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- digitalhigh - 2009-02-11

quake101 Wrote:digitalhigh,

You have made great progress with this skin and I find it very impressive that this is your first skin!

The only thing right now I don't really like is the osd, it's way too big and I don't think it follows the skin. Take a look at the osd of focus, it's very basic but get the job done. I think something like that would work for this skin as well. Just my $0.02 Smile

I would also like to say the new hulu layout is very nice looking.

You guys are doing an awesome job, keep up the good work!


Thanks. I have done skins for other programs in the past, and those were similar in nature to XBMC, so I it wasn't too difficult to grasp the concept after taking a peek under the hood of some other skins.

As far as the OSD goes...it's more of a proof-of-concept shot at this point. I made rough graphics so I could test the functionality...those will be modified after all the stuff required is in place. I know it's rather bulky right now, but like I said, I hope to have it maybe only 1/3 of the size it is now, and in one of the corners. And that black backdrop will only be directly beneath the buttons, not across the whole screen.

IDK, if it doesn't pan out, I can always scrap it. I was just trying to do something different. Big Grin

devilsrejects Wrote:i think.... i don't see pictures.

? They should be there.


- paul - 2009-02-12

I like the carousel view could that be used for the settings screen as to my knowledge no one has done it that way before it could look good then again it may not just a suggestion.


- quake101 - 2009-02-12

Now that would be cool. A setting for what OSD you want to use.


- kizer - 2009-02-12

I think with this skin I'm totally not liking the thumb images. To me it just takes away the slickness. Like the picture for Halloween. Man Micheal looks evil and to have that little thumb kinda takes it away for me.

I also on the Tv shows with the season images. Kinda redundant if you ask me. I think the episode picture should be over there when your browsing the episodes. Like the Heroes one.

Can the text be set to either left or right on the Tv shows? I'm not really hip on the centered text on the drop down myself.


- digitalhigh - 2009-02-12

kizer Wrote:I think with this skin I'm totally not liking the thumb images. To me it just takes away the slickness. Like the picture for Halloween. Man Micheal looks evil and to have that little thumb kinda takes it away for me.

I also on the Tv shows with the season images. Kinda redundant if you ask me. I think the episode picture should be over there when your browsing the episodes. Like the Heroes one.

Can the text be set to either left or right on the Tv shows? I'm not really hip on the centered text on the drop down myself.

Edit: Actually, I see what you mean. Right now, the info pops up automatically. I think I'm gonna redo it so that you have to press right for the info to display. I'll put a flag in for whether or not to show the poster on the info display.

Same with the season thumb. I like the episode info view, but I'll make it the same height as the episode pic so it's more balanced.


Quote:Now that would be cool. A setting for what OSD you want to use.

This isn't that difficult. Remind me if you don't see anything about it in a little bit...


- rwparris2 - 2009-02-12

A few quick questions:

the most glaring is why the different view for plugins? the skin is pretty kick ass as is, and I think the hulu view while kind-of nice isn't necessary (couldn't test youtube because I don't have one right now). the top-down list you have for library stuff so much more awesome and clean.

I understand there is probably a limitation that won't let you do the horizontal & verticle lists simultaneously, but IMO that is OK.

Also, IMO I think settings shouldn't get an item in the main list. an icon at the most. since everything is supposed to be simple and media/fanart focused, settings doesn't fit & just distracts me.

'Focus' pretty much does the horizontal homescreen menu thing perfectly, if it were me I'd rip that off mercifully Big Grin Yours is prettier and more functional, I just like how the items are laid out in Focus. Keep TV and Movie as top level items, then throw pictures, scripts, settings, other crap under accessories.

Other than those things & some bugs everything looks awesome. I really like the flow of everything, this skin is all about the flow. animations are subtle and smooth... all in all everything is looking really clean & i've got great hope for the final version Nod

ps - Like the osd too... don't think I've seen any other skins like that. But I think more items should be upfront... right now you only see 3 before they start curling around, i think you should up that to 5 (that is, if you can still make the arc look right with 5)


- digitalhigh - 2009-02-12

rwparris2 Wrote:A few quick questions:

the most glaring is why the different view for plugins? the skin is pretty kick ass as is, and I think the hulu view while kind-of nice isn't necessary (couldn't test youtube because I don't have one right now). the top-down list you have for library stuff so much more awesome and clean.

I understand there is probably a limitation that won't let you do the horizontal & verticle lists simultaneously, but IMO that is OK.

Yeah, the change in view for Hulu was based on that original screen I found of the Hulu player. I look at it, and I like the way it looks, but you're right, it does stick out like a sore thumb. The only thing preventing me from making it work like the other sections is that the hulu plugin doesn't report any container.content(). If this could be set by Hulu, then I could make it a lot prettier, and work just like the rest of the skin. That's about the only limitation...

