[Jeroen]

Can you add dvd icon view?

There will be no more icon based viewtypes. The Big Icons view for movies is tailored specifically to DVD covers, similar to the DVD icon view in PM3. If that's what you mean though.

Have you tried using some sort of frame around the movie posters ? I think that would make the posters look more 'fitted'

Yes I did, and did not like what I tried so far. Maybe I'll try some more in the future. If I do it will be used as a selection image, so none on the unfocused covers. Low priority though.

* The View selection button should have an up/down selector (when toggling between Big Icons, List, Detail List, etc.) I like that I can turn on/off viewtypes though.

Agreed, that's on my list for the next update.

* When I navigate around the menus, the audio will occasionally be trailing behind the video, or sometime be skipped altogether. This leads to the skin feeling less smooth. This happens with both digital and analog out.

Yes, this bothers me too. I edited the sound file because it would lag behind even more with the original sound file. I'm going to tweak it some more to see how I can resolve this.

* I'm not a big fan of animations (I turn it off in PMIII) -- do you plan to make the animation user configurable ? The fade in/out looks cool though

Very unlikely, sorry. Animations imo play a big part in the smoothness of using the interface. Especially on the XBOX I feel things are working slower when there's no animation, especially for page transitions. With any skin btw. I know it's just perception but I think that's important. I try not to go overboard with animations though. Which is why I already removed some animations in the last release and toned down some others as well. I also mostly use them where I feel it's functional. For instance, in the dialog windows, the parent window will fade out a bit when a child dialog window is opened, in order to emphasize on the active window and make things look...calmer, if that makes any sense

* The When in List view and I've selected to show the plot when pausing on a movie, it would be nice if the poster was represented in a smaller size above the plot. Or (crazy idea ? ) - mirrorize the poster, make it like 90% transparent and make it larger so that it appears that you've flipped the DVD cover to read the plot outline on the back)

Yeah, I actually tried something like that before. It's a nice idea but I didn't feel comfortable with it. I put the text over the poster image which faded out. But especially when using custom, "busy" backdrops things tended to get...chaotic, for lack of a better word. I may try something similar again using a different approach though. Maybe by using a dark opaque texture behind the movie poster or something, I'll have to see.
Putting it above the plot in a smaller size doesn't really work for me. Due to it's vertical orientation it would just leave a lot of empty space next to the poster. If it was possible to make text wrap around an image I would like it though.

Thanks for your constructive comments

[Bram77]

I'm having some trouble with subtitles with your skin, so it seems. When I run a movie, no subtitles are showing and the option to enable them (from the movie overlay menu) it appears to have no effect. When I do the same in PMIII with the same movie, it does work.

[Bram77]

Oh yeah. One if the things I personally fins annoying is the automatic scrolling of text. Is it possible to disable that, from configuration or XML file or something?

[MOAI]

Thanks you for your work on this excellent skin!
I just downloaded it today, and it was exactly the kind of thing I've been looking for, clean and simple, I've made it my default - I really appreciate all your work, and look forward to seeing future releases

Thanks again, and keep up the good work!

[exxo]

I was wondering if you could enhance the support for using the mouse. ex. the dropdown menus doesnt work with the mouse.

I really like this skin and i want to use it with my XBMC on my PC but usually the mouse isnt working well with most of the skins.

[Jeroen]

When I run a movie, no subtitles are showing and the option to enable them (from the movie overlay menu) it appears to have no effect.

It just appears not available. The radiobutton texture was missing in that dialog. I've corrected this for the next release. It should definitely work though as skins don't have any effect on those controls apart from the looks, the rest is completely handled by xbmc itself. I have confirmed it working last night when watching a movie.

Oh yeah. One if the things I personally fins annoying is the automatic scrolling of text. Is it possible to disable that, from configuration or XML file or something?

I'll probably provide an option to turn it off. However it will (at least for now) mean that you won't be able to always read the full plot for instance as I don't want scrollbars all over the place. Plus, for instance in list view the plot appears after 2 seconds of idle time. If I would add those little spin controls to scroll through the plot you would have to press a button to get to those controls but then the plot would dissapear again because of the suspending of idle state So I'll have to see if I can come up with something. I will be tweaking the autoscrolling values though, giving them a bigger delay and scrolling less fast.

Thanks again, and keep up the good work!

Thanks, glad you like it

I was wondering if you could enhance the support for using the mouse. ex. the dropdown menus doesnt work with the mouse.

I really like this skin and i want to use it with my XBMC on my PC but usually the mouse isnt working well with most of the skins.

I was afraid that request would appear someday
I don't know, I personally have no need for it at all. I guess I don't really see the point, let alone advantage of using a mouse to control a mediacenter, except maybe for those logitech air or wiiii thingies.
The submenu appears by pressing down and a mouse simply doesn't register that. At some point I plan to completely rewrite the way the homescreen menus are activated, maybe that will make it easier to add better mouse support but don't expect that any time soon sorry.

[exxo]

Hi Jeroen,

Great skin, but I noticed some of the fonts display strange at 16:9 480p resolution on the xbox - screenshots linked below.

I changed my resolution to NTSC 16:9 (480i) and the garbled fonts all displayed correctly, change back to 480p and they're garbled again.

I'd love to play with this skin a bit more if you know of a solution to this problem...

Cheers,
Adam.

Screenshots:

Was there a way to fix this. Cant seem to make it go away on my Xbox...

[Jeroen]

Was there a way to fix this. Cant seem to make it go away on my Xbox...

Did you read this one: http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=196...stcount=90

Another thing I would suggest is making sure the screen is calibrated properly in another skin, reboot and remove the Focus directory and start fresh with the latest release.

I hope this problem will be solved in one of the upcoming releases (hopefully the next one). As I can´t recreate the problem myself it´s really just blind fixing for me, trying out things hoping they will solve it. In the next release the entire font configuration will be reworked and the current fontset will be replaced by open (source) fonts. So I´m hoping that will contribute to getting rid of this.

Anyway in those screenshots the screen is clearly not calibrated properly. Notice how the bar on the top is going completely offscreen as well as the time. Regardless of that it should not happen though.

[espengaasemyr]

My default skin! Lots of positive comeback from some of my friends! two of them has been using XBMC daily since they saw it!!!

[Jeroen]

thanks espengaasemyr, that´s nice to hear
Haven´t had as much time to work on Focus as I would like this week, but hopefully if all goes well there will be a new release this weekend.

[Jeroen]

In the upcoming period I want to push Focus towards beta status. As a part of this I would like to see Focus support different languages. This will also enable me to see how different languages affect the design of Focus (for example width of labels and such).

Currently localisation support is lacking and the english language file is a bit messy and it has redundant entries. I will be cleaning this up in the upcoming period making it a better base to start from.

So if you would like to see Focus support your native language (or a second language you have mastered of course), I'm looking for YOU!

If you are willing to provide (and maintain!) language files for Focus drop me a line and we'll talk. The actual editing of the files is not hard to do, I can provide you with instructions when the time comes if needed. The requirement would be being able to translate english to your language as effectively as possible (as to determine a good compromise between amount of characters and keeping the string's meaning clear)

You will of course be credited for your efforts upon new releases and in the skin credits section in Focus itself.

Greetings,
Jeroen

Currently enlisted translators:
-NOOK (german)
-snuggidk (danish)
-shizzle (swedish)
-SandmanCL (norwegian)
-xbs08 (portuguese)
-Modhack (french)

[shizzle]

i can translate swedish if you want

[Jeroen]

That would be great shizzle, check your pm

[SandmanCL]

Jeroen -- I can do Norwegian

[Jeroen]

It's turning into a Nordic affair here