should feature this information prominently (more on this later). Another element that I never even considered was the Text Scroller in XBMC. I'm torn on the usefulness of a strictly RSS scroller, but if you were to treat it like a news/sports channel where you intersperse other information with the RSS feeds it could be more useful. For instance, you could scroll the current weather, disk usage, the next/previous 5 recordings, new episodes of top 10 favorites, etc. It could be a nice way to pack in a lot of information in without overwhelming the main menu visually. |
#85
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Take into account that you only can show so many menu items per page, and then assign each menu item a importance rank. For instance... Rank 1 - Sage Recordings, Imported Videos/Music/Photos Rank 2 - Program Guide, Schedule Recordings, Online Services, Setup Rank 3 - Live TV, ??? Then also, determine an alternate submenu path to place items under if there's no room left in the current menu. Now, when you go to populate the menu, place the Rank #1 ones on the main menu first and then take do everything else on a case by case basis taking into account how much room is left. Obviously, there are some holes in this implementation, but I've also only thought about it for about 1 minute. A much more robust/functional solution could be built upon this concept or one like it if the designer took some time and put some thought into it. If it were me, i'd use this concept combined with Greg's 2-pane main menu where more important items in the submenus could be promoted to the main menu if there was room. ![]() Last edited by evilpenguin; 01-05-2009 at 02:49 PM. |
#86
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#87
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![]() But, I also don't think (and I imagine you agree) that the lack of "universal agreement" should prevent/absolve Sage from continuing to explore ways to evolve their UI. As you said, there are *a lot* of interesting ideas presented in this thread and I think they all deserve a little consideration from on high. Quote:
Heck, you can even remake the default STV *inside* their implementation and no one would be able to tell the difference. Last edited by evilpenguin; 01-05-2009 at 04:36 PM. |
#88
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![]() John |
#89
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I'm strickly talking about the dynamic main menus which could be lifted from SageMC and dropped into any STV. If done right it'd be completely transparent and would launch the same screens as before.
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#90
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I agree, that it would be good to get a structure like those incredibly customizable menus into the default STV and I thought of attempting a port of the SageMC code, but looking at the code for it made my eyes bleed. John |
#91
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![]() I think it would actually be a lot easier (and cleaner) to build customizable menus for the default STV from the ground up. Conceptually, the customizable menus are very simple. Unfortunately things quickly got very complex trying to shoe horn them into the existing SageMC code. Aloha, Mike
__________________
"Everything doesn't exist. I'm thirsty." ...later... "No, it's real!!! I'm full." - Nikolaus (4yrs old) |
#92
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John |
#93
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![]() Over the past 3+yrs usage, of by far my most used and beloved "gadget", I only recommended SageTV to two people. Both were colleges who I knew would appreciate what's under the hood so to speak. This year I seriously considered purchasing an HD200 for my father and using an old pc for his server. In the end I settled on the GPS for the sole reason that I thought he wouldn't get past SageTV's layout and get to the point of actually enjoying the product. In general... I want to recommend this product more often (out of the box!). Sorry if the above is off course. Back to the menu items....... Did you notice the two icons in the lower right corner of xbmc? One is for Power & Settings which pulls up a very nice option bar in the center of the screen (great place to stick 'Toggle Full Screen'/'Standby'/'Setup') getting them off the main menu list. The other button is titled 'favorites' which ..... well it looks like it could be used to hold additional menu items. Maybe user customizable at this 'hidden' level to satisfy the fanatics who need ever option conceivable while still retaining a clean user experience for everyone else in the home. |
#94
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![]() ![]() Not any time soon. I'm working on another project that will take up nearly all of my free time this year. Aloha, Mike
__________________
"Everything doesn't exist. I'm thirsty." ...later... "No, it's real!!! I'm full." - Nikolaus (4yrs old) |
#95
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I too find this extremely useful. I use it much more than I ever thought i would before I started using SageMC
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But then again, there is something about knowing the amount of space I have. When I have 250 GB free, I don't care what is coming up, but when I have 30 GB free I start to worry about what will be deleted in the next 24 hours. The diskbar of the default STV looks ugly because it uses no shading what so ever. And if I remember correctly it is really basic, pure colours. (I can't figure out how to turn it on at the moment to get a better look at it). You know, I tried enabling that last night when I found it for the first time. I like the upcoming and recent list in the Recorded TV section, but having it on the main screen just looked junky and clutered up the otherwise nice display of SageMC. |
#96
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this seemed appropriate:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/05/m...-news-network/ Favorite quote? "Everything is just a few hundred clicks away." |
#97
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That's awesome!
