1.37 DefaultWideHD - Reloaded (3 Viewers)

[2BitSculptor]

okay ... where to change the program scheduled/recording background color?

Duh, nevermind ....

 

[Anthony Vaughan]

Can you post a pic of your changes?

I'm finding we can't tolerate the guide genre color backgrounds, so we turned it off. Besides, there's a lack of real-estate on the screen to display (and be able to read) the genre color key, without over-crowding. I'd like to change the grid backgrounds as well. It's an issue of contrast on our TV. With Guide colors turned on, the background color of the channel column and channel-group button are fine. The dark-cyan color of the current programs background with the white text is more difficult to read (I'd like to experiment with that one). And finally, the non-current programs background should be a shade darker than the Channel column, so they can be differentiated when scrolling left to see future programs.

I'm having some difficulty in figuring out the logic for the guide colors (non genre colors), and which .pngs to change for each, ie. Channel column; current program; non-current program.

Just a few of my rambling thoughts.

I have only once worked on a job where the developers used XML files to do all of their development. I lasted a week.
The problem with this approach is that, unless the system is thoroughly documented, it can be difficult to work out which XML file affects which screen.
Up till now, I haven't really spent much time looking at the skin; baring some minor changes. So, I have started to develop an application that allows you to search text files for a phrase and returning a list of lines of code containing that phrase (case insensitive). That has proven very useful to work out where in the skin text files certain resources are referenced. However, I have the advantage of knowing what the code behind does so I can make this work. I'm not sure how much help this application would be to none-coders.
I'm happy to share the app when I've finished it should anyone want to use it.
I've attached a screenshot of how my TV Guide looks. This uses the 1.36 background colors but I've left the header background as blue to match with the text in the footer to give a feel of unity.
I also found the blue background throughout too strong for my likes.

 

[CyberSimian]

okay ... where to change the program scheduled/recording background color?
Duh, nevermind ....

Did you solve this?

The button colour for on-now recordings and on-later recordings is one of the areas where there are limitations in what is possible. Coercing the definitions to produce a better result for the TV guide produces a worse result for the radio guide.

Self-coloured buttons (the original way of colouring the EPG) use self-coloured textures (usually red) to indicate on-now and on-later recordings.

Coloured-buttons-without-genre (the new way of colouring the EPG) use a suffix to the programme name to indicate recordings; the button colour itself remains unchanged. There are various suffixes:

• Single red dot for one-off recordings
• Three overlapping red dots for series recordings
• Red dots with bites taken out for partial recordings
• Single yellow dot for a scheduled reminder ("notify")

There is an unfortunate quirk for on-now recordings, which I think is a bug, although it may have been intentional. The button colour will not be what you expect, and it is not controllable without making things worse for the radio guide and making use of genre colour impossible. I currently do this for the "Clarity" EPG (the green buttons in the screen shot in my previous post), but I may change my mind about this, since I use the radio EPG quite a bit.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[2BitSculptor]

Did you solve this?

The button colour for on-now recordings and on-later recordings is one of the areas where there are limitations in what is possible. Coercing the definitions to produce a better result for the TV guide produces a worse result for the radio guide.

Self-coloured buttons (the original way of colouring the EPG) use self-coloured textures (usually red) to indicate on-now and on-later recordings.

Coloured-buttons-without-genre (the new way of colouring the EPG) use a suffix to the programme name to indicate recordings; the button colour itself remains unchanged. There are various suffixes:

• Single red dot for one-off recordings
• Three overlapping red dots for series recordings
• Red dots with bites taken out for partial recordings
• Single yellow dot for a scheduled reminder ("notify")

There is an unfortunate quirk for on-now recordings, which I think is a bug, although it may have been intentional. The button colour will not be what you expect, and it is not controllable without making things worse for the radio guide and making use of genre colour impossible. I currently do this for the "Clarity" EPG (the green buttons in the screen shot in my previous post), but I may change my mind about this, since I use the radio EPG quite a bit.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

Yes. I changed the hue of both graphics for the recording button and recording overlay from red to a yellow-green, to combine with the normal overlays.

It would, of course, have been simpler if there was an entry in skinsettings.xml, in the tvguidecolors section, to allow changing values for selecting colors for (for example) "entry: defaultrecordingcolor", with color entries for current and future programs; additionally, having control entries for textureRecordingFocused(position)s and textureRecordingNonFocused(position)s in mytvguide.colors xml and mytvguidenocolors.xml, to allow selecting alternate .png(s) for the guide. Maybe even a way to change the color of program-ended text. I also realize it's a programmers nightmare to revisit well established code.

 

[Anthony Vaughan]

CyberSimian
Have you ever seen this (in the attached)?
The exit menu item now shows the Exit MediaPortal text above the image until you move a navigation button when the text moves to below the image. If you wait about 20 seconds the text pops up above the image again.
This has only started to happen in 1.37. Is the same happening to you?

 

[CyberSimian]

The exit menu item now shows the Exit MediaPortal text above the image

When DWHD starts for me, I see the filmstrip sequence of tiles along the bottom of the screen, not the carousel version that your screen shot shows. I cannot see how to get the carousel version.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[2BitSculptor]

I've see this in the skin settings/basichome editor and the basic home buttons in text mode, I havent seen it in a while. It seemed to be happening when the text for the button is too long (?) for the label space. Instead of just scrolling, as it should, it pops up to mid screen. I shortened the text for the button "Exit Mediaportal (Options)" to display "Exit (Options)" and the issue seemed to be resolved. I didn't think to mention it. Earlier versions didn't seem to have the issue.

 

[Anthony Vaughan]

I've see this in the skin settings/basichome editor and the basic home buttons in text mode, I havent seen it in a while. It seemed to be happening when the text for the button is too long (?) for the label space. Instead of just scrolling, as it should, it pops up to mid screen. I shortened the text for the button "Exit Mediaportal (Options)" to display "Exit (Options)" and the issue seemed to be resolved. I didn't think to mention it. Earlier versions didn't seem to have the issue.

Thanks for that. Very helpful.
Yes, this issue is new to 1.37.

 

[Anthony Vaughan]

When DWHD starts for me, I see the filmstrip sequence of tiles along the bottom of the screen, not the carousel version that your screen shot shows. I cannot see how to get the carousel version.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

But it was you who told me about being able to use the Exit with options menu some time ago.
Go to settings > GUI > GUI > Skin > Set BasicHome Editor checkbox ON > Use BasicHome Root Menu to change an item from None to Exit MediaPortal (Options). Now the Exit option will appear in the menu list. You will see a Layout option to the right of the BasicHome Editor that you can change to Carousel.

 

[Anthony Vaughan]

I've see this in the skin settings/basichome editor and the basic home buttons in text mode, I havent seen it in a while. It seemed to be happening when the text for the button is too long (?) for the label space. Instead of just scrolling, as it should, it pops up to mid screen. I shortened the text for the button "Exit Mediaportal (Options)" to display "Exit (Options)" and the issue seemed to be resolved. I didn't think to mention it. Earlier versions didn't seem to have the issue.

I changed the text to Exit MP and that did the job. Thank you for the hint. In 1.36, the scrolling worked though without the text moving from under the image. So something has changed that affects this behavior.