[ethan_9219]

Here's an idea of what would happen when you hover on an episode listitem for a couple of seconds. The list fades out and you get the full thumbnail with info. The label at the top could be a fadelabel for writer, air date, etc. Notice that the 'floor' is removed when you zoom into a tablet.

Don't worry - unwatched flags and stuff like that would be easy with such a large item area.

I have done a quick mock-up for the full thumbnail with info view for Prison Break. The thumb is 16:9, and is a keyframe I just grabbed in PowerDVD. (for some reason, though, when I brought it into Photoshop it got stretched horizontally. So I had to fix that, but that’s of no consequence to anything, really.)



As for the episode thumbs, I see no reason why we can’t aspire to the highest quality ones. Personally I think we should treat episode thumbs in the same way we do posters for movies: sourcing only the best ones for use.

I’m sure if you set a standard, or a minimum size/quality, then we would see an influx of great thumbs. For example, if you say that episode thumbs should be at a resolution of 720x405 (16:9), or whatever, then i'm sure the community will respond to that.

I think, probably, even 4:3 screen grabs from episodes could be edited to 16:9 AR in Photoshop or something.

Photoshop is great for fixing/enhancing thumbs that are sometimes not so ‘great’.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot; I really like this concept. I think it’s great!

[Steve_McQueen]

I think, probably, even 4:3 screen grabs from episodes could be edited to 16:9 AR in Photoshop or something.

Photoshop is great for fixing/enhancing thumbs that are sometimes not so ‘great’.

Wouldn't it be wrong to represent something that doesn't exist? I mean If the show doesn't exist in 16:9 should we really present it as such?
Fair enough if there is established a thumb template, but then it should be tagged somehow if it's 4:3.

[jonm42]

Wouldn't it be wrong to represent something that doesn't exist? I mean If the show doesn't exist in 16:9 should we really present it as such?
Fair enough if there is established a thumb template, but then it should be tagged somehow if it's 4:3.

Why? This is sheerly for esthetics. No harm, no foul. I can see a tag perhaps, given the amount of real estate we have available, but wrong? Nah.

[ethan_9219]

True, it's purely for aesthetics. And, yes, if it is actually a 4:3 source it should be tagged as such. But, considering the wonderful implementation thus far of media flags in Aeon with movies, i'm sure they would work great in TV Shows, too. So, there wouldn't need to be a 'tag' or something on the screenshot as i'm sure it would be flagged?

And, personally, the few 4:3 tv shows i do have, i always view them at full-screen size anyway. I don't think much is lost in the cropping of a 4:3 source to a 16:9 TV.

But, it's too bad this view isn't going ahead anymore. But, what can you do? DJH knows what works and what doesn't.

@DJH, should there be a thumb standard, do you think?

[empty]

Looks very great djh, but it would be great to have wideicon support like mediastream

[djh_]

I'm going to close this thread, but to answer the popular question: yes, there should be some way of XBMC knowing if an icon's 16:9 or 4:3. Without it, skinners are left with two unsatisfactory options: cropping the 16:9 thumbs or masking the edges of the 4:3 ones. Or designing their entire UI to work around the problem, of course, which isn't ideal either.