Overlapping Text (1 Viewer)

[CyberSimian]

As a newcomer to MP, I am not sure whether overlapping text is to be expected. But, on the assumption that it is not, the attached screen shot looks wrong -- there is overlapping text on the bottom line, just right of center.

Also, when I eventually exited MP, there was an APPCRASH, with the guilty module being identified as "fontEngine.dll", at offset 0x00001f41. From searching the MP website I see that this has been a recurring problem for several years. One post suggested that it was due to a screen containing too much text, so perhaps the overlapping text caused this? However, in getting the screen shot I entered and exited MP several times, and the APPCRASH did not recur.

I am using MP 1.8.0, aMPed 3.6.2, and Windows Vista.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Dadeo]

Weird! Overlapping text is NOT expected The text should scroll if it is longer than the width. Not sure why it doesn't there I'll see if I can figure out why that is happening and how to fix it. I see you are using 10 lines radio guide (you can select 8 or 10 in aMPedConfig or skin settings). The font looks quite large, did you select 18pt font in aMPed Config (if so, you'll get better display with 8 line guide)? Or by chance are you scaling larger fonts in Vista? Either case might trigger the fontEngine.dll crash, but it might also be a problem with it trying to render style elements - if so I can likely figure out a workaround for that. Only problem is I have to reproduce it to be sure my fix works .

 

[CyberSimian]

I see you are using 10 lines radio guide (you can select 8 or 10 in aMPedConfig or skin settings). The font looks quite large, did you select 18pt font in aMPed Config (if so, you'll get better display with 8 line guide)?

At the moment I am still using the default values for most of the settings that have defaults. So 10 EPG lines and 18pt font are the defaults (either from aMPed or from MP itself -- I am not sure where they originate).

Or by chance are you scaling larger fonts in Vista?

It is interesting that you raise that point. I always set the system font size to 125% of normal, to make text easier to read. However, the MP config utilities then become difficult to use -- text overlaps on various panels, and on some panels the OK and CANCEL buttons are positioned off the bottom of the screen (even when the panels are maximised to fit the screen exactly). The calculation to position the OK and CANCEL buttons evidently does not take into account fonts larger than normal (I realise that this is not your area!). Anyway, because of this I reset the system font size to 100%. I think that I did this before installing MP 1.8.0 and aMPed, but now I cannot be sure. Font size was definitely 100% when the APPCRASH occurred.

Only problem is I have to reproduce it to be sure my fix works .

Yes, as I mentioned, I entered and exited MP several times after the APPCRASH, but MP did not crash again. The only difference that occurs to me is that I had scrolled around the radio EPG a lot, finding quite a few examples where the text overlapped on the bottom line. But this is all a bit vague (I recognise the importance of a test case that always triggers the error).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Dadeo]

At the moment I am still using the default values for most of the settings that have defaults. So 10 EPG lines and 18pt font are the defaults (either from aMPed or from MP itself -- I am not sure where they originate).

Those are aMPed skin settings, and default is supposed to be EPG 10 lines and 15 pt font. Sometimes you have to reapply them using aMPedConfig, especially if you change skins within MP.

I always set the system font size to 125% of normal, to make text easier to read. However, the MP config utilities then become difficult to use

Yeah, Config tools are not DPI aware - but then many other apps aren't either. Drives me nujts too as I can barely read text anymore on larger PC screen. I usually adjust Windows desktop settings to use larger fonts as that has fewer issues than DPI scaling, but still isn't perfect.

Font size was definitely 100% when the APPCRASH occurred.

OK good, so that rules out that option.

The only difference that occurs to me is that I had scrolled around the radio EPG a lot, finding quite a few examples where the text overlapped on the bottom line.

That doesn't surprise me - I was thinking about it when you first mentioned the crash. There is a lot of processing/rendering in both TV and Radio Guide/EPG screens and the larger fonts and options aMPed offers/uses might exacerbate that. However, I have occasionally had the fontdll error in many different skins in unpredictable cases (i.e. different screens), so I suspect the issue is deeper - related to the now outdated skin engine (which is one of the reasons for MP2 development).

