Where would YOU put Sage's improvement priorities?

[Fuzzy]

I'd like to get some sort of a feel for where people think sage should be spending their most development resources. I think I've compiled a rather comprehensive list of the common 'complaints' here on the forums, but it's hard to get a real representation of people's concerns from forum thread count.

I think with the exception of the 'Other' category, it'd be best to keep discussion here to a minimum, and just use the poll. A lot of discussion would actually hide the 'other' comments anyways.

[doc]

DVB Radio

[ytulpan]

DVB subtitles

[reggie14]

For what its worth, I think the phrasing of the UI-related option, "Develop a flashier, more graphically intensive UI" reinforces the belief that the people complaining about the UI are looking for something flashy. I'm not saying there isn't an element of that, but, at least in my case, I'm not looking for a flashy UI. I'm looking for a UI where its easier to intuitively do or find things, where the screens aren't filled with lots of of buttons whose functions aren't always clear, and (hopefully) requires fewer button presses to do simple tasks (FWIW, I know there are lots of shortcuts to doing things with fewer button presses in the current UI, but I think the short route should be the intuitive route).

And yes, I'm hoping its aesthetically-pleasing. But I don't think "aesthetically-pleasing" means "flashy". Flashy, in my mind, means adding things into the UI for no other reason than to make it look "cool", rather than adding things in to improve usability or aesthetics.

And, on a side note, I'd really like to see support for MKV chapters in v7. I also think support for Vista/Win7 is long overdue.

[deanm]

2 x DVB Radio

[RayGannon]

I don't know if this would come under the "plug-in" catagory or not but I would like to see direct support for Netflix and Hulu implimented in a manner that would allow them to work with all of the possible clients but specifically with the HD100.

[Deacon Crusher]

Make Sage multi-user and parent friendly.

Recorded series should be tagged by different users and won't auto delete until all users have set watched.

Log in as me and I see one tailored UI/setup, login as someone else and see different setup.

Parents or Admin should be able to not just restrict but actually hide content from other users.

Thanks

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

....where people think sage should be spending their most development resources.

Develop a flashier, more graphically intensive UI.
Implement a CableCard capable DRM option to enable a simpler cable-based setup.

These two are what I think would be good for Sage, long term.

Improve the BluRay playback capabilities (PC client playback, add title selection capabilities)
Improve the music/video library system.

These two are selfish, especially music system and better randomization of playback list. I have songs downstream in some lists that I would never get to hear without my intervention.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by reggie14

For what its worth, I think the phrasing of the UI-related option, "Develop a flashier, more graphically intensive UI" reinforces the belief that the people complaining about the UI are looking for something flashy.

Judging from the responses so far, it seems flashy is perfectly fine for most. Considering the ferver over the ortus and phoenix stv's, and their focus on fanart and such throughout, it seems the 'not really for function' graphics are all the vogue.

As for a better layout in the default STV, I think they are just being conservative with it, making as little changes as possible, squeezing features into the old layout as they add them. Really, all you have to do is install the Dynamic Menus, and you can make it function in any way you want. v7 won't be needed for THAT.

[mickp]

Originally Posted by ytulpan

DVB subtitles

+1 DVB Subtitles (though I forgot to select other in the poll above )

Mick.

[voidpt]

+1 DVB Subtitles
+1 DVB Radio (Audio only Streams)

[heffe2001]

I chose updated UI & improved music. Up to now I think Media Center has a much nicer OOB experience than Sage. What I'm saying here is that Media Center, without any changes, mods, or add-ons has a much nicer default UI. Sure you can add SageMC, plugins, etc, but the point is it's all added on after the fact. As for the music system, it's not really changed much since I first started using Sage (way back in the 1.x days). I'd say it's definitely time to update both of those options...

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

As for the music system, it's not really changed much since I first started using Sage (way back in the 1.x days). I'd say it's definitely time to update both of those options...

Version 6.0 changed the music section significantly. I still don't think its great, but they made some big improvements over version 5. In fact, I actually like the default UI's music screens a bit more than SageMC's music screens (though, I still think the interface is very cluttered and hard to use). It's really more the imported video section that hasn't changed.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Judging from the responses so far, it seems flashy is perfectly fine for most. Considering the ferver over the ortus and phoenix stv's, and their focus on fanart and such throughout, it seems the 'not really for function' graphics are all the vogue.

Yeah, maybe you're right. I'd certainly put fanart in the "flashy" category. At the same time, I think that a key element to fanart- metadata- has a lot of important and very useful implications for UIs.

Maybe in "popular" SageTV culture there is more of an interest in flashy effects. However, I think if you go back and look at some of the many threads on the UI, many of the people that have been consistently critical (rather than the people just coming into a thread here or there to complain) have been more interested in clean and usable UI designs, rather than flashy and potentially gimmicky designs.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

As for a better layout in the default STV, I think they are just being conservative with it, making as little changes as possible, squeezing features into the old layout as they add them. Really, all you have to do is install the Dynamic Menus, and you can make it function in any way you want. v7 won't be needed for THAT.

