No record series

[GGRussell]

I don't like the new UI options. I want to record new series Buddy vs Christmas on Food network. I click on an episode and only get options to record one episode. NO SERIES Just way too much clicking and dialog boxes to get to 'Record Current Season' and I would have NEVER clicked on the '...' except I was just clicking on everything.

Sorry but this app is just getting way too complex now.

[NedS]

Are you saying you don't see "Record more" in the menu, or that you think it's too hidden/obscure?

[GGRussell]

Yes I see 'Reocrd more ...' but I find it too obscure. I wouldn't have thought to click on the ... initially. I found it accidentally

[Thunderthud]

This change threw me for a loop too! It's kind of vague and needs to show that there are options. Also, there was no changelog notice, as far as I can see.

[Beerman]

Yes, this is confusing to me as well and not very intuitive. I like having choices but there seems to be too many clicks needed for my liking.

[NedS]

This is good feedback. I was thinking about this all day today, and we even had a short phone conference about it. Let's brainstorm a bit with the wording, to start with. There are other UI tweaks that can be done in addition, but starting with the wording might help improve things right away, because that's really easy for us to update.

"Record More" is a bit... odd. I was thinking maybe something like one of these:

• Record with additional options
• Record Multiple
• Record Series (this would be slightly more complicated because we would need to add logic for when something is a series, movie, or sports program, and change the wording accordingly, but that can be done)

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I'm also not digging the "..." once you are in the series/more/whatever menu, so feel free to give feedback on that as well. Maybe make it just say "[Change]" instead of "..." or something.

[Beerman]

NPVR may offer too much but I'll just throw this out there.
Here's the options it offers:
Record Once
Record Season (New Episodes on this channel)
Record Season (All Episodes on this channel)
Record Season (Daily, this timeslot)
Record Season (Weekly, this timeslot)
Record Season (Monday-Friday, this time slot)
Record Season (Weekends, this timeslot)
Record All Episodes, All Channels

I did say they offered too much.

[NedS]

That's another thought, maybe the two menus can be flattened into one window.

[mike808]

What happened to the "hide" series button? It wasn't that hard to click on the individual shows or buttons for "hide" and "record series".
IMO, the new UI is not an improvement.

[NedS]

What happened to the "hide" series button? It wasn't that hard to click on the individual shows or buttons for "hide" and "record series".
IMO, the new UI is not an improvement.

The "hide" button will return.

The changes were necessary to show the new recording options, as well as possible future options.

[Thunderthud]

I do think that there should be a "Record Series" button, in addition to the listing of upcoming showings, as there was before. Clicking on that "Record Series" button can then bring up the list of options that you were listing. Just seeing the listings alone, doesn't intuitively tell you what to do next if you want to record the series. Thanks! Ned,

[mike808]

What happened to the "hide" series button? It wasn't that hard to click on the individual shows or buttons for "hide" and "record series".
IMO, the new UI is not an improvement.

The "hide" button will return.
The changes were necessary to show the new recording options, as well as possible future options.

Good to know. In the meantime, I did discover that if you have a keyboard, the "Delete" key will "hide" the show. I hate dragging out a keyboard to clean up the guides whenever new shows pop up that we'll never watch. Every keyboard control action should always have an equivalent GUI-accessible mouse/touchscreen action.

And for the record, I much preferred the [Hide] [Record Current] [Record All] buttons. Individual shows could be toggled, and life was good.
If the button sizes were the issue (screen real estate), then perhaps an icon button or combo icon/text button would work?
Such as: [o Season] [o All] [Hide]

[mike808]

Gotta add that the effort required to record just one episode or a one-time special (in HD with multiple later broadcasts on SD channels) is just rediculous. It is now a 7-click operation drilling through two menus instead of just a on/off toggle click.

There really needs to be a default start/stop padding somewhere in the app local settings. Surely that can be accommodated with all the effort it took to rework the UI?

[NedS]

Gotta add that the effort required to record just one episode or a one-time special (in HD with multiple later broadcasts on SD channels) is just rediculous. It is now a 7-click operation drilling through two menus instead of just a on/off toggle click.

There really needs to be a default start/stop padding somewhere in the app local settings. Surely that can be accommodated with all the effort it took to rework the UI?

That gives me an idea. I imagine something like this. After selecting an entry/episode/airing, four buttons:

[Record this airing] [edit ✎]
summary that says:
Record "title"
on channel "X"
on "date/time"
with X padding
------------------------------------------
[Record series] [edit ✎]
summary that says:
Record "title"
On "all channels"
"new and old episodes"
etc

The "edit" button next to "record this airing" would just show the option to change padding. The "record this airing" button would be selected by default, so you can go straight to that if you don't wish to change padding.

Pressing "record series" would use some kind of default settings for padding, all channels, etc. The "Edit" setting button next to it would show all the options you see in "Record more" of the current app.

Then, allow a default padding preference to be saved somewhere, so it's not always 30 seconds.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Change "Change settings" to "Edit"

[mike808]

I liked being able to just click in the "red ball" area to toggle recording individual shows on and off. Super simple. KISS.

I think leveraging the "red ball" = "record" as part of the button labeling can free up real estate. Super helpful for mobile where it is at a premium.
Put the iconography before the text, so that translation/localization don't push them around with different lengths. Applying to your spitballing:
[o Show] [✎ Edit]
Don't know why the summary is needed - if you're recording an already selected show (row from the guide), this summary info is already being displayed.
"clicking" where the "red ball" is displayed should be equivalent to clicking on this button. The standalone button allows for multi-select and things like that, and the toggle behavior (record/not record) should be the same. KISS. Click, record. Click again, don't record. The "Edit" button is there if I need more.
------------------------------------------
[o Series] [✎ Edit]
When you're recording a series, there are options that don't exist when toggling an individual show to record or not. So a flyout/popup/popover dialog wouldn't be out of place in the UX.
Options:

• Season: "Any/This" toggle.
• Start: <options> before, End: <options> after.
• Channel: "Any/This" toggle.
• New: "New/Any" toggle.
• HD: "Any/HD/SD" toggle.

Keeping things as toggles (repeated clicks in the area cycles the options, can use both left/right and up/down (or spacebar) to cycle as well so orientation isn't an issue). Another trick - borrow from video game option setting UX - Use the "<| Selected |>" display where left/right (and up/down) cycle through the options.

To borrow from a competitor (Tee-vo), it "knows" how many seasons a show has and lets you set a "Start recording with Season #" policy. Not sure if there is a lot of value there, or interest in a setting to record only a specific season.

Then there is a potential for multiple "series" jobs - e.g. "record Season 3, any channel, any resolution" and "record current season, new, HD only". That would probably ruin the "easy" parts of any UX, though, and more like an advanced scheduler - maybe accessible through a JSON API for folks that want to do really fancy scheduling?

Just my noodling on the subject.