[mythtv] Proposed MythMusic Interface Improvements

[Tako Schotanus]

J. Donavan Stanley wrote:

> Tako Schotanus wrote:
>
>>
>> An interface where you can select more than one letter (e.g. like in 
>> the TiVo screenshot that was in the original message) would be 
>> perfect and would also help people like you who have large lists to 
>> browse through. You can't be saying that you think selecting more 
>> than one letter to search for a program wouldn't help you, now can't 
>> you?
>
>
>
> I don't argue that having an on screen keyboard would be helpful, but 
> with page up/down it's not all that hard.


>
>> And even though you say that people who know other PVRs or who know 
>> how to do ChUp/ChDown will find it easy I beg to differ, I know my 
>> MythTV well enough and still I find it difficult to control it, 
>> basically because
>
>
> It's not just PVRs, it's cable and satellite boxes with EPGs as well...

Neither of these are a common sight here in the Netherlands (cable? 
digital cable I assume?). Even though there are quite a number of people 
who have a sattelite dish they are still very much a minority and the 
ones I know still use extremely simple remotes. Maybe that's because not 
everybody is like you who doesn't mind a remote with lots of buttons, 
but there are enough people who won't even dare to touch one if it has 
too many buttons. I know enough people who have a very nice VCR with a 
remote with lots of buttons and they still use only PLAY, REC and STOP 
(ok, and FFWD/REW as well).

>
>> a) my remote doesn't come labelled with the actions that I need for 
>> Myth 9no ESC, no MENU, no INFO etc) and
>
>
> A universal remote with PVR buttons costs less that $20.

I have one of those, and it cost me 35 euros (~$40) and it does NOT have 
those labels. A more expensive one of 60 euros didn't have those labels 
either (besides the fact that I refuse to pay 60 euros just for a 
remote). In fact that I doubt that I can get any remote (here) that 
comes labeled with "Page Up/Page Down". (Or "OSD" or "INFO" or "DELETE" 
or "TRANSCODE" or any of the many other possibilities).

>
>
>> b) because there are just too may of them to remember easily. 
>
>
> Not if they're labeled on your remote...

Yes, if...

>
>> So a) and b) combined make me press the wrong buttons way too often. 
>> So I really like it that each time there are more and more menus that 
>> will allow me to just use MENU, UP. DOWN and SELECT (like the OSD 
>> menu we have nowadays). So having a Program Finder (or Music Finder 
>> or whatever) that used only simple buttons 
>
>
> Page up/down *are* simple buttons.  Using menu, up/down and select 
> doesn't work for large lists (as your original complaint about the 
> program finder indicated) so you need some way to move through the 
> list in larger chunks, hence page up/down being mapped to keys on your 
> remote. The on screen keyboard in the Tivo is nice, it'd be spiffy to 
> have on available in Myth for entering text, but in the case of Tivo's 
> program finder vs Myth program finder you'd save a couple seconds at 
> best.

Again, I'm _not_ saying that we shouldn't have PgUp/Down buttons, they 
are very useful for people like you, period. But MythTV is also for 
others who aren't like you and who find it very illogical to use 
ChUp/ChDown to jump around in a list. I still stick with my original 
statement thatit should be possible to use Myth using only very very few 
buttons.

And right now it _is_ possible to use Myth using only those buttons so 
that's good but it's not perfect but like you say by just mapping a 
couple more buttons it gets better. That still doesn't change the fact 
that, like you admitted yourself, having a "keyboard" would help as 
well.  Ok so we basically agree, the only thing I'm saying is that for 
_some_ people the PageUp/Down is not a very workable solution which 
makes the Program Finder interface less than perfect and that having a 
"keyboard-like" interface would definitely improve the PF interface for 
both types of people.

-Tako