No subject

---MythTV isn't (yet) for everyone. While it's likely that at some point 
you'll be able to treat it as an appliance, requiring no special care or 
maintenance, that day hasn't entirely arrived yet. There are companies 
selling pre-configured MythTV boxes and those units likely are stable enough 
to toss on the living room shelf and hand the remote to your kids. But if 
you're building one yourself (or having someone build one for you), then the 
process may be more complicated - this is the price you pay for power and 
flexibility.

Currently myth is not an appliance. Ok, so we should be aiming to make it 
more user friendly, but currently this rant is causing a lot of discussion 
without much answer. Having the setup and the frontend programs seperate for 
the moment allows the developers to develop more easily. My understanding of 
the way that the systems have been programmed, it should be relatively easy 
at a later stage for some poor Dev to merge the two programs. However, I am 
sure that someone in this thread has already said that the config screens in 
mythfrontend are already too complex. Some streamlining needs to be done, 
features hidden from the normal user. No, wait, that is the Microsoft way of 
thinking, hiding complexity so that what should be simple tasks require 
access to the command prompt to complete. I do find the setup screens in 
mythfrontend a tad confusing myself, but I don't think I have gone into them 
more than 6 times in the last 2 years for the 4 frontends and 1 backend that 
I am running.
When I look at the appliance boxes that I have used in the past,,, my 
set-top-box, didn't allow any configuration, I could search for channels 
that was it. My DVD player, I can select the aspect ratio that is all, apart 
from a 48 button remote control that is too blooming difficult to use (10 
digit keypad, 3D setting that no DVD I have seen supports etc.etc.). 
Switches I have used in the past that are based on linux, basically 
appliances, they have one interface for 'Managers' and another backdoor that 
gives you a root console to actually configure the darn things. Apart from 
the setup to mysql, I don't think I needed to really run any command line 
tools to set up myth, considering its complexity I think that is brilliant, 
well done.


What I find confusing, is that mytharchive settings are not where I would 
expect them. Perhaps,,,, maybe what should be done, IF a complete re-write 
is done, and this would break all of the themes I am sure, maybe on the 
front screen to myth, we should be able to press a menu button, then from 
this menu, select 'expert' or 'configuration' mode. This could optionally be 
pin coded for the paranoid like me. When I view the main screen now there 
will be a new setup option, allowing me to configure how things look 
(appearance)
When I go into 'Watch TV' there would be an extra setup option that allows 
me to configure tuners. When I enter 'Media Library' I would have a setup 
option which allows me to specify things like storage, and auto-expire 
settings. When I go to archive files, there will be an extra setup option 
allowing me to specify commands for archiving, and where the temporary files 
are stored.

Gareth

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jay R. Ashworth"
End-users don't know, nor do they care, nor should they be required to
care -- by and large -- what part of a system which is segmented
largely for the convenience of the developers (and power users)
supplies a specific piece of functionality.

Indeed, even people who do care don't always know whether a specific
piece of functionality is supplied by front-end or back-end --
especially if they only have one machine -- and it's therefore not
obvious where to go looking for a certain setup item.