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Back Row General Discussion
#16
Hi nice looking theme. Can I switch off the 5-4-3-2-1 thing, and also the fonts on settings etc are so small as to be unreadable at any reasonable distance, could that be adjusted at all?
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#17
AnalogKid Wrote:I'm wondering too... about the DVD case opening animation....
.. box opening should open to reveal something useful...CD art would be one possibility... or some additional info like plot, or cast etc. I know I

Here are my thoughts:
-show DVD or Bluray disc when case opens, if content is SD or HD respectively
- I have a couple of DVDs which are not on HDD. Checking if a folder have fake avi file like offline 123.avi, and showing offline disc image instead of DVD/Bluray (this is specific, so please ignore if you do not find it useful)
- case could fully open and show media flags on the left part

Couple of thoughts considering home page:

- show recently added as 4/5 covers above NAV bar
- use this placeholders for weather as well (like Aeon)
- make settings window Aeon/Confluence like
- show shutdown in NAV bar (at least optionally)

AnalogKid, what are you missing from Aeon (just curious)?
My skins:

Amber
Quartz

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#18
pecinko Wrote:Here are my thoughts:
-show DVD or Bluray disc when case opens, if content is SD or HD respectively
- I have a couple of DVDs which are not on HDD. Checking if a folder have fake avi file like offline 123.avi, and showing offline disc image instead of DVD/Bluray (this is specific, so please ignore if you do not find it useful)
- case could fully open and show media flags on the left part

Couple of thoughts considering home page:

- show recently added as 4/5 covers above NAV bar
- use this placeholders for weather as well (like Aeon)
- make settings window Aeon/Confluence like
- show shutdown in NAV bar (at least optionally)

AnalogKid, what are you missing from Aeon (just curious)?

Not wanting to threadjack abotu Aeon... but I'm missing stability with it... I was a huge fan of Temmi's Aeon45, but it's unstable currently (being worked on). In it's absence, this skin's really working for me, and highly stable.

I'm a coverflow fan... bug like the extra info popping up automatically etc... I slightly prefer Aeon's plain text home menu, but I can't stress enough how (for me), this skin is much more stable. The perfect skin for me would be a hybrid of this (Stability and some views), Aeon65 (Lowlist, Home Menu and showcase views) and Elipsis (attention to graphic detail, couple of their views).
There's not much to choose between them all. All damn fine, but stability will always be number one for me.
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#19
Yeah, that's why there's so many theme's out there. Due to everyone having there own wants and style's. For me, this theme is perfect to me and has all the view's exactly how i would want them, but doesn't mean it's the same to the next person. But has more view's then a lot of theme's to still give the user enough to still customize it to there liking.

I like the idea of having the dvd box cover open to show actual dvd covers, however, it would have to be added to XBMC, as well as a new scraper (good luck with that) would have to be made to do this for this idea to be possible. It's nothing a theme can pull off by itself. But a nice idea though.

Also might look into some of the other mentioned idea's. Let's please keep discussion about this theme here only. Thanks.

Keep the idea's coming. Sharpe is great with being open with idea's if they can work with what's already there. Or workable modifications.

The 5-4-3-2-1 countdown as an option i am not sure about. In terms of doable that is. A lot of work was done to originally add it when it was made, as it fit's the whole "Sitting in a theater" persona of Back Row, and lot's a work also spent hand making the images from scratch (HD ones), but not sure if possible to add as a theme option. Maybe (Countdown - On/Off) or something. Also depends on capabilities. What resolution are you using BTW for the fonts being too small for you? And using widescreen or 4x3? All the fonts are pretty viewable on my xbox and computer by default.

Edit- See, Sharpe is already on an editing rampage. Let's see what happens. He's usually pretty quick to add idea's or fixing things. Smile
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#20
Yep these ideas are great and many thanks for coming up with them - it really does help motivate me.

With that in mind I've updated a few things based on some of the ideas here /Bigger fonts in the settings screen / More fanart in the video library & File mode views / Added more detailed weather info to the homescreen. - Always a work in progress

The movie countdown can be effectively disabled by using custom home wallpapers in skin settings - either by choosing multiple wallpapers or a single background - if that helps?
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#21
Customised art (like rear covers) can be achieved using the path of the media file... and assuming a side by side file of 'rearcover.jpg' etc. This technique is widely used for the cdart.jpg files allowing users to actually show the real CD!

