iPad/iPod/iPhone application: TiSageTV

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by appelm

1) it doesn't remember the last sort order..

In 1.26 it does, for most.

2) When I play something on my extender, I'd like to quickly be able to jump to the remote screen.

In Landscape mode it is there...

Alternatively, it could jump to the remote screen automatically when I play a video.

I do that for Live TV, and have been inclined to do it for the Play too...

3) To play a program, I have to click on the name.. clicking on the thumbnail should have the same result but it doesn't.

That was changed in 1.21.

[Fonceur]

Version 1.28

- The Play and Watch buttons now also change to the Status tab on the iPod/iPhone.
- [iPad] The Play and Watch buttons now also change to the Remote screen.
- [iPad] Moved some items from the left navigation button to the right one.


Version 1.27

- Detailed view of a Playlist item would crash on the iPod/iPhone.
- Fix: The iPad in landscape mode had a hole where the toolbar would be in portrait mode.
- Fix: The iPad reported "Not connected" on launch.
- Provide a quick access to change the Server from its connection state icon.
- [iPad] Added back the Power button to the Remote.
- [iPad] Removed the tab bars to match more closely the iPod/iPhone navigation.


Version 1.26

- Keep track of last accessed Server/Client.
- Keep track of most sort preferences.
- Slightly reduced the font size of the iPhone/iPod menus.
- Slightly shifted the connection state icons to the right.
- The "Sort by date" did not properly handle long titles.


Version 1.25

- Made the thumbnail placeholder transparent for the lists.
- Increased the size of the thumbnails on the iPad.
- Improved the handling of multiple Genre separated by ",".


Version 1.24

- Forced a reset to default Settings.
- Increased the number of Servers to 3.
- Get the list of available Clients from the server. (SageTCPServer 2.1.2+)
- TV guide now displays 4 days of data (optional 0 to 10 extra days).
- Deletion operations are now disabled by default.
- Can now password protect the Server/Client.

[appelm]

A few things:

-I'm not seeing any thumbnails on videos or tv recordings
-I'm missing videos, specifically recently added videos. Is there possibly a 1090 cap on number of videos?
-The search letters on the right in title view are very hard to read.
-I'm still getting occasional crashes. Will try to outline how to reproduce.

Thanks!

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by appelm

-I'm not seeing any thumbnails on videos or tv recordings

Locally too? Are you able to stream? In SageTV\SageTV\Logs, check the Phoenix and sagex logs...

-I'm missing videos, specifically recently added videos. Is there possibly a 1090 cap on number of videos?

No there are no limits. I am getting the feeling that I might have forgotten to put back the re-sync button... Worse case, go to settings and delete the local database, it should resync fine the next time you visit the Videos page.

-The search letters on the right in title view are very hard to read.

Right, I'm using the default which probably isn't that great on an iPad.

[appelm]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Locally too? Are you able to stream? In SageTV\SageTV\Logs, check the Phoenix and sagex logs...


No there are no limits. I am getting the feeling that I might have forgotten to put back the re-sync button... Worse case, go to settings and delete the local database, it should resync fine the next time you visit the Videos page.


Right, I'm using the default which probably isn't that great on an iPad.

I see thumbnails in SageTV.. I just don't see them in TiSage the way I did yesterday on the older version. I just tried to stream and no, it doesn't seem to work. Worked fine a couple of days ago.. I streamed on my ipad without a problem.

I tried wiping the local database and tiSage hung. I had to close it using the ios close program operation. When I visit videos, it hasn't refreshed.

Thanks..

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by appelm

I just don't see them in TiSage the way I did yesterday on the older version. I just tried to stream and no, it doesn't seem to work.

Sounds like the jetty's port is blocked or changed...

I tried wiping the local database and tiSage hung. I had to close it using the ios close program operation. When I visit videos, it hasn't refreshed.

It didn't hang, it's just very inefficient as it deletes one item at a time and the "please wait" thingy isn't working for some reason.

[appelm]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Sounds like the jetty's port is blocked or changed...


It didn't hang, it's just very inefficient as it deletes one item at a time and the "please wait" thingy isn't working for some reason.

Yep.. had the wrong jetty port...


Wiped the database and waited for it to finish this time... now everything is fine.. I have all my latest videos..

[Fonceur]

I have updated the wiki and replaced the images that were not showing the blue theme or the latest refinements...

[wayner]

I haven't had a chance to use this app in a few weeks but it looks like it has really advanced - great job.

A few comments/suggestions - these are from an iPad user:
In the guide it only shows channels from one lineup - I have and SD cable lineup, an HD cable lineup and an OTA lineup but this app only sees the SD cable lineup.
Streaming doesn't always seem to work - it was working for me then it stopped.
I get a Phishing warning from iPad whenever I try to stream.
Video library still seems to not display all shows, can we have a browse by folder option?
Any clean way of exiting out of a stream in Safari to get back to the app?
It would be nice if the UI for this app was more consistent with one of the Sage UIs, even the default UI. *Is that possible?
In TV recordings screen it would be nice to see TV show banners rather than titles.
It would be nice to see the number of shows in the TV shows screen.
Photos do you really need this? *If so then how about a screen show and rotation options?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by wayner

In the guide it only shows channels from one lineup

Hmm, it's supposed to be merging all the lineups together...

Streaming doesn't always seem to work - it was working for me then it stopped.

Keep in mind that the iOS streaming plugin does not support all the file format, for example you can't stream a DVD... Are you still seeing the images that haven't been cached yet?

I get a Phishing warning from iPad whenever I try to stream.

Right, because the jetty web server is password protected, so the username/password is sent each time. You either need to set Safari to ignore it, or agree each time.

Video library still seems to not display all shows, can we have a browse by folder option?

