cliveb
2007-10-02, 10:25
The last part of my feedback concerns the usability of Jive. I'm guessing that all these issues are to do with software and firmware. These comments pertain to the 9/29 nightly build of SS7.0, and Jive firmware r616, controlling a Squeezebox2. SlimServer is running under Windows 2000 Pro SP3 on an Althlon XP2400+ (2GHz) CPU and 512MB DDR RAM. So not a super-fast PC, but no slouch either. The music library is approximately 1150 albums (all FLAC). The SB2 is connected to the network via 100baseT ethernet; the only wireless comms involved in these tests is the connection between the Jive controller and the network.
Navigating the music library, selecting albums to play, and using the track skip buttons seemed to work very reliably, and response was fairly quick except in those cases where one could expect things to take a little time (eg. gathering the list of artists/albums/etc). The pause/resume button also worked well except on one occasion which I discuss later.
This rest of this section is going to read a bit negative, but that's simply because it is a summary of the problems I have found.
It appears that when using WEP security, the Jive handset cannot connect when Shared Key authetication is in force. Switching to Open System solved this. I don't think this is a problem, as my understanding is that Open System is more secure than Shared Key, but it's potential source of confusion for some users, so it needs documenting.
Wireless reception seems rather poor. Perhaps there simply isn't enough room in the handset for an efficient aerial, or perhaps boosting the sensitivity would consume too much battery power? (Guesswork - I have no idea how WiFi reception works). Whatever the reason, I really don't think it's good enough. The Jive handset often loses connection to my wireless network in places where my HP laptop (and my daughter's DS Lite) have no problems.
Due to this shortcoming, for the purpose of these tests I played with the Jive handset while sitting right next to my wireless access point (an old Netgear ME102). At this location the reported SNR was about 40, the RSSI was around -50, and the NF was about -90. These figures don't mean anything to me, but I report them here in case they are useful to Slim Devices.
Switching off requires the Home button to be held down for far too long. I measured it, and it was 10 seconds. I personally feel that 3 or 4 seconds would be more acceptable.
The various sound effects are too loud and can be irritating. I personally don't have a problem with just switching off the ones I don't like. (The only one I've left on is the "chime" to confirm it's properly in the charger). But I can imagine that others might like the option of retaining them but adjusting the volume down. For example, while scrolling through menus, the "click" feedback might be useful, but it should be much quieter. That said, I notice that if you switch on the "click" effect, the number of clicks does not necessarily match the number of menu options scrolled (eg. if you scroll quickly through seven options, you might only hear three clicks).
The motion detection seems far too sensitive. The slightest nudge brings the handset out of "sleep" mode. I think it should require a much greater disturbance to do that (ie. it should only wake up when you actually pick it up).
Adjusting brightness: when set to around 80-95%, the display goes very dim.
Inputing text is extremely tedious. No problem for initial setup (eg. security keys, IP addresses, etc) as this is only done once. But for things like music searching, it's next to unusable. Seems to me that the Jive UI paradigm is based around browsing rather than going directly where you want. Perhaps it's a case of learning to live with it. As things stand now, the standard remote is easier to use to quickly find a specific album (especially using the Lazy Search plugin), while the Jive controller is better for ad-hoc browsing.
I think all menus should be configurable as follows:
- Adjustment of the order of menu items (so the most frequently used are near the top). For example, when going into "My Music", I would want to select "Artists" 99% of the time, so it would be better if I could make it the first item in the menu.
- Editing of the actual labels (eg. "My Music" could be changed to "Music Library").
- Whether the menu should "scroll round" in a circular way v. stopping at the top/bottom. For long lists (eg. artists, albums, etc), scrolling round is useful, but for short menus (eg. the home menu), it probably isn't. That said, if it is impossible to make this user-configurable on a per-menu basis, then the current interface (where scroll-around is implemented) should stay.
When a list of albums is displayed, and when the playlist is displayed, it always includes a big "music symbol" icon next to each entry. I presume this would display artwork if available. I never use artwork, and would like an option to eliminate this icon from the display (and presumably release real estate for more entries to be shown per page).
Adjustment of volume is fairly scrappy. There is usually an unaccetable lag. Also, if the standard remote is used to change the volume, this is not noticed by Jive: next time you adjust volume with Jive, it first jumps back to where Jive last set it.
At one point, while music was playing, the Jive handset said "Stopped", and the pause button would not work. It was possible to navigate the music library and play a different track, but the playlist still said "Stopped". The only way to correct this was to turn the Jive handset off and on.
On a few occasions the handset somehow got stuck on the Home menu, and none of the options did anything: after scrolling to an option, pressing the centre button caused the display to "jig" slightly then return to the Home menu. Switching the Squeezebox off with the standard remote caused the Jive Handset to recover.
Scrolling backwards from the top of a very long list to the bottom (eg. the list of albums - there are about 1150 in my library) caused what seemed like a crash. The screen went blank, and the only thing I could do was switch the handset off.