Code:
Returns true if the current container you are in contains the following: files, songs, artists...(Note: these currently only work in the Video and Music Library or unless a Plugin has set the value)

Quote:Also, IMO I think settings shouldn't get an item in the main list. an icon at the most. since everything is supposed to be simple and media/fanart focused, settings doesn't fit & just distracts me.

'Focus' pretty much does the horizontal homescreen menu thing perfectly, if it were me I'd rip that off mercifully Big Grin Yours is prettier and more functional, I just like how the items are laid out in Focus. Keep TV and Movie as top level items, then throw pictures, scripts, settings, other crap under accessories.

So totally pull settings out, or change it to more of an "accessories" menu or something?

The reason I had the settings menu was to avoid having to have one big settings window with the little submenus. The settings windows are still somewhat restricted (AFAIK) as to how much you can change them...to counteract this, I was going to only have the various submenus.

I could, however, leave accessories as the main bar, have a settings submenu, then have another submenu with the links to the various panels?

But your idea would also solve my problem of where/how to add the basic power/scripts/pics stuff. I was thinking of having another dialogue show up somewhere, but if I could keep it all in one of the dropdowns, that would be more ideal.


Quote:Other than those things & some bugs everything looks awesome. I really like the flow of everything, this skin is all about the flow. animations are subtle and smooth... all in all everything is looking really clean & i've got great hope for the final version Nod

ps - Like the osd too... don't think I've seen any other skins like that. But I think more items should be upfront... right now you only see 3 before they start curling around, i think you should up that to 5 (that is, if you can still make the arc look right with 5)

The OSD animations will be tricky. As you can see, there's one anim missing from some of the icons, making a gap all around. Eventually, I'll have to rework all of the animations, which will be pretty time-intensive. Also, I still don't understand what all four coords mean in a zoom anim. I think it's (endx, endy, %width, %height), but I haven't tried changing any values yet to be sure. So, basically, I'll be several days playing with MacGuyver's code before I'm comfortable redesigning the whole thing.

Thanks for the input. Can't make something better if I don't get feedback. Big Grin


- kizer - 2009-02-12

I agree with what was said above. On my screen I'd like to see the following if I had my way

*Video
-Library
-Plugins
*Tv
-Library
-Plugins
*Music
-Library or whatever it uses
*Extra
-Photos
-Weather
-Settings

Put all the settings stuff in well the settings menu off the Home page. Keep it clean and simple so anybody who walks up can figure it out without any instruction.

Video Screen should be
Title / Genre

Tv Screen should be
Title / Genre

Now my question is. Is this skin going to be setup to cater to File view as well as Library or is it going to be an eye candy skin that relies heavily on Fan Art and thumbs? If its going to be eye candy I'd remove the Library drop down and just make the word Video or Tv the one that opens up the Library be default. Of course you could leave the plugin ones below or go from there.


- kizer - 2009-02-12

Or heck have it

Movies / Tv / Plugins / Music / Extra

I'm just making things up of course because Plugins can be in both or one depending on what you use. To bad you couldn't have a Hulu plugin Under Movies that automatically opened up the Hulu movie section when clicked and have it automatically open up the Tv section of Hulu if clicked under Tv.


- digitalhigh - 2009-02-12

kizer Wrote:I agree with what was said above. On my screen I'd like to see the following if I had my way

*Video
-Library
-Plugins
*Tv
-Library
-Plugins
*Music
-Library or whatever it uses
*Extra
-Photos
-Weather
-Settings

Put all the settings stuff in well the settings menu off the Home page. Keep it clean and simple so anybody who walks up can figure it out without any instruction.

Video Screen should be
Title / Genre

Tv Screen should be
Title / Genre


Let's see...

In the incarnation I'm testing against now, I've changed the default actions for the Movies and TVshow buttons so that clicking them takes you straight to the library for that section. Same for Music. I also wanted mine to be as girlfriend-proof as possible.

The video section also behaves in the way you specified. I've still got some refining to do, but I'll hopefully have a new version up on FTP tonight to see if it's more like what you mean.

The settings stuff...I've fixed the problem I was having with the movies section and can now move forward (brain fart), so maybe I'll take a run at making a more official settings area. I'm sure you guys know how ugly it is right now.

One of the big things I want to add is an area for mundo customization. I was thinking of adding something like four custom buttons per menu, which you guys can then use to add w/e plugins wherever you want them, with the only plugs required being launcher and hulu.

As far as having hulu jump to a specific section...I haven't tried it, but I don't think it's there yet. That would be something to ask rwParris for, along with having the plugin report content. Actually, it would probably be the same thing. Wink

Quote:Now my question is. Is this skin going to be setup to cater to File view as well as Library or is it going to be an eye candy skin that relies heavily on Fan Art and thumbs? If its going to be eye candy I'd remove the Library drop down and just make the word Video or Tv the one that opens up the Library be default. Of course you could leave the plugin ones below or go from there.

