I've finally had a chance to have a bit of a play with the Live TV (aka PVR) support in XBMC with the MythTV Addon.
Below are some suggestions for changes to the Live TV settings layout. If there is some support for these or parts of these changes I'll talk with some of the other devs to see what would need to happen for the changes to be made. So please provide feedback / other suggestions for improvement.
1) Rather than "Enabling" Live TV, I think it would be an improvement to instead have a message showing in the Live TV settings panel if a PVR addon hasn't been installed yet. Something like:
A PVR addon must be installed before Live TV settings can be configured.
A link to the list of PVR addons would be nice so they could install straight away.
2) Once there is a PVR addon installed then present the following panels.
Supported Features
This would list the features that the currently installed PVR addon supports, e.g. Timeshifting, Commercial Breaks, etc.
It would be useful if this could also link to the configuration of the addon directly rather than having to go through the Addons area.
Playback
Select the last watched channel when XBMC starts
Select the last watched channel when switching to Live TV
Start Live TV: "Minimized", "Fullscreen"
Show Live TV signal quality in OSD
----------
Confirm channel change by pressing OK: "Never", "Only when using channel number", "Only when using channel up/down", "Always"
Delay before channel is automatically selected: "No delay", "1 second", "2 seconds", etc.
Show channel information when changing channels
Delay before hiding channel information: "No delay", "1 second", "2 seconds", etc.
Live Channels
Use channel numbers from: "PVR addon", "XBMC Channel Manager"
Use channel groups from: "PVR addon", "XBMC Channel Manager"
Open XBMC Channel Manager
----------
Scan for missing channels
Scan for missing channel icons
Reload channels
Program Guide
Default view:
Number of days to display:
Show 'No information available' labels
----------
Update the guide every:
Do not update the guide while watching Live TV
----------
Store the guide in the XBMC database
Reload guide
Recording
Instant record duration
Default recording priority
Default recording lifetime
Recording margin before scheduled start
Recording margin after scheduled end
----------
Show notifications about scheduled recordings
Power Saving (I'm entirely guessing at what the existing options are actually for)
Allow shutdown only when not recording
Shutdown margin after recording ends
----------
Automatically wakeup to record
Wakeup margin before recording starts
----------
Turn on daily wakeup
Daily wakeup time
----------
Wakeup command
Parental Control (I don't know what this is this for)
Turn on parental control
Change PIN
Unlock duration
Below are some suggestions for changes to the Live TV settings layout. If there is some support for these or parts of these changes I'll talk with some of the other devs to see what would need to happen for the changes to be made. So please provide feedback / other suggestions for improvement.
1) Rather than "Enabling" Live TV, I think it would be an improvement to instead have a message showing in the Live TV settings panel if a PVR addon hasn't been installed yet. Something like:
A PVR addon must be installed before Live TV settings can be configured.
A link to the list of PVR addons would be nice so they could install straight away.
2) Once there is a PVR addon installed then present the following panels.
Supported Features
This would list the features that the currently installed PVR addon supports, e.g. Timeshifting, Commercial Breaks, etc.
It would be useful if this could also link to the configuration of the addon directly rather than having to go through the Addons area.
Playback
Select the last watched channel when XBMC starts
Select the last watched channel when switching to Live TV
Start Live TV: "Minimized", "Fullscreen"
Show Live TV signal quality in OSD
----------
Confirm channel change by pressing OK: "Never", "Only when using channel number", "Only when using channel up/down", "Always"
Delay before channel is automatically selected: "No delay", "1 second", "2 seconds", etc.
Show channel information when changing channels
Delay before hiding channel information: "No delay", "1 second", "2 seconds", etc.
Live Channels
Use channel numbers from: "PVR addon", "XBMC Channel Manager"
Use channel groups from: "PVR addon", "XBMC Channel Manager"
Open XBMC Channel Manager
----------
Scan for missing channels
Scan for missing channel icons
Reload channels
Program Guide
Default view:
Number of days to display:
Show 'No information available' labels
----------
Update the guide every:
Do not update the guide while watching Live TV
----------
Store the guide in the XBMC database
Reload guide
Recording
Instant record duration
Default recording priority
Default recording lifetime
Recording margin before scheduled start
Recording margin after scheduled end
----------
Show notifications about scheduled recordings
Power Saving (I'm entirely guessing at what the existing options are actually for)
Allow shutdown only when not recording
Shutdown margin after recording ends
----------
Automatically wakeup to record
Wakeup margin before recording starts
----------
Turn on daily wakeup
Daily wakeup time
----------
Wakeup command
Parental Control (I don't know what this is this for)
Turn on parental control
Change PIN
Unlock duration