[SBOG]

Hello bkury,

After some testing on my side, here are my initial comments :

- skin works smoothly, awesome job! even in 4K
- in alpha release, there was an option to Display / Hide movie name on the panel view, is this available?
- Widget : would be great to have an option to display On Deck only or Recently Added Only or both.
- Is there a way to show Add On section in the in sub menu instead of menu?

My main issue comes from the On Deck and Recently Added loading time when activating the hidden widget. It might take up to 20 seconds to actually load it (and not every time), the recently added arrives first, then 10 seconds later the On Deck arrives.
I haven' tried on a different skin yet, so I will make additional testing to see if it's coming from PKC or the SKIN. Edit : Yes, it seems there are some lag issues while loading the On Deck from Plex.

My Set UP : NAS server with Plex Media Server, Vero 4k+ and PKC installed (latest version)

Thanks!!

[bkury]

- skin works smoothly, awesome job! even in 4K

That's good to hear! I don't have a 4K display, so I can't really test it. I was a little bit worried about 4k performance because this skin doesn't upscale from 1080p to 4k but instead it renders the GUI in native 4k.
(Still, I'm not sure if you can tell the difference between 1080p upscaled and native 4k because most artwork isn't even 2k. Feedback on this would be helpful)
 

- in alpha release, there was an option to Display / Hide movie name on the panel view, is this available?

Yes, this is still on my to-do list but there are some things I have to work on first before I can re-implement this feature.
 

- Widget : would be great to have an option to display On Deck only or Recently Added Only or both.

Are you talking about configuring every single widget individually or would it be enough to hide "ondeck & recently added" widgets based on content type (e.g. hide all recently added widgets if widget content type is movies) ?
 

- Is there a way to show Add On section in the in sub menu instead of menu?

Not yet, but very easy to implement (added to my to-do list)
 

My main issue comes from the On Deck and Recently Added loading time when activating the hidden widget. It might take up to 20 seconds to actually load it (and not every time), the recently added arrives first, then 10 seconds later the On Deck arrives.
I haven' tried on a different skin yet, so I will make additional testing to see if it's coming from PKC or the SKIN. Edit : Yes, it seems there are some lag issues while loading the On Deck from Plex.

Yes, when it comes to PKC "Recently added" widget will always be faster than "In Progress" widget because "recently added" data gets fetched directly from the local KODI database while "In Progress" data needs to be fetched from your plex server. Unfortunately, there is no way to replicate the PLEX "on deck" feature, which is a combination of "In Progress episodes" and "Continue show/season/episode", with KODI's filter rules. (A KODI feature request would be required to add the missing filter rules)

However, you might improve the load times by changing the maximum number of items to be fetched:
PKC Settings --> Appearance Tweaks --> Maximum number of videos to show in widgets --> change from 30 to 10

[SBOG]

- skin works smoothly, awesome job! even in 4K

That's good to hear! I don't have a 4K display, so I can't really test it. I was a little bit worried about 4k performance because this skin doesn't upscale from 1080p to 4k but instead it renders the GUI in native 4k.
(Still, I'm not sure if you can tell the difference between 1080p upscaled and native 4k because most artwork isn't even 2k. Feedback on this would be helpful)
 

- in alpha release, there was an option to Display / Hide movie name on the panel view, is this available?

Yes, this is still on my to-do list but there are some things I have to work on first before I can re-implement this feature.
 

- Widget : would be great to have an option to display On Deck only or Recently Added Only or both.

Are you talking about configuring every single widget individually or would it be enough to hide "ondeck & recently added" widgets based on content type (e.g. hide all recently added widgets if widget content type is movies) ?
 

- Is there a way to show Add On section in the in sub menu instead of menu?

Not yet, but very easy to implement (added to my to-do list)
 

My main issue comes from the On Deck and Recently Added loading time when activating the hidden widget. It might take up to 20 seconds to actually load it (and not every time), the recently added arrives first, then 10 seconds later the On Deck arrives.
I haven' tried on a different skin yet, so I will make additional testing to see if it's coming from PKC or the SKIN. Edit : Yes, it seems there are some lag issues while loading the On Deck from Plex.

Yes, when it comes to PKC "Recently added" widget will always be faster than "In Progress" widget because "recently added" data gets fetched directly from the local KODI database while "In Progress" data needs to be fetched from your plex server. Unfortunately, there is no way to replicate the PLEX "on deck" feature, which is a combination of "In Progress episodes" and "Continue show/season/episode", with KODI's filter rules. (A KODI feature request would be required to add the missing filter rules)

However, you might improve the load times by changing the maximum number of items to be fetched:
PKC Settings --> Appearance Tweaks --> Maximum number of videos to show in widgets --> change from 30 to 10 

Hello Bkury 

Are you talking about configuring every single widget individually or would it be enough to hide "ondeck & recently added" widgets based on content type (e.g. hide all recently added widgets if widget content type is movies) ?
- I would think on option 2. Basically when triggering the widget, there are 2 rows, top row being On deck and bottom row being recently added. It would be great to have the choice in hiding one of the row for all libraries. (for example, I never use Recently added)

For 4K, let me recheck the rendering of the artwork to be sure. 

Thank you for the PKC info, this is clearer indeed.

[mattyspurs76]

Installed skin and playing around with it. Pretty damn good.

Few little things that I'd like to see changed.

