[ashlar]

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=261542

I don't know how else to express my opinion about the above proposal.

I don't know about buttons limited remotes but, for a normal remote, you are using a directional "cross" with usually the select button in the middle. From personal experience (so it could be just me, I know), I seem to most often browse my media collection and the select something to play. That's much more comfortable with the select action activating playback. I much more rarely ask for information about the media.

I just wanted to present this reasoning, with everything being thankfully configurable it wouldn't be a problem for me to change it back. I simply have the feeling that my experience is shared by others. If I'm wrong, so be it.

[ashlar]

An additional thought: for something so "basic", I'd give a strong value to the way other similar interfaces work. Newcomers could be disoriented and the setting, even though accessible from GUI, is not so easy to find. It's even under File lists, while it applies to library browsing as well (a problem displayed by other settings too).

[da-anda]

if you have a limited button remote without "info" button (some TV don't forward such an action via CEC, Andriod remotes tend to not have one, ...), how would you ever trigger the info view? Having "show info" as default will give a sane user experience with all kind of remotes with all functionality available. I agree that for remotes with a dedicated info button that might not make too much sense, and maybe also not for all skin views, but we have to provide defaults for the lowest comment set of buttons, and at least to me that's triggering the info panel from where you can perform further actions

[ashlar]

Hmmm... ok. I see your point. Thanks for answering this.

In a way I agree with you. On the other hand I wonder if a secondary function should trump convenience for everybody. Not being sarcastic here, just wondering. Even somebody with a basic remote would most commonly just use the navigational cross plus ok button to play stuff. Info is... secondary? Maybe it is not, I don't know. But it could be reasoned that the setting to change that would always be available for people wondering about Info.

In any case, I don't want to raise a fuss. I thought it was worth having a discussion about this. Thanks again.

[jjd-uk]

There's been a big change to the settings layout for Krypton, there is now a single section for all things related to the Video File and Library nodes. So hopefully the Select Action setting is more discoverable now for those that have a different preference to whatever we choose at the default going forward.

[Ned Scott]

if you have a limited button remote without "info" button (some TV don't forward such an action via CEC, Andriod remotes tend to not have one, ...), how would you ever trigger the info view? Having "show info" as default will give a sane user experience with all kind of remotes with all functionality available. I agree that for remotes with a dedicated info button that might not make too much sense, and maybe also not for all skin views, but we have to provide defaults for the lowest comment set of buttons, and at least to me that's triggering the info panel from where you can perform further actions

Context menu.

I don't really think this should be about remotes with or without an info button. We've always had a context menu for that, and now we have things like long-press. Which, I plan on making a PR so that long-press Play does info, which turned out to be a popular option in one of the keymaps I made :)

Rather, I think it should be about what makes sense to the user. Even if every remote had a dedicated info button, there might be a good argument for setting this by default. Especially for skin views that don't show a lot of data. It becomes more of an info flow thing than a button thing.

I like the idea, but I think the group is mistaken if they think one method is better or more sane than the other. It really depends on preference. Which is also why I can see it go either way.

[Ned Scott]

@ashlar

Here was my idea from another thread:

Since I can't reply directly to the thread, I'll post this here ;)

Re: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=261542

Under Settings > Videos > File lists > Default select action.

Setting as predefined value the "show information" action when user select a focused media content seems a more natural action. The play button already acts as the "play" action when the media content is focused. Opinions?

A lot of people use skins that show a lot of metadata in the library itself, making a second info window redundant. Confluence has three views dedicated to showing media info, for example. It makes sense for list views that don't show summaries, but that's just one way to use Kodi. It also doesn't always make sense for TV episodes, which don't always have a lot of interesting metadata.

(There's some other technical issues, such as touch, mouse, and some joysticks not having a "play" button, but I'm sure there's a solution for that somewhere)


Instead, I propose an alternative: A new option for "default select action" called "Skin default". Users can still force a specific action, such as play or show info, but "skin default" would allow skinners to recommend which they think fits the current list view mode. If none is set by the skinner then there could be a fallback to "show info" or whatever.

[Ned Scott]

There's also Netflix's semi-new behavior, which is a hybrid of both info and auto play. You have about 5 seconds to do something, then the video plays behind the info, and the info fades out in another 5 seconds. I both love and hate this, but it's a nice option :D