Interest in STVi that limits placeshifter access?

[tmiranda]

For my next project I'm working on an STVi that limits what placeshifter clients can do. I've seen several requests for this and I'd like to use it myself. Before I get too far into the project I'd like to gauge interest and see what features are desired. I've got a proof of concept working already so have a pretty decent idea of how easy or hard it will be to implement.

What I've got in mind is being able to set three passwords; one for "record" access, one for "delete" access and one for "configuration" access. So before a placeshifter user can setup a recording they will need to enter the "record" password. Once the password has been entered the user will have "record" access until they disconnect. The same idea applies for "delete" and "configuration" access.

I do not think it's viable or desireable to control access to setting "watched" and "don't like", but I'm open to suggestions.

All ideas and comments welcome.

Tom

[GKusnick]

I'm not sure what makes this particularly a Placeshifter feature. We often see people asking how to do this sort of lockdown on their kids' playroom TV.

I'm also not sure that password-protecting specific functions is the right way to go. What makes more sense to me is to set permissions by user name or group (e.g. "Mom", "Kids", "Admin", etc). So if you're not logged in as Admin (for instance), you wouldn't even see the Admin-specific menu items and dialog options on screen.

For Placeshifter, we already have the concept of user login, so it would simply be a matter of setting up different Placeshifter users with different STVs that expose different levels of functionality.

For non-Placeshifter clients (or for non-authenticated Placeshifter clients on the local subnet), you'd have to add an extra layer of user login, and hide or expose menu items and dialog options dynamically on that basis. But I think following the Placeshifter user login model makes more sense in the long run than prompting for function-specific passwords when particular menu items are clicked (if that's what you had in mind).

[Peter_h]

I don't know that I would use that functionality. However, I would like to see a way to set different user accounts for locking down shows and movies.

I'm thinking something simple like, hit "menu" and there is an option to enter "admin" or "user" password. Once that is entered then it will open up all of the import directories and remove all filters.

[lovingHDTV]

If you go down the route of user based accounts. I'd like to see a user based delete function where the show only gets delelted after everyone has seen it and hit delete.

There are several of these types of things I've seen mentioned before. Not sure if this is out of scope for this STVi or not.

dave

[tmiranda]

Greg, Peter, Dave,

Thanks for the input. I'm hesitant to go down the path of user-based permissions/accounts because that is a MUCH bigger project than I had in mind. (But in my heart I know that's the best solution for all of the reasons mentioned.) I was thinking of the specific case of remote placeshifters accessing the Sage server. I thought about creating different "limited" STVs that could be assigned to different placeshifter users, but I didn't like the idea of maintaining multiple STVs.

Maybe I'll continue down my current path and use the STVi as a starting point for a real user-based STVi. I'll have to give this more thought.

Tom