Backdrop - Skin (RELEASED!!!) (3 Viewers)

Bleazle

Portal Pro
July 14, 2007
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The skin looks great! Looks like my skinning days are over!! :D

I have changed a couple of few things on my local copy (personal taste):

1. I didn't like the bold/capital fonts so I have changed them all to MC360 Body Caps, which it looks like you were using before changing to Scout Black? (judging by the "Transformers" title on the 4th screenshot)

2. I don't like blue text - I guess it reminds me of the B3W too much :mad: so I have changed all instances of this to "ffcccccc" (light grey). So far this seems to look OK.

3. common.facade.music.xml, Thumbnail Panel - added <onup>2</onup>, I know the menu is on the side but I don't like having to go all the way to the left to get to it (I'm fussy :oops: :D)

So only 3 things I didn't like - pretty good I reckon :D

Some things I noticed:

1. Screens with icons and big icons views - maybe best to remove "now playing" info as it overlays the icons? I've only checked/noticed this in My Videos, My Pictures & Moving Pictures so far but there are probably other screens/plugins that use the same icon layout?

2. Weather screen:
- 5 day forecast menu overlays the weather info slightly, doesn't look good.
- I don't have a background image (black). I take it InfoService is needed? (does the background change with the weather like I had going on in BleazleWide?) Is there a MP1.2 compatible version of InfoService? If/when there is will you include it with the skin?

3. BasicHome:
- Latest Music: "arrowing" back takes you to the next menu item (in the main menu). Is it possible to go back to the "Music" heading? (ie. in the Music sub-menu) so the User can scroll down to now playing etc...
- Latest Pics: Can't arrow over to the pics to select them - is it possible to add this?
- Latest TV recordings: Don't show until the right arrow is clicked (whereas both of the above show when "Music" or "Pictures" is selected. This may be because I can't test TV on my laptop though so maybe it's different in a setup with TV working..
(Note: After using the BasicHome menu for a bit longer going "back" (left arrow) from "Latest..." obviously goes to the default menu item (in my case Menu 3) so I guess it can't be changed - can it be done manually? I've had a quick look and the only result I get when changing the <onleft> ref id </onleft> in common.basichome.latest.xml to anything other than 77032 is that menu 1 is selected instead of menu 3 (which is no better)
- I am getting a black background quite a lot (no fanart showing) this is always the case for "pictures" (I have tried importing fanart and it shows in the C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\thumbs\Skin FanArt\UserDef\pictures directory, but not in fanart handler) but also when I select the Music menu which "usually" displays fanart.... something isn't right.

5. All screens - When the menu disappears the word "menu" flys off on the wrong angle - if this can't be fixed to disappear with the rest of the menu maybe it should be "turned off" at the same time as all of the other text in the menu? (Note: The shortcut to "Now Playing" at the top of the menu is a nice touch :) )

6. Video Now Playing Overlay: The video "shows through" (overlays) the tv.frame.png graphic, I don't think this can be avoided? If not maybe best to remove the "screen shine" effect from the graphic?

The above points are just my opinions so feel free to ignore them, :D I know how much time skinning can take so (like everyone else that has posted in this thread) I appreciate your efforts!!

Regards

Bleazle

EDIT: One more thing. When changing the view there are 3 different actions going on, I'll try to explain:
- select list - the list view only appears when you "arrow off" the menu
- select either of the icon views and the selected view appears (even though the menu is still visible) THIS IS BEST (imho)
- select either filmstrip or coverflow and the view appears but immediately disappears behind the menu then reappears when you "arrow off" the menu - why does the view disappear then reappear? Seems a bit strange to me.
 

WebKnight

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  • April 11, 2006
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    Is it possible to make iconview less transparent?

    My kids, 3 and 5 years old love to watch Musicvideos, but when it's that transparent they're having a hard time seeing the thumbnails (under myvideos).

    Other than that great skin!

    Will you make the x-factor skin compatibe with 1.2 Beta?
     

    Helios61

    Retired Team Member
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  • January 30, 2008
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    AW: Backdrop - Skin (RELEASED!!!)

    Hi cul8er!

    I have found some possible bugs with text alignment, please take a look at the screenshots.

