[mythtv-users] New blue-abstract theme 1.8

[Michael Watson]

On 24/09/2012 11:42 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 09/20/2012 12:59 AM, Michael Watson wrote:
>> On 20/09/2012 10:49 AM, Chris Pinkham wrote:
>>> * On Wed Sep 19, 2012 at 07:26:54PM -0400, George Nassas wrote:
>>>> Two people here say the opposite. These sort of junky features really
>>>> need to be globally disableable through frontend settings IMHO.
>>> We want to get away from having a setting for every little feature 
>>> like this.
>>> Some might like scrolling but not some other feature.
>> Why so, whats wrong with lots of configurable content.  IMO, the more 
>> configuration options the better.   Dont necessarily need a gui 
>> interface for every option, just some documentation on the wiki.
>> Look at Windows for instance, there are 1000's of configurable option 
>> via the registry.
>
> Because probably a good percentage (>50%...  possibly much higher) of 
> the bugs reported to us are due to or obscured by user-specified 
> settings that make their copy of MythTV work differently from 
> normal/differently from the developers who are trying (and, often, 
> failing) to reproduce the issue so they can fix it.  Unfortunately, 
> users don't generally understand the options, anyway***, and often 
> flip switches because they sound "good," and end up breaking 
> things****.  I could give you links to hundreds of threads where a 
> user complains that something doesn't work in MythTV only to later 
> find out that they flipped a switch that they didn't remember 
> flipping, which disabled whatever feature they now wanted to use.
>
Provide a Restore to Default Settings Button/Option, so in the > 50% 
cases, the first line of support is to "Restore to Defaults, check if 
problem persists".  The ability to "remove" from database all existence 
of a host is also a desirable feature, for when you setup a new machine 
(using an old machines hostname), creates a lot of unnecessary debugging 
/ fixing.

> Besides, when it comes to themable options, you /already/ have a 
> setting for every single feature--the theme itself provides the 
> settings. Removing these "coarse-grained" settings actually gives the 
> power user /more/ control over things by allowing them to apply 
> exactly the functionality desired at every location in MythTV.

Documentation on how to access these settings/features is where?

>
> Mike
>
>
> *** If we add a setting for specifying the time for a 
> short/medium/long OSD timeout value, which one do you change to modify 
> the time that the info window appears on screen?  OK, after a lot of 
> trial and error--involving going to frontend settings and navigating 
> to the OSD timeout section, then changing one value, then going to 
> playback and hitting INFO, then counting to see how long it lasts, 
> then repeating until you've found the right one (but you don't mind 
> because you're a power user)--and then you think you've "fixed" it.  
> Later, though, you realize that the volume slider stays up for 25s, 
> too, and you curse MythTV for not allowing you to have a separate 
> setting for that window (short/medium/long/volume/...).  Instead, the 
> proper solution is to allow specifying a timeout for every individual 
> window--which is what we will do, via the theme itself.  Similarly, 
> while you say you should be able to disable the scrolling with a 
> single switch, you may find that scrolling is very important in some 
> parts of the theme, but actually gets in the way in others.  So, 
> again, you need to control it at a finer level--at the theme. 
> Therefore, the approach we're taking gives you /more/ control than 
> "just add a setting for it."
>
>
> **** Like all the users who enabled libmpeg2 decoding and then filed 
> bugs when captions failed to work, in spite of the warning that the 
> libmpeg2 decoder is experimental (and, eventually, the explicit 
> mention that it would prevent subtitles/captions from working).
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