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Am i missing something? When this skin was in the Dev section, there were posts saying what was new in the skin.. i've seen there is an update available, but i've no idea what's new... where should i be looking or is it just in the changelog on the skin itself?

(2013-09-30, 08:28)MilhouseVH Wrote: [ -> ]Did anyone find a solution for these SetFocus() messages when XBMC starts?

I'm running v1.0.8 on a recent Gotham build and seeing these which seems to delay startup (not too bad, maybe 15-20 seconds delay on a Raspberry Pi). Skin Widgets active are Recommended and Recent, not Random.

Amber is a very nice skin - please let me know if you need any more information.

Yes, I've got this recently. Maybe a 50 second pause on the amber bubbles screen unable to do anything. Log full of SetFocus mesages.

Now a few weeks back, it took a while for the skin widgets to appear, but I could still navigate.
Initially the widget space was blank. After 50 seconds the widgets appeared above movies and TV.

Something seems to have changed where we block until the widgets are available. The old behaviour was much more preferable.

(2013-09-30, 22:07)popcornmix Wrote: [ -> ]

(2013-09-30, 08:28)MilhouseVH Wrote: [ -> ]Did anyone find a solution for these SetFocus() messages when XBMC starts?

I'm running v1.0.8 on a recent Gotham build and seeing these which seems to delay startup (not too bad, maybe 15-20 seconds delay on a Raspberry Pi). Skin Widgets active are Recommended and Recent, not Random.

Amber is a very nice skin - please let me know if you need any more information.

Yes, I've got this recently. Maybe a 50 second pause on the amber bubbles screen unable to do anything. Log full of SetFocus mesages.

Now a few weeks back, it took a while for the skin widgets to appear, but I could still navigate.
Initially the widget space was blank. After 50 seconds the widgets appeared above movies and TV.

Something seems to have changed where we block until the widgets are available. The old behaviour was much more preferable.

I'm getting this now, but only since going to 1.0.8...

So where do we go from here?

Skin widgets offer more options for shelf items but comes with a speed penalty. Built-in recently added is faster but comes with some restrictions.

If skin is loaded without shelf items being ready, people think something is wrong with a shelf. On slower systems, preparing shelf items takes a while and not everyone is willing to leave RPI/ATV2 on in order to eliminate boot lag. Adding 6 additional options to skin settings seems like a lame way of dealing with a problem.

Probably adding an option to choose between built-in recently added and skin widgets?

(2013-10-01, 11:01)pecinko Wrote: [ -> ]So where do we go from here?

Skin widgets offer more options for shelf items but comes with a speed penalty. Built-in recently added is faster but comes with some restrictions.

If skin is loaded without shelf items being ready, people think something is wrong with a shelf. On slower systems, preparing shelf items takes a while and not everyone is willing to leave RPI/ATV2 on in order to eliminate boot lag. Adding 6 additional options to skin settings seems like a lame way of dealing with a problem.

Probably adding an option to choose between built-in recently added and skin widgets?

I personally prefer them not loading straight away but still being able to navigate.. Simply because the only time i reboot my Pi is when ive updated or changed something and that initial delay makes me think i've knackered it.. However.. Like i said.. i very rarely reboot so i guess whichever way you decided on is cool.. i just have to remember to give it time!

I love this skin. Runs perfectly on my Raspberry Pi.

Unfortunately I can't get rid of "recently added" and "recommended" on the home screen when selecting tv-series or "recently" added on films.
On tv-series there is twice a search option.

Anything wrong with my installation here?

Thanks a lot for your help (and the skin).


Kind regards

XBMC4me

Where can I edit the horizontal homescreen sub-menu items please?
I'd like to remove some unused items (like "tags" under movies)

Just tried this skin... very nice! Clean, simple. Like you said, no bloatware.

Thank you

Just watched this video from the RPI guys and noticed tha they are using Amber.. but their Widgets for TV Shows and Movies have 2 rows and not just one.. any ideas how i enable that?

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4986

Edit : Nevermind.. It's Recently added and Recommended

(2013-10-01, 11:01)pecinko Wrote: [ -> ]So where do we go from here?

Skin widgets offer more options for shelf items but comes with a speed penalty. Built-in recently added is faster but comes with some restrictions.

If skin is loaded without shelf items being ready, people think something is wrong with a shelf. On slower systems, preparing shelf items takes a while and not everyone is willing to leave RPI/ATV2 on in order to eliminate boot lag. Adding 6 additional options to skin settings seems like a lame way of dealing with a problem.

Probably adding an option to choose between built-in recently added and skin widgets?

Is it the skin that is kicking out these ExecuteXBMCAction calls or is it the Skin Widget? Assuming the skin is responsible, at the very least slow down the rate at which ExecuteXBMCAction is called - 44 times/second is quite excessive when 4/second would achieve the same result.

Does the Skin Widget output any notification when it has finished startup that could be listened for by the skin thus coordinating startup (perhaps over RPC/TCP?)