So I don't think I can help much with the crash, but I can fix the overlapping text - I found the issue - it's the genre overlapping the other text (not the other way). It's rare to have such long genre names like "game show (general)" in your screenshot, so probably most users haven't noticed it before. You can configure EPG genre names in TV-Server config. But still aMPed shouldn't do that. Can you try the attached myradioguide.10lines.xml and see if that fixes it? (just copy it to your aMPed skin folder). Since I can't get Radio EPG data we might have to use trial and error a couple times to set the width perfectly

If it isn't quite right, you can edit it yourself using any editor (I use Notepad++ but Notepad will do). You need to edit the width in the following:

        <control Style="Align Right">
            <description>Current program genre</description>
            <type>fadelabel</type>
            <id>27</id>
            <posY>670</posY>
            <width>230</width>
            <label>#Radio.Guide.Genre</label>
            <textcolor>#amped.text2f.color</textcolor>
            <visible>!Player.hasmedia</visible>
        </control>

If you can let me know what the perfect width is, that would be a big help!
You can edit the skin xml while MP is open, but you'll need to exit/re-enter the Radio Guide/EPG screen to see your changes.

 

[CyberSimian]

Can you try the attached myradioguide.10lines.xml and see if that fixes it? (just copy it to your aMPed skin folder). Since I can't get Radio EPG data we might have to use trial and error a couple times to set the width perfectly.

The first problem that I had was downloading the file correctly! The Opera browser that I use gave me a place holder file that told me I had to enable redirection. I eventually found where to do that and downloaded the file successfully.

The new file fixes the problem with the sample shown in the original screen shot, with the width of one "n" between the end of the programme title and the start of the genre text. However, scrolling around the EPG I found three longer programme titles. Two of the titles overlapped the genre text, but the titles themselves were not long enough to scroll; see the new screen shot "absolute_radio". The third title was even longer, and so the title itself scrolled, but that programme did not have any genre, so there was no text overlap visible; see new screen shot "hits_radio".

So some further adjustment is needed. I am happy to adjust the value(s) in the xml file, but in looking at the EPG I wondered if a different solution was possible. Two alternatives occur to me:

(1) The penultimate line on the radio EPG screen is the name of the radio station, followed by a large number of blanks. I would expect most radio stations to have short names, meaning that there would be plenty of room to accommodate the programme start and end times plus programme duration, to the right of the station name. The last line would need to display only the programme title and genre text, and scrolling would then be a lot less likely.

(2) My second suggestion is to make the radio EPG more consistent with the TV EPG. In the TV EPG, the penultimate line shows the programme title, and the last line shows the programme start and end times, plus genre text; the channel name is not shown. (When live TV is playing, the genre text is omitted, and text below the thumbnail shows the name of the live TV station.)

The two other DVR/MC products that I have used (a Humax PVR, and Windows MC) have both treated radio and TV identically, and I think that that is the right design. So I would actually vote for alternative (2) -- make the radio and TV EPGs identical. I think that displaying the programme duration is useful, so I would add that to the TV EPG. I am less convinced that the station/channel name is required, so I might omit that from the radio EPG if space is limited.

Edit: ignore the following -- I realise now that it is entering the "power saving mode" that reduces the screen refresh rate. Doh!
There is one other quirk that I noticed while testing this. The auto-scrolling of long text works fine on initial entry to the EPG, but after several minutes it slows to a crawl; it is so slow that one can see the individual movements, so the result is a "juddery" look.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Dadeo]

I would actually vote for alternative (2) -- make the radio and TV EPGs identical. I think that displaying the programme duration is useful, so I would add that to the TV EPG. I am less convinced that the station/channel name is required, so I might omit that from the radio EPG if space is limited.

Good idea - not sure if most users have radio channel logos, while they usually have TV channel logos, which is why I displayed radio channel names, but let's try it without! Please post a screenshot again even if it works so I get to see it too

I'm still confused by your settings as 'aMPed' is the default theme and you seem to be using 'Wine Glass' theme. Is it possible you had installed aMPed in the past? It saves your previous settings. No big deal, I just want to make sure the default settings are set correctly.

