STV: Meekell Beta 0.3 Release (April 3, 2005)

[DIBU]

Hi, when i press the "Play all?" gadget in the album (jukebox) then i see the livetv stream and not the mp3's.

is this a bug or a feature?

greeting

[meekell]

Hi, when i press the "Play all?" gadget in the album (jukebox) then i see the livetv stream and not the mp3's.

is this a bug or a feature?

Well it's definitely not a feature...Thanks for pointing this out. You must be using the original play mode. I've also added a queue play mode which can be used if you are using SageTV v2.2. This has been the mode I've been using so I didn't notice that. It's been fixed.

[meekell]

meekell_alpha_0_4 Release Notes:

* Added: Genre toggle. This allows the user to filter the albums by genre. Select/Deselect the genres in the genre dropdown menu.
* Fixed: Albums wouldn't sort by Artist.
* Added: Search functionality added in the Music Jukebox. Can be accessed from the options menu, or the navigation jump bar found at the bottom of the jukebox. Once the search has narrowed the results you can clear the results by pressing the back button or using the back arrow on the leftmost tab.
* Fixed: Playall would go to TV if using the standard play mode in the jukebox.
* Added: Icons to the flyout menu. They can be replaced as long as the filename is preserved. I've included the icon set in the stv image folder.
* Fixed: I removed quite a bit of uneeded refreshing to the osd. This along with a couple other changes will hopefully stabalize the experience for those having problems during playback.
* Added: Setting Advanced->MVP Performance. When enabled this will do even less osd refreshing and painting allowing for quicker response time from the mvp.
* Fixed: Mini-guide wierdness. Onscreen miniguide will now stay in the correct time block when browsing the channels.
* Fixed: OSD displayed incorrect channel info. This seems to be a problem haunting me. Everytime I think I've fixed it it comes back. Hopefully it's gone know.
* Added: Lot's of UI improvements.
* Added: Manual comskip detection to the "More Options" menu. If commercials are already detected the button will display this and you will be prompted to redetect them.
* Removed: The recording schedule menu. Since the main menu has the list of upcoming recordings it seemed unecessary.
* Added: "Shows to Record" in the Recordings Menu. This takes you to the favorites manager.
* Added: "Smart Folders" button. This actually has been functional but is very inefficient so its functionality has been disabled for now.

There's probably some stuff I'm forgetting. I'll leave it up to you to spot it.

Pretty good sized update here. Let me know if the rendering and 350 output problems are still there (I know you will ).

[heffe2001]

* Fixed: OSD displayed incorrect channel info. This seems to be a problem haunting me. Everytime I think I've fixed it it comes back. Hopefully it's gone know.

Seems that it's still not 100% fixed. If I watch something on LiveTV, then say watch something recorded, then go back to live, I get the program info from whatever was on live when I switched. Happened to me tonight, and it was something from this afternoon.

The GUI improvements for speed and such seem to be working much better on my system, going to try turning on 3d & VMR9 and see how that runs now with the improvements.

[newmedia42]

This is my first time playing with you skin, and I must say it looks very cool! I did have the same problem someone mentioned earlier, that if you have a conflict every time you go to a page it pops up with the conflict resolution box... I think this is might actually be a bug in Sage though, here's why:

Normally I run the malore skin, which displays a little logo in the corner when there's a conflict. Normally I go into the conflict resolution, find the conflict that has the icon next to it, and solve it and in a minute or so the icon disappears from both the upper corner and that conflict (the conflict is still listed, but now it's resolved). Now here's where it gets interesting, this week I scheduled a manual recording which blocks a favorite recording, and a conflict shows up. Now, if I go into the conflict resolution page, it doesn't actually have an icon next to it, and if I look at the possible resolutions, it only offers cancel the manual recording. So until the manual recording is made, I'm stuck with a conflict icon on the display - if your logic to bring up the resolution is the same as what Sage uses to display that icon, then that's where the bug is (at least in my case).

The only other suggestions I would make is from the usability standpoint - it would be nice if the buttons mapped a bit more like the normal SageTV skins (ie; Home would bring you home, etc). I know that I can go back in and remap these, but I mean more from the first time experience using the skin, it was pretty confusing for me (of course, having the conflict resolution pop up ever screen didn't help much either).

Also, I would add a settings to the main menu - it took me a while to figure out how to bring up the options menu (at first I wasn't sure if it even had one), and I noticed other people have posted similar experiences.

Overall, it looks like it's going to be a VERY cool STV when it get's done, there are many aspects of it's approach that are quite a bit more intuitive and useful.

[meekell]

Normally I run the malore skin, which displays a little logo in the corner when there's a conflict. Normally I go into the conflict resolution, find the conflict that has the icon next to it, and solve it and in a minute or so the icon disappears from both the upper corner and that conflict (the conflict is still listed, but now it's resolved). Now here's where it gets interesting, this week I scheduled a manual recording which blocks a favorite recording, and a conflict shows up. Now, if I go into the conflict resolution page, it doesn't actually have an icon next to it, and if I look at the possible resolutions, it only offers cancel the manual recording. So until the manual recording is made, I'm stuck with a conflict icon on the display - if your logic to bring up the resolution is the same as what Sage uses to display that icon, then that's where the bug is (at least in my case).

