[zorg2000k]

Hello all,

I have uploaded versions 3.2.114 (Leia) and 3.4.5 (Matrix) to GitHub and the Amber repos.  The main changes are:

1. Three Options for Default Font Size.  Amber now supports three options for default font size: Small, Regular and Large.  Regular is the default.  The font size affects primarily settings screens, select dialogs, and context menus.  They do not affect media views.  You can find the new setting here:



Small looks like this:



Regular looks like this:



And large looks like this:



Please don't ask me to implement the three different sizes in media views as well.  Unfortunately, I will not, since it would mean redesigning all media views, twice for each view.  That is way too much work that I do not intend to take on.

2.  Fully-featured Now Playing information.  Thanks to the gracious help of @Mr. V , who let me adapt his code and use his textures, and some great requests from @shedrock , Amber now has detailed Now Playing information for both videos and music.  There are multiple options to choose from.  I urge you to try them, to see what you like.  I will briefly explain them in this post.

There is a new Skin Settings section, Now Playing, that looks like this:



Some notes on the settings you see there:

- Disable Now Playing: if you set this to Yes, there will be no Now Playing info shown in the home window.  Only the info on the top bar (like you see in the screenshot) would remain, if you have that enabled.  This is the equivalent to what Amber had until this version.

- Show Video in the Background: If you set this to Yes, playing video will be shown in the background in the Home window (and everywhere).  With this option enabled, you cannot set Now Playing Info for Movies/Episodes or Other Videos to Preview.

As you can see from the above, you can show extra art (Logo, Disc Art) in the Now Playing info for videos and music.  Disc Art is shown spinning.  You can decide what to use as fallback if the video or music do not have disc art.  For example, this is the dialog you get when you click on "Select Disc Art Fallback for Video":



As you can see there are multiple options, including CDs of different colors, vinyl and blu-ray.  Please do not ask me to implement a "fake disc art" for Now Playing.  I am not planning on doing this.

- Select Now Playing Info for Movies/Episodes:  You can choose what type of info you would like to present when Now Playing.  There are multiple options to choose from, as shown here:



When you move through the options, you get a preview of what it would look like.  As an example, this is what the "Preview" option for movies/episodes looks like (in this case, with a movie):



As you can see from the above screenshot, fallback disc art is being shown, since I do not have disc art for this movie, and the movie logo is also being shown.  The mini video preview window is at the bottom.  If you enable the setting "Enlarge Video Preview when Idle", then, after 8 seconds (I will not be changing that interval, please do not ask), the video preview window gets enlarged and looks like this:



It is important to note that when Now Playing is being shown, widgets (shelves) are automatically hidden.  You can show them again by pressing Up.

There are similar options for other videos, with the exception of Cast.

- Select Now Playing Info for Music:  Again, there are multiple options to choose from; please try them out and see what you like.  The options dialog looks like this:



While Now Playing, if you have Extra Fanart enabled in the skin settings, extra fanart for the now playing item will be shown in the background.  You can either have this extra fanart in an "extrafanart" folder, or loaded into the Kodi db.  Both options work for movies and episodes.  For music, you need to have the extra fanart loaded into the Kodi db.

Please test thoroughly, as this is a big feature.  Thanks.

For @Cyberdom and others who use the skin in a different language than English, these are the new strings that need translation:

1. Select Default Font Size
2. Small
3. Regular
4. Large
5. Apply Changes
6. Now Playing
7. Hide Title Bar Now Playing
8. Select Now Playing Video Disc Art Fallback
9. Select Now Playing Music Disc Art Fallback
10. Blu-Ray
11. Vinyl
12. None
13 White
14. Blue
15. Golden
16. Green
17. Grey
18. Orange
19. Purple
20. Red
21. Select Now Playing Info for Movies/Episodes
22. Select Now Playing Info for other Videos
23. Select Now Playing Info for Music
24. Show Video in the Background
25. Show Music Visualization in the Background
26. Show Extra Art for Video
27. Show Extra Art for Music
28. Show Logo
29. Show Disc Art
30. Select Disc Art Fallback for Video
31. Select Disc Art Fallback for Music
32. Disable Now Playing
33. Internet Stream
34. Special
35. Next Tracks
36. Album Review
37. Artist Bio
38. Enlarge Video Preview when Idle

Please download, test, and let me know what you think and if you find any issues.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

Updated on Matrix and now playing on main screen is working, looks great thanks. One thing I meant to ask a while back is there any thoughts on updating the Music full screen layout ? I find the current fullscreen music playing screen largely covers the artist artwork (more transparent may look better), I've created a quick and dirty photoshop of something I thought may work for Amber, not sure your thoughts Bart.

Current Music playing screen;


Quick and Dirty Photoshop thoughts