[mythtv] channel change time perception

[Steve Adeff]

I'm not here to complain about the change time. As it is my HD3000 card 
changes channels faster than my cable box (DCT6200), not by much, but it 
does.

There was some talk a few weeks back on the user list about channel change 
times, and as I sat testing something (channel changes are failing when in 
the program guide...) I thought of something. My channel change begins with 
the screen pausing, going black, new channel displaying. The black screen 
time is quite long comparatively, so why not continue playing the current 
channel from the buffer until the new channel is ready to be displayed? For 
me this is like 1 second sometimes 2, but usually quite quick. I know some 
people say it takes them up to 4 seconds.

I think by at least showing the previous channel during the tuning and 
buffering phase the perception of a long channel change would go down. 
Obviously the end goal would be to actually make the channels change as fast 
as possible, but at least this would give the user the perception that there 
is not so much of a delay, and as long as the new channel banner still popped 
up to indicate that it was changing channels I think most people would end up 
a little more pleased with the performance.

anyway, just a thought for those of you that actually *do* the coding around 
here (cause god knows I can't....)

Steve