Blue Vision (3 Viewers)

[ge2301]

You can place the contents now inside master_homemenu.xaml, I created a dummy grid as placeholder. It binds visibility to a new "IsHome" property.

Basically works after remaining some items (item names werealready used). But I have to add a "but" unfortunately.

• When selecting a media the content information are not shown any more in the bottom
• The view style is "listview" and the option to change it is gone. Can we force "gridview"?

I'll commit the changes now, so it's easier to check.

EDIT: pushed the changes. Modifying somthing in below positions could not fix the view style to grid
https://github.com/MediaPortal/Medi...s/default/styles/MediaStyles.xaml#L1986-L2022

https://github.com/MediaPortal/Medi...s/default/styles/MediaStyles.xaml#L1953-L1966

 

[morpheus_xx]

The view style is "listview" and the option to change it is gone. Can we force "gridview"?

Should be done and pushed.

When selecting a media the content information are not shown any more in the bottom

This doesn't happen automatically. I have to check how and where to include the MediaItem's details.

 

[morpheus_xx]

Also done. I love MP2's way of skinning

 

[morpheus_xx]

I had to change the LatestMediaModel once more: the timer based updated also switched layouts in other screens, so I modified it for manual update from HomeMenuModel.

This also removes the "update flicker" for MediaItems.

(push is pending, Github, you know...)

 

[ge2301]

Seems it's almost done. Here you are:

When a mediaitem is selected the content information are shown correctly and you can directly play the item.

There is only one (hopefully last problem). Keyboard or remote control navigation is only partly working

• I can operate vertically with up and down buttonwithin one LatestMedia category.
• Horizontal navigation (left and right button) is not possible within one category or between categories
• It's also not possible with up button to leave back to main menu

EDIT: Commited the changes to GitHub

 

[ge2301]

@Lehmden can you confirm above problems with navigation in home screen? You mentioned a few posts earlier about similar problems.
It would be good, as you also offered, to hear more details, so everything can be hopefully recovered or improved at the same time.

Latest changes are are on GitHub only at the moment. Not sure if you can build it yet.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
I'll try to do this this evening. I want to write down it precise so it's more easy to understand what I mean..

 

[ge2301]

Hi.
I'll try to do this this evening. I want to write down it precise so it's more easy to understand what I mean..

Great. IRC is blocked from my company and cell phone provider, so I can not use the BOT to create a download link. If needed I could do it tonight from home, just let me know.

 

[morpheus_xx]

Besides the navigation issues in homescreen (which I could also experience myself yesterday), there are some more things to do:

• Recordings: right image overlaps "List" view (can provide screenshots later)
• Create a style for "skip step" overlay in video fullscreen (key left/right).
• Improve OSD of PiP player control
• Find a solution for player control overlapping of footer are info (animated slide out? problem: define a condition when to show and when to hide)
  
• Making dynamic actions better available (other than "others" tab), maybe again a kind of "hidden" menu?
  
• Styles of "currently playing" screens for all media

Most things apply to ApolloOne as well.

Edit: I installed a build yesterday and found a commited merge conflic from BlueVision branch affecting ApolloOne. I'll fix it, maybe we should rebase branch thereafter again.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
Here my observations about navigating by remote in BlueVision (can mostly be transferred 1:1 to Apollo One, I'm pretty sure) in daily and "productive" usage.
When you are navigating with mouse, the skin is working like a charm. Short ways, direct access, really nice.

Sadly this is not the case for navigating with a remote. There you can not access an item directly. You need to use the cursor keys to go where you want to go. For this special attention is needed on which key press leads to where, the focus handling, on showing which item is the recently selected one,...

Right now the remote navigation is more a thing for training a race driver's concentration abilities, but not for a "couch potato" who only want to relax...

Here are some issues I have, ordered on "nastiness"... 1 is the most nasty one, 6 is not that nasty but should be fixed nevertheless...

1a.) There should only be one way to leave the current section up to top menu. And this only should be "cursor up". Example: You scroll all the way down the grid view list of your 1000++ movies. Finally you are near to where you want to go, e.G. the movie "Twister". But you've scrolled down some columns left of the movie you want to go. So you press "Cursor right" on the remote. You press it another time and a third time, but now the key repeating function takes over and suddenly you are one step to far to the right. Normally the selection stops on the last item, but not here. You instantly are thrown completely out of the movie section and you are stranded in the "news" or "settings" section... And to make worse things even more worse, MP2 did not "remember" where you were the last time. So you need to start navigation all over again.
This is happening at least once per MP2 session, most of the time more than once. So it really is a pain
and a massive waste of time... Sometimes I want to throw the remote onto the TV if this happens...

1b.) The Top menu is not separated enough from the section where you are. Example: You are on Series and go "up" until you are in the top menu (so far so good). But if you enter the top menu you did not know on which item you'll end. Imho it is absolutely necessary that you only can go from "Series" or other items of the VideoHub to the Top Menu Item "VideoHub" nowhere else.

2.) When you enter a sub item the focus should be on the list and not on the Top Menu. Example: You enter the Videohub. Then you press "cursor down" once to reach the series section entry. So far so good. Here you press "OK" to enter the series section. Now you need to press "cursor down" to select an item of the list and to see e.g. fanart. This is not too good. Normally the first item of the list should be selected... And you are entering the grid on the most right item also we are used to go from left to right. Not good too...

3.) The "hidden menu" really is hard to reach, most of the time it is impossible. As there are different actions on the "menu" key depending on if a listview or gridview item is selected or not, you need to find a place where no list- item is selected and where you also did not leave the current section... Most of the time this leads to completely leaving the section as you are navigated to a completely different Top Menu item.

4.) The visibility of which item is the selected one is not clear enough most of the time. You really need to concentrate on navigating just to see where you are and which button you need to press next.

5.) The "green" button navigates you directly to the top menu, so far so good. But it is a random item on where you are moved to. Here are two options thinkable: A) The last used Top Menu item or B) the new "Home" item...

6.) The Shutdown Menu should be reachable more easily. Now you need to press a lot of buttons, only to quit MP2 or to shutdown the PC...

1a. and 1b are really heavy issues, making navigation with remote painful a lot. As they are belonging together I've numbered them 1a and 1b instead of 1 and 2...

2 is blocking a fluid workflow and navigation as you need to press a lot of unneeded buttons to go where you want to go. For this it is nothing I would call "user friendly"

3 will be a lot better as soon as 1 is fixed but it is nasty too. There should be a much cleaner solution for hidden menu access.

4 can probably be solved with a "theme for blind people like me".

5 is not that important but should be fixed nevertheless imho. If it will be A) or B) is not that important (I would prefer A a bit over B but I'm fine with B too), but you definitely need to "know" without looking where you are after pressing the green button.

6 also is not that important. Just a matter of comfort.

And a general feeling is, the reaction on a button press is not as direct as I would like it. Other skins are reacting more direct to a press... But I didn't measure this, it only is a feeling.

Hope all is clear enough. Feel free to ask, if it isn't.

I really like this skin and I want to help making it even better...