MetalMedia and TV interface - low contrast? (1 Viewer)

[Anonymous]

Great to see the new skin - sans any Dell influences. Great work. The one thing I did notice was that it's pretty hard to navigate when using a 'ten foot interface' on my TV. The contrast between selected and not selected is just not sufficient for some of the graphics.

For example, when in the music menu, the menu on the left is almost impossible to use.

Maybe this is just my TV but I suspect it might be an issue.

Now that the majority of the work has been done it should be easy to tweak the skin a bit for higher contrast. I already did it for my version but I suspect the original artists can do a much better job.

Thanks again for a great product and putting your hearts and souls into it.

 

[MrMario64]

you tried the 2nd version yesterday?

It has a blue background with METAL in it.

Yes, some buttons r too small.
These r one of the things that still needs to be tweaked.

I am busy with another skin to that has a more "mediacenter" look.
I call it "crystalcenter"

Will show some shots in a diff thread.

 

[Anonymous]

you tried the 2nd version yesterday?

It has a blue background with METAL in it.

Yes, some buttons r too small.
These r one of the things that still needs to be tweaked.

I am busy with another skin to that has a more "mediacenter" look.
I call it "crystalcenter"

The new background is an improvement for the main list, but not for the panel on the left as far as I can see. The skin looks great on a monitor, but it is difficult to use on a TV.

I hope this doesn't come across as too negative, as I think the skin looks great, but I don't think it is the correct approach for use on a TV.

I would give the following recommendations for a skin that looks good on a regular TV set. You may not agree, but do at least consider them:

1. The background should be dark, and the text light. The contrast should be high. Eg. white or yellow on blue is good. Reason: it is harder to read dark on light on a TV than on a monitor, especially on a TV that is a few years old. Light backgrounds also tend to distort the picture more on older sets. Note that most TV stations do their text with light letters on a dark background for the same reasons. I think the reason for this is that you "strain" the TV by using a light coloured background, and this makes the text hard to read.

2. Text should be large. A TV is blurry. The text size in the main lists are OK. I think the text in the current LCD display is maybe a little too small on my regular 29" TV.

3. Symbols should be large. As above; a TV is blurry. The icons on the buttons on the current front page are to small to see properly on a TV (mytcsmall.png). The symbols on the "topbar.png" (play, pause, ff etc.) are also a little on the small side. The settings symbols on the OSD for video are far too small and blurry for a TV at the moment (osd_settings_audio_focus.png etc.). The main large symbols look really great (mymusic.png etc.).

4. Buttons should give clear visual feedback. When selecting buttons on a TV the whole button should "light up". Currently the "list_focus.png" does this well (though I think it's a bit too detailed for a TV), but the play, pause etc in the "topbar.png" only changes the color of the small symbol, and this is hard too see on a TV. The whole button should turn yellow ore some other color (I know this would break the "metal" look, see pt 5 about this). The menu on "panel.png" on the left is almost impossible to use on my TV; the contrast between letters and background is too small (grey on grey) and the slightly darker grey indicating a selected line is not different enough for a TV. The small yellow "light" and slighlty darker grey in "button_focus.png" doesn't really help on a TV - the whole button should turn yellow or some other color.

5. Everything should be "cartoony" and not have too much detail. Again TV sets are blurry. use large buttons and clear colors. Do not use complex bevels, lighting or shadow effects.

I haven't got the time to do this propery myself at the moment - I've just done a very quick and dirty change of some of the buttons, so that I can use it on my TV. I might give it a shot in a few weeks.

This turned out a long post. Sorry about that. I hope this input can be of use for someone designing skins.

And remember my negative points concern TV use only. The skin looks just great on my monitor - but I will be using Media Portal on my TV.

I look forward to "crystalcenter".

Bingle Beep