Overlapping Text (1 Viewer)

[Dadeo]

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.

Very likely - I have seen many forum posts about UK EPG data (and various ways to get it to suit your preferences).

What do you think of the new look?

I like it - it works much better imo - but I am toying with the idea of displaying the Channel name - still thinking about options - for users who don't get Radio EPG data.
See what you think of the attached skin xml with channel name before program title - I reduced the font slightly to try and avoid scrolling. The other option would be to display the Channel name only if the program title is empty.

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).

AFAIK TV EPG does not support programme duration - have you seen it in any other skin? If it's not in Titan or Default, there is likely no skin property for it.
Re the scrolling genre - it's currently the same width as Radio EPG. While I might be able to make it wider, there are so many user options I'm afraid that may result in overlapping text for some users. It probably only occurs with 18pt font and you can always modify the genre names to make them shorter.

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.

Actually I appreciate the input. It's been a long time since I had/used live TV and I never could get radio stations on my TV card here, and definitely no Radio EPG data! So it is great to get feedback (and see screenshots) from someone who does use Radio extensively and has pretty complete Radio EPG data!

 

[CyberSimian]

I am toying with the idea of displaying the Channel name - still thinking about options - for users who don't get Radio EPG data. See what you think of the attached skin xml with channel name before program title - I reduced the font slightly to try and avoid scrolling. The other option would be to display the Channel name only if the program title is empty.

I have attached a couple of screen shots using the revised xml file (see "absolute_radio_3" and "hits_radio_3"). The problem with the revised layout is that the station name and programme title run together, so that it is not clear where one ends and the other starts. Some ways to fix this (not in any particular order);
(1) Use different colours for the station name and programme title.
(2) Right-justify the programme title, so that there is a gap between station name and programme title.
(3) Add a separator char between station name and programme title, such as the colon, long dash, or vertical bar:
The Hits Radio: The Hits Radio Breakfast With Darryl
The Hits Radio -- The Hits Radio Breakfast With Darryl
The Hits Radio | The Hits Radio Breakfast With Darryl
I am not sure how you would deal with a very long station name combined with a very-long programme title. If you have to treat them as a single string so that scrolling can occur, (1) and (3) would be OK, but (2) would probably be out.

AFAIK TV EPG does not support programme duration - have you seen it in any other skin? If it's not in Titan or Default, there is likely no skin property for it.

I had a look at Titan and Default, and you are right that they do not show the programme duration in the TV EPG (but they do not show it in the radio EPG either!). I think that this is disappointing, as in order to know how long a programme is, one has to subtract start time from end time! Still, if the value is not made available to the skin, there is not much that can be done.

I never could get radio stations on my TV card here, and definitely no Radio EPG data! So it is great to get feedback (and see screenshots) from someone who does use Radio extensively and has pretty complete Radio EPG data!

Yes, the radio EPG is really useful. I don't listen to live radio using my HTPC, but I do record 4-5 radio programmes each week for consumption later (mostly current affairs and science programmes on BBC Radio 4).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Dadeo]

The problem with the revised layout is that the station name and programme title run together,

Yep I know, I wanted to see how it looked before deciding if it was worth it or which method to use. But I think it is good, even though you might get scrolling occasionally (which I try to avoid as much as possible!) With aMPed supporting large fonts there just isn't enoughscreen real estate!

I would love to make them different colors, but that isn't possible if I concatenate them so the whole line can scroll
So I think the best (and usual method in aMPed) is to use a separator (vertical bar is aMPed standard separator). (see attached). You're right that option 2 wouldn't work well with long station and program names.

It drives me nuts skinning this blind - so thanks again for all the screenshots!

 

[CyberSimian]

So I think the best (and usual method in aMPed) is to use a separator (vertical bar is aMPed standard separator).

I have attached a screen shot using the "version 4" xml file. If I put my nit-picking goggles on, I notice the following:

(1) The spacing between the station name and the vertical bar is bigger than the spacing between the vertical bar and the programme title. Is this intentional? It looks a little odd.

(2) You can just see that the end of the programme title is fading out; this is because it is just about to scroll! The programme title does not reach the right edge of the screen, so it is a little unexpected that it is scrolling. I don't know how field lengths are determined, so perhaps it is not possible to fit the available space exactly.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Dadeo]

(1) The spacing between the station name and the vertical bar is bigger than the spacing between the vertical bar and the programme title. Is this intentional? It looks a little odd.

