[schmoko]

It seems like the default small skip/large skip direction pad behavior is vestigial from XBMC's XBOX roots, where this was a logical use of the analog pad. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of any consumer electronic device where the arrow pad is used this way. Up/Down working as they do only makes sense because there is nothing else for them to do in most current full screen video views.

Like others, I'm a long term XBMC user, and I've gotten used to this behavior on my Harmony and come to expect it. However, I've never seen anyone else intuitively use my remote this way, and (even after years with XBMC) my wife still uses the Fast Forward/Rew keys to move forward and backwards in the stream. I doubt many users find this functionality right away.

Most PVRs I've used use Up/Down to bring up a navigation mode, where the user can browse what is on other channels without bringing up a full screen guide. If you want the PVR functionality to be intuitive to users familiar with other PVRs, this is probably the best way to implement it. If, instead, you want it to be intuitive to the smaller number of users with a long history with XBMC, I would move keep the skip functionality and map channel browsing to Channel Up/Channel Down.