2015-04-04, 14:29
As we all know Kodi allows for a lot of ways of controlling it. It being keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, mini-remotes, full-remotes, gamepads... anything goes. And everybody has it's favorite remote of choice. Many of us even use several different ones, depending on the client being used.
One very important feature that influences if a Skin is suitable for me is the type of controller the designer has in mind when creating the skin.
For example if the designer likes/uses mini-remotes (like the AppleTV mini-remote that has 5 or so buttons) he will provide OSD buttons for pausing, FF, Rew, etc. Most times this users bring up the PlayVideo OSD is to pause or something similar, so it fits that the default button when you bring up the OSD is the pause button.
But that is not ideal for other types of control. For example I use a Harmony remote with buttons for playing, so those OSD buttons are superfluous. Even more annoying that their existence is that fact that they are the default buttons, since when I bring up the OSD it's NEVER is to pause the video.
Some skins are more suitable that others, depending on your controller. But the skin descriptions rarely depicts that information.
It will be a great idea to have that information available somehow. Do you agree?
And for the concern skiners a suggestion. Most times making your skin also suitable for other types of control consist only on adding some options.
For example, an option that changes the button that receives the focus when you bring up the OSD... That's not hard, and changes a skin from a no-go to a nice option...
Others of course go the full distance providing much more configuration (like making any button in the OSD optional via configuration). I don't think every skin should be like that (although it's nicer from my perspective). But maybe some small adjustments can be great for all...
One very important feature that influences if a Skin is suitable for me is the type of controller the designer has in mind when creating the skin.
For example if the designer likes/uses mini-remotes (like the AppleTV mini-remote that has 5 or so buttons) he will provide OSD buttons for pausing, FF, Rew, etc. Most times this users bring up the PlayVideo OSD is to pause or something similar, so it fits that the default button when you bring up the OSD is the pause button.
But that is not ideal for other types of control. For example I use a Harmony remote with buttons for playing, so those OSD buttons are superfluous. Even more annoying that their existence is that fact that they are the default buttons, since when I bring up the OSD it's NEVER is to pause the video.
Some skins are more suitable that others, depending on your controller. But the skin descriptions rarely depicts that information.
It will be a great idea to have that information available somehow. Do you agree?
And for the concern skiners a suggestion. Most times making your skin also suitable for other types of control consist only on adding some options.
For example, an option that changes the button that receives the focus when you bring up the OSD... That's not hard, and changes a skin from a no-go to a nice option...
Others of course go the full distance providing much more configuration (like making any button in the OSD optional via configuration). I don't think every skin should be like that (although it's nicer from my perspective). But maybe some small adjustments can be great for all...