> As for CEC. I kind of agree that people buying and plugging a CEC adapter (and for this know what CEC is/does) are advanced enough to switch the settings level once and configure their device

no, most of them are not. most of them just plug in the device and expect it to work, and have no idea about settings in xbmc. that's why i'd like to add some popup when a new device is detected that needs configuring (not just for the cec adapter, but generic, any device that has settings that need to be set up).

> But in any case a dynamic switch of the settings level simply doesn't make sense IMO - either a setting is a basic setting or not

agreed

> Display of settings based on "realtime" conditions is another thing and IMO something we should/have to support.

like i said, already implemented like this for peripherals. adding some generic runtime conditions for this is nice (not needed for peripherals) but can be done in a separate pr