1 - Homescreen, add-ons. They show in poster view, I think it would be better in a square view. Only because in poster view it chops alot of addon artwork. Most addon icons I have are circles or look better in squares.

2 - live tv. Bit sure if it's me or a setting at the moment but if I highlight a tv channel the epg info doesn't show right.

Example

BBC One
Whatever is on now
BBC Two
Again whatever is on now

It looks all cluttered...there no real channel list showing in how I've got it setup. As I said, could be a setting I've clicked on or missed. I'll take another look

[bkury]

1 - Homescreen, add-ons. They show in poster view, I think it would be better in a square view. Only because in poster view it chops alot of addon artwork. Most addon icons I have are circles or look better in squares.

Yes, this was just a placeholder and will be addressed in the next update.
Upcoming widget features: Choose between poster, thumb, fanart, clearart, clearlogo images for widgets, Option to hide labels, Option to hide Recently added / In progress
 

2 - live tv. Bit sure if it's me or a setting at the moment but if I highlight a tv channel the epg info doesn't show right.

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly, can you provide a screenshot of the problem? I'm only using the demo PVR client, so maybe I've missed something. Thanks!

[SBOG]

Hello bkury,

After a few months testing, here are additional feedbacks. Reminder of my set up : NAS with Plex server, VEROK 4K+ and PLexKodiConnect with default path.
Here is an issue I am experiencing (but probably not because of the skin): the loading time to launch a video is very long, 30 seconds minimum and it is not consistant, meaning sometimes it start right away but most of the time it takes 30/45seconds. This is not an issue with the NAS waking up drives as they are set to never go to sleep, this is happening independently on the file format : 4K x265, 720p x264. This problem only occur with this skin, if I change to another skin, I have the expected behavior with less than 5 seconds launch time.

Here is a few logs but not sure it can help in anyway. I have raised the issue with OSMC/Vero forum and PKC forum without success :

- Long loading time Log example 1 : (https://paste.osmc.tv/esoxicokib), I tried to launch Avengers End Game movie around : 2019-08-22 22:18:24
- Long loading time Log example 2 : (https://paste.osmc.tv/unojobamek), launching a 720p tv show Ballers s01e01 at around 2019-08-22 22:32:17
- No loading time : After the second log without restarting the Vero I tried launching Avengers again, it gave me an error message but movie launched anyway after several seconds. I stopped and tried launching Captain Marvel, it launched immediately (https://paste.osmc.tv/sajehasova) at around 22:39:23 (big log sorry)

Appart from this issue, I am very satisfied with this skin, simple like I like them!

Edit : If I setup PKC using Direct Path, this issue doesn't exist (obviously), this is only happening with Addon On Path (default). So no more problems on my side anyway.

[bkury]

Yes, this could very well be a skin issue ...

I spent quite some time optimizing the home screen and widgets, so the upcoming update should fix this issue.
Especially the home screen / widget loading times & cpu usage should be MUCH better, expect performance to be on par with the default estuary skin.

ETA:
Night v2.4 will be ready next weekend

[SBOG]

Yes, this could very well be a skin issue ...

I spent quite some time optimizing the home screen and widgets, so the upcoming update should fix this issue.
Especially the home screen / widget loading times & cpu usage should be MUCH better, expect performance to be on par with the default estuary skin.

ETA:
Night v2.4 will be ready next weekend

Great News!

[bkury]

Just a short update:

Sorry for the delay but something else came up. I should have more spare time this weekend, so it won't take that long anymore ....

[SBOG]

Hello bkury,

Do you have some updates regarding your optimization to share with us?
Thank you

[bkury]

Hello bkury,

Do you have some updates regarding your optimization to share with us?
Thank you

Yes, skin optimizations are already done but there are some other dependencies which I have to finish first before I can release a new version of the skin. The good news is that there will be even more stuff in the next release and that I could fix most of my outstanding problems.

In addition to the skin I'm also going to release a kodi "fork" (OpenHT). This is going to be my playground for new ideas and features which otherwise wouldn't be possible.

Features include:
  * Builtin native PlexKodiConnect & EMBY Support (Night & Estuary[WIP] Skin)
  * Some useful backports and fixes from KODI Matrix
  * Unique skin features like Notification Center
  * Initial Setup (Screenshot below) 

Most of the stuff is already done but there is still a lot of work to do. I can't give an exact ETA but things are coming together fast ...

[beatmasterrs]

  ...

Setup-Screens are looking great

[SBOG]

Good luck in that huge work! Can't wait to test this

[kobyboy]

How do you configure a custome widget 1 through 9 other default, hide etc. for the Dashboard section.. Thanks

[bkury]

How do you configure a custome widget 1 through 9 other default, hide etc. for the Dashboard section.. Thanks

I haven't really finished this feature yet but technically it should work like this:
(I have some ideas to make the custom home/dashboard feature more intuitive in the future)

The dashboard custom widget feature uses the data/config from the "custom home" feature, so you have to create a custom home item first, before you can use it as a dashboard widget.

e.g.:
1st Dashboard widget option "Custom1 - Custom" --> "Custom Home Item 1 - Widget 1"
2nd Dashboard widget option "Custom1 - Custom" --> "Custom Home Item 1 - Widget 2"

Again, this feature isn't really finished yet and right now it's a little bit confusing.
I hope this explanation helps you to understand how it currently works.