However... I would suggest NOT doing this for anything other than the CDart.png (which has become a pseudo standard amongst many skins). It works by having a setting in the UI to point to the root of your Movies or Music folders. Then deducing where to find the art in the following manner...

<MediaRoot>\<artist>\<album>\cdart.png (constructing the path from the Skin fields).

For a rear cover... I'd just suggest 'emulating' this... using infolabels... hard to explain in text... but basically have an anim that does the following:

1) Opens the box, revealing the cd image (using cdart.png technique above)
2) wait a few moments
3) close the box to reveal the 'back' of the box... but also then zoom and expand to much larger area thus allowing the info to be displayed (plot, album review etc etc)

Purely an idea!... nothing more, and it might be animation overkill!
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#22
Sharpe Wrote:Yep these ideas are great and many thanks for coming up with them - it really does help motivate me.

With that in mind I've updated a few things based on some of the ideas here /Bigger fonts in the settings screen / More fanart in the video library & File mode views / Added more detailed weather info to the homescreen. - Always a work in progress

The movie countdown can be effectively disabled by using custom home wallpapers in skin settings - either by choosing multiple wallpapers or a single background - if that helps?

Great news!...
Are you aware that the fanart for weather can be weather context sensitive? So you get a snowy picture in snowy weather etc?
Forgive me if you know all this.... just not sure if you've stuck in a cave doing this work for a while! *grin* (it does happen!)
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#23
I am wondering about the bluray box idea. We currently have a view that places a dvd box behind the cover image. I am wondering if there's code in place within xbmc that has any form of conditions, so if the tag that we now have is blue-ray, it would use a different image (which i'll throw together.) in place. And also doing something similar to tackle the idea of 'opening of the dvd box' to show something with a blueray disc, versus a dvd disc, or something along the lines, using the same tag reading process.
I am going to change the weather snapboard a little. Just smaller changes to the image.
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#24
AnalogKid Wrote:Great news!...
Are you aware that the fanart for weather can be weather context sensitive? So you get a snowy picture in snowy weather etc?
Forgive me if you know all this.... just not sure if you've stuck in a cave doing this work for a while! *grin* (it does happen!)

It does feel like that sometimes - I'd never really paid much attention to the weather stuff (it pretty much rains all the time here) Smile

I've been looking into this and have now put it in as a setting under Skin Settings/Wallpapers. Although I haven't included any weather art. If anyone wants to use this feature you can put your own weather packs in the Back-Row\media\Weather\ folder and it should work when activated and using multiple homescreen wallpapers.

I've just tried it using the same weather background folder structure as ronie has used in his very good Transparency skin.

*Edit added functionality to choose wallpaper folders as AnalogKid rightly suggested.
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#25
Sharpe Wrote:It does feel like that sometimes - I'd never really paid much attention to the weather stuff (it pretty much rains all the time here) Smile

I've been looking into this and have now put it in as a setting under Skin Settings/Wallpapers. Although I haven't included any weather art. If anyone wants to use this feature you can put your own weather packs in the Back-Row\media\Weather\Conditional\ folder and it should work when activated and using custom homescreen wallpapers.

I've just tried it using the same weather background folder structure as ronie has used in his very good Transparency skin.

Getting better all the time!

One thing I would suggest... is moving the weather wallpaper out from under your skin... and do the same thing as done with music and movie wallpapers... have a setting pointing to the folder. Not all skins do this, but the better behaved ones do... this then divorces your skin from the user generated art (and makes for a much neater skin upgrade later where users don't have to worry about accidentally deleting their own content below your skin folder).

I know it's more work, but you've already used this (good) technique for the wallpapers in the home screen :-)

Transparency's good... very good... and highly stable. Aspects of it aren't quite to my liking, but I do jump to it in times of trouble just prove a skin is misbehaving (since Transparency rarely does)... and it usually offers most of the latest features in XBMC.


Stuff in this place moves so quickly sometimes, if you've got your head in the skin code for a week, the world has moved on!
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#26
djdafreund Wrote:I am wondering about the bluray box idea. We currently have a view that places a dvd box behind the cover image. I am wondering if there's code in place within xbmc that has any form of conditions, so if the tag that we now have is blue-ray, it would use...

Not dvd/bluray/hddvd AFAIK, but there is SD/HD in media flagging.

