MBC Chocolate TV View question

[gat0rjay 0]

I really like the new way TV series are presented with the banners on the left pane.

 

However, I have a few questions regarding the new flow of this gui layout.

 

First, I'm wondering, is there any way to DISABLE the default behavior when you enter a TV series that the first season always starts as expanded? Basically, I would like all seasons to be collapsed when I enter a series, and have to pressed "OK" on the remote to expand a particular season (even season 1), is this possible?

 

Also, all of my series have the number of episodes in the season and then (xx new) right next to it. Is there any way at all to disable the "(xx new)" info (and simply show the total number of episodes in the season folder?) For me, having the "xx new" just adds clutter to a beautiful interface. I'm sure many of us have seasons of old series we may watch one or two episodes of, and then it's even confusing - "22 episodes (19 new)"

 

I also noticed that if you're within a Season, for instance Season 3, and have episode 10 of 20 selected - if you press the LEFT DIRECTION key on a remote, you will immediately skip/jump DOWN to the next season heading. The season you were on will also stay expanded. There doesn't seem to be any remote action to to skip/jump back UP to a previous season heading though - is there?

 

To me, it would make sense to implent one of two gui features for the new Chocolate TV GUI when you're within a series folder viewing seasons.

 

To me the most efficient would be to simply make the LEFT DIRECTION key collapse whatever season you were in. This would solve a lot of problems for me.

 

OR

 

The other more complicated way would be to have "LEFT DIRECTION" on the remote skip/jump back UP to the heading of the season you're currently browsing in (and even possibly to the next season UP, if already on a heading), and have "RIGHT DIRECTION" key (which currently does nothing so far as I can tell), skip/jump DOWN to the heading of the next season (the action that LeftDir currently does). And for me, it would also make sense when jupming to a season heading to collapse the season you're leaving as you do so (I would also prefer having to press OK to expand a season - and not have them expand by default)... Like I said, though - this seems overly complex, for very little value added.

 

Anyway, thanks again to all who contribute to this wonderful program.

[Deihmos 147]

There is a setting in the config to disable that view. I really like the new chocolate, It is now my default theme.

[gat0rjay 0]

There is a setting in the config to disable that view. I really like the new chocolate, It is now my default theme.

 

Yeah, I know there, is. But I like the view a lot too. There are just a few minor things (as mentioned) I was hoping could be configured differently to make the new TV layout even better (for me).

 

Anyone know if any of my desired configuration settings are possible? Perhaps some setting I'm missing somehwere?

[Deihmos 147]

I am not a fan of that layout so I disabled it. I don't think there is anything to configure.

[ebr 14916]

I don't want to add a bunch more configuration options because they will just never be used by 95% of the people and just make everything more coplex.  So, here is how I would address your requests:

 

1) I think the 95% use case here is wanting to end up on the next un-played episode in the series and, I think entering that screen with no seasons expanded might be confusing to a first-time user - they could end up sitting there looking at the list of seasons and wondering "what do I do now"?  However, I can possibly look into not expanding the first season if you don't have the option to automatically scroll to first un-watched selected.

 

2) Again, I don't want a new option but I'll see if this display could respect the already existing "Show unplayed count" option.

 

3) Where you end up when you press left is going to depend on where you are in the list.  If you are near the top it will land on the season in which you are.  Further down and it will jump to the next one.  This is WMC trying to be intelligent about where you are trying to scroll by sending you to the closest item geographically.  It will take some trickery to usurp that behaviour but I will see if it is possible.  The right, key, however, should take you to the config button bar like it does in list view, I just haven't figured out how to make that work yet (I inherited this code from a very long time ago and haven't completely deciphered everything it does).

[gat0rjay 0]

I don't want to add a bunch more configuration options because they will just never be used by 95% of the people and just make everything more coplex.  So, here is how I would address your requests:

 

1) I think the 95% use case here is wanting to end up on the next un-played episode in the series and, I think entering that screen with no seasons expanded might be confusing to a first-time user - they could end up sitting there looking at the list of seasons and wondering "what do I do now"?  However, I can possibly look into not expanding the first season if you don't have the option to automatically scroll to first un-watched selected.

 

2) Again, I don't want a new option but I'll see if this display could respect the already existing "Show unplayed count" option.

 

3) Where you end up when you press left is going to depend on where you are in the list.  If you are near the top it will land on the season in which you are.  Further down and it will jump to the next one.  This is WMC trying to be intelligent about where you are trying to scroll by sending you to the closest item geographically.  It will take some trickery to usurp that behaviour but I will see if it is possible.  The right, key, however, should take you to the config button bar like it does in list view, I just haven't figured out how to make that work yet (I inherited this code from a very long time ago and haven't completely deciphered everything it does).

 

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.

 

@1) - I know I'm probably in the minority, but for me it would be really nice and more clean looking to have that option. So if somewhere down the line it's possible to have all seasons begin entirely collapsed (when the option of skipping to first unplayed episode is disabled) then I'd be all for it. It just looks a bit cleaner to have the season headings/banners only to start with (sort've how the old MBC interface would just show you folder cover art for each season).

 

@2) - That would be wonderful if the TV view would respect that option. I actually checked/unchecked that a few times (I keep it unchecked by default anyway) - b/c I assumed that would take away the "(xx new)" in the new TV view, so when it didn't I was confused. Glad to know I'm not missing anything.

 

@3) - That's interesting, and I didn't know that WMC did that by default. But yes, if Left Direction could simply collapse the season currently entered that would make browsing all series quite a bit easier for me (and I expect for a lot of others too once the realized the functionality).

 

 

Thanks again for your reply and all of your hard work!

[ebr 14916]

Try the dev version of Chocolate I just put up.

 

1) If the option to automatically go to the first unplayed item is not set, then it won't expand the first season

2) If the option to show unplayed count is not set, you won't get the unplayed episode count display

3) The left button will not collapse the current season (because I don't think that is necessarily intuitive) but it will land you on the proper season header. From there it is one click to collapse it.

[gat0rjay 0]

Try the dev version of Chocolate I just put up.

 

1) If the option to automatically go to the first unplayed item is not set, then it won't expand the first season

2) If the option to show unplayed count is not set, you won't get the unplayed episode count display

3) The left button will not collapse the current season (because I don't think that is necessarily intuitive) but it will land you on the proper season header. From there it is one click to collapse it.

 

Sorry for the very delayed response - I've been out of town a lot recently and just got the chance to play around with my HTPC a few days ago. I tried the update, and it's AWESOME - exactly the behavior I wanted. Thanks so much, I really appreciate you all listening to users and implementing reasonable configuration options! These three options are exactly what I wanted, and it will make using MBC so much better for me. And yes, I agree with you on #3, and I am perfectly happy with the LB taking the cursor to the season header w/o collapsing - makes great sense, and is very easy to 1 click collapse from there like you said.

 

Also, a little OT for this post (but I don't want to dredge two old ones up)... I just noticed on the newest update to MBC that I installed tonight that it has the old Genre/Director links back again (as discussed in #1 from this thread). In addition, I now see rotten tomatoes % scores on the quick info panel while using cover wall view. Both of these features are Freaking Fantastic! So I just wanted to say thank you for these updates too!

 

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for the phenomenal upgrades. Cheers for all of your hard work!!

Edited March 12, 2014 by gat0rjay