MiniMeedia
#1
Just realised that this forum has been setup (thanks to whoever did it Big Grin) so I thought it's only right that I start posting stuff in here regarding the development of the skin.

At the moment I've probably coded about 80% of the skin (most of the work was done in January) but, as usual the last 20% will probably take 80% of the time!

My current thinking is that djh will be releasing Stark in March/April so there isn't much point in releasing another skin in that time-frame so will probably aim for a May/Jun release. The initial release will probably be similar to that of MediaStream where it's fully functional release but not 100% polished and tested, relying on user feedback to get to a full release stage.

Enough of the side issues, on to the skin itself. Whilst reading through feedback on MediaStream I realised that there were a lot of users out there who seemed to hold fanart and background images in very high regard - even higher than the media in some cases! This skin is supposed to very minimal and show plenty of the fanart/background but still make the skin as usable as possible.

As it stands I have enough stuff to be getting on with but as the release timescales are very relaxed I'm not under pressure to get it done, hence it's been possible for me to develop it on my own. I'll hopefully be keeping this thread up to date with how things are going so people can give me their thoughts/feedback and every now and again I'll post links to packaged versions of the skin that you can play about with (but not release any details to the public forums!)

Screenshot time!

Home screen:
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Movie Poster view:
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TV Show Info:
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Music Showcase-style view:
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#2
As you can see the screenshots in the above post are quite old (they were originally posted as a sneak peek in the public forums) so here are a couple of new screenshots which haven't been posted before:

List View (TV Shows):
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List View (Episodes):
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In the first 4 screenshots the fonts that are used are the same as the ones used in MediaStream (some of the stuff for this skin has been copied/adapted from MS) but since then I've done a bit of playing about with fonts and now use different fonts.

For this skin I'm not planning to include any background images at all, as all the background images will be picked up from fanart images or custom background images. I have a set of images that I'm currently using and I'll probably up those somewhere if people want to use them but in essence the user has full control over what images will be shown in the skin. (A benefit to this approach is that the XPR is very small, currently less than 200KB!)
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#3
I guess one of the major concepts to the design is that I'm trying to keep the centre of the screen free from any text/overlays/dialogs etc which means that I'm trying to fit things around the edges of the screen (and keep them transparent, if possible).

At the moment all dialogs appear from the top and right of the screen are generally anchored around the top right corner. For example the video scan dialog currently looks like the following:

Video Scan:
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#4
Looking good skunk .. I'll have to get a chance to try it out with the new font etc
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#5
Thanks, I plan to post a packaged version of the skin in this thread in the next day or so (zipped up it's less than 650kB) and then people who try it will be able to give proper feedback/suggestions etc.
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#6
Remember to take advantage of the new image control stuff.
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.


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#7
Yep, I just need to add the fadetime tags and see how it works. (BTW Sorry I didn't respond to your email but I've been caught up with all sorts recently and only just came across it yesterday!)
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#8
No worries - basically you can eliminate all the container.onnext/onprevious shenanigans to try and swap backgrounds in a "pretty" manner.
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.


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#9
Cool, I've already done that part a few weeks back so just need the fadetime added. Will let you know how I get on.
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#10
I added the fadetime and it works well apart from when a show has now fanart since in that scenario it will display a custom background image instead, which is done via a mutliimage control, which doesn't have the same fadetime capability?

Have been doing a bit of messing about with the video OSD today:

Video OSD (with Hide Plot option turned on):
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#11
I've created a new topic which contains a version of the skin for people to play with and test - MiniMeedia Testing

There are still LOTS of things I need to tidy up but it should be pretty functional (File Manager is missing) and give you a good idea of the direction I'm headed with it.

Any comments/feedback you have will be gratefully received (except if they're picky! Tongue)
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#12
Been doing a bit more tidying up and tweaking of the skin and have added labels to show what the current content type is (this is not shown by default, needs to be turned on in the options) and also a label to show the current file count (this is shown by default but can be turned off in the options). You can see both of these in the following screenshot:

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I've also done a bit of work on the System Info screen to bring it more into line with the other Settings type screens, it now looks like the following:

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