[zaphod24]

Just to defend/clarify what I said.

If I'm watching a video. Tv show in this instance. When I press the info button, the things I definitely expect to see are 1. What I'm watching (tv show and episode title - thumb or poster for design) 2. How long it is and where I am in the video. A plot and all other info is nice too, but it just doesn't feel right that the 1st thing you see is the plot and nothing else. I mean there is a seekbar but it doesn't have any corresponding numbers. And I'm aware the length and stuff is in the metadata tab. But I just don't feel like there should be any tabs at all with OSD info. It should just be the minimum. All that stuff is abailable to browse in the gui already. I'm not against having the plot there outright or anything like that. But minimum is best, that's my opinion.

Maybe make it no tabs and add a plot and actors button?

I've also noticed the lack of position information when using info. If I pause, it does tell me position. Also, something else minor... When skipping forward and backward, the popup for current new position is either very fast or non-existent. It was already too fast for my tastes in Confluence.

Loving the new skin!

[Spirou]

I remember discussion where displaying time shift buffer information in the live-tv progress bar, e.g. position in buffer, buffer start relative to episode start etc., was on the wish list of many users.
I also remember (correct me if I’m wrong) that arguments were presented stating that this would require code changes in Kodi.

Are there any chances that this is getting introduced in Kodi 17 and in the Estuary skin?

[Klojum]

I'm hoping that the Estuary skin will be 21x9 aspect aware. Not just because of the fact that movies are often shot in that video aspect, but also because you can put so much more information on a screen. For example, the 'Recently added episodes' would benefit from a wider listing. Also descriptions for movies, tv shows and episodes will hardly need to scroll, because of the bigger text boxes. There is plenty of workspace. Right now I'm just attempting some simple skin edits

[phil65]

I've also noticed the lack of position information when using info. If I pause, it does tell me position. Also, something else minor... When skipping forward and backward, the popup for current new position is either very fast or non-existent. It was already too fast for my tastes in Confluence.

Loving the new skin!

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/9293

[phil65]

I'm hoping that the Estuary skin will be 21x9 aspect aware. Not just because of the fact that movies are often shot in that video aspect, but also because you can put so much more information on a screen. For example, the 'Recently added episodes' would benefit from a wider listing. Also descriptions for movies, tv shows and episodes will hardly need to scroll, because of the bigger text boxes. There is plenty of workspace. Right now I'm just attempting some simple skin edits

Buy me a 21:9 monitor and I will happily fix it

[Klojum]

I knew that answer was going to follow... :-)


Right now I only replaced the 1920 width tags with 2560, and certain objects (Clock in blue, Video counters, episode info) are correctly aligned on the right already, but others are not (Temps, time, date) are not. The H.265 & 1.78:1 icons are somehow centered (I think).

Yeah, I'm aware that Kodi skinning is not for the faint-hearted, but getting to start at it and understand things is still the biggest hurdle for me.

[nooryani84]

I've given it a bit of thought and in retrospect I agree with the choice of a "vertical only" option. The real estate to the right of the menu is the best space for the additional UI elements such as movies, episodes, addons etc.

If anyone else wants a horizontal menu then there will be nothing stopping them from creating a horizontal mod once the skin has been finished and released. This way the skin devs can focus more on less. Just saw the trailer via the last blog post and the skin looks phenomenal. If I had anything bad to say about it then it would be that I want it NOW!

Looking forward to this guys, I believe this skin will stay in the same vein of Fonfluence when it comes to the principles of good design - except better!

[Tolriq]

Just tested the new skin and on Windows (W10 @ 1080p)some icons are really blurry like low quality

All albums related images in music section

Default image for album in main screen (This is very aliased not blurry)

Folder icon in listings

[voochi]

Some suggestions:

Main menu is cluttered and navigation unintuitive. You have mixed vertical and horizontal menus on the same screen, in a non-grid layout. This is a UI no-no.

Navigation between items on the homescreen is unintuitive:
From the search box, if I press right I go to the star item. From the star item if I press left, I expect to go to the search box...nope, takes me diagonally down to movies. Oh dear. Major UI no-no to be so inconsistent.


Same lower down, I'm on Winter Sleep and I press left, I expect to go to the power button...nope, takes me diagonally UP to movies again.


This is the problem with mixing so many menus in different orientations.

