[crazyhands911]

@bsoriano 

It has been a long time since I've been on here or posted anything, but everything was running pretty smoothly for me and just waiting for Matrix recommended builds to drop.

But, the last week or two, the alphabet strip no longer pops up for me. I'm running 18.9 and 3.2.125. The option is still there, but regardless of whether I have it Yes or No and close and reopen Kodi, there is no change. I'm guessing something with your last repo update to 3.2.125 broke something there. I've lost that functionality on all 3 of my builds and I just went pulled the file manually from GitHub and reinstalled it to see if something didn't come over on the auto-update, but no luck. Can you take and look and see if anybody else is having the issue or if I'm missing some other add-on that is now required for that functionality? That is one of my most used features since my collections are pretty extensive and being able to jump head to the end of the alphabet, etc is huge for me. Thanks.

@crazyhands911 , in order for the "mouse/touch-friendly" alphabet strip to show up, you need to set "Enable Use of Embuary Helper" to Yes in the skin settings, as Amber relies on that addon for that functionality.  Please ensure that you have your settings like so (just look at the alphabet strip related ones and the embuary helper one):



Please let me know if this solves the issue for you.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

@bsoriano 
That did the trick. I had a feeling it might have something to do with one of the helper addons. That must have gotten switched during an update or something since it had been working. Thanks!

[bsoriano]

@bsoriano 

It has been a long time since I've been on here or posted anything, but everything was running pretty smoothly for me and just waiting for Matrix recommended builds to drop.

But, the last week or two, the alphabet strip no longer pops up for me. I'm running 18.9 and 3.2.125. The option is still there, but regardless of whether I have it Yes or No and close and reopen Kodi, there is no change. I'm guessing something with your last repo update to 3.2.125 broke something there. I've lost that functionality on all 3 of my builds and I just went pulled the file manually from GitHub and reinstalled it to see if something didn't come over on the auto-update, but no luck. Can you take and look and see if anybody else is having the issue or if I'm missing some other add-on that is now required for that functionality? That is one of my most used features since my collections are pretty extensive and being able to jump head to the end of the alphabet, etc is huge for me. Thanks.

@crazyhands911 , in order for the "mouse/touch-friendly" alphabet strip to show up, you need to set "Enable Use of Embuary Helper" to Yes in the skin settings, as Amber relies on that addon for that functionality.  Please ensure that you have your settings like so (just look at the alphabet strip related ones and the embuary helper one):



Please let me know if this solves the issue for you.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

@bsoriano 
That did the trick. I had a feeling it might have something to do with one of the helper addons. That must have gotten switched during an update or something since it had been working. Thanks!

@crazyhands911, I am glad it is working now for you. What happened is that in a recent update I made the use of the helper addons completely optional, with the default to NOT use them. My apologies for the unwanted behavior.

Regards,

Bart

[nrpetonr]

@bsoriano thanks anyway. consulted the log with corelec admins, they claim the skin. interesting that no problem on other skins, but i love yours :-)
i tried to remove some other addons and ended up reducing the log to minimum errors, but still same behaviour. hereinafter log with reduced errors, still nothing suspicious from your point of view?

2021-01-25 20:42:00.395 T:4788    ERROR <general>: Window Translator: Can't find window InfoDialog
2021-01-25 20:42:11.745 T:4916    ERROR <general>: CPVRChannelsPath: Invalid channels path 'pvr://channels/tv/V%c5%a1echny%20kan%c3%a1ly/extrafanart/' - channel segment syntax error.
2021-01-25 20:42:11.745 T:4916    ERROR <general>: GetDirectory - Error getting pvr://channels/tv/V%c5%a1echny%20kan%c3%a1ly/extrafanart/
2021-01-25 20:42:11.747 T:4886    ERROR <general>: CPVRChannelsPath: Invalid channels path 'pvr://channels/tv/V%c5%a1echny%20kan%c3%a1ly/../extrafanart/' - channel segment syntax error.
2021-01-25 20:42:11.747 T:4886    ERROR <general>: GetDirectory - Error getting pvr://channels/tv/V%c5%a1echny%20kan%c3%a1ly/../extrafanart/
                                                   sqlite3.IntegrityError: UNIQUE constraint failed: request_cache_exclude.url_hash
                                                   sqlite3.IntegrityError: UNIQUE constraint failed: request_cache_exclude.url_hash
                                                   sqlite3.IntegrityError: UNIQUE constraint failed: request_cache_exclude.url_hash

