[mythtv] More UI thoughts

[Isaac Richards]

On Tuesday 12 November 2002 01:25 am, rob wrote:
> So, I'm sitting here thinking about UI stuff.  Two thoughts just popped
> into my head.
>
> 1.  The user really doesn't care how many megabytes are free.  They
> really just care how much time is available to record. (Well, at least
> the users who don't do division for fun.)  Could the application compute
> average encoding rate based on recorded shows that have the same
> encoding as the currently selected encoding, then display the minutes
> available based on free space divided by average encoding rate?  I think
> that would be useful.

Yeah, it would, but it's a little trickier than that -- If you're using 
rtjpeg, file sizes can vary rather widely, depending on the input signal.
It could probably get a reasonable approximation, though.

> 2.  On the main menu, it might be nice to have a status display that
> says if the machine is currently recording, and if so, what.  That way,
> the user will know before they choose "Watch TV" if they are going to
> need to cancel recording or whatever.

Yup -- especially when its able to re-compress files in the background, or 
burn a VCD or whatever..  or even show if email's available  or whatnot.  A 
status bar that's visible anytime video's not being played would be nice, but 
I'd need someone to do graphics for it.

Isaac