4:3 skin ::: aMPed 2.0 final (2 Viewers)

[darkside40]

I will try to setup the plugin today and to get some testdata in it, that didnt worked so well the last time i tried.

Sure i am willing to help you out with that and to test it, i would also try it by myself but i have no experience with skinning or XML, so i let it better do the pro's

 

[Dadeo]

Well I am no pro skinner! LOL but I do know TVSeries very well so that will help. Of course TVSeries is the most complex and sophisticated plugin in MP, the skin xml is a real brain twister. And although anime2 is based on it the skin file structure looks different. But it will be fun to give it a go! Are there any small anime files I could download to get some test data?

I don't even know what Kanji and Romaji Titles are! And I assume the rotator titles are for Japanese?

 

[darkside40]

Depends on what you think is small.
There is an anime named Golgo 30 whicht is subbed by an Group named Subs4u.
Each Episode ca. 175MB.

 

[Dadeo]

darkside Thanks - I sent you a PM

 

[Dadeo]

NEW BASIC HOME is now in SVN. It looks like the current MyHome (see screenshot) however it has several features:

1. Press the Left arrow for submenus!
2. Press the Right arrow (on main menu) for Exit Menu
3. The main menu options can be set to go to whatever program you like (i.e. I will be setting MyVideos to TVSeries and Movies to MyFilms, News to Infoservice, etc.)

All plugins supported by aMPed 2.1 are listed. MP features are always the defaults, so currently:

• News -> RSS News
• Music -> Music Shares
• Videos -> Video Shares
• Movies -> Video Titles
• TV -> TV Home
• Plugins -> Plugins
• Games -> Tetris

You can easily change these once you learn the 'hyperlinks'. I will be documenting these and how to modify the new BasicHome, however, not until after your test results are in! So don't ask how to modify it until I at least know it works!

All the menus support different cycling backdrops. The Main Menu uses the same Home Folder as MyHome. SubMenus use new folders in the skins\media\animations folder. I have put some images there for you while testing - like some fanart in Videos and Music. This was to save you time testing, but I will probably only distribute two or three of these in each folder in the final zip.

The one disadvantage I find is that since all the submenus are on the home screen, when you press back from another screen, it goes to the main menu, not the submenu you were in. I may be able to improve this in MP 1.1.0.

The new BasicHome is the default in SVN, but the aMPed 2.0 version is still available in the Layouts folder.

 

[jamiro]

Hey Dadeo,


I just downloaded the latest svn.

You will be glad to hear that the fanart seems to be working sweet now in Music, behaving exactly as I expect. It looks great. Also have you increased the list width? It appears that way. Im getting a lot more text on my track listing now, which is nice, and i don't think it is getting in the way of the fanart. The music section with fanart looks fantastic, great job.

I have had a quick play with the new basic home screen, and to be honest I like the old one much better. The left to expand a menu and right to get to the shutdown menu seemed counter intuitive to me. Shouldn't it be the other way round, right to expand a menu? I know the wife and kids will not cope with this menu at all. The basic home screen should be as simple as possible to use. I went in to the games menu and that also did not feel right having to move down to work my through the two column list, I kept trying to press right to get to the second column.

Also seemed awkward to make your back through the menus, not sure which direction to press. Also pressing the back button sent me back to the other home screen, but I think you mentioned that was something you were working on. :sorry:

Moving pictures: The taglines look better now they have been moved below that top white border, but the text on these taglines is getting cut off at the bottom i.e letters like p,y,g are getting their tails sliced off. Hope that makes sense. Also the star ratings are overlapping on the title text, looks like it needs to be shifted down a few pixels.


Does anyone else have a lot of these taglines in moving pictures scrolling. A lot of my taglines are quite long, when they scroll it feels like just about everything on the page is moving in different directions. My preference would be for these taglines not to display at all. What do people think?

Thanks Dadeo the new skin is looking great, I hope my comments were not to negative.

 

[Dadeo]

jamiro thanks for the feedback - very helpful as always and thanks for all your thorough testing.

List Width - Migue has done a Config Program for aMPed that lets you select your list width So that will be a great (and UNIQUE) feature for aMPed. I did expand it in MyMusic based on your previous feedback.

BasicHome - The old one will still be available. I like it too (though I use My Home!) and I don't plan to remove it. That's a good point about going right for the menu and left for the exit menu. I can change that easily. I can also change the games menu to go right first, but you would have to use the down arrow to do it. I was assuming users would remove the games they don't use or Games altogether. I could also make it two screens with a more button. Let me know what you think. I was tired when I got to Games!

About the back key going to MyHome. Did you set MP to use BasicHome? If not, and you had visited MyHome previously, then yes the back key will take you there, but that is not normal. What I meant was when you go to another screen and then go back to BasicHome it takes you to the main menu rather than the submenu you were on.

I can always make BasicHome very simple and go back to using separate screens for the submenus. But then you won't be able to program the options on the MainMenu (hopefully with a Config program one day). I thought that was a useful feature. I don't really understand how it is easier to press enter to go to another screen rather than left/right arrow to get the same info, especially when aMPed uses left arrows throughout for menus (which is why I used the left arrow for the submenus). So let's see what other users think. It was my first crack and I know it needs improvement but I wanted feedback first to know what users would like.

MovingPictures - I will check the text getting chopped off. It should be adjusting for each font size. I'll double check the rating stars positions as well. They are problematic because they resize according to your screen resolution! They look VERY different on my 1280x1024 than my 720x576 and I would guess my screen adjustments on my TV affected my testing!

I can easily tell you how to remove the taglines if other users wish to keep them. Or if everyone agrees I can remove them, or even add them to the description text (like they are in MyFilms.)

I will be able to do much more with the new features in MP 1.1.0 regarding centering text vertically so we can have two lines with text centered vertically if there is only one line. Then I will use more two line titles so they don't scroll as much.

Constructive and well thought out feeback like yours is never negative. It is what I need to make this skin better. So I really apprecaite it. You guys have to keep telling me what isn't working for you or I can't improve it!

I am ready to release the new version. I am just waiting for everyone's feedback on the new BasicHome!

 

[Dadeo]

jamiro - I just checked out MovingPictures and I cannot duplicate your problem with the text cutting off. Can you post a screenshot? I made the rating stars a bit smaller although they were not overlapping for me. See the screenshot, I gather yours does not look like this?

 

[jamiro]

Hey Dadeo,

I have sent you a PM regarding the basic home screen, if you think it would be helpful, feel free to post your reply here on the forum.

I will go back and check if those text issues are still there in moving pictures, maybe it was just my machine doing something weird at the time.

I'll post some screens if necessary.

 

[jamiro]

Hi Dadeo

Here is a screenshot of the star and text problems I described above in Moving Pictures. Maybe it just my test machine, it might be ok when moved to the TV.

Notice how the stars overlap the title and the tagline is cutting the tails off some letters.

Sorry for the large image, I couldn't figure out how to post the linked thumbnails.