Choose "default" skin on install (1 Viewer)

[marshall]

With the recent loss of the previous "default" skin, I was thinking:

Could the installer be set up so that no skins were included with the package but rather a set of thumbnails representing the 5 (or however many fit the criteria) stable and updated skins would be displayed so the user could pick the one they wanted and it would be downloaded and installed as part of the installation?

This might be an easy way to make everyone happy (except people with slow internet connections). It might also present horrible problems I haven't thought of yet.


P.S. If this should go in the graphics or general talk thread instead, feel free to move.

 

[ASiDiE]

The installer is really not all that big.. 32MB. I think at this point all we need is one 4:3 and one 16:9. At that point you can at least install the product and use it without having to download anything else. At this point, if you wanted a different skin, you could download it. I understand that most of us that use these type of programs have high speed internet connections, but some do not. I would hate to have someone take the time to download the product and then need to download some more, during the install.

 

[ohdarklord]

I have to agree with ASiDiE.

Up untill a few months ago i didnt have internet access on my htpc.

if i had to connect to the inetnet during the install i would have just chosen a different program.

 

[marshall]

Logically thinking, one would spend the same amount of time downloading, just the time would be broken up into two smaller chunks, one during the initial installer download and one during the skin download instead of all during the initial installer download. If you consider that the person might want a different skin immediately, then the download time would actually decrease by the amount of time the unnecessary skin took.

However, nobody, including me, puts this amount of thought into the whole downloading/installing process while it is happening, so I guess it would probably be net negative.

If at some point the whole deal went modular, not just the skins (imagine a small installer that asked for (or seeked out) information about your system and only installed the remote, capture card definitions, skins, languages, plugins, etc. that you desired) that would be pretty cool. Not really necessary as the whole package is pretty small though. Okay, now I'm just dreaming up crazy stuff when I should be in bed...

 

[Elconejo]

I think downloading a complete package is the best thing to do. I rather download 10 or 15Mb more without the need of an internet connection during install.

And the default skin was also ment to develop faster. Only one skin would need to be adjusted in new SVN versions.
But it would be nice if mp could download new skins from within the program. And it would also be nice if it was able to download and install the updates with the click of a button.

But again, i think the best thing is to keep the installation package complete. Its the easiest way to redistribute mp.

 

[jawbroken]

Yes, a lot of people probably do not have access to the internet from their HTPC, so they would really have trouble installing it then. If an installer that downloaded needed parts from the internet was provided then a full installer would also need to be available, I think.