[mortstar]

After spending some time using the excellent Plex skin 'Blur', I really wanted my main, xbmc based HTPC, to have the same appearance. So I decided to try my hand at porting it over.

This is mainly a learning project for myself. Because of this I can't promise that the work will be quick nor will it be without bugs. But hopefully I'll eventually be able to share the fruits of my work with the xbmc community.

The skin itself is clean and uncluttered. Whilst overtime I may make small changes to the original skin (notably the Home Screen), I will be keeping the essence of this design as close as possible to the skin designer's original concept.

All credit to jaaps on the Plex Forum for the original design and code.
(The port is also using elements from Mr Power's Blur Mod on the same forum.)

[mortstar]

Videos
I've not changed much here, just got the initial navigation working. I need to change all the labels as they are pointing at non-existant Plex Media Server data.









Music & Dialog
Some dialogs are working and others not.



Now Playing
I spent the majority of my project so far getting the 'Now Playing' screen working. It would be nice if xbmc got a 'Now Playing' alternative to Music Visualizations. (I just don't 'get' Visualizations. I really like how the Plex 'Now Playing' screen works in general)

[mortstar]

reserved II

[blacklist]

I'm a fan. Looking forward to seeing this fleshed out some more. Ive got a post-Paper Street idea brewing that's similar, so I'll be watching this one closely. Cheers!

[jmarshall]

Nice work.

The "Now playing" screen above should be doable in MusicVisualisation.xml - I don't believe you *HAVE* to have a visualisation in there (though I suggest that you do either way). Let me know if you need anything in that regard.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[mortstar]

Nice work.

The "Now playing" screen above should be doable in MusicVisualisation.xml - I don't believe you *HAVE* to have a visualisation in there (though I suggest that you do either way). Let me know if you need anything in that regard.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Yes, I have made the Now Playing screen above by making it the MusicVisualisation.xml file. The screen works with or without a Visualization set. Thanks for the offer of help. Once I get in to the guts of this and learn what I need in this regard I'll give you a shout.

One setting I'd love would be to automatically move to the Visualization screen if audio is playing and interface is inactive for a period of time (say 30 seconds/user configurable), without having to have a screensaver set. I did see a trac with a patch for a similar functionality earlier today...

EDIT:....found it http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/8545

[ubuntuf4n]

Very nice!
I like how this skin keeps things simple.
The overall skin theme definetely looks like an eye-candy.

Cheers

[jmarshall]

@mortstar: You need a screensaver set to something other than "None", yes. I'm not sure how many folk don't have a screensaver set (and thus don't get the auto-switch to vis screen).

I can see how it would be useful if the visualisation screen wasn't actually any use as a "screensaver" to separate out the functionality, but I hate making things more complicated (i.e. more options) if we can avoid it. I wonder if there's a way to combine the "use vis instead of screensaver when music is playing" setting into a "switch to vis before switching to the full screensaver" type thing.

The ticket you link to, however, is not really reasonable though, as starting immediately on playback is more annoying than anything else

Cheers,
Jonathan

[ZombieRobot]

PLEX HAS THEIR OWN SKIN? i thought it was all ports of xbmc skins well ill be damned. lol nah looks nice clean very nice

[Hitcher]

Yes, I have made the Now Playing screen above by making it the MusicVisualisation.xml file. The screen works with or without a Visualization set. Thanks for the offer of help. Once I get in to the guts of this and learn what I need in this regard I'll give you a shout.

One setting I'd love would be to automatically move to the Visualization screen if audio is playing and interface is inactive for a period of time (say 30 seconds/user configurable), without having to have a screensaver set. I did see a trac with a patch for a similar functionality earlier today...

EDIT:....found it http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/8545

Should be as easy as adding an idle visible condition to the visualisation control.

ie

PHP Code:

<control type="visualisation" id="2">
    <description>visualisation</description>
    <posx>0</posx>
    <posy>0</posy>
    <width>1280</width>
    <height>720</height>
    <visible>System.IdleTime(time)</visible>
</control> 


[liquidskin76]

Hey Mortstar,

Looks very nice indeed! Best of luck.

Cheers

[mortstar]

Should be as easy as adding an idle visible condition to the visualisation control.

ie

PHP Code:

<control type="visualisation" id="2">
    <description>visualisation</description>
    <posx>0</posx>
    <posy>0</posy>
    <width>1280</width>
    <height>720</height>
    <visible>System.IdleTime(time)</visible>
</control> 


Where could I set this code, so that if the skin is left idle in any window it reverts to the visualisation screen?

[jaaps]

I wish you best of luck. I look forward to see you progress.

[MidnightWatcher]

I like the clean, minimalist look.

[rockstrongo]

Awesome... I was very disappointed to learn that Blur wasn't available for XBMC after using it for Plex, and I haven't found anything close to the polished minimalism.