need sub-menus or multi-level menus

[johnsonx42]

Anything in the works to allow sub-menus or multi-level menus? I haven't installed all the plugins I might like, nor all the custom tasks I want, because the main menu already has too many items. I even removed LiveTV and TVGuide (and access those by remote buttons), and it's still too cluttered.

I think a 2-dimensional menu similar to windows media center would work well. Left and right select different items on the current menu, then up and down arrows access other menus. That way I could have the main TV, Recordings and Video functions on one menu, streaming services on another, music & photos on a third, and so on...

[imilne]

Gets my vote.

[sub]

Personally, I dont see me adding this. I have built in plugin main menu support though, so another developer could easily create an alternative main menu to do this.

[johnsonx42]

Are you saying no to any sort of sub-menu support, or just no to my suggestion of a 2-dimensional left/right/up/down menu? It seems to me some way to make a sub-menu really ought to be part of the program.

[Reddwarf]

I think a 2-dimensional menu similar to windows media center would work well. Left and right select different items on the current menu, then up and down arrows access other menus. That way I could have the main TV, Recordings and Video functions on one menu, streaming services on another, music & photos on a third, and so on...

Sounds like that would be very dependent of a mouse for navigating, not very remote-control friendly?

[pBS]

i doubt anyone's gonna make one since they have to create/emulate a whole new main menu just to facilitate sub menus..[doesn't sound easy]
the old menu system was fine, i don't think we need a cross style menu like ps3..
but even with no plugins, the main menu is rather long and with no page up/down, takes forever to get to some items..

if no submenus, could we have page up/dn in main menu to navigate them faster?

[mvallevand]

With 7 hot keys (Recordings, EPG, LiveTV, Music, Video, WebRadio, Pictures) that I think can be pointed at any plugin I am having no trouble navigating. I keep all the other Plugins close to the starting item and it's a non-issue.

-1 for anything like 7mc

Martin

[whurlston]

-1 for anything like 7mc

I completely agree on this.

I absolutely hate WMC navigation.

[johnsonx42]

ok, no one likes the whole 2-dimensional menu idea. it seemed to me it fit well with the horizontal menu style (which in turn not everyone likes anyway), but that's ok, that wasn't the important point.

I still think we need some sort of sub-menu support. Whether the sub-menu is just another horizontal menu that replaces the main menu, or if it's a whole new screen I don't care.

Right now, if you don't want to have to depend on keyboard/remote hotkeys for anything, it would be very easy to have 20 items on the main menu (10 or so built-in items, 7 current plugins, a few custom tasks). That's just too many to have to scroll through.

[imilne]

I completely agree on this.

I absolutely hate WMC navigation.

Why?

Granted I've not used it much, but the idea seems sound to me. Top level containers on the vertical axis, and then the actual options on the horizontal. So if "TV" was highlighted, you'd then have sub-options for Live TV, TV Guide, Recordings, Search, and so on. I might take a stab at implementing it if I can find the time.

Iain