[robweber]

Do you mind that i have the add-on available in my repo? I use the add-on as a dependency so i need it be available in some repository. If you upload it to the XBMC repo i'll remove it.

Not a problem at all, glad you are finding it useful. I'm planning on releasing this into the repo soon. Seems like most of the bugs have been worked out now.

Looks like a skin I'd previously installed (but no longer using) has automatically installed this script, possibly Confluence Modified.

Since I'm no longer using the skin that needs this script, this script is now running for no reason (and on a Pi, that's never good!)

Is there any way for skins that need this script to start the script when the skin is loaded (and the script stopped whenever the skin is unloaded), which would mean the script doesn't run at all whenever a skin that doesn't use it (eg. stock Confluence) is being used?

One other request: Would it be possible to tone down the logging, it's writing a new line (eg. "NOTICE: script.grab.fanart: Video - Apollo 13) to xbmc.log every 10 seconds, wouldn't this be better as DEBUG?

I had thought all the logging was restricted to DEBUG mode but a scan through the code this morning did reveal that one log entry is being written every time the images change. I'll adjust this right away.

As to your second question, the short answer is "no". This is a service addon which, by it's definition, runs when XBMC is started. The RunScript() method with parameters was provided as a convenience to skinners who wish to change the settings from the default. Even if I was to strip out the code that actually updates any of the images to a separate function that waits for a skinner activated variable; the service itself would still have to run and check for that variable. The processing required to "constantly" check for a skinner activated variable is probably the same amount of time as it is taking to pluck an image out of the array and set it. This doesn't even address other issues that may occur. What If you only use the addon in your music visualization - should the addon only run then, should it run all the time? If only "on demand" when that area of the skin is in use, how does the service know when to stop - constantly check which windows is active?

I'll agree with you that having a service running when you no longer need it is not ideal. There are numerous other services tied to skins and plugins, like the common plugin cache, the skin widgets service, the simple downloader, etc, etc that all have this same behavior. If a skin installs them as a dependency they run even if you change skins. I've seen posts about this in other places on the forum. Mostly it comes down to the fact that once installed XBMC does not know when the addon is no longer needed. What if you have 2 addons that need 1 service and you uninstall one of them? Right now the logic simply does not exist to clean up un-needed addons.