Things I Want To Be Able To Do

[Crashless]

Originally Posted by Mahoney

...snip...
(As an aside, the ability to put channels in some kind of category would be good generally - so you could have sports channels, movie channels, documentary channels etc - like Sky already does. Restrict channel hopping to within that category and voila, you have the functionality I want!)

The meekell STV has some advanced guide options. You could make a list with just your audio channels and do this. I'm working on ways to make this more integrated, but the current version (beta .3) can do what you're looking for. You will still have to select the list though, so the TV will have to be on initially, but then can be turned off. I'll see what I can do about this.

The current version:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...hlight=meekell

Generally SageTV falls significantly short of my desire for it as a complete replacement for all other boxes. To achieve that it needs to be fully usable with the TV off for audio playback in the same way that a stereo works - ie via an LCD using a remote control.

Sage has been built primarily as a television management program, but those audio abilities are being built out. Some STVs have different interfaces for the music side of things, have you given them a look to see if they may address your needs more completely?

[Mahoney]

I'm in a bit of a cleft stick on this one - basically I really, really like the look and feel of the SageMC STV, so much so that I'm reluctant to go to a different STV even if it does the functionality I want! Cue usual "if only they'd release Studio..." whine - I'm even a Java developer.

I think switching to a new GUI would upset my wife rather a lot, to be honest...

I understand about Sage as primarily a PVR; I'm just looking for my personal holy grail. If only I didn't have to work I'd try writing my own!

[vuego]

Originally Posted by Mahoney

1) When I am watching a video/TV and go into the menu, so I'm viewing the menu with the video still playing and visible behind it, I'd like the play button to remove the menu so I'm just watching again. I daresay I can do this via Girder, just haven't worked it out yet!

I've mapped the Full Screen button in Girder for LiveTV. It works from any screen.
Sendmessage:
Message Number: 1258
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Originally Posted by Mahoney

3) When I press info when watching live TV it shows me the details of what I'm watching at the top and how far through the recording I am at the bottom of the screen. At that point I'd like the left and right buttons to scroll through the previous/next programs on the channel, and the up/down buttons to scroll through the previous/next channels in the same style, so I can see what else is on, without it changing the channel. Pressing OK would then change to the current channel, or set to record an item if it wasn't currently on. No idea how to achieve this, or whether it's possible.

I remember having this in myHTPC but I've now switched to Sages TV Guide. It gives a better overview. I've mapped the blue button on my remote to the TV Guide.
Sendmessage:
Message Number: 1258
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[Mahoney]

Thanks vuego - actually I seem to have 3) intermittently using SageMC 16:3. It isn't there if I press info first, but if I just use the up and down arrows then I can scroll through the channels without changing channel or going to the guide. I'd failed to spot this because I always pressed info first to get the info bars up! Occasionally it doesn't seem to work (not sure why), but basically it's there.