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#98
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#99
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In terms of the SageTV stock STV main menu, I find that it's not organized in a way that's logical to me. I admit that I had been a TiVo owner for 4 or 5 years prior to moving to SageTV. As the number of displays grew in my home, I really wanted a way to access my media in the same way from any of them. I already had a server set up for my music. TiVo's solution in that type of environment is suboptimal. Also, they share some of the same weaknesses as Sage in terms of robustness of accessing non-TV-recordings media. And a shout-out to Mike, if it weren't for SageMC, I would not have purchased SageTV. Overall, it fits my mental model of how this type of application works much better than the stock STV.
I don't really care about animations or splashy graphics. Don't get me wrong, I want it to look nice, but being really shiny doesn't matter to me. I'm a MVP / placeshifter only watcher and turn off all the animations anyway. Right now, I'm checking out the stock STV on placeshifter and SageMC on my MVP and here are my thoughts: - The color blue that the stock STV uses for the background seems gloomy. - For extender usage, the icons in the upper right are useless (with the exception of conflicts). - I like that the date and time are listed. - It does seem sparse, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. - I never (well, really really rarely) watch live TV, so having the watch and guide options on the main menu are not useful to me. - Probably 90% of the TV that I do watch is recorded from favorites, so the schedule option right on the main menu is not that useful to me. - If I want to watch a video, view photos, or listen to music, it's annoying that I have to click into the media center option. However, in SageTV, I am not annoyed that the TV option goes to the MyTV screen which would require me to click the "recorded TV" option if what I want to watch is not one of the last four things recorded. Perhaps it's because the MyTV screen shows potentially useful information, while the "media center" screen does not? - The standby option is not useful to me since I use extenders. - I rarely access the online services, for various options that can be discussed if that becomes a topic. - I don't see the problem with having the options / settings / setup type option on the main menu. If you hide it or make it password protected by default, then people who are not power users will have trouble finding or accessing it. Making it an option to have it password protected could make sense though. However, if your friends are dicks enough to screw around with your settings, don't let them use the remote... ![]() - I like the diskbar in SageMC, but agree that it would probably be fine if it were shown only on the TV related screens. This makes me think though, what if your non-recordings media (video, music, photos) are on a separate drive from any of your recordings? Should there by a way for SageTV to show you how much drive space is left on that drive? That could be useful... I wonder if there's a big difference between the preferences of those that use extenders / placeshifters vs clients? The fact that Sage was initially developed as a client only piece of software still drives much of the functions / features of the product. Like the "standby" and "full screen" options on the main menu. BTW, the moon icon in the upper right is also a standby command, right? If so, then standby is on the main menu twice. Things that I would like to see discussed as a future topic in this series: - The organization of the settings menus. - The interaction styles that result from client (mouse) vs extender (remote) usage. For example, in the SageTV media screens (recordings, video, music, photos), it does not seem logical to me to have a horizontal (view filters) and vertical (links to functions). Also, the use of icons on the vertical menus instead of text makes them more difficult to understand. Another example (I think) is the usage of T9 style text entry as the default. - I'm unsure on this one, but the inconsistent usage of terminology (such as favorites vs series). - Conflict resolution still seems like it's not presenting all of the options / information that I would need in the most logical way. However, I think that it's gotten better over time. - The way that the online services is organized / maintained. - The STV import interface / terminology. Thanks. Todd |
#100
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Hey guys, FYI, i'm gonna have Opus move the SageTV: PVR or Media Center into another thread.
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