How to tell if a program is currently recording

[tangfj]

I think it would be nice to have something more visual in Sage Recordings to tell that something is recording. The outline of the box, for me, is not enough to tell how it was recorded (intelligent or favorite) and whether or not it is currently recording.

Personally, I think the way Tivo has their visuals setup is good (with the dot on the left of the show, red indicating that it is currently recording). Anyone else think that something like this could be useful?

Right now the only things that really stand out to me are the recordings that I scheduled manually, which are of course outlined in red.

[DFranch]

I know you are looking for something in the sage recording menu, but if you go to system information in the setup menu it will tell you what is currently recording.

[tangfj]

Yeah I know about that, but really don't want to go to the system information menu everytime I want to know what is recording. It would also be nice to be able to sort alphabetically and have a currently recording folder always at the top of the list. Then when you go into that folder you can see what programs are currently being recorded.

[DFranch]

I thought you could sort the sage recordings by title now in .16.

[tangfj]

You can sort by title, but it also takes the stuff that's currently being recorded and also sorts it in the list. So, for example if I have South Park currently being recorded and I sort by title then when I go into Recordings, South Park is where it should be on the list (near the bottom).

What I am suggesting is to have whatever is currently being recorded at the top in a folder called "Currently Recording" and then have the rest of the shows sorted by title or however you want to sort them.

[SprDtyF350]

I also think it would be nice to quickly know if a show is recording. There are lots of times that something I have as a Favorite may be on, I will be watching it live, and I want to be able to quickly see if the recording started so my kids can watch later. What about a big red dot or something in the info display? Don't want to have to exit the show, and look in another menu to check. I know they are color coded red, yellow, etc. but it just doesn't seem as obvious as a big red dot.

Randy

[toadtown]

Yeah, a big red dot like on BTV. I like that big red dot idea too.

Steven

[edmc]

tangfj> ...(with the dot on the left of the show, red indicating that it is currently recording).
toadtown> Yeah, a big red dot like on BTV. I like that big red dot idea too.

I concur. On my display, the narrow outline, regardless of color, on a number of animations is hard to see (e.g. the black outline on the OSD when viewing a recording in progress, the white/yellow/red outline in the various program listings to indicate favorite/viewing/record, etc...).

Indeed, the switch to Bold Fonts has helped alot. The difference between Bold and Bold/Italics (to distinguish between NotWatched and Watched) is, however, not very visible.

I'm sure these changes seem unnecessary to folks with nice/sharp HD displays, but for me, anyway, my 40" LCD RPTV is a bit fuzzy :-(.

As for that "big red dot", it is the same on ReplayTV. I would submit that this convention is a defacto standard and SageTV might want to leverage such...

[kny3twalker]

Why do a big red dot, when everyone else is doing it?
Why not color the text red, increased the size/thickness or boldness and color
you could color coordinate all the text and when something is "watched" black could used as the text color

[SprDtyF350]

I don't necessarily think it has to be a red dot. That was just a thought. Making the red, yellow, etc. line that surrounds the info thicker/bolder would serve the same purpose for me at least. Just would be nice to be able to have it do a better job of grabbing your attention then the present hardly visible way.

Randy

[RAlfieri]

Originally posted by kny3twalker
Why do a big red dot, when everyone else is doing it?
Why not color the text red, increased the size/thickness or boldness and color
you could color coordinate all the text and when something is "watched" black could used as the text color

It is always better to follow a de facto adopted interface standard for ease of usability than to stray. BeyondTV was smart to do this since XP Media Center also follows this convention.

Cheers,
Rob

[tangfj]

I agree with Rob, why do something different and confuse people when you can do what is and has been widely accepted. There is obviously evidence in this thread that people would rather have it done differently or at least have the option to change the way their recordings menu looks.

[Crowdx42]

For multi tuner users I think that a recording info screen on the screen showing all that is being recorded would be a huge help. Currently I get a lot of flack from my wife when I try to go looking for info on what is being recorded. The thing Sage needs to remember that in a family situation stuff like this annoys the non computer viewers and so can affect Sage's popularity.
My wife;s current saying is "I love it BUT I HATE IT" , she gripes when shows don't get recorded correct or when I am trying to find something on the menus, but she admits that without it we would not be able to watch a lot of our current shows. An example being Angel re-runs which are being bounced to a late night slot due to NBA stuff, they can't even keep a constant time slot and with overtime in play we ended up missing the end of one show. Not Sage's fault at all but for her it was very annoying cause she "believed" the show was there until we went to view it.
My main need for a quick view of what is recording is to make sure while we are watching a show that all the priority favorites are actually getting recorded.
Another info screen which seems missing is a screen which tells the user if there is a problem while recording, an example is the post I did the other day about Whoopie being vut up and a lot of the show missed, Sage should give an onscreen error display if something like this occurs. That way it tells a family viewer if there is a problem and not need the family geek to look through log files to see what happened.
Patrick

[kny3twalker]

There could also be on the main menu a text message that can be turn on and off with the display button and personally I think still like the ccolored text idea but if a recording gets messed up I think there should be a recording error symbol with its info

[Maladin]

Originally posted by tangfj
I agree with Rob, why do something different and confuse people when you can do what is and has been widely accepted.

Someone please tell that to Microsoft.

-- Maladin "gratuitous changes r us"