[jbarr]

I received the 3.0 upgrade last night, and spent about an hour "playing". Here's what I found:


[*]Pause screen

The pause screen seems to work like this: Press "pause". After 20 seconds, the space between the top of the blue pause banner and the top of the screen normally occupied by the paused video fills with an ad. If you press Pause or Play, the screen reverts back to the video and plays. This functionality has not changed. If you press Exit either before the ad comes up or after the ad comes up, the pause banner and the pause bug (and the ad, if displayed) disappear and you have full-screen video paused and the ad does not come up after another 20 seconds! I like this implementation.


[*]Interface

Subtle changes, mostly having to do with branding and colors. Fortunatly, things don't look too different. The new logos have replaced all the old logos (gotta love it, Woody!) and the color scheme is a different shade of blue. I personally think it's a bit harder to read, but that's personal opinion.


If you are viewing the Channel Guide or the Replay Guide, and you highlight a show whose title is smaller than will fit in the space, it will auto-scroll to show the whole title. It's kinda cool!


Oh, and the Description section in the Channel Guide is now transluscent, so you can see the video behind it. Very nice.


[*]Main Menu

The main menu is no longer a small banner menu at the bottom of the screen. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/frown.gif It is now a large, semi-full-screen (like the Channel Guide) menu with the selections on the left and presumably, future ad banner space on the right (currently taken up with a nice ReplayTV logo-ad.


[*]Manual Recording

The interface for manual recording is accessed through the main menu and is very easy to use and straight forward. I won't go into details except to say that it functions as earlier described.


[*]Show Extender

Ths interface is nice and it works well. As far as how conflicts are handles, I don't know. I'm patiently awaiting the new manual.


One major disappointment: Show Extender does not allow for "negative" padding. Intuitivly, it seems like an easy implementation, but it's not implemented.


[*]Interface Speed

I could be imagining things, but menu speed and button responsivness seems quicker. I read n earlier posting that mentioned that pressing FF and REW to engage different speeds showed significant delays when going from one speed to another. I have a 2020, and the response seems better than it was. Very quick, Very nice.


[*]One (of probably many) Suggestion:

Since I don't have a manual yet, here's a small suggestion if it is not implemented: The timy ReplayTV logo at the top left of many of the banners (the simple "R" inside the circle) is monochromatic. It's just begging to be used as a mail bug! If there is a new message pending, how about either have the logo turn red or flash?



------------------

-Jim


ReplayTV: The only way to watch Iron Chef!

 

[MrDon]

Please but the mail bag idea in next update Woody. it would be a nice touch.


[This message has been edited by MrDon (edited 10-18-2000).]

 

[karog]

Quote:

Originally posted by ReplayMike: Intuitively, negative padding does seem easy. Unfortunately, when you spend a week or so thinking about it, you find lots of little problems that are pretty thorny, and would have taken too long to make it into 3.0.

Could you give just one example of a thorny issue related to negative padding? Since it is easy to develop a simple interface for it, I assume you have something else in mind. Not being a mind reader, perhaps you could make it explicit. That would make your remark much more understandable.


karog




[This message has been edited by karog (edited 10-18-2000).]

 

[TripleD]

Hey Karog, why don't you post all of the pseudo code that makes negative padding work in all instances given the mix of guaranteed/non-guaranteed/show/theme channel combinations and into that pot add positive padding. The code should be able to resolve all conflicts and report those to the user.


Then after posting this code then the nice people here can examine the algorithm to see if it holds water and we won't waste anymore of Replay's time explaining in gory detail why it would have taken them two extra weeks to program and test this feature.

 

[karog]

Quote:

Originally posted by TripleD: Hey Karog, why don't you post all of the pseudo code that makes negative padding work in all instances given the mix of guaranteed/non-guaranteed/show/theme channel combinations and into that pot add positive padding. The code should be able to resolve all conflicts and report those to the user. Then after posting this code then the nice people here can examine the algorithm to see if it holds water and we won't waste anymore of Replay's time explaining in gory detail why it would have taken them two extra weeks to program and test this feature.

The problem is wholly orthogonal to guaranteed/etc. That's just FUD. If anything, conflicts are reduced since recording times are shorter with negative padding.


A recording has a start time S and an end time E. After padding whether positive or negative, you have new start time S' and new end time E'. Whether S' is before or after S or is the same as S is immaterial. You now run the very same conflict resolution algorithms that you would in any case. There is nothing new here.


The only real difference is if the user should set negative pad times such that S' becomes later than E'. Then there is no longer anything to record and you do nothing.


It's not brain surgery. It is? Could have fooled me.


karog


[This message has been edited by karog (edited 10-18-2000).]

 

[dmaneyapanda]

Quote:

Originally posted by ReplayMike: There's lots of cool stuff that was in the works for 3.0 but didn't make it in for similar reasons. Not to worry. We'll sneak it in somewhere. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/wink.gif

hey, is that a negative pad in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif


dinesh

 

[karog]

Quote:

Originally posted by ReplayMike: Karog, you sound like a programmer.

Well, yes. I was developing GUI interfaces back in 1980 when I worked with some of the Xerox PARC folks who invented the stuff.

Quote:

You're familiar with the term "invariant"? ...

Thanks for your response. I appreciate it.


karog

 

[uncleblaine]

Great idea on the mail bug!!!

 

[odie34]

Quote:

Originally posted by karog: Could you give just one example of a thorny issue related to negative padding?

In addition to the invariant issue, I assume a whole bunch of other logic problems come into play. For example, if a non-guaranteed program starts at the same time as a guaranteed program, but the guaranteed program is negatively padded at the front end, what should happen? Certainly the guaranteed program should take precedence even though it starts later, but what if the non-guaranteed program is negatively padded at the back end? In that situation it's possible that BOTH programs could (and should) be recorded, even though they theoretically occupy the same time slot. I imagine that the current Replay software would have a problem recording 2 shows in the same time slot. Also, what if both programs are guaranteed? Replay doesn't even allow 2 guaranteed programs to be set up for the same time slot, even though negative padding might make this a reasonable thing to do. I realize that none of this stuff is rocket science, but it all needs to be looked into. Even if they chose to exclude some of the flexibility that negative padding would allow, they'd still have to identify all the issues and take significant QA time to make sure that it doesn't break anything. Given that even these minor issues (and I'm sure there are more) could impact the schedule in a negaive way, I can understand why it's not there. Afterall, negative padding would be nice, but normal padding takes care of the real day-to-day problem. Further, manual recording provides a (albeit less graceful) way to record pieces of shows.

 

[jbarr]

Quote:

The good news, though, is that since we all have these things at home, we want the features just as much as everybody else! http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif We certainly appreciate your understanding.

Which means that v4.0 will be released....?


(Sorry, just had to say it!) http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/wink.gif




------------------

-Jim


ReplayTV: The only way to watch Iron Chef!

 

[ReplayBen]

Quote:

Originally posted by jbarr: Which means that v4.0 will be released....?

... when it is ready. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/biggrin.gif


Ben.