[username145]

Just quickly checked the latest git:

- EPG perfectly functional!

TV channel logos looked really bad in the list view so I just removed them completely. Personally, I think it looks better just with text so I'm inclined to leave it as is. Is a tiny thumbnail really valuable to have in such a list? Feels wrong in this skin for some reason.

I do agree with you that it doesn't quite fit with the layout of the channel list, but I feel like when you have dozens of channels it can be tedious finding the one you're after, and logos tend to make for better visual cues. (And depending on how much TV one watches, those logos are burned into our brains and we can spot them a mile off ). Small logos in place of the channel numbers, perhaps? This is your project however and I do respect your design choices

- The video stats dialog no longer has a dimmed rectangular background now so can be hard to read, but the loading box is now gone so it's not a big deal anyway

Updated the OSD when watching PVR. Let me know what you think.

Excellent, the finishing time/next show info is great. All it needs (in my humble opinion) is plot/EPG description and (maybe) the current local time in the upper-right corner. And some skins like to have channel logos in place of cover/clear art for PVR, but I don't know if that's something you feel would fit in here.

I got rid of the volume icon in favour of the volume bar that runs along the top of the screen. A mute icon would have felt out of place, but if people still need a mute indicator, maybe a solid red bar at the top of the screen to show it is muted?

Perfect

BTW is it possible to get the "list" view unlocked for content in the library? Some larger parts of libraries and probably some video addons are better suited to it I feel

Thankyou as always for your stellar work

[niamu]

Maybe I just have an aversion to network television now, but I'm going to leave out the channel icons. I think that when I'm watching my show, I don't care what network it's on. I just care about seeing the show. That's even more true when I think about the OSD when watching a show. When I hit the info button, I don't really need to see a big network logo. I'd rather see information to the show, not to the network. Maybe I'm wrong on this, but I'm also lazy and don't have PVR so you may have to deal with it for now.

Adding plot information to the OSD is something I could do. I disabled this when I first started my revisions out of personal preference and I enjoyed having less text on screen. I'll consider adding it back in.

Yes, the list view is something that I like a lot. Especially when you're viewing an album. I like the scrolling text in the background and have long considered adding that to TV episodes as well. I will at least offer the list view in TV episodes. Still not sure if the scrolling text in the background is something that people want in other views or not. I know everyone loved the song view when Tree_Jammer first showed it off, so I'll wait to hear some feedback about carrying pieces of that over to other views.

My last remaining project is creating a proper "Live TV" pane on the home screen. I have the idea worked out in my head for the most part now. Once I have it coded, I'll package up the skin with a nice little ribbon and make a post with a video demo and some screens and thanking everyone who has helped out.

[username145]

Maybe I just have an aversion to network television now, but I'm going to leave out the channel icons. I think that when I'm watching my show, I don't care what network it's on. I just care about seeing the show. That's even more true when I think about the OSD when watching a show. When I hit the info button, I don't really need to see a big network logo. I'd rather see information to the show, not to the network. Maybe I'm wrong on this, but I'm also lazy and don't have PVR so you may have to deal with it for now.

Haha fair enough

Adding plot information to the OSD is something I could do. I disabled this when I first started my revisions out of personal preference and I enjoyed having less text on screen. I'll consider adding it back in.

Thanks!

Yes, the list view is something that I like a lot. Especially when you're viewing an album. I like the scrolling text in the background and have long considered adding that to TV episodes as well. I will at least offer the list view in TV episodes. Still not sure if the scrolling text in the background is something that people want in other views or not. I know everyone loved the song view when Tree_Jammer first showed it off, so I'll wait to hear some feedback about carrying pieces of that over to other views.

I thought it looked great and unique, personally

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Been using it a bit and noticed a few things that might be a gray area, not sure if they're intended:

1. On startup (at least on my HTPC) the skin starts like this: [EDIT: problem was on my end, was a mouse issue, sorry!]



And a directional button needs to be pushed to select films etc. Not sure if it's a problem on my end or intended (either way not a huge issue)

2. It's possible to get 'stuck' in all EPG views (edit: also happens in recordings/timers) other than timeline. To reproduce, go into an EPG view other than timeline, press the "right" arrow key. After pressing "right" it is no longer possible to access the left slide-out menu by pressing "left" anymore. A way to get out of it is to press "e", which reloads the dialogue and you can then access the menu by pressing "left"

3. In the slide out menu below:



I feel like pressing "enter" on any entry except EPG should hide the menu, since simply having an entry selected loads it instantly.

