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[jmone]

To be blunt, the TV/PVR section of MC12 is pretty basic and trails well behind most other HTPC packages (MS MC, Media Portal, etc etc) and while getting DVB-T support up over 6 months ago was great, this area really has not progressed any further since.  For me the test is simple...will the Wife and Kids use it....& like others, I'm not having a lot of joy on this front!

MC12 T'View's TV/PVR area should have the same look, feel, and function of every other "TV/PVR" in the world.  Now, none of the following are new ideas and many of them should be relativly simple, however this time I've tried to group them differently.

Quick Wins
1) Assignable Coverart for Channels (eg Channel Logos Bitmaps) - This is the only area of MC12 without Coverart and makes the whole thing look second rate
2) Ch # Mapping - allow the allocation of Numbers to your Channels so you can use the remote control for channel changing when in TV View - You know....just like a TV
3) Delete Files - allow users to delete files from the DB and Disk (eg after you finish watching a TV Recording)
4) Scheduled Recording: The StdView scheduler is fine but similar functionality needs to be added to Theatre View.  I’d suggest that pressing the Record Button on the remote control would bring this dialogue box up for completion (and a second press of Record when kick off a manual record).
5) Bottom Info Panel When Recording - This stays the entire time during a recording, unlike other messages that disappear after awhile.  I understand that it is good to have a visual indicator to remind us that recoding is happening but this one takes up a good 1/10th of the screen - maybe a small Red Dot in one courner would be better?
6) File Name for recordings - At the moment the format is "CH Name Day Month Year Hour Minute" (eg NINE HD 30_08_2007 8_39) but this is not great for sorting by file name where "Year Month Day Hour Minute CH Name" (eg something like 2007-08-31(Fri) 10-15AM NINE HD) which is better.


Must Do - I know that this will require rework of how TS and Record works but it is going to need to be done.  Having one format for TS and another for REC (on Digital TV) is just counter productive.  For example, at the moment if I press "Pause" while recording a show it STOPS the Recording, and STARTS Timeshifting.  Support for simultaneous Timeshift and Record (eg use the dvr-ms stream for both functions) is going to have to be done at some stage.

Getting Fancy  - the others are already there but the
1) EPG integration including Programmed Recording
2) Wake PC from sleep for Scheduled / Programmed Recordings
3) Support for Multiple Tuners
4) Support for 3rd party Set Top box pass through using IR blasters with selectable channel mapping

Other
1) Vista Bugs: There still the issues of sometime seeing the Vista Desktop etc when starting / stoping full screen Video from T’View.
2) There seems to be some "options" in "TV View" that don't seem to make sense (at least to me) including Play All, Search, Control --> Playback --> Reshuffle, Add, and also under Controls there are three options -- Display (lists all the Channels), Display (with TV / Web), Channels (lists all the Channels again).

Please don't get me wrong, MC12 is the best overall app but the TV/PVR aspect really requires work to be competitive in this area.

Thanks
Nathan

[raym]

Hooray for quick wins! 

I'll take this opportunity to re-iterate my vote for this one please, Please, PLEASE!!! :

3) Delete Files - allow users to delete files from the DB and Disk (eg after you finish watching a TV Recording)

Cheers.

[rpalmer68]

Hooray for quick wins! 

I'll take this opportunity to re-iterate my vote for this one please, Please, PLEASE!!! :
Cheers.

Oh dear it's the Aussies making all the noise again!  Bloody noisy lot!
I'm a Kiwi living in Sydney now so I guess I should include myself in that comment

Oh and yes I agree with both the above posts.

At the moment I use DNTVLive from digitalnow.com.au for my TV playback, webscheduler for my scheduling and MC12 in Theater View for everything else (audio, DVD, video and playback of recorded TV) and then Girder5 (with Netremote2) to actually make it all as family friendly as I can.

Richard

[jmone]

At the moment I use DNTVLive from digitalnow.com.au for my TV playback, webscheduler for my scheduling and MC12 in Theater View for everything else (audio, DVD, video and playback of recorded TV) and then Girder5 (with Netremote2) to actually make it all as family friendly as I can.

Richard are you using an EPG with webscheduler? (if so which one?)

[jmone]

Sorry forgot another couple of "Quick Win"
5) Bottom Info Panel When Recording - This stays the entire time during a recording, unlike other messages that disappear after awhile.  I understand that it is good to have a visual indicator to remind us that recoding is happening but this one takes up a good 1/10th of the screen - maybe a small Red Dot in one courner would be better?
6) File Name for recordings - At the moment the format is "CH Name Day Month Year Hour Minute" (eg NINE HD 30_08_2007 8_39) but this is not great for sorting by file name where "Year Month Day Hour Minute CH Name" (eg something like 2007-08-31(Fri) 10-15AM NINE HD) which is better.

Thanks
Nathan

[MrHaugen]

You got my support!
This is all highly needed indeed

[raym]

Actually jmone, regarding the inability to delete recorded tv programs (dvr-ms files) from the disk+library within Theater View, you may already be aware but me and a number of hopefuls have been moaning about this for... well.. ages. I may be totally ignorant but this change (at least) seems like such a trivial thing to implement but the benefit would be so great. Since the introduction of Auto Import and the ability to record digital tv in MC (including Theater View), it seems totally bazaar to me that you have to exit out to standard View or the filesystem to remove these once you're done watching them. I, for one, would never need to exit Theater View on my HTPC for anything other than my EPG if it was for this little feature.