 

[CyberSimian]

Good idea - not sure if most users have radio channel logos, while they usually have TV channel logos, which is why I displayed radio channel names, but let's try it without! Please post a screenshot again even if it works so I get to see it too.

I will post that later today.

I'm still confused by your settings as 'aMPed' is the default theme and you seem to be using 'Wine Glass' theme. Is it possible you had installed aMPed in the past? It saves your previous settings.

I originally installed MP1.3.0, followed shortly thereafter by aMPed. I may have altered the font sizes at that time. About a week later 1.4.0 pre-release was issued, so I replaced 1.3.0 with that, only realising afterwards that aMPed would no longer work because the skin interface had changed. Then real life intervened and I had to put MP on the back burner.

When installing 1.8.0, I used the third clean-up option (uninstall everything, including all leftover traces from earlier releases), and assumed that would also uninstall aMPed (I did not check that it had). So if some traces were left, that may be where the 18pt font size originated. The only aMPed setting that I have changed in 1.8.0 is indeed the theme -- I selected the "Wine Glass" theme. I assumed that it changed only the colours used, and not font sizes (but I have not tried the other themes yet).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Dadeo]

Thanks for the clarification and putting my mind at ease. Uninstalling MP and clean install does indeed remove skins, but aMPedConfig saves your Basic Home mods/settings, which MP doesn't know about because aMPedConfig is an 'external' app. aMPedConfig does that particularly so you don't have to recreate Basic Home mods, but also saves any other preferences/settings. If you want to uninstall aMPed and previous setttings, use the MPEM installer (see Uninstalling aMPed in the aMPed wiki).

And yeah, themes only change the colours, not fonts or other settings. I only mentioned it because it indicated some settings had been changed from defaults.

 

[CyberSimian]

Uninstalling MP and clean install does indeed remove skins, but aMPedConfig saves your Basic Home mods/settings, which MP doesn't know about because aMPedConfig is an 'external' app. aMPedConfig does that particularly so you don't have to recreate Basic Home mods, but also saves any other preferences/settings. If you want to uninstall aMPed and previous setttings, use the MPEM installer (see Uninstalling aMPed in the aMPed wiki).

Thanks for explaining that. At the moment I have MP installed in a "test" partition on my HTPC, but if I finally decide to migrate from WMC, I will install MP and aMPed in my "production" partition, so it will be completely fresh install.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[CyberSimian]

Not sure if most users have radio channel logos, while they usually have TV channel logos, which is why I displayed radio channel names, but let's try it without! Please post a screen shot again even if it works so I get to see it too.

I have attached two screen shots that use the latest xml file. The file "absolute_radio_new" shows a very long programme title with very long genre text. Neither title nor genre needed to scroll (only the programme description scrolled). I think that this is a definite improvement!

The second file "bbc_radio_1_new" illustrates a quirk of the UK EPG. The programme title is "The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with...", and the programme description begins "...Nik Grimshaw". This suggests that the true programme title is "The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nik Grimshaw". My Humax PVR displays this in the same way as MP, and I have noticed TV programmes with long titles that also place the end of the title at the beginning of the description. I would speculate that the UK broadcast EPG has a limit on the length of a programme title, and that spilling the title into the description is the way that the EPG providers deal with that limit.

What do you think of the new look? As the skin author, you have to take into account the different wants of your users, while any single user (e.g. me) is likely only to be concerned about a subset of the facilities offered (e.g. I do not use channel logos anywhere, so had not considered how they might affect screen layout).

If you think that the new layout is an improvement, I hope that you will revise the TV EPG too. The TV EPG currently lacks the programme duration, and when I looked earlier, a TV programme had scrolling genre text even though there was plenty of room to show the genre text in its entirety (presumably this just needs an adjustment of the field length and position).

Finally, I would like to thank you for listening to my comments and taking the time to prepare the revised xml files. The time that you spend doing this is appreciated by your users, even though it may sometimes seem like you are being taken for granted.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK