2020-03-01, 14:47
Hi BeatmasterRS,
Some more observations / bugs (In no particular order) I have run across in the last week. Some of these are pretty minor, but are issues nonetheless. I am a bit OCD about the way things look.
1. Music OSD - (scrolling) Text Length Issue:
A setting in the Music OSD overlaps the checkbox to enable / disable it. It's a marquee setting label, so does scroll, but it's still too long for the dialog window it resides in.
OSD Menu (Music) - Hide scrolling text on music visualization setting.
2. Next Aired Information - Placeholder (TV Shows):
There's a label present for all TV shows in the library with "Next Aired" TV Show / Episode functionality added. This info, in situations where there is no "Next Aired" add-on installed or there are no upcoming air dates for the selected show / episode, the skin falls back to this rather quirky and somewhat redundant default label. If there is no "upcoming" episode data for a given show or the add-on isn't installed, not displaying anything I think is a better choice. This one is a carry-over (if memory serves) from the original Arctic Zephyr skin. Present at the "TV-Show", "Season" and "Episode" levels.
TV Show - Next Aired / Upcoming episode placeholder
3. Duplicated / Inconsistent PVR Logo Positioning:
There is a second (minaturised) copy of the PVR logo to the left of the channel thumbnail, however in some cases it overlaps the thumbnail image, and since the option to display the channel logo in the channel list (with or without additional channel number) exists, the second logo is somewhat redundant, and too small to be of much practical use in any case.
Live TV - Second PVR channel logo
4. PVR (Digital) Radio Channel Logos - Fullscreen Music Player:
When listening to PVR digital radio channels, the standard PVR logo for that channel is used in the fullscreen music screen. Unfortunately these logos do not conform to the same rules used for music cover artwork. The first problem being that the logo isn't scaled to fit the CD case, the second being that the transparency results in weird display of the CD disc image, and finally, that since this is a broadcast (OTA) stream, the very presence of the CD case and or / CD disc image is somewhat redundant since neither are relevant to the stream type being played...
Fullscreen Music - PVR Radio Channels
...The same applies to internet radio streams. While it is music, it's not "CD-based" music, so maybe the CD case and disc image should be removed for internet streams as well, but retain the cover artwork (with or without a standard border)...
Digitally Imported - Internet Music Stream
5. Video OSD - TV Shows, Movies & Live TV (Feedback):
There doesn't seem to be any backdrop for the fullscreen video OSD panel. Not sure whether this is a bug or by design. However, at a distance the icons are hard to see against the background video image (The supplied screenshot is a bad example). Also, if the transparent background is by design, I feel the row of icons should be a bit lower down on the screen. Also, maybe instead of a background, perhaps dimming the video with the OSD panel visible would make the buttons stand out more, or even simply adding some shadowing to the button icons & text labels. The text labels either side of the playback controls could also do with being expanded in width. There is plenty of space to extend them in size, and make them more readable.
Now Playing Video - OSD Panel
6. Borders - Revisited (Feedback):
No screenshots for this one but I'm seeing some inconsistencies with the borders for the default (curved) theme. Larger items like large posters and CD covers are fine, but smaller items like small CD cover artwork (icon view), dialog progress notifications and posters for movies and TV shows are still looking "pinched" at the corners. Also, on large posters, the border isn't equal in width around the entire poster for both the default theme and for the "Flat" theme. The left and bottom sides are thicker than the top and right sides slightly. Not sure if your done with your testing on this, so if you want screenshot examples, let me know.
EDIT: 7. Persistent On Screen Music Info (Feature Request):
Would it be possible to have the option to have the display of Album Artwork, CD Disc image, ClearLogo / ClearART, Artist Information (If Enabled) and seek bar made persistent please? Currently, this disappears after about 3 seconds from the start of the track. Quite often, when playing a new album, I glance at the TV to see the name of a playing track, but it's after the 3 second timeout so I need to return to the previous screen to see the track information. Also, with "Artist Information" enabled, there's not enough time to read the artist biography before the whole thing disappears off the screen. Especially when it uses vertically scrolling text. Maybe add a few preset timeout values like 5, 10, 30 seconds as well as an "Always On" setting?
Music Visualization Screen - Artist Information
Regards,
Dan / Gib.
