[mythtv] [PATCH] Channel preset hack
Ben Bucksch
linux.news at bucksch.org
Fri May 16 22:53:40 EDT 2003
Ian Bishop wrote:
>I would have to say that Europeans tend to do some wierd things..
>
>
heh, you can bet that Americans look very strange to *us* as well :-).
In the end, this just a *different* culture most of the time, or
different habits. It causes problems (e.g. here), but is also
interesting :).
>North Americans being colonists are fairly used to not having old systems
>cobbled to work with new stuff. We'll just start over. Europeans would
>rather modify their new stuff to work with the old infrastructure.
>
I am always for throwing away old cruft. This is actually the main
reason why I wanted to have TV over the computer network in the first place.
I haven't noticed any significant difference in how Americans or
Europeans deal with old cruft.
In this case, however, for me, the American system is the "old" one and
the European a bit closer to the ideal, that's why I am unwilling to adapt.
Ideally, I just tell the TV (or MythTV) that I want to have "ARD", not
"1" and not "E21". I would use only names for stations, no numbers at
all. MythTV's EPG is very close to that, but unpractical with a remote
control, due to long scrolling. Ideally, the remote control would have
one button for each favourite station and have it labeled with the
station name. I'd press on the "ARD" button on my remote and get ARD. If
I want Fox Sports, which I hardly ever watch and thus don't assign a
direct button on my remote, I use the EPG. I wouldn't have to care about
*any* numbers at all.
In fact, with my patch, MythTV is very close to that. If I physically
label the key 1 on my remote with "ARD" etc. and remove the numbers in
the UI, I am at the ideal situation. However, this is a bit too
inflexible and I don't want to mess with labelling the remote, so
pressing 1 and having to know ARD = 1 is acceptable. Showing the preset
number in the EPG and OSD somewhere (but not too prominent) helps me a
bit to remember the preset, as does a (for me) logical co-relation
between number and station*. This is, however, the only reason why any
numbers for stations would need to be shown or used (apart from setup).
There is absolutely no need for me to know the frequency (or equivalent
channum) of a station.
I hope this makes sense and gives some insight into the logic behind it.
Ben Bucksch
*Example:
ARD = *First* German TV = 1
ZDF = *Second* German TV = 2
HR*3* = Local station = 3
RTL = 4
RTL2 = 5
Sat 1 = 6
Pro *7* = 7
Kabel 1 = 8
VOX = 9
Sat 1, Pro 7 and Kabel 1 are from the same station group, as are RTL and
RTL2, thus it makes sense to *me* to have them together. I also group
news stations, music stations and sports stations together each, so I
only have to press up/down to switch between news/music sources. All my
favourite stations have 1-digit presets, so I have to press only one key
to switch to them. In short, I assign station presets the way it makes
most sense to me, so it is easiest for me to remember and to use. Note
that the setup is the same for all my TV equipment (TV, VCR, MythTV etc.).
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