[mythtv-users] Edit cutlist problems after upgrade

[Rodd Clarkson]

> I'm going to walk through doing a cutlist in the new editor:
>
> I open a recording, and load the skip list with 'e', and 'z'.

This works fine.

> I 'pgdn' to hit the end of the first cut, find it is too far, move back to
> the proper location, hit 'enter', then 'Move End of Cut Here'.

This isn't working for me.  If I go back 3 frames then hitting enter
doesn't prompt for a move to the cut point, but instead starts a new
cut.  How much of a threshold is there for cutting near a cut.  I
would have thought that 3 frames wouldn't have been excessive. ;-]

> I move to the next cut, find it has not cut enough, so I move back to the
> proper location and hit 'enter' to start a new cut.

Don't you mean forward.

> I 'pgdn' to the
> original cut start, 'pgdn' again to the original cut end, and then back up a
> bit into the cut for the proper location.  A second 'enter' merges the two
> cuts, and a third 'enter' with a 'Move End of Cut Here' fixes it.

Hmmm, now I'm confused.

> The third cut is too short on both ends, so an 'enter' at the start, another
> 'enter' at the end, and the existing cut is overwritten.
>
> The fourth cut starts fine, but ends short.  I could correct it by setting
> both endpoints, but since I'm already at the end, I open up the menu with
> 'm' and 'Move Previous Cut End Here'.
>
> The end is screwed up as I mentioned, so I just want to delete it all and
> create a new one.  I'm at the end so I don't want to move.  First I 'm' and
> 'Move Start of Next Cut Here'.  Then 'm' and 'Delete This Cut'.  And finally
> 'm' and 'Cut To End'.

To be honest, while it's nice to be able to move the cut points when
you're close, it appears there is some room for work here.

1. For starters the threshold for being near a cut needs to be
increased.  Up to 5 seconds seems reasonable.

2. Along with this the move cut dialog could use some modification to
improve usability.
   * You should only be able to move start or move end depending of
whether a start or end is nearby.  for example, of you're at the start
of a cut, it's very unlikely that you'd need to move the end before
the start.
   * Along with this you should have the option to start a new cut
(which would ignore close by cuts and start cutting where you are.)
   * You shouldn't be able to move the start or end if you're already
cutting.  I don't know if this is possible, but it shouldn't be.
   * If you start a cut outside of an existing cut, and end it inside
an existing cut, all the intersecting cuts should be merged.
   * Finally, some sort of indication of which cut you are changing
would be good.  The cut in question should be highlighted.  This would
also aid situations where a cut is made near the start and end of
existing cuts and both the move start and move end are reasonable
options.

While I can see that the new edit model is quite nice, I hope these
suggestions are helpful.  At the moment I'm finding it easier to just
start with no cuts and work through the show (without loading the
existing cuts) and being able to use the existing cuts in a meaningful
way would really speed deleting adds (and the stuff before and after
the show).

Finally, there's still issues with the end of show which I believe
you're aware of.


Rodd