End of the Road for Phoenix UI

[stuckless]

Phoenix was started by a number of people. Towards the end there were 3 of us, then 2, and now just me, and I'm not a STV developer.

Phoenix is comprised of a set of APIs and a UI. The APIs will continue to live on for some time, since they are used BMT, my Android Apps, Gemstone, and possibly other plugins as well.

But, since the people that Worked on the Phoenix UI is no longer engaged, then I'm starting to transition myself from Phoenix UI to Gemstone.

I'll obviously continue to answer questions about Phoenix, but, you shouldn't expect any fixes to the UI.

I someone else want to pick up the torch to maintain and update Phoenix 2 (or create a Phoenix 3) then I'll definitely work with you on the API side.

[skiingwiz]

I'd be interested to know how your transition to Gemstone goes, from the perspective of a Phoenix user. I'm still using the original Phoenix UI and there's a chance I'd update it with some tweaks (I have a few on my todo list) but I'm not an STV developer either.

[markds]

Thank you for your lead and contributions to the Phoenix all these past years. It was and still is a great addition to the SageTV 7 customization choices. You have a bucketful of good Karma for all your work.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by markds

Thank you for your lead and contributions to the Phoenix all these past years. It was and still is a great addition to the SageTV 7 customization choices. You have a bucketful of good Karma for all your work.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by skiingwiz

I'd be interested to know how your transition to Gemstone goes, from the perspective of a Phoenix user. I'm still using the original Phoenix UI and there's a chance I'd update it with some tweaks (I have a few on my todo list) but I'm not an STV developer either.

There's good and bad... and different, which is usually worse than bad But overally, it's going well.

When I first installed it, I was thinking, ok, this is pretty much the same as the default stv, except blacker But after talking with Jusjoken, I got the multi-day forecast back on the main screen, along with a widget to show upcomming recordings, so that was good.

Initially my changes to widgets were not showing up (ie, I added weather and upcomming recordings, but they never showed up on the main menu). I existed the HD300 and came back, and they were there.

My Next challenge was to get a TV view of Unwatched TV shows grouped by Show (not season) and ordered by aired date, descending. This is really where Gemstone shines compared to Phoenix. I probably could have imported my existing Phoenix view, since if I recall, Gemstone uses phoenix views under the hood, but I opted to do it all from the UI. After looking through all the view layouts, the "Simplified" was the one that most closely matched Phoenix. I then configured it to group on show, only show unwatched, and order by airdate descing. All very quick and intuitive and all done from the UI. The one challenge was how to get this new view to show up under the TV section, and Jusjoken pointed me to the Menu Manager, where I was able to add the flow as a menu item.

Likewise, I tend to order all my movie views by date added, descending, so I went into the various Video views and just added a sort order to the views. I also created an "Unwatched Movies" that added the unwatched filter.

All of this was setup previously in Phoenix, but admittedly, in Phoenix I hand crafted each view at the Xml level (which is fine for me). The thing that impresses me most about Gemstone is the fact that all this configuration stuff is handled in the UI. The effort to do that is pretty vast.

I'll give it a run for bit and see how it goes. Some of the flows feel a little sluggish, but nothing that I can't live with. Bottom line is that if you are on Phoenix, you can probably get Gemstone to do what you what need.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Thanks!



There's good and bad... and different, which is usually worse than bad But overally, it's going well.

When I first installed it, I was thinking, ok, this is pretty much the same as the default stv, except blacker But after talking with Jusjoken, I got the multi-day forecast back on the main screen, along with a widget to show upcomming recordings, so that was good.

Initially my changes to widgets were not showing up (ie, I added weather and upcomming recordings, but they never showed up on the main menu). I existed the HD300 and came back, and they were there.

My Next challenge was to get a TV view of Unwatched TV shows grouped by Show (not season) and ordered by aired date, descending. This is really where Gemstone shines compared to Phoenix. I probably could have imported my existing Phoenix view, since if I recall, Gemstone uses phoenix views under the hood, but I opted to do it all from the UI. After looking through all the view layouts, the "Simplified" was the one that most closely matched Phoenix. I then configured it to group on show, only show unwatched, and order by airdate descing. All very quick and intuitive and all done from the UI. The one challenge was how to get this new view to show up under the TV section, and Jusjoken pointed me to the Menu Manager, where I was able to add the flow as a menu item.

