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[Matt]

A while back, we spent some time thinking about how to make it easier to group channels:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=71255.msg480963#msg480963

We built some tools to make using keywords possible, and now I'm hoping to expose those tools in an easier way.

Here's my proposal, and I'd appreciate feedback:

1) Channels will support any types of keywords (Sports, Matt's Channels, Brooke's Channels, etc.) but there will be two default keywords:

Hidden: a channel that doesn't work due to reception, encryption, etc. or that you never want to see (even with a search)
Favorite: one of the channels you watch regularly

2) The stock Theater View and Standard View views will automatically hide Hidden channels.  You will no longer delete channels because this leads to the problem of them coming back next time you scan for channels.  EPG loading will skip loading data for Hidden channels.

3) The stock Theater View will have 'Guide' which shows all non-hidden channels and to the right one spot on the view roller 'Favorite' which will show only favorite channels in a grid.  You could extend this for 'Matt's Channels', 'Brooke's Channels', etc. or to a view that asks you to pick channel keywords first, but we think All vs Favorite is enough for many users.

4) When you pick a program in Theater View, there will be roller choices 'Favorite Channel' and 'Unfavorite Channel' (still working on those names) to toggle whether a channel is a favorite.

5) The channel editing dialog in Standard View will have a grid of channels with checkboxes for Favorite and Hidden.  It will also expose the full 'Keywords' field so that you could add the custom keywords mentioned above.

The end goal of this it to make it easy to hide channels that never work, easy to see a grid of channels you frequently watch, and extensible so you could create custom groupings if you need more power.

Thanks for any help.

[Castius]

Sounds great.
I was worried about having to give up my Google TV.
But the work you guys are doing giving me hope i can build a really nice HTPC.
That everyone in the house can enjoy.

[Samson]

Hi Matt,sounds fantastic

4) When you pick a program in Theater View, there will be roller choices 'Favorite Channel' and 'Unfavorite Channel' (still working on those names) to toggle whether a channel is a favorite.

How about Favored/Unfavored


Another suggestion is for Channel stations to have the capacity to be listed by numbers with possibility of a) default station numbers or b) elect to assign a number

[InflatableMouse]

I wish I could comment on this but I can't use MC to watch TV because my channels are encrypted (hint hint ).

[imugli]

That sounds great, but in oz we only have ~15 channels and they're all pretty much crap, unless you have cable in which case you get this

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-pay-tv-cesspool-20130504-2j00w.html

So TBH I'm not seeing how this will be particularly useful to ME, but can see how it may be if you have many channels...

[Sandy B Ridge]

This is basically what I do now.  All of my theaterview views are set to ignore the ones with 'Hidden' as a keyword. Getting them hidden in standard view would be a bonus though. What you propose seems a minor tweak in the existing infrastructure. 

What happened to Yaobing's master plan? (The one where channels on different tuners ie. DVB-T and DVB-S etc were grouped together and an automatic selection made based of available tuner). Has that been shelved?

Will there be some automatic keyword assignment for the encrypted channels or duplicate channels or ones with more than one audio stream?

Hoping for more ...

SBR

[Yaobing]

My master plan is still on.

Perhaps we can add a keyword "Master channel" to a group of channels and then figure out how to link the "slave channels" to their respective masters.

[JimH]

My master plan is still on.

Perhaps we can add a keyword "Master channel" to a group of channels and then figure out how to link the "slave channels" to their respective masters.

Parent/child?

[mschneid]

One more consideration.   
When I travel with a laptop and a ATSC TV tuner device.  A Scan for channels means The number of detected channels explodes adding a new cities/regions channels to the existing list. ..  Many wind up on the same frequencies..     Coupled with the TV EPG stuff....   It is too much of a bother to sort out the wheat from the chaff..
Thanks.

[Matt]

What happened to Yaobing's master plan? (The one where channels on different tuners ie. DVB-T and DVB-S etc were grouped together and an automatic selection made based of available tuner). Has that been shelved?

Couldn't you just use a keyword 'DVB-T' or 'DVB-S' on the channel, then use that to filter the views?  Maybe we could even add a keyword like that automatically?

[Yaobing]

Parent/child?

That will work too.

Or, Anchor/Non-Anchor.