I personally wouldn't mind from which source actual media file is coming from, rather if it is now in SD (DVD) or HD (Bluray) quality. If that is what you are after, it could be achieved with XBMC media flag info.
My skins:

Amber
Quartz

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#27
pecinko Wrote:Not dvd/bluray/hddvd AFAIK, but there is SD/HD in media flagging.

I personally wouldn't mind from which source actual media file is coming from, rather if it is now in SD (DVD) or HD (Bluray) quality. If that is what you are after, it could be achieved with XBMC media flag info.

There are a few ways / strategies...

- One is to assume the source is in the path (so contains 'DVD','BluRay' etc)
This works well, but requires the user to have such strings in their media path, and many users don't like being forced to do this. And many don't care what the source was... they care about the ACTUAL resolution

- Another is to assume the source based on the resolution
This is not the best technique, since it's impossible to really know the source, and 'best guess' isn't foolproof. Just because a movie is 576 lines, doesn't mean it came from DVD.

- Another is to simply stick with resolution flags
This works perfectly and seems to fit the needs of most users... so > 576 lines is HD, > 480 is SD and <480 is low def (you get the idea!)

I am personally not in favour of the Bluray / DVD disc image... simply for the above reasons (it's not easy to KNOW which is which).
I am far more in favour of the cdart.png format which would allow the user to have an image PER movie... and if they really wanted to show BluRay or DVD... then they can copy their BluRay (cdart.png) image into the relevant movie folder. This way, ALL options are covered with one solution. The only downside is having the same image repeated in multiple folders... but it's far more flexible and powerful.
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#28
sorry if this shows up twice, but the last post i was typing suddenly dissappeared on my and has not shown up in the forum as of yet.

First, i love this skin, and more importantly so does my wife.

I have two questions about its use that i hope someone can clear up for me.

first, when you select the videos button from the home screen, i always seem to get the options page pop up asking if i want to go to library mode, or change the view, once i do this i get into the library or if i just escape from the pop up i am in the files mode. Is this intentional or is there a way to keep the selection until i decide to change it. The reason i ask this is because i tend to enter my library via the videos button and having to select library each time seems a little odd. If there is setting, a point in the right direction would be truly appreciated.

Alternatively, if i am not expected to go to the library vie the videos button but rather the tv and movies buttons, then i ask if there is a way to change the default location to where these buttons take me when they are pressed. At present they take me to the titles area of the library for the respective buttons. Is it possible to take you to the heading that lists genres, titles, year... instead, or anywhere else for that matter. My tv shows are set up as genres, adult and kids and it would be great if the tv show button could direct us to that area or somewhere other than the titles section, is this possible or is there a setting for this that i am simply missing. Similarly with the movies section it too takes you to the titles area and i would like to know if that can be changed as well, again in my particular case, i would have it sent to the genres page, but the list of options for genres titles years ... would be excellent as well.

If this is an option already in the skin, please let me know where to find it as i have been unsuccessful thus far, alternatively, if this is not available is it at all possible to do either on my end by means of something simple (i have no programming skills) or as a request for a feature to be added.

Once again, wonderful skill with a very hight WAF (wife approval factor)

thanks.
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#29
Hi there richmond - good to hear that you and your wife are liking the skin.
Yes you're right it was set up like that intentionally to take you straight to the Movies and TV Shows titles - mainly just because that was the convention at the time. As a bit of a quick fix for you I've added a skin settings option that lets you change the Movies and TV Shows destination to their root levels instead.

Cheers!
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#30
First let me say thank you very much, i downloaded the new version yesterday. I, unfortunately, had a very strange result and i'm hoping you can understand it because i'm a little balder right now than i was yesterday Smile

i installed the new version on a test machine, a laptop that is running windows vista home 64 bit, with an intel centrino processor. I clicked on the new setting that you added in skin settings and presto everything worked like a charm the main specs of the system from the debug log are here:

PHP Code:
Starting XBMCPlatformWindows Vista64-bit (WoWService Pack 1 build 6001.  Built on Nov 22 2009 (SVN:24883compiler 1500)
10:13:28 T:2224 M:2156793856  NOTICEIntel(RCore(TM)2 Duo CPU     T6500  2.10GHz
10
:13:28 T:2224 M:2156777472  NOTICEDesktop Resolution1366x768 32Bit at 60Hz
10
:13:28 T:2224 M:2156769280  NOTICERunning with restricted rights 

