*
programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
*
Courtesy of MSDN Universal, I downloaded and installed Windows Media Center Edition 2005 on my home theater PC yesterday. It looks like the original reports were correct-- MCE 2005 is more widely available at retail, too. Here are the relevant product links at newegg:
Yes, you do need a hardware MPEG-2 encoding card. Even the fastest 3.4ghz+ CPUs struggle with realtime video encoding-- at least, if you want to have any hope of multitasking without dropping massive numbers of frames in your recordings. I know the Hauppauge is a little expensive, but I've used the cheaper brands (I'm looking at you, Avermedia) and it isn't worth it. Hauppauge has the most extensive third party support, so it'll be useful outside MCE and have a longer life. Hauppauge is also introducing a new dual-tuner card if you absolutely, positively must record two shows at the same time-- or watch live TV while recording another show.
MCE 2005 is the mythical third version of a Microsoft product, so at least in theory, this is as good as it's going to get for a while. The improvements over 2004 are mostly incremental, but solid. Here are a few I consider significant:
MCE's 10 Foot User Interface got a touch-up, too, but it's still disappointing compared to the Tivo. I have my Tivo Series 2 directly under the MCE, and we use both systems on a daily basis, so a direct comparison is inevitable. Let me illustrate with two glaring examples.
My biggest complaint is MCE's inexplicable use of telephone keypad entry for all alphanumeric fields:
This is hideously painful to use. What number do I press? What character will I get? Ugh. Compare with the Tivo alternative:
Cursoring to the letter you want is incredibly intuitive. Obvious even. Everything that numeric keypad entry is not. Why couldn't Microsoft copy an interface that actually works? Any time you're cribbing UI from a telephone, you are in deep, deep trouble.
The other criticism I have is that Microsoft forces me to use an additional Back button on my remote. This is particularly onerous coming from the elegance and simplicity of Tivo's design:
In the Tivo UI, cursor left takes you back a page, and cursor right takes you forward into your selection. There are screens that violate this rule (eg, the search page, above) but it is quite intuitive. You start to associate the left side of the screen with "backwards", and the right side with "forward", rather like a Wizard interface, or a VCR. The only side effect-- and I think it's a positive one-- is that most Tivo UI screens are a simple vertically scrolling list of selections.
I don't mean to be overly critical of MCE. It's a fantastic product. It's just hard to stomach these obvious lost opportunities for copying UI elements that are so stunningly effective on the Tivo. Why reinvent a square wheel?
Tivo probably owns patents on it's alpha-numeric entry pad and the forward/back stuff. I would think MS would have ripped that already.
Here's what MS could do. Make up a keypad using the same setup as Tivo. Move the CLR, SP, DEL to the bottom. Move the entire thing to the right side so that the information is shown on the left. It's not copying because it's not in the SAME EXACT PLACE.
The back/forward stuff should be a no-brainer though. I thought the MCE stuff used that whole intuitive user interface crap where everything is like a web browser? Guess not. It still looks pretty though, but making it simple to use is the key since you could probably be faster using a damned mouse.
Jeremy Brayton on October 22, 2004 3:39 AMIn the case of the alphanumeric entry fields, it's horribly inefficient.
You do have to hit the explicit "back" button to go back a page, too. I hate that damn button! The Xbox controller has an explicit "back" button as well, and it's probably just as pointless there.
Jeff Atwood on October 22, 2004 5:51 AMPowerCinema 4.0 4.5 versions is MCE's only competitor for now, and have huge advantages. Check out the new versions soon to be released at www.gocyberlink.com.
{PCM OEM shipments are millions higher than MCE}
I personally think the telephone entry method is much more user friendly then a move the cursor to the letter you want and select it method. I think that takes too much time. With more and more people using cell phone text messaging, this is an obvious choice for the technical user. I’m sure Microsoft took this into consideration when choosing over a TiVo rip off. I personally can type in a whole name in about the same time that I could get to the second letter by moving a cursor. But I can see a point about the non-technical user, which will soon be extinct in our society, or they will hate the digital world. As always, there should be a choice. I think many first impressions are biased; probably because people had TiVo’s first and are comparing something they are not so familiar with to something they could navigate blind. That back button will become second nature in a matter of days or weeks, depending on your geek level.
Curt on March 16, 2005 5:06 AMWith more and more people using cell phone text messaging, this is an obvious choice for the technical user
I don't think it's "obvious" to inherit the limitations of a telephone keypad on a computer screen. Keypad entry is done by necessity, not by choice-- why do you think people have blackberries with full QWERTY keyboards?
Jeff Atwood on March 16, 2005 5:38 AMThe comments to this entry are closed.
| Content (c) 2012 Jeff Atwood. Logo image used with permission of the author. (c) 1993 Steven C. McConnell. All Rights Reserved. |
Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe via email