P3 beta testing feedback

[bialio]

If you are editing the a view in x-vfs.xml, you need this line to include only home videos:

<filter by="homevideos" scope="include"/>

so you just add that into the view definition:

      <view name="phoenix.view.custom.homevidoesbyfilesystem" label="Home Videos by Folder" flat="false">
         <option name="children-only" value="true"/>
         <description>Home Videos Filesystem View</description>
         <tag value="video"/>
         <tag value="default"/>
         <source name="sagefilesystem">
            <option name="content" value="VideosByFolder"/>
         </source>
         <filter by="homevideos" scope="include"/>
         <presentation>
            <sort by="title">
               <option name="folders-first" value="true"/>
            </sort>
         </presentation>
      </view>

The final trick is that you have to put this view in a different file than x-vfs.xml. I'm not sure where this file is supposed to go however, I used to know but it's one of the many things I've forgotten in life. I think @stuckless will be able to answer that though.

btl.

[KarylFStein]

Well, I read the sticky on creating views and it said userdata/Phoenix/vfs/xxx.xml. Looks like it's loading.

[KarylFStein]

Well, now I get more about the hub-bub is about VFS; it's pretty neat. Here's what I went with and working as desired:

<!DOCTYPE vfs SYSTEM "vfs.dtd">
<vfs>
	<tags>
		<tag value="folder" label="Folder View"/>
	</tags>
	<views>
		<view name="phoenix.view.custom.homevideosbyfolder" label="Home Videos By Folder" flat="false">
			<option name="children-only" value="true"/>
			<description>View of Home Videos by Folder</description>
			<tag value="homevideos"/>
			<tag value="folder"/>
			<view-source name="phoenix.view.default.videofolders"/>
			<filter by="homevideos" scope="include"/>
		</view>
	</views>
</vfs>

I think the problem I'm having with P3 is whether you want to have list or grid mode, (personally I'd like to mix those based on TV and movies). I've moved P3 to the main screen in list mode because I like it and we'll see what others think, but there are several consistency issues especially with right and left button presses. I believe those are hard to address if you're looking at a single option to handle both modes. For example the main menu is list, but submenus do not follow the same standard with right (nothing) and left (back) clicks. Right should IMHO drill down if available.

[bialio]

Very Nice! VFS is super cool, and super flexible. What we really need is a nice graphical tool to build views. That's always been in the 'backlog' but like Sweet Brown says, ain't nobody got time for that!

[bialio]

I think the problem I'm having with P3 is whether you want to have list or grid mode, (personally I'd like to mix those based on TV and movies).

In PhoenixLite it's sticky - so whatever view you select for each menu item is used the next time that view is loaded.

I believe those are hard to address if you're looking at a single option to handle both modes. For example the main menu is list, but submenus do not follow the same standard with right (nothing) and left (back) clicks. Right should IMHO drill down if available.

SO - I agree, and I think if you try out PLite you'll find it more consistent in that regard that P3 - it has a simplified menu, and a better list implementation.

The only thing it really doesn't have that P3 has is weather backgrounds and an EPG.

btl.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by bialio

In PhoenixLite it's sticky - so whatever view you select for each menu item is used the next time that view is loaded.



SO - I agree, and I think if you try out PLite you'll find it more consistent in that regard that P3 - it has a simplified menu, and a better list implementation.

The only thing it really doesn't have that P3 has is weather backgrounds and an EPG.

btl.

My kids use the EPG a bit. I think if it could get sorted by channel name that'd help. Right now it's too difficult to navigate. I don't know how all this gets put together, but is it possible to have the EPG view from P3 as an optional view in PLite?

[bialio]

Sorting by channel name is not supported at the moment. In fact you can't sort the Live TV views at all right now - this is fixed but it requires an update to the phoenix-core. @stuckless is going to push that out this weekend also when he publishes the phoenix3 update.

Once THAT is in, you'll be able to sort the LiveTV view by Channel Number, Title, Original Air Date, and maybe a few others. I'll see if I can get a Channel Name added into that (I just added Channel Number, so it should be a relatively easy task to create a new sorter for Channel Name).

So if your kids are just looking for something that is on right NOW in the EPG - this would work. If they are trying to find something to watch in 3 hours, then we'll have to figure something else out...

[KarylFStein]

Sorry, I meant channel number. We have things set up with logical "numbers" like SPORTS-xxxx to group things. They're just worried about "right now" browsing.

[bialio]

OK - it'll be interesting to see how the sort works with channels like that. I tried to make robust enough, but a normal alphabetical sort isn't enough since you want channels 5.1 before 40.2. So there is a lot of logic that looks at the major / minor number and tries to be intelligent. But your naming scheme might break it...

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

Sorry, I meant channel number. We have things set up with logical "numbers" like SPORTS-xxxx to group things. They're just worried about "right now" browsing.

