[Maniac]

Question: In Helix the Guide window has 4 viewtypes, Timeline, Now, Next and Channel. What is the "Channel" viewtype supposed to show?
It's allways empty and when you enter it, one cannot seem to get to the sideblade without using the mouse. Is it perhaps pvr-addon specific?

[Angelinas]

Question: In Helix the Guide window has 4 viewtypes, Timeline, Now, Next and Channel. What is the "Channel" viewtype supposed to show?
It's allways empty and when you enter it, one cannot seem to get to the sideblade without using the mouse. Is it perhaps pvr-addon specific?

"Channel" show EPG for one channel (channel must be started) like OSD EPG in full screen.
Your favorite skin show me this.

[Maniac]

Thanks Angelinas didn't know this. I guess the view should be disabled if there is no video\channel playing. since you cant get out of it if there is nothing there.

[lawin1]

Some suggestions how to improve Live TV section.

Preview mode (minimum changes):

1. - move (unhide) channels category more to the right when left panel is active as it was in previous versions of XBMC.
2., 3. and 5. - enlarge text, especially the time.
4. - when programme description is larger it moves too fast, so please slow it down or implement a skin setting to change the speed in the appearance menu.




Preview mode (even more changes):

I think it doesn't require explanations. Just compare this modification with default skin. Which one represents programme information in more clear way?




Full screen mode

Default look. It looks quite strange even after using it for several months.
Screenshot is just for comparison with the last picture at the end of this post.



This modifications tries to mimic info screen of some STB. Of course it is not perfect (channel number and title merge together), but you will get some ideas:
remove completely useless caption "Now Playing", add next show title and starting time.

[diglam]

Any plan for action mapping to channel groups window? so we can open groups windows by assigning a key for it.

[produno]

Lawin1

If you look at the stickied thread you will see they plan to add the epg grid to the on screen display. This will open up new opportunities for skinners to do like you asked.

[enen92]

After a long time not using at all the pvr section of XBMC and since I switched my isp/tvprovider I recently started finnaly taking advantage of the pvr section. I have to say, it's brilliant. It isn't part of the core for a long time but it is already really polished and usable. So, thanks to the team and everyone behind the development of the pvr section of our beloved media-center.

Having said that, let me make a small overview of my tv usage, I mean, the way I watch television (my tv habits/user experience) and what I miss in XBMC.

I don't watch tv a lot, which leads my tv usage to three main "groups".

A) I watch the same channels normally at the same moment of the day (news for example). Experience in XBMC is perfect for this.

B) There is an event I want to watch. I know which channel will broadcast the event (either from the web, tvguide or xbmc epg). All perfect in xbmc.

C) I get bored and I just do a random zapping till I find something interesting being broadcasted. Thats where I think xbmc can be improved.

I am not another one complaining with the time it takes to switch channels. I understand it's difficult to improve anything in this front.
When you're watching a channel in fullscreen (==the way people watch tv) by pressing up or down XBMC will think I want to watch the next channel. But that isn't the case most of the time. When doing random zapping, I just want to check what is being aired on the next channel (with a description if possible) and only play the channel if the content is of my interest.

Using my tv box I can do this fine (and using all the boxes I'm familiar with). I can move up or down 30 times, watching the same channel and just refreshing the info on the screen for the next channel. Doing this is XBMC is pretty much the same as switching 30 channels.

So, my suggestion if possible is to create a setting to define the way the keymaps/functions will work in pvr. Default would be the way xbmc works right now, a "zapping mode" would only refresh the info on the screen for the next channel without switching the channel. When moving up or down the default button being automatically selected would be the play button. Clicking enter on the play button will then play the channel which has the info displayed on the screen. Pressing escape/back (or reaching the video osd timeout) would put the channel info back to the channel being played right now.

This is probably hard to implement but that's my brainstorming contribution.
Hope my english has been clear/understandable.

All the best for you all.

[bluechris]

@enen92 for the C that you have problem i had the same and since i come from many years with Enigma2 boxes and especially blackhole images in VU+ i did this in my keyboard.xml and im pretty happy with it.

Code:

<FullscreenLiveTV>
<keyboard>
    <key id="61568">XBMC.ActivateWindow(PVROSDChannels)</key> <!-- My Up arrow in my remote -->
    <key id="61569">XBMC.ActivateWindow(PVROSDChannels)</key> <!-- My Down arrow in my remote -->
    <key id="61571">ChannelUp</key> <!-- My Right arrow in my remote -->
    <key id="61570">ChannelDown</key> <!-- My Left arrow in my remote -->
</keyboard>
</FullscreenLiveTV>

With that when i press Up or Down the Mini PVR osd window appears and i see the channels with short epg info and i choose what i want with OK. Now with the left and right as i watch something i change straight the channels. The numbers are specific for the remote control that i use.

[enen92]

While you suggestion makes sense and is a good workaroud it will force you to get out of full screen mode.
I can also simply go to the channel list and know everything that is being broadcasted (but cant read the full description on this case).
Thanks however for the tip

[bluechris]

Well no i dont get out since my pc is at 50hz for this reason and the same is the tv signal so im ok with that.

[bibi]

XBMC settings : Ajust Refresh rate : on start/stop.
This way, when you play a video, even if you leave fullscreen, xbmc will not change refresh rate.
And if you set your refresh rate in xbmc to match your tv provider refresh rate, like said at previous post, you get a perfect setup to watch tv.

[Jönke]

My choice would be sync to current running channel in first place but remeber last position in epg if not channel has changed.

Example

-Tv1 running and open timeline epg , sync to TV1 epg
-Change to Tv2 and open timeline epg , sync to TV2 epg
-Tv 2 running and open timeline epg and move marker to Tv 6 with out changing channel (Tv 2 still running) then close epg and back to full screen live tv and then open epg timeline again it should still be on Tv6.

should be fixed with https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/5401, but it's pending.

Still not synced always !
To reproduce

-Open live tv , start channel 1
-Open TVChannels again and change to channel 10
-Open timeline epg and close (dont do anything here)
-Press number 1 on remote and change channel to channel 1
-Open timeline epg and you'll se its left on channel 10, not channel 1 as expected.

@xhaggi any comment to this ?

[xhaggi]

@Jönke yep a valid issue, but i don't had time to do some tests .. please add it to our bug tracker.

[Jönke]

Done !
http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/15522

[xhaggi]

thanks