I've used the MediaStream skin up till now, as I thought it was the ultimate skin for an HTPC... Trying Aeon, I was proven wrong!
The MultiPlex view is awesome! And the flags were the only thing missing from XBMC to make it the ultimate HTPC! Incredible!
That being said, Aeons TV view kinda falls flat IMO - this is where MediaStream got it excactly right!
A few screenshots to illustrate (really low res which kinda messes up the layout, but in it's native res, it's perfect!)
MediaStream TV view:
Show:
Choose and you get seasons:
Notice the season art! Wonderful!
And finally all the eps:
Apart from being unable to hide the rating for unwatched items, this view is perfect (for me atleast)!
Now for Aeon:
Show:
This could work, as long as the show art actually fits the area it's supposed to be in - we're waiting for TheTVDB.com on that one afaik (I like the whole automated scrape-thing). I prefer using the banner art, as it seperates the TV from the Movie view...
Choose and you get seasons:
Again, this could work as long as the art fits the area. It clearly states the season number you're about to choose, so that works as intended - I just don't like the side-scrolling when in TV view.
Now for the episodes:
Now this is where the Aeon TV view becomes useless for me; when scrolling through the various eps, the only way of telling what's next on the list is by a screenshot - it's impossible to identify an epsiode by a single screenshot only! So the only way of telling, what you're about to watch is by reading it. Yeah, this is kinda stating the obvious and when a complete season is browsed like in my example, telling what the next episode in line will be is not all that hard to figure out. But say a dir with a bunch of random epsiodes are listed, it's a really inaffective way of browsing, whereas MediaStream just does a list!
I may have over-illustrated this, but it was the easiest way of getting my oppinion out there!
If just copying the MediaStreams TV view is too unoriginal, taking some inspiration from it is not a bad thing... !
The MultiPlex view is awesome! And the flags were the only thing missing from XBMC to make it the ultimate HTPC! Incredible!
That being said, Aeons TV view kinda falls flat IMO - this is where MediaStream got it excactly right!
A few screenshots to illustrate (really low res which kinda messes up the layout, but in it's native res, it's perfect!)
MediaStream TV view:
Show:
Choose and you get seasons:
Notice the season art! Wonderful!
And finally all the eps:
Apart from being unable to hide the rating for unwatched items, this view is perfect (for me atleast)!
Now for Aeon:
Show:
This could work, as long as the show art actually fits the area it's supposed to be in - we're waiting for TheTVDB.com on that one afaik (I like the whole automated scrape-thing). I prefer using the banner art, as it seperates the TV from the Movie view...
Choose and you get seasons:
Again, this could work as long as the art fits the area. It clearly states the season number you're about to choose, so that works as intended - I just don't like the side-scrolling when in TV view.
Now for the episodes:
Now this is where the Aeon TV view becomes useless for me; when scrolling through the various eps, the only way of telling what's next on the list is by a screenshot - it's impossible to identify an epsiode by a single screenshot only! So the only way of telling, what you're about to watch is by reading it. Yeah, this is kinda stating the obvious and when a complete season is browsed like in my example, telling what the next episode in line will be is not all that hard to figure out. But say a dir with a bunch of random epsiodes are listed, it's a really inaffective way of browsing, whereas MediaStream just does a list!
I may have over-illustrated this, but it was the easiest way of getting my oppinion out there!
If just copying the MediaStreams TV view is too unoriginal, taking some inspiration from it is not a bad thing... !