There is one, it simply doesn't work too good, as Apple doesn't provide any kind of file browser functionality, they consider it an archaic way of browsing files...

Any clean way of exiting out of a stream in Safari to get back to the app?

If you tap the video playback, you get a Done button... You can press the Home button on the iPad to close Safari... Since we're starting an external app, there isn't much control over the process...

It would be nice if the UI for this app was more consistent with one of the Sage UIs, even the default UI. *Is that possible?

And how would you make that consistency on the iPad and iPhone?

In TV recordings screen it would be nice to see TV show banners rather than titles.

What do you mean?

It would be nice to see the number of shows in the TV shows screen.

Well, you see it in the screen before it, but I guess on the iPad there's enough room to show it too...

Photos do you really need this? *If so then how about a screen show and rotation options?

Well, someone is looking at doing a wall view with some rescaling and such, so that would probably work better in that context.

[MacDaddy]

I am really liking this app. I find that when I'm away from my trusty recliner, that I grab my iPhone/TiSage rather than walking back to the remote. I use this and iPeng (for my music) the most of all my iPhone apps. Man, I wish Sage could get an interface as slick as iPeng for music. But I digress....

I know your plate is overloaded, but thought I would add a few more requests and hope not to break it.

1) Keyboard support for the remote screens. Not so much the full keyboard, just the alphabet. Although having cursor, enter, backspace and insert/delete would be nice:-)

2) Pop-up message on extender power down. More a really nice-to-have. When I see that the kiddos are still watching past bed time, I can send them a "go to bed" message before turning off the extender.

3) Recent/Upcoming Recordings snapshot. Something on the status screen that could give a similar display to what the Context Sensitive Main Menu from tmiranda does.

4) Push notification of Sage Alerts. This way I could know for certain my SA3250 has gone into grey screen mode.

Thanks again for this great app.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy

1) Keyboard support for the remote screens.

Well, SageTCPServer does support it, as I think it's used by my CQC plugin (or maybe another app). I'll see what I can do when I look at the remote enhancements...

2) Pop-up message on extender power down. More a really nice-to-have. When I see that the kiddos are still watching past bed time, I can send them a "go to bed" message before turning off the extender.

Not sure how easy it would be to interface with the existing plugin that does that...

3) Recent/Upcoming Recordings snapshot. Something on the status screen that could give a similar display to what the Context Sensitive Main Menu from tmiranda does.

The iPad does have some extra room, but has it's orientation-dependent, that is something tricky...

4) Push notification of Sage Alerts. This way I could know for certain my SA3250 has gone into grey screen mode.

Sounds reasonable, but probably tricky to have it show on any screen...

[MacDaddy]

Push notification - I was thinking that a badge would show up on TiSage with the number of alerts. The alerts themselves are already on the Status screen.

[wayner]

@fonceur - I only use this app on an iPad so I don't worry about what it will look like on an iPhone.

I would think it would be very useful if the screen in TiSageTV was pretty similar to the Main Menu in Sage. So instead of having Information, Live TV, Recordings, etc you would have TV, Videos, etc with Setup on the bottom. Can you do multiple-level menus on iOS the way that Sage does them?

Am I correct in assume that you can only stream SD files? It looks like 1080i MPEG2 and h.264 files won't stream?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by wayner

@fonceur - I only use this app on an iPad so I don't worry about what it will look like on an iPhone.

Right, but for me it's more important to have consistency between the iPhone/iPod/iPad/Android devices than with a specific STV...

So instead of having Information, Live TV, Recordings, etc you would have TV, Videos, etc with Setup on the bottom.

The problem is that I don't offer all those sub-menus, so it doesn't really make sense to try to match it...

Can you do multiple-level menus on iOS the way that Sage does them?

No.

Am I correct in assume that you can only stream SD files? It looks like 1080i MPEG2 and h.264 files won't stream?

That's a question for the iOS streaming plugin thread, but HD-PVR 1080i recordings are known to have many issues...

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

That's a question for the iOS streaming plugin thread, but HD-PVR 1080i recordings are known to have many issues...

But it also looks like 1080i MPEG2 files from OTA tuners also have issues.

[ukmgranger]

Great work Fonceur!!

I have just downloaded the app to both my iPhone4 & my iPad. I have to say that I am impressed with the functionality. I didn't expect it to be so capable!

Price point wise - I think that you have it right as it is a niche product.

What I would like you to improve on is the general design (using version 1.28).

The current design (IMO) neither looks like sage or an IOS app, and as such struggles slightly. I also think that the remote area looks very dated in its design.

I have attached three screen caps of apps that (again in my opinion) have a much more slick interface with regards to the remote area. The apps being 'Keymote' & Rowmote Pro'. They generally have a more 'pixel perfect' design.

Although the design won't enhance the actual functionality of the app, I do think that it would help to have a higher quality look and 'feel' to the app.

Keep up the GREAT work!! It is this kind of development that keeps SageTV alive in my eyes.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by ukmgranger

I also think that the remote area looks very dated in its design.

Well, it's trying to match the IR remote so people are not completely loss...

I have attached three screen caps of apps that (again in my opinion) have a much more slick interface with regards to the remote area.

I took a look, but those have like 1/5th to 1/3rd the buttons of TiSageTV's remote, so of course it's easier to space things out...

The other thing is that I haven't made any of the graphics myself, as I know that I suck at it... The icons come from some free web sites, while the remote was contributed by an ex-colleague. Someone had volunteered about 6 months ago to do the UI design, but he never came through...

[panteragstk]

Any chance of making this app airplay compatible?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Any chance of making this app airplay compatible?

I don't think that's the airplay you had in mind, that one is to develop multi-platform app in C++...

As for this AirPlay, it seems inefficient to stream in to the iOS device, just to stream back out to an AppleTV or such...