Any channel without the keyword Anchor (or Parent) is a non-anchor (child).  So keyword Non-Anchor (child) is not needed.

[Yaobing]

Couldn't you just use a keyword 'DVB-T' or 'DVB-S' on the channel, then use that to filter the views?  Maybe we could even add a keyword like that automatically?

It is not just the views that he was referring to.  A channel, say BBC, is available on DVB-T, DVB-S, etc.  In terms of view, we need to show only one set.  In terms of watching or recording, we need to know that these channels are equivalent and thus we will pick any of the tuners.  In terms of keyword, yes, tuner type would be a way to distinguish them, we just need to offer user GUI to make a pick ("which group of channel to you want to use as anchor channels" -  and user picks among "DVB-T", "DVB-S", etc.).  On the other hand, using keyword "Anchor" spares us from needing to offer such GUI.  The user just selects all channels that need to be the anchors, and assign keyword "anchor" to them.

We do need a new list field for the TV channels, so we can put all 'equivalent channels" in it.

[Sandy B Ridge]

My master plan is still on.

Perhaps we can add a keyword "Master channel" to a group of channels and then figure out how to link the "slave channels" to their respective masters.

Good to hear Yaobing.

Couldn't you just use a keyword 'DVB-T' or 'DVB-S' on the channel, then use that to filter the views?  Maybe we could even add a keyword like that automatically?

See Yaobing's explanation for his plan. I think this would be great.
There's already a 'tuner type' field that already differentiates (and I use it to sort out my channels in standard view)

Good to see more TV focus again.

Cheers!

SBR

[Matt]

Most of the proposal above is in MC 18.0.187, available now:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=80682.0

[Sandy B Ridge]

Most of the proposal above is in MC 18.0.187, available now:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=80682.0

I can confirm that this works quite well. Rescanning my DVB-S provider brings back over 1000 useless channels (encrypted or additional audio tracks). Labelling these as Hidden hides them away and they don't then reappear on a rescan. Neat.

A tip : if you've already spent hours trawling through the channels to figure out which ones to keep and delete the rest. What's good to do is label the ones you already have with the keyword 'Keep'. It's easy to do this in a new standard view for 'TV'. Add a column in the pane for Keyword, select all the channels and add the keyword 'Keep' in the 'Tag' pane. After a rescan the other unwanted channels will be keywordless. Select all these and add the keyword 'Hidden' in the Tag pane.

SBR

[Sandy B Ridge]

It is not just the views that he was referring to.  A channel, say BBC, is available on DVB-T, DVB-S, etc.  In terms of view, we need to show only one set.  In terms of watching or recording, we need to know that these channels are equivalent and thus we will pick any of the tuners.  In terms of keyword, yes, tuner type would be a way to distinguish them, we just need to offer user GUI to make a pick ("which group of channel to you want to use as anchor channels" -  and user picks among "DVB-T", "DVB-S", etc.).  On the other hand, using keyword "Anchor" spares us from needing to offer such GUI.  The user just selects all channels that need to be the anchors, and assign keyword "anchor" to them.

We do need a new list field for the TV channels, so we can put all 'equivalent channels" in it.

Another possibility is to make the channels automatically the 'Anchor' unless it has another channel 'identifier' as a keyword. This would make sense because I think that it would be the minority of channels that would be duplicates (I guess).

Using channel name could be tricky because the names could be equivalent on DVB-T and DVB-S.  So some unique channel identifier would probably be needed.

So for example, for BBC 1:

Anchor: BBC One HD, DVB-S, 56734; Keywords: Favourite
Slave: BBC One HD, DVB-T, 34563; Keywords: 56734
       : BBC One SD Local, DVB-S, 56342; Keyword: 56734
       : BBC One SD Local, DVB-T, 34432; Keyword: 56734

(the 5 digit identifiers above I have made up. )

So you can see that the slave channels are defined by having the anchor channel identifier as a keyword.

Upside: no new list field needed, simple solution
Downside: ordering a priority for the slave channels not possible (unless you make the keyword more complicated eg. 'Slave(56734;1)', 'Slave(56734;2)', etc.

SBR

[Matt]

A slightly more formal summary of the actual changes based on the proposal:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=80686.0