[kdm1980]

I got spoiled using MediaStream so it was rather distracting, plus it makes it easier for friends and family as they'd expect to return to the menu they were on if they press Back/Exit.

I second that. It is the most intuitive behaviour, by far.
I may add that I find annoying that I cannot [stop and exit] a playing video hitting ESC or the BACK/ESC button on my remote (Apple remote), since X is the key required. Maybe this is not bothering those of you with a 100 buttons remote, but why mapping the X button to stop if you can do it with BACK/ESC?
Any workaround for this? I really see no point in going back to the previous menu while leaving a playing movie/tvshow in the background... Ok for music, but rather useless for video.

[smcnally75]

I got spoiled using MediaStream so it was rather distracting, plus it makes it easier for friends and family as they'd expect to return to the menu they were on if they press Back/Exit.

I couldn't disagree more. This feature cripples the proper use of the system just to make it "easier" for people that don't want to use the proper keys. If you want it to be easier for friends and family then change your "Back/Exit" button so it maps to the Esc key instead of the Backspace command. I personally use the Backspace command a lot and it will irritate the piss out of me if I have to edit an xml file to get a normal feature back every time I update the skin.

[smcnally75]

I second that. It is the most intuitive behaviour, by far.

Actually, the most intuitive behavior would be to use the proper key

I may add that I find annoying that I cannot [stop and exit] a playing video hitting ESC or the BACK/ESC button on my remote (Apple remote), since X is the key required. Maybe this is not bothering those of you with a 100 buttons remote, but why mapping the X button to stop if you can do it with BACK/ESC?
Any workaround for this? I really see no point in going back to the previous menu while leaving a playing movie/tvshow in the background... Ok for music, but rather useless for video.

If you go into a movies settings to adjust anything, turn on subtitles, etc, then how would you plan on exiting the menu without the movie stopping if you set Esc and/or Back to stop the movie. If you want xbmc to be easier to use then I would suggest getting a remote that has more than 6 buttons.

[kdm1980]

Actually, the most intuitive behavior would be to use the proper key

Since we don't share the same remote, my proper button (I don't consider keyboard, being this a Media Center solution) may not be yours, and vice versa.

If you go into a movies settings to adjust anything, turn on subtitles, etc, then how would you plan on exiting the menu without the movie stopping if you set Esc and/or Back to stop the movie.

Of course the "stop" function only works when you are out of any menu. Elsewhere, it just send a "back" command to xbmc. That is the way it always worked for me with Mediastream... so it is what I am used to.

If you want xbmc to be easier to use then I would suggest getting a remote that has more than 6 buttons.

I really see no point in a more complicated remote, when I have always done everything I needed simply with the Apple Remote and Mediastream. Now, I am just suggesting that from my point of view, while Stark has by far the best graphic/layout/effects/tags, Mediastream is still better in some aspects, so maybe we can take the best of both worlds.

[smcnally75]

Since we don't share the same remote, my proper button (I don't consider keyboard, being this a Media Center solution) may not be yours, and vice versa.

You can map the button on your remote to the Esc command instead of the Backspace command (This is what I meant when I said to use the proper button). I don't use a keyboard, I use one of these:

Of course the "stop" function only works when you are out of any menu. Elsewhere, it just send a "back" command to xbmc. That is the way it always worked for me with Mediastream... so it is what I am used to.

I didn't know it was possible for it to do that. I could have sworn that when I hit Esc or Back in MediaStream that it didn't stop the movie, but I'm probably mistaken.

I really see no point in a more complicated remote, when I have always done everything I needed simply with the Apple Remote and Mediastream. Now, I am just suggesting that from my point of view, while Stark has by far the best graphic/layout/effects/tags, Mediastream is still better in some aspects, so maybe we can take the best of both worlds.

My full time job is programming control systems and making them easy to use for the end-user and I can tell you without a doubt that people always look for better functionality with that remote. The Apple remote is great for iTunes and Apple TV, but that is about it. It would be great for XBMC if it had a few more buttons, but is less than ideal the way it is. If you don't see a need for a remote with more buttons, then why are you asking others to sacrifice functionality so your remote will do what you want?

[kdm1980]

If you don't see a need for a remote with more buttons, then why are you asking others to sacrifice functionality so your remote will do what you want?

Simply because I don't see the current behaviour (exiting the movie while leaving it playing in the background) as a feature, but as an annoying thing. I mean, for every people liking the current behaviour, I would bet you can find 10 that consider it totaly useless, unintuitive and annoying.
That is the point of my previous posts. I really don't feel like I am asking of sacrificing anything, frankly.

[smcnally75]

Simply because I don't see the current behaviour (exiting the movie while leaving it playing in the background) as a feature, but as an annoying thing. I mean, for every people liking the current behaviour, I would bet you can find 10 that consider it totaly useless, unintuitive and annoying.
That is the point of my previous posts. I really don't feel like I am asking of sacrificing anything, frankly.

The stop issue isn't a huge sacrifice for a lot of people (although I can see some people using it to check the weather real quick while a video is playing), but the first thing we talked about "the back button" is absolutely asking a lot of people to sacrifice. Many people use this button to get to video plugins and to other areas of their library.

[kdm1980]

The stop issue isn't a huge sacrifice for a lot of people (although I can see some people using it to check the weather real quick while a video is playing), but the first thing we talked about "the back button" is absolutely asking a lot of people to sacrifice. Many people use this button to get to video plugins and to other areas of their library.

Nevermind. I start wandering through .xml files in xbmc and, after finding the right section in keymap.xml, I changed the default behaviour from "fullscreen" to "stop". Solved!

[Hitcher]

The stop issue isn't a huge sacrifice for a lot of people (although I can see some people using it to check the weather real quick while a video is playing), but the first thing we talked about "the back button" is absolutely asking a lot of people to sacrifice. Many people use this button to get to video plugins and to other areas of their library.

Which is why access for them will be added soon, and can even be accessed now by using the Sub menu mod.

[smcnally75]

Which is why access for them will be added soon, and can even be accessed now by using the Sub menu mod.

Removing functionality in a skin to make two buttons act the same is silly. People should map their buttons properly in the first place.

[Hitcher]

But, like many of us said, that's exactly how MediaStream does it.

And there not doing the same thing as 'Esc' will take you to the Home menu from Episodes/Tracks whereas 'Back' will take you back to TV Shows/Albums.

'Back' is surely more commonly know to take you back to where you were previously?

In this case Home > Movies > Home or Home > TV Shows > Episodes > TV Shows > Home.

[smcnally75]

But, like many of us said, that's exactly how MediaStream does it.

Since when? I used Media Stream as my skin of choice before stark and I was always ably to press "Back" to go from my titles to the genres, years, etc selections.

[Hitcher]

Since when? I used Media Stream as my skin of choice before stark and I was always ably to press "Back" to go from my titles to the genres, years, etc selections.

Just loaded it and it definitely works that way.

[midgetspy]

This as default behaviour seems really silly to me. There is already a button that gets you directly to the menu - Esc. Why cripple the Backspace button to make it behave like the Esc key? I understand that people don't want to back out through the filter menus - so press Esc! Removing functionality by making Backspace duplicate what Esc already does and then adding a menu item somewhere else seems really like the wrong way to go about it IMO.

[tassitassi]

This should be default indeed. Wife-friendly and simple. Power-users could always disable it in the settings. At least they know how to do it.