Kodi Community Forum

Quote:If the skin itself has its own Roboto font, perhaps it'd support Unicode?

Nope. Roboto does not include eastern glyphs. If you want to keep a consistent Android look and feel, you'll want to include Noto as well http://www.google.com/get/noto/

(2015-12-09, 11:46)thedeadman Wrote: [ -> ]

Quote:If the skin itself has its own Roboto font, perhaps it'd support Unicode?

Nope. Roboto does not include eastern glyphs. If you want to keep a consistent Android look and feel, you'll want to include Noto as well http://www.google.com/get/noto/

I've got your guys info - once I get to the point of internationalization and ironing out the "little" bits, I'll PM you, possibly for some testing.

Preview of the search screen. Uses GlobalSearch, with ExtendedInfo pulled in for the Youtube videos. I also hope to add searching in PlexBMC and Google play music Exp. We'll see about netflix and others...

(2015-12-07, 22:02)digitalhigh Wrote: [ -> ]

(2015-12-07, 21:50)TheLegendOfMart Wrote: [ -> ]Looks great, very faithful to the launcher.

Thank you, I am trying to be as on-the-nose with everything as possible...almost to a fault. I have a bajillion screenshots and videos of every aspect of ATV - my desk is just littered with pieces of paper where I've jotted down the dimensions and scales of all the elements.

Also, many of the elements in the skin are taken straight from the decompiled APKs that make up Leanback. (Kinda makes me wish Kodi supported 9-patch images)

So, faithful is definitely the goal.

Sounds like my Fire TV skin workflow.

(2015-12-10, 00:42)Hitcher Wrote: [ -> ]Sounds like my Fire TV skin workflow.

I've learned a lot about workflow in general when it comes to UI design - a lot from the little bit of work I've done on Android APK's. Compared to my now long-defunct "Serenity" skin, the code for this should be a lot prettier. If I use it more than twice, I make it an include. I need to be more dilligent about hardcoded strings and using variables instead of repeating that kind of stuff. And for image building, I'm trying to be better at saving the psd's of my source files, so if I need to go back and recreate or change something, I'm not doing it with the flat final.


Anywho...A few questions for those of you who may use this skin:

I'm curious - what are the plugins you'd like to see most integrated with the skin? I'm a heavy plex user, so PleXBMC is going to see a lot of love. I've also got an all access Google Play Music account (and generally drink the google koolaid), so we will see lots of love for that app as well. I would like to make this play well with Advanced Launcher, as I've got a few emulators my kid likes to use. And I will make sure the Netflix interface is there as well, as I can fire that up on the Nexus Player and get a pretty faithful 1:1 clone.

But, in addition to these, is there something else I should be considering now as I implement things like custom plugin tiles and such?



Question 2:

On the home screen on true Android TV, the topmost row is a "recommended" list based on some randomly curated media. The "apps" row is further down, right above settings.

So, given that I will absolutely be creating some form of the "recommended" feature, should I keep it 100% accurate and respect the real layout, or should I take some liberties here? I could also hack in a way to make all these rows fully customizeable, which as I think about it, is probably what I will do.

But, generally speaking, should I choose to make some elements in the home screen static, would you prefer I keep the layout accurate, or move some things around to make sections more accessible? Keep in mind, the intent of this skin is to do away with the need to visit sections at all. You should be able to get at most everything you want right from the home screen.


Question 3:

In the video/music libraries, should I just keep the "true" layouts available in Leanback, or should I again take some liberties and offer other views for those who like their big info windows or fanart displays? It would be a major deviation from the concept, but it could also be fun...



So, I'm interested in hearing everybody's thoughts. Let me know what you would like to see!

Great work here Digitalhigh. I've been keeping an eye on the existing WIP skins for my Nexus Player. I personally only use Kodi on this device for my local library and Video Addons simply because the native Netflix and Youtube addons are quite good.

In regards to question 2, can you make the top row customisable? The default could be a mix of recently added movies/episodes and popular youtube clips (similar to the ATV) with options to make every tile customisable so the "movies" tile shows "recently added movies and "tv shows" shows "recently added tv shows" or whichever widget the user wants (skin shortcuts or whatever it is you guys use for that ). This way the user has the option to keep the homescreen very true to the original but also make it behave much like a standard Confluence screen. Also customisable homescreen boxes would be great, rather than lumping every app in a row like ATV does.

I don't see the need for any extra views (at least initially). If anything a customisable left bar. I noticed in the first youtube clip you posted you had the Genre's down the left red bar. maybe a way to change from genre to a more standard menu (title, recently added, random) much like the concept of JM's hubs but maybe with a second left press to bring up another side menu.......or something like that. Basically something that keeps the standard options available. If you take the movie/tv show library for example, I personally only use recently added, title and genre.

I believe a lot of Android players have limited storage so unnecessary images produced/cached by Artwork Downloader can clog it up so I wouldn't bother with logos, extrafanart, cd art etc.

Looks amazing at the moment. I can see myself getting confused as to which is the Android and which is the Kodi homepage!!!

(2015-12-10, 05:19)mark2112 Wrote: [ -> ]Great work here Digitalhigh. I've been keeping an eye on the existing WIP skins for my Nexus Player. I personally only use Kodi on this device for my local library and Video Addons simply because the native Netflix and Youtube addons are quite good.

In regards to question 2, can you make the top row customisable? The default could be a mix of recently added movies/episodes and popular youtube clips (similar to the ATV) with options to make every tile customisable so the "movies" tile shows "recently added movies and "tv shows" shows "recently added tv shows" or whichever widget the user wants (skin shortcuts or whatever it is you guys use for that ). This way the user has the option to keep the homescreen very true to the original but also make it behave much like a standard Confluence screen. Also customisable homescreen boxes would be great, rather than lumping every app in a row like ATV does.

I don't see the need for any extra views (at least initially). If anything a customisable left bar. I noticed in the first youtube clip you posted you had the Genre's down the left red bar. maybe a way to change from genre to a more standard menu (title, recently added, random) much like the concept of JM's hubs but maybe with a second left press to bring up another side menu.......or something like that. Basically something that keeps the standard options available. If you take the movie/tv show library for example, I personally only use recently added, title and genre.

I believe a lot of Android players have limited storage so unnecessary images produced/cached by Artwork Downloader can clog it up so I wouldn't bother with logos, extrafanart, cd art etc.

Looks amazing at the moment. I can see myself getting confused as to which is the Android and which is the Kodi homepage!!!

So, here's the video window thus far - I did some more work on it this evening.

The idea is, you can either select a folder from the list on the left, or, if browsing the right panel on a list of folders, say genre, year, etc, when you select it (say a genre), the left panel browses to genres and then focuses on the genre you picked on the right. So far, I've got the bit about selecting the correct folder - I still have to work out the scrolling bit.

But, the idea is that, at least for movies, you will be able to dive down to the folder views and then see the contents of each in the panel on the right. It's not one static folder, you can browse around as usual.

And obv, I need to still add default textures for genres and years. I've actually got a new design for the card layout that will do away with the bright white background entirely. Plus, the fun circle window animation, and select animations for the listitems. Plus a bajillion other tiny details...

Few questions

1. When in the library when you select a movie does it play automatically or does it bring up the info window ?? Would like it to open info instead of playing.

2 . the movies on the homescreen are they recently added an if so can it be changed?

3. When you select movies left side panel can you add options like recently added, In progress movies, Top rated movies, Movie sets.

4.You going to be using script shortcuts i think its called.??



An plugins i would like to see get some work is lazy tv an next aired. Two of my mains.


Love the progress so far. Keep it up man.

(2015-12-10, 09:37)iAMl3dgend Wrote: [ -> ]Few questions

1. When in the library when you select a movie does it play automatically or does it bring up the info window ?? Would like it to open info instead of playing.

2 . the movies on the homescreen are they recently added an if so can it be changed?

3. When you select movies left side panel can you add options like recently added, In progress movies, Top rated movies, Movie sets.

4.You going to be using script shortcuts i think its called.??



An plugins i would like to see get some work is lazy tv an next aired. Two of my mains.


Love the progress so far. Keep it up man.

1. This will be a skin setting. Right now, it just plays, and the "i" button pops open the info dialogue. However, default "leanback" behavior is to display an info window. So, infowindow will be the "default" behavior, toggleable to "play media".

2. The movie rows on the home screen are skin shortcuts, so you can pick literally *any* content you can select with skin shortcuts. In the setup I have now, just for testing, I have one "recently added" from my XBMC library, one "recently added" section from plexbmc, and a tv section from one area or the other.

3. The left panel is *just* a list container that Kodi populates with whatever section you're currently in...Meaning, it's dynamically set, so I can't add content to it. I could create default smart playlists that are shown, but really the idea is that it's just a "view" for whatever content you're looking at.

4. As stated above, yes, Skin shortcuts is integrated.

Will the skin have thumbnail view at all for plugins? I understand there won't be a side bar but material style thumbnail view would be awesome.



You have no idea how excited I am for this skin.

I'm very excited about this skin. Right now I run either Artic Zephyr and Eminence 2 and they're highly customizable skins, so I would like to see some ability to customize the interface if I want to add a menu item that is driven by a playlist. I see keep it true to an extent while still providing us some ability to massage the interface to the way we may operate our TVs.

some of the addons I use are Pandoki (Pandora addon that is used the most on my system), youtube, next aired, and the Emby addon

(2015-12-10, 09:37)iAMl3dgend Wrote: [ -> ]1. When in the library when you select a movie does it play automatically or does it bring up the info window ?? Would like it to open info instead of playing.

You can change this yourself in Kodi's Video Settings - File Lists > Default select action.

(2015-12-10, 18:13)Hitcher Wrote: [ -> ]

(2015-12-10, 09:37)iAMl3dgend Wrote: [ -> ]1. When in the library when you select a movie does it play automatically or does it bring up the info window ?? Would like it to open info instead of playing.

You can change this yourself in Kodi's Video Settings - File Lists > Default select action.

Oh really haha i did not know that thanks hitcher.

Love the skin! Regarding add-ons, one that I haven't seen mentioned is VideoExtras. It's an old one, but I have a lot of extras stored for each title, and having a way to access them from the info screen is great. I've modified a few different skins to either include the Extras button or move it up in the list.

I'm also a Google guy, and haven't seen too many (if any) skins include Play Music tie-ins. Good work!

I think you certainly should take some creative licence with this skin, as long as it does conform roughly to the material guidelines. I'm sure you know the guidelines well, but just remember that they weren't developed to include any non touch screen devices. So the transition animations and the focal areas make little sense on a TV. The Nexus UI team took their own liberties with these guidelines, so I think you should too!

The main criticism I have of some other skins is their lack of consideration for screen real estate. A double row of movie covers with huge headers and footer areas is pointless but evident in most.

Keep up the good work buddy, I'm eagerly awaiting this.