Default Wide HD Skin edit (1 Viewer)

[technoweary]

Trying to tweak Defaultwidehd to get some of my folders showing and to add some sort of "Exit" or "OFF" control
The built in editor offers loads of "Unavailable" options so I am wondering what I am missing?
Is there any resource that gives information on using the editor?
Thanks
TW

 

[CyberSimian]

Trying to tweak Defaultwidehd to get some of my folders showing

Perhaps I have misunderstood what you are trying to do, but the folders that MP displays in "Videos" and "Music" are defined in "MP Config".

add some sort of "Exit" or "OFF" control

On my system, I have defined a button on the remote control to display the "Exit" dialog that contains various choices for exiting MP. You customise your remote control in "MP Config". I use: condition "None", action "Shutdown".

-- from CyberSimian in the UK.

 

[technoweary]

Perhaps I have misunderstood what you are trying to do, but the folders that MP displays in "Videos" and "Music" are defined in "MP Config".
-- from CyberSimian in the UK.

I have my media folders configured and that's OK but I would like to use the editor to actually get them showing as DefaultWideHD sub-menus as described on the forum page:- Support for new DefaultWideHD
Unfortunately the instructions on the page do not correspond to what I see in my setup
So my query was :-

Is there any resource that gives information on using the editor?

On my system, I have defined a button on the remote control to display the "Exit" dialog that contains various choices for exiting MP. You customise your remote control in "MP Config". I use: condition "None", action "Shutdown".

Unfortunately I do not have any spare buttons on the Emprex remote I use
I have tried before to trap the power button on the remote but without success as it always puts the PC to sleep! Maybe I am not configuring it correctly in MP Config

I'm happy with the "Standard" exit or shutdown that is achieved by "Up Arrow" on the remote but again I need to configure DefaultWideHD to respond to this and I hoped a resource on the editor may help me get some configuration instructions to acheive this?


Thank you for your reply
Regards
TW

 

[technoweary]

I assume DefaultWideHD is no longer supported and having spent hours I now know you cannot map the Power button on the MCE remotes so I decided to give PureVisionHD a try
It looks brilliant and the "The Modern UI" is the theme that I would like to use but I have a snag that I cannot understand
When I select "Videos" on the menu bar I have "Online Videos" and "Videos" icons as options but as soon as I use the down arrow on the remote to select either they dissappear?
If I plug a mouse in I can click "Online Videos" and I get a "Recently Added Online Videos:" dialogue but I am not able to get focus on it in any way
I have not changed any settings and this has me stumped
Can anyone give me a clue to what is happening and what I should do to sort this?
Cheers
TW

 

[CyberSimian]

I assume DefaultWideHD is no longer supported

@catavolt is the current maintainer of "DefaultWideHD", but he is away for three months, returning February 2018. So you may have to wait until then. Unfortunately, I think that he is the maintainer of "PureVision" too...

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[technoweary]

Thanks CyberSimian, I'll have to continue with Titan for now
Please may I ask what Skin you use and when you said..

On my system, I have defined a button on the remote control to display the "Exit" dialog that contains various choices for exiting MP. You customise your remote control in "MP Config". I use: condition "None", action "Shutdown".

-- from CyberSimian in the UK.

what actual remote button did you use?
(Just to confirm my conclusion that the "Power" button on the MCE remotes is not mappable)
Many thanks your help is much appreciated
Reagrds
TW

 

[CyberSimian]

Please may I ask what Skin you use

I use a modified version of the classic "DefaultWide" skin (not the current "DefaultWideHD" skin). I call this variant "ClassicWide". Panel hierarchy is the same as "DefaultWide", but panel appearance is much simpler (for the panels that I have restyled -- I have changed only those panels that I actually use). I wanted a large live-TV thumbnail on all panels, and that has since become the raison d'etre for "ClassicWide".

However, I don't watch online videos, so I an unable to advise you with your difficulties. Modifying a skin is a really time-consuming activity, as the skin xml language never quite behaves as you would expect, so lots of trial and error is required in order to discover what works.

what actual remote button did you use?

I use the Ortek VRC-1100 remote control (sold in Europe as the Hama 00052451). This remote is a different sort of MCE remote, and it is not compatible with the Microsoft MCE IR receiver. To get it to work with MP requires its own config file and an AutoHotKey script to remedy the quirks. However, the Ortek/Hama does have a CLOSE button, which by default sends ALT_F4 (i.e. close application). In the config file, I have defined ALT_F4 to display the MP exit dialogue.

For a standard MCE remote, the GREEN_MARBLE button starts MP. If MP is already running, the default (I think) is for GREEN_MARBLE to display the "Home" panel. I would modify the config file so that if GREEN_MARBLE is pressed when already on the "Home" panel, the MP exit dialogue is displayed instead. Then exiting MP is simply three button presses:

(1) Press GREEN_MARBLE to get to "Home" panel from anywhere within MP.
(2) Press GREEN_MARBLE again to display MP exit dialogue.
(3) Press OK to exit MP (first selection in list).

Just to confirm my conclusion that the "Power" button on the MCE remotes is not mappable

That is my understanding too. Windows calls the power button on the system unit the POWER button, and calls the power button on the remote control the SLEEP button (these names are used in the power plan). For the SLEEP button, the only choices are:

(1) Shutdown
(2) Hibernate
(3) Sleep
(4) Do nothing

These choices are available via "Advanced Settings" in the power plan. For an HTPC:

(1) "Shutdown" is useless, because it prevents the HTPC waking to perform an unattended recording.

(2) "Hibernate" allows waking to perform an unattended recording, but is a bad choice for assigning to the SLEEP button because when pressed it causes an immediate termination of any recordings that are currently in progress.

(3) "Sleep" works satisfactorily for an HTPC, and is the preferred choice (remember to enable "Away Mode" in the power plan).

(4) "Do nothing" is the preferred choice if you don't want to use sleep (e.g. it consumes too much power), or are unable to use sleep (e.g. tuner malfunctions on wake from sleep).

I currently use hibernation with "do nothing", as one of my tuner cards malfunctions on wake from sleep (but works correctly on wake from hibernation). But to get this to work in a usable fashion requires an inordinately complicated setup.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[technoweary]

Thanks CyberSimian, your attention and help is so very much appreciated
It's difficult when you are not technically competent, I spend ages stabbing away at settings
Took me hours to come to the conclusion that the Power button on the remote was not going to be mapped whatever I tried!
Your tip to use the Green_Marble absolutely works
Looks like the the best way to run the Modern UI theme without the mouse, (I hope the other posts that query this problem get to read this excellent solution)
I need to get my head around why I am not getting results with the basic Home Editor or get to grips with the xml

Thanks again for your help
Best Regards
TW