When Will New UI Be Pushed Out?

[neil459]

Here's the list of already dones:

• New means of browsing discover more efficiently
• redone padding
• a settings page that's easily accessible
• easier access to search on slice
• we added a clock (no one was asking for this, but we had some extra space and it took like 3 seconds)

These are all done. They were picked first primarily because they were either low hanging fruit or (in the case of Discover) the old way was just that bad. Most of them were done or partially done before I even started.

Right now we have a list of user-requested features for the future, but at present we aren't spending a lot of time focusing on them, because everyone involved is handling bug fixes. But what I have done is created a private github repo and pulled everything from that thread you made, neil, and created individual tickets for every feature. I then went to several related threads and pulled tickets there too. I think total, after adjusting and combining some features and requests where it made sense to, we've got 33 open tickets. A few of those are bugs or regressions, but most are user requests and features.

Once we've gotten to the point where all platforms work equally well on the current feature set, we'll begin ranking requests. For example, the thing you ranked first on your list is first on mine as well, but could take more time to develop and code. I've already begin wire-framing and visualizing that particular request though, because I think it's that important. If there is any more low hanging and important fruit, we may attack that first or at the same time, but if all of this development is really focused around giving more control to the user, your first item is the obvious no-brainer to really start focusing on asap.

I'd love to give you more info, but frankly there's not much more to give. At the moment, it's all hands on deck for bug fixing.

edit: And I should probably say we've not thrown any ideas out. When we can, we'll re-examine a guide. We've already spent some time talking about it and how it could theoretically work into the flow of the app. This is absolutely not a promise that it'll happen, but we're at least talking about it.

Nate,

Excellent, I think these are excellent things to get out of the way first. Would they be my choices? Probably not, but they are worthy choices made logically.

The fact that you are talking about guide options internally and not just trying to convince users that they are ignorant (my feelings based on the existing posts, not yours) for wanting a guide is also very important.

Hopefully, we can get SD to consider handling more than one workflow or use case.

For example, we never watch live TV and don't ever intend to using SD products. We are OTA only, no cable. All of our TVs have antennas, so why watch live through the SD hardware. We would disable the Live tab if possible.

As for Guide flow, just make a new tab called Guide. Again if possible we would completely disable the Discover view and use the Guide view.

Thank you for communicating these facts.

Hopefully, you will find more facts to communicate in the future.

Neil

[nateb]

Oh, I forgot, we also made it possible to auto-start in the Recorded tab. Your post reminded me.

[mcewinter]

Oh, I forgot, we also made it possible to auto-start in the Recorded tab. Your post reminded me.

Can you enter the menu without breaking stream? That would be amazing. That annoyance is unique to your product.

[nateb]

Oh, I forgot, we also made it possible to auto-start in the Recorded tab. Your post reminded me.

Can you enter the menu without breaking stream? That would be amazing. That annoyance is unique to your product.

I'm not totally sure if I understand your question. But just to give more detail, you launch the app. App does its thing where it discovers everything on the network. And then you are automatically in the recorded tab. So no live tv stream is ever launched. Lots of people like starting in live tv, lots don't. So we made it a choice.

[JeffRand]

Oh, I forgot, we also made it possible to auto-start in the Recorded tab. Your post reminded me.

Can you enter the menu without breaking stream? That would be amazing. That annoyance is unique to your product.

I'm not totally sure if I understand your question. But just to give more detail, you launch the app. App does its thing where it discovers everything on the network. And then you are automatically in the recorded tab. So no live tv stream is ever launched. Lots of people like starting in live tv, lots don't. So we made it a choice.

No, he's talking about watching TV and then when going into the menu, the app shouldn't stop the stream. Right now when you go to look at the recording tasks or anything it just plain stops and you lose what you're watching. Put the dang video in a small rectangle somewhere on the screen. Or worst case, pause the stream so that you can go right back to it without losing your ability to rewind what you are watching. Jeez... This has been asked for, for ages.

[NYPlayer]

Can you enter the menu without breaking stream? That would be amazing. That annoyance is unique to your product.

I'm not totally sure if I understand your question. But just to give more detail, you launch the app. App does its thing where it discovers everything on the network. And then you are automatically in the recorded tab. So no live tv stream is ever launched. Lots of people like starting in live tv, lots don't. So we made it a choice.

No, he's talking about watching TV and then when going into the menu, the app shouldn't stop the stream. Right now when you go to look at the recording tasks or anything it just plain stops and you lose what you're watching. Put the dang video in a small rectangle somewhere on the screen. Or worst case, pause the stream so that you can go right back to it without losing your ability to rewind what you are watching. Jeez... This has been asked for, for ages.

Or you accidently hit the back button while watching a DRM Movie Channel which you have previous paused.

[mcewinter]

Can you enter the menu without breaking stream? That would be amazing. That annoyance is unique to your product.

I'm not totally sure if I understand your question. But just to give more detail, you launch the app. App does its thing where it discovers everything on the network. And then you are automatically in the recorded tab. So no live tv stream is ever launched. Lots of people like starting in live tv, lots don't. So we made it a choice.