4. In the above menu, pressing "enter" on "search" wrongly brings up the search dialog (with some overlap) instead of hiding the menu or doing nothing.

5. Just an idea, but having "Next" EPG info for the selected channel in the channel list in that empty space below could be useful, or even somewhere in the main channel selection screen; I just think it's useful to have a convenient now/next entry viewable somewhere while changing channels



Using this skin regardless cause it's amazing

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Scratch that 1st one; it was a problem on my end, I think the position of the mouse caused it to start up like that

Edit again: noticed one more small thing (again just an idea/opinion); If you start from the home screen, select "TV Shows", then "All TV Shows", then decide you want to go back to the home screen, "All TV Shows" remains selected instead of the main parent menu. I feel like going back to the home screen suggests the user wants to do something else, and so it should reset itself to "Films" by default.

[futuro]

Niamu... what a great job. I am following Lightbox skin for a while already and since PVR is now included, this is my favourite skin. But I am missing one function (maybe it is there but I don't find it). If I insert a DVD to my HTPC, how can I start DVD playback or eject the DVD??

[niamu]

@username145,

I have made adjustments to the PVR view so you can longer get stuck in some views and I have also adjusted the menu so the search dialog does not overlap awkwardly anymore.

I can't hide the menu in every event of a click because for TV and Radio a click changes the group of channels that you are viewing. I have modified the display to reflect this better.

It is worth mentioning that all of the PVR code has been modified from Confluence.

I think having the next show displayed in the channel OSD might be confusing as to what channel has what show next. I think it's clearer the way it is now where the next show is in the info OSD and the user can then choose to change to the next channel.

Your last edit mentions returning to the home screen should always select the top menu item (Films by default), however this would break window consistency with the rest of the views. Currently if you leave the TV view and return, you return to the exact place that you left from. This way the user doesn't get lost easily with the system making assumptions for them.

@futuro, I have added a disc menu to the home screen which should satisfy your request.

[futuro]

Wow... that's fast response. Big Thanks!!

[username145]

@username145,

I have made adjustments to the PVR view so you can longer get stuck in some views and I have also adjusted the menu so the search dialog does not overlap awkwardly anymore.

Works great now, thanks!

I can't hide the menu in every event of a click because for TV and Radio a click changes the group of channels that you are viewing. I have modified the display to reflect this better.

Ah I didn't know that, as I've always had my channels in a single group

I think having the next show displayed in the channel OSD might be confusing as to what channel has what show next. I think it's clearer the way it is now where the next show is in the info OSD and the user can then choose to change to the next channel.

Oh I meant having the "next" info for the currently selected channel in the channel list. So if watching channel ABC, then press "c" and scroll down the list to channel XYZ, the "next" info would change to reflect what is on "next" in each channel that I scroll past. An alternative and probably cleaner way is to have the "next" info somewhere in the "All Channels" list (the middle screenshot in my previous post). I only think it'd be great to have now/next info on hand somewhere whilst changing channels. But I'm probably hassling you now and appreciate the work you've done so won't press it any further

Your last edit mentions returning to the home screen should always select the top menu item (Films by default), however this would break window consistency with the rest of the views. Currently if you leave the TV view and return, you return to the exact place that you left from. This way the user doesn't get lost easily with the system making assumptions for them.

Fair point, agreed

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Noticed a few more bugs:

- In the "Timers" view, it appears as if "Add new timer" is counted as a timer, so the count is always +1 than it should be (may or not be the case though)

- Again in the "Timers" view, if you add a timer you can see the entries in the time/status columns are not aligned properly

- Text positioning is a little off in certain dialogues. Eg. go into the EPG timeline view, pick a show to be recorded. The box where it asks if you would like to record the show has the show's name very close to the yes/no boxes. Same with the "delete timer" confirmation dialogue box

Thanks for doing this!

Edit: not a bug, but is there a way to increase the amount of text or pixel/width that can be displayed in the player "info" OSD?

[niamu]

@username145,
I looked into adding that feature in the Channel OSD, but it is not possible with the infolabels available it seems. Unless you can show me a skin that does it and prove me wrong.

I've made some adjustments to the display issues you mention in Timers and EPG views. Let me know if that resolves everything you mentioned.

Edit: not a bug, but is there a way to increase the amount of text or pixel/width that can be displayed in the player "info" OSD?

Maybe...? I'm not sure what you're asking for here.

