2020-09-22, 00:15
I am a new Kodi user. I am a long time MythTV user who is looking to upgrade my system towards the cord-cutter streaming paradigm. I give the Kodi team a ton of credit for their PVR upgrades made in last few years. It has won me over to choose to use a Nvidia Shield Kodi frontend for my new setup. But browsing the available skins, I am not finding an ideal choice for myself. There are many visually pleasing choices, but the functional processes isn't appealing because features I am going to use most often are often not prioritized, requiring more interaction to use than personally near-useless features. I will find my way (I am still experimenting and exploring), but I thought I would offer my input to potential skin designers.
My design summary:
- A simple DVR-focused skin with secondary focus on streaming. Assume user is choosing from existing timeshifted recordings and streams over live or interactive (surfing YouTube) options.
My system layout:
- Shield running Kodi and various media streaming apps (Disney+, Peacock, etc)
- MythTV Backend grabbing OTA programming via HDHomerun
- Twonky DNLA server serving Music and Pictures
My use cases:
- 70% watching MythTV Recordings.
- 25% watching other media streaming options. This includes existing Kodi Add-ons and external apps such as Disney+.
- 5% streaming DNLA music from Twonky.
- Trace: viewing pictures streamed via DNLA from Twonky
- Trace: watching Live TV. This system is attached to my living room TV. I very rarely watch Live TV, preferring the convenience of timeshifting. But if I do watch live, I will just watch it on my TV, skipping all the media server apparatus entirely. But having the option for that once a year exception is moderately worthwhile.
My unused features common in skins
- Gaming: By closing Kodi and returning to the Android OS, I have significantly better gaming options. Even if one wants to stay in the Kodi interface, I feel it is better to perfect passing off to external apps than maintain the gaming infrastructure.
- Info aggregation: Weather, RSS, web browser, etc are all features I will use a different device for. Again, other apps do these thing better. Keep the skin focused on what it does best as a media player.
- Live TV Schedule: I prefer not to watch live TV, thus I do not need a tool to peruse what is on now.
- Separate Movies/TV options: Some of the skins go to excess on categorizing what a file is, not where it can be obtained. As far as I can see you only need a few options. 1) DVR 2) Streams Kodi can access (Add-ons, DNLA, etc). 3)Local files 4) External apps.
Things I would focus on in a new Skin:
- Minimize clicks from root to play. I can see an UI where you would choose DVR at the root and your list of recordings is at the next level, requiring only two clicks to start playing. Other options at the root would be each of the Kodi Video Plug-ins, links to each of the selected external apps, settings, and Exit.
- Focus on being a Media Player. Every skin does not have to be everything to everyone. Gamers and RSS fiends can go elsewhere, even if they like the pretty visual composition.
- Be TV focused on your design. No mouse. No touchscreen. Assume simple directional controls like on a remote.
- In DVR, make deleting recordings easy.
I hope this is taken in the generous spirit it is offered. I would be willing to talk more about this to those interested. I have good vision and process-logic, but am lacking in the coding and graphics skills to really chase doing a skin on my own.
My design summary:
- A simple DVR-focused skin with secondary focus on streaming. Assume user is choosing from existing timeshifted recordings and streams over live or interactive (surfing YouTube) options.
My system layout:
- Shield running Kodi and various media streaming apps (Disney+, Peacock, etc)
- MythTV Backend grabbing OTA programming via HDHomerun
- Twonky DNLA server serving Music and Pictures
My use cases:
- 70% watching MythTV Recordings.
- 25% watching other media streaming options. This includes existing Kodi Add-ons and external apps such as Disney+.
- 5% streaming DNLA music from Twonky.
- Trace: viewing pictures streamed via DNLA from Twonky
- Trace: watching Live TV. This system is attached to my living room TV. I very rarely watch Live TV, preferring the convenience of timeshifting. But if I do watch live, I will just watch it on my TV, skipping all the media server apparatus entirely. But having the option for that once a year exception is moderately worthwhile.
My unused features common in skins
- Gaming: By closing Kodi and returning to the Android OS, I have significantly better gaming options. Even if one wants to stay in the Kodi interface, I feel it is better to perfect passing off to external apps than maintain the gaming infrastructure.
- Info aggregation: Weather, RSS, web browser, etc are all features I will use a different device for. Again, other apps do these thing better. Keep the skin focused on what it does best as a media player.
- Live TV Schedule: I prefer not to watch live TV, thus I do not need a tool to peruse what is on now.
- Separate Movies/TV options: Some of the skins go to excess on categorizing what a file is, not where it can be obtained. As far as I can see you only need a few options. 1) DVR 2) Streams Kodi can access (Add-ons, DNLA, etc). 3)Local files 4) External apps.
Things I would focus on in a new Skin:
- Minimize clicks from root to play. I can see an UI where you would choose DVR at the root and your list of recordings is at the next level, requiring only two clicks to start playing. Other options at the root would be each of the Kodi Video Plug-ins, links to each of the selected external apps, settings, and Exit.
- Focus on being a Media Player. Every skin does not have to be everything to everyone. Gamers and RSS fiends can go elsewhere, even if they like the pretty visual composition.
- Be TV focused on your design. No mouse. No touchscreen. Assume simple directional controls like on a remote.
- In DVR, make deleting recordings easy.
I hope this is taken in the generous spirit it is offered. I would be willing to talk more about this to those interested. I have good vision and process-logic, but am lacking in the coding and graphics skills to really chase doing a skin on my own.
