Some hints to make this more user friendly
Added by Seven NL almost 12 years ago
Hi folks,
I love this program and use it in combination with XBMC on a Ubuntu (12.10) installation.
I must admit that i am currently using dual boot as TVheadend isn't fully usable with XMBC when you have many TV channels ( 2000+ )
My fallback program is Media Portal atm because it is much easier to group channelsand actually finds ALL channels.
so here are some of the things i like to see changed/added/redesigned :
1. better channel detection ( TVheadend doesn't find some of the channels Media portal does find [same machine] ). (Missing BBC ONE HD for example)
2. XML or other file format to store the channel information ( sub-folder with 1 text file is a resource monster and often hangs up my system when channel surfing fast ).
2a. It also makes editing the channels easier ( or for developers easier to develop a program to edit them ) ( if you use the same format as OpenPLI for example you already have many helpful tools, and it is an open standard )
3. Scanning with automatic mapping services to channels on the fly, it will make life so much easier specially when scanning is stuck on Muxes awaiting initial scan:1
thanks,
system info:
Intel Core2Duo @ 3Ghz
4GB DDR2 RAM
Nvidia GT610 SL (HDMI audio/video out)
Skystar HD2 PCI SAT-receiver
OZC 80 GB SSD + Samsung 2TB
Replies (8)
RE: Some hints to make this more user friendly - Added by Ron L almost 12 years ago
1. The only services I've found that don't scan in are ones that are not listed in any tables ie. "Hidden" services. There is no way to manually add these in at present through the web UI. Everything else it finds. Even Muxes with no SDT or NIT get services scanned in.
2. This is already in the works.
3. Be careful what you wish for. On some satellites automatically mapping everything will leave you with such a huge mess you'll end up deleting ~/.hts and starting all over again from scratch.
RE: Some hints to make this more user friendly - Added by Adam Sutton almost 12 years ago
Some clarifications:
1. The only issues I've known about mostly relate to HDHR and mostly in the US. Comments for point 2, might eventually help with this.
2. There is no intention to move away from the current configuration system. Also its worth pointing out that the configuration system has ZERO impact on channel zapping, those configuration files are only read on startup. The DVB system is being rewritten to make configuration easier to manage from the UI and there has been talk about creating ability to export/import to standard files. However that will only happen if someone volunteers the code.
3. Seconded, improving the auto-configuration is something we are trying to do, but its fraught with problems. Often the only reliable way to do it, depending on the network, is using proprietary information (such as OpenTV for sky based networks etc..).
Adam
RE: Some hints to make this more user friendly - Added by Seven NL almost 12 years ago
Cheers guys for the response,
the channels missing are mostly HD channels ( as far as i can discover the English BBC and ITV HD channels are missing and the Dutch BVN which is a SD channel [all FTA] other channels i have no clue as the English channels are the only ones i like to watch.
The idea behind the XML files is transport/exchange ability, wouldn't it be nice to just download pre-made files for various setups so people do not have the need to scan themself (like OpenPLI community driven) which takes with my 4 sat setup up to 2 hours.
Also the current method is resource inefficient on slow drives like i had previous ( a 2.5" slowpoke but energy efficient boot drive ) it made my system crash a lot when flipping through the channels fast and took minutes everytime i started XBMC just to import the channels.
But reading this line back , it could just be a XBMC failure ( still think XBMC isn't using the available memory like it should [it uses only 2-4% of my memory] so a lot of things that could be cached isn't )
Ron, For point 3 i already have to do this sometimes anyway as Tvheadend sometimes forgets the settings (renamed the default name for my card to it's real name, and those settings were lost after a restart ( yes, i did save them )
Adam, point 1 : Most missing channels are FTA english HD channels and at least 1 Dutch SD one.
point 2: Not sure what it is now, as i read Rons post they are working on sometime like that, reading yours says noting will change. For the coding if you use the same open standard as OpenPLI you already have many Multiplatform editors available and many premade downloadable channel listings and you be (probably) gaining already existing developers. If there is no change at least add Groups to the editor so we can group our most used channels in a easy access list like : Dutch - English - Movies - FTA - HD etc.
Point 3: After a good night sleep i also came to that conclusion , maybe allow to export the list even when it is still processing help a bit and does not makes me break off the operation and rescan ( another hour or two ) and hope it finishes all scans.