No, he's talking about watching TV and then when going into the menu, the app shouldn't stop the stream. Right now when you go to look at the recording tasks or anything it just plain stops and you lose what you're watching. Put the dang video in a small rectangle somewhere on the screen. Or worst case, pause the stream so that you can go right back to it without losing your ability to rewind what you are watching. Jeez... This has been asked for, for ages.

This exactly. To take a step further, say you wish to record the current program; you select the red circle (Record) and it breaks the current stream. I can give more examples if needed. It's an inconvenience to say the least.

We should be able to set a program to record without interupting said program.

[nateb]

Ah ha! Sorry, my brain was going entirely the other way.

That is on the list to be done. Purely from a navigating perspective, I'd say leaving the video in the background would probably be the best way, either paused or muted. Just because actually navigating to a small box would require quite a lot of UI changes. ... Unless we replaced the word live with the Live video box. But then what if you left a recording?

A pause would probably be best. Maybe with a timer that would pop up saying the video is still paused that was based on how much memory was available along with some common sense timers.

Anyway, definitely on the list to be done. I probably wouldn't describe that as low hanging fruit, because it likely requires changes to the server. Still, I could see it being annoying enough, particularly for cable card users, that it might be worth pushing up.

[mcewinter]

Ah ha! Sorry, my brain was going entirely the other way.

That is on the list to be done. Purely from a navigating perspective, I'd say leaving the video in the background would probably be the best way, either paused or muted. Just because actually navigating to a small box would require quite a lot of UI changes. ... Unless we replaced the word live with the Live video box. But then what if you left a recording?

A pause would probably be best. Maybe with a timer that would pop up saying the video is still paused that was based on how much memory was available along with some common sense timers.

Anyway, definitely on the list to be done. I probably wouldn't describe that as low hanging fruit, because it likely requires changes to the server. Still, I could see it being annoying enough, particularly for cable card users, that it might be worth pushing up.

On the way but no solution planned? That's a little discouraging. Is that still the case since this thread has aged a little?

I'm curious as to who at Silicondust uses what hardware. Do you guys go out of your comfort zone to use other equipment beyond your test bed? Like, in your home?

[nateb]

On the way but no solution planned? That's a little discouraging. Is that still the case since this thread has aged a little?

I'm curious as to who at Silicondust uses what hardware. Do you guys go out of your comfort zone to use other equipment beyond your test bed? Like, in your home?

Definitely still the case. All UI heads are down right now working on solving last remaining bugs. New features are not in the crosshairs at the moment.

To pull back the curtain a bit, I'm actually a telecommuter at the moment, so office==home for me. And personally I use or test with an Amazon Cube Fire TV, a Shield, an Win10 dual monitor PC, A Win10 touchscreen laptop, an iPad, an iPhone, and an old Mac. I also have accounts or downloads of all our partner software (Plex, Channels, Emby, and Kodi). And needless to say, I've got a crappy HDMI switcher from some no-name chinese company.

My primary starting point for all tests is the Win10 desktop, since that's mainly what I work with. The hope is to be able to reproduce the issue there. If I cannot, I start narrowing down any given problem to the specific hardware or as much of a corollary as possible. If I can't reproduce with a similar device, we know it's down to something on that specific device, so we either go out and grab one of those, or the office may already have one. In the past few weeks, that's included the Fire TV 4k green screen issue, the iPad Pro issue, and ... I think a Fire TV TV issue (but I may be making that one up in my head). For the most part, it's usually fairly simple to reproduce a problem once we have the necessary hardware and a recording of the offending video.

We have one other developer who works remote out of the UK. And all the rest of the dev team is at the office. I don't actually know how many of the other guys go out of their comfort zone at home, but I do know that pretty much all devices get some pretty thorough testing at the office. Also, I think I'm the only iOS/Mac guy. Most everyone else is very much in the Android ecosystem for personal devices.

[Beerman]

I don't want to read between the lines but more than a month ago we were told a new UI was in the works 'soon' and now you say "New features are not in the crosshairs at the moment". Does that mean the new UI will still be out "soon" but when it does come out "soon" it will not have the new features OR, "soon" means "in the distant future"?

[neil459]

I don't want to read between the lines but more than a month ago we were told a new UI was in the works 'soon' and now you say "New features are not in the crosshairs at the moment". Does that mean the new UI will still be out "soon" but when it does come out "soon" it will not have the new features OR, "soon" means "in the distant future"?

To be fair to SD, and my tendency is not to be, SD has repeatedly said the new UI will come when it comes, not before. They have also been clear that the UI will contain a few low hanging fruit improvements, but the main thrust is infrastructure so that it is easier to add new features. This has not changed in at least the last 6 months that I am aware of. IIRC, there is a post you can search for that details some of the expected initial improvements.

So just forget about everything you have heard about "soon", or the press release talking about the new UI, or release this year, etc. For whatever reason, SD's software development process is not very predictable at the moment. Each of us has our thoughts about why that may be, but the fact is no one outside of SD knows for sure.