Do we still need Kodi name and logo so prominent on the homescreen? No. It adds to the clutter and uses valuable space. Everybody using Kodi knows they are using it, don't need to remind them in large letters. Suffice to show the name and logo during bootup.

Limited customization: For example, allow to choose whether "random movies" is on home screen. For me it serves no purpose and simply adds to clutter.

Wall view (and banner view) animation (highlighted poster slides to left and box appears beside it) is gimmicky and disconcerting. Posters slithering around when I just want to scroll down through the list. Seems like including an animation just for the sake of it. Please include disable option. If you must keep it, at least put a delay so the posters are not slithering around while scrolling through the list.

[phil65]

Some suggestions:

Main menu is cluttered and navigation unintuitive. You have mixed vertical and horizontal menus on the same screen, in a non-grid layout. This is a UI no-no.

That would be true if the amount of items for each list is not fixed / capped. That is not the case, so mixing horizontal and vertical lists is fine enough in this case.
Btw apart from main menu, this is the first ever skin to never mix lists with different orientations. (look at all the dialogs for example)

[RMP888]

Wall view (and banner view) animation (highlighted poster slides to left and box appears beside it) is gimmicky and disconcerting. Posters slithering around when I just want to scroll down through the list. Seems like including an animation just for the sake of it.

I found the appearance of the box next to posters disconcerting as well and while there are probably associated benefits, i would second an option to disable it.

[voochi]

That would be true if the amount of items for each list is not fixed / capped. That is not the case, so mixing horizontal and vertical lists is fine enough in this case.
Btw apart from main menu, this is the first ever skin to never mix lists with different orientations. (look at all the dialogs for example)

Okay but this horizontal line of icons is a effectively a sub-menu for the main vertical menu list, right? It changes as we scroll from movies > tv shows etc.
So if it's simply a sub-menu, what's it doing over there so far from its parent menu and in a different orientation? That's not intuitive.

The number of discrete elements and navigation paths on the homescreen should be kept to a minimum. The main vertical menu is our anchor, if we want to go to the sub-menu, we should get there in a single click from the main list, we don't want to have to traverse over the "recently added" grid to get to the sub-menu.

[Girgl]

I really like where this is going on the visual side of things. Confluence looks so 2010 in comparison. But to be honest like many others I would really love to have more customization options. That's the main reason I keep using Aeon Nox, because I can add entries to the main menu. That's because I like to keep anime movies and anime series separated from the rest, and so in Aeon Nox I have additional menu items for that purpose. Same thing goes for Steam big picture and Rom Collection Browser: i have separate main menu items for those too. But great job non the less!

[phil65]

That would be true if the amount of items for each list is not fixed / capped. That is not the case, so mixing horizontal and vertical lists is fine enough in this case.
Btw apart from main menu, this is the first ever skin to never mix lists with different orientations. (look at all the dialogs for example)

Okay but this horizontal line of icons is a effectively a sub-menu for the main vertical menu list, right? It changes as we scroll from movies > tv shows etc.
So if it's simply a sub-menu, what's it doing over there so far from its parent menu and in a different orientation? That's not intuitive.

The number of discrete elements and navigation paths on the homescreen should be kept to a minimum. The main vertical menu is our anchor, if we want to go to the sub-menu, we should get there in a single click from the main list, we don't want to have to traverse over the "recently added" grid to get to the sub-menu.

That is a matter on how much emphasis you want to put on the submenu. Estuary obviously shifts focus to the widget part quite a bit, as you might have noticed.
Concerning your mockup, putting stuff at the screen edges (with the description label missing) and moving buttons into the bottom frame is not what I would call intuitive either.
If you take a step back and reduce things as much as possible then the main menu basically only consists of two elements: One vertical list at the left and one grid at the right (which includes the submenu)

And hey, if you disagree and feel this is not intuitive, feel free to switch skins.

[phil65]

I really like where this is going on the visual side of things. Confluence looks so 2010 in comparison. But to be honest like many others I would really love to have more customization options. That's the main reason I keep using Aeon Nox, because I can add entries to the main menu. That's because I like to keep anime movies and anime series separated from the rest, and so in Aeon Nox I have additional menu items for that purpose. Same thing goes for Steam big picture and Rom Collection Browser: i have separate main menu items for those too. But great job non the less!

As already said, once there are sane technical solutions available for those problems I will be the first one to add those customization options.