[mythtv-users] Re: EFF calls for developers for MythTV

[Francois Gouget]

On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, J. Donavan Stanley wrote:

> Francois Gouget wrote:
>
> > * Improving and debugging the ivtv drivers would help a lot. For me
> >that was the hardest part to set up. In particular I was unable to guess
> >what to specify for the tuner field and only succeeded after reverting
> >to 0.1.10-pre2-ck64f and copy/pasting the settings of a fellow French
> >guy.
> >
> > * Simplifying the ivtv driver setup would help a lot too. For my
> >PVR-350 there are 6 modules involved and I need to specify the TV
> >standard 4 times, sometimes claiming it is SECAM, sometimes claiming it
> >is PAL! I also have to specify my tuner type twice. And after that I
> >still need to run commands to set the standard to SECAM!
>
> While it's true the setup of those cards could be easier, that's a
> driver issue unrelated to mythtv.

If, like the EFF, your goal is to make it easier for 'joe-average' to
setup MythTV, then it is relevant. Fortunately this issue seems well on
its way towards resolution.


> Would you say that a game needed to be made better because you had
> problems installing the video card you bought to play it with?

If you only care about developing a great game then it's not your
problem. But again if your goal is widespread use of your game it starts
becoming relevant, and if acceptance of Linux as a gaming platform is
your goal then the video card setup definitely becomes your problem.


> > * When I'm watching a show, the Vol- and Vol+ keys on my remote control
> >don't change the volume as one would expect. Instead they cause the show
> >to skip forward or backwards. It's certainly not intuitive and fixable.
> >
> It certainly *is* fixable.  You should either a) Fix the config for your
> remote so it send the proper keys for val up and vol down

Well, initially I did checked my ~/.mythtv/lircrc configuration but I
had a problem. As far a I understand this file simply remaps the remote
keys to the regular keyboard keys. But on the Hauppage remote the
Vol-/Vol+ keys also doubles as the left/right arrows. Visually the
relevant keys look like this:


         [Red]       CH+        [Green]

                     [^]

         Vol-  [<]  [OK ]  [>]  Vol+

                     [v]

         [Yellow]    CH-        [Blue]

(stuff in [] are keys the rest are just labels on the case)


So as I see things I have two options:
 * either I remap [<] and [>] to the left/right arrow keys and then I
can use them to interact with the MythTV widgets and to skip
backwards/forwards when watching a show. But then I have to use other
keys to change the volume. Currently I'm using [Yellow]/[Blue].

 * or I don't remap them. Then I can use them to change the volume when
watching a show, but I have to find other keys to interact with the
MythTV widgets since they obviously ignore Vol-/Vol+.

Neither option is really satisfying ans intuitive. Ideally the [<]/[>]
keys would behave like Vol-/Vol+ when watching a show and like the
left/right arrows everywhere else. But that would require a
context-sensitive mapping.


> or b) Change the keybinding (using mythweb) so that they match what
> your remote is sending.

I don't have MythWeb installed here. I thought it was only used for
browsing the web using MythTV. Are you saying it can also be used to
reconfigure MythTV?


> > * I initially had a lot of trouble finding where the Transcoders
> >configuration is located. Now I know but I find it non-intuitive.
> >
> >
> One would expect that you'd at least have gone into the recording
> profiles at *least* once while setting up your machine and had seen it.

I did see it on first install (along with 36 other configuration
screens). And a week later I couldn't remember whether it was in
mythtv-setup or in mythfrontend and where it would be in the
mythfrontend settings. I must have seen that 'Enregis' item many times
but it never clicked that I would find the transcoding options there.


[...]
> > * There are recipies around for preparing shows to put them on DVD. But
> >this has to be done outside of MythTV and it not really obvious. Some
> >PVR boxes in France include a DVD writer and can save shows to DVD, no
> >fuss there. So it would be nice to have similar functionality in MythTV.
> >
> >
> There's been at least one posting of a DVD burner app that automates all
> of this and can be used by remote.

Is this the script that was mentioned in this email?

Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 13:37:23 +0200
From: Esben Skov Pedersen <spam at geek.linux.dk>
To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
Subject: [mythtv-users] legend: new program for tranacoding recordings


> >   - If I switch the GUI from French to English and go to 'Watch
> >Recordings' I get a 'No recordings available' because it's looking for a
> >category called 'Tous programmes'. It's a bit unnerving and switching
> >the GUI language should not cause such problems.
> >
> That shouldn't be the case... It should ALWAYS look for "All programs"
> and only display the translated name.  Have you put this into bugzilla?

Apparently this might be fixed in the CVS version.


> > * Better integration between Myth modules: when using the TV part I can
> >control the volume using [ ] and \, but that doesn't work in MythVideo.
> >
> Mythvideo uses other apps to play videos so how the keys are configured
> is really up to the user.  I know I'd not be happy with myth if it
> changed the configs of my apps out from under me.

There's a different point of vue that says that MythVideo is a part of
MythTV and thus should behave the same and that which application
MythVideo uses to do the task is an implementation detail the user
should not have to worry about.

So while using MPlayer or Xine to play videos simplifies things from a
development point of view, it can hurt ease of use. Corporate types
would say it's a tradeoff between time-to-market and integration<g>.


Again, I hope nobody takes this as criticim of MythTV. Jason's email
sounded a bit like he did not see what to improve in MythTV besides
packaging so I felt compelled to provide some examples<g>.


-- 
Francois Gouget         fgouget at free.fr        http://fgouget.free.fr/
                 There are 10 types of people in the world...
               those who understand binary and those who don't.