2021-01-25 20:39:03.300 T:4786    ERROR <general>: Window Translator: Can't find window InfoDialog
2021-01-25 20:39:04.230 T:4888    ERROR <general>: DoWork - Direct texture file loading failed for resource://resource.images.weathericons.default/.png
2021-01-25 20:39:11.859 T:4905    ERROR <general>: EXCEPTION Thrown (PythonToCppException) : -->Python callback/script returned the following error<--
                                                   Error Type: <class 'locale.Error'>
                                                   Error Contents: unsupported locale setting
                                                   locale.Error: unsupported locale setting
                                                   -->End of Python script error report<--
2021-01-25 20:39:55.073 T:4786    ERROR <general>: Window Translator: Can't find window InfoDialog

@nrpetonr , the error I see with pvr at first glance does not seem to be skin related.  The only thing that comes to mind is that when an item is playing and you are in the home screen, Amber tries to show fanart related to that item, including extra fanart.  If there is no multiple fanart for the item loaded in the db, Amber tries to find it in an /extrafanart/ folder.  This seems to be giving an error with the PVR client that you are using.

Could you please test the latest from GitHub? https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin.amber   Master branch is for Matrix.  Please let me know if this solves the issue.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

tested, unfortunately same behaviour. thanks anyway, will switch to leaa where same setup works w/o any problem.

[G0mez]

I was wondering that previously it was simplier to pop up Subtitles and video settings OSD menu just simply moving up. As now it requires action/enter key to be pressed to show that menu. Think it got changed cause mouse was interfering it or something. So would it be possible to make option for it to amber settings? On android it was kinda more simple and faster to use menu then.

[bsoriano]

I was wondering that previously it was simplier to pop up Subtitles and video settings OSD menu just simply moving up. As now it requires action/enter key to be pressed to show that menu. Think it got changed cause mouse was interfering it or something. So would it be possible to make option for it to amber settings? On android it was kinda more simple and faster to use menu then.

@G0mez , I understand it was simpler that way, but the new way works well for both keyboard and mouse users.  I am not planning on changing that or adding the old behavior as an option.  My apologies.

Regards,

Bart

[G0mez]

Should have been more specific that using gaming controller on android tv but it's ok, can live with it :}

[bsoriano]

Hello all,

I have uploaded versions 3.2.126 (Leia) and 3.4.13 (Matrix) to the Amber repos (these versions were already on GitHub).  The main changes are:

1.  Icon only vertical menu/submenu.  Amber now supports an icon only vertical menu/submenu.  The skin includes icons for the default menu and submenu items, but you can choose your own icons for the menu and submenu items.  The new setting for icon only menu is here:



And the menu/submenu look like this:





As you can see from the above 2 screenshots, you can have the menu item/submenu item label(s) show up.  This is controlled by the setting "Show Menu Item Name" that appears when you enable icon only menu.  The label can be shown in the title bar, as in the above two screenshots, or below the title bar.  The setting for this is "Show Item Name in Top Bar", which appears if you enable "Show Menu Item Name".  This is how the label looks below the top bar:



As I mentioned before, you can choose you own icon for each menu item/submenu item, when you configure the menu/shelves.  The configuration dialog now also shows you what the icon is for the menu/submenu item:




2.  "High" position for shelves.  Amber now allows for the shelves to be in a High postion.  This is only useful in the vertical menu, in particular if you have the menu configured so that the top item is the one always selected (you can do this by having a non static, no wraparound navigation vertical menu that starts at the first item).  You can configure this like so:



And it looks like this:



It is important to note that if the shelves are in the high position, the menu/submenu item label will only show up in the top bar, not below it.

3.  Video Lyrics.  If you have script.cu.lrclyrics as your lyrics addon in Amber, you can enable the Video Lyrics mod created by @manfeed .  The setting is here:



And the result is this:






4.  Playing whole albums from shelves is optional.  Before, if you had script.playalbum installed and enabled in your system, and you clicked on an album in a shelf, the album would start playing immediately.  This is now optional, and the default is NOT to play whole albums from shelves.  You can find the new setting here:



5.  Backgrounds can be animated with Ken Burns effect.  You can now have the backgrounds be animated with a Ken Burns effect (panning and zooming).  You can find the new setting here:



Please note that this setting is global, so once activated, ALL backgrounds are animated.

