taking requests for things to add to my skin

[jowaldo]

Jowaldo,

I have recently started playing with the new alpha version and trying to set up my ideal HTTP system. Your skins look great - but I have one worry that they might not work for my stuff. I am ripping DVDs to hard disk. As well as movies I have some TV stuff on DVD. The directory format is:

D:
>DVD (folder)
>>The Shield - Season 1 (folder) (this matches the DVD Profiler entry)
>>>101_Pilot (folder)
>>>>xxx.jpg (a vidcap)
>>>>VIDEO_TS (folder)
>>>>>*.ifo,*.vob, etc.


You seem to handle movies using 2 tabs "Quickview" and "Movies" (my guess just based on still pictures). For the episodic stuff I have 3 levels - with an episode level in between (uses the vidcaps). This currently works OK in the default skin which appears to support multiple levels of directories (click on the box image or vidcap to go down a level, click on "<" or "Show All" to move back up the tree), but I am wondering if your skin will support it - or is it limited to the two levels. Looking at all the DVD sets of TV shows for sale these days I am sure I am not the only person doing this.

Thanks
Steve

PS: One other suggestion - if there was a xxx.mov or xxx.avi for a trailer (at the same level as the .jpg file), it would be great for a "Play Trailer" button to show up next to the "Play" button. I don't know if that is easily doable.

You know I haven't even tried using xlobby for things like that yet. Pretty much just dvds and capped .ts HDTV movies (and I've only began to test that part).

I'll try and set up a similar structure and see how I can get it to work. I definitley would like to have this option working though before I release the skin.

About the trailer I haven't messed with that much either (haven't had the time) Since I haven't I'm not even sure how functional the trailers option even is in xlobby yet. If it is working pretty well now, I'll definitley add an option for it. For little things like this even if it isn't working I could at least include a matching graphic for a trailers button that could be added on your own when the funtionality becomes available.

[Roscoe62]

I'm not exactly sure what you are asking about going to theatertek/zp straight from the movies page. Personally I have xlobby already set up to launch zoomplayer when I hit play on the movies page.

Jowaldo,

I wonder if he means once XLobby has launched the movie via Theatertek or Zoom, the PPC goes to a DVD control page - i.e. play, pause, stop, chapter skip...etc.

This is something I'd like to have as well.

Cheers
Roscoe

[jowaldo]

ahh well if he meant that or not, i definitley will if its possible (don't think it should be a problem with an event that plays the movie then goes to the control page)

For that page I'm looking at making the buttons somewhat large so they can be pressed by a finger, so I don't have to get the stylus out. Same with the music controls.

[Roscoe62]

Sounds like a good plan to me.

[dl33]

What I mean is to have a tab or button to launch theatertek w/o selecting any movie. So when I buy/rent something not in the database I can just start theatertek.

The stuff in the database (on HD and offline) is perfect the way you have it now.

On the 4x3 stretched to 16x9, what happens to the album/movie cover pics, does it also get stretched? Currently I'm using 1024x576 but have plans on upgrading to 1280x720.

thanks,
dl

[IHT]

I figured I would put this request in the official thread.

Can you associate sounds with screen swaps, splash etc...?
IHT

[TheBlindMan]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and new to Xlobby.

Jowaldo your skin looks great! I'm eagerly awaiting it's release. In the meantime, I'm working on my own version... eventhough I have yet to actually use Xlobby. Hence, I have some general questions that you or probably many other people here can offer advice on.

Does the resolution you generate the skin in affect the outcome? I know there is an 'auto resize' feature in Xlobby, but is there a 'foolproof' resolution I shoud be working in while generating a new skin? Right now I'm working at 1152x864 (which is what my monitor is set to).

I'm assuming you don't need the ppc skins if you don't have a ppc, therefore, was planning on skipping ppc skins (atleast for now). Is that a correct assumption? Is there a big ppc and Xlobby community out there that would justify creating these additional skins sooner?

And finally how do I setup a default image for movies and music? This one has me baffeled because it seems so basic but I can't find any settings for it.

Thanks,
George

[jowaldo]

Does the resolution you generate the skin in affect the outcome? I know there is an 'auto resize' feature in Xlobby, but is there a 'foolproof' resolution I shoud be working in while generating a new skin? Right now I'm working at 1152x864 (which is what my monitor is set to).

I'm assuming you don't need the ppc skins if you don't have a ppc, therefore, was planning on skipping ppc skins (atleast for now). Is that a correct assumption? Is there a big ppc and Xlobby community out there that would justify creating these additional skins sooner?

And finally how do I setup a default image for movies and music? This one has me baffeled because it seems so basic but I can't find any settings for it.

Thanks,
George

I don't think there is a real "foolproof" resolution. Any 4:3 skin resizes to any other 4:3 resolution pretty well. If its blown up though of course the images start to get a bit fuzzy/not as sharp looking of course. And if its shrunk too much it can look funny too. But I'd have to say that its probably better to make the skin bigger and have it shrunk then blowing it up. The best of course is always going to be the native res it was made for.

The same goes for 16:9 resolutions, but when you get into the streching/shrinking of 4:3 to 16:9 or vice versa, my skin actually isn't too bad. There are a few quick things I would need to fix/move, but overall it would not take me much work at all to make it look like it was designed for 16:9.

When I originally started on my skin I wasn't even thinking of taking it this far, so I just made it 800x600 with just the features I want to use. But everyone seemed to like it, so I'm starting to add a bunch of thing that I probably will never use myself.

About the ppc thing, I wouldn't say there are a ton of people who use it, but I do and realllllllllly love it. If I were you, I wouldn't worry about it, and if enough people ask you to make one, then I'd consider it.

I'm not sure what you mean about default image for the music and movies, do you mean the cover art for each album/movie?

[TheBlindMan]

Thanks jowaldo, I appreciate the insights.

I'm not sure what you mean about default image for the music and movies, do you mean the cover art for each album/movie?

That's exactly what I mean. Almost anything would be better than a white rectangle

[jowaldo]

That's exactly what I mean. Almost anything would be better than a white rectangle

I just made another post that explains how to get music covers. Its exactly the same for movies, but just select the movies database instead of the music one like I described here:

http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1108

[MFan]

jowaldo,

Here is the link to my Sage TV example skins:

http://webpages.charter.net/mfan/xlobby ... Skins.html

They are based on graphics for the Pronto. I used ideas and graphics from the remotecentral.com site for pronto remotes. Most of the objects are by Daniel Tonks and all are okay to use for non-commercial use. I have made the screens for Sage version 1.4.

I am thinking about converting the ABC screen to an overlay and maybe converting it from qwerty to a gird layout. The ABC is very important in order to use the search screen without a keyboard.

I am interested to see what you come up with. BTW, what are you using to create graphics?

There are probably things I did not put in, but I have all of the things I wanted.

Don

[jowaldo]

Don thanks for the info/screenshots...

I'm using photoshop for all the images... I may give out the psd files too eventually to help people customize their skins easier and to make them look nicer. Cuz there is only so much you can do with xlobby, and I still prefer to use text on most of the main graphical buttons from photoshop, not xlobby... just looks better imho.