Focus - Alpha 6c released

shizzle Wrote:

Mine looks exactly like this... I get no background pictures and it's just a solid blue background and text is all bunched together... am I doing something wrong?

you're not doing anything wrong, alpha 6 just has no support for 4:3. it is mentioned in the first post.
the blue background is the default background, if you want background pictures you'll have to choose them.

I have a 16:9 TV though, not a 4:3...

I thought when you selected a resolution in XBMC it keeps that resolution even when you change skins? I have mine set to whatever the full screen res is and my TV is a 16:9.... Is there some settings I should check?

Oh yeah, and what is SVN? Sorry for the dumb questions...I'm new.

First and foremost alpha 6 was made for HD screens. I have not tested it on an SD screen as I don't have one anymore. That screenshot seems 4:3 to me, but maybe that has something to do with how xbmc creates screenshots or something. Changing skins will not change your resolution.
It may be that 16:9 SD has problems with font sizing as well as I didn't really pay any attention to other screentypes. I'll see if I can make some quick adjustments to the fonts for the next release.

To put it simply SVN is an online repository where a project can be stored and versioned. This way users can always get hold of the latest developments on for instance a skin, a plugin or the entire XBMC project. And the developers can roll back the project to an earlier versions in case something doesn't work out.

Thanks for the speedy responses dude

I don't think I was clear before... I am on an plasma HD TV that is 16:9... that screenshot that he posted might have been on a 4:3 screen or SD, not really sure but I just used that as an example of the same text bunching I've been experiencing when trying to use Focus.

So for SVN is there a plugin or something that I can use that points to an SVN source so I can update things from within XBMC? Like let's say a new version of a skin comes out on SVN can I go to like an SVN section and hit update? Or are SVN releases manual updates?

mrt2 Wrote:Thanks for the speedy responses dude

I don't think I was clear before... I am on an plasma HD TV that is 16:9... that screenshot that he posted might have been on a 4:3 screen or SD, not really sure but I just used that as an example of the same text bunching I've been experiencing when trying to use Focus.

Ok, well then there's two possible reasons. Either you have your screen settings set up incorrectly for HD. If you go into "appearance settings" go to "screen" and make sure it's set to 720p 16:9. Then underneath choose "test resolution" and it will switch to this resolution.
Or, if you're running on an xbox then you won't be able to use true HD mode even though you have an HD screen, and xbmc will use 16:9 SD mode. That is unless you have an HD pack for the XBOX.

Quote:So for SVN is there a plugin or something that I can use that points to an SVN source so I can update things from within XBMC? Like let's say a new version of a skin comes out on SVN can I go to like an SVN section and hit update? Or are SVN releases manual updates?

Something like that. You have to get an SVN client (most people use Tortoise) which you point to the SVN location. Then you can download the newer version after which you have to run a simple batch file to compile the skin (skin images are stored individually on the SVN, the build script compiles them into a single compressed texture format, improving speed and memory usage).
So they are manual updates, but there are plugins that periodically make updates to skins and plugins available through the xbmc interface. Bram77's Favorites Plugin Installer for instance: http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-favorites/

Jeroen Wrote:Ok, well then there's two possible reasons. Either you have your screen settings set up incorrectly for HD. If you go into "appearance settings" go to "screen" and make sure it's set to 720p 16:9. Then underneath choose "test resolution" and it will switch to this resolution.
Or, if you're running on an xbox then you won't be able to use true HD mode even though you have an HD screen, and xbmc will use 16:9 SD mode. That is unless you have an HD pack for the XBOX.

Choosing 720p 16:9 put's XBMC in a window/windowed mode... same for choosing 1080i 16:9... I have a 1080i 16:9 tv but choosing these modes under 'screen' puts XBMC in some sort of windowed mode... I asked about this in the XBMC forums and they told me to use the 'full screen option' which said something like '1280x700 full screen'. Which made me wonder... if I'm in this mode then am I truly utilizing my HD potential? I'm using an Apple TV... should I format and do a fresh install of XBMC to try to fix this or what?

Jeroen Wrote:Something like that. You have to get an SVN client (most people use Tortoise) which you point to the SVN location. Then you can download the newer version after which you have to run a simple batch file to compile the skin (skin images are stored individually on the SVN, the build script compiles them into a single compressed texture format, improving speed and memory usage).
So they are manual updates, but there are plugins that periodically make updates to skins and plugins available through the xbmc interface. Bram77's Favorites Plugin Installer for instance: http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-favorites/

I checked out the page for XBMC Favorites and it says it's a plugin for XBOX only, can I still install it on my ATV?

Yeah you can use the full screen option too. I have xbmc start up with a "-fs" switch in the shortcut/alias that starts xbmc, so it starts up full screen no matter what resolution I set it too. Don't know how that works in OSX but I guess there is a similar way.

If you have an HD ready screen 1280x720 would be the highest you can go, although setting it to 1080p will work but your screen will downscale it. If you have a full HD screen your full resolution would be 1920x1080.
I don't see any need for a reinstall really.

Quote:I checked out the page for XBMC Favorites and it says it's a plugin for XBOX only, can I still install it on my ATV?

No that won't work. There's a windows and linux version of the plugin, no osx version afaik.

Jeroen Wrote:Yeah you can use the full screen option too. I have xbmc start up with a "-p" switch in the shortcut/alias that starts xbmc, so it starts up full screen no matter what resolution I set it too. Don't know how that works in OSX but I guess there is a similar way.

If you have an HD ready screen 1280x720 would be the highest you can go, although setting it to 1080p will work but your screen will downscale it. If you have a full HD screen your full resolution would be 1920x1080.
I don't see any need for a reinstall really.


No that won't work. There's a windows and linux version of the plugin, no osx version afaik.

I was just using that res as an example, my tv is actually Full HD... which still makes me confused as to why the skin won't render properly for me.
The XBMC favorites plugin page says it's a mod of the original XBMC addons plugin... Can I keep this skin and/or other skins updates using that plugin instead?