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

[Adam Retter]

Okay, so you have ranted ;-)

Now, why not scratch that itch and do something about it? I have
worked on several open source projects and whilst of course
constructive criticism is never a bad thing and often helps the
developers understand the users requirements, quite often these things
are not fixed in a timely manner due to a lack of resources.

This is the beauty of Open Source - why not get your hands dirty and
try and improve the UI experience for everyone?

On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 10:21 AM, endo verendo <endoverendo at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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>
>



-- 
Adam Retter

Software Pimp Extraordinaire