Is there any chance of collaborating with the Skin Widget maintainer for a better, more efficient and elegant solution?

(2013-10-02, 01:38)MilhouseVH Wrote: [ -> ]

(2013-10-01, 11:01)pecinko Wrote: [ -> ]So where do we go from here?

Skin widgets offer more options for shelf items but comes with a speed penalty. Built-in recently added is faster but comes with some restrictions.

If skin is loaded without shelf items being ready, people think something is wrong with a shelf. On slower systems, preparing shelf items takes a while and not everyone is willing to leave RPI/ATV2 on in order to eliminate boot lag. Adding 6 additional options to skin settings seems like a lame way of dealing with a problem.

Probably adding an option to choose between built-in recently added and skin widgets?

Is it the skin that is kicking out these ExecuteXBMCAction calls or is it the Skin Widget? Assuming the skin is responsible, at the very least slow down the rate at which ExecuteXBMCAction is called - 44 times/second is quite excessive when 4/second would achieve the same result.

Does the Skin Widget output any notification when it has finished startup that could be listened for by the skin thus coordinating startup (perhaps over RPC/TCP?)

Is there any chance of collaborating with the Skin Widget maintainer for a better, more efficient and elegant solution?

- Skinner has no control over this, it's handled by core XBMC
- Yes, and skin is already waiting for that notification. When it receives it, the home screen becomes visible
- Yes i'm sure Martijn will be very happy to receive your wishes. But as far as I can tell there's nothing wrong with the addon. it's the underpowered hardware people insist on using. I'm sure that if Martijn could make the queries any faster, he would have done it by now?

Pecinko, I never realized you use this to just "pretty things up". If were my decision I would remove this startup check and let RPi users keep wondering. You have no obligation to make compromises to the skin due to fact that people buy these toys for HTPC and expect everything to work. But you already my opinion on RPi in general

(2013-10-02, 07:09)SpaceMonkey Wrote: [ -> ]- Skinner has no control over this, it's handled by core XBMC
- Yes, and skin is already waiting for that notification. When it receives it, the home screen becomes visible
- Yes i'm sure Martijn will be very happy to receive your wishes. But as far as I can tell there's nothing wrong with the addon. it's the underpowered hardware people insist on using. I'm sure that if Martijn could make the queries any faster, he would have done it by now?

Pecinko, I never realized you use this to just "pretty things up". If were my decision I would remove this startup check and let RPi users keep wondering. You have no obligation to make compromises to the skin due to fact that people buy these toys for HTPC and expect everything to work. But you already my opinion on RPi in general

I was trying to understand the issues better, no need to be a complete arsehole.

It was not pointed to you but to the owners of low powered devices in general.

Pecinko, do you think a small one time popup informing the user about possible delays after enabling shelves would be too intrusive? I think it's either that or enabling the builtin recent too. Then you get questions how do I enable recommended

(2013-10-02, 07:32)SpaceMonkey Wrote: [ -> ]It was not pointed to you.

Really?! You might want to better understand the concept of quoting in your replies, then.

Skin does not get push notifications - it can only do pull. That's the first part of a problem.

Depending on configuration (mysql, htpc power) skin.widgets execution can take 1,5 - 90 seconds. That is the second part.

Because of the above, if you don't use any checks in the skin, you will initially end up with an empty shelf, even on more powerful htpc (Mac mini in my case). Now, on more powerful machines items will show up upon Home page refresh - i.e. you enter Movies and return back to Home. On RPI that might not suffice because skin.widgets execution may not be finished yet. Obviously, users wonder what is happening and assume it is a skin problem.

Built-in recently added items populate quicker, but than again, users wonder why they can't hide watched items from the shelf, etc.

In order to avoid confusion skin waits - it checks if the flag "I'm finished" has been set by skin.widgets and, if not, it delays showing up the Home page. This check is being performed by XBMC skin engine and it probably runs at 1 check per frame rate.

Question is how to handle this situation but, most probably, there is no nice solution available. My htpc has 1,5 sec delay before showing up Home page so it is not a problem for me but I'm open to suggestions as to how to handle this for other htpcs.

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(2013-10-02, 07:32)SpaceMonkey Wrote: [ -> ]Pecinko, do you think a small one time popup informing the user about possible delays after enabling shelves would be too intrusive? I think it's either that or enabling the builtin recent too. Then you get questions how do I enable recommended

You may be right, bringing built-in recent might make confusion ever worse. I could probably make some kind of a busy dialog that would say "preparing shelf items" and it could go away when items are ready BUT it would steel a CPU time on RPi/ATV and would probably delay shelf items a bit.

OR I might be able to send notification instead BUT user does not necessarily need to notice it, especially if you have other notifications popping up on XBMC start.

Easiest solution probably is to leave RPi/ATV htpcs always ON - but that would cost 10$ / year.

No I meant when you enable shelf in the skin settings for the first time. Like Confluence does about the sidebar. Then you could remove the button focus loop since most users should be aware of what is happening in the background.