skunkm0nkee: Mediastream development question

skunkm0nkee,

Just wondering if you have plans to update Mediastream?

If not, I was wondering if I could have your permission to put the source on github.com to make available some updates I have been working on.

For right now, I just plan some small updates, I don't have a lot of time to commit to large updates and continued maintenance, but I am hoping there would be some contributions from the user community.

Right now I have brought in (and still fine tuning)
- Dan's Latest Movies & TV Hack (not fully working yet)
- Media flagging for 'MediaPreview' and 'Episodes from Pinch
- Weather with animated icons and radar map from Transparency (need to ask for permission for that before posting)

Plans:
- fix up a few errors I see in the XBMC log with respect to the theme
- fix a few of the settings that show as blank (no text) related to recent SVN updates
- borrow some features from Mediastream Redux and Aeon (with permission where applicable)

wstewart, if you could do that, it would be awesome. Thanks for the effort.

wstewart Wrote:- Weather with animated icons and radar map from Transparency (need to ask for permission for that before posting)

permission granted. ;-)

really, feel free to use any code from Transparency! and do with it whatever you like.

Thanks ronie. It is people like you that I am glad I made the switch from mythtv to here. Everyone is so helpful here!!

Speaking from experience I know that team razorfish are happy for people to mod the skin and release different versions of it. Just make sure you give credit where it is due and give it a slightly different name so people don't confuse it with the original official one.
As for using stuff from redux version again anything I have ever made for xbmc is open for anyone and everyone to use in whole or pieces and they don't even have to ask, but it would be nice to know

Well I'll chime in here too since I made the mod of Jezz's awesome Redux. Feel free to go ahead and take any of what I've done and let me know if you have any questions on any of it. Good luck.

MiniMeedia code is simular to MediaStream, it has standard all xbmc features.
I made mod. MiniMeedia Waffa! this includes many skin features. Grab what you like.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=6023

Version 1.4 is coming !!

Playlist startup added
Animated Art in video OSD and Video fullscreen info.
etc.....

Sorry, things have been more complicated of late than I'd like and as such XBMC stuff has taken a back-seat.

Jezz is right, I have no objection to you making a mod of the skin and changing it wherever you see fit as long as you credit us for the original skin.

I do still have plans to come back and re-visit MediaStream to add new features and improvements which weren't really possible when we first developed it and hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the interest and good luck with your mod!

Thanks skunkm0nkee, I post it on github perhaps this weekend if I have time.

Definitely will be giving credit to everyone I borrow stuff from. I don`t have much talent in the graphics area, so I tend to lean towards borrowing stuff I like.

When you get back to updating Mediastream, I hope that you will consider starting from my version. The great thing about github is that you will be able to see exactly what the changes are and select only those you like. I`ll start with the original Mediastream 1.0 on github and start the changes from there. I really like the Mediastream skin and I hope that I can complement your fine work by helping out with some updates that you can in turn use.

I do have a larger list of planned changes (time permitting) to the skin to bring in mods from other skins such as clearart and stuff, I post the list later tonight. But I won`t commit to making those changes just yet until I get more into the coding and better understand the level of effort required.

And thank you to everyone who has piped in to give me permission to re-use code from other themes even before I asked for it. Much appreciated, you all re-affirm my decision to jump over from mythtv to xbmc. I had contributed quite a bit of code to mythtv, but quite frankly, the folks over there are not quite as friendly and helpful as everyone over here.

Hi everyone,
An update on my plans for mods to the original mediastream skin, I had planned to work on completing my updates to Mediastream, however, work has gotten really busy, lots of overtime, I have not had time. Also shortly after my original post, Confluence was released which is very,very well done. I have not yet decided if I will mod the original Mediastream or instead do some mods for Confluence.

Thank you to everyone again who has provided approval to re-use bits and pieces from your skins.