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Kodi 19.0 "Matrix" support
#1
Are there any plans to support Kodi 19.0 "Matrix"?Are there any plans to support Kodi 19.0 "Matrix"?


Moderator Edit

A working version of Transparency! for Matrix v19 can be found in this post... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3092086
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#2
nope
Do not PM or e-mail Team-Kodi members directly asking for support.
Always read the Forum rules, Kodi online-manual, FAQ, Help and Search the forum before posting.
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#3
(2021-02-20, 19:00)ronie Wrote: nope

Can that be true that there is absolutely no plans to port transparency skin to Kodi 19.x Matrix?

Not anytime in the future even? Is it the end of the line for transparency! ??

I'm sure there's many others like me that would find that truly disappointing news if it's true. Is there any specific reason for this in or did the authors of transparency just stop making updates? Is there a chance if donations are made or something?

I'll miss the menu customization and the fanart views and much more. Mostly I will miss how it makes Kodi look so much different than Plex.
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#4
(2021-02-20, 19:44)ringding Wrote: did the authors of transparency
"ronie' is the sole author and performance mystro/artist/coder (abet with some legacy code, and a cadre of friends) and has likely decided to move on to new interests and indeed has taken on new duties with Kodi (we are all so grateful to still have him around). I do agree Transparency! was the best Kodi skin, I was privileged to enjoy it for many moons, the skinning effort must have been all consuming. Matrix offers many changes to the code base that would entail a gargantuan re-write of any skin and it's likely that many other skins will be depreciated as well.

In retrospect, if you don't need all the bells & whistles that matrix offers, then there is no need atm to install Matrix, OTH: portable mode allows you to keep Transparency with Leia 18.9 on your desktop and keep it for a long future, and still enjoy Matrix.
(2021-02-20, 19:44)ringding Wrote: Is it the end of the line for transparency!
It's all open source, so the end of the line isn't an appropriate statement when anyone jump in with a fork and spoon.
(2021-02-20, 19:44)ringding Wrote: Mostly I will miss how it makes Kodi look
Me too, sniff...
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#5
Ronie, thanks for providing us with the best skin for the last I don't know how many years. It'll be tough finding a replacement.
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#6
Today Kodi updated itself automatically (Windows Store version). I lost everything. Transparency skin, addons, settings...

Now I come here to hear that this beautiful skin will never be updated by its author... I've had better days !
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#7
(2021-02-23, 21:31)Bidule200 Wrote: I've had better days !
Me too... suggest Kodi Leia 18.9 in portable mode with Transparency!
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#8
(2021-02-20, 20:27)PatK Wrote:
(2021-02-20, 19:44)ringding Wrote: did the authors of transparency
"ronie' is the sole author and performance mystro/artist/coder (abet with some legacy code, and a cadre of friends) and has likely decided to move on to new interests and indeed has taken on new duties with Kodi (we are all so grateful to still have him around). I do agree Transparency! was the best Kodi skin, I was privileged to enjoy it for many moons, the skinning effort must have been all consuming. Matrix offers many changes to the code base that would entail a gargantuan re-write of any skin and it's likely that many other skins will be depreciated as well.

In retrospect, if you don't need all the bells & whistles that matrix offers, then there is no need atm to install Matrix, OTH: portable mode allows you to keep Transparency with Leia 18.9 on your desktop and keep it for a long future, and still enjoy Matrix.
(2021-02-20, 19:44)ringding Wrote: Is it the end of the line for transparency!
It's all open source, so the end of the line isn't an appropriate statement when anyone jump in with a fork and spoon.
(2021-02-20, 19:44)ringding Wrote: Mostly I will miss how it makes Kodi look
Me too, sniff...
PatK: I didn't know that there was a single person doing Transparency... So please tell ronie that he has a loyal following that will miss his work... If he created Transparency! and is still an asset to the Kodi development team, I think you (and everyone) is lucky to have him still in the game.

I appreciate all the info... For some reason the 1st answer to this thread of "Nope" left me feeling as if there was no appreciation or care for the members (well, sole member) of the addon, and his good work deserves the better "obit" that you provided.

