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

[Justin Hornsby]

First of all I'd like to say I'm really glad my initial fears of this 
thread turning into a flaming session haven't turned to reality - well 
done everybody for exercising restraint (so far at least).  Flame wars 
don't do the community (or the project's image to the outside world) any 
good at all.

MythTV isn't perfect.  More than enough of us are aware of that to 
varying degrees.  It's worked on by a handful of people in their spare 
time, and it's down to their dedication & motivation that we have 
anything at all.

Some points in the OP's email were of questionable accuracy IMHO (let's 
not go there, since mplayer won't be the default video player in 0.21, 
etc etc) but some (e.g. setup menus) were considered as valid areas to 
attack as part of the Google Summer of Code in 2006 and I think we all 
know how that ended (not well, incase you missed it).

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but seldom helps when the original code 
has been built upon & added to so much that in the end what would really 
do the job would mean a complete rewrite.  The ongoing work on the new 
UI library is an example of that.  Things (well, themes mostly) are 
going to get broken & a fair amount of code is going to have to be 
changed but it's also a great opportunity to put a lot of things on a 
different track.

As somebody who has been very active in the community (making themes, 
taking mythtv on the road to linux expos etc) I've reached a point where 
I'm struggling to find the necessary motivation to help people other 
than myself.  I'm not part of a grand mission to make MythTV dominate 
the world of computer-based PVR software and I don't personally know 
anybody who is.  It's a nice app for what it is and is a fantastic 
testament to everybody's hard work but I really couldn't care less if 
KDE/whoever adopt it as their 'Media Center' of choice or not.  There's 
no 'competition' in my way of thinking.  If something else comes along 
that fits my needs I'll use that instead.

I'm not saying I've thrown in the towel - hell I couldn't if I tried 
(and believe me I've tried).  I can't code, but I'm learning & beavering 
away on some stuff I feel could be useful (and if others like them too, 
yay).  Little steps & all that.  As for new themes - take it as read 
there'll be a 0.22 compatible theme out before too long but I'm in no 
rush to start scribbling with a mouse again.  Yeah, the current themes 
on my website will probably be fine for 0.21 but don't come crying to me 
if stuff is broken please ;)

I feel that a 'pro' UI designer's input could be valuable to the project 
in a lot of ways.  Never mind graphics design - any foo can draw pretty 
pictures or rip off Media Portal skins.  I heard a rumour a 'pro' had 
approached the project a while back but haven't heard a whisper since, 
which is a pity.  It'll be interesting to hear what they have to say.

Lastly, partly in response to the comment about themes from the OP... if 
there was anything I could've done about those awful one-pixel thick 
lines qt puts in the setup menus I would've done so already.  You can 
only change so much - basically all you can 'theme' in the setup menus 
(and other qt UI items) are the colours & fonts :(  The good news is 
that mythui is about to lay that to rest.

Regards,
Justin