[bsoriano]

Hello everyone,

I apologize it has taken a lot longer than I expected, but I finally have a version of Amber with skinshortcuts integration for you to test.  

As of right now, it has a different skin id, so you can install it alongside your current Amber version without disrupting your current settings.  The test version is called skin.amber32.  You can only get it at this time from GitHub, at: https://github.com/bartolomesoriano/skin.amber32

What has changed?

• Menu and submenu items are fully customizable.  You can add an unlimited number of menu items and submenu items, name them whatever you want, and reorder them however you want
  
• If you want the skin to start in a specific menu item, make sure it is the third item on your menu, for horizontal menu, the fourth item, for vertical menu, or the sixth item for static vertical menu
  
• Up to 6 shelves per menu item, very customizable as well.
  
• The menu and shelves are customized in a new option in Amber Settings, Home Layout: Customize Menu and Shelves
  
• Backgrounds for each menu item are fully customizable, I have added the options to have random movie fanart, tv show fanart, music fanart, conditional weather and playlist fanart as backgrounds
  
• You can choose to show the title of the fanart being displayed as background, and you can choose the delay between fanart changes in the background
  
• You can choose to not show the fanart for the shelf items
  
• You can choose to not show the shelf until focused (press up from the menu item to focus the shelf)
  
• There is a new System Info shelf
  

What isn't there/limitations?

• You cannot change the type of art or aspect ratio shown for the shelves.  I have kept the same style for each shelf as the current Amber version.  I do not plan on adding this, or providing options for different shelf positions
  
• I added the option of showing two shelves together (similar to the Jarvis shelves in current Amber).  If you enable this option, a maximum of two shelves will be shown (widgets 1 and 2). I do not plan on adding more shelves to this option.
  
• You have to have the first Widget(shelf) for a menu item, or else no shelf is shown for that menu item.  If, for example, you add three widgets for a menu item, and then set the first widget to None, the shelf will not show.  I cannot change this.
  
• You can change the sort order, sort direction and item limit for each widget.  Not all sort order options are valid for each widget type (there are a lot of possible combinations!), so keep that in mind if you don't see the widget sorted by the field you chose.
  

Please download and test thoroughly! I will keep this version totally separate until the bugs/features are worked out with your help.

I know that for all of you who have used skins where the menu is customizable with skinshortcuts, this version will be very familiar.  For those of you that have not, please post your questions in this thread if you get stuck.

Thank you in advance for your patience, and I hope this version meets your expectations.  Please remember it is still a work in progress, so there will be bugs/issues.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

[Aaiemron]

Nice. Looking good. 
Question: Is there a way to show info and plot when pressing pause? I know that pressing the "I" button gives all information, but I personally prefer to see that info on pressing pause. Can you please make that happen?
Thanks and again nice work.

[bsoriano]

Nice. Looking good. 
Question: Is there a way to show info and plot when pressing pause? I know that pressing the "I" button gives all information, but I personally prefer to see that info on pressing pause. Can you please make that happen?
Thanks and again nice work.

@Aaiemron , thanks for your feedback.  Please test the latest from Git, I have added a new option in Amber Settings, General: Show Video Info on Pause.  Set this to Yes.  

After you press pause when playing a movie or episode, the info will show after a few seconds.  I don't plan on including cast info here; you could always use the Info button if you need additional information.

Please let me know if this is what you were looking for.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

[Aaiemron]

Nice. Looking good. 
Question: Is there a way to show info and plot when pressing pause? I know that pressing the "I" button gives all information, but I personally prefer to see that info on pressing pause. Can you please make that happen?
Thanks and again nice work.

@Aaiemron , thanks for your feedback.  Please test the latest from Git, I have added a new option in Amber Settings, General: Show Video Info on Pause.  Set this to Yes.  

After you press pause when playing a movie or episode, the info will show after a few seconds.  I don't plan on including cast info here; you could always use the Info button if you need additional information.

Please let me know if this is what you were looking for.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart  

This is perfect. Thanks for your quick solution. It's working really fine now.

[bsoriano]

Nice. Looking good. 
Question: Is there a way to show info and plot when pressing pause? I know that pressing the "I" button gives all information, but I personally prefer to see that info on pressing pause. Can you please make that happen?
Thanks and again nice work.

@Aaiemron , thanks for your feedback.  Please test the latest from Git, I have added a new option in Amber Settings, General: Show Video Info on Pause.  Set this to Yes.  

After you press pause when playing a movie or episode, the info will show after a few seconds.  I don't plan on including cast info here; you could always use the Info button if you need additional information.

Please let me know if this is what you were looking for.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart   

This is perfect. Thanks for your quick solution. It's working really fine now. 

Thank you for confirming.

Regards,

Bart

[Raitsa]

Not much to report other than this is working perfectly for my humble needs and is my default skin now on 3 Nvidia Shields, a big thank you to bsoriano

[arielf]

Hi, you can modify favorites for different types of widgets, since it shows very small thumbnails, and I would like them to be a little larger in size. , as well as showing thundmails in the pvr channel list
Thank you

[bsoriano]

Hi, you can modify favorites for different types of widgets, since it shows very small thumbnails, and I would like them to be a little larger in size. , as well as showing thundmails in the pvr channel list
Thank you

@arielf , thanks for your feedback.  Unfortunately, I will not change this.  I am keeping the current Amber style for the shelves, and will not implement different artwork or aspect for the widgets.  In current Amber the PVR channel list shows channel logos; I will not be changing this either.

Of course, you are very welcome to mod the skin to suit your needs.  If you do, please share here in the forum, so I can incorporate into the standard skin.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bart

[bsoriano]

Not much to report other than this is working perfectly for my humble needs and is my default skin now on 3 Nvidia Shields, a big thank you to bsoriano

@Raitsa , thank you for your kind words!

Regards,

Bart

[shedrock]

This skin seems to be working fine. I can't find any issues with it at the moment, but I will keep testing it for a couple more days and report back.

Great job!

Shedrock

[bsoriano]

This skin seems to be working fine. I can't find any issues with it at the moment, but I will keep testing it for a couple more days and report back.

Great job!

Shedrock

Thanks a lot @shedrock !

Regards,

Bart

[treboR2Robert]

Hi I have been using your skin alongside PKC (PlexKodiConnect) on my s912 running CoreELEC 9.0.2

First of all I want to say I really like it and thank you.

It seems very snappy throughout the menus but there is a slight problem I have noticed.

I have two widgets set up (on deck and recently added) for each of my 4 libraries.

On deck always seems to take about 5 seconds to change when going through each library, where as recently added takes maybe 1 or 2 seconds.

With every other skin I have tried this is instant, which is strange because your skin seems cleaner and lighter than all the others.

Any ideas ?

Thank You

Oh and I know you said you wouldn't change any of the layout but was wondering if that applied to vertical layout too ? which is what I am using.

I find the list text on the left to be a bit small and the area designated to it too big.

Also it would be nice if the widgets could be in the centre of the screen rather than offset near the top.

[bsoriano]

Hi I have been using your skin alongside PKC (PlexKodiConnect) on my s912 running CoreELEC 9.0.2

First of all I want to say I really like it and thank you.

It seems very snappy throughout the menus but there is a slight problem I have noticed.

I have two widgets set up (on deck and recently added) for each of my 4 libraries.

On deck always seems to take about 5 seconds to change when going through each library, where as recently added takes maybe 1 or 2 seconds.

With every other skin I have tried this is instant, which is strange because your skin seems cleaner and lighter than all the others.

Any ideas ?

Thank You

Oh and I know you said you wouldn't change any of the layout but was wondering if that applied to vertical layout too ? which is what I am using.

I find the list text on the left to be a bit small and the area designated to it too big.

Also it would be nice if the widgets could be in the centre of the screen rather than offset near the top.

@treboR2Robert , thank you for your feedback!