The laptop is a 16x9 screen

when i selected the tv option in the home screen this is what appears in the log:

PHP Code:
SDLKeyboardscancode28sym13unicode13modifier0
10
:13:36 T:2224 M:2035785728   DEBUGCApplication::OnKey61453 pressedaction is 7
10
:13:36 T:2224 M:2035761152   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction Translating SetFocus(21)
10:13:36 T:2224 M:2035761152   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction To SetFocus(21)
10:13:36 T:2224 M:2035761152   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction Translating Skin.SetBool(videotv)
10:13:36 T:2224 M:2035761152   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction To Skin.SetBool(videotv)
10:13:36 T:2224 M:2035658752   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction Translating Skin.Reset(videomovies)
10:13:36 T:2224 M:2035658752   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction To Skin.Reset(videomovies)
10:13:36 T:2224 M:2035658752   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction Translating ActivateWindow(MyVideoLibrary,tvshows)
10:13:36 T:2224 M:2035658752   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction To ActivateWindow(MyVideoLibrary,tvshows)
10:13:36 T:2224 M:2035658752   DEBUGActivating window ID10025
10
:13:36 T:2224 M:2035658752   DEBUGChecking if window ID 10024 is locked.
10:13:36 T:2224 M:2035654656   DEBUG: ------ Window Deinit (Home.xml) ------
10:13:38 T:2224 M:2030551040    INFOAttempting to quickpath totvshows
10
:13:38 T:2224 M:2030018560   DEBUG: ------ Window Init (MyVideoNav.xml) ------
10:13:38 T:2224 M:2030018560    INFOLoading skin fileMyVideoNav.xml
10
:13:38 T:2224 M:2029654016 WARNINGTrying to add unsupported control type 32
10
:13:38 T:2224 M:2027646976   DEBUGLoad MyVideoNav.xml275.64ms
10
:13:38 T:2224 M:2026045440   DEBUGAlloc resources308.42ms (275.81 ms skin load)
10:13:38 T:2224 M:2026037248   DEBUGCGUIMediaWindow::GetDirectory (videodb://2/)
10:13:38 T:2224 M:2026037248   DEBUG:   ParentPath = [videodb://2/]
10:13:38 T:2224 M:2025959424   DEBUGSaving fileitems [videodb://2/]
10:13:38 T:2224 M:2025959424   DEBUG:   -- items6sort method0ascendingfalse
10
:13:38 T:5804 M:2025910272   DEBUGthread startauto delete0
10
:13:38 T:5804 M:2025410560   DEBUGThread 5804 terminating
10
:13:42 T:2224 M:2068447232   DEBUGCWinEventsWin32::WndProcWindow is active
10
:13:42 T:2224 M:2068447232   DEBUGCWinEventsWin32::WndProcWindow lost focus
10
:13:42 T:2224 M:2068447232  NOTICEStoring total System Uptime
10
:13:42 T:2224 M:2068447232  NOTICESaving settings
10
:13:42 T:2224 M:2064392192  NOTICEstop all 

You will see from the log the skin does: Attempting to quickpath to: tvshows
and everything works, both in the tvshows section and the movies section which i haven't included.

Conversely, when i installed the new skin on my primary machine, a desktop with the following specs:

PHP Code:
Starting XBMCPlatformWindows XP Professional Service Pack 3 build 2600.  Built on Nov 22 2009 (SVN:24883compiler 1500)
09:56:02 T:504 M:271482880  NOTICE:               Intel(RPentium(R4 CPU 2.80GHz
09
:56:02 T:504 M:271482880  NOTICEDesktop Resolution800x600 32Bit at 60Hz
09
:56:02 T:504 M:271482880  NOTICERunning with administrator rights 

I had the original problem of the tvshows and movies buttons on the home screen sending me to the titles section. For troubleshooting purposes I made sure to use the same xbmc build , but the same problems happened on the official Camelot Release as well. Each done on a full install of XBMC.

