[Dannydeman]

The 'ION crap machines' are good enough to play 1080P and are very cheap and silent and small. Why buy an expensive overkill machine which consumes much more power, is not silent and is much bigger? You will be amazed how much people use a 'crappy' ION machine. Will be even more next year when ION2 comes out

[MarkTaunton]

The 'ION crap machines' are good enough to play 1080P and are very cheap and silent and small. Why buy an expensive overkill machine which consumes much more power, is not silent and is much bigger? You will be amazed how much people use a 'crappy' ION machine. Will be even more next year when ION2 comes out

I can build cheaper than the price of Ions, the only reason why I ended up with an I7 920 is because I had one spec in mind, and found out that the chip involved was not going to be expanded anymore, so thought ok, lets not plump for that.

What is the point of building an already dead computer, I found better components for a few pounds more, or a few dollars more, say £5 $5 to $20 more, and thought whats the point in going for lesser components than spending a tiny fraction more.

I was going to spend £500 to £600 $550 to $650 to have a reasonably decent PC, but ended up with £1,000 $1500 PC which is future proof for god knows how long, and just spending another £75 $90 on another 1.5 tb hard drive for my TV shows.

I could not afford my budget, but I ended up months after with a hell of a better machine, and not moaning about skins not working.

[igotdvds]

I can build cheaper than the price of Ions, the only reason why I ended up with an I7 920 is because I had one spec in mind, and found out that the chip involved was not going to be expanded anymore, so thought ok, lets not plump for that.

What is the point of building an already dead computer, I found better components for a few pounds more, or a few dollars more, say £5 $5 to $20 more, and thought whats the point in going for lesser components than spending a tiny fraction more.

I was going to spend £500 to £600 $550 to $650 to have a reasonably decent PC, but ended up with £1,000 $1500 PC which is future proof for god knows how long, and just spending another £75 $90 on another 1.5 tb hard drive for my TV shows.

I could not afford my budget, but I ended up months after with a hell of a better machine, and not moaning about skins not working.

Keep on topic guys.

[XBMCG33K]

What's funny (Arcanthur can verify) is the current skin I'm designing was (until I saw this thread) actually called shade lol!

[Roders]

What's funny (Arcanthur can verify) is the current skin I'm designing was (until I saw this thread) actually called shade lol!

It's actually hard to pick a name I'm finding out, no idea what to call the skin I'm making! Probably "Crappy Skin" will suit.

[MarkTaunton]

It's actually hard to pick a name I'm finding out, no idea what to call the skin I'm making! Probably "Crappy Skin" will suit.

Why not make things interesting, just post up screenshots of the skin, and let the public decide upon a name.

Sometimes if we cannot skin, at least we might have a decent idea for the name of a skin.

[MattCaulder]

Love this new skin, so glad I got to test this out.

My only concern is that I can't find this "Extras" option for the views. I think I'm just missing it, so if someone could help me out.

[Broads]

Hey. First off congrats on the beta release. As promised here are a few thougths that I have jotted down so far.

Please ignore points that may have already been pointed out.

Main Menu.

Does the home icon serve any purpose?
Any chance of selectable backdrops?
Selecting each icon, would be nice if there was a little bouce anim to make the navigation seem more fluid? / sexy..?

When returning from movies there is always a brief image of a mixing desk.. Why?

Submenu In Views.. The submenu pop up is functional although, I think it needs some sexing up, it is at this point bland, perhaps a bit of 3D shading on the top edge?

Welo View, What is the random fanart in bottom right corner for, it doesnt seem to have any realtion to the film selected? - I like the pop out discs..

Mini wall looks great.

Poster Wall. Posters look a little small and could benefit from being a little larger.

List.. my personal dislike on this skin, (Sorry) but the white highlight is too strong and stark for my personal tastes, I think a little transarency would calm this down, and overall I think this view is not as strong as the others.

There are some very similar views repeated.. concentrate on 1 and make it shine!


TV Shows, Love the views here especially thumb nails.