I didn't know channel numbers could be alphanumeric.
How do you enter channels numbers with your remote if you want to jump to a certain channel in the guide?

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I didn't know channel numbers could be alphanumeric.
How do you enter channels numbers with your remote if you want to jump to a certain channel in the guide?

I don't think my kids ever used that. They tend to Pg Up/Down through the guide. And if say a couple games are on at the same time that they want to watch they'll tune both and then use the Prev button to switch between them. (They refuse to record sports which drives me nuts, but they're texting and doing social media things about the games.)

[bialio]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

Well, now I get more about the hub-bub is about VFS; it's pretty neat. Here's what I went with and working as desired...

You inspired me to write a new View @KarylFStein! It's all the sports content that is on Today

<!DOCTYPE vfs SYSTEM "vfs.dtd">
<vfs>

   <filters>
      <item-group name="sportstoday" label="Sports Today" mode="and">
         <filter by="date" value="" />
         <filter by="genre" value="sports.*">
            <option name="use-regex-matching" value="true" />
         </filter>
         <tag value="epg" />
      </item-group>
   </filters>
   
   <views>
      <view name="phoenix.view.bialio.airings24" label="Future Airings (24 hours)" flat="true" visible="false">
         <description>24 hours of airings</description>
         <tag value="epg" />
         <source name="expression">
            <option name="expression">GetAiringsOnViewableChannelsAtTime(java_lang_System_currentTimeMillis(), java_lang_System_currentTimeMillis() + (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000), true)</option>
         </source>
      </view>
	  
      <view name="phoenix.view.bialio.todayssports" label="Sports Today" flat="false">
         <option name="children-only" value="true" />
         <description>Sports on later today</description>
         <tag value="epg" />
         <view-source name="phoenix.view.bialio.airings24" />
         <view-source name="phoenix.view.primary.currentlyairing" />
         <filter by="sportstoday" />
		 
         <presentation level="1">
            <sort by="starttime" />
         </presentation>
      </view>
   </views>
   
</vfs>

[KarylFStein]

Ooo, that'll be useful

[bialio]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

Ooo, that'll be useful

Made one tweak - the version above was only returning future sports shows. This gets it to include currently airing ones also.

         <view-source name="phoenix.view.bialio.airings24" />
         <view-source name="phoenix.view.primary.currentlyairing" />
         <filter by="sportstoday" />

[Taddeusz]

I've got a few problems/suggestions. I've been trying to start using Phoenix 3 because it's so much nicer to look at and I like how recorded TV and imported TV are shown together.

1. Is there a search function? If not that would be very helpful.
2. The "Commercials Skipped" message that pops up in the middle of the screen is annoying to us. Any way to get rid of it or have an option to disable it? Also, I don't have logs available but the automatic blind skipping seems to work or not work inconsistently.
3. When stopping playback of an episode or deleting an episode that you just finished playing it jumps to the top of the list of shows rather than going back to the list of the show's episodes. This is rather annoying when you're trying to binge watch a show.

[bialio]

Generically speaking I'd say use PheonixLite - it is basically P3 visually, and your #3 issue is fixed there. I do not plan on fixing that in P3 - the code is too complex.

1) Search - the only search available is one that lets you filter a folder down to all the shows that start with a certain letter. You use the numbers on the remote to do this.

2) "Commercials Skipped" - I'll make that configurable. I'm not sure about the consistency issue - I don't let it skip commercials for me (I prefer manually) so it's not a feature I see in action ever. I'll do some testing.

[bialio]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

The "Commercials Skipped" message that pops up in the middle of the screen is annoying to us. Any way to get rid of it or have an option to disable it? Also, I don't have logs available but the automatic blind skipping seems to work or not work inconsistently.

Hey - does the code in the comskip plugin (regarding autocomskip) for the default STV work pretty well? If so I might just try to port that to to P3/PLite instead of trying to figure out why the Phoenix UI version doesn't work...

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by bialio

Hey - does the code in the comskip plugin (regarding autocomskip) for the default STV work pretty well? If so I might just try to port that to to P3/PLite instead of trying to figure out why the Phoenix UI version doesn't work...

Yes, I've never had any trouble with it.

[Taddeusz]

I'm not an STV programmer so I'm not sure how easy it would be to create a plug-in for Phoenix 3 or if it can be added to the main STV. There's a plugin for the default STV to add a sleep timer that we use nearly every night.

We used to just put the TV on QAM cable and let the TV shut itself off but Cox encrypted everything so we can't do that any more and I've not been in any kind of hurry to disturb our antenna signal to run to the TV's when we can just watch through SageTV. If we use the sleep timer on our TV and play live TV then it will just be "recording" all night until someone stops it the next morning.

I'd like to switch to Phoenix 3 or Phoenix Lite but for our bedroom the sleep timer is a show stopper.

[bialio]

I'll take a look. Probably not that hard to add it.