I've left the biggest problem to last. The Now Playing screen just seems completely broken. The first time you play anything after switching on the handset, the playlist displayed by "Now Playing" is correct. But no matter what you do next - move on to a different track, set up a differnt playlist, etc - the "Now Playing" display remains stuck on whatever it started with.
Navigating the music library, selecting albums to play, and using the track skip buttons seemed to work very reliably, and response was fairly quick except in those cases where one could expect things to take a little time (eg. gathering the list of artists/albums/etc). The pause/resume button also worked well except on one occasion which I discuss later.
This rest of this section is going to read a bit negative, but that's simply because it is a summary of the problems I have found.
It appears that when using WEP security, the Jive handset cannot connect when Shared Key authetication is in force. Switching to Open System solved this. I don't think this is a problem, as my understanding is that Open System is more secure than Shared Key, but it's potential source of confusion for some users, so it needs documenting.
Wireless reception seems rather poor. Perhaps there simply isn't enough room in the handset for an efficient aerial, or perhaps boosting the sensitivity would consume too much battery power? (Guesswork - I have no idea how WiFi reception works). Whatever the reason, I really don't think it's good enough. The Jive handset often loses connection to my wireless network in places where my HP laptop (and my daughter's DS Lite) have no problems.
Due to this shortcoming, for the purpose of these tests I played with the Jive handset while sitting right next to my wireless access point (an old Netgear ME102). At this location the reported SNR was about 40, the RSSI was around -50, and the NF was about -90. These figures don't mean anything to me, but I report them here in case they are useful to Slim Devices.
Switching off requires the Home button to be held down for far too long. I measured it, and it was 10 seconds. I personally feel that 3 or 4 seconds would be more acceptable.
The various sound effects are too loud and can be irritating. I personally don't have a problem with just switching off the ones I don't like. (The only one I've left on is the "chime" to confirm it's properly in the charger). But I can imagine that others might like the option of retaining them but adjusting the volume down. For example, while scrolling through menus, the "click" feedback might be useful, but it should be much quieter. That said, I notice that if you switch on the "click" effect, the number of clicks does not necessarily match the number of menu options scrolled (eg. if you scroll quickly through seven options, you might only hear three clicks).
The motion detection seems far too sensitive. The slightest nudge brings the handset out of "sleep" mode. I think it should require a much greater disturbance to do that (ie. it should only wake up when you actually pick it up).
Adjusting brightness: when set to around 80-95%, the display goes very dim.
Inputing text is extremely tedious. No problem for initial setup (eg. security keys, IP addresses, etc) as this is only done once. But for things like music searching, it's next to unusable. Seems to me that the Jive UI paradigm is based around browsing rather than going directly where you want. Perhaps it's a case of learning to live with it. As things stand now, the standard remote is easier to use to quickly find a specific album (especially using the Lazy Search plugin), while the Jive controller is better for ad-hoc browsing.
I think all menus should be configurable as follows:
- Adjustment of the order of menu items (so the most frequently used are near the top). For example, when going into "My Music", I would want to select "Artists" 99% of the time, so it would be better if I could make it the first item in the menu.
- Editing of the actual labels (eg. "My Music" could be changed to "Music Library").
- Whether the menu should "scroll round" in a circular way v. stopping at the top/bottom. For long lists (eg. artists, albums, etc), scrolling round is useful, but for short menus (eg. the home menu), it probably isn't. That said, if it is impossible to make this user-configurable on a per-menu basis, then the current interface (where scroll-around is implemented) should stay.
When a list of albums is displayed, and when the playlist is displayed, it always includes a big "music symbol" icon next to each entry. I presume this would display artwork if available. I never use artwork, and would like an option to eliminate this icon from the display (and presumably release real estate for more entries to be shown per page).
Adjustment of volume is fairly scrappy. There is usually an unaccetable lag. Also, if the standard remote is used to change the volume, this is not noticed by Jive: next time you adjust volume with Jive, it first jumps back to where Jive last set it.
At one point, while music was playing, the Jive handset said "Stopped", and the pause button would not work. It was possible to navigate the music library and play a different track, but the playlist still said "Stopped". The only way to correct this was to turn the Jive handset off and on.
On a few occasions the handset somehow got stuck on the Home menu, and none of the options did anything: after scrolling to an option, pressing the centre button caused the display to "jig" slightly then return to the Home menu. Switching the Squeezebox off with the standard remote caused the Jive Handset to recover.
Scrolling backwards from the top of a very long list to the bottom (eg. the list of albums - there are about 1150 in my library) caused what seemed like a crash. The screen went blank, and the only thing I could do was switch the handset off.
I've left the biggest problem to last. The Now Playing screen just seems completely broken. The first time you play anything after switching on the handset, the playlist displayed by "Now Playing" is correct. But no matter what you do next - move on to a different track, set up a differnt playlist, etc - the "Now Playing" display remains stuck on whatever it started with.