taking requests for things to add to my skin

[jowaldo]

I'm getting closer now to finishing my skin (working on the last few ppc screens) Only major thing left is the picture section which I have big plans for

But before I release the skin, I'd like to hear what sections people would like that you don't see already, or additional features/ideas to existing screens.

One I'm personally not going to use myself in xlobby, but will create a skin for is games. I'll make it with categories like PC, NES, SNES, Genisis. (any other systems I should add?)

What I'm lookin for is ideas of what things people are using a lot of, and maybe some help in finding images that would go good for these (like logos of the game consoles)

I probably won't be able to fill every request, but I'm willing to do most of the commonly requested things... so fire away

[jowaldo]

Oh yeah, and who out there uses muli zones? If there are enough people, I'll add that too...

[noviceboy]

My vote would be

Internet Radio. With Search by Station Genre, ADD and Delete Plus notification when Station is "FULL"/not reachable

[Arthur]

An extra feature I would like is somekind of TV card support. But I don't know wether this can be easily implemented.
Arthur

[noviceboy]

Arthur,

I think he means things in his skin, which you can do now with the existing Xlobby functionality- not new features in the core product.

[IHT]

Sign me up for a vote for the Multi Zone. Just to let you know my use:

I have the HTPC connected to a Multizone Whole Home Audio System (WHAS) where each sound card is attached to a different source (zone) in the WHAS. Each room attached to WHAS is then able to receive a different playlist from the HTPC from three different sources (zones) on the WHAS. Each number button (0-9) in each of the 3 sources (zones) will be assigned a different playlist.

Thanks!
IHT

[jowaldo]

Arthur,

I think he means things in his skin, which you can do now with the existing Xlobby functionality- not new features in the core product.

Haha yeah I definitley don't know how to add support for tv cards

If someone was to send me a eventgroup xml file that would control a tv app through sendmessages or a usbuirt that could work

[dl33]

New to xlobby, and all these skins look great.

I second the multi-zone idea and also a dvd movie option which pops you direct into theatertek/zp. Which brings me to a question, on your movie page, are these loaded on your hard disk? How do you tell it to start off hard disk vs placing dvd into the drive?

I noticed this is a 4x3 skin, what happens when using 16x9, does everything get
short and fat, or do you get bars on the side?

thanks
dl

[Tracie]

jowaldo,
I don't know if this is asking too much, but I'd really like to see an Itunes-looking version of your skin. That would look absolutely incredible. But like I said, that may be over the top & asking too much.

[MFan]

jowlado,

I don't know what anyone is looking for regarding tv apps, but I can send you a file that has an event group for sending out commands to girder (along with the girder file) to control Sage TV. I have created this to use with my ppc. The signal path is ppc-> xlobby -> girder -> SageTV.

My files were created in the pre-event manager days and I have been too lazy to convert them from using girder.

I can also send my ppc screens for Sage control to use as a 'go by' if you want to create something in your admittedly superior looking screens.

Don

[sjc]

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.

[jowaldo]

New to xlobby, and all these skins look great.

I second the multi-zone idea and also a dvd movie option which pops you direct into theatertek/zp. Which brings me to a question, on your movie page, are these loaded on your hard disk? How do you tell it to start off hard disk vs placing dvd into the drive?

I noticed this is a 4x3 skin, what happens when using 16x9, does everything get
short and fat, or do you get bars on the side?

thanks
dl

Sounds like the multizone option is a must for my skin... I'll add to my list of to-do's.

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.

I have some movies stored on my hard drive, some in the video_ts folder type format and some as iso's (which get mounted automatically by xlobby telling daemon tools what to mount) When I click play on any offline dvds it just prompts me to enter that disc. I would like to have all my movies stored on my hard drive, but i just don't have the cash for a 1TB storage device

About the 16x9 feature... When its in stretched mode it actually already looks pretty good, but not optimal. Once I release my skin, I will work on a 16x9 version right after that. What resolution do you use?

[jowaldo]

jowaldo,
I don't know if this is asking too much, but I'd really like to see an Itunes-looking version of your skin. That would look absolutely incredible. But like I said, that may be over the top & asking too much.

Maybe someday I could make a skin similar to the one I have now, but just create some new graphics to make it look like that. But right now I got so many ideas on this skin still to do, thats a bit too far down the road to think about right now

[Tracie]

I completely understand, just thought I'd throw that out there.

[jowaldo]

jowlado,

I don't know what anyone is looking for regarding tv apps, but I can send you a file that has an event group for sending out commands to girder (along with the girder file) to control Sage TV. I have created this to use with my ppc. The signal path is ppc-> xlobby -> girder -> SageTV.

My files were created in the pre-event manager days and I have been too lazy to convert them from using girder.

I can also send my ppc screens for Sage control to use as a 'go by' if you want to create something in your admittedly superior looking screens.

Don

For right now, I'm more worried about the graphics end and what buttons I need to create then the actual command which can be added at the end of the skin making process. Could you post screenshots of all your screens that relate to this, and explain what certain buttons are for that may not be easily distinguished? That way I can maybe get a rough draft of it going, then worry about the details and events set up in the new event manager?