I just started using Vista MCE, bravo, well done, polished user friendly interface that even my 67 year old mother could use........would use that is, if the MCE team had not relegated the ZOOM function to a 3 button 9 keypress carpal tunel inducing 5 minute long journey into the world of some Usability Engineers nightmare senario :)

My mother hates technology, because of the options it affords her....not so much for the options, but how those options are implemetable to her.  Her ABILITY to USE a function is dependant on Microsofts ability to forsee how/when/why she would use it.  My mommy just got her new HDTV and HDTV cable box......talking her through connecting component and RCA audio was.......interesting....aparently, color coding and matching is a new to her :D  I bought her a $10 HDMI cable and mailed it to her.......she was able to install it herself without assistance for obvious reasons.  She still complains that she must use one remote to turn on her TV, and a seperate one for the channels and all else.......I am waiting for the right moment to explain the purpose of the AC outlet plug located on the cable box :)

Her favorite button has turned out to be the ZOOM button....she presses until a happy picture is being viewed......since we are and will be going through the aspect ratio change, and the zoom function will be required more frequently as new HD programs are forced to be viewed on 4:3 TV's, and reruns are still forced to be 4:3 on all those new 16:9 sets, the importance of the zoom function is increasing exponetially. 

We are reaching the point where the ZOOM button, will be used almost as frequently as the CHANNEL button......obviously it will be pressed upon settling on a station or starting a recorded program, but for God sake, 3 buttons X 9 presses is ENTIRELY UNACCEPTABLE.....if you accidentally pass over your desired aspect ratio, you must press as many as 12 times.

Please Jessica, I can't get my mother more into technology, much less talk her into buying Microsoft products, if the physical stresses of operating it are so intense she drops dead.  Please tell me this issue is pending, perhaps a new feature of the Vista MCE remote???????  PLEASE :)

 

PS: Jessica, do you and the MCE people use MCE personally/daily.........just curious.

I think the best solution here is to look at aftermarket remotes like the harmony series.  I have the harmony 880 because between the remote for the TV, HD Cable Box, DVD Player, Audio Receiver, Xbox 360, and the Computer being hooked up, she always watched TV on the non-hd tv.  It was just too confusing to her.

The Harmony 880 is nice because it has an LCD screen on it.  To start you have activities, like "Watch DVD", "Watch TV", "Xbox 360", etc etc.  Once you make a selection, you then can still use the LCD screen to put in functions you want.  For instance, I have a Philips TV with Ambilight, for each acivity, on the LCD I have an option to turn on/off Ambilight, or change the aspect format through the TV.  In the same manner you could program the zoom ability.  You can even map it to any of the buttons.

Just my 2 cents :)

I have an aftermarket HDTV card remote....Dvico.  I can remap buttons, as long as I have a hotkey or keyboard sequence........cursory internet searches for a hotkey for the ZOOM function, including the official MCE hotkey page, came up dry.  My remote is slow on the response....well, its only a few MS, but for something like pressing through the zoom selections, its way o easy to have the zoom selection I wanted, get its command as my finger is already pressing again to select the zoom still.  Am not sure if the MCE Microsoft remote has a quicker response time....I tried to increase the thread priority of the remote process, but my screen filled with "cannot access violation yada yada" popups.....continuously until i task managered the damn thing....gotta love Vista and its cool user friendly UAC :)

Do you have the hotkey combo for zoom?????? :-D

I really agree that the Harmony remote is the best way to deal with usability / button issues. It is very high on WAF. I am cure it would work for the MAF (mother acceptance factor).

 

COMCON4US:

....

Do you have the hotkey combo for zoom?????? :-D

Yes, there is a direct key for Aspect: CTRL+SHIFT+Z (it cycles through all four options.)

While not available on the MS remote, you can assign a key on most universal remotes. If you have an IR keyboard, just learn the shortcut from it, if not, check out RemoteCentral.com, where you will find configuration files for most major universal remote control models.

Here is list of some additional shortcuts (most work just fine in Vista): http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/KeyboardSearch_MediaCenter2005XP.aspx

THAK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!   Ive been dying for that hotkey assignment, here is the list i was going off of.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/e69eb36f-de61-4e80-8fe3-f3835b8e3e261033.mspx#section_3

No Ctrl Shift Z mentioned, your a life saver Music!

Now, Microsoft just needs to allocate a dedicated ZOOM button on the new Vista remote....if not, there will still be some customizable keyson that remote from the pictures i have seen if true, but that is sorta lik assigning channel and volume controls to blank keys :)

I don't get it, what's so hard about pressing the info button and navigating to zoom and choosing which one you want?  I don't think the zoom function deserves a dedicated button..

With that kind of logic, you could work for the government :)

What is so hard about walking instead of driving, stairs instead of elevator, TV set instead of MCE.......see where i am going through tis.  I primed my thought on this at the top..........but to put this very simply, I DO NOT WANT TO PRESS 1000 ADDITIONAL KEYSTROKES WHICH MUST BE HAND EYE COORDINATED AS WELL EVERY SINGLE DAY.......plus, you try telling my mother whats so hard about you taking away her beloved zoom button :D

If they had an option of an intelligent autozoom, we wouldn't need to change the remote or purchase aftermarket remotes to get the functionality we want. 

I don't want auto-zoom..   but perhaps a tool like dvrmstoolbox could be updated to zoom for you :)

but I would like a seperate button.   then again, I rarely change it

Might I suggest that, part of the reason you are having a bad user experience with the zoom function, is through using the Dvico remote to control Media Center?  You have mentioned the time-lag between button presses and the problem this causes you with "option-overshoot" and this will not help with the overall user experience of getting to the options you want, especially if they are buried somewhat.

Ensuring you have a responsive and accurate button-press is a significant piece of the puzzle.  I gave up using my Dvico remote in favour of a pucker MCE remote some time ago - and I'm glad I did!

COMCON4US:

PS: Jessica, do you and the MCE people use MCE personally/daily.........just curious.

Yes, of course! Three Media Center PCs and three Extenders at my house, an ever-changing list of PCs in the office. I never watch Live TV - everything is time-shifted or PVR. And I'm by far not unique on my team - I think it would be difficult to find someone on my team that DOESN'T use Media Center for personal use daily.

Honestly, the people that our team attracts are people who love entertainment and entertainment technology. It's not like <insert name of boring database or productivity or whatever software>.

So is that the problem the person who started this thread is having? Because I don't understand - I always use an MCE remote and have never had a zoom button on them...I use "more info" and then navigate to the zoom options.

Yes, that is how one accesses the Zoom feature...currently. 

What he asked for and I agree...is for a single button on the remote control.  Each press of the button would cycle to the next Zoom level.  Much like pressing CTRL-SHIFT-Z, except personally I would like the Zoom leve displayed on-screen when this happens.

Personally, I use this feature frequently on my 16:9 Plasma screen to prevent burn-in.  When watching HD content, I use Zoom 1.  When watching SD content, I use Zoom 4 (anamorphic).

These is a great feature request which should work on the MCE computer and Extenders.

JessZahn:

So is that the problem the person who started this thread is having? Because I don't understand - I always use an MCE remote and have never had a zoom button on them...I use "more info" and then navigate to the zoom options.