Hello Benjamin,
here are my thought regarding your proposition
I add on the wiki the modification tomorrow.
== The Audio/Video-Player and Playlist-System==
(this comment is against the rev 42 of the NavTree-Page, need to be
discussed again for 43 I guess)
The audio player and the video player look good for now. But I have one
little problem: Why shouldn't there be a playlist for the videos as well?
I mean, I often want to watch some episodes of my favorite TV-Series and
there would be playlist very usefull.
So why don't mix this both together? Why sperate between audio and video?
Why not using one playlist for any kind of media (as well for streams and
so on)? And than only 'switch' between the both player-views.
For e.g. the video player is now called _player_ and the audio player is
called _playlist_, but both look the same as they do now. The example:
The movie is playing, or the visuals of the audios are shown, now the
player appears. After a few time this disappears (like it does now also,
after 3 or 5 seconds of inactivity), but if the user pushs the menu-button
before, the playlist appears. There the user could make his changes (while
the thumb of the movie or the cover is shown) and exit with the
menu-button.
- The video playlists are added to the video player :)
- I don't want to mix the two players (video and audio) because I think that
for the casual user it's not so easy to understand: the player will change
when it passes from video to audio file. And there are features that work
only on one of the two players. I prefer to optimise each player
independently so that they are both complete and useful.
== "special lists" ==
Please wait my next email. It'll be nice ;)
== global PIP ==
I saw that the PIP-Function is planed in TV. That made me very sad because
I though it's gonna be a main feature of elisa. So that I could PIP any
media, mixed together. For e.g. I'm watching an intresting movie in TV,
but than comes an "commercial" and now I decide to watch anything else or
listen to music while the commercial is running. But than I might forgett
the time and miss the resume of the movie. But no: Because I can PIP it.
One klick (somewhere) and the selected source is available in a small
window, it's piped! Now I can normally use Elisa to search, open, play and
so on. And one button again Elisa jumps back to my source I used as PIP. I
also thought that would be easier to implement than only use it for TV.
But Le_Kwer said to me already that it's not high prioritized for Fluendo.
That's a pity.
- Adding a PIP everywhere is a good idea. But for the moment, with an apple
remote (6 buttons), I cannot find a good way to implement it easily for the
user. If you have an idea that does not involve many clicks, please tell me.
== extensible Programmlist(s) / EPG ==
I was really shocked when I saw the Programm List. I really dislike this
kind of gui. Every Media-Center use it, but it's not very usefull. I had
it in my VDR also (called yaepg) but stopped using it, because the other
ones are really better. In this kind of screen you are unable to find
anything, because there is to much information in to low space. You can't
even read the title of the show. For e.g. in the screen that is shown: a
Series like the Simpsons is about 30 minutes, but there is to less space
than the 'The Simpsons' would need.
But if you prefer this view I would request a api to replace this Programm
List or better to add other ones. I would like to have one like the
TVonScreen of the VDR:
http://www.vdr-wiki.de/wiki/index.php/Bild:Tvonscreen-plugin.jpg
or the original VDR-GUIs:
http://freenet-homepage.de/cwieninger/assets/images/stream_demux_mpeg_pes-1.png
http://www.linux-user.de/ausgabe/2004/08/033-vdr/epg_s.jpg
It would also be usefull to use the Watch-element with different Actions.
As I made it in the VDR-Plugin (an old screencast:
http://www.amasoean.de/serendipity/uploads/Files/Screencast/Elisa/vdr-using-vdr-osd-for-info.ogg )
:
If you press ok on the Watch-element, the TV starts (with the last used
Programm), but if you enter the element (by using right in this case), the
channels are listed. There you could start watching a selected Channel
(using the ok-button) or go into the EPG-Data (using right) and see a list
of EPG-Events for this channel.
- I think we can adjust the size of the cartridge program so that the text
is easily readable and optimise the view for the current program and the
next program. The aim of Elisa is to make an entertaining software. I do not
think that adding a big list is a good idea because we lose this concept. If
we can adjust the cartidge according to the text and zoom in when it is
selected to display more information, I think there is no problem.
== EPG-Search ==
The searching would also be nice for the EPG-Data/TV, later on
automatically recording as well....
why not. the subject will be thrash out the next meeting
== Configuration in TV? ==
I saw also a configuration-element in this Screen. I think, this should be
done somewhere else...