No, file view is something I actually use a lot. Sometimes I'm just too lazy to add a movie to lib right away. And for music, I actually hated the library because of how messy my tags made it come out. Building this skin has actually forced me to clean up my files.

So yes...eye candy. And yes, caters to files section. And...yes? Big Grin


- kizer - 2009-02-12

Haha, just asking my friend. Worst case have an option in settings that enables file view for one or all or whatever. My wife just clicks on library and I better have the newest and greatest loaded or she gives me that "burn-a-hole-through-lead-stare".

Now that I think about it. I was planning on loading up some kiddy flicks and well didn't want them in the library, but would access via file view just becaue I don't want to see a ton of Thomas the Tank and Seseame Street videos. Wink

Man I could give you options all day, but I'm guessing implementing half of them would get tiresome as all heck. I'll still try and push you for them thou.


- rwparris2 - 2009-02-13

I'd like to see this:

-TV (default to library)
--Library
--Files (unlike mediastream, i think this should default to videos sources)
--Plugins (takes you to a list of all video plugins i.e. mediastream)

-Movies (default to library)
--Library
--Files (unlike mediastream, i think this should default to videos sources)
--Plugins (list of all video plugins i.e. mediastream)
--Apple Movie Trailers II (assuming user has set a valid path in skin settings)

-Music (default to library)
--Library
--Files (unlike mediastream, i think this should default to music sources)
--Party Mode
--Last.FM
--Plugins

(you could easily add programs or pictures here. With the launcher plugin and all the work being done on the 'games library' my vote goes to programs... however, I don't use either one but adding one or the other (probably not both, but maybe, you'd have to play around and see how well it fit) would look fitting in this spot.

-Accessories
--Favorites
--Weather (Enable & set path to TWC Supplemental Script in skin settings)
--Scripts
--Programs/Pictures (which ever you didn't put above)
--Addons Manager (Enable & set path in skin settings)
--File Manager
--System Info

-An icon representing DVD, only present if a DVD is actually in the drive
--Play
--Browse
--Rip (if audio CD)
(I don't know if any of these are really possible, but I'd like to see it like this if it is possible)
-An icon representing settings
--video
--music
--appearance
--etc.
--skin (which is also where you should define fanart, btw)

digitalhigh Wrote:Let's see...

One of the big things I want to add is an area for mundo customization. I was thinking of adding something like four custom buttons per menu, which you guys can then use to add w/e plugins wherever you want them, with the only plugs required being launcher and hulu.
if you can do through the gui via that would be frickin-AWESOME!
why in the world would you require hulu or launcher? people outside of the US can't even use hulu & a lot of xbmcers don't use launcher...

Quote:As far as having hulu jump to a specific section...I haven't tried it, but I don't think it's there yet. That would be something to ask rwParris for, along with having the plugin report content. Actually, it would probably be the same thing. Wink
let me state for the record I'm against this, as it means I can't break the way it works later if I wanted... plus there are RSS feeds & other stuff people may want that is only available from the home screen. plus it wont work for people who aren't using my version of hulu

anyways, if you must, use plugin://videos/hulu/?mode=[TV/Movie]

Hulu also already sets content, seems to work OK in PM3.HD, some things may be a little quirky though (especially episodes, because of the folder actually being a video thing we talked about earlier)


- kizer - 2009-02-13

On the Hulu Idea it wasn't meant IMHO as a bypass for the entire script just as a quick jump from the particular menu it happens to be a part of. Meaning when I'm thinking of watching a Movie I'd be in the movie section in particular and well my Library just isn't cutting it so I could pop over onto Hulu and see what they have as well as TV.

I really think Hulu should have its own place like it normally does, but figured since I'm tossing quarters into the wishing well why not ask since I have the Hulu guy here and the Skin guy here as well.

It sorta seems like rwparris2 and I both have the same idea in a way on the menu, but he would like to see a bit more in settings and I'd personally don't, but hey no biggie. Worst case a switch in settings to turn it on or off.


- digitalhigh - 2009-02-13

Damn both of you and your equally valid thoughts on the home menu! Wink

I'll play around. We'll say that. Seeing as how you've both become my beta testers, I'll do one thing at a time, and we can go from there. I definitely like the ideas you guys have, and I think that 95% of what you're asking for can be accomplished while still letting me have my way as to what does what. I'm almost done updating the TV section...I'll PM you guys when the new version is on FTP.

Thanks again for all the input.

Parris...what are the content fields that the hulu plug reports back? I was not aware that Hulu was a US-restricted feature...that definitely makes me think again about how to do what.


- paul - 2009-02-13

I totally agree with rwparris2 with regards to the menu layout.
Other than that it looks good as it is.