[mythtv-users] Remotes, irxevent and menu navigation

[Tako Schotanus]

If you think that most DD/RTS receivers and DVD players can do almost
everything with just UP, DOWN and SELECT (LEFT, RIGHT are usefull as
well but RETURN almost always has an alternative like a menu item called
"back").

Of course DVD menus almost always suck when browsing large amounts of
data ;-)

So how about this list of minimal actions:

UP, DOWN
SELECT - for performing the most logical action at that moment
ALT_SELECT - for popping up a menu for all possible actions at that
moment

But maybe we need to add:
LEFT, RIGHT - because some interfaces (like the ones using trees) need
it
RETURN - to escape from the module (this should also be an option in the
ALT_SELECT popup, but escaping from watching LiveTV shouldn't need
messing around with pop-ups)

Again, we shouldn't try to do anything to reduce functionality, we
shouldn't force users to make do with less buttons. It's the developers
that would have to think about how to manage with possibly only 4 (but
more likely 6-7) buttons.

-Tako

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org 
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Edward Wildgoose
> Sent: dinsdag 2 september 2003 11:12
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: RE: [mythtv-users] Remotes, irxevent and menu navigation
> 
> 
> > Personally I must say that maybe we should try to find a 
> VERY limited
> > set of actions and "force" module writers to at least try 
> very hard to
> > do their job with just those few actions. Now I sometimes wonder why
> > selecting an item doesn't just pop-up up a window with all possible
> > actions on the item instead of having to know which keys to 
> press. This
> > doesn't mean I don't think shortcut keys for people using wireless
> > keyboards or extensive remote controls aren't usefull, they are very
> > usefull, but I do think that sometimes things are a bit too 
> difficult
> > for people using simpler remotes.
> 
> It's worthwhile having a look at how VDR does this, for some ideas.
> 
> What happens there is that the first time you run it up, it 
> asks you to wiggle your remote, or press keys to choose your 
> controls.  However, the key thing is that you can stop after 
> you have choosen like "up", "down" and "menu".  The point is 
> that you every EXTRA key that you choose to map then becomes 
> a useful shortcut to an action that can also be reached by 
> popping up the menu and navigating.
> 
> The menu structures themselves are usually designed to be 
> used by remotes with either numbers or red, green, blue, 
> yellow keys (certainly common on European remotes at least), 
> so you have something like the most common options ready to 
> choose with the colours, or if it's a bigger list then you 
> get a menu onscreen and can either scroll up and down, or I 
> think you can also press a number directly.
> 
> So the key features are:
> 
> a) that there are multiple ways to get to each action, eg 
> popup menu or press accelerator key
> b) you can choose to map as many or few keys as you like 
> (depends how many keys you have spare on your remote)
> c) the list of re-mapable keys seems to be global, so all 
> add-ins try to fit into the existing key mapping and behave 
> in a consistent way
> 
> Just some ideas anyway
> 
> Ed W
> 
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