Hi Hanno/others, This is David McLeod, designer of the Moovida UI and an ex-employee at Fluendo. I keep an eye on the project as I am, and always have been involved in many media center projects aside from Moovida and like to keep tabs on the HTPC scene.
I can answer your questions and also clear up some information that Fernando sent you.... A while back there was some interest in creating a PVR plugin for Moovida. I had some chats here and there both internally and externally with people and even did some loose sketches during my coffee break for how a PVR episode guide could work. What Fernando re-sent via the mailing list was one of the very loose sketches I produced that survived without getting coffee all over it! Not that I am a pig, but some developers there have some serious drinking problems...and I made too many jokes causing things to spray at times!. (haha suckers! I am sure you are agree?). Anyway, jokes aside, I am a keen advocate of sketching on paper first and doing paper prototyping before jumping onto a computer so that is what that sketch is. It is also true that I went further and produced HD pixel perfect PVR visuals for and some semi-interactive Flash animations as well, but it was another bulk of work I did (in my spare time) that was not supported internally by Fluendo and the enthusiasm for it died down on the mailing list so it was quietly put aside. However, should anyone want to pick up the idea, (I cant release my own previous design work at this time sorry) there are some big design and developer compromises to be made and this is due to the limitations to how the front end is developed and the current Pigment engine itself (unless this has changed in the 2-3 months since I have left?). One of the issues is with masking which can be gotten around but it would make a traditional EPG like those seen on Sky boxes, TiVo, EyeTV (fantastic Mac PVR software) and even MythTV and some other HTPC software a bit hard to pull off. Plus I remember at the time I wanted to tackle issues in regard to the font and screen resizing issues before attempting an EPG that would be very cluttered and text heavy. So the sketches Fernando sent represent some alternatives that would work, keep UI consistency and not give a developer building the UI a giant nightmare. (ah, dejavu all over again hehe). The sketch that would work with minimal developer headaches and issues is the one seen on Page two? of the PDF. It is what I called 'Now & Next' guide. It keeps things very simple... might not be for power geeks accustomed to MythTV. However, like a lot of the Moovida UI it would be the best compromise for developers, designers and more importantly the end user. Having produced and been involved in a few projects requiring the aquisition of and UX design concerning TV guide data (gets tricky across nationalities and networks) I can offer some advise should anyone wish to do this inside Moovida or translate my handwritten text on that sketch that happens after too much sugar and caffeine? Kind regards, David
