What platform, resolution, and aspect-ratio do you use for the MediaStream skin?

Just thought I'd start a thread to gauge how people actually use MediaStream. Most complaints come from xbox users (memory is too tight) and/or SD users (fonts are too small) but I'd be interested to see if those are the majority users or not.

I like mediastream but with hd setup it's a bit flakey. In pm3.hd the the fonts are too small too!

MediaStream isn't flakey in HD? The Xbox doesn't have enough memory to run the skin in it's full glory and still play media but that's not the skin being flakey?

:sad:Yeah I'm still living in the stone age with modern XBMC but tube TV! It's a 4:3 32" Sony CRT but it still looks great. Hopefully, I can find a good deal for HDTV to see Mediastream and XBMC in all it's glory!!

MediaStream Lite on AppleTV runs fine! There are occasional little hiccups loading backdrops, but I'm sure once XBMC is optimized for AppleTV, this will improve. Thanks again for a great skin!

Well it definitely looks like standard definition has had it's day with almost 90% of you running it in HD

I want to add here that the poll isn't exactly representative of the potential audience of XBMC and Mediastream. People who post in these tech forums are obviously techies, but we aren't the only people using XBMC. Heck, I don't even have a TV, let alone a HDTV. But we do set up XBMC for other peeps, friends & family, and they don't always keep up with the current techs.

For my situation, XBMC is running on an Atom nettop hooked via S-video to a 32" 4:3 CRT TV. The fonts and most of the layouts in XBMC and Mediastream are well nigh unusable unless you're standing right next to the tube.

So, sure, you can say that only 10% of the people responding to this poll have old CRT sets, but that's not the same as saying that there are only 10% of the potential audience for XBMC use CRT sets.

To wax on this a bit more, there is a built-in bias in projects like these, to cater only to what its immediate audience (i.e. the people who post in these forums) asks for. So you see a lot of emphasis on skins and scrapers and such. Whereas when you deal with the normal non-tech person--like my Mom--the only thing she wants is to be able to easily read the titles on the screen, and forget all of the whirly-doodads.

In XBMC's mission statement, there is an emphasis on KISS principles, which would imply that XBMC is more than just for the geek set. Personally, I don't see much of this being reflected in the app's interface or design. Here's to hope that devs think more of the non-tech peeps' needs and not just what seems cool.

TomJensen Wrote:I want to add here that the poll isn't exactly representative of the potential audience of XBMC and Mediastream. People who post in these tech forums are obviously techies, but we aren't the only people using XBMC. Heck, I don't even have a TV, let alone a HDTV. But we do set up XBMC for other peeps, friends & family, and they don't always keep up with the current techs.

For my situation, XBMC is running on an Atom nettop hooked via S-video to a 32" 4:3 CRT TV. The fonts and most of the layouts in XBMC and Mediastream are well nigh unusable unless you're standing right next to the tube.

So, sure, you can say that only 10% of the people responding to this poll have old CRT sets, but that's not the same as saying that there are only 10% of the potential audience for XBMC use CRT sets.

To wax on this a bit more, there is a built-in bias in projects like these, to cater only to what its immediate audience (i.e. the people who post in these forums) asks for. So you see a lot of emphasis on skins and scrapers and such. Whereas when you deal with the normal non-tech person--like my Mom--the only thing she wants is to be able to easily read the titles on the screen, and forget all of the whirly-doodads.

In XBMC's mission statement, there is an emphasis on KISS principles, which would imply that XBMC is more than just for the geek set. Personally, I don't see much of this being reflected in the app's interface or design. Here's to hope that devs think more of the non-tech peeps' needs and not just what seems cool.

Well said i agree with everything you say except one point, I have to diasagree with your point about Mediastream as in my oppinion it is one of the simplest and best skins there is today it does have some flaws when used with sd displays but then all skins have some flaws but text readabilty simply is not an issue if you take the time to set it up correctly

MediaStream has become my skin of choice for XBMC/Windows. It looks phemomenal on my Panny 50" plasma (720p). Nice work. Very nice work indeed.

I love mediastream, IMHO it's the best skin out there, I try to used, but it was too much to handle for my xbox, even with paul lite version.

I open a thread about the best platform for the xbmc precisely to get the most out of XBMC and MediaStream


http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=45799