I am not sure what is going on with the On Deck widget.  Right now I do not have any integration with PKC, so the skin is not optimized at all for it.  I have this in my To-Do list, but I need to iron out all the bugs/issues with skinshortcuts integration before I move to integration with PKC/Emby for Kodi.

In terms of the vertical menu, the space to the left is there for the submenu options.  I am not really good with the design/animation part of skinning, so this is something that for now I do not plan to change.  

I will look into moving the shelf to the center of the screen for vertical menu.

Regards,

Bart

[treboR2Robert]

Hi I have been using your skin alongside PKC (PlexKodiConnect) on my s912 running CoreELEC 9.0.2

First of all I want to say I really like it and thank you.

It seems very snappy throughout the menus but there is a slight problem I have noticed.

I have two widgets set up (on deck and recently added) for each of my 4 libraries.

On deck always seems to take about 5 seconds to change when going through each library, where as recently added takes maybe 1 or 2 seconds.

With every other skin I have tried this is instant, which is strange because your skin seems cleaner and lighter than all the others.

Any ideas ?

Thank You

Oh and I know you said you wouldn't change any of the layout but was wondering if that applied to vertical layout too ? which is what I am using.

I find the list text on the left to be a bit small and the area designated to it too big.

Also it would be nice if the widgets could be in the centre of the screen rather than offset near the top.

@treboR2Robert , thank you for your feedback!

I am not sure what is going on with the On Deck widget.  Right now I do not have any integration with PKC, so the skin is not optimized at all for it.  I have this in my To-Do list, but I need to iron out all the bugs/issues with skinshortcuts integration before I move to integration with PKC/Emby for Kodi.

In terms of the vertical menu, the space to the left is there for the submenu options.  I am not really good with the design/animation part of skinning, so this is something that for now I do not plan to change.  

I will look into moving the shelf to the center of the screen for vertical menu.

Regards,

Bart 

Thanks for the reply Bart.

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with PKC or if it is the same for normal widgets, I just thought I should give you all the details.

I see what you mean about the sub menu things, although I personally don't use them.

How about just making the font a few sizes larger for the vertical menu list ?

And yes centering the shelves would be good.

Thank you

[bsoriano]

Hi I have been using your skin alongside PKC (PlexKodiConnect) on my s912 running CoreELEC 9.0.2

First of all I want to say I really like it and thank you.

It seems very snappy throughout the menus but there is a slight problem I have noticed.

I have two widgets set up (on deck and recently added) for each of my 4 libraries.

On deck always seems to take about 5 seconds to change when going through each library, where as recently added takes maybe 1 or 2 seconds.

With every other skin I have tried this is instant, which is strange because your skin seems cleaner and lighter than all the others.

Any ideas ?

Thank You

Oh and I know you said you wouldn't change any of the layout but was wondering if that applied to vertical layout too ? which is what I am using.

I find the list text on the left to be a bit small and the area designated to it too big.

Also it would be nice if the widgets could be in the centre of the screen rather than offset near the top.

@treboR2Robert , thank you for your feedback!

I am not sure what is going on with the On Deck widget.  Right now I do not have any integration with PKC, so the skin is not optimized at all for it.  I have this in my To-Do list, but I need to iron out all the bugs/issues with skinshortcuts integration before I move to integration with PKC/Emby for Kodi.

In terms of the vertical menu, the space to the left is there for the submenu options.  I am not really good with the design/animation part of skinning, so this is something that for now I do not plan to change.  

I will look into moving the shelf to the center of the screen for vertical menu.

Regards,

Bart  

Thanks for the reply Bart.

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with PKC or if it is the same for normal widgets, I just thought I should give you all the details.

I see what you mean about the sub menu things, although I personally don't use them.

How about just making the font a few sizes larger for the vertical menu list ?

And yes centering the shelves would be good.

Thank you 

@treboR2Robert , I will look into adding an option to choose a larger font size for the vertical menu, as well as disabling the submenus completely and reducing the space to the left of the main menu options.  I just cannot commit to a time right now when these options will be completed.

Regards,

Bart