    1. Mymusicplayingnow - artist field: It only occures with multiple artists.
    2. Latest added music: Alignment of the second item seems to be wrong.

    Best regards

    Helios
     

    Attachments

    • Mymusicplayingnow.jpg
      Mymusicplayingnow.jpg
      124.8 KB
    • latest added music.jpg
      latest added music.jpg
      161.6 KB

    rekenaar

    Retired Team Member
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  • December 17, 2006
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    Hi cul8er

    Looking at photos in big icon view.

    When first entering, the thumbs are not visible since it is overwhelmed by the selected picture showing fullscreen in the background (hope that explanation make sense ;) )
    b_photos_1.jpg

    Then pressing OK on the photo to show it in fullscreen, then pressing BACK, all thumbs are showing very nice
    b_photos_2.jpg
     

    ysmp

    Design Group
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  • May 17, 2008
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    Hi,

    The attatched files fixes these things:
    1. The "#AlbumInfo.Genre" bug reported by Lehmden.
    2. Moving Picture Category dialog was interfering with the now playing overlay as reported by emphatic.
    3. Live TV playback bug and then switch to fullscreen tv reported by vgallego65, dirki1972, Helios61 and MaxMan23
    4. MyPicture views bug as reported by ysmp

    Thanks to all the people mentioned above for your help and please continue to report any bugs.

    Remember to delete the cache folder for the Backdrop skin after applying these patches.

    best regards
    cul8er

    hi cul8er ! i try all the fixs ,and all work great .... thanks.
     

    Helios61

    Retired Team Member
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  • January 30, 2008
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    Grabbing artist thumbs from custom thumbs path seems to be broken!

    Hi cul8er!

    In MediaPortalDirs.xml i have configured a custom path to thumbs directory! Unfortunately it seems, that grabbing artist thumbs from custom directory is broken! It is working fine with DefaultWide!

    FH ver. 2.2.4.500
    Debug Logs and FanartHandler.xml are attached!

    Best regards

    Helios
     

    Attachments

    • FanartHandler.xml
      1.8 KB

    Bradley Dyke

    Portal Member
    November 25, 2007
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    Hi Bradley Dyke,

    Thank you for the report and logfiles. Do you mean regardless of if you play music, movies using movingpictures/or myVideo, recorded tv and so on? Please describe step by step what you do and I will try to investigate tonight. What did you play that reflects the attached logs?

    best regards
    cul8er

    Hi Cul8er,
    :sorry:
    Please ignore previous. Looks like something went horribly wrong in Mepo (all skins fell over on playback) and only a full uninstall / reinstall fixed playback isues. Goods news i now am proud owner of Mepo 1.2b with Backdrops running beautifully. Thanks again for all your hard work, very much appreciated.
    P.S how do i get the cover flow covers to "flip" to show back? I'm sure i saw this on the video but cant work out which button to press :)
    Cheers
    Brad:D
     

    protonenpumpe

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  • December 20, 2009
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    AW: Backdrop - Skin (RELEASED!!!)

    Hi!

    I tried your new skin and I think it is the best one available for MP since X-Factor!

    However, I think, I've found a bug in moving pictures: when cycling through the movies (tested with cover flow), chosing one, then use "escape"-key twice to switch back to the category-menu, the screen is somehow "broken". I get the "details"-view of the last selected movie which is overlapped by a transparent categories-menu.
    Unfortunately I haven't got a screenshot right now, because I am sitting at my "office"-PC.

    And just another thing I noticed: Could it be, that the backdrops are somehow height-stretched a little bit by the skin?

    Oh, and this "scrolling-in"-thing when in cover flow- or filmstrip-view looks nice, but I think, it could turn out to be an annoyance when using the skin frequently for a longer time. Maybe it can be sped up a bit?!

    Greetings and many thanks for your good work
    pp

    PS: +1 for a 1.2b-version of X-Factor. I always loved this skin!
    PPS: I hope, everything is understandable. Hearing/reading english is not a problem, but speaking/writing in english is nothing I would call my "speciality" ;)
     

    emphatic

    Design Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • August 25, 2006
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    One thing that I felt right away that I would like is:

    a way simpler (alternative) Basic Home. I can never fill enough of those slots. :/
    Emph
     

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