Watch Recording UI was Re: [mythtv] [PATCH] Add help text to audio device selection

[Kevin Kuphal]

J. Donavan Stanley wrote:

> If TOGGLERECORD did anything in that window one would expect it would 
> bring up the recording options.
>
>> But say we did have the group cycling on a button instead of MENU, 
>> this would allow us to use both the MENU and INFO buttons to hold 
>> what is now flowing over into two screens of menus from INFO.  
>
>
> And would force someone like me to wade through a LOT of groups one at 
> a time...


I'd much rather see it with some kind of always visible UI element that 
allows us to cycle left and right through the groups and ideally also 
drop a pull down that lets you pick directly from a list.  I could 
envision something above the current group list on the left.

>
>> This would alleviate your concern over two screens of menus, albeit, 
>> it would be two menus but the functions could be logically grouped so 
>> that items on the Advanced menu fall to the MENU button with the 
>> items most used now left on the INFO button where people expect them.
>
>
> INFO is for item specific things MENU is for screen wide things (i.e. 
> INFO has options that only apply to one recording, MENU has things 
> that apply to all).   Changing it on this screen would break the 
> consistency we're trying for.
>
Is this consistent across the rest of the application?  On the EPG, MENU 
either takes you out of the EPG or tunes the current channel in the Live 
EPG (depending on your setting in the configuration this might be SELECT 
as well).   During viewing, MENU brings up the on screen menu and INFO 
brings up the OSD.   I know we fundamentally disagree on this, but it 
seems to me that MENU should bring up a MENU related to the current item 
(like it does during TV watching) and INFO should be information about 
the current item.   Now on this screen, we don't have much needed in an 
"information" category, but using MENU for a menu and INFO for something 
else is more in line with the current functionality of the rest of the 
app than the current mappings do.

Related to your comment about TOGGLERECORD above, one thing that I've 
found that my ReplayTV does very well is this screen using only the 
SELECT button and the navigation buttons.   One important distinction is 
the focus between the Recording Grouping (in our case the title on the 
left) and the Recorded Items (the list on the right). 

With the focus on the Recording Grouping, pressing SELECT brings up menu 
item choices related to the recordings (like edit recording schedule, 
delete recording schedule, find all episodes, etc.).  Pressing SELECT on 
an item in the Recorded Items list brings up the obvious choices (like 
Play, Play from Beginning, Delete, etc.).  Pushing PLAY on a Recorded 
Item starts playing immediately. 

I think there is some room for improvement here related to the above 
ideas but if others don't feel this improves the application, I understand.

Kevin