A
Anonymous
Guest
Quick Guide to Using Hebrew with MP 0.1.2.0
General
First, let me explain that this Quick Guide does not explain how to make MediaPortal have a Hebrew UI. Only how to make it use and show Hebrew filenames, etc. Notice that this method can be used for any Unicode fonts, and probably will be useful for Arabic
as well.
Basically, there are four issues to address:
As for adding a language - I hope another user will post his strings.xml file for this.
Fonts
When MP is not running, go into MediaPortal/skins directory, and make a copy of your favorite skin using Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V. Then rename the skin to something nicer than "Copy of …". I use MCE_Heb.
Now go into the new skin directory. If there is a 'fonts' sub-dir, delete it.
Edit the file fonts.xml with your favorite editor (notepad is fine).
Now, in the XML format, before the </font> tag of every font, add the following (for Hebrew):
Re-run MP, and you have Hebrew display set up.
For the benefit of users of other languages, here is how to find the correct number for the <end>:
Go to http://www.unicode.org/charts/ and find your language. Download the PDF file that holds your own language code charts. The code charts start with the range that's included. Here are the top 2 lines from the Arabic code-chart (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0600.pdf):
For Hebrew (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0590.pdf), code 05FF is not used, and the last code used is 05F4. However, the last letter is 05EA (=1514), and the characters from 05EA to 05F4 are never used in daily life.
Warning - Don't try to use an end value of 32000, because this increases the amount of memory MP uses considerably, and also causes the first initialization to take very long.
TVGuide
I can only recommend my own setup for Israeli viewers. I have Cable, and found that TVxb (http://www.tvxb.com) is excellent. It includes ready-made ini files for 2 different TV guide web sites for Israel. What you need to do is only to download TVxb, download the ini files, and edit them a bit. More specifically, you need everything to be in visual order for MP. So:
General
First, let me explain that this Quick Guide does not explain how to make MediaPortal have a Hebrew UI. Only how to make it use and show Hebrew filenames, etc. Notice that this method can be used for any Unicode fonts, and probably will be useful for Arabic
as well.
Basically, there are four issues to address:
- Make the fonts include Hebrew characters.
- Provide TV guide with channel names and program names in Hebrew.
- Ensure correct right-to-left display for filenames (not yet
) - Optional: Add a language to MP so on-screen will show Hebrew.
As for adding a language - I hope another user will post his strings.xml file for this.
Fonts
When MP is not running, go into MediaPortal/skins directory, and make a copy of your favorite skin using Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V. Then rename the skin to something nicer than "Copy of …". I use MCE_Heb.
Now go into the new skin directory. If there is a 'fonts' sub-dir, delete it.
Edit the file fonts.xml with your favorite editor (notepad is fine).
Now, in the XML format, before the </font> tag of every font, add the following (for Hebrew):
Code:
<start>32</start>
<end>1514</end>For the benefit of users of other languages, here is how to find the correct number for the <end>:
Go to http://www.unicode.org/charts/ and find your language. Download the PDF file that holds your own language code charts. The code charts start with the range that's included. Here are the top 2 lines from the Arabic code-chart (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0600.pdf):
The second page has the chart itself from which it is possible to see that code 06FF is occupied. Therefore, for Arabic, use:
Code:
<start>32</start>
<end>1791</end>Warning - Don't try to use an end value of 32000, because this increases the amount of memory MP uses considerably, and also causes the first initialization to take very long.
TVGuide
I can only recommend my own setup for Israeli viewers. I have Cable, and found that TVxb (http://www.tvxb.com) is excellent. It includes ready-made ini files for 2 different TV guide web sites for Israel. What you need to do is only to download TVxb, download the ini files, and edit them a bit. More specifically, you need everything to be in visual order for MP. So:
- Go over the channel definitions and remove the channels that don't interest you.
- For remaining channels, add a line like this:
It is a bit strange, because I found that some channels did not need it, so experiment a little with one channel, and see what happens.Code:special=hhmmtime,righttoleft - Enjoy!