Login at Kodi Home

Mesoptier · 2013-01-13, 16:00

First of all, hello!
My name is Koen, I am from the Netherlands. I've been into TV shows for a while, but I've only been using XBMC for a few months now. But I feel like there aren't a lot of good looking themes, and none that I could use without being bugged by small mistakes. So I started creating my own skins. First I made a very simple metro-style skin, but after using that for a while I wanted something less plain. That's where Para comes in, just as simple, but not as plain.

I am still working on the skin, there is a lot I have to implement, but it's a start. Any comments and advice are welcome.

Home - I am still looking for a better idea for this window.

Poster view

List view

Check out the other screenshots here: http://imgur.com/a/NkKsK

Jakobsen · 2013-01-13, 16:06

I like the simplicity of the home screen and TV show info view. Great work.

Amelandbor · 2013-01-13, 18:30

Looks like a great clean skin.

vorifi · 2013-01-13, 21:21

Very nice! I've been wanting to design a real minimal skin myself for a while now. I really love the clutter free design! One thing; with all the minimalism; why keep the time in the right corner? I've always wondered why we would need the time displayed on the tv. I've got enough devices (clocks, phones, tablets) to tell me what time it is. I would leave that sucker out, but that's just me ;-)

swetoast · 2013-01-13, 21:43

Looking forward to this skin Smile

keep it clean and simple and it will be huge

Mesoptier · 2013-01-13, 22:20

(2013-01-13, 21:21)vorifi Wrote: Very nice! I've been wanting to design a real minimal skin myself for a while now. I really love the clutter free design! One thing; with all the minimalism; why keep the time in the right corner? I've always wondered why we would need the time displayed on the tv. I've got enough devices (clocks, phones, tablets) to tell me what time it is. I would leave that sucker out, but that's just me ;-)

Absolutely, I'm adding an option right away, so I don't forget about it Wink

Thanks for the nice response everyone!

holydhaliwal · (This post was last modified: 2013-01-13, 22:22 by holydhaliwal.)

Looks pretty awesome. I'm not sure if this is just a personal preference of mine but I usually have my xbmc set up to have the default action upon selection to show the info dialogue as apposed to playing it right away, so perhaps you might consider adding a 'Play' Option and even a 'Trailer' option in your info screen. Love the look though and was pleasently surprised by how well the wood background fit in as well.

Also another idea here, as much as I love poster views and large fanart views I tend to find them too much of a hassle when browsing large library's. For example I have 52 TV shows and ~300 movies on my setup and find browsing through that many titles takes way too long when using the typical artwork heavy view types (I do usually keep the poster views for browsing tv shows at the season level though as I find it suits it perfectly.) However one example of a skin and view type that incorporates artwork with ease of browsing the best imo is Black's xperience1080 list view, here's an example:

Now I'm obviously not saying go outright and copy it haha I'm just saying that I would love to see more skins include clever viewtypes like this. Even with the wealth of information provided by this viewtype you are still treated with large and beautiful artwork. Anyways just my 2 cents, I do love what you've come up with so far though! Good luck.

Mesoptier · 2013-01-13, 22:38

(2013-01-13, 22:21)holydhaliwal Wrote: Looks pretty awesome. I'm not sure if this is just a personal preference of mine but I usually have my xbmc set up to have the default action upon selection to show the info dialogue as apposed to playing it right away, so perhaps you might consider adding a 'Play' Option and even a 'Trailer' option in your info screen. Love the look though and was pleasently surprised by how well the wood background fit in as well.

Also another idea here, as much as I love poster views and large fanart views I tend to find them too much of a hassle when browsing large library's. For example I have 52 TV shows and ~300 movies on my setup and find browsing through that many titles takes way too long when using the typical artwork heavy view types (I do usually keep the poster views for browsing tv shows at the season level though as I find it suits it perfectly.) However one example of a skin and view type that incorporates artwork with ease of browsing the best imo is Black's xperience1080 list view, here's an example:

Now I'm obviously not saying go outright and copy it haha I'm just saying that I would love to see more skins include clever viewtypes like this. Even with the wealth of information provided by this viewtype you are still treated with large and beautiful artwork. Anyways just my 2 cents, I do love what you've come up with so far though! Good luck.

I realised that earlier today, I already added the Play/Browse option back in. The trailer option always was there, but I hid it for TV Shows, I don't think they have trailers?
I've only added 2 view types so far, but I already have some others planned. I'll look into some medium size views. Smile

By the way, I think I forgot to add this screenshot earlier, it's the videoplayer screen.

**Hitcher** · 2013-01-14, 00:50

(2013-01-13, 22:38)Mesoptier Wrote: The trailer option always was there, but I hid it for TV Shows, I don't think they have trailers?

Code:
<visible>!IsEmpty(ListItem.Trailer)</visible>

Mesoptier · 2013-01-14, 01:24

(2013-01-14, 00:50)Hitcher Wrote:
(2013-01-13, 22:38)Mesoptier Wrote: The trailer option always was there, but I hid it for TV Shows, I don't think they have trailers?

Code:
<visible>!IsEmpty(ListItem.Trailer)</visible>

That's what I used to hide it Smile

**Hitcher** · 2013-01-14, 10:42

Sorry, I thought you were just hiding it for TV Shows. Wink

jdbrookes · 2013-01-14, 13:02

This looks like it would be quite lean on resources, have you tried it on a raspberry pi xbmc install? raspbmc and openelec could really do with a basic modern skin that performs well on this cheap hardware! Great work.

TjaLfE · 2013-01-14, 13:36

WOW, that's a freakin' nice skin. Really like the clean look.

I hope this will end up as a real released skin Smile

Keep up the good work, and i will be happy to alpha/beta test it Smile

vorifi · 2013-01-14, 14:35

That videoplayer overlay looks awesome dude! As long as you keep your concept clear of clutter and are able to resist adding options to suit wishes of others I think you've got winner! Keep it simple! Love it!

Mesoptier · 2013-01-14, 16:01

(2013-01-14, 14:35)vorifi Wrote: That videoplayer overlay looks awesome dude! As long as you keep your concept clear of clutter and are able to resist adding options to suit wishes of others I think you've got winner! Keep it simple! Love it!

That's the problem with a simple theme like this; to keep it all clean I'll have to leave stuff out, stuff some people might want. So I will have to add options for certain things, but I'll try to limit them.