Starting over...! (1 Viewer)

[emphatic]

I'm only usig two at the moment...

It would be awesome if when you click the "Watch movies and televison" button, a semi-transparent pop up menu would appear on top of the Basic Home instead of going to a whole new .xml file. I know that your skin is very minimalistic and classy, so the jump from Basic Home to say, Watch movies is rather quick, but since XFactor arrived on the scene, the "get it all on the Basic Home" shtick is pretty convenient.

Emph

 

[Spragleknas]

my vote goes to 1366x768 or 1920x1080,since these are the sizes of flat TVs.

Well...
1280 : 720 = 1920 : 1080 = 16 : 9 = 1,77778
1366 : 768 = 1,778646 (not 16 : 9)

- Most TV's bought during last year and in the future is most 1920p ("FullHD)
- Most "HD-ready (720p / 1366x768) will not accept its own native resolution.
- Difficult to set video card to display 1366x768p

This will happen to a 1366x768 skin on such a screen:

(1) Skin (768) --- downscaled to 720p* ---> upscaled in TV to 768 ===> Scaling is bad
*as it can not accept 768 or display adapter does not accept it

(2) On a 1080p, the image will not scale that good because of different aspect ration (1,77778 vs 1,778646)

With a 720p skin, the following will happen:
HD-ready screen w/o pixelmapping:
(3) Skin 720p ---> Input 720p ----> upscale to 768p ==> Result is better than (1)
(5) On a 1080p: Skin 720p ----> upscale to 1080p ==> Result is better than (2)


Only time 768 skin is beneficial is if it is used on a 768 screen and achieving 1:1 pixelmapping - has to be supported by TV (not many models do, esp. via DVI/HDMI, check link below) and videocard driver (---> good luck with that). Might be beneficial w/scanning, but notm likely).

PS: All HD 720p IS 720p - not 768p

1080p skins most likely will get a bit heavy, if not kept clean (PR knows how to keep it clean, though...

Further reading: pixelmapping - home

 

[gig]

1280 : 720 = 1920 : 1080 = 16 : 9 = 1,77778
1366 : 768 = 1,778646 (not 16 : 9)

- Most TV's bought during last year and in the future is most 1920p ("FullHD)
- Most "HD-ready (720p / 1366x768) will not accept its own native resolution.
- Difficult to set video card to display 1366x768p

This will happen to a 1366x768 skin on such a screen:

(1) Skin (768) --- downscaled to 720p* ---> upscaled in TV to 768 ===> Scaling is bad
*as it can not accept 768 or display adapter does not accept it

(2) On a 1080p, the image will not scale that good because of different aspect ration (1,77778 vs 1,778646)

With a 720p skin, the following will happen:
HD-ready screen w/o pixelmapping:
(3) Skin 720p ---> Input 720p ----> upscale to 768p ==> Result is better than (1)
(5) On a 1080p: Skin 720p ----> upscale to 1080p ==> Result is better than (2)


Only time 768 skin is beneficial is if it is used on a 768 screen and achieving 1:1 pixelmapping - has to be supported by TV (not many models do, esp. via DVI/HDMI, check link below) and videocard driver (---> good luck with that). Might be beneficial w/scanning, but notm likely).

I own HD ready TV with 1366x768 which supports 1:1 pixelmapping and never had any difficulties setting the PC video card (allways Nvidia [440GO,7600GLX,8600GLS,9400M]) to display this resolution, on both Windows and Linux over DVI/HDMI and even VGA

Regarding the scaling issues I can only say that the best result will only be achieved using the native resolution which on flat TVs is 1366x768 or 1920x1080.
I get that, unfortunately some of the HD Ready TVs doesnt support 1:1 pixel mapping, and there for such TVs will always have to scale the image. Thus 1920x1080 is the way to go , since it provides the correct aspect ratio and is supported by majority of current TV.

Thats way I voted for 1366x768 or/and 1920x1080 but not 1280x720


But which resolution will a skin be build for is in hands of its developer, depending on the display their owns.

Best regards

 

[Psycho Reptile]

It would be awesome if when you click the "Watch movies and televison" button, a semi-transparent pop up menu would appear on top of the Basic Home instead of going to a whole new .xml file. I know that your skin is very minimalistic and classy, so the jump from Basic Home to say, Watch movies is rather quick, but since XFactor arrived on the scene, the "get it all on the Basic Home" shtick is pretty convenient.

Perhaps a mockup would help...? What about something like a normal dialog with images and buttons? ... or dimming the unselected button and having a row of thinner relevant buttons (images and text) on along the top of the selected button?

Oh, and I've had a look at the XFactor skin...

 

[emphatic]

Mockup time! If you think this is a good idea, I suggest you still have to click a Basic Home item for this to show up + dim the background.

Emph

 

[Psycho Reptile]

I like.... let me see what I can do

 

[Psycho Reptile]

Mockup 2, pretty easy to do

Probably have to raise the menu to the middle of the screen...?

 

[emphatic]

Mockup 2, pretty easy to do

Probably have to raise the menu to the middle of the screen...?

Nice! Why do you have to raise it? I think it looks good like that. It would be intuitive if left/right arrows/buttons act like "back" (escape) when the menu has been pulled up. Of course, back should also work if possible.

Do you use any animations in your skin btw?
Emph

 

[zpower]

Mockup 2, pretty easy to do

Probably have to raise the menu to the middle of the screen...?

Hi

First, thanks for your hard work on this skin.

I´ve two questions:

- This will be the future basic home? no more list style?

- I use Myfilms plugin.
Can you add a field with original and translated name of the movie?

Sorry about my English.

Regards from Portugal

 

[SpudR]

Daft question and PLEASE don't flame me, but will this get released soon? Beta's good but i'd prefer a full release if poss

BTW - you have a real superhero thing going on there