(2012-09-20, 01:01)redglory Wrote: Can you extend a bit your explanation regarding your "circuit-breaker ring"?
Sure, it's just a circuit breaker that goes between the outlet and any plug, in this case a six-way extension that has devices which draw power in standby so can be completely switched off by tripping it manually (TV, PS2, Sony Home Cinema Amp, LG DVD player, smaller TV, IR repeater). This can be done directly with the button on the circuit breaker, or better yet with any regular frequency IR code you program into it (I'm using EFC 00000 from the Apple TV setting on my universal remote). With the IR code I can effectively switch on/off those six things - when switching off there's about a five second delay between sending the code and power being cut, whereas switching on is instantaneous. Cheap and effective.
(2012-09-20, 11:33)jjd-uk Wrote: (2012-09-18, 14:27)zackpliskin Wrote: I also resized the XBMC Eden logo splash that shows when XBMC loads to 1920x1080 and made sure the logo was exactly the same size as it is there so the logon screen backdrop and the XBMC splash appear identical
Are you saying you've also modified the logon screen to add a XBMC logo to the background?
Yes.
(2012-09-20, 11:33)jjd-uk Wrote: and also modified the Splash.png in the Media directory of XBMC?
No.
(2012-09-20, 11:33)jjd-uk Wrote: so the logo always appears in the same position and same size no matter which stage of the boot process you are at?
Yes. Although when Windows 7 loads the image disappears a few times during different part of the boot process (initial load, auto login, XBMC loading). As far as I know this is unavoidable.
(2012-09-20, 11:33)jjd-uk Wrote: If so I've tried something similar but not been able to get everything to match up exactly yet, so any chance you could share those files as well?
I could, but honestly it would be a bit of a fiddle even if I did. I modified several system files, including authui.dll, winlogon.exe, winlogon.exe.mui and possibly others. This removes most of the "Welcome / Resuming Windows / Logging Off" type text, the user picture on the logon/lock screens etc while keeping important things like System Restore and Update text strings when they appear. I also moved all the text / buttons down so they don't appear in the middle of the XBMC making them difficult to see.
The background image is easy enough to make, simply open XBMC's splash.png, select and resize the logo part to 150%, then paste it into a 1920x1080 (assuming your main display is full HD widescreen of course) image file with a black background. Then there's a registry hack to need to do to enable OEM backgrounds, just one key in the registry right folder I believe, save the image as a JPG file into the correct folder you can find in any good "OEM background Windows 7" tutorial making sure it's less than 256KB.
You might also want to go further and do the transparent cursor hack too - in my case the transparent cursor is the default for Windows 7 before logon, then it discreetly changes to an all black pointer scheme I made based on the Windows 7 large black pointer default setting. I basically just got rid of the white borders so you can't see the pointer when booting WIndows 7 directly to XBMC using EventGhost as an Explorer shell replacement.
As I said, all very fiddly. But I liked the Revo enough as a media centre that I thought it was worth the effort.
It works a treat! Best boot screen intro EVER!