The screen in this case is a 4:3 television set as opposed to the16x9 screen on the laptop

When i click on the tvshows button the following shows up in the log:

PHP Code:
SDLKeyboardscancode0sym13unicode13modifier0
09
:56:11 T:504 M:205127680   DEBUGCApplication::OnKey61453 pressedaction is 7
09
:56:11 T:504 M:205094912   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction Translating SetFocus(21)
09:56:11 T:504 M:205094912   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction To SetFocus(21)
09:56:11 T:504 M:205094912   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction Translating Skin.SetBool(videotv)
09:56:11 T:504 M:205094912   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction To Skin.SetBool(videotv)
09:56:11 T:504 M:206417920   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction Translating Skin.Reset(videomovies)
09:56:11 T:504 M:206417920   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction To Skin.Reset(videomovies)
09:56:11 T:504 M:206413824   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction Translating ActivateWindow(MyVideoLibrary,tvshowtitles)
09:56:11 T:504 M:206413824   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction To ActivateWindow(MyVideoLibrary,tvshowtitles)
09:56:11 T:504 M:206413824   DEBUGActivating window ID10025
09
:56:11 T:504 M:206413824   DEBUGChecking if window ID 10024 is locked.
09:56:11 T:504 M:206413824   DEBUG: ------ Window Deinit (Home.xml) ------
09:56:13 T:504 M:209477632    INFOAttempting to quickpath totvshowtitles
09
:56:13 T:504 M:209362944   DEBUG: ------ Window Init (MyVideoNav.xml) ------
09:56:13 T:504 M:209362944    INFOLoading skin fileMyVideoNav.xml
09
:56:14 T:504 M:207245312   DEBUGLoad MyVideoNav.xml245.70ms
09
:56:14 T:504 M:206266368   DEBUGAlloc resources274.11ms (245.82 ms skin load)
09:56:14 T:504 M:206258176   DEBUGCGUIMediaWindow::GetDirectory (videodb://2/2/)
09:56:14 T:504 M:206258176   DEBUG:   ParentPath = [videodb://2/2/]
09:56:14 T:504 M:206184448   DEBUGCVideoDatabase::GetTvShowsByWhere queryselect from tvshowview
09
:56:14 T:504 M:204288000   DEBUGTime for actual SQL query 45
09
:56:14 T:504 M:204230656   DEBUGTime to retrieve movies from dataset 20
09
:56:14 T:504 M:205180928   DEBUGSaving fileitems [videodb://2/2/]
09:56:14 T:504 M:205127680   DEBUG:   -- items36sort method2ascendingtrue
09
:56:16 T:504 M:227139584   DEBUGSDLKeyboardscancode0sym115unicode115modifier0
09
:56:16 T:504 M:227139584   DEBUGCApplication::OnKey61523 pressedaction is 122
09
:56:16 T:504 M:227139584   DEBUGActivating window ID10111
09
:56:16 T:504 M:227139584   DEBUGChecking if window ID 10111 is locked.
09:56:16 T:504 M:227139584   DEBUG: ------ Window Init (DialogButtonMenu.xml) ------
09:56:16 T:504 M:227139584    INFOLoading skin fileDialogButtonMenu.xml
09
:56:16 T:504 M:227868672   DEBUGLoad DialogButtonMenu.xml51.37ms
09
:56:16 T:504 M:227954688   DEBUGAlloc resources76.43ms (51.50 ms skin load)
09:56:17 T:504 M:227799040   DEBUGSDLKeyboardscancode0sym13unicode13modifier0
09
:56:17 T:504 M:227799040   DEBUGCApplication::OnKey61453 pressedaction is 7
09
:56:17 T:504 M:227774464   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction Translating XBMC.ShutDown()
09:56:17 T:504 M:227774464   DEBUGCApplication::ExecuteXBMCAction To XBMC.ShutDown() 

In this case you will note the log shows:
Attempting to quickpath to: tvshowtitles

this appears to be the major difference as to why it is not working on the desktop but is working on the laptop. I have toggled the skin settings to enable and disable the root level option on both the laptop and the desktop. On the laptop the toggle works as intended, but on the desktop it continues to produce the exact same results, sending me to the titles list no matter the setting

I realize this was not something you intended on adding to the skin, but if you could shed any light on what i might be doing wrong here it would be greatly appreciated. The only thing i seem to be able to think of myself is it has something to do with the fact that the desktop is running on a 4:3 screen and the laptop on a 16x9, but i don't see how. Any help in this regard would be truly apppreciated.

i will post the the complete debug logs for the laptop and the destop in the following posts for further reference.

Full logs: Working laptop:
http://pastebin.com/m54abbb9

Not working destop:
http://pastebin.com/m2ece2b77


thanks.
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