For some of us it is the holiday season, if this applies to you, just sit back and enjoy the holidays. For most of us in the US the time between now and the new year is not very productive. I think it would be a miracle if SD releases anything before the new year for the simple reason that once released the support requirements will be huge and thats not good during the holidays.

[mcewinter]

On the way but no solution planned? That's a little discouraging. Is that still the case since this thread has aged a little?

I'm curious as to who at Silicondust uses what hardware. Do you guys go out of your comfort zone to use other equipment beyond your test bed? Like, in your home?

Definitely still the case. All UI heads are down right now working on solving last remaining bugs. New features are not in the crosshairs at the moment.

To pull back the curtain a bit, I'm actually a telecommuter at the moment, so office==home for me. And personally I use or test with an Amazon Cube Fire TV, a Shield, an Win10 dual monitor PC, A Win10 touchscreen laptop, an iPad, an iPhone, and an old Mac. I also have accounts or downloads of all our partner software (Plex, Channels, Emby, and Kodi). And needless to say, I've got a crappy HDMI switcher from some no-name chinese company.

My primary starting point for all tests is the Win10 desktop, since that's mainly what I work with. The hope is to be able to reproduce the issue there. If I cannot, I start narrowing down any given problem to the specific hardware or as much of a corollary as possible. If I can't reproduce with a similar device, we know it's down to something on that specific device, so we either go out and grab one of those, or the office may already have one. In the past few weeks, that's included the Fire TV 4k green screen issue, the iPad Pro issue, and ... I think a Fire TV TV issue (but I may be making that one up in my head). For the most part, it's usually fairly simple to reproduce a problem once we have the necessary hardware and a recording of the offending video.

We have one other developer who works remote out of the UK. And all the rest of the dev team is at the office. I don't actually know how many of the other guys go out of their comfort zone at home, but I do know that pretty much all devices get some pretty thorough testing at the office. Also, I think I'm the only iOS/Mac guy. Most everyone else is very much in the Android ecosystem for personal devices.

Speaking for yourself, do you use Silicondust's solution "mission critical" in your home or do you just test stuff as it arises? I have always assumed the team uses their own product but I ask only because some of these issues, like I had described above, should be painfully obvious to somebody deeply atached to the product; I'm mildly amazed that the UI has functioned like this since its inception. And the lack of screen saver is something that should speak a little loudly to somebody invested in the product, or at least uses it daily; most videocentric apps have a screensaver implementation.

I'm trying hard to avoid this sounding like a rant. I can come up with a list things I love about the product. With that said, and this is probable the wrong place to bring it up, but it would be nice if the forum had a casual place to dicuss whatever. I understand this forum isn't exactly "social" focused but might be worth considering. SD has a fan base, it would be cool to see you guys embrace it somehow to offset the heavy modding found here.

[nateb]

I don't want to read between the lines but more than a month ago we were told a new UI was in the works 'soon' and now you say "New features are not in the crosshairs at the moment". Does that mean the new UI will still be out "soon" but when it does come out "soon" it will not have the new features OR, "soon" means "in the distant future"?

To be clear, I mean we have our new feature set for this UI release set in stone, and we are not going to add more until this release happens. I believe earlier in this thread I detailed most of the new features for this release.

So in answer to the question, neither.

[nateb]

Speaking for yourself, do you use Silicondust's solution "mission critical" in your home or do you just test stuff as it arises? I have always assumed the team uses their own product but I ask only because some of these issues, like I had described above, should be painfully obvious to somebody deeply atached to the product; I'm mildly amazed that the UI has functioned like this since its inception. And the lack of screen saver is something that should speak a little loudly to somebody invested in the product, or at least uses it daily; most videocentric apps have a screensaver implementation.

I might be the wrong person to ask about mission critical? I don't have a significant other and I'm not concerned about WAF. I use the HDHomeRun software for watching and recording. And when I'm not watching, I close or turn off the software and let the recording happen in the background where I don't have to care about it, pretty much as it is designed. I *think* that's how most of us use it. Even on the main set top box in the living room, I operate under the idea that the HDHomeRun software is playing something, is preparing to play or record something, or is off in favor of the main GUI of the device the software is running on. In my user case, a screensaver would be entirely pointless.

Going forward, it will likely be pretty beneficial to consider user stories like yours, where it sounds like you expect the HDHomeRun software to work more like a full media center, like Kodi or Plex/Emby, effectively replacing the default hardware GUI with our own GUI that plays music and podcasts as well as recording video and maybe even launching apps, where the user is pretty much expected to spend all their time inside that one GUI. A situation like that would make a screensaver make a lot more sense. Another related user case (that might also be like yours) would be someone coming directly from something like a Comcast DVR, where they really only want the HDHomeRun UI and absolutely never leave it. That would also call for a screensaver.

I wasn't around for the original UI development, so I'm not sure how much user stories were considered in putting it together. But going forward, hopefully we'll consider them more often.