Final word: TVheadend is still by far the best and low resource TV backend i have tried, and i hope the program keeps evolving, a big thanks to all involved with this project.
Cheers
RE: Some hints to make this more user friendly - Added by Ron L almost 12 years ago
I should probably just let Adam answer, but he's a busy guy and a bug fixing machine by the look of things, so I like to step in and help out as much as possible.
Are you certain the channels are not being scanned into services at all. Many times the service does scan in but has no name found. You just need to type in a channel name for them. I can't see those satellites, but it sounds like your satellites are generally configured amazingly well compared to what we deal with in North America. Tvheadend scans services in here that my STB won't. Have you tried manually adding the Mux in for those or just relying on Auto Mux detection?
RE: Some hints to make this more user friendly - Added by Seven NL almost 12 years ago
Hi,
the services are scaned, but sometimes just stop/hangs on 1 left to scan.
Strangely enough the ITV 1 HD channel appeared suddenly but the BBC HD and BVN SD channel are still not found.
I noticed there are groups, which also made me discover a bug i think, while browsing the groups i got to the last one and could not browse back.
I had to <ESC> back to the main menu and reenter LiveTV to get the listing going again.
Also, I am using a keyboard as controller, pressing arrow down makes the channel listing skip randomly 4-10 channels sometimes ( not sure if this is a TVheadend or XBMC thing ) which is very annoying.
It feels very laggy at times which should be with the system setup i have.
I also had a crash while browsing channels which started with corrupted fonts (channel names - the channel info was still readable) and then crashed the whole system, but i guess this is XBMC which fails.
I also noticed ProviderID, Type etc are store in , for lack of a better word, one cell. Spitting up this information into there own "cells" would make editing easier
RE: Some hints to make this more user friendly - Added by Adam Sutton almost 12 years ago
I don't like the sound of that 1 mux left to scan etc.. That is a very old bug that should have long been fixed. Just to check its not a UI display issue, which we've also had bugs in, did you try refreshing the UI? If this still doesn't work then please provide a debug log of the scanning please.
Stuff related to XBMC UI should be reported to them. If it turns out there is an interaction problem they will bug me anyway.
I don't understand that last point? Provider and Type are in separate fields in the config and columns in the UI.
Adam
RE: Some hints to make this more user friendly - Added by Seven NL almost 12 years ago
I tried to refresh the UI on that 1 left scan and it still showed 1 scan left.
For the rest i gonna look them up as soon as i am home.
RE: Some hints to make this more user friendly - Added by Seven NL over 11 years ago
Sorry for the long delay but i was testing YaVDR installation as it promised a better configuration and channel editor, which it had TBH, but the FTA HD channels that it's scanning did find, won't display.
So i have a new installation ..... again... now running XBMCbuntu ( latest release ) and TVheadend as backend ( Version 3.2.34 -no 1 mux left bug detected this time )
I added a Screenshot to clarify the points.
1. Again NO BBC HD / BBC HD ONE etc. ( even after 4x scanning - which is 2 hours per scan ) not found BVN either ( in a list of 6000 channels it is hard to find, and there is no SEARCH FUNCTION ).
2. Please break up the tags so we can filter on them ( filter on Provider - SDTV/HDTV/Radio ).
as you seen i wasted again a whole day just on scanning channels alone, so this is why i urge for a better way to store the information ( backup - no need for hours of scanning for example ).
TVheadend is still the better LiveTV backend out there, even with it's flaws on usability(*), which i hope will be picked up.
(*)
My view on what needs to be added in the (web)user-interface:
1. Tags break up for easy 1 click sort. ( and will make point 2 easier )
2. Adding Group editor ( adding groups and adding/removing channels to those groups and group priority ( sort groups )
3. Store information in a file format for backup and pre-designed listing ( no need to scan - it would even fix my missing channels problem)
4. Ability to easy add channel Icons (automatically) like in VDR and media portal for example, pre-defined icon names will help to make this possible when you just need to point to a location and not a file(name).
5. Search function for channels in various tabs like channels and groups.
This is by no means a rant on the program, but i hope some idea's that could be helpful to make TVheadend a backend that can be configured and up and running within minutes and not days.