Shortcuts?

#1

Hello,

I recently bought a wd tv live and it’s great.

The only ‘problem’ I have is that I have to make a lot of clicks to go wherever I want.

All my media is on my NAS, the NAS is organized with 3 folders: photo, video, music.

For example when I want to play a video on the wd tv I have to make the following steps:

1 select video

2 select network shares (or media servers)

3 select nas

4 select folder video

5 select the folder with the video i want to play.

Isn’t there a way to make shortcuts ?

The nas is the only place I have content stored, I would prefer to go from step 1 directly tot step 5.

Is that possible?

#2

Nope, unfortunately not.

#3

Isn’t there any tweak possible, maybe with custom firmware ?

#4

You can always look at B-rad’s stuff and see if it has any better flow to it, but I’d kind of doubt it.

If you’re *insistent* upon pressing a single button, get a Harmony remote and program it yourself.

#5

Nope, B-Rad’s navigation to content is identical.

#6

I’ve looked around and tested the b-rad firmware. Indeed, the navigation to content is the same.

Is my question so unique? Or is it simply not possible (which I doubt, it can’t be that hard) ?

Is it possible to program a Harmony with all these steps??

#7

henkdude wrote:

I’ve looked around and tested the b-rad firmware. Indeed, the navigation to content is the same.

 

Is my question so unique? Or is it simply not possible (which I doubt, it can’t be that hard) ?

 

Is it possible to program a Harmony with all these steps??

You’re not the only one who has been thinking along these lines - the UI is *badly* in need of some polish in several areas, this being just one of them.  And - at least with a Harmony 880 - you can’t make the remote jump through that many hoops.  The best I’ve been able to do with mine is to get it to default to the Video menu at power-on, but you still have to do a lot of drill-down to get to where the media actually *is*.

#8

Actually, I think you can program ANY Harmony with the right steps, you just have to know what you’re doing.

I’ve done it with the Harmony One but I’m pretty sure the interface for all the Harmony units is the same.  If you have troubles, just ask at the Logitech site.

#9

But as to the bigger question about the UI…

Designing UI is an art form and, unforutnately, most engineers don’t have those kinds of sensibilities.  I worked in the industry for three decades and was mostly a UI specialist.  I wish the Live/Plus was a lot better but trust me, it could be worse.  Much worse.

#10

mkelley wrote:

Actually, I think you can program ANY Harmony with the right steps, you just have to know what you’re doing.

 

I’ve done it with the Harmony One but I’m pretty sure the interface for all the Harmony units is the same.  If you have troubles, just ask at the Logitech site.

So what you’re saying is that rather than WD improving the UI, responsibility for improvement should be pushed off to a third-party remote control?

Here’s the thing: you can make the remote perform just about any sequence of keypresses after powering the unit up that you want.  However, all of those keypresses are timing-dependent in the sense that one delay in the Live’s boot sequence will throw the whole sequence out of whack.  The biggest variable in the chain of events: detecting network shares.

The UI needs help.  Compared to Plex, XBMC, Popbox, or the Seagate media players, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of usability.

#11

They ALL have their eccentricities, and have their own devotees and detractors.  

It’s a matter of finding the device YOU like  (the UI is certainly no mystery if any of the reviews are read, YouTube demos are viewed, or the documentation read.  Its function should not come as a surprise…)

A restructured UI would please some, and annoy others…  Just the nature of anything “Subjective.”

#12

Usability is NOT subjective!

I also have all my media stored in a NAS server.

I have both a WDTV Live and an Xtreamer. I already owned a TVix 6500A (which I sold and bought a WDTV Live as replacement).

Xtreamer has a Favorites menu, TVix 6500A allowed me to customize the default folder for music, video and photos.

WDTV Live GUI is nice (but ordinary) - its usability is TERRIBLE. Every time I use WDTV Live, I deeply miss a Favorites menu (as Xtreamer) or the possibility to set the default folder for Music/Video/Photos (as my old TVix6500A). I also miss the possibility to launch the settings menu without having to go back to home screen (all other media players I know allow the configurations GUI to be launched without the need to go back to the home screen).

Honestly I believe that WD could do much better with their line of WDTV products. Sometimes it seems that they are not taking the WDTV product line as seriously as their mass storage business… :frowning:

drds

#13

casm23 wrote:

So what you’re saying is that rather than WD improving the UI, responsibility for improvement should be pushed off to a third-party remote control?

No, what people are saying is that you shouldn’t expect too much from WD given their priorities and feet dragging on previous firmware updates.

#14

drdsouza wrote:

Usability is NOT subjective!

 

Of COURSE it is.   All the things you mention are things I don’t care one iota about.  

Not that your opinion is WRONG, but it is DIFFERENT, thus it is subjective.