Sage College Project- UI project for Nvidia Shield

[CollegeProject]

Hello all! I had to have a project to do to get my degree in college. I was able to get my UI project for SageTV approved. This project Scope is limited due to the time frame but my goals are to incorporate a custom UI for TV, Guide, Recorded TV etc (everything on the TV side) for use on the Nvidia Shield. Using stuckless hard work porting it I hope to make it more user friendly for myself and hopefully others. This will be a very simplistic UI with minimal customization. The driver will be TV as I believe other media is met better these days with other programs. (IE plex or kodi for movies etc). I am a cord cutter and plan on using this for my OTA reception, recording and playback.

Below are my goals for this project as submitted to my professor.

The UI and API should meet the following goals
• Better overall UI for ShieldTV operation
• Work well with ShieldTV’s limited remote capabilities
• Simple navigation within UI
• Graphically pleasing using existing BMT metadata scraper for SageTV
• Include Guide, Live TV, Recorded TV and managing of said recordings.
• Provide grouping by user defined method (by tv show , by date, etc.)
• Filtering by user defined method (newest, watched, unwatched, next episode, etc.)
• Sorting by user defined method (Newest, oldest, etc.)
• Use existing third party API’s and add-ins’ in addition to custom API as needed.

Anyways just a quick introduction for myself. I have 3 months to complete this project if I want to graduate. (And believe me I do!!) So nothing to show or say yet but progress should go quickly given my time to complete.

I am open to feedback right now on the following in regards to the UI

• What is missing from sagetv ui currently when using it on shield?
• What features must be present for it to be worth it?
• Do you agree or disagree that less options/customization means more simplicity? (Think apple tv, one of sage's pluses are it's customization but it is also a weakness to the average user).
• Any changes need to accommodate the limited shield remote that you see?

This will work on anything running sage obviously as it will be built in Studio and Java but will be geared to just TV.

Feel post UI pictures you like for TV from any device. This is a limited to window to help me form the UI before I start diagramming it out soon.

Cheers and I look forward to the project greatly!

SageCollegeProject

[tmiranda]

Good luck. I'm interested to see what a "young mind" comes up with.

My advice would be to not solicit too much advice. Do what you think will be appealing to users.

I do agree there is an inverse relationship between customizations and simplicity. But there is a direct relationship between customizations and power. Find the right balance and you'll make a million dollars

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

My advice would be to not solicit too much advice.

Best advice ever. For any situation.

[DarkWolf77]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Best advice ever. For any situation.

Yes, I agree! I've seen Android projects go totally off the rails because of developers wanting to satisfy everyone no matter how niche their request is. Feature creep is a big problem!

Edit: Forgot to add, I'd happily be a guinea pig for you if you want one. I've been wanting to do the same but my time is at a premium these days, so picking up a fun project on the side hasn't been realistic.

[panteragstk]

I'd gladly help with testing.

Keep it simple and user friendly. If it's obvious enough for my grandparents to use, then it'll work.

[PiX64]

Good luck!

I am also available to test.

A nice addition. Might be to include live channels (native Android TV) integration and quick access to SageTV ui you build. -- see the beta HDHR DVR app for Android TV for example.

Also Nougat is supposedly going to have direct DVR capabilities from within the live channels app.

Good luck and I'm def excited to see what you dream up!

[CollegeProject]

Thanks for all the feedback I will definitely let you know when I need testers.

As of now Pix I am doing STV with some java backend. My reasoning there is to keep the commercial skip. If I just build a native androidTV app then I could things like you suggest. I am torn on STV vs Native Android mostly because the benefits of android are:

1. Ui would be smoother and more fluid and more possibilities with native android.

2. I could better tie into default things like you mention Pix.
3. With native android you don't have the demand on the server for rendering.

But weighing that against commercial skip is a hard decision.

But I have started with STV but if I can't get some animation issues worked out I may move over to android native accessing sagedb.

[reggie14]

My 2 cents:

What is missing from sagetv ui currently when using it on shield?

Well, nothing is really missing in the UI, since I just run the same Gemstone configuration as my HD300s, but the lack of buttons on the remote certainly makes things harder to navigate and use.

What features must be present for it to be worth it?

I used the stock UI for a long time, since I don't particularly care about fan art and I found it mostly functional. But, what really pushed me to switch was the ability to combine recorded and imported content in a single interface while also separating TV shows and movies. DarkWolf77 has a really good point about feature creep, but this is certainly one thing I'd like to see. I'd really like to see an easily-accessible list of "recent recordings," too.

Do you agree or disagree that less options/customization means more simplicity? (Think apple tv, one of sage's pluses are it's customization but it is also a weakness to the average user).

I really think it makes more sense to spend time on a well-thought-out design than to try to allow a bunch of customization.

Any changes need to accommodate the limited shield remote that you see?

Definitely. This might be the biggest area of frustration I have with using the existing UIs on the Shield.

I think it's a really bad sign if you have to resort to using an on-screen remote to get to certain settings/functions/features. The existing UIs were all designed with a full remote control in mind. Gemstone, for instance, is pretty dependant on using the Option buttons for certain things. Playback controls are a bit of a pain without play/pause/RW/FW buttons. I think the Plex app is generally on the right track with playback controls and basic navigation.

Maybe there's just something weird about my setup, but my Shield is definitely not as responsive as my HD300. It's pretty good, but it makes things like scrolling through long lists of TV shows and movies pretty painful. This is exacerbated by the lack of a good way to quickly skip ahead using the number pad.