- It's just the configuration for the tv : the scan and other stuff. It
helps the user by not having to look for the tv configuration everywhere in
Elisa. The advanced configuration will be in the elisa general configuration
though.
== TV-Menu-Structur ==
I said something about the EPG structur already. For this I'll show you a
kind of TV-Menu I would like more:
TV:
Tv tree
- Give me some time to understand your tree. Could you also give me some
more explanation ?
extended playlist
- I think that we can add your extended playlist in service for the advanced
user.
I told you a lot about my ideas of TV already, but I had until now a big
problem: In this selected case is NO timeshifting available. I don't know
wether it is canceled by Fluendo also, but I heard they would like to
develope it.
- yes its true, there is no time shifting yet. However, I have a simple
solution to build a progress bar in the tv option menu. To me your solution
looks too complex for casual users. Anyway, this will be discussed it during
the next meeting.
According to this, we have a problem with the less buttons of the remote
control. I was thinking about this problem the whole day, yesterday. But
than I asked someone, who is not so deep into the materials and we
developed a really good solution accoriding to this problem.
Our now solutions looks like this:
We've got a few different modi/menus to use:
NormalTV, ChannelInfo, ChannelOptions and Timeshift.
= Normal TV =
In normal TV mode, the live video is in fullscreen-mode and you could
swicht with up and down through the channels. If you push left/right, you
could change the volume. The OK-Button is the most important one. When
push it, you'll come to the ChannelInfo-Screen, which is the same the
screen for channel switching [1]. If you push Menu, you'll come to the
ChannelOptions-Menu
= ChannelInfo =
This is a menu/OSD for informations/EPG-Informations like it is able to
see in [2]. This screen disappears after a few seconds of inactivity (as
it does now) and goes back to NormalTV. The main difference is, that two
buttons have other functions:
on OK, you'll get into the Timeshift-Mode (and the Screen pauses also)
on Menu, you'll get into the EPG-Menu, called ProgrammList yet
= ChannelOptions =
This is the same Menu as for the Videoplayer [2]. Here you could select
the Audio-Streams (language and Format [PCM/DD]), any subtitles and so on.
With this iptions I've a little problem in Video and audio player: If you
use the Menu for it, the can't go to the Main-Menu again. So I made a
little and I think good solution:
This menu disappears as well after a few seconds of inactivity, so that we
don't need to exit this menu and could use the Menu-Button for going back
into the Main-Menu.
= TimeShift =
The Timeshift looks quite like the video player does [3]. With one little
difference: you have got a moveable cursor and the different color for the
scrollbar shows how full the 'buffer' is. If you come to the
Timeshift-Menu by using ok-ok (explained later on), the video is paused.
Now you could scroll with up/down, you could toggle play/pause with ok,
change the volume with left/right and skipp to the end of the buffer by
the pushing the menu-button.
While the video is paused, this screen does NOT disappear. But it
disappears after a few seconds, if the video is playing and you'll get
back to the NormalTV-Modi (but playing the video form the selected
position).
* Some Usefull information to understand the idea:
in my Timeshift, the stream is recorded in background in a ringbuffer, for
e.g. one hour, so that you could seek without starting a recording before.
* the usecase:
We are watching TV. Now the phone rings and we want to pause the video.
This is very simple and easy to use: we just push ok - ok and the Video is
paused (in TimeShift-Mode). This is a very easy and good way to get this
function. If you come back, we just has to push ok, to toggle play/pause
or we could seek back a few seconds. After a few seconds the screen
disappears, so that we could switch through our channels again.
In the other case, we want to get some more informations of the epg, we
just push ok (ChannelInfo) and menu (for the EPG).
We are on a channel and want to use another audio-channel (for e.g.
another language or Data-Format), we push menu and could select our mode.
If we want back to the main menu, we just push menu - menu.
This is one of the easiest and best use cases, with less of ways for the
thumb (because pushing the same button twice is a simple and easy method
to get to the main functions). For e.g. pushing ok - ok is very fast, so
that we could run to the phone. And using menu - menu (and menu again for
shortcuts) is also very fast to get to our destination.
