[mythtv-users] RANT: MythTV has a *horrible* end user experience.

[endo verendo]

Okay, first of all, for all its faults, I love MythTV.  I use it everyday.
I really want it to do well.  It's a totally open platform in one of the
most "closed up" worlds out there (media/TV/movies/Holywood/**AA
industries).

That said, the user interface is the worst thing I've ever used.  It's not
user friendly, it's inconsistent, and it's downright irritating.  As the
owner of the device, I can make it work...but good luck handing the remote
to anyone else.  This makes mythtv a non-starter in any household occuppied
by both technically-oriented and non-technically-oriented people.

In my opinion, the biggest flaw is in playing back recorded TV versus
playing back videos (AVIs, etc).  The problem here of course is that MythTV
has two different movie players with two completely different sets of
controls.  This just isn't going to work for the average user.  Having to
tweak my remote settings manually to get both sets of controls semi-similar
is painful.  And even then the controls/interfaces of mplayer vs. the
internal player are different to the point of being obnoxious.  Any media
played with MythTV needs to run under ONE player.

Any controls that require pushing number keys on the remote for operations
should not be allowed.  There's no reason all menus shouldn't be operable
with, "up", "down", "left", "right", "ok", and "cancel" buttons.  Everything
needs to be onscreen and easily learned.  Optional shortcut keys are fine,
of course.

New video content needs to be automatically detected.  Having to go to
"video manager" to scan for new content is neither necessary from a
technical perspective nor user friendly.

The setup screens need to be completely rewritten.  Basic common options
need to be up front, advanced, seldom used options need to be buried but
accessible.  The setup needs to be far more hierarchal, rather the "linear"
screens that currently mix fundamental and advanced options.  The setup
screens in mythtv are far scarier than any text-based Linux config file I've
ever seen.

Most of the themes have issues.  For one, checkboxes I can barely see and
can't determine the selected state of at 1920x1080 from across the room
(even though the font next to it is in perfectly legible inch-high
letters).  And then there's the thin one-pixel-wide dotted lines surrounding
the active select field drop down control which are completely invisible
from the couch.

I apologize for being blunt, but you guys have all the technology in this
thing to achieve "world-domination", and the only thing holding it back is
the painful UI.  If MythTV had one media player and a complete UI rewrite,
it would have no competition.
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