[mythtv-users] RANT: MythTV has a *horrible* end user experience.

Chris Isip cmisipster at gmail.com
Sun Feb 24 14:26:43 UTC 2008


On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 8:20 AM, Jean-Yves Avenard <jyavenard at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi
>
> On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 11:58 PM, Matt MacDonald
> <macdonald.matthew at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  I have to disagree with this statement.  My wife, who is somewhat
> >  technical figured the UI out without any trouble and when my
> >  grandmother (who's VCR is still flashing 12:00) came by to visit, she
> >  picked up the remote and just started to use it.
>
> to just change channels and watch, sure.
>
> try to rewind, skip back etc... then the hassle starts.
>
> Also no easy way to access the current program information.
>
> on my cable box, i press the i button and it shows the name of the
> program, press i again and you have a nice summary.
>
> all that information is there in mythtv, you just can't easily and
> intuitively have access to it
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>

I have a streamzap remote and setup myth to use the internal lirc plugin.
All the buttons are used and the only thing missing is a button for I or
information.  The volume button I use mplayer as player for mythvideo using
a script to track a "saved position" .  For the most parts, all buttons are
the same for myth and mplayer.  I mapped the number buttons  for selecting
percentage seeks in mplayer.    I have mapped the power button to a call to
irexec which calls hibernate .  So logically, aside from the buttons I
mentioned above, the buttons on the remote perform the same function in both
mythtv and mplayer.  I use the colored buttons at the bottom of my remote to
call up jump points to Watch TV, Watch Recordings, MythVideo, Mythmusic.  I
could share my config with you if you wish.  It shouldn't be that hard to
modify it for other remotes.

It is possible to script the scanning of new videos in mythvideo.  I
believe, all you need is to ls the files in your mythvideo directory to come
up with a list of videos, compare that with all the videos in videocategory
and then perform a mysql insert command of videos that are not in the
videocatogory.  Run this via a cron job.  I have something like this, but
more complicated as I use it to download video podcasts into specific
directories and insert them into the database under specific
videocategories.  Its probably too complicated for your needs, but you can
examine it as a starting point if you wish. No guarantee that it will work
for you, in fact it could completely ruin things.  Beware.

As far as mapping a button to display program information of currently
playing video in mythvideo, perhaps you can build a script to do that and
map it to a button.  The script should parse ps to see which title or
filename is being played by mplayer , then extract the relevant information
from the database using command line mysql, and then output it with xosd on
the screen.

Chris




Chris
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