Three comments (I am slowing down!)...
On 2 Jul 2009, at 09:40, Michał Sawicz wrote:
Dnia 2009-07-02, czw o godzinie 04:26 +0200, [email protected]
pisze:
--8<--
Lets just say everythign you describe below... is exactly the
scenario
I have seen PVR software mess up.
One of two things happen... to much user 'feedback' and choices...
too
little and doesn't work or acts 'strange'.
Well let's do it properly :)
Yep :)
It could be the same when you try to start watching LiveTV when all
tuners are busy. If one of the recordings is on later free this
tuner up
and reschedule the recording. Otherwise ask the user what to do.
This is exactly the scenario I was describing where I said... Sky+
made a hard choice.
Always had a tuner available (out of 2) dedicated to LiveTV only, so
this question was never asked or problem had to be solved.
For us though... I have no problem with it as long as asking the user
can be made concise. In the message of what to do, and the options.
You know, I think there's one big difference when it comes to that.
When
you have a STB every potential user has one - and has two tuners. The
idea of consolidating that is to maximize the use of tuners / minimize
the danger of missed recordings. Imagine a multi-user setup, with STBs
you have Tuners == 2*Users, I think when done right, especially with
DVB
where multiple channels can be recorded from one tuner, we should
successfully do with Tuners == 1*Users. Maybe a +1 for good measure.
Of
course it depends on the usage - in the afternoons / evenings more
tuners would be used, while in the night and mornings - they'd be idle
or at a mad recording streak.
I have one tuner set up for multiple recordings (like 10 a day) and I
still manage to have some stupid LiveTV on without being constantly
asked what to do, it happens from time to time, and actually it
sometimes gets annoying - but smart rescheduling on-the-fly should
reduce that to a minimum. Rarely now there are shows on which are not
repeated next day or so.
When there are multiple recordings running and several can be
rescheduled the scheduler should pick one with the biggest
possibility
of uninterrupted recording later.
Prefer this, figure it out for the user...
"Sorry...cant record this right now... but I can record it Tuesday at
5pm...that ok?" Yes/No
I can't imagine when such a question would be asked... I rather
think of
a question like:
"Sorry, all the tuners are busy, do you want to interrupt one on the
recordings to watch TV?"
I was just giving some silly pie in the sky example with not a lot of
relation to anything :p
This, of course, starts to become
quite a math to tackle for the scheduler, but that's what you get
when
you want to simplify it for the user - you need to make it harder
for
the software.
Yeah... intelligent though. Moovida just shuts up and gets on with it
and doesn't bother you unless it has to.
Yeah I like that, too.
An additional level of complication for the user would be to provide
the
user with a list of recordings available to stop.
Ah, yeah... this isn't a bad idea for a power user I guess. We can do
popups with multiple button choices. (up to 4).
4 may not be enough, but I'm not really sure that's even needed.
Properly setting priorities would ensure that the important show gets
recorded no matter what (unless you really mess things up) and some
things you have set as ~ 'record if possible, I don't really care'
would
be dropped easily.
Man, do you sleep? Like... ever?
Nope, not recently...
1. It is Barcelona and warm at nights, plus I have client work on an
iPhone app to do (so this is me taking a 'break' lol)
2. I feel like I can help and am taking it seriously (but, maybe
replying in the early morning hours isn't a good thing as I am making
mistakes in my responses)
3. I get criticized by 'friends' on other HTPC projects that Moovida
isn't OpenSource... so I want to show them we can do something good
with the community. Even if it kills me.
4. I am an idiot.... awww. :p
--
Michał Sawicz <[email protected]>
David McLeod
Senior Designer & UI Lead
Fluendo S.A.
World Trade Center Edificio Norte Pl.2
08039 BARCELONA SPAIN
Tel: +34 936 002 323
Skype: Daiode
Jabber/GMail: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
