[Piers]

Hmm...

1) I don't like the text
2) Too big
3) Wrong place

There is room at the top of the screen, above time/weather.

The problem is benefit. A lot of people use keyboards similar to mine - K400, have a large display like the above is obtrusive. Adding a time means reworking the entire OSD for Kodi 15 - I'll give it some thought.

One solution is to keep it where it is, but display the time for a second or two in the centre of the screen... not really liking that either.

More screen mockups please, always happy to take suggestions.

[eskay993]

I'm not a huge fan of #2 and #3 either but I really like #1. I think the text looks clean and fits with the design. I would even say it looks better than having random floaty grey boxes at the top of the screen, which has always looked odd to me (like the chapter box and the weather box).

Would you be willing to try #1 in action, just to see how it looks in motion? Obviously in my mockup, text is not aligned properly etc.

Regarding the benefit, it's pretty standard design for players. To try and put it another way, think of quite literally every other video player you may have tried - youtube app, netflix, amazon, xbox player, ps4 player, all major skins on kodi, plex apps on their various platforms - the bear minimum osd always has 3 elements - Navigation and/or settings buttons, a seek bar, and time played/total time. Having this info under a separate button is not really a solution.

Again in terms of benefit, this is way more important than say having weather on their - as an example. I think it's just a case that you / we have gotten used to not having it on this skin. But, objectively, it is odd that it's not there.

If you really don't like the text, then I would put in a big vote for a redesign in kodi 15 of the OSD. For now, if you are happy with just the seek bar as you designed it, I am happy to edit the xml and add the text myself until kodi 15 when this is revisited.

If I think of another design, I'l mock it up.

Thanks Piers.

[Piers]

I really didn't want to make another large change as a feature freeze is meant to be in effect, "meant" to be

On one hand you make a very valid point, on the other this skin is different to all the rest - I could counter your point by saying that better key mapping would work.

I've tried suggestion one and I didn't like it - remember any changes I make now are being made with 15 in mind - there ae changes to the seekbar there that wouldn't work with you suggestion.

I'm going to make a coffee and redesign the entire lower half and see what I think.

[eskay993]

Cool thanks Piers. Appreciate there is a freeze, so if you prefer to leave it for now and focus on the kodi 15 version, then that's perfectly understandable. No point spending a lot of time on something that will be redesigned anyway. I've survived this long without it, so I'll manage (1st world problems, 'ey )

[Piers]

Right, I've taken your idea one, reduced the size of the bar and moved it a few pixels. I've also added the correct animations so people (like me) who are used to the keyboard functions won't get annoyed at the changes. I've also added the correct animations so it flows nicely with the rest of the layout. I think this is the right 'happy medium' for all.

The only time the below is displayed is when pressing 'M' - all other actions have stayed the same. It means not having to rewrite the OSD, not introducing a non required OSD but also adding that little bit of function for remote users.

What do you think?

Video


Audio


Live TV

[eskay993]

I think it looks very slick! Guess that coffee did the trick

Thanks Piers!

[QMPRP8]

I would like to have the option to hide the power and favorite button on homescreen, too.
Would make the whole thing way cleaner + nobody uses this buttons, at least in my circles.

[Piers]

I would like to have the option to hide the power and favorite button on homescreen, too.
Would make the whole thing way cleaner + nobody uses this buttons, at least in my circles.

Sorry, not going to happen. The Power button is especially useful as it contains various other options. There are keyboard button presses but then remote users would complain.

[komplex]

I would like to have the option to hide the power and favorite button on homescreen, too.
Would make the whole thing way cleaner + nobody uses this buttons, at least in my circles.

You could just comment out the the lines in the Home.xml (dirty edit in the screenshot)


Will look like this

[QMPRP8]

Ok, I can understand that.
Thanks for the workaround, komplex.
I'm not really into code but it worked like a charm.

[Piers]

I need to take another look at the xml, I might have not seen another part that isn't working for the above.