ConnectedTV User Guide: Using ConnectedTV

Hardware Buttons and Basic TV Control

When you use ConnectedTV, the Palm's hardware buttons provide immediate access to your TV Power, Mute, and Volume controls.

The Palm scrolling buttons in the middle control the Volume Up and Volume Down. The Mute and Power buttons to their right, on the To Do and Memo buttons, as shown.

The two leftmost hardware buttons are for browsing - going to the previous or next show or page of shows.

All other operations are controlled through the touch screen.


Touch Screen Taps and Strokes
ConnectedTV lets you use simple gestures on the Palm touch screen - like Tap, UpStroke, and DownStroke - to browse shows and control TV functions. This allows simpler screens with fewer buttons. Each 'button' or area on the Palm touch screen can do much more than a plastic button on a remote control. ConnectedTV sets the Minimum Stroke Distance far enough so you don't make them by accident. And we use the simple Tap gesture for essential operations, so beginners can get going instantly. Stroke operations reveal themselves when you drag a finger across the screen for 20 pixels or more, rather than simply Tap in one spot. When stroking, the button label changes to say what will happen if you complete the Stroke by removing your finger from the screen. You can cancel a Stroke by dragging your finger back to where it started without lifting it, making the gesture a Tap again.

Discover Shortcut Strokes

You can discover Stroke operations for a button or area by touching it and dragging your finger around - up, down, left, right - without lifting it off the screen, and seeing the various labels that appear. Once you know where a Stroke operation is, you can just rub or scratch the button in the right direction, without looking for the label, and use it as a shortcut.


Scrolling and Browsing
As mentioned, the leftmost hardware buttons, ordinarily used on the Palm used to access the Datebook and Address applications, are used in ConnectedTV to browse to the Previous or Next page of choices or details. These two buttons work whether you're on the main ConnectedTV Shows, page, the Stations page, the Categories, or Show Details. If you scroll past the end of a Category, ConnectedTV automatically takes you to the next non-empty Category in the list. If you scroll past the last category (Movies), you return to the first category (see Station Categories below). In this way, you can browse all of your categories, shows, stations, and details, going forward and back with just these two buttons. If you prefer to use the touch screen to browse, Stroking left or right on a Show Title, Station, Description, or Detail button will also take you the respective previous or next page. When you want to use those buttons to access your Palm's Datebook or Address book, first Quit ConnectedTV by tapping the Quit button on ConnectedTV's Home page or using the Menu. Category Scrolling Indicator Category names in the upper right corner are partly or completely underlined, to indicate whether there are more pages in the category.


ConnectedTV Shows page
The main ConnectedTV Shows page includes: Show Description area for the currently Selected Show a Touch Tuning button alongside it Show Titles area with the names of shows Guide Time and Day area Category display and button in the corner The ConnectedTV Guide always has a Selected Show, whose description appears in the Show Description area and on the Show Details page. To select a show, tap its Show Title. To watch the selected show, press the Tune Show button sporting the ConnectedTV icon. To go to the previous or next page of Show Titles, press the hardware Previous or Next button. In this manner you can browse what's on every station in your lineup, and then every Show Category, without leaving the ConnectedTV page. Guide Time and Day When this area is tapped or stroked, the Guide Time and Day are updated, and the user can browse shows for a chosen date and time. Changing the Guide Time or Date lets you view upcoming or recent shows in the schedule. You can only review show times included in your most recent ConnectedTV HotSync. The Time and Date screens are familiar from other Palm Powered applications. You may find it easier to use the stylus to press the small buttons on these screens.


Show Details page
This separate page lets you see descriptions that are longer than 3 lines, along with station, channel, and show time info. Like the ConnectedTV Shows page, it also has a Touch Tuning button to tune the show. It also includes a My Rating button that lets you can stroke to mark this show as a Favorite or as a Bad Show. To return to the Shows page, tap the Show Description again or the Shows button. My Rating The My Rating button lets you mark Favorite shows you want to see on the first page of your Show Categories, and Bad shows you'd rather not see in your main Shows guide. See the descriptions of the My Favorite and My Bad Shows categories below.


Stations page
The Stations page is accessible from a button on the main ConnectedTV page. In this view, instead of Show Titles, you see Stations - the corresponding channel numbers and station call signs for the same list of shows. The full name of the currently selected station appears at the bottom of the screen. To return to the main Shows page, tap the Shows button in the lower right corner. In other respects, the Stations page operates exactly like the main ConnectedTV Shows page.


Categories page
The current category name appears in the upper right corner of the ConnectedTV Shows page. Tapping the category name takes you to the Category page, which consists of several pages you can browse with the Back and Next buttons. Tap any category name see all the Shows in that category. A show may appear in several categories.


Station categories
The first column of Categories is the Station categories you created when you signed into the ConnectedTV web Account. By default your stations are organized into: Broadcast Basic Extended Premium Pay Per View Music You can easily create your own categories and organize your Stations in any order you like, using Organize Channels at your ConnectedTV Account on the web.

Show categories
Station categories are followed by Show categories, which let you find shows independent of which station they appear on. For example, if you tap Comedy, ConnectedTV will search all your stations for Comedy shows and show you a complete list of Comedies at the current Guide Time.

My Bad Shows category

If show you have marked as Bad is on at the current Guide Time, it will appear in the Bad Shows category, on the last Categories page.

If Hide Bad Shows is checked in your User Settings, that show won't appear in the main guide. To find a movie or show you've marked as Bad that's on now, or a Station that's showing one, look in the My Bad Shows category. There you can find any of your Bad Shows that is currently on, and review its Show Details. To remove a show from your Bad list, simply mark it 'Normal' or 'Favorite' by stroking the My Ratings button.


TV and Box pages
The TV page has buttons for the ten digits you change channels with, and your TV system power and volume control buttons - buttons you don't need as much when you use ConnectedTV to change channels and the Palm hardware buttons to control volume and power. The TV page can be helpful you need to enter a sequence of digits (such as an adult access code) or test individual digits when training. Note that buttons on this "TV" page may not control your TV set directly. If you have a cable or satellite TV remote to change channels, those are the digits that will come up here. You can reach the TV page in one tap from the Home, Box, VCR or DVR pages. Box page The Box page provides access to higher-level functions of the device you use to tune the TV.


VCR and DVR pages
The VCR page lets you control your basic VCR functions. The DVR page lets you control the core functions of a Digital Video Recording device such as a TiVo, Replay, or UltimateTV. You can train ConnectedTV for DVR Record, Replay and Advance functions, and operate them through DownStrokes on the Play, Rewind and FastForward buttons, respectively. The button label will change before you release the Stroke.