[mythtv-users] 0.25 Music & Videos Questions

[Nick Rout]

On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 5:55 AM, Paul Harrison <mythtv at sky.com> wrote:
> On 13/04/12 15:29, Matt S. wrote:
>> On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 8:32 PM, Scott & Nicole Harris
>> <snharris99 at live.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Has MythMusic actually been reduced to such a level that it is actually this
>>> clumsy and unusable?
>> Yes.
>>
>>
>> Hate to say it, but mythmusic is next to useless for me now.  The last
>> thing I want to do is complain about such a core part of MythTV, as
>> I'm a huge evangelist for MythTV, but I feel as though I'm obligated
>> to give my opinion in the hopes that the developers will see that
>> there are basically no users out there who like and/or understand how
>> to use it - and that UX is pretty much in the tubes at this point.
>>
>> - No way to just easily play the music you want
>> - Everything is playlist based (really????)
>> - Menus and options are extremely confusing and convoluted
>> - Counter-(and non)-intuitive interface
>>
>> I was looking forward to Paul's work for so long, but it's obvious to
>> me that in this case the fact that it sat in his private branch for so
>> long, without input and feedback from users and developers, led to a
>> product built without a feedback loop and on one person's vision on
>> what people might want versus what they actual want.  Now, it sounds
>> as though he's backed away based on the negative feedback instead of
>> listening to what users are saying - that we love MythMusic but it's
>> just too hard to use - and trying to do something about it.  While I'm
>> definitely appreciative that Paul took on the challenge, I'd rather
>> have the old, basic mythmusic back at this point.  Although it was
>> simple, it worked - it was easy to navigate, it was a good "10 ft
>> from-the-couch" interface, etc.  My wife basically said that she'll
>> just revert to using itunes and our airport express hooked to our
>> receiver since she has no clue how to use the new mythmusic.  I don't
>> blame her - if someone who's career is in tech and has been using
>> MythTV for 8 years can't figure it out after 30 minutes, how would I
>> expect the average TV viewer/music listener figure it out?
>>
>> I think the key goal should be:  Allow a user to play the music they
>> want to play in less than 10 seconds.
>>
>> Anyway - Perhaps the foundation that Paul's built is strong enough
>> that it'll take little effort to make this one of the best
>> "from-the-couch" music players available.  But right now, I just can't
>> convince people to overlook the faults, since they seem to be pretty
>> core to the experience - which from all reports, is extremely
>> frustrating.  I'm really hoping that a developer will step up and take
>> on the challenge of interacting with our music libraries as great of
>> an experience as it is interacting with our recording and video
>> libraries.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Matt
>
>
> Well you will be glad to know that I'm no longer working on MythMusic at
> least not for the MythTV project since I left the project 3 or more
> weeks ago. I'm not the only one to leave two others have also gone
> recently with a fourth on the brink of leaving. My leaving is a result
> of the internal politics going on behind the scenes and has nothing to
> do with the comments being made about MythMusic all though they do make
> me feel better about leaving with MythMusic in a part finished state if
> that is what people feel about it :(

Sorry to hear about this sort of crap going on.