Vertical time-line TV Guide

[bgowland]

I wasn't sure where to put this question so it ended up here.

I think this would have to be a plugin rather than just a new skin but I'd like a TV Guide where each screen showed one channel and the programmes were listed from top to bottom. I had a demo of ShowShifter which allowed you to select which view you wanted. Does this exist for GB-PVR?

The current TV Guide (horizontal time-line) is handy if you know what you are looking for but I often miss interesting programmes because they have long-ish titles that get squished into the little boxes and they don't necessarily explain what the program is about.

Cheers,
Brian

[sub]

I fiddled with something like this in the past but never completed it. I'll finish it one day, but it probably wont be in the next release.

[bgowland]

Quote[/b] (sub @ Feb. 26 2005,16:02)]I fiddled with something like this in the past but never completed it. I'll finish it one day, but it probably wont be in the next release.

Thanks. I did think about having a go myself but I still have lots of coding for work to do that I never seem to get around to. Sigh!

[jrockintuitive]

Can you explain your needs more detail.

I created a TVguide plugin - I'm not exactly sure what you are asking for.

[bgowland]

Quote[/b] (jrockintuitive @ Feb. 26 2005,17:44)]Can you explain your needs more detail.

Take a look at...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone....=monday

In particular the entries for 7pm onwards which have their descriptions underneath.

In short, I'd select the TV guide and get one channel on the screen - earliest programmes at the top and later going down the screen. Hitting, the right or left arrows on the remote would move back and forward through the available channels.

Cheers,
Brian

[reven]

yeah i would also love to see this, mce i think does this, just a nice neat little feature.

[jrockintuitive]

I would be willing to do this if you guys will help my spec this out.

right - move up a channel
left - move down a channel
up - navigation up
down - navigation down
skip - move one day forward
replay - move one day back
ctrl+g - scroll up
crtl+b - scroll down
ctrl+y - switch guides (already exists in my guide)

Other screen elements:
Day
Time
Channel on
Possible - next and previous channel

questions:
When a show is selected the description appears?
Or is the description a toggle selection?
Or only certain shows around the current time show the description?

What else am I missing?

[reven]

ctrl-r = switch to horizontal/vertical view
im not a big fan of green = page up, it only works on the old hauppauge 34 button remote, most other remotes yellow and blue are next to each other, i think yellow should be used for page up instead. (im annoying here).
i would personally make it so if there was a description available, show it, and if there wasnt dont, since xmltv doesnt always have descriptions. or put a option to define during which period to show the description (so if people only want to see it during primetime, they can, and if you want to see the description always, you can).

[jrockintuitive]

If there is a description and you do want to see it, then should we show the entire description regardless how large it is? I think we should.

I need to create a settings file with the following information:
start mode - (Vertical|Horz)
Timespan to show description (0-24 will be all of the time)
what am I missing

The skin file should have:
Todays Date/Time location
Guide location
Channel location
Show channel icons
standard colors and other standard items

I have no issues with using different buttons, I was trying to mimic the standard guide functionality.

[bgowland]

Eeek! What have I started?  

I didn't expect such a quick response from anybody willing to do this but if you already have some code to work from then that will help.

Your button mappings look like they'd work for what I was thinking of. I think description should be there all of the time if available - I'm kinda thinking of what I see in a listing's magazine or newspaper - the News just says what it is without description but a film would have title then synopsis below it.

Like the current TV Guide it would need to focus on the current time or time-slot when you first open it so, if it's 6:25 and a programme is running from 6-6:30, that one is first in the list just in case you want to watch/quick record the last few minutes etc.

Cheers,
Brian