Some more observations / bugs (In no particular order) I have run across in the last week. Some of these are pretty minor, but are issues nonetheless. I am a bit OCD about the way things look.
1. Music OSD - (scrolling) Text Length Issue:
A setting in the Music OSD overlaps the checkbox to enable / disable it. It's a marquee setting label, so does scroll, but it's still too long for the dialog window it resides in.
OSD Menu (Music) - Hide scrolling text on music visualization setting.
2. Next Aired Information - Placeholder (TV Shows):
There's a label present for all TV shows in the library with "Next Aired" TV Show / Episode functionality added. This info, in situations where there is no "Next Aired" add-on installed or there are no upcoming air dates for the selected show / episode, the skin falls back to this rather quirky and somewhat redundant default label. If there is no "upcoming" episode data for a given show or the add-on isn't installed, not displaying anything I think is a better choice. This one is a carry-over (if memory serves) from the original Arctic Zephyr skin. Present at the "TV-Show", "Season" and "Episode" levels.
TV Show - Next Aired / Upcoming episode placeholder
3. Duplicated / Inconsistent PVR Logo Positioning:
There is a second (minaturised) copy of the PVR logo to the left of the channel thumbnail, however in some cases it overlaps the thumbnail image, and since the option to display the channel logo in the channel list (with or without additional channel number) exists, the second logo is somewhat redundant, and too small to be of much practical use in any case.
Live TV - Second PVR channel logo
4. PVR (Digital) Radio Channel Logos - Fullscreen Music Player:
When listening to PVR digital radio channels, the standard PVR logo for that channel is used in the fullscreen music screen. Unfortunately these logos do not conform to the same rules used for music cover artwork. The first problem being that the logo isn't scaled to fit the CD case, the second being that the transparency results in weird display of the CD disc image, and finally, that since this is a broadcast (OTA) stream, the very presence of the CD case and or / CD disc image is somewhat redundant since neither are relevant to the stream type being played...
Fullscreen Music - PVR Radio Channels
...The same applies to internet radio streams. While it is music, it's not "CD-based" music, so maybe the CD case and disc image should be removed for internet streams as well, but retain the cover artwork (with or without a standard border)...
Digitally Imported - Internet Music Stream
5. Video OSD - TV Shows, Movies & Live TV (Feedback):
There doesn't seem to be any backdrop for the fullscreen video OSD panel. Not sure whether this is a bug or by design. However, at a distance the icons are hard to see against the background video image (The supplied screenshot is a bad example). Also, if the transparent background is by design, I feel the row of icons should be a bit lower down on the screen. Also, maybe instead of a background, perhaps dimming the video with the OSD panel visible would make the buttons stand out more, or even simply adding some shadowing to the button icons & text labels. The text labels either side of the playback controls could also do with being expanded in width. There is plenty of space to extend them in size, and make them more readable.
Now Playing Video - OSD Panel
6. Borders - Revisited (Feedback):
No screenshots for this one but I'm seeing some inconsistencies with the borders for the default (curved) theme. Larger items like large posters and CD covers are fine, but smaller items like small CD cover artwork (icon view), dialog progress notifications and posters for movies and TV shows are still looking "pinched" at the corners. Also, on large posters, the border isn't equal in width around the entire poster for both the default theme and for the "Flat" theme. The left and bottom sides are thicker than the top and right sides slightly. Not sure if your done with your testing on this, so if you want screenshot examples, let me know.
EDIT: 7. Persistent On Screen Music Info (Feature Request):
Would it be possible to have the option to have the display of Album Artwork, CD Disc image, ClearLogo / ClearART, Artist Information (If Enabled) and seek bar made persistent please? Currently, this disappears after about 3 seconds from the start of the track. Quite often, when playing a new album, I glance at the TV to see the name of a playing track, but it's after the 3 second timeout so I need to return to the previous screen to see the track information. Also, with "Artist Information" enabled, there's not enough time to read the artist biography before the whole thing disappears off the screen. Especially when it uses vertically scrolling text. Maybe add a few preset timeout values like 5, 10, 30 seconds as well as an "Always On" setting?
Music Visualization Screen - Artist Information
Regards,
Dan / Gib.
