Help! Which UI can do these few key things?

[ChuckSchick]

Hi guys,

I've been sitting for a few years on a version 6 SageMC install that has worked flawlessly. I'm taking this holiday respite to build a new server and refresh the works. No problems thus far with the build, but now I'm playing around with the various UI's and there is a huge discrepancy between my knowledge level and where the community is at today.

I seek help. I have a small children and I need to maintain a similar ui to where I was with my custom-menu'd-mc build. The key components that I need to maintain are...

1) There must be a "Kid's Movies" "Holiday Movies" & "Movies" selection on the main menu screen (each pointing to a particular folders on the network)
2) It must work reasonably well with HD100's. (I've a mix of 100's and 200's)
3) Wife requested that there be an ABCDEF quick jump thingy available as it was on the right side of the screen in MC v6.

That's really it. I've done quick looks at phoenix & gemstone and they are beautiful. I'm not seeing much activity in the SageMC board so I haven't tried it yet.

Can anyone save me from running down some dead ends and point me in the right direction?

Much Thanks in Advance!

Chuck

Details of setup: Uber Mega Core Ultra RAM Server Mark XIV, blah blah. 2x HD-PVR's on DirecTV recievers, HTTP tuning, Media on UNRAID server in discrete directories: "Family Movies", "General Movies", "Holiday Movies", "German Scheisse Fest", etc.

[Fuzzy]

Best bet right now is gemstone. You can set up any number of 'Flows', which are specific views that can be filtered down to just about any criteria (folder, being one of them). You can then have menu items point directly to specific views - just as you want. The letter search isn't the same as in SageMC, but in some ways is better. By default, once in a 'Flow', typing a letter (associated number on the remote) will jump to that letter in the list. There is an option to change it from JumpTo to Filter, in which case, instead of jumping to a spot in the current list, it further filters down the list to show just what you've typed.

I have found my small children much prefer the gemstone screens mainly because of their focus on fanart, which is easier for them to navigate than just words.

[ChuckSchick]

Is Gemstone reasonably swift on an HD100 or HD200?

Thanks for the point in the right direction.

[Fuzzy]

I've never owned either, so I can't really say.

[ChuckSchick]

I appreciate your time.

I'm rolling with it on a test HD200 now, so far it's pretty responsive. I can always go stock on the HD100's as they aren't used as much.

The "Flows" are cool. Exactly what I need.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by ChuckSchick

I appreciate your time.

I'm rolling with it on a test HD200 now, so far it's pretty responsive. I can always go stock on the HD100's as they aren't used as much.

The "Flows" are cool. Exactly what I need.

Phoenix UI all the way. U can set up your own VFS views and menus, as well as quick searching/filtering u r looking for. I run Phoenix on hd200s and hd300s, but don't own a 100 sorry.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Phoenix UI all the way. U can set up your own VFS views and menus, as well as quick searching/filtering u r looking for. I run Phoenix on hd200s and hd300s, but don't own a 100 sorry.

My single biggest problem with the Phoenix UI is that it is a complete UI replacement, so you lose all the potential of the already generated, and future generated, plugins. I did run it for a while until gemstone was really ready, but I think the fact that gemstone is still based on the default STV, and therefore, compatible with most of the other plugins in the repository, makes a pretty big difference.