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tjharris · 2015-10-18, 07:27

I'm a long time mythtv user, trying Kodi on OpenElec. I like the ease of setting up the device/software, and the video playback is flawless on an inexpensive rPi2.
But, the different navigation / UX takes some time to get used to. I'm sure others have gone through the same thing, so I'm wondering if there are any tips for making the change?

- Can Kodi set automatic bookmarks when I exit a recording, or at least single keypress bookmarks like "Enter" in mythfrontend?

- Can I delete recordings from the Kodi recording list?

- Any way to speed up the video skip forward responsiveness and better handle multiple quick skips?

tjharris · 2015-10-18, 18:58

Replying to my own question... After some more searching around I found the skip timings in the Video section.

The default of 750ms was the major delay culprit. Once I changed the delay to 0, and removed all the skips except -10s / +30s, it became much more responsive. It's not as quick as mythfrontend.. but I've not found anything that is.

I'm still trying to figure out the menu navigation.. At times I can't easily get the main menu off the screen. I have to click about 10 times to get over to "full screen" to get back to the video (which is already running in full screen mode under the menu). I would prefer the mythtv style (and really, just about every other device I've used) which is either in play mode or menu mode.. Can/do other themes change this?

puithove · (This post was last modified: 2015-10-19, 12:53 by puithove.)

(2015-10-18, 18:58)tjharris Wrote: I'm still trying to figure out the menu navigation.. At times I can't easily get the main menu off the screen. I have to click about 10 times to get over to "full screen" to get back to the video (which is already running in full screen mode under the menu). I would prefer the mythtv style (and really, just about every other device I've used) which is either in play mode or menu mode.. Can/do other themes change this?

Sure, Kodi has a key to do exactly that. On a keyboard setup what you're looking for is the Tab key. It'll toggle between fullscreen playback and the menu system. You can map the function to the Guide key (or whatever you like) on your remote. Go here for all the key mappings: http://kodi.wiki/view/Keyboard_controls

tjharris · 2015-10-19, 18:47

(2015-10-19, 12:52)puithove Wrote:
(2015-10-18, 18:58)tjharris Wrote: I'm still trying to figure out the menu navigation.. At times I can't easily get the main menu off the screen. I have to click about 10 times to get over to "full screen" to get back to the video (which is already running in full screen mode under the menu). I would prefer the mythtv style (and really, just about every other device I've used) which is either in play mode or menu mode.. Can/do other themes change this?

Sure, Kodi has a key to do exactly that. On a keyboard setup what you're looking for is the Tab key. It'll toggle between fullscreen playback and the menu system. You can map the function to the Guide key (or whatever you like) on your remote. Go here for all the key mappings: http://kodi.wiki/view/Keyboard_controls

Thanks. I eventually found a keyboard mapping list for Kodi and figured out Tab. I haven't yet mapped the remote keys, but that's next on my list.

It almost seems like the Kodi menus are optimized for mouse input. I don't see the point of the REW/PLAY/PAUSE/FWD cluster in the GUI when using a remote control. It just creates a bunch of items to navigate through to do anything useful.

There is one big thing I still have not found a good solution for.. I have to be missing something: When I exit playback of a recording, like a 3+ hour football game, when I play it again it starts from the beginning. I can manually set a bookmark in the GUI, and on replay go there and select that as the point to play from. But, that seems really cumbersome. Is there a way to make it automatically remember where I am and resume from there?

pgbennett · 2015-10-19, 20:43

I have not had any problem with resuming. If I am playing a recording and press stop, next time i start playing the recording it gives a menu "Play from beginning" or "Resume from 22:30" with whatever the stop point was. Only in the event of a crash does it automatically restart from beginning, so there may be some wrong setting you have. Are you trying to resume on the same Kodi? I think the resume info is on the local machine so if you go to another frontend it cannot resume.

tjharris · 2015-10-19, 21:15

(2015-10-19, 20:43)pgbennett Wrote: I have not had any problem with resuming. If I am playing a recording and press stop, next time i start playing the recording it gives a menu "Play from beginning" or "Resume from 22:30" with whatever the stop point was. Only in the event of a crash does it automatically restart from beginning, so there may be some wrong setting you have. Are you trying to resume on the same Kodi? I think the resume info is on the local machine so if you go to another frontend it cannot resume.

Yes, I'm only using a single rPi2 Kodi.

Although, I don't normally "Stop" the video, I hit Escape to get out of video play mode and select another recording (like in MythTV, Escape stops the current program and goes back to the recording list.). Is that my problem? If I hit Stop will it auto-bookmark?

nickr · 2015-10-20, 02:57

Yes I think you need to stop. ESC doesn't stop it just takes you to the menu. The video is still playing in the background.

BenH · 2015-10-20, 04:34

You could try some suggestions I made here:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/en...ply;so=ASC

(ignore my post where I replied in html)

And the post after mine where someone has tweaked a skin. This might be the best option.

Ben

tjharris · 2015-10-20, 05:39

Thanks for the responses.. I verified that "Stop" does remember the current position in the video. I'll just need to re-train my thumb to exit videos that way. Smile

That mythtv-ml thread had a lot of good info and people with similar questions. I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds some of the Kodi behavior unintuitive. I'll try some other skins/themes to see if I can find one more Myth-like. I've tried a few already, and I like the options for minimalist OSD's that don't interfere with the content.

I also continue to be really impressed with the absolutely perfect playback of HD content in Kodi. It's night and day difference from the issues I had with mythtv, and kodi is on a $40 rPi2.. that's hard to beat.

tjharris · 2015-10-26, 01:51

The Stop/Bookmark thing was not working reliably for me.. At first I thought it was related to the skins I was using, But, I now think it is related to HDMI CEC control.. When I hit Stop on my TV remote, it stops the video as expected, but it does not set the bookmark. If I do the same thing with my IR remote, the bookmark is set.

That seems like a bug.. I'll look for some place to report it..