I have an Nvidia Shield TV (Pro) and I will not update to Kodi 19.x for as long as possible... Guess I'll test out Matrix on my laptop and see what the available skins are and if i can find a new favorite.

I have the Shield set to not auto-update apps, but I THINK that when there was a Shield OS upgrade (aka Shield Experience upgrade or whatever) last time that Google Play reverted to auto-update apps.  So I hope that when the next shield OS upgrade comes out that I can remember to quickly (post upgrade reboot) go and make sure that Google Play doesn't "toggle" auto-update apps back on so i can stick with 18.9.  All the settings for passthrough audio and HW decoding are perfect for my needs, and I think I am addicted to Transparency! I hope ronie hears that and realizes that he created something great and that there are those like me that don't want to move on...

@ronie ... Thank you for the years of enjoyment your solo project has provided me and I am sure many others, it's really appreciated and will be sorely missed!! THANK YOU!!! 

So, @PatK , maybe you can tell me that if I tried to "hold on" to ronie's skin and Kodi accidentally gets updated on the Nvidia Shield TV Pro, can it be deleted and then reinstalled via side-loading an .apk?  Or any method to install an "older version" of Kodi on the Nvidia Shield TV Pro (2019)?

PatK: Thanks for taking the time to explain the situation besides just saying "Nope".  Good work should be praised and the person/people who did it deserve recognition. ronie; you rock!!
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#9
(2021-02-20, 19:00)ronie Wrote: nope
First of all, Ronie, thank you very much for your work. I will really miss it but I understand the need to move on new things and new projects.

I've used Kodi since very early on, when it was called "XBMP" (not that modern "XBMC" denomination, that kids with their funky new names...  Wink ) on good old XBOX original.

Unfortunately Kodi had felt to me stagnant for a long time now, with upgrades I cannot understand why are developed while things like having the kodi configuration and above all the database shared and well kept among different machines is left out. That never worked and didn't seem to have been even seriously considered as something worth to work on. The interface was so good and I was so used to it, that even so I kept using Kodi mostly for nostalgia... but today it has auto-upgraded on my nvidia box, T! is missing and the interface is so different that it doesn't feel even interesting to me to explore, or to work the details to install an old version and put Transparency! on it. Simply put, Kodi is not that useful anymore. If you do not want to mess with interface (T! was perfect, why use anything else?) and are not interested in stream addons (that are either of very limited functionality or illegal, and many of them both) I don't know w¡hy bother. Kodi didn't offer anything to play my own media on my own network that Plex doesn't already do much better and with much less effort. In my opinion ST:TNG peaked at 3-4 season, then continued for a while before coming to an end, and just the same, I suppose Kodi peaked for me a few years ago and finishes today. It was great but all good thinks come to an end.

So I will delete it from all the machines I use (to have to configure each and every one was a PIA that I will certainly not miss). Not having a shared database I think it has always been the worst omission, the mysql shared database never worked OK and I think it was abandoned many years ago... I tried it on its time but every couple years it got corrupted or had to be reconfigured for every machine... not good.

Unfortunately I cannot think about many Kodi use cases outside those who developt it for fun or for all those that love their pirate addons (I suppose that what most people use it now for, unfortunately).

In any case, thank you Ronie, thank to all Kodi developers and good luck forever.
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#10
(2021-02-25, 20:26)ringding Wrote: can it be deleted and then reinstalled via side-loading an .apk?
No issues, ensure you have the .apk for a side-load handy.
(2021-02-26, 00:50)pko66 Wrote: Kodi is not that useful anymore.
I do note the differences between 'Plex' and 'Kodi' for me; involves a web log-in, sharing collection information with unknown sources and dependant on external services, (don't lose your internet connection) along with customization, control, and the free open source aspect. As commercial interests enter the streaming media market with almost unlimited resources and disguised agenda, Kodi add-ons take a back seat to the online wars. For me it was never about online streaming and all the other possibilities and capabilities (although I confess to appreciating such), it was always the local library and my personal media content (setting up the candy bar so-to-speak) . Kodi has never been a disappointment, support by this community is terrific. I expect the future will evolve to take advantage of new hardware, the expectations of the community and interests of the developers.

