[mythtv-users] New to the whole DirecTV thang.

David J Hatwell dhatwell at mindspring.com
Thu May 8 20:37:28 EDT 2003


In an effort to make my life easy (which is ultimately always my goal but seldomly achieved)  what DirectTV receiver do you use and have been successfull with?

Dave 
-------Original Message-------
From: tarek Lubani <tarek at tarek.2y.net>
Sent: 05/08/03 06:37 PM
To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at snowman.net>
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] New to the whole DirecTV thang.

> 
> Try to do some reading on this. Somewhere in the archives, I mentioned a 
webpage that has instructions for how to make serial control cables. In 
short, your "low speed data port" is just an interface for a serial 
control cable.

As for the UI, I'll be the first to throw a chair at you, so I'm glad you
ducked.. The point is that the work on the UI is 1) Continuous and 2)  
Vigorous.. Both the programmers and Theme designers are working pretty
much non-stop on various UI issues.. You needn't look further than the
work done by John Danner as of late (on the programming end)  and Nate
Ziarek (on the mock-up and theming end). Today's CVS, for example, is all
but unrecognizable from that of one month ago.. And just imagine 
trying to compare it to 0.6 (remember 0.6?). Think about it! The only
thing is that it will take time.. These things always do..

The other point to be made here is that it's not really copping out to
tell you to put a little work into it.. Right now, *you* own this
wonderful magical receiver.. I don't. So, I can't really learn anything
from it, but you can.. So, if there are features that you like, or design
issues that you feel have been addressed in a better way in your receiver,
then by all means make the suggestion or take a "screen shot" or
something! But, I think it's not hard to understand how it's unfair for
the programmers and designers to have to match some abstract fuzzy feeling
you get, as opposed to concrete design issues.

tarek : )

> Sadly, I believe that the dish receiver came sans serial connector.  I
> have a "low speed data port" which looks like an RJ-11.  Don't think I
can
> use that for anything :(
> 
> > However, as the myth EPG and interface continues to
> > improve, I  think you'll find it an excellent replacement to your
> > current setup..
> >
> Yeah...the thing is, is that the dish's EPG and OSD is REALLY nice.  Of
> course, I haven't had time to really use it but it seems really nice and
> clean...and well thought out.  From what I've seen, even though the CVS
> version has made significant ground, it's still VERY primitive compared
to
> the dish's EPG and OSD (please, don't think that I'm slamming Myth,
> because I'm not!!  I love Myth!).
> 
> I think I would like to see more design/UI tweaks be done to Myth now. 
I
> mean, there's SO many features in Myth and they are great, but the UI is 
a
> little weak.  Again, I'm not trying to piss anyone off because there HAS
> BEEN a lot of hard work going into the interface.  Someone can easily
say
> "well than fix it", but I don't have the programming chops nor the time
> right now to do that...and I think that's a bit of a cop out.  I'm
> guessing that most people would like to see Myth move from "computer
room
> tinkering" to "full living room integration".  Like someone said before;
> "yeah, but can my grandma operate it?".  A bit tongue-in-cheek perhaps,
> but the point is, if it's in the living room then people from 6yrs old
to
> 60yrs old should be able to operate it.
> 
> I think the UI is definitely moving in a good direction, but (and I'm
now
> ducking behind a huge barrier to protect myself from the angry mob)
maybe
> we should really start putting some spit-n-polish into the design. 
Again,
> I'm not bitching, just offering up my two cents.

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