6.  Miscellanous Fixes.  Some additional fixes were completed, such as (list is not comprehensive):

- Overlapping text in plot for List and Panel type views when auto scrolling is enabled.
- Unneeded additional seek slider in the Video OSD
- Positioning fixes for the info line

Since some of these changes are big (icon menu, shelves in high position), please test thoroughly and let me know if you find any issues.  Thanks.

NOTE: If you enable the icon only menu and you are not seeing the icons, you might need to remove the file "script-skinshortcuts-includes.xml" from the skin's 1080i folder.  If this does not solve the issue for you, unfortunately you will have to go to the <userdata>\addon_data\script.skinshortcuts folder in you system and delete all files that have "amber"  in the file name.  This has the undesired effect of resetting all your menu/submenu/shelves configuration.  I have not been able to determine why this is needed for some people, but not for others.

Regards,

Bart

[Cyberdom]

6.  Miscellanous Fixes.  Some additional fixes were completed, such as (list is not comprehensive):

- Overlapping text in plot for List and Panel type views when auto scrolling is enabled.

Hi @bsoriano, thank you for this update.

It's okay, the overlay problem is fixed.
I sent you in PM the French translations for the new functions of Amber 3.2.126.

[bsoriano]

6.  Miscellanous Fixes.  Some additional fixes were completed, such as (list is not comprehensive):

- Overlapping text in plot for List and Panel type views when auto scrolling is enabled.

Hi @bsoriano, thank you for this update.

It's okay, the overlay problem is fixed.
I sent you in PM the French translations for the new functions of Amber 3.2.126.

@Cyberdom, you are welcome! Thanks for confirming, and I will update the translation tomorrow.

Regards,

Bart

[nrpetonr]

@bsoriano thanks anyway. consulted the log with corelec admins, they claim the skin. interesting that no problem on other skins, but i love yours :-)
i tried to remove some other addons and ended up reducing the log to minimum errors, but still same behaviour. hereinafter log with reduced errors, still nothing suspicious from your point of view?

2021-01-25 20:42:00.395 T:4788    ERROR <general>: Window Translator: Can't find window InfoDialog
2021-01-25 20:42:11.745 T:4916    ERROR <general>: CPVRChannelsPath: Invalid channels path 'pvr://channels/tv/V%c5%a1echny%20kan%c3%a1ly/extrafanart/' - channel segment syntax error.
2021-01-25 20:42:11.745 T:4916    ERROR <general>: GetDirectory - Error getting pvr://channels/tv/V%c5%a1echny%20kan%c3%a1ly/extrafanart/
2021-01-25 20:42:11.747 T:4886    ERROR <general>: CPVRChannelsPath: Invalid channels path 'pvr://channels/tv/V%c5%a1echny%20kan%c3%a1ly/../extrafanart/' - channel segment syntax error.
2021-01-25 20:42:11.747 T:4886    ERROR <general>: GetDirectory - Error getting pvr://channels/tv/V%c5%a1echny%20kan%c3%a1ly/../extrafanart/
                                                   sqlite3.IntegrityError: UNIQUE constraint failed: request_cache_exclude.url_hash
                                                   sqlite3.IntegrityError: UNIQUE constraint failed: request_cache_exclude.url_hash
                                                   sqlite3.IntegrityError: UNIQUE constraint failed: request_cache_exclude.url_hash

2021-01-25 20:39:03.300 T:4786    ERROR <general>: Window Translator: Can't find window InfoDialog
2021-01-25 20:39:04.230 T:4888    ERROR <general>: DoWork - Direct texture file loading failed for resource://resource.images.weathericons.default/.png
2021-01-25 20:39:11.859 T:4905    ERROR <general>: EXCEPTION Thrown (PythonToCppException) : -->Python callback/script returned the following error<--
                                                   Error Type: <class 'locale.Error'>
                                                   Error Contents: unsupported locale setting
                                                   locale.Error: unsupported locale setting
                                                   -->End of Python script error report<--
2021-01-25 20:39:55.073 T:4786    ERROR <general>: Window Translator: Can't find window InfoDialog

@nrpetonr , the error I see with pvr at first glance does not seem to be skin related.  The only thing that comes to mind is that when an item is playing and you are in the home screen, Amber tries to show fanart related to that item, including extra fanart.  If there is no multiple fanart for the item loaded in the db, Amber tries to find it in an /extrafanart/ folder.  This seems to be giving an error with the PVR client that you are using.