Nah, just a stupid typo thx!

(2) You can just see that the end of the programme title is fading out; this is because it is just about to scroll! The programme title does not reach the right edge of the screen, so it is a little unexpected that it is scrolling. I don't know how field lengths are determined, so perhaps it is not possible to fit the available space exactly.

It's because a genre logo displays on the right if you have them e.g. screenshot of TV Guide:

 

[CyberSimian]

It's because a genre logo displays on the right if you have them.

I didn't realise that you could have logos for genre! Thanks for the info.

The last iteration is looking good, but I have one more comment (I have got my nit-picking goggles on again). On flicking between "absolute_radio_3" and "absolute_radio_4" I notice that you changed the colour of the station name and programme title. They seem to be white in "3", and a less-prominent colour in "4" (very pale pink?). Perhaps this is determined by the theme, but I actually prefer the way it looks in "3" (white name and title). The colour in "4" is a bit too subdued for my taste.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Dadeo]

I didn't realise that you could have logos for genre! Thanks for the info.

Yep the genre logo file names (in aMPed\media\logos\genres) must match the genre name so you can either:

• edit genre names to match existing aMPed genre logos
• copy existing aMPed genre logos and rename them to match your current genres
• create new logos matching your genre names

The last iteration is looking good, but I have one more comment (I have got my nit-picking goggles on again). On flicking between "absolute_radio_3" and "absolute_radio_4" I notice that you changed the colour of the station name and programme title. They seem to be white in "3", and a less-prominent colour in "4" (very pale pink?). Perhaps this is determined by the theme, but I actually prefer the way it looks in "3" (white name and title). The colour in "4" is a bit too subdued for my taste.

Yeah I can see that in your screenshots, and it is determined by theme and I didn't change the colours in the various iterations, so I have no clue why it was white before The wine glass theme color is diffused so looks pinkish on the wine glass background. All I can suggest is, you can modify the text colours for any theme in aMPed (See Custom Themes in aMPed wiki). Or you can just edit the text colour for the Radio Guide in the skin xml:
I would recommend you learn how to create your own custom theme to suit your nit-picking googles. That way you can get exactly what you want!

 

[CyberSimian]

All I can suggest is, you can modify the text colours for any theme in aMPed (See Custom Themes in aMPed wiki). Or you can just edit the text colour for the Radio Guide in the skin xml:
I would recommend you learn how to create your own custom theme to suit your nit-picking googles. That way you can get exactly what you want!

There is an advantage in staying with the bog-standard configurations offered by MP and the skin authors, rather than performing individual edits. If there is something that I really don't like, I might modify the config files as necessary, but that is for some (unspecified) time in the future!

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Dadeo]

There is an advantage in staying with the bog-standard configurations offered by MP and the skin authors, rather than performing individual edits. If there is something that I really don't like, I might modify the config files as necessary, but that is for some (unspecified) time in the future!

True in many cases, but aMPed is designed to be customized as much as possible. And if you create a theme as described in the wiki you can easily save and resuse it.

 

[CyberSimian]

Overlapping text is NOT expected.

I have just had another APPCRASH in "fontengine.dll". As I had not been expecting it, I wasn't really paying attention. The first thing that I noticed was that the background images vanished, but I think that I was still able to navigate the panels. About 10-20 seconds later the background images re-appeared. When I exited MP to the desktop a few minutes later, the error message from Windows appeared.

I restarted MP and went to the "Active Recordings" panel to see if my two recordings had been interrupted, and it was then that I noticed that some of the text on that panel did not look right (I had been in that panel near the time that the APPCRASH occurred). I have attached a screen shot.

Each programme listed seems to begin with a logo of some sort, but if you look closely you can see that the first title overlaps the logo, and begins to the left of the shaded background. Interestingly, the title did not scroll. No channel name is visible, but the channel was actually "BBC TWO HD" (all upper case).

If you look at the second programme listed, you can see that there are two colours present in the text, suggesting that there are two fields present. And when I moved the focus to the second line, the first field on that line started to scroll; the second field on that line did not scroll.

The text in the scrolling field was: "2 More 4 |". The vertical bar is the aMPed separator char, and so is expected. "More 4" is the name of the channel, so that is explicable. But the "2" is a real puzzle -- I have no idea where that comes from.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK