2011-01-21, 13:38
gollumscave Wrote:I gave that some thought and am still not sure WHERE the concept of a library actually belongs... if you go through the motions of a setup, you have to add the movies and shows first before you are able to even select the library, therefore i haven't included the "what is a library" in the adding movies to XBMC (notice xbmc, not adding movies to the LIBRARY). Before i start setting up the library i explain the library in more detail.
I'm still on the fence... what are the other's thoughts on this one?
Personally, I think you should have the first chapter as a quickstart guide, where nothing is explained in more than a sentence. For example, you could say something like: "the movie library is where we catalogue the films you have to best display and organise them, we add the movie files to the library by doing this...". Obviously there's a lot more depth to the library than that, but if you can get them up-and-running as quick as possible then those details become more interesting. Getting bogged down in the minutiae of a bit of software before you're truely interested in it can be dispiriting. Obviously the details can (and should) be dealt with in the chapters that follow, but use a quickstart chapter to get the ball rolling, and don't worry about explaining anything in that chapter.
It seems that you're think along the same lines
Quote:My goal is to get users enthusiastic about XBMC as fast as possible. Meaning they should have a gorgeous screen filled with movies in front of them as fast as possible. All the extras like advanced settings and hardware setup, region and calibrations is essential, i agree, but to pull a potential new user over the line i want to focus on getting his setup to look good in as little as possible time.
Quote:Anyone else has this line?
I couldn't see this line
Quote:They know windows, and are familiar with it. No hassle, no reboot, just click the installer...
I agree with this. I think that if I was to try out a new bit of software and I was presented with a Live CD or a Windows install file then I'd just go with the Windows file. A Live CD is only really necessary if you want to test out an operating system, for a bit of software it's easier to just install on whatever platform you're already using.