[panteragstk]

My shield is very responsive as far as sage is concerned. If we could get a FF, RW, pause, stop, play without the onscreen remote it would be perfect.

Or I could just try an external remote and see how that goes. I've never been a fan of having to hit select then find the function I'm looking for. Not too annoying considering all the other video apps on Android TV are similar, but if I can work around it I will.

[sacrament055]

Just a thought (don't know how well it works in practice)

What if the Shield remote were more context aware? So when you're playing a video and you push right on the controller (or remote) it fast forwards. Press it again in the same direction and it goes faster (like the multi speed FF).

Similarly press the center of the remote (select) to pause/play or hold the select button to stop.

This would allow you to get away with the default remote while still not having to fumble with figuring out FF/RW, Pause, Play, Stop

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

My shield is very responsive as far as sage is concerned. If we could get a FF, RW, pause, stop, play without the onscreen remote it would be perfect.

Or I could just try an external remote and see how that goes. I've never been a fan of having to hit select then find the function I'm looking for. Not too annoying considering all the other video apps on Android TV are similar, but if I can work around it I will.

Originally Posted by sacrament055

Just a thought (don't know how well it works in practice)

What if the Shield remote were more context aware? So when you're playing a video and you push right on the controller (or remote) it fast forwards. Press it again in the same direction and it goes faster (like the multi speed FF).

Similarly press the center of the remote (select) to pause/play or hold the select button to stop.

This would allow you to get away with the default remote while still not having to fumble with figuring out FF/RW, Pause, Play, Stop

The current shield remote for the Android MiniClient works that way today. It requires SageTV 9 since to make this happen the Server needs to sends "context" aware signals to the client.

The first post for the miniclient talks about the "smart mode" which is basically a context aware mode that changes the behaviour of the buttons when a video is playing.

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62439

I've been using the Shield Remote for several months now... I'm actually at the point where I like better than the full remote. The only time that I really go into the on screen nav is when I exit (ie, I long press and then select exit to kill the miniclient) and sometimes in gemstone when I need to go into an options menu.

[sacrament055]

Originally Posted by stuckless

The current shield remote for the Android MiniClient works that way today. It requires SageTV 9 since to make this happen the Server needs to sends "context" aware signals to the client.

The first post for the miniclient talks about the "smart mode" which is basically a context aware mode that changes the behaviour of the buttons when a video is playing.

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62439

I've been using the Shield Remote for several months now... I'm actually at the point where I like better than the full remote. The only time that I really go into the on screen nav is when I exit (ie, I long press and then select exit to kill the miniclient) and sometimes in gemstone when I need to go into an options menu.

I only have the game controller with my shield but didn't realize I could FF/RW within a video by pressing right or left. Is this on by default or do I need to select an option first?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by sacrament055

I only have the game controller with my shield but didn't realize I could FF/RW within a video by pressing right or left. Is this on by default or do I need to select an option first?

pretty sure it is on by default, but, it also requires a Sage 9 server. I should clarify that right/left when a video is playing will skip forward/back (not ff/rew), and if you long press hold right it will skip the commercial (if comskip is enabled).

Also, In a menu/list long pressing up/down will do page up/down.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by stuckless

pretty sure it is on by default, but, it also requires a Sage 9 server. I should clarify that right/left when a video is playing will skip forward/back (not ff/rew), and if you long press hold right it will skip the commercial (if comskip is enabled).

Also, In a menu/list long pressing up/down will do page up/down.

Really? That has never worked for me. That's one reason I put in a feature request for adding more bindings to the SHIELD controller. Maybe something in Gemstone is getting in the way? At any rate, a long press will just trigger the single press when you release.

On my tablet + BT keyboard, a long right arrow press will skip as expected. (Well, try at least--skipping is hit and miss when not on my LAN.)

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

Really? That has never worked for me. That's one reason I put in a feature request for adding more bindings to the SHIELD controller. Maybe something in Gemstone is getting in the way? At any rate, a long press will just trigger the single press when you release.

On my tablet + BT keyboard, a long right arrow press will skip as expected. (Well, try at least--skipping is hit and miss when not on my LAN.)

That is interesting... since I use Gemstone as well, and I use all the long press options, since I primarily added them for my use

[CollegeProject]

Been a slow go but I finally got most of my core code where I want and started building the UI. This is still very early and likely to change very much but figured I would give it a show for feedback.

Everything will be on the main menu there will be no submenu's for ease of use hopefully here is a small show of the tv.



The full resolution look better and is attached

[trk2]

Looks promising! So I think it may clean up the view a little bit if the TV show banners were a second horizontal list below the headings rather than a vertical list. Maybe the center banner could be more prominent to indicate it's the selected show with previous/next show shown to the left/right. The episodes can still be listed vertically, but it should leave more room to display the fanart and even episode information.

[Fuzzy]

It's busy. You need some sort of 'panels' around each of the lists. Something to soften the text-on-image effect.

[CollegeProject]

Figured I would share some new shots. Firstly thank you for JOrton for helping me out with images amazing job he does!

These menu's all slide out to the left as you go deeper you never leave one menu it's all sustained in one. The "color" on the slide outs changes based on what main menu item your on. There will also be a dark theme and of course it is them able if people see fit.

The header is still a WIP so it's absent in this screenshot but won't go all the way across the top. I am going for more of a "flat" android style look.

Feedback is welcome doesn't mean anything will change and everything can change drastically as function is tested (if you couldn't tell by the previous change)

Screenshots to follow.

[CollegeProject]