Anyway, JimH made a comment fairly recently that they have bigger things on their agenda than this and that they may look at it some time later. Not very reassuring but at least it was something.

Unfortunately though, I can't comment on all your other suggestions (which are excellent by the way).

[benn600]

The comment about bigger things on their plate, which I've heard a few J River-ians say, makes me wonder: what are those things?!  I wonder if they apply to MC12 and what could be in the works.

[jmone]

RayM, I've seen your posts on the delete issue and to me it highlights the different focus and thinking that people (including the developers) apply to the app.  On our main PC I only use StdView and all is good - MC12 behaves as you would expect. 

However on my HTPC I want and need MC12 to act like a full function CE (Consumer Electronic) style device and while T'View provides some of that, the thinking/focus is still really not CE based - MC12's T'View should present itself just like a DVD player, Sat Box, etc etc.

Nathan

[benn600]

That's definitely what I want...and I'm sure most others...and the aim of theater view to some extent.  It should behave much like a set-top box...ideally next to never crashing, being fast and efficient, providing a good, clean interface, all through a 10-foot interface with simple remote control.  Other than TV I think theater view is very impressive and definitely a great system.  My family uses our HTPC to watch our DVDs and they definitely like it.  No more hunting down DVDs that are spread all over the house, although now we keep them together in a storage room since we never need to access them.

[jmone]

I agree, all the work done on the Look / Feel / Navigation for this year great and works well.  The stability improvement and tweaks for TV have never stopped (thanks Yaobing)....It just the TV/PVR section really suffers in comparision as it needs to have the Look / Feel / Features like a CE PVR and less like just handling a media stream.
Thanks
Nathan

[raym]

However on my HTPC I want and need MC12 to act like a full function CE (Consumer Electronic) style device and while T'View provides some of that, the thinking/focus is still really not CE based - MC12's T'View should present itself just like a DVD player, Sat Box, etc etc.

Don't get me wrong, I want all this too but frankly, I think it's probably a big ask right now. Also, in some respects, I'm not even sure Theater View is designed to cater to this CE market (though the name alone suggests it should be).

I'm very happy with what Theater View offers. I use an external PVR/EPG program for the bits that are missing and it works well. I can even call it up from inside Theater View's Main Menu. My main gripe is that there are still some fundamental things missing - the things that people just expect from a "Media Center". On the top of that list of missing features for me is the ability to remove/delete files from inside Theater View. This should certainly not be a big ask IMO.

But anyway, I've said it all before and am just happy now to take a back seat and wait to see where the JRiver ride takes me on a build-by-build basis 

[jmone]

Don't get me wrong, I want all this too but frankly, I think it's probably a big ask right now. Also, in some respects, I'm not even sure Theater View is designed to cater to this CE market (though the name alone suggests it should be).

To me this should be the Design Aim.

I'm very happy with what Theater View offers. I use an external PVR/EPG program for the bits that are missing and it works well. I can even call it up from inside Theater View's Main Menu.

What do you use, how well does it integrate and do you know if it works with the MCE remote?

My main gripe is that there are still some fundamental things missing - the things that people just expect from a "Media Center". On the top of that list of missing features for me is the ability to remove/delete files from inside Theater View. This should certainly not be a big ask IMO.

I agree - to me the "Quick Wins" could be added now, and add some nice polish and basic features, but the other will need to be done IF the devs want to have a competitive TV/PVR section for the HTPC market.

But anyway, I've said it all before and am just happy now to take a back seat and wait to see where the JRiver ride takes me on a build-by-build basis 

I want my instant gratification NOW.   

[raym]

What do you use, how well does it integrate and do you know if it works with the MCE remote?

I use WebSheduler: http://www.bluebit.com.au. I've mapped it to a button on my remote as well as added it to my Theater View main menu. The built-in keyboard (HTPC) interface is flexible so you can get it looking "TheaterView-like" (more-or-less). It runs solely from my server so all HTPC clients can access it to schedule TV recordings via the EPG etc. All recordings go to a designated shared drive on the server and I've configured MC's auto-import on each client to watch this drive for all changes. I don't use the MCE remote anymore but Webscheduler's keyboard interface is designed to be navigated via keyboard arrow keys so there shouldn't be any reason for it not to work.

Cheers.


 

[benn600]

Wouldn't that be neat if MC would scan and populate thumbnails for the channels from screenshots of each channel?  That would be amazing and very handy.  Channel logos would be very useful, and more important, but don't rule out screenshots!

It could be slow and buggy switching so many channels just for a screenshot.

[JimH]

I've split the very interesting posts on digital delivery to a new topic. 

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=42673.0

Thanks for your thoughts.

[skeeterfood]

Wouldn't that be neat if MC would scan and populate thumbnails for the channels from screenshots of each channel?  That would be amazing and very handy.  Channel logos would be very useful, and more important, but don't rule out screenshots!

How about automatically grabbing the show banners from http://www.thetvdb.com/, or at least giving us a way to use them in the Theater View Lineup mode.

For a Genre/Series/Show view allow something like :
Genre Level: Show a configurable Genre picture
Series Level: Show a configurable Series picture (like from http://www.thetvdb.com/)
Show Level: Show the individual show screen grabs

-John

[jmone]

I'd just settle for the tried and true "Coverart --> Paste from Clipboard"!  Not like my FTA channels ever change.
Nathan