[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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