2006-05-29, 02:55 PM
Hi,
I'm failry new to GBPVR (2-3 months). I bet some (most? all?) of the following items have been discussed over the forum, but in any case, I wanted to add my view of things.
First of all, GBPVR is amazing. I have tried some other HTPC solutions, but none of them got close. This is the only one that gets the WAF pass. The only comment here is that MCE looks much sexier (even when we add the skins to the game). That whole swoosh-swoosh menu animation does it (to me, at least). But it just didn't work!! not to mention the lack of flexibility and configurability that GBPVR has.
Now, to the list. It's not a whole lot, more to do with end-user usage:
1) volume up/down visual feedback (I know there's a plugin)
2) brightness (and anything else possible - contrast, etc.) control, plus visual feedback
3) channel favorites - to be able to use the GUI to create "favorites", or "channel-lists". That is, create a list, and add/remove channels to/from those lists, all using on-screen menu (well, at least to be able to use them, maybe a second best would be to create/edit using the config.exe). This lets you "zap" through reduced lists.
4) show types, more general? In the channel list in the Config, one can choose colors, but the show types are very specific. Would be easier to group them into 10 types, e.g. movies, comedy, drama, etc.
Myabe even add pre-set colors?
5) search/browse by genre (see above) - to be able to search or browse the Guide using specific genre (details below)
6) auto update to the GBPVR itself (or at least notify in the main menu when there's a new version?)
7) last XML update (at least from file time-stamp) on top of Guide.
8) Phone-like keyboard using remote (I started a thread on that, using numeric keys 2=ABC, 3=DEF, etc.)
Regarding the EPG items (4, 5) - a year ago I was using cable provider in a different country (I never used the digital box here in CA), and they had a very nice EPG:
You could browse the timeline, as in all EPG, but you could browse by category hierarchy:
Movies
Reality
Sitcoms
News
etc...
Then, if you choose "Movies", it will show
All Movies
War films
Drama
Oldies
Comedies
Documentary
etc.
Then when you choose a sub-category, it will list the timeline, but only filtered to that sub-category, so you can browse the week ahead only for war-films, if that's what you fancy.
What do you guys think?
I'm failry new to GBPVR (2-3 months). I bet some (most? all?) of the following items have been discussed over the forum, but in any case, I wanted to add my view of things.
First of all, GBPVR is amazing. I have tried some other HTPC solutions, but none of them got close. This is the only one that gets the WAF pass. The only comment here is that MCE looks much sexier (even when we add the skins to the game). That whole swoosh-swoosh menu animation does it (to me, at least). But it just didn't work!! not to mention the lack of flexibility and configurability that GBPVR has.
Now, to the list. It's not a whole lot, more to do with end-user usage:
1) volume up/down visual feedback (I know there's a plugin)
2) brightness (and anything else possible - contrast, etc.) control, plus visual feedback
3) channel favorites - to be able to use the GUI to create "favorites", or "channel-lists". That is, create a list, and add/remove channels to/from those lists, all using on-screen menu (well, at least to be able to use them, maybe a second best would be to create/edit using the config.exe). This lets you "zap" through reduced lists.
4) show types, more general? In the channel list in the Config, one can choose colors, but the show types are very specific. Would be easier to group them into 10 types, e.g. movies, comedy, drama, etc.
Myabe even add pre-set colors?
5) search/browse by genre (see above) - to be able to search or browse the Guide using specific genre (details below)
6) auto update to the GBPVR itself (or at least notify in the main menu when there's a new version?)
7) last XML update (at least from file time-stamp) on top of Guide.
8) Phone-like keyboard using remote (I started a thread on that, using numeric keys 2=ABC, 3=DEF, etc.)
Regarding the EPG items (4, 5) - a year ago I was using cable provider in a different country (I never used the digital box here in CA), and they had a very nice EPG:
You could browse the timeline, as in all EPG, but you could browse by category hierarchy:
Movies
Reality
Sitcoms
News
etc...
Then, if you choose "Movies", it will show
All Movies
War films
Drama
Oldies
Comedies
Documentary
etc.
Then when you choose a sub-category, it will list the timeline, but only filtered to that sub-category, so you can browse the week ahead only for war-films, if that's what you fancy.
What do you guys think?
* Rogers Analog Cable [Canada]
* Hauppauge WintTV PVR USB2
* IBM Thinkpad T42 / 1GB Mem / Centrino 1.6Ghz / 60GB HD / ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 + VGA/DVI out
* MCE Remote + Keyboard
* Win XP SP2 / GBPVR [Latest version. always]
* Pioneer HDTV via VGA (1360x768)
* MS Remote Keyboard
* Logitech Harmony 880 [via MS Remote Control Reciever]
* Hauppauge WintTV PVR USB2
* IBM Thinkpad T42 / 1GB Mem / Centrino 1.6Ghz / 60GB HD / ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 + VGA/DVI out
* MCE Remote + Keyboard
* Win XP SP2 / GBPVR [Latest version. always]
* Pioneer HDTV via VGA (1360x768)
* MS Remote Keyboard
* Logitech Harmony 880 [via MS Remote Control Reciever]