[username145]

@username145,
I looked into adding that feature in the Channel OSD, but it is not possible with the infolabels available it seems. Unless you can show me a skin that does it and prove me wrong.

Can't say I've seen it in another skin sadly, the closest thing I have is the feature "metropolis" has under the video preview which works quite well:



This would be the next best thing IMO

I've made some adjustments to the display issues you mention in Timers and EPG views. Let me know if that resolves everything you mentioned.

Much appreciated, will do when I get home!

Maybe...? I'm not sure what you're asking for here.

It's mostly for EPG entries which tend to have long titles (and I guess some films). The title in the info OSD auto-scrolls when it reaches a certain length, which is handy, but sometimes not necessary since there is plenty of room to display it in full. It gives the impression of an "invisible wall" where there is all this space going unused; I would post a screenshot if I could get at my PC. I have considered there may be a reason for this though

Latest commits look wonderful, will test asap

[username145]

All is well so far with the latest changes, except the timer columns are still out of whack until they are selected:





The yes/no dialogues are perfect now, and OSD changes looks great

-------------------------------------------------

A few minor points (sorry ):

- Noticed there is no "buffering" dialogue/progress indication for network/internet streams, only says it's paused

- Love the little hack that allows you to hold "right" to scroll through films/tv shows in panel view. Would it be possible to do a "kiosk mode" like other skins so that the left menu can be disabled (outside of PVR) and we can have the same for holding "left" in that view?

[niamu]

I've fixed the timer display for real this time!

The buffering should also be displaying now. That was just me attempting to be clever and hide it for certain scenarios.

Unfortunately the reason the panel view navigation hack works is precisely because there is is the left menu available. If I disable it, the hack wouldn't work. I'll think about it a little more, but I think this may be the best I can do.

Also added "On Next" for the current viewing channel to the Channel OSD. Hopefully it all looks alright because my PVR backend is down at the moment so I can't test it.

[username145]

I've fixed the timer display for real this time!

Yup confirmed

The buffering should also be displaying now. That was just me attempting to be clever and hide it for certain scenarios.

Will test this next chance I get

Edit: It still says "paused" when it's actually buffering, but I notice when I hit "o" to show video stats it does show the pretty buffering dialogue in the middle of the screen.

Also added "On Next" for the current viewing channel to the Channel OSD. Hopefully it all looks alright because my PVR backend is down at the moment so I can't test it.

Looks good to me, perhaps slightly smaller text, but is it possible to have it change while you scroll through the channel list, instead of showing the info for the currently tuned channel? Especially with channel change times as they are (7-8 long seconds here, ffmpeg fix is in the pipeline)

The reason I push for this is because with any PVR setup, a "now" entry is potentially useless for a short period before the end of the program. At say 8:28pm, almost all "now" entries in the channel list are irrelevant because a new unknown show starts in two minutes. Either in the channel list or the main PVR window (the one with the nice little channel preview, not sure what it's called!), "next" information is highly relevant and ought to be readily available prior to zapping. With the half a dozen+ or so skins I've tried in the past year, only Metropolis had addressed this in some way.

Seriously never had the household happier with a skin as they are with this one, and they are a picky bunch

[niamu]

Edit: It still says "paused" when it's actually buffering, but I notice when I hit "o" to show video stats it does show the pretty buffering dialogue in the middle of the screen.

My mistake regarding the buffering display. Edited the wrong dialog. Hopefully correct now. It's a difficult thing to test.

The reason I push for this is because with any PVR setup, a "now" entry is potentially useless for a short period before the end of the program. At say 8:28pm, almost all "now" entries in the channel list are irrelevant because a new unknown show starts in two minutes. Either in the channel list or the main PVR window (the one with the nice little channel preview, not sure what it's called!), "next" information is highly relevant and ought to be readily available prior to zapping. With the half a dozen+ or so skins I've tried in the past year, only Metropolis had addressed this in some way.

This is really more of a problem with what XBMC is doing than a skin problem. I've made an adjustment that may or may not work where instead of the current channel it will hopefully display the next show for the currently selected channel in the list. I can't test as I don't have PVR on the system I'm at right now.

Hopefully XBMC Gotham will address some of this a little better because the best I can do at the moment is hack things together.

[niamu]

nbox discussions will continue here.

It's about time I stop hijacking this thread. Sorry everyone.

[reaven]

Man this skin looks awesome !!!!!!!!!

really really awesome.