Thats all for now, will post further as I explore more, but keep at it.. its looking like this will be a great skin.



skin

[igotdvds]

Hey. First off congrats on the beta release. As promised here are a few thougths that I have jotted down so far.

Please ignore points that may have already been pointed out.

Main Menu.

Does the home icon serve any purpose?
Any chance of selectable backdrops?
Selecting each icon, would be nice if there was a little bouce anim to make the navigation seem more fluid? / sexy..?

When returning from movies there is always a brief image of a mixing desk.. Why?

Submenu In Views.. The submenu pop up is functional although, I think it needs some sexing up, it is at this point bland, perhaps a bit of 3D shading on the top edge?

Welo View, What is the random fanart in bottom right corner for, it doesnt seem to have any realtion to the film selected? - I like the pop out discs..

Mini wall looks great.

Poster Wall. Posters look a little small and could benefit from being a little larger.

List.. my personal dislike on this skin, (Sorry) but the white highlight is too strong and stark for my personal tastes, I think a little transarency would calm this down, and overall I think this view is not as strong as the others.

There are some very similar views repeated.. concentrate on 1 and make it shine!


TV Shows, Love the views here especially thumb nails.


Thats all for now, will post further as I explore more, but keep at it.. its looking like this will be a great skin.



skin

First off thanks for all of your thoughts. It would be very helpful if you could post screenshots of any issues/suggestions to help me better understand.

The white box on the home screen was part of the original design thats why we stuck with it.

The home icon is there solely for informative reasons. We can add things to the bottom section that dont go anywhere else or more as a "system as a whole" kind of thing.

Please post a shot of the problem with Welo View as I havent heard/seen it before.

Submenus are bland b/c I added them in after the fact, In order to stick with the skin style I left them very plain. If djeglin can come up with a better design, I will be glad to change them.

Love this new skin, so glad I got to test this out.

My only concern is that I can't find this "Extras" option for the views. I think I'm just missing it, so if someone could help me out.

Pressing UP should get you to view options, if this is what you are referring to.

[Avigrace]

About the home screen. I am not that interested in recently added and like a simple home screen with fanart enabled. Are you going to code an option to have specific folders of images for each section? Also the bottom two thirds of the screen are dimmed for the recently added section. Can this be removed if not being used?
Personally I think the best home screen is from the new Night skin, based off the Zune interface, any chance for something like that?

[djeglin]

I could be wrong here (as I'm just the lowly designer, and not the coding genius behind Shade), but I think it would be relatively easy to add an opacity toggle for the white highlights... Something in the skin settings that would allow people to choose if they wanted the highlights at full opacity, or something less?

Just a thought... I just want to make sure everyone gets the most out of the skin!

Cheers for all the comments, suggestions and bugs so far, guys! I'm officially back on-line now, so I can get to work on anything I need to, as well!

Cheers

David

[igotdvds]

I could be wrong here (as I'm just the lowly designer, and not the coding genius behind Shade), but I think it would be relatively easy to add an opacity toggle for the white highlights... Something in the skin settings that would allow people to choose if they wanted the highlights at full opacity, or something less?

Just a thought... I just want to make sure everyone gets the most out of the skin!

Cheers for all the comments, suggestions and bugs so far, guys! I'm officially back on-line now, so I can get to work on anything I need to, as well!

Cheers

David

Great to have you back.

opacity toggle is not a problem.

To the guy that wants a home screen like night, use night, the home screen fits the concept and I dont see a need to make another one like one that already exists.

[Broads]

Great to have you back.

opacity toggle is not a problem.

To the guy that wants a home screen like night, use night, the home screen fits the concept and I dont see a need to make another one like one that already exists.

:p - You can see his point..

[igotdvds]

+ Opacity toggle for the big white box on the Home Screen is done. It now fades to 50% if the toggle is turned on.

+ Added a bounce animation to the home icons (turned on by toggle)

[circle_]

To the guy that wants a home screen like night, use night, the home screen fits the concept and I dont see a need to make another one like one that already exists.

What about the other suggestions he made? Valid points. I don't like having a Recently Added on my home screen either.