Music Playback Fullscreen (1 Viewer)

[vonson]

MediaPortal Version: 1.2.1

Is there a way of getting the 'Fullscreen' (x-key) behaviour on music playback to the same as the PureAudio Plugin did - a plain black screen (with a topbar on request)? When only playing music I like the screen to be neutral.

 

[mbuzina]

You would need to modify the NowPlaying screen (xml file in the skin directory) and set no vizualizations (then now playing is your full screen view).

 

[vonson]

hm, ok, thank you, i will give it a try.
however, iirc, the now playing screen was still functional with pureaudio when accessed dedicatedly, only the fullscreen key resulted in a black screen. (i think this solution is much better than the default mp one...)
when i first tried pureaudio i thought this was a bug...

but i will try replacing the now playing screen.


EDIT:
I had a look for the now playing screen. i thought i may just need to replace some graphic files by black ones, but it seems i was wrong. This xml-stuff i don't understand. hopefully someone with more knwoledge of this may feel the same and will implement this somehow...
but thanks nonetheless.

 

[jameson_uk]

It is actually a bug in pureaudio that makes this happen there.

I am not sure why you would want a black screen instead of the now playing one anyway but sorry to say I have no plans to implement this within MP.

To achieve what you want you would need to create a plugin that just displayed a blank screen and then map your remote to jump to it.

 

[blubserl]

AW: Music Playback Fullscreen

i think i know why vonson wants this

a huge bright lcd screen distracts a lot from the music. imho music sounds totally different (more intense, more spatial, more detailed) when the room is dark and you can totally focus on what you're hearing. a black lcd screen is a step in this direction and again imho it makes a difference - so a function in mediaportal which does exactly that is not so absurd as it sounds the first moment. try it out yourself

first i also thought of modifying the now playing screen, however leaving a huge lcd tv on to just display a black screen is a waste of energy. to achieve this in a more simple and effective way i programmed a shortcut on my logitech harmony remote to toggle lcd on/off. additionally i installed a vfd screen in my htpc to display what's currently playing and to navigate my music collection without having to turn my tv back on. this also has the advantage that i still have a fully functional now playing screen if i want to see it

greetings,

blubserl

 

[vonson]

It IS a bug? funny, i thought this was a very good idea...

as blubserl said the screen can be a huge distraction. for the moment i don't have a sound system, i have to use the speakers built into the tv. esp when friends are visiting i have some music playing in the background while we do other things - but a running screen will always draw everyone's attention to it, invlountarily.

like blubserl i also plan to be able to not use the tv at all (as soon as i installed a sound system) so indeed the black screen option would only be a temporal solution. my intention is to find a cheap android device to control mp. however, blubserl, i'd be interested in the way you did it...

i can perfectly see why there is no intention to implement this. however, i still think it would be a nice option.
and while we are at it, there are two options i would think an improvement to the now playing screen:
- an option to disable the artist thumb display in the now playing screen. let it stick to the cover art. (iirc this is not possible atm?)
- aspect-ratio dependant display on the now playing screen - use the jewel case only on more or less square images, don't use it on images that are rectangular (digipak, dvd-shaped covers, etc). in foobar i use a modified wsh panel to do this and it is really nice, but i'm lost customizing mp...

 

[mbuzina]

The following XML should give you a black screen (I guess):

Add that to the file MyMusicPlayingNow.xml (have config option to not show VU Meter).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<window>
  <id>510</id>
  <defaultcontrol>33</defaultcontrol>
  <allowoverlay>no</allowoverlay>
  <controls>
    <control>
    <control>
      <description>BG</description>
      <type>image</type>
      <id>0</id>
      <texture>black.png</texture>
      <width>1280</width>
      <height>720</height>
    </control>

  </controls>
</window>

--> Untested, backup file before replacing in skin directory (this is from Default Wide)

 

[vonson]

wow, thank you, i'll give it a try!

 

[vonson]

thank you for this!

I have tested it, but i do know nothing about xml files, so I ran into the following issues:

1. I added the code at the end of the existing file (made a backup before that...)
result was an error message: 'missing or invalid file.'
2. I replaced the code completely
result was an error message: 'missing or invalid file.'
3. I noticed in the code one line is doubled:
<control>
<control>
so I removed one of these and it seems to work now!

sure it replaces the NowPlaying screen, but I can live with that, I hardly ever use it.

Thank you!