4:3 aspect-ratio resolution handling in MediaStream

I've managed to fritter around long enough with bug fixes and modifications so now I think would be a good time to get involved in getting the skin to run better on 4:3 TV's.

I'm going to take it in chunks (not going to try and get the whole thing converted in one swoop) and currently I'm thinking that the home screen probably works ok as it is, the main problem for 4:3 is the media views. Am I right in that assumption?

If so then I'm going to start off with looking at the movie views (Media Preview and Showcase) and take things from there.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions relating to this then now's your chance

Thank you!!!

Yes so far the home screen is pretty good in 4:3, the media views are where the work is needed mostly with the "Media Preview and Showcase" views.

I'm just going to throw this out here, take it at what it's worth...

First I really like your both your media preview, and showcase views. Although when I was looking at it on my 4:3 TV they look pretty narrow, obviously it would be ideal to enlarge them and make it look like the correct proportions. Although in Showcase I'm wondering if in doing so, you won't have much room on either side of the middle "poster". To show what is coming next. I really like Jezz_X's Cover Flow view in Vision-Basic for this in the 4:3 aspect, because by tilting the covers you get to see a couple more of the posters on each side of the center. It might be worth considering something like that for the 4:3 aspect.

Once again I love the Showcase view on my PC, in a 16:9 aspect it looks great, you just might not have as much room to work with and make it look as nice in 4:3.

I wish you could edit posts in here....

The other huge issue with 4:3 is the text. I have two 32 inch standard definition TV's that are running xboxes with XBMC. If I try to use Media Stream now I can't read any of the descriptions, or episode titles for TV shows unless I am with in 3 feet of the TV (even with the Massive font).

It would be awesome to be able to read at the very least the episode numbers and titles from 6 to 8 feet away from my TV.

A Coverflow view will be added at some point (we had one a while back so need to resurrect the code and try and complete it) but it won't be replacing any of the current views, it will be in addition to them.

Thanks for the comments about 4:3

A future Coverflow addition is great news. Just when I think MediaStream cannot get any better, it always does! Thanks again.

Fanart will be a problem.

In Panel Stream and both List views you've got the dark area at the bottom of the screen which means the fanart could fit above that like this -



But for Media Preview and Showcase the whole screen is in view so maybe the only answer is to crop the edges off either side like this -

I'll worry about fanart and background etc later (for now they will be stretched to fit the screen) as it's the media views that are the initial priority.

I've made a start on getting the Media Preview view working in 4:3 and I've managed to get a version working without having to change too much code (which will make it easier to maintain both 720p and 4:3 code in the long run) and this will come with the next release (hopefully with the next T3CH).

One thing I should say though is that in starting the 4:3 work I've had to create a new fontset specifically for 4:3 and at the moment my focus has been on making it work with the Media Preview view. There may be other screens or dialogs where the fonts are too big or small initially. The conversion process has to start somewhere and over the coming weeks we'll be ironing out the problems and working our way through all the rest of the screeens and dialogs.

Please don't post if you see bugs/issues with the 4:3 stuff until we get to stage where we say we're looking for feedback (we know there will be issues initially and don't want to be swamped with them). When the conversion is more complete I'll create a separate 4:3 Bug/Suggestions thread where you can post stuff for us to look into.

I'm hoping that within the next few weeks we'll have a skin that works better in all resolutions so as many people as possible can use the skin as it was intended.

yeeeeey 4:3 soon =)

4:3 support, coverflow - great news.

I personally do not see the point of media information - it's not as if the films/CD's I own are new to me, I'm not browsing them trying to decide what a CD sounds like or what a film is about - I know already I ripped the things from my CD/DVD collection!

What I love is seeing the cover art - that's enough to choose a film and seeing the album art while a track is playing is enough as well.

So I say concentrate on the visual aspect (coverflow for films and music) and ignore the media info fluff for the moment (perhaps a second option menu screen with that info.)

Just my honest opinion!

Cheers - look forward to any updates, may make me move away from XTV yet!

Hitcher Wrote:Fanart will be a problem.

In Panel Stream and both List views you've got the dark area at the bottom of the screen which means the fanart could fit above that like this -



But for Media Preview and Showcase the whole screen is in view so maybe the only answer is to crop the edges off either side like this -

Maybe you should submit a new feature request for that so that it will be handled by libGUI (XBMC's Skinning Engine) automatically for FanArt and other backdrops by default, add a new ticked to trac for tracking purposes where you explain in detail what the XBMC's Skinning Engine should exacly do in which situation http://trac.xbmc.org