User Interface Suggestion (AppleTV)

[Carniphage]

This is a suggestion - but it is specifically for AppleTV, so I am putting the thread here.

The AppleTV remote has just 6 buttons, but despite this, it is a really intuitive remote control device.

Under Boxee, the remote less intuitive, because some rules have been bent or broken.

In Apple's implementation the centre button (Play Pause) acts also as select. Press it to enter a menu and drill down.
The Menu button acts as the opposite. Press it to go back up one level.

Boxee does this 80% of the the time, but not consistently.

The worst exception is playing video content.
In a list of media items (Play Pause) starts the selected file playing. But once playing, pressing (Menu) does not take you back to the list of media items. Instead, the media continues to play. And there is an interface running on top.

If I want to go back to my playing media. I can't press (Play Pause) on the selected file. That will restart the file from the beginning.

If I want to go back to the playing file, I have to repeatedly press Menu and go "up" until I get back into the player.

To me this is not at all intuitive.

The Apple remote is simple. Play takes you forward, Menu takes you back. Violating this convention does not seem to gain anything.

C.

[paul996]

Another easier way to get back to your video is to hit the left button and scroll to the top for "Now Playing"

[charlesv]

I thought they added some shortcust in the latest version like holding play/pause takes you to the video and holding menu takes you to the welcome screen? Or v/v

[Carniphage]

Another easier way to get back to your video is to hit the left button and scroll to the top for "Now Playing"

Sure...Allowing browsing while music plays does make sense. But the video-beneath-menu thing is a gimmicky left-over from XBMC. It serves no useful purpose. I would never want to watch a movie which in 50% obscured by menus.

I don't see a case for breaking the user interface convention for the remote.

C.

[giyad]

Sure...Allowing browsing while music plays does make sense. But the video-beneath-menu thing is a gimmicky left-over from XBMC. It serves no useful purpose. I would never want to watch a movie which in 50% obscured by menus.

I don't see a case for breaking the user interface convention for the remote.

C.

it may be gimmicky, but how does it affect you? Like paul996 said, in order to get back to the movie, you press left to get to the sidebar and press on "Now Playing." This way by pressing menu you don't leave the file your playing, because sometimes people press buttons by mistake while watching, and this prevents you from stopping the movie.

I think the Apple TV should allow support for universal remotes to allow Play/Pause, Stop, Rewind, Forwad, Page up/down, but I think thats something Apple has to do before Boxee can implement, if im wrong than Boxee should implement that kind of thing now ... actually I've noticed that the seek buttons have been working, recently (maybe since 2.3).

[Carniphage]

it may be gimmicky, but how does it affect you? Like paul996 said, in order to get back to the movie, you press left to get to the sidebar and press on "Now Playing." This way by pressing menu you don't leave the file your playing, because sometimes people press buttons by mistake while watching, and this prevents you from stopping the movie.

It's not just gimmicky, it does not actually work. If I currently press menu by mistake it is a "disaster". I start missing the show from that moment. The movie is obscured by the pinstripe backdrop. And it takes multiple button presses to get back to the movie. By the time I get back to the movie I might have missed 10 or 15 seconds.

If I accidentally press "menu", pausing the movie is a much better outcome than obscuring it with a dense interface.

On my AppleTV I have about 80 movies in the my collection. If I press Menu in the middle of a movie, I get a blank movie collection page (it takes a while to populate the screen with movie images). Obscured beneath the pinstripe blank screen is a playing movie that starts to stall and the audio breaks up. The Apple TV is not fast enough to play movie content AND do interface at the same time. To get back the movie requires several "menu" presses. Or several lefts, up and enter.

My suggestion is for less presses:
I press menu - the movie pauses and drops a bookmark.
I find myself back in the movie menu with the paused file still selected.
If I want to go back into the paused movie - I press play - and play resumes.
If I want to play something else I select it and press play.
One button to go in, one button to go out.

C.

[MILE]

Generally I would have to agree .. in many cases it takes too many clicks (or steps respectively) to navigate through Boxee...

Access to the most used options should be simplified to improve the user experience...

Like when I want to pause a movie I press the Play/Pause button but instead of pausing it just shows me the Pause button in a navigation bar which I then have to click again...?! When I click the Play/Pause button I would expect the movie to pause and when I hit menu I would expect the app to show me that lower navigation bar and not keep playing the movie while it hides it behind a GUI layer and makes me click around to get back...

:: M ::

[giyad]

Generally I would have to agree .. in many cases it takes too many clicks (or steps respectively) to navigate through Boxee...

Access to the most used options should be simplified to improve the user experience...

Like when I want to pause a movie I press the Play/Pause button but instead of pausing it just shows me the Pause button in a navigation bar which I then have to click again...?! When I click the Play/Pause button I would expect the movie to pause and when I hit menu I would expect the app to show me that lower navigation bar and not keep playing the movie while it hides it behind a GUI layer and makes me click around to get back...

:: M ::

that makes sense +1

but if you are going to stop the movie, Boxee should remember the last position... then when you play the movie again, it should request whether you want to play from the last stopped position, or from the beginning.

[wheels332]

and see you can find the RF-10 universal and learning remote control because it can learn the apple tv remote with no problem and in boxee it don't have no problem this a picture of the RF-10
__________
http://www.universalremote.com/produ...php?model=99:D

[giyad]

and see you can find the RF-10 universal and learning remote control because it can learn the apple tv remote with no problem and in boxee it don't have no problem this a picture of the RF-10
__________
http://www.universalremote.com/produ...php?model=99:D

i have the harmony 880, works well and got it from amazon for 80$