I do regret the constraints that cov-id has brought to the industry, and some of the sub par content that brings down our expectations of the media. But looking back, I see all the content from the classics and the great creations of a long past era and wonder how many dig deep enough into content to appreciate media/authors/directors from generations past. I suggest you dig deeper for renewal than ST-NG and set your sights on some of the masters of the industry. I've strayed way beyond the o/p topic in trying to bring some tribute and closure to one of the best skins IMHO that emerged, but suggest the end is only a personal choice.

Kodi is just a tool and how you use it is your business. Transparency gave the tool more usefulness than it was designed to be, I can not praise 'ronie' enough for his thousands of hours of support and only wish the best for everyone involved and thank them for this work-in-progress and trust the best is yet to come.
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#11
(2021-02-26, 20:04)PatK Wrote:
(2021-02-25, 20:26)ringding Wrote:  
Kodi is just a tool and how you use it is your business. Transparency gave the tool more usefulness than it was designed to be, I can not praise 'ronie' enough for his thousands of hours of support and only wish the best for everyone involved and thank them for this work-in-progress and trust the best is yet to come.
Thank You Ronie , Embracing change has lead me to "quartz" .If we could add additional fanart settings and shorter time intervals It would be a clear replacement for "transparency! ". I have used that skin for many years now , and I am very sad to see it die . If any other Transparency! users are having luck with other skins, please let me know ! My library is local and I don't care for streaming .
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#12
(2021-02-20, 19:00)ronie Wrote: nope
Do you want nothing to do with it anymore?  Or is it just that you don't have the time to update the code?
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#13
In case anyone is trying to get this to work for v19.  I downloaded the source as a zip file from "https://gitlab.com/ronie/skin.transparency/".  Then edited the following three lines in addon.xml:

xml:
<addon id="skin.transparency" name="Transparency!" provider-name="ronie" version="11.1.0">
<import addon="xbmc.gui" version="5.15.0" />
<!-- <import addon="service.skin.widgets" version="0.0.30" /> -->

things to note:
  I don't know what I am doing, so make a backup since I have no idea what this could break
  I was getting an error for service.skin.widgets, and it didn't look like there was an update for that addon, so I just commented it out and I was able to install the zip successfully
  The only widgets I think I use are the ones that list the new media added on the home screen, and they don't work as that addon is commented out
  This worked on my nVidia Shield and test linux VM
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#14
FYI, you can download scott967's fork of service.skin.widgets from https://github.com/scott967/service.skin...ee/python3 and then install that zip before installing (or updating with oscar13sd's changes) Transparency and it should work. 

@oscar13sd, are you using local or remote artwork? If remote, are you able to see specific TV season posters? I have found that with these updates, a couple weird artwork things are happening that I don't know if they are a Transparency issue or a Kodi with Transparency issue. TV season posters are no longer showing up and are only the blank blue camera icon, and I've noticed too that if you play a movie and then pause, usually the poster for the movie would come up, but now only the squished file thumbnail in poster size comes up. Do you have these same issues?
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#15
(2021-03-02, 01:54)hhjrxymos Wrote: FYI, you can download scott967's fork of service.skin.widgets from https://github.com/scott967/service.skin...ee/python3 and then install that zip before installing (or updating with oscar13sd's changes) Transparency and it should work. 

@oscar13sd, are you using local or remote artwork? If remote, are you able to see specific TV season posters? I have found that with these updates, a couple weird artwork things are happening that I don't know if they are a Transparency issue or a Kodi with Transparency issue. TV season posters are no longer showing up and are only the blank blue camera icon, and I've noticed too that if you play a movie and then pause, usually the poster for the movie would come up, but now only the squished file thumbnail in poster size comes up. Do you have these same issues?

that does indeed work, but i had to edit the following line in addon.xml:

<import addon="xbmc.json" version="12.0.0"/> to
<import addon="xbmc.json" version="11.2.0"/>

this has solved to recently added! the only other thing i noticed was the weather settings were squashed to the top of the screen, but i set those values in a previous skin.

as for your artwork issue, i had the same solved by doing the following:

for movies you need MOVIENAME-poster.jpg AND MOVIENAME-thumb.jpg
for tvshows you need season0X-poster.jpg
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Kodi 19.0 "Matrix" support0