Req Bring back 'Confirm channel switches by pressing "OK"'
#1
In the current RC for Kodi, a long established and up to now configurable behavior was changed:
The setting 'PVR&Live TV -> Playback -> Confirm channel switched by pressing "OK"' is not respected anymore for entering channel numbers by digits. Instead, channel is always switched without waiting for the user to confirm with "OK".

There is a perfect use case for this behavior: It let's the user exactly the time he needs to enter the digits, without putting him under timely pressure, but also without introducing any additional delays.

I'm using Kodi boxes very often to allow elder people to continue to use their old CRT when analogue broadcasts are stopped and only DVB is left. These people are often too slow to enter longer digits within the timeout. But if you make the timeout arbitrary long, there are long delays for simple channel numbers like "1", which leads to a bad user experience and compliance.

In fact, older TV sets had often a similar feature by keys like "-/--". If it was a one key digit, you just entered the number and the channel switched right away. But for a two digit channel, you first pressed "-/--". The TV set now knew to expect two digits and also waited for the two digits to be entered, no matter how long it took for the user. Without any kind of functionality like this, switching to "29" will result in switching so "2" or to "2" and then to "9" oh so often.

Since I'm using this feature since KODI was still XBMC, I really hope to see this feature back as an accessibility feature.


For reference, see here the closed bug report:
https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/issues/15188
Reply
#2
+1
sounds reasonable
Reply
#3
Kodi will always instantly switch if you enter channel number followed by ok, if by default there's not enough time to enter numbers due to auto-switching then simply increase the channel switch delay to maximum. You then simply teach them to always enter number followed by ok so they never wait for the switch to take place while giving them time to make the entry.
Reply
#4
(2019-01-05, 11:24)jjd-uk Wrote: Kodi will always instantly switch if you enter channel number followed by ok, if by default there's not enough time to enter numbers due to auto-switching then simply increase the channel switch delay to maximum. You then simply teach them to always enter number followed by ok so they never wait for the switch to take place while giving them time to make the entry.
 Doesn't Kodi now also switch automatically if you enter a unique channel number within that time period, which means pressing OK in that case that causes a different action to happen?. AIUI It won't wait for the delay period in this instance - which means the behaviour is not consistent ?

This seems to me to be a bit of an accessibility issue for those with dexterity issues or learning difficulties.  Would it be horrific to provide an option to allow the old functionality to be enabled?
Reply
#5
(2019-01-05, 11:24)jjd-uk Wrote: Kodi will always instantly switch if you enter channel number followed by ok, if by default there's not enough time to enter numbers due to auto-switching then simply increase the channel switch delay to maximum. You then simply teach them to always enter number followed by ok so they never wait for the switch to take place while giving them time to make the entry.


If I do understand you right, you propose to set the time under "System -> PVR & Live TV -> Delay channel switch" to maximum (which is 10 s) to somehow mimic the old behavior at least to some extend (10s).

I tested this. Unfortunately, it seems, that also the scope of this option was changed. It does not act anymore on channel switches which are initiated by entering digits. Even the help text was changed to reflect this.

For me in 18.0rc4, channel switches initiated by entering digits are always executed instantly if the channel number is already unambiguous, or after approx. 1 second if entering an additional digit might make a difference.

It seems, that we went away from a perfect customisable solution to a "sink or swim" solution. Personally, I'm curious if there was an actual need for this change - or at least there is a benefit of taking out an existing option.
Reply
#6
The new feature was added with this PR 13815. You can find the request for, and rationalization of the feature there. You could also make the case for it to be done differently.
 Hope that helps.

Cheers,
LongMan
Reply
#7
Do not start the discussion in the pull request itself please.
Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting, read this first
Interested in seeing some YouTube videos about Kodi? Go here and subscribe
Reply
#8
That wasn't the intention. Just to point them to the reason why it was implemented in that way. The discussion suggests that they may not be aware. He usually have very nice write-ups of the rationale for his changes.
But Point taken. The forum post requesting might have been better.

Cheers
Reply

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
Bring back 'Confirm channel switches by pressing "OK"'0