That's what I'm worried about. I'm hoping Sage is willing to bite the bullet and go through a major UI change, rather than just adding some flashy 3D effects here and there. I selected the UI option in your poll, but I have very little interest in "flashy" effects, including fanart.

Unless dynamic menus do a lot more than what I think they do, they wouldn't help my complaints. I'm not complaining about too many menu items (or not enough). I'm basically saying the interface is pretty cluttered. It seems like the philosophy behind the default UI is to display as many options to users as possible, presumably so they don't have to go to great effort to find them. For examples, the TV recordings screen, the pop-up menu you get when you select a recording, and the music screen all have lots of options on them. While I'm not saying SageMC is perfect in this regard either, I think it does a better job at hiding some of the more advanced options from users. Dynamic menus isn't going to take care of that that.

Then there's the issue of how you interact with the interface that either makes it easier to use, or allows you to find or do something faster. For instance, I find the TV screen in SageMC that has recent recordings and upcoming recordings incredibly useful. I'm not sure what other people do, but in my case a pretty significant amount of the time I'm watching something from that list, meaning I don't need to wade through my relatively long list of TV recordings. I hope Sage steals that idea in the Sage v7 interface.

[wrems]

I agree with Reggie. I don't necessarily want a flashier UI. I want a nice looking UI that functions well and has purpose. Clean and simple. That's what I like about the Ortus project. It seems very clean. This is the rub though. Do I want a nicer UI? Yes. Do I necessarily want Sage using resources to make a better UI? No, not really. I personally am happy with SageMC for the most part. The point is, if I want a different UI right now I can change it from the default no problem. If we wait a bit there will be even more options with Ortus and Phoenix. Let the Sage developers develop the architecture that would be most beneficial. Now I'm not saying that everyone will be in agreement with what's most beneficial but I see a need cablecard support.

[JetreL]

My votes were pretty simple:

• Develop a flashier, more graphically intensive UI.

Honestly, this is pretty low on my radar. My SageMC is pretty snazzy now just how it is.. I think they just need to make their current system more robust and easier to implement of what has been created by fellow enthusiast.

• Improve the music/video library system.

I can't stress this enough!! The current system just isn't efficient. I have over 10,000 songs and it's impossible to manage with the current system. Not to mention my DVD library where the "Directory View" is hit or miss.

• Create an official plug-in installer system, and online plug-in catalog.

This speaks for itself. I don't have a problem with adding plugins now but when I first started this was the biggest learning curve for me. Master this and the product will be more robust and consumer friendly!

• Other needs

I agree 100% with Decon, Make Sage multi-user and parent friendly. I came from ReplayTV and it was a really good canned system. To bad they were sued out of viability over Comskip.

Sage is a great product but I feel these items will make it that much better!

[farscapesg1]

Cablecard and the media library are my two major concerns Honestly... the lack of cablecard support is making me seriously consider moving to Media Center or drop the whole PVR aspect and go with the cable company DVR (or Uverse actually). Cablecard access is critical for SageTV in the near future I think. Especially as Comcast and other cable companies start moving away from analog and to "all digital" media. Considering I'm down to just the local channels for QAM in my area... it needed to be released yesterday

The media library is secondary on my list. There needs to be more controls for managing/restricting content as noted by Deacon Crusher. This is something many people have mentioned over the years and I've pretty much given up on it though.

[doncote0]

I wish that placeshifter could work with my iPhone.

Please create a SageTV client for iPhones. If any other smart phone user also needs a client, they should speak up now.

(You should have an unlimited data plan to use this.)

I would not mind paying extra for the privledge of using SageTV on my iPhone. I would expect it to be on par with the normal client access license plus the cost for the iPhone app itself (total cost about 1.5 to 2 times the normal license cost).

[logsvp]

I voted for "Create an official plug-in installer system, and online plug-in catalog." To my mind this is the one thing that would allow users to get more out of SageTV. At the moment it is far too complicated, time consuming and potentially error prone adding in plug-ins. The lack of this functionality is the one single thing that stops Users maximising the benefits of SageTV, I know this applies to me

[APillowOfClouds]

I would like to see a few things:

• My biggest - give a prompt when scheduling a manual recording of which other shows it would conflict with instead of having to add it as a favorite so it doesn't override things and then see if it actually records or go back in other screens and look at the schedule. If I want to record 1 particular episode of a show i don't want to clog up my favorites with it and I want to know if I'm pre-empting another recording that I care about.
• Allow for storage of meta information with shows to decentralize wiz.bin info and allow for easier recovery after crashes as well as easier moving of files and integration of content from other sources into the "recorded shows" section
• Allow the instant and easy cancelling of a scheduled recording rather than just having to mark it 'watched' or the like and wait for it to disappear
• Prompt on playback of TV shows whether to restart them from the beginning if they have been partially watched