The Problem w/feature requests

[badllama77]

I was going to put this in feature requests but it is more of a statement to reign in the requests a bit and a request for greater focus on certain issues and features that are being left out of sagetv and being found in others.

Ok have to soapbox a teeny bit in this one. I think many of the requests here are awesome and would be great additions, but I think we need to concentrate on a few core things and worry about the rest later.

1. A robust plugin architecture that allows for additions and changes.

I know this is being addressed with the development of studio. I think that there should be a concentrated effort on finalizing its development and release. The reason for this to me is simply competition. Two products I have looked at are going to threaten sagetv, one sooner and one later. Meedio will be sooner, Mediaportal later. There meedio tv product if it is as well done as the rest of their essentials package will pose a serious problem. They have themes, a great plugin architecture, and excellent function, control, and basic features. Don't get me wrong function is great in some areas of sage but not in others. Also this is made even more apparent by those that have integrated Meedio and sage, in an attempt to fill in the gaps. Mediaportal right now it is somewhat functional but has problems, but with time and development often comes increased stability. It is open source and has a decent plugin architecture. Some will say so does sage when it comes to plugins, but the ability to write plugins in the hands of a few people defeats the purpose of a plugin architecture.

2. Control issues need to be addressed.

More functionality using the same set of controls in different areas of the application.

Examples:
Hitting play on an album should play that album. This would be best accomplished with a quick dynamic playlist (not the ones you build and save) a queue if you will. Also the ability to save that queue as a playlist. This would also apply for songs as well you could add to queue or have an option to add to one of the prebuilt playlists.

I mentioned before keys in the tv app, although I myself put in a statement for an improved osd with a built in miniguide, I am cancelling that request. Not because of the it is in cayars answer (which doesn't address the need for it to be integrated into core osd), but because there are other little things that should be addressed. The info key should bring up the osd and then hitting it again should bring up detailed info then while the info is up it should return to tv. Yes we have a back button but there is a reason that most pvrs/dvrs/digital cable systems have this functionality, convenience.

3. New hardware

I feel that hardware support should be a high priority as well, but not as high as the previous two (sorry hdtv people). I think this app really needs to hammer down its current feature and control set before putting too much time into new hardware support. That doesn't mean full stop that just means not concentrating too much effort unless absolutely necessary.

4. Power Management, Visualizations, and more

I feel that power management is crucial, not just the standby and wake up issues. The ability instead of having a screensaver (even a black one) of having the system simply move the monitor into a low power state. This should be an option to do this via menu as well. Sleep is nice but if I am listening to music and don't want the screen on this would be better than turning it off.

Visualizations are great I would love to see them, but I think this is something that could be addressed through the plugin architecture.

Weather should be built into the core distribution, but everything else should be hammered down first. Before anyone says it yes I know there are two separate weather packages, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be in the core distribution. Actually that brings to light the fact that it should be. If you were a car company in the early days and everyone was finding ways of putting household radios into their cars wouldn't you be inclined to create one that was included.

Ripping, I don't think dvd ripping should ever be included in sagetv by Frey. This is for the very simple reason of copyright problems with the studios etc.. That brings me to cd ripping, which should definitely be included in sage. I feel it should be included in a similar manner as musicmatch allowing for all the niceties of track naming and placing them in subdirectories.

Metadata should be able to be downloaded for both mp3's, videos, and DVD's. For now it should be brought into the mp3 and video programs.
Later a library based dvd app that retains the info for dvd's inserted and when a movie is selected for watch now it opens tray and asks for dvd.

Burning, yes I know again that this is found in custom stvs still needs to be integrated into core. In particular burning of mp3's needs to be included. There may be some legal issues with burning videos to media so that can be addressed via plugin.

Themes will also be an important item to be included in the future. The ability to simply and easily change the appearance using themes that one has created or others have created would be ideal.

I am sure there is more than the examples I have given but I think I will stop here for now and see what everyone else has to say.