I'm handling conflicts the same as the Originalv2 for now. I'm hoping to address this issue one way or another soon. You can disable the popup for now in the Advanced settings menu for now - conflicts are displayed on the main menu instead.

The only other suggestions I would make is from the usability standpoint - it would be nice if the buttons mapped a bit more like the normal SageTV skins (ie; Home would bring you home, etc). I know that I can go back in and remap these, but I mean more from the first time experience using the skin, it was pretty confusing for me (of course, having the conflict resolution pop up ever screen didn't help much either).

What's mapped differently? The home button should always take you to the "home" screen. Specific suggestions are always welcome. For the next release I'll default the conflict popup disabled. I didn't realize how many Sage users have conflict res problems.

[DIBU]

WOW the different between 3.5 and 4 is great. fixes fixes fixes..GREAT JOB

i have no problem with this STV and 2.2.3

This STV is easy to handle an it looks very god.

i hope in the next version is the news-feed. than i very happy.


greeting from germany.

i will test the stv in the next days

[meekell]

WOW the different between 3.5 and 4 is great. fixes fixes fixes..GREAT JOB

i have no problem with this STV and 2.2.3

This STV is easy to handle an it looks very god.

i hope in the next version is the news-feed. than i very happy.

I'm glad to hear that it's working great for you. The next version won't have news-feeds because it is ready to go. I plan on posting it later today. However, I do plan on incorporating RSS news feeds in the near future.

[Crashless]

Everything with the STV is looking great, and working perfectly for me.

Everything that is, except my PVR350 that is. I"m still losing it withing a few minutes. Would a log help you? I could try force/quitting sage on a crash so the cause is almost at the end of the log.

If there's anything at all I can do to help, please let me know. Is anyone else having this problem?

BTW, the MVP enhancement is AWESOME! Very smart work-around to increase responsiveness. I tried using it with my 350, but to no avail. But for the MVP, it's an amazing solution.

[julesjohn]

Just wondering for the options throughout this STV what IR remote value is everyone using to access these? I have the 45 button Hauppauge Silver remote. No buttons are programmed for options at the moment. Appreciate it!

[meekell]

Just wondering for the options throughout this STV what IR remote value is everyone using to access these? I have the 45 button Hauppauge Silver remote. No buttons are programmed for options at the moment. Appreciate it!

The options are mapped to the 'options' command. For the 45 button silver with my mvp I mapped it to the yellow button (for no paticular reason). I hope this answers your question.

[meekell]

Everything with the STV is looking great, and working perfectly for me.

Glad to hear it.

Everything that is, except my PVR350 that is. I"m still losing it withing a few minutes. Would a log help you? I could try force/quitting sage on a crash so the cause is almost at the end of the log.

Damn! Zip it up and send it to my gmail. You still have it right?

BTW, the MVP enhancement is AWESOME! Very smart work-around to increase responsiveness. I tried using it with my 350, but to no avail. But for the MVP, it's an amazing solution.

I got an mvp for the bedroom for xmas. My woman kept complaining about how she would push the ffwd button and it would take up to a minute for it to skip 10secs each time. It made skipping commercials more painful than watching them. Quick thinking saved the mvp.

[meekell]

meekell_alpha_0_5_1 Release Notes:

* Updated Music Jukebox, Picture Library, and Imports to flow with the rest of the stv, and improve usability.
* Many more UI improvements (there's way too much to list)

I'm excited about this release! I've got most of the essentials fully functional. I decided to redesign a lot of the menus that didn't seem to fit with the rest - mainly the music jukebox. You may notice a few animations that I've slipped in. Unless there's major performance problems, I plan to add more with time. I've updated the screenshots in the first post as well.

[heffe2001]

Error in packed file whenever I try to download it, I'll clear my web-cache and try again, but you might want to check it.

**EDIT** Yep, packed file corrupt, even downloaded it to my work just to be sure it wasn't my filter. And check the message header, it still says 4.0 .

[Crashless]

I got offset errors too with the zip. Maybe a re-upload is in order?

[kny3twalker]

me too

and oh I plead do not use thse retarded icons
find/make/do whatever possible
those icons suck so bad

do not ruin your STV with them

as you can tell

I hate them
they look like they were made by Neanderthal children

[PGPfan]

meekell hits a HOME RUN!!!!!!!!!

WOW!!!! This is really something special! Can't wait to try it out.

I have to agree with kny3twalker, those cartoon icons have to go however. Do keep icons there, just different ones (more professional looking). What size and format would you like? Perhaps we can go on a collective hunt for better ones online for you.

-PGPfan

[DIBU]

well i can't use the zip-file.

please upload a new. thanks

[meekell]

Sorry about the corrupt zip. Re-upping now...

[meekell]

I have to agree with kny3twalker, those cartoon icons have to go however. Do keep icons there, just different ones (more professional looking). What size and format would you like? Perhaps we can go on a collective hunt for better ones online for you.

Png please! The higher the res the better. I just used what I had...If you have something better let us know. You can always replace the images in the image folder.