Could you please test the latest from GitHub? https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin.amber   Master branch is for Matrix.  Please let me know if this solves the issue.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

tested, unfortunately same behaviour. thanks anyway, will switch to leaa where same setup works w/o any problem.

@bsoriano   finally fixed it, i assume it was script.skinvariable related
reinstalled with matrix version, plus installed other dependent addons shown under amber settings (though i do not think this is related) and no more problem to load the shelves.

[bsoriano]

@nrpetonr , the error I see with pvr at first glance does not seem to be skin related.  The only thing that comes to mind is that when an item is playing and you are in the home screen, Amber tries to show fanart related to that item, including extra fanart.  If there is no multiple fanart for the item loaded in the db, Amber tries to find it in an /extrafanart/ folder.  This seems to be giving an error with the PVR client that you are using.

Could you please test the latest from GitHub? https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin.amber   Master branch is for Matrix.  Please let me know if this solves the issue.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

tested, unfortunately same behaviour. thanks anyway, will switch to leaa where same setup works w/o any problem.

@bsoriano   finally fixed it, i assume it was script.skinvariable related
reinstalled with matrix version, plus installed other dependent addons shown under amber settings (though i do not think this is related) and no more problem to load the shelves.

@nrpetonr , I am very glad you were able to fix it!

Regards,

Bart

[billyrene]

In the home menu in the random movie shelf (default shelves -> movies -> random movies) the shelf never shows more than 25 movies. only if i set the limit to 10 or 25 it shows the correct number of movies in the shelf.

i can set the shelf limit to none, 50 and 100 but still the maximum of items shown in the shelf is 25.

i tried it with the random tv episodes and it it working there

[bsoriano]

In the home menu in the random movie shelf (default shelves -> movies -> random movies) the shelf never shows more than 25 movies. only if i set the limit to 10 or 25 it shows the correct number of movies in the shelf.

i can set the shelf limit to none, 50 and 100 but still the maximum of items shown in the shelf is 25.

i tried it with the random tv episodes and it it working there

@billyrene , thanks for pointing this out.  This is because the skin playlist that this is based on has a limit of 25. 

I went ahead and increased the limit where it made sense to 100.  Please be aware that if you do not set a limit when you configure your shelves, some of these shelves will load slower than before, since they will be loading a lot more items before the shelf is displayed.  Thanks.

The changes are on GitHub only at this time.

Regards,

Bart

[billyrene]

In the home menu in the random movie shelf (default shelves -> movies -> random movies) the shelf never shows more than 25 movies. only if i set the limit to 10 or 25 it shows the correct number of movies in the shelf.

i can set the shelf limit to none, 50 and 100 but still the maximum of items shown in the shelf is 25.

i tried it with the random tv episodes and it it working there

@billyrene , thanks for pointing this out.  This is because the skin playlist that this is based on has a limit of 25. 

I went ahead and increased the limit where it made sense to 100.  Please be aware that if you do not set a limit when you configure your shelves, some of these shelves will load slower than before, since they will be loading a lot more items before the shelf is displayed.  Thanks.

The changes are on GitHub only at this time.

Regards,

Bart

thank you for the info. i only wanted to increase to 50 when i noticed it and tested them all out

[bsoriano]

In the home menu in the random movie shelf (default shelves -> movies -> random movies) the shelf never shows more than 25 movies. only if i set the limit to 10 or 25 it shows the correct number of movies in the shelf.

i can set the shelf limit to none, 50 and 100 but still the maximum of items shown in the shelf is 25.

i tried it with the random tv episodes and it it working there

@billyrene , thanks for pointing this out.  This is because the skin playlist that this is based on has a limit of 25. 

I went ahead and increased the limit where it made sense to 100.  Please be aware that if you do not set a limit when you configure your shelves, some of these shelves will load slower than before, since they will be loading a lot more items before the shelf is displayed.  Thanks.

The changes are on GitHub only at this time.

Regards,

Bart

thank you for the info. i only wanted to increase to 50 when i noticed it and tested them all out

@billyrene , were you able to test the changes? Were you able to increase the limit to 50? Please let me know.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart