[REQUEST] Skin Replica of Ubuntu Embedded Mobile Media Player UI from Ubuntu Mobile?
#1
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Ubuntu developers are currently developing their own GUI framework for a basic "Mobile Media Player" to be included with the Ubuntu Mobile And Embedded operating-system.

It made me wonder, why did they opt to make all that from scratch when they could just have well used XBMC as the base(?), (I mean, XBMC was originally designed to run on an embedded-system like that and is thus already small and memory efficient, perfect to be used as a such mobile media player), ...so I thought, why not show them what XBMC can do?!

So I am proposing a challenge:
The challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to, as a XBMC skinner, clone/replicate the current Ubuntu Mobile Media Player skin/theme design, and make it have the exact same navigation but running under XBMC. Also, make that skin as mouse (and touchscreen) friendly as possible, because the skin is primarily design to run a small (7-inch) touchscreen display.

The concept:
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileAndEmbedded/MediaPlayer

UI Style Guide (Navigation):
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileAndEmbedded/UIStyleGuide

Launchpad Entry:
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/...ediaplayer

The good thing about this is, since their current Mobile Media Player for Ubuntu is open source you will not have to recreate their textures/images from scratch, instead just have to copy them directly for Ubuntu and use them 'as is', (so in theory you should not really need that much graphics talent to pull this of), ...however improvements over the original are of course more than welcomed as long as they are in the overall spirit of the current design layout.

Idea; why not team up with a few people in order not to carry the full burden yourself Big Grin

The question is now; are there any volunteer(s)?

Good luck! Cool
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#2
While I have to say I don't care for the look of it, I have to admit that it sounds like a fun challenge Smile

I might toodle around with this on my "off" time for fun.
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#3
I like the ideas behind the interface and the placing of things, the only thing that I would say couldn't be done in xbmc is the internet browser, but maybe someone could create an interface so we could use another browser as a backend for it.
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#4
The wiki states that XBMC for linux requires Opengl 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0 - and I would guess that is not something Ubuntu wants to see as a requirement for small embeded devices, let's say Tablet PCs, CAR PCs or whatever. Probably in one or two years those requirements are met by every small GPU chip embedded on small formfactor mainboards, but atm I would guess this is a big factor for a decision against using XBMC as their base.
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#5
gzusrawx Wrote:I like the ideas behind the interface and the placing of things, the only thing that I would say couldn't be done in xbmc is the internet browser, but maybe someone could create an interface so we could use another browser as a backend for it.
There is already an GUI interface for that in a separate branch in the XBMC SVN, however it is not being actively maintained so it is not up-to-date with the XBMC SVN trunk, that interface is called LinksBoks Browser (because "LinksBoks" sounds like "LinksBox" when pronounced out load, and it is a modified port of Twibright Labs's Links2Browser), ...it could be quite possible for a C/C++ programmer to in the future port that GUI interface to the linuxport branch and replace that Links2Browser browser backend with the Mozilla browser backend to make it work on XBMC for Linux (and make it easier to from there be ported to XBMC for Mac OS X, and XBMC for Windows). However the Mozilla browser backend have too many dependencies to be ported to the Xbox.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=11640
http://ysbox.online.fr/

SVN checkout possible from (again, it is not up-to-date with the trunk):
https://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot...wser/XBMC/

Never the less, please just ignore the web-browser interface for now, (maybe you add a button so that an external script or executable could be launched via it).

hotzenpl0tz Wrote:The wiki states that XBMC for linux requires Opengl 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0 - and I would guess that is not something Ubuntu wants to see as a requirement for small embeded devices, let's say Tablet PCs, CAR PCs or whatever.
While it is true that the wiki states that (it states so in order to make sure user are future-proof if they buy a graphics adapter to run XBMC on today), it does not mean that the XBMC skins need OpenGL 2.0 (nor even they video-player today). OpenGL 2.0 will be a future requirement for XBMC, but not for the skins, only for the DVDPlayer video-player inside XBMC which will probably use OpenGL 2.0 pixel shaders for video post-processing (such as deinterlacing) and such.

Actually, XBMC current minimum requirement for your graphic adapter is OpenGL 1.4 + GLSL ARB which I believe all those MID's designed for Ubuntu Mobile And Embedded supports already. ...but in any case, the Ubuntu developers could just replace XBMC's DVDPlayer video-player with an other video-player backend if they wanted.

PS! IIRC Menlow, Intel's current MID chipset supports OpenGL 2.0 already, and if so the discussion is moot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Internet_Device

[EDIT]: All current MID UMPC seems to feature Intel GMA 950 (same as Mac Mini which XBMC runs fine on):
http://www.umpcportal.com/products/compa...,105%5D%5D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_mini#Graphics
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#6
just a quickie, maybe Opera is a better suited browser to be integrated ?
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#7
pike Wrote:just a quickie, maybe Opera is a better suited browser to be integrated ?
Opera probably would be, but it is closed source and proprietary as I understand so it is a no go for us.
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#8
WeirdH Wrote:You can also try djtoll's skin 7TFT, which was especially developed for small screens found in cars and bathrooms.


And if you don't like the skin, you could always use the innards for your own creation.. Wink
Some good idea of improvements could possible be gotten from djtoll's 7TFT skin
http://www.4shared.com/dir/2658994/89f13...Skins.html
http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23984
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#9
Hmmm, looks fun
.
Im no good at photo-shop, but if the images are all open source then i wouldnt need to be.
Always wanted to try a bit of skinning ;-)
I'll have a look when i get home from work
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#10
Concept Wire Diagrams:
http://www.moblin.org/projects/projects_media.php

Getting the Source
The MMA source is contained in a git source repository. You can either view the source online at:
http://www.moblin.org/repos/projects/moblin-media.git
Or you can clone the git tree using:
git clone http://www.moblin.org/repos/projects/moblin-media.git
NOTE: To install git from Ubuntu, run "sudo apt-get install git-core"

Cool
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#11
Did anybody ever start on this? Are they still looking for a media center for Ubuntu MID? I think this would be really cool and I am very interested in working on this (though I haven't skinned anything yet).

I wonder what other kind of devices will run Ubuntu MID? I don't own an Mobile Internet Device, so I wonder what kinds of devices might be able to run Ubuntu MID (PSP, Nintendo DS, iRiver, iPhone, Logitech 1000 Remote)? I don't see the point in buying a MID really, but if you could take something else and turn it into a Ubuntu MID.... that would be cool.

I'm taking it for granted that XBMC would run on Ubuntu MID 8.04 is this correct or is my assumption wrong?
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#12
micster Wrote:Did anybody ever start on this?
Unfortunately no, ...so please feel free to start.

micster Wrote:Are they still looking for a media center for Ubuntu MID?
Not exactly, they are still in the process in making a new media center for it from scratch.

micster Wrote:I wonder what other kind of devices will run Ubuntu MID?
Ubuntu Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded Edition is designed for purpose made x86- processor based devices, (so will not to run on the devices that you listed).

That is really an off-topic discussion for the skinning forum, but checkout:
http://moblin.org
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Mobi...ed_Edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moblin_project
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Internet_Device

No reply to this off-topic part of the discussion here please, it does not belong in the skinning forum.
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Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
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#13
I think Jezz_X did some hacking on Basics 101 to make it look more Ubuntu-ish?
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Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.


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