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[imugli]

Since this has more to do with TV than generic movie OSD, I've branched this thread off from

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=72150.0.

Have been thinking of a way to make the TV OSD more "user friendly" without necessarily resorting to "eye-candy" (please can we not go there again?).

After seeing a video for Ubuntu TV, I've come up with a (very amateurish) mockup of what I'd like to see the TV OSD look like in a perfect world.

Instead of being called upon by Up / Down arrows, it could be called by the "i" button (present on most MS compatible remotes, I believe), thereby leaving the more complex functions (aspect ratio, time-shifting, resolution etc) still accessible via Up / Down arrow.

Would love to know what people think.

[NickF]

I strongly support this idea.  I think the technical information provided by the up down keys is useful but, in general use and for less technical users, information specific to the program being played is probably more useful.

Using the "Info" or "I" button for this would be the more intuitive solution.  It is what happens on most TV sets.  Unfortunately, this key is currently set up in MC to show the current OSD.

Perhaps a solution here is to have a new Core Command to show the program related information.  We could then re-programme our "Info" key to call this command.

I would like to have the program description from the guide together with Channel Name and Channel Number at least.

Nick.

[Scolex]

You can reconfigure the buttons in Options/Remote Control and with a little ingenuity create an info popup that toggles with each press of the i/info button.

[NickF]

You can reconfigure the buttons in Options/Remote Control and with a little ingenuity create an info popup that toggles with each press of the i/info button.

Now stop teasing me and give me some more clues!  I currently use Core Commands.  Are you saying that I can change the OSD command to display something else?.

Nick.

[Scolex]

Yes you can use the key to do just about anything here are a couple of examples that I use on my Harmony 900 you could however use them with virtually any remote.

Example 1
I have a key that is set to transfer MC from monitor to monitor this involves 2 third party apps.
1 Actual Window Manager which is a suite for all kinds of window behavior tricks and multi-monitor management I have it configured to move windows from
   screen to screen with ctrl+alt+right arrow(counts up) or left arrow (counts down) depending on which way I want to move.
2 nircmd which is a keyboard emulator
In the RC config window I click Add/Custom, Add run, browsed to nircmd.exe and then entered sendkeypress ctrl+alt+right

Example 2
Again this involves a third party which is Rainmeter a widget/gadget program.
I configured a skin for RM that retrieves data from MC and when I press a button on my remote it send a call to RM to toggle the visibility of the skin.
The skin is hidden by default and sits on my TV. The skin can be configured to get just about any information you want in one way or another.
I followed the same routine as above only I used Rainmeter.exe and parameters relative to RM

I am sure you were expecting some secret inner-workings to allow you to use additional functions in MC. Sorry I don't have any secrets just the ability to think outside
the box so to speak and use addons that can accomplish my needs without special programming. That is what I meant by a little ingenuity.

[NickF]

OK, full marks for ingenuity!

Yes, I had hoped that there was some way of doing this within MC and, if not, JRiver might consider adding something.  I really feel that, now that the MC TV capabilities are becoming mature, this is a feature which the typical user would expect OOB.

How about it, Matt?  I don't mind a bit of elbow grease to start with!

Nick.