Add Classic/Legacy Series (DP Series) EPG recording control accelerators

[IanSav]

I was reading a recent update to another issue and remembered a wish for a change being posted in the forums quite a while ago. It is time I added that wish here.

The wish was to add the recording accelerators from the DP series into the T Series. Currently in the T Series EPG pressing:

• GREEN creates a Timer event and places the user in the timer editor if there is no current timer or pops up a menu of actions to apply to the current timer.

• BLUE creates an AutoTimer event and places the user in the AutoTimer editor. (Side issue should BLUE on an existing timer edit an existing AutoTimer or convert a regular Timer into an AutoTimer? At the moment it creates a new duplicated AutoTimer.)

• REC pops up a selector menu to immediately create either a Timer or an AutoTimer. (No UI is displayed.)

I believe that this user interface can be optimised and improved by making the following changes:

GREEN Button:

• Make GREEN pop up the menu previously attached to the REC button.

REC Button:

• If the current event has no timer then make pressing REC immediately create a Timer for the current event with the Timer type of record using the default settings. (No Timer entry UI is displayed and the cell is immediately updated to reflect the record Timer.) This is the function previously attached to the GREEN button.

• If the current event is a zap timer then make pressing REC change the Timer type to record using the existing settings. (No Timer entry UI is displayed and the cell is immediately updated to reflect the record Timer.)

• If the current event is a record timer then make pressing REC display the Timer entry UI and allow the user to make any desired changes to the existing timer.

• If the current event is a record timer created by an AutoTimer then make pressing REC display the Edit Auto UI and allow the user to make any desired changes to the existing AutoTimer created timer.

PLAY Button:

• If the current event has no timer then make pressing PLAY immediately create a Timer for the current event with the Timer type of zap using the default settings. (No Timer entry UI is displayed and the cell is immediately updated to reflect the zap Timer.)

• If the current event is a record timer then make pressing PLAY change the Timer type to zap using the existing settings. (No Timer entry UI is displayed and the cell is immediately updated to reflect the zap Timer.)

• If the current event is a zap timer then make pressing PLAY display the Timer entry UI and allow the user to make any desired changes to the existing timer.

• If the current event is a zap timer created by an AutoTimer then make pressing PLAY display the Edit Auto UI and allow the user to make any desired changes to the existing AutoTimer created timer.

PAUSE Button:

• Make PAUSE immediately disable (but not delete) any timer set for the current event. (No Timer entry UI is displayed and the cell is immediately updated to reflect the removal/disable of any timer.) If the timer event was created by an AutoTimer then other timer instances will be unaffected.

  If the current event already has a disabled timer then PAUSE should enable the timer again.

STOP Button:

• Make STOP immediately delete any timer set for the current event. (No Timer entry UI is displayed and the cell is immediately updated to reflect the removal of any timer.) Only the selected timer event is deleted. If the timer event was created by an AutoTimer then other timer instances will be unaffected.

Long press:

• In all the above uses of GREEN, REC, PLAY, PAUSE and STOP allow for a long press to indicate that the timer type desired is an AutoTimer. In the PAUSE button context the AutoTimer should be disabled and all events it created should also be disabled. In the STOP button context the AutoTimer should be deleted and all events it created should also be removed.

• This proposal can work equally well for non Beyonwiz builds of Enigma2. On other builds AutoTimer is often not installed by default. All of the functions above can test for the existence of the AutoTimer plugin and disable the long press functionality if AutoTimer is not installed. Alternatively the long press can simply apply to normal Timers instead of AutoTimers.

Having GREEN giving access to both Timer and AutoTimer functions plus the added AutoTimer awareness of the other functions it could be argued that the BLUE AutoTimer button can be freed for other uses.

Original forum thread: Option buttons Rec & Search as a single press from EPG.

[IanSav]

Correct grammar in the Long Press paragraph.

[IanSav]

Add note explaining how to handle the case of builds where AutoTimers are not installed.

[prl]

What is proposed for the current functions on REC? I know that they are also available on RED, but I thought that the long-term idea was to free up RED for HbbTV.

[IanSav]

As documented above the current function of REC transfers to GREEN.

[IanSav]

The GREEN button was missing from the "Long press" paragraph.

[dr dos]

STOP Button:

• Make STOP immediately delete any timer set for the current event. (No Timer entry UI is displayed and the cell is immediately updated to reflect the removal of any timer.) Only the selected timer event is deleted. If the timer event was created by an AutoTimer then other timer instances will be unaffected.

Shouldn't the timer created by an AutoTimer be disabled, instead of deleted? Otherwise it will be re-created by the AT.

[IanSav]

STOP should deal with single recording events. Long STOP will delete the AutoTimer and all the timers it creates.

If you are looking for a way to disable timers rather than delete them then I would expand the philosophy and add the PAUSE button to the mix. For example:

PAUSE Button:

• Make PAUSE immediately disable (but not delete) any timer set for the current event. (No Timer entry UI is displayed and the cell is immediately updated to reflect the removal/disable of any timer.) If the timer event was created by an AutoTimer then other timer instances will be unaffected.

Long PAUSE will pause the AutoTimer behind the event as well.

If this tweak addresses your concerns then I will update the full description above.

EDIT: I like this extension to the concept so I will add it now and make corrections later if required.

[dr dos]

So the Stop button (short press) will have no effect on timers created by AT? If so, that's OK, otherwise I can see it causing some confusion if the timer disappears immediately, only to re-appear some time later. Will the "Long presses" display a pop-up with a confirm/cancel or exit, so the user knows what the action will do? IE. Long Stop will delete an AT & all timers it created. Maybe a 2nd press to confirm and exit to cancel?

[Peter Urbanec]

There have been numerous UI changes since this bug was opened.

There have been no requests from the user base to make any changes to this aspect of the UI for several years and there's no strong motivation to match the behaviour of the DP-series.