Likewise, I tend to order all my movie views by date added, descending, so I went into the various Video views and just added a sort order to the views. I also created an "Unwatched Movies" that added the unwatched filter.

All of this was setup previously in Phoenix, but admittedly, in Phoenix I hand crafted each view at the Xml level (which is fine for me). The thing that impresses me most about Gemstone is the fact that all this configuration stuff is handled in the UI. The effort to do that is pretty vast.

I'll give it a run for bit and see how it goes. Some of the flows feel a little sluggish, but nothing that I can't live with. Bottom line is that if you are on Phoenix, you can probably get Gemstone to do what you what need.

Yes, gemstone uses the phoenix vfs views as the source of it's content, and then displays it with the gemstone flows. Most things can be configured in the UI, though you can still tweak the views in the xml if you like (I, for instance, have my TV split into 4 different views based on user-category, which I had to set up in the xml).

[stuckless]

One other thing.. That I haven't figured out, is comskip. In Phoenix, the comskip seqments show up in the timebar, but in gemstone they do not. I have comskip installed. Is there another comskip plugin that I need to install specific for Gemstone to get the behaviour that I had in Phoenix?

[Fuzzy]

There's a comskip UI Mod that needs to be installed, and no, it isn't specific to gemstone, it is the one for the default STV.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

There's a comskip UI Mod that needs to be installed, and no, it isn't specific to gemstone, it is the one for the default STV.

I'm pretty sure I have it installed as well. I'm running Gemstone by loading the Gemstone.xml STV... would that matter?

I'll double check tonight to see if I have the comskip UI mod installed.

[wayner]

I am pretty sure that the comskip segments show up.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I'm pretty sure I have it installed as well. I'm running Gemstone by loading the Gemstone.xml STV... would that matter?

I'll double check tonight to see if I have the comskip UI mod installed.

I've used gemstone for a very long time, and it has always worked, definitely check the plugin (and make sure it isn't disabled as well).

[JonTom]

That makes me sad but I understand and thanks for all your hard work.

[Gustovier]

I still use the original Phoenix (not P2) the horizontal view is just so intuitive and easy to use and customize. Stv programming is just so unintuitive to me which makes this even sadder. But the good news is all the awesome work you are doing with the android tv client.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Gustovier

I still use the original Phoenix (not P2) the horizontal view is just so intuitive and easy to use and customize. Stv programming is just so unintuitive to me which makes this even sadder. But the good news is all the awesome work you are doing with the android tv client.

And I'm still here for any Phoenix issues that are code related... I just can't do any STV work

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by Gustovier

I still use the original Phoenix (not P2) the horizontal view is just so intuitive and easy to use and customize. Stv programming is just so unintuitive to me which makes this even sadder. But the good news is all the awesome work you are doing with the android tv client.

If you post screenshots and a description perhaps we can build this horizontal view into gemstone if it's not already available.

k

[atchoo]

I love P2 ... looked at Gemstone but it doesn't look like it's as great as P2 in term of UI. What is needed in term of expertise to work on the STV part with you?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by atchoo

I love P2 ... looked at Gemstone but it doesn't look like it's as great as P2 in term of UI. What is needed in term of expertise to work on the STV part with you?

Well, it's not so much working on the STV with me, since I don't work on the STV... but it's more of having the STV knowledge and ability to make the changes you want, and implement requests from the community. My contributions are in the form of providing APIs to the STV. All that being said, I do think that Gemstone is a pretty good replacement for Phoenix.

[bialio]

stuckless on this Phoenix Stuff, which was born from the ashes of SageMC (anyone remember back that far?) and in turned spawned so many other cool thangs.

btl.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by bialio

stuckless on this Phoenix Stuff, which was born from the ashes of SageMC (anyone remember back that far?) and in turned spawned so many other cool thangs.

btl.

to you and Mike, since Phoenix would have been nothing it were not for your efforts. .. I just worked on the boring backend stuff that no-one sees. Glad you see you visiting the forums... maybe someday, you'll make you way back into SageTV

[bialio]

Someday maybe! I miss it.
btl.

[bialio]

I feel comfortable saying that someday has now arrived.

Funny how much better Sage is than anything else out there. I've used almost everything that isn't an HTPC while I